Blogs

The fine people at Boom Studios tell me that the trade paperback edition of the collected Blood Bowl: Killer Contract comic-book miniseries I wrote for them is due in stores today. This is my first graphic novel in print, and I’m thrilled to know it’s finally here. I can’t wait to grab a copy and read it myself!

As ICv2.com and OgreCave.com report, we’ve had more shake-ups in the tabletop industry. Last week, Upper Deck laid off another 40 people on top of the others they let go earlier in the year.

On the bright side, a couple of companies have already stepped forward with plans to rescue the games of WizKids. The guys behind SaveHeroClix.com formed Piñata Games to spearhead their effort, while my friends at Catalyst Game Labs put in a bid of their own.

While there may be other suitors, both Piñata and Catalyst have excellent claims as heirs to WizKids’ games. (Piñata’s founders helped run WizKids until it folded, and Catalyst has licensed a number of WizKids games for RPGs.) I suspect both efforts may find that the current credit crunch hampers their efforts, but I wish them both the best of luck. Honestly, if Piñata wound up with HeroClix and Catalyst got the rest, I’d be thrilled—and hopefully they would be too.

My step-uncle Richard Lacy passed away on Sunday morning. Richard met and married my stepmother Nancy’s sister Sally later in life, but not too late for them to have their son Bill, whom I’ve known as a younger cousin for most of his life. Richard had three kids from a previous marriage, and while I’ve never met them, I’ve always heard good things about them too.

While the family is understandably sad at losing Richard, we know that he had a good, full life. It might not have been as long a life as we would have liked (is it ever?), but he was 79 when he passed. Despite the illnesses he’d suffered from in his final years, he went as gently as anyone could hope for. We should all be so fortunate.

The morning Richard died—before we knew he was gone—Ann and I brought the kids over to my father’s house for a huge family brunch. My whole step-family was there, along with my sister Kim and her family. That’s 22 people in all.

It was just the kind of gathering at which we often saw Richard, Sally, and Bill, and it felt very different knowing that we’d never have them all there again.

Good-bye, Richard. We’ll miss you, but we’ll remember you for the rest of our lives.

“Hero’s Guid to the Waterworks,” the latest article on The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is up. Will Hindmarch did his regular wonderful job on this piece, which I had the honor of editing.

Writer Rob Gard—who played varsity soccer with me waaay back in high school—just launched a new blog dedicated to the appreciation of whisky in its various, delicious forms. Rob’s a good writer with a clear love for his subject. If you share in that love (I’m looking at you, Dansky), be sure to stop by and see what Rob has to say.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.


So. Obama has challenged us. The American people cannot just vote and call it good. We need to "summon a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice...a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility."

What is your service? What is your sacrifice? What are you going to let your sense of patriotism serve? What are you going to be responsible for?