[Found Items] Thrift Store Swords and Starships!

OK. I need to brag.

On a whim I stopped by the local thrift store on the way home tonight. Occasionally they'll have bags of Lego bricks (I've found a few bags of miscellaneous pieces; my son found an entire 10" tall Bionicle warrior once...and most recently an Imperial TIE Defender...missing only one piece and the pilot) or perfectly serviceable Nerf dart guns. I rarely look at the book section because it's dominated with either Stephen King titles that I already have or Harlequin romances.

Tonight? No Lego bricks, although there was a large bag of fake MegaBlok knock-offs that I passed over. Decided to wander through the books and videos, hoping to find a copy of Labyrinth somewhere. No luck on that, but the minuscule Sci-Fi/Fantasy section had a bit of a treasure.

Picked up all six of these titles for a total of $7.50, including tax. Books 1–3 of the Mageworld Saga by Debra Doyle & James D. McDonald and the three Books of the Sword by Fred Saberhagen.

Now, I've had the Mageworld Saga for years, and found copies of the first two Books of the Sword a couple years ago at a Convention. My Mageworld copies are pretty ragged, even with as careful as I am with books, they've been read and re-read—They're quite well-loved, actually. And my Saberhagens saw much better days years before I picked them up. They're pretty ragged; I only picked them up because I'd been looking for them for a couple years.

I wanted secondary copies of these, of course. But even better—aside from the price—was the fact that these 6 books are pristine. They don't look like they've ever been opened; admittedly, The First Book of Swords has a bit of a spine-crease and the front cover of The Second Book of Swords has some ink transfer on it. Apparently, a National Geographic Society membership card from 1990 (which was stuck to the cover) will adhere to—and the ink transfer to—a book cover if left pressed against it long enough.

If you've never read the Mageworld Saga, I'd highly recommend it. A ripping good space opera series, with a good bit of action and a nice helping of magic added in...good stuff. The Saberhagen also comes highly recommended; I enjoyed the first book and the others have been working their way to the top of my "To Read" pile.

This just five days after getting a neat little haul from a downtown used book store, the largest one in the state. Dropped in with my wife while walking to my office holiday party (yeah, a post-New Year's Christmas party). It's a dangerous place, because I could literally spend hundreds of dollars there if I was allowed to do so.

I've always wanted to read Asprin's "Myth" books and was pleasantly surprised to find a 2-in-1 copy. The Face of a Stranger is a great Victorian mystery (an English detective wakes up in the hospital with a bad case of amnesia, and must discover his own identity while solving an important case involving the nobility). And a neat-looking little mystery from Isaac Asimov that I'm looking forward to reading.

All told, I'm pleased with my finds this past week; it's been a long time since I've been quite so lucky with great books for my library.

And just so I don't run afoul of the Joesky tax, here's a quick little random d20 table of books (and things stuck inside them) that you might find in that mage's dusty old library—hooks and idea germs for encounters, adventures, or campaigns:

d20 Roll	Title
1	The Everyday Application of Novel Divination
2	The Axe: A Tutorial
3	Heretics Opposing the Fire God
4	The Storm God's Invocations
5	The Minor Powers of the Great Traveling Gods
6	The Wonderful Stories of the Mysterious Plant God
7	An Expose of the Theocratic Earldom's Early Pirates
8	Sleeping Patterns of the Bugbear
9	The Trident: A Tutorial to Maintenance
10	The Subtle Truths of the Sky God
11	A Treatise of Thaumaturgy
12	Legendary Warlords
13	Virtues of the Revenge Gods
14	Hunting Habits of the Basilisk
15	A Magus' Text on Remedial Summoning
16	An Examination of the Kingdom's Cultural Annals
17	A Study of Basic Magical Arts
18	Essential Alchemy
19	Classic Evocations of the Journeyman
20	Theological Crimes in the Empire

Roll d4 times on the following table to find out "What's Inside."

d20 Roll	What's Inside
1-6	Nothing
7	Dog-eared pages marking pages with underlined passages
8	A shopping list written in code
9	Several love letters stuck haphazardly into the book
10	Hand-written notes in the margins totally unrelated to the subject of the book
11	Personal notes in the margins of several concurrent pages warning of a coming doomsday
12	A hand-written dedication in the front of the book
13	Bookmarks (d6) marking pages with errors
14	Triangular scraps of paper with notes in a foreign language
15	A document with a list of dates in the back of the book
16	A list of foreign locations in an archaic language
17	Three scraps of parchment in some kind of code that seem to have no connection
18	A list of birthdays in an archaic tongue secreted in the binding
19	A map of a local castle or keep, including secret doors and passageways
20	A map of a lost city tucked inside the binding

Libram Mysterium Vol. 1 Now Available!

When we opened up the call for submissions in July, none of us knew what to expect. Finally, though, we have a product. Libram Mysterium Volume 1 is now available, either by clicking here or by heading over to DriveThru Fiction. Currently we have the PDF available for download. However, a proof copy has been ordered for review and perusal, with the anticipation that a hard copy of the Libram Mysterium Volume 1 will be available for order soon.

Spread the word. Pick up a copy for yourself. There's some good, gritty fantasy in here. The final product definitely exceeded my expectations.

Prepare to be Jealous

A couple weeks ago, Tim Shorts over at Gothridge Manor showed off some artwork he'd received in the mail. The name of his post was "Prepare to be Jealous." Seeing how his post inspired this one, and the sentiment fits, I've co-opted his post title for my own today.

Thanks, Tim.

If you're a long-time reader of my blog, or have been around the OSR for a while, you've no doubt heard of Jay Penn or have seen his work. He was the artist for Christian Walker's Loviatar 'zine. Jay's been generous enough in the past to allow me to purchase some pieces from him, pieces awaiting framing for my home office. Well, Jay recently completed an artistic challenge "100 Heads in 100 Days"; he put these works up for grabs and I grabbed several.

Here's what I found when I opened the envelope:

I'm currently looking for a frame for this one. I loved the idea and the colors in this.

I actually received two of these from Jay. He graciously sent a second print that I delivered to my FLGS, Hastur Games and Comics. The owner calls himself "Cthulhu Bob" and the managers of this store have been good friends of mine for over three decades. They all loved this piece; I understand it's getting framed and put in the manager's office.

These were pieces from Jay's "100 Days"; The one on the upper right, titled "Nanna Orc" was Day #5 and is in pencil. Kiddy-corner to that, the one-eyed dwarf, is an ink piece for Day #7, appropriately named "Left-Eye the Dwarf." The piece on the far right is Day #18, an ink/watercolor rendition of Tolkien's Gimli, son of Gloin. The upper-left hand pieces is another ink/watercolor for Day #36 and is what Jay titles, "A Stonehead Waymarker."

[Aside: I had to share Jay's explanation of the piece here.... "Faerie is ribboned with paths, roads, trails, passages and the likes. They go in every which way, over mountains, under hills, around lakes, through streams. On some of the ancient and seldom used paths, one may come across a Stonehead Waymarker. These talking stones will only give directions if asked the correct question. The catch being that they will not tell you what that question is or how to discover it. To further annoy passing travelers, the 'right' question is never the same one twice, it always changes. Stonehead Waymarkers are, thus, entirely useless in every way except as a cautionary tale of the importance of a good map on a journey. Perhaps that is why the Stonehead Waymarkers exist in the first place..." End aside.]

Finally, the one in the bottom center is Mr. Tolkien himself, a pencil sketch for Day #42.

To tell the truth, there were LOTS more that I wanted. I didn't want to be greedy, however. Tim actually got one that I really wanted. I guess I'll let him keep it. Although, I should add a disclaimer: if it comes up missing, Tim, it wasn't me. Honest.

If you haven't seen Jay's work, or haven't picked up something from him, head on over to his Realm of Faerie blog and take a look around. He's always got something new up his sleeve. And don't let my pictures fool you or dissuade you: they DO NOT do the artwork justice. Not at all.

LTUE Wrap-Up

I don't suppose any of you are really sitting on the edges of your sofas wondering what happened to two days' worth of posts from LTUE: Life, The Universe, and Everything Writing Conference. But there may be a couple of you interested: well, I wish I could really tell you. Unfortunately, the morning of Day Two dawned with some manner of gomboo bug inhabiting my body.

No, really. It was almost as if I had one of those Alien face-huggers latched onto me.
I was exhausted and I felt as if I'd been stuffed in cotton. I had a really powerful bad cough. Congestion. My eyeballs were practically throbbing, for crying out loud. I had aches and pains all over. Developed a weekend-long migraine by Friday night.

But I went anyway, because it was important to my wife. Despite my illness, I think she had fun. I don't remember anything about any of the panels, except for remembering listening to Larry Correia talk about writing action scenes. I think I may have dozed off in other panels. My sickness, unfortunately, meant that we didn't travel back down for the Saturday session. Apparently I wasn't the only one; some Typhoid Mary apparently attended the Conference because I got reports that there were quite a few attendees and possibly even some presenters that wrote off Saturday and didn't attend. I still feel bad about my wife missing out on Saturday, though, and need to find some way to make it up to my her.

One highlight that I do remember was having lunch at a little sandwich shop talking shop with Tracy and Laura Hickman. Great people and a great conversation. It had been awhile since we'd lunched and had a good chance to talke and catch up, so it was definitely a highlight of the conference.

The second highlight was this:
I was finally able to procure my copy of XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery. And I was able to get it signed by both Tracy Hickman and Howard Tayler. I've been trying for a couple years to get this, but the financial stars, the times, and the places have just not worked out. Until 2013.

Descriptive blurb:

The cure for the common game! Throw off your chains! Too long have your role playing games been held in the bonds of substandard gamemasters, bound in needlessly complicated rules sets, and enslaved by players who will avoid doing anything unless it counts toward leveling up! It is time to take a stand!

Learn from the masters the ancient secrets of how to:
Officially become an XDM and impress dates. (Do-it-yourself secret initiation rites included.)
Master the secrets of designing adventures that tell stories.
Create magic illusions that can even make your players disappear!
Use actual fire in your game properly.
Hijack the game as a player, and how to deal with a player revolution as an XDM.
Plus loads more!

Perhaps the best description comes from the book's Wikipedia entry: "The book is written as though from the perspective of a secret society of game masters passing on ancient secrets of role-playing games beginning in Babylonian times and extending to the present. Within the satire, the text offers advice on performance techniques, adventure game design and classical story structures." The book prescribes a system called X20: rules-light in that everything is decided by a roll of 1d20 and a decision by the XDM as to success/effect. Such a system would definitely frustrate rules lawyers, as the only rules are what the XDM decides are the rules.

It's an overly simplistic description of the book, but a good one. The book is full of humor, tips, tricks, suggestions, and great illustrations by the creator of Schlock Mercenary, which is arguably the best and funniest webcomic Space Opera on the internet. Howard autographs his books with customized artwork and this book is no different; the last page in the book was left blank just for this purpose. And here's my own, personal autograph from my book. This is Boric as seen through Howard Tayler's eyes.

Anyway, back to the face-hugger gomboo.... It pretty well put me out of commission for over a week. Then it's taken a week more to get caught up with leftover work at the office. Hopefully I can get some of my random thoughts out on paper. I still owe Tim Shorts some critters for issue #4 of The Manor. So I have a bunch of stuff to do, and Guilder to blame for it. I'm swamped.

At least I have my health...kind of. As you know, If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything.

LTUE: The Hobbit--Film vs. Book Panel Discussion

As I mentioned earlier, I'm spending the next few days at the LTUE: Marion K. "Doc" Smith Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy, in beautiful downtown Provo, Utah.

A few tidbits from the first panel discussion, Tolkien's The Hobbit: The Book and the Movies. The panelists involved were Paul Genesse, David Farland, Blake Casselman, and Tracy Hickman, with Paul acting as moderator.

At one point, the topic was raised of "What were your quibbles with the movie?" David Farland leaped in with some minor complaints about the pacing, particularly focusing on the scenes in Bag End. He said that he went into the movie really wanting to love the dwarves...and came away not having fallen in love with them at all. He pointed out that too much time was spent at Bag End. Then he made the mistake of using the word "pacing."

The microphone was passed to Tracy Hickman and the question repeated, "What were your quibbles? What was there about the movie that made you mad?" He smiled and said, "What made me mad was the audience." There was rousing applause to this sentiment. "All the cell phones, the texting, the little lights all over the theater. It made me want to throw popcorn at them all." Again: rousing applause. "This is why the 'free refill Coke' is such a good thing; that way you can dump your drink on them and...." Laughs and applause.

Then Tracy continued: "Seriously, though, my problem with the movie is with people who have a problem with the pacing." At which he and David Farland looked eyes and David laughed. Back to Tracy, with a few tidbits of wisdom from him.

• We are so inured to the Bruce Lee, fast-paced...action-from-a-firehose movies that we have lost the art of enjoying the journey.
• Look at The Maltese Falcon: that one didn't truck along. Casablanca wasn't action-packed or fast-paced.
• As writers, the audience expects us to write our prose cinematically.
• Enjoy the pace--the journey--rather than worry how long it takes to get there.

The microphone was passed back to David Farland who conceded that he didn't really mean "pacing" per se. What he intended to complain about was the fact that the time at Bag End could have been used better by developing the relationship between the dwarves. He wanted to be shown how to differentiate between the dwarves, and that he said, was what he meant by "pacing." Tracy nodded at that and voiced his agreement to that idea.

Blake Casselman made a comment in passing that he really appreciated the whole Moby Dick theme included in the movie, meaning Azog, the White Orc. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of time to develop that idea, but it's an idea worthy of a number of essays itself.

Paul Genesse had a good, pithy observation on Radaghast: "Look, I know you like ALL like Radaghast, but when the smoke came out of his ears, I rolled my eyes. Radaghast is my Jar Jar Binks." Even though I really liked the Radaghast character, I had to laugh. I can respect his opinion.

O.K. Off to another panel discussion. More later.

The Answer is '42':LTUE

The answer is, of course, to the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Wow. I just realized I used the same joke last year.

That's where I'm spending my Valentine's Day, and the next two days as well...with my wife at the LTUE writing conference in Provo, Utah. Yup, I'll be rubbing elbows with such writers as Tracy & Laura Hickman, David Farland, Larry Correia, and Paul Genesse. It's a great opportunity to learn about writing, get writing tips--of all sorts--from all sorts of authors, artists, and filmmakers.

I'm starting the day listening to David Farland, Tracy Hickman, Paul Genesse and Blake Casselman discuss The Hobbit: The Film and the Book. Great stuff.

I'll try and remember to add some more information over the next few days.

Life, The Universe, and Everything

Yes, the answer is "42".

But that's not entirely relevant today. Today I am at the 30th iteration of the Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium, a.k.a., "LTUE", a.k.a., the Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium on Science Fiction & Fantasy.

I've heard about the symposium now for 30 years; this year is the first year that I've been able to attend. It's a three-day event filled with signings, readings, and classes on every aspect of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and other writing-related information. Truth be told, there are enough intriguing presentations each hour that I'm not sure which directino is UP. My wife plans on coming with me on Friday and Saturday; today I am a "conference bachelor" responsible for taking high-quality notes for dissemination to my wife.

No pressure at all there.

I've always heard great things about LTUE in general. I have to confess, however, that the first hour's presentation on "Historical Weaponry" left me nonplussed and unimpressed. It was supposed to be presented by an "expert"--turns out most of the class knew as much or more than he did.

Sigh.

Well, I'm off to meet Larry Correia and then on to an editing presentation. Have a good day; more reports as something interesting happens.