I just wanted to mention that Wikipedia is on a donation drive. Wikipedia is something I use regularly to get some general information or a general idea on a topic. Its summaries of film noir and hardboiled novels have provided endless inspiration for my Sword Noir games. Further, it’s generally my first stop for research before I start getting deeper into a topic. Its accuracy compared to – for example – the Encyclopedia Britannica is favourable. It is, for me, both a valuable tool and a source of entertainment.

So I made a donation.

If you use Wikipedia as much as I do, you might want to consider doing the same.

You can donate to Wikipedia here.

Cross-posted from Sword’s Edge Publishing:

A duellist in a dying city facing a weapon of fiery death, not to mention temptation.

Two fur trappers hunted by a spirit of hate that feeds on the very fear it engenders.

An arrogant apprentice to a vain wizard finds himself in a race to unlock secrets hidden for centuries.

MacBeth, beloved King of the Scots, faces his last day and learns his name will damned.

A cunning sorcerer has decided he will not be a victim, he would rather be a victor.

These are the wizards and warriors that populate Gifts of the Elder Gods. Join them in their adventures, touched by magic and the supernatural, with wits and weapons of mysticism or steel to overcome the snares of diabolical enemies.

Gifts of the Elder Gods is the new short fiction collection from Sword’s Edge Publishing. You can find it at RPG Now and Drive Thru RPG. It is available in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats, with print-on-demand coming soon.

Word on the street is that we can expect a Doctor Strange movie in the near future (as in 2012/13). That’s from Marvel itself. No other information—no director, star, budget, or actual schedule—but apparently it’s coming.

Excuse me while I sit here with minimal excitement. After I get the details, maybe I’ll get excited. Right now, too much can go wrong and Hollywood has shat upon source material too often for me to get hopes up. Still, this movie is likely from Marvel, so perhaps there is reason for optimism?

Nah. I’ll keep my expectations low and be excited if they are exceeded.

It seems that the Byran Singer directed re-make of John Boorman’s Excalibur won’t move forward. The project has been dropped as another King Arthur project, also named Excalibur, was ready to move forward before Singer could get to work on his, so his got dropped.

The other Excalibur? Directed by Guy Ritchie. Okay, that’s kind of neat. And written my WARREN holy-mother-fuckin’-cool ELLIS. I’m trippin’ balls on this.

And while I would very interested in seeing Singer re-make Boorman, I’m more interested in seeing him re-make Larson.

See, apparently dropping Excalibur means that the next project on Singer’s menu is a “re-imagining” of Battlestar Galactica. Not a remake of the recent series, but a remake of the original from 1978. Very cool. I’m assuming this is going in a totally different direction than the Ronald Moore production. It better.

Unless Singer wants to re-do the finale, because I’d be all for that.

I’m pretty optimistic about the Avengers movies. That’s mainly because my expectations are low. Those expectations are low not because I don’t like Joss Whedon—I do—nor because I think the film doesn’t have enough impressive actors in it—it certainly does—but because even Kenneth Brannagh didn’t totally crush Thor.

Listen, I like Joss Whedon, and I enjoyed Serenity, but it wasn’t a great movie. It was a good movie. A good movie is enough. It is not a bad movie nor a mediocre movie, but a good movie.

Thor was a good movie. I wouldn’t call it a great movie, though I enjoyed it. It was a good movie, it did its job. It—like the Avengers—had a pretty stellar cast. The character development, even for its main character, fell a little flat and the fight scenes didn’t have much energy. I’m not going to complain, though, because I got to see Thor on the big screen.

I expect the same from the Avengers. The photos that I’ve seen so far have been great. The trailer—I am certain—will be awesome. It will look spectacular. And, in the end, it will be good. I’m fairly certain of that. I don’t think, though, that it will great.

According to leaked information from an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly, Marvel movies in the pipe include Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Inhumans. Of those, the one I’m both most excited for and dreading the most is the Guardians of the Galaxy.

I was a big fan of the comic when it was running. Granted, I only bought the collections, so maybe I was part of the problem, but I was very sad when it disappeared. I didn’t really follow the Thanos Imperative, because while it kind of continued the Guardians, without Starlord there really is no Guardians.

Now it looks like Marvel is banking that the concept that couldn’t keep a comic running will make a profitable movie. I truly hope so, and I also truly hope that they look at the Guardians series for their story and characters.

Unfortunately, though, it looks like they will go back to the original Guardians concept, which I have absolutely no stake in and could not care less about. I am not surprised by this, given how much Hollywood hates me.

By the way, when is someone going to give me my Immortal Iron Fist movie starring Ray Park? When?

Read the leaked information here.

Read the Wikipedia article on the cool Guardians of the Galaxy here.

I’ve been a bad, bad boy. I’ve let Sword’s Edge grow very, very quiet. July and August were quite the months for me. Prepping for Gen Con, then getting “Crossing the Millers” out the door, and finally—this month—finishing a re-write and update of my soon to be released RPG of Viking mayhem titled Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death, kept me very, very busy.

But Gen Con is done. “Crossing the Millers: A Sword Noir Adventure” is available for sale. Last night I delivered the completed manuscript for Kiss My Axe to Rob Wakefield for layout.

It’s all done.

That doesn’t mean I have nothing more in the hopper. “Suffer the Witch: A Viking Adventure” is scheduled for an update, as it will be the product that follows up Kiss My Axe. But I have time. And the adventure is short.

I have hopes to get Sword’s Edge moving again. It’s never been particularly busy, but I’m going to try to cast Raise Dead on this mofo.

First up: I have a dilemma with a modern military campaign I’ve been planning.

Stay tuned. And welcome back.

You can find ”Crossing the Millers: A Sword Noir Adventure” here.

You can find more information on Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death here.

I have been busy, it’s just been over at the Sword’s Edge Publishing website.

Yes, I’ve been very quiet. I got the manuscript for Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death RPG. That’s a Viking RPG based on Sword Noir . . . which continues to sell relatively well. I’m almost done a Sword Noir adventure called “the Kheufer Scrolls.” When that’s done, I need to do the one-shots for Gen Con—yes, there will be one-shots for both Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe to play at Gen Con. Those one-shots will then be released post-Gen Con as products.

So, yeah, things will likely continue to be quiet until those projects are all wrapped up. On the up side, there’ll be Sword’s Edge Publishing stuff to buy. Great, eh?

Sarcasm? Maybe.

Buy stuff here.

Holy *expletive deleted* I’m in Black Gate!

Listen, there are very few professional venues for heroic fiction, let alone something like Sword Noir fiction, so when John O’Neill—Black Gate’s editor—bought one of my stories, I was thrilled. Now that story has seen the light of day in Black Gate 15, a copy of which arrived in my mailbox today.

Here’s the thing about Black Gate—it’s much more a short story collection or anthology than a fiction journal. By that I mean it’s big, huge in fact—issue 15 clocks in at 384 pages and boasts 21 stories plus regular features. That’s a lot of heroic fiction. Unfortunately, it looks like Black Gate might be moving to an annual format, as the note with issue 15 indicated the next issue would be Spring 2012. Issue 15, as one might guess, is the Spring 2011 issue.

Still, annual is better than never! And that just gives all of you a little extra time to go buy Black Gate 15. The story “A Pound of Dead Flesh” was consciously a Sword Noir story, so pretty cool that it’s coming out a couple of months after the game it helped to inspire.

By way of introduction to the story, imagine Vorenus and Pullo from HBO’s Rome caught up in criminal machinations in my version of the Roman Empire—let’s call it the Aeolean Empire. An old “friend” hooks them into an easy gig that turns out—surprise surprise—to be not so easy.

I guess you could call it Sword & Sandal Noir. And yet a new genre emerges!

—

Check out Sword Noir: A Role-playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery.

Go buy more Sword Noir fiction with For Simple Coin: Four Tales of Sword Noir.

You really should watch HBO’s Rome.

Oh, and in case you didn’t get the hint up there . . . go buy Black Gate 15.

Why have I been so quiet, you ask? Sword Noir is out and has been doing very well. I’ve been busy trying to get some kind of visibility for it, as well as getting files ready for the Print on Demand version. I’ve also been looking into other options for making something special for Gen Con.

Unfortunately, whenever I get wrapped up in something, Sword’s Edge takes a hit. In this case, there is a direct connection, since Sword’s Edge Publishing pays for this site, focusing on that is basically focusing here.

It’s not going to get better any time soon, I’m afraid. I have another release this weekend, and then I have the Viking action RPG Kiss My Axe to complete and get out (including PoD).

And then there is Gen Con.

But stick around. I’ll get stuff up whenever I can—especially if it is geeky news flavoured stuff.

You can purchase your PDF copy of Sword Noir here. A Print on Demand version should be available shortly.