Tag Archives: Game Narrative Summit

Appearance Schedule 2025

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Looking ahead, it’s going to be a busy year. With that in mind, here’s my rough schedule of convention and other appearances going forward:

Ret-Con – February 21-23 – Durham, NC – Guest/Vendor

Game Writing Workshop – March 9 – Hillsborough, NC – Lecturer

Game Developers Conference/Game Narrative Summit – March 17-21 – San Francisco, CA – Advisor and speaker

Scares That Care AuthorCon V – March 28-30 – Williamsburg, VA – Vendor

RavenCon – April 25-27 – Richmond, VA – Guest

Mo*Con – Indianapolis, IN – Special Guest Game Designer

StokerCon – June 12-15 – Stamford, CT – Attendee

Necon – July 17-20 – Goffstown, NH – Toastmaster

 

There are a couple of other possibilities in the works, as well as my first-ever time doing the legendary Cruise to the Edge, but I think this is a pretty good start…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2024 Roundup

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This….was a very busy year. A lot of stuff happened that was very important and yet utterly not germane to this discussion, so I’m going to skip on over it. I do, however, want to do a rundown of all the writing-related stuff that happened, largely for my own sake so I can convince myself it really went down. To wit:

  • I pitched and sold a non-fiction book on being a video game writer titled The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You. That should be out in 2025.
  • I sold my horror novel Nightmare Logic to Falstaff Dread, and that will be out in 2026.
  • I energetically resurrected, playtested, and revised my card game Squatches and Scotches, and am engaged in getting that in front of publishers now.
  • I am engaged in pitching my novel Ghosts of Smoke and Flame to agents and publishers, and have high hopes for it.
  • I was engaged on several top-secret creative projects, one of which we are final contract negotiation stages for. I can’t say more about it yet, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I am really excited that this is happening.
  • I sold five stories: “Against the Siren Song” to Sudden Fictions, “Kicking Santa’s Ass” to Interdimensions, “Paws” to Black Cat Weekly, “Used Sleep” to Space and Time, and “Last Supper” to the fine folks at PseudoPod.
  • I wrote or revised a double fistful of stories, and have them all out in submission as we speak.
  • I commissioned and released audiobooks for my novels Firefly Rain and Vaporware.
  • I did a twice-weekly series of posts on game narrative at LinkedIn, drawing thousands of readers.
  • I spoke at numerous schools and conferences, including GDC, SAGA Writing Workshop, the GenCon Writers Symposium, DigiPen, RIT, and many more.
  • I did readings and appearances across North Carolina, from Wilson to Raleigh to Morganton to Arden, and even did a reading as part of the legendary Noir at the Bar series at Yonder in Hillsborough.
  • I continued to serve on the advisory board of the Game Narrative Summit, and to judge the Student Game Narrative Analysis Competition at GDC.
  • I was announced as the Toastmaster for Necon 2025.
  • I pitched an anthology concept that is moving forward with me as co-editor.
  • I wrote scripts for and voice directed the musician Post Malone as part of my work on the video game Hunt: Showdown 1896. I also did extensive other narrative work on the game before wrapping up my time at Crytek at the end of the year.

And there’s probably some other stuff that I am forgetting, but still, that’s a pretty full year.

Now, onward to 2025!

Upcoming Goodness

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So a lot has happened recently, and there’s a lot coming up that I can’t give you all the details of. But here’s the basics:

1-I’m going to be doing 2 readings in March in North Carolina. The first one will be on March 7th in Rocky Mount. The second will be March 26th at Quail Ridge Bookstore at North Hills in Raleigh. More details on both as soon as I have them.
2-I will be in the dealer room at Ret-Con in Cary March 1-3, selling books and telling the hidden stories behind the stories to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen. Come on by – it’s a great small con!
3-Once again in March I will sojourn west to San Francisco for Game Developers Conference and the Game Narrative Summit. During the main conference I will be running 2 days of Narrative Round Tables for all and sundry at the conference to attend.
4-April 12-14, I will be heading back to Williamsburg. VA for AuthorCon III, where I will be sharing a table in the dealers’ room with the award-winning horror author PD Cacek. Check out her stuff – Leavings is my favorite of hers, with Sebastian close behind – and swing by!
5-The speakers at GenCon’s Writers Symposium have been announced, and I’m one of them. More details as we get closer to August.
6-I will also be attending Necon and StokerCon this year. Everything else is up in the air.
7-An astonishing writing opportunity has come my way, and I am energetically exploring it. It’s something completely new that I’ve always wanted to try, though my past attempts haven’t really gone anywhere. When the time is right, I will reveal all.

And that’s all for now.

GDC Incoming!

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Next week is the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I’m going, in part because I’m part of the advisory board for the Game Narrative Summit (which runs Monday and Tuesday) and in part because I’m running narrative round tables during the main show Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and in part because my employers at Crytek are kind and generous people.

Part of the Game Narrative Summit will be the presentation of the winning entries from the student narrative competition that I judge each year. I am honored to do the judging and happy to see what each year’s crop of up-and-coming game development students think about the narratives of their favorite games.

I’ve been going off and on, mostly on, since 2000. My first talk was about believability versus realism in Ghost Recon; since then I’ve spoken on various other topics and run my roundtables, and it’s always a pleasure and an honor.

GDC is also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends and professional peers. I’m looking forward to seeing folks I see maybe once a year, but whose voices are loud and clear in the narrative and design communities. And if we have a few drinks to celebrate each other, that’ll be fine, too.