Tuesday, October 31, 2006

GHOSTS OF ONYX

GHOSTS is official released today in North America (almost like someone planned GHOSTS to come out on Halloween...).

I want to thank everyone at Bungie and TOR for making this happen. Special thanks go out to Brian Jarrard, Frank O’Connor, Robert McLees, Joseph Staten, and Eric Raab.

Extra special thanks to all the fans and readers who really made this possible. Without your continued enthusiasm I would never have had the chance to contribute to the HALO universe—you all have my deepest gratitude.

Monday, October 30, 2006

UNSCDF Fan Fiction Results

Over the weekend I read the final ten stories submitted to me by the UNSCDF. Making the last few cuts was especially painful because they were all good.

Here’s the list of winners.

Congratulations and my thanks to everyone who participated and the people at UNSCDF for putting this together.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Anarchy in the USA

I’m not a huge fan of anarchy or civil disobedience. Nor am I a fan of strong government. I believe that most politicians place their careers before the people they represent.

What's an average citizen supposed to do? VOTE!

Don’t give me that lame excuse that there’s no one good to vote for. There’s never anyone good to vote for! Just vote.

I’m fortunate because I live in Washington where there is a huge vote-by-mail initiative. I’ve just popped my ballot in the mailbox, and I’m going to top it off by watching V FOR VENDETTA (the penultimate voting day movie).

Monday, October 23, 2006

Dangerous Writing Excuses

As we’ve discussed, inertia can work for your writing or against it. If you’re on a red-hot streak, it’s easier to keep going (which is why it’s so important to write every day like clockwork). Conversely, if you stop writing, it takes ten times the effort to start again.

Usually, writers stop because of doubt, neurosis, excuses, (insert your own personal writing-related psychological issues here). Much worse than these, however, are a class of excuses that crop up when things are going great.

Lately I’ve been lured from the keyboard to do interviews and other publicity for GHOSTS, GEARS, and GALACTICA. Now that GHOSTS is out, everything is getting more or less back to normal. I’ve slowly been re-building momentum as the hype subsides.

Usually if I’m not writing, I’m eventually overwhelmed by guilt and I get back to it posthaste. But with publicity it’s easy to fool yourself into believing that you are writing. Heck! It’s probably even good for your career!

But thinking like that is dangerous.

Sure it’s necessary. Sure it feels great to soak up the limelight. And sure, it might get my work in front of new readers...

…But it’s not writing. It’s writing about writing—which may be the ultimate way writers fool themselves into not writing.

Well, enough of this. Draw your own conclusions. I have to get back to writing MORTAL COILS.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

GHOSTS Out in the Open

Well, I’ve seen two excerpts from HALO: GHOSTS OF ONYX out today from various sources. I knew TOR/Bungie were possibly going to release them, but I had no idea when or where.

Find them and read them if you want (if you just can’t stand NOT knowing). Enjoy.

You’ll all understand if I refrain from commenting on any speculation.

UNSCDF Interview

More on GHOSTS, GEARS, writing, and fan fic up at UNSCDF.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

GALACTICA!!

It’s finally announced. The comic project I am working on (with the talented Mr. Joshua Ortega) is Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon Wars.

You can read about it at Newsarama or Dynamic Forces, and CBR News.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Contest Deadline

A quick reminder that the deadline for the UNSCDF fan fiction contest is today at 4 PM EST. Check out their submissions guidelines.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Gamespot Interview

More on the art of interview evasion...here.

IGN interview on GHOSTS

IGN asks questions about the upcoming HALO: GHOSTS OF ONYX. I hope it's entertaining to watch me dance around potential spoilers.

IGN GHOSTS interview.
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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

“My Novels” Updated

I finally added content to the “My Novels” section of this site (see the link on the right hand menu). Actually I handed the content to Syne and she formatted it for me (it’s good to be married to a beautiful web diva).

She told me there’s a very small, very subtle Easter Egg somewhere in there. Darned if I can find it, though.

UNSCDF Fan-Fic Contest Deadline

A reminder that the UNSCDF contest ends October 16th, 2006 -- 4:00 pm (EST). Less than a week to go. Get your entries in and possibly win a signed copy of GHOSTS OF ONYX. Good luck!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

"Destroyed Beauty" wins



The GEARS OR WAR art book, "Destroyed Beauty," that I worked on (along with a bunch of folk: Cliff Bleszinski, Jerry O’Flaherty, Rod Fergusson, Tim Dean, Chris Lassen, and Laura Hamilton) just won a first place 2006 Craftsman-Gallery of Fine Printing Award! It’s racked up quite a few awards over the last year and half since it came out at the 2005 e3.

For a while it looked like the few hundred copies we made for e3 were going to be it, but you will be able to grab a copy for yourself by purchasing the Limited-Collectors Edition of GEARS OF WAR (scroll to the bottom of the linked page for details).

I’ve said it before, but it really was a pleasure to work with the guys from EPIC on this. Very talented people.

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Monday, October 02, 2006

Stephen King’s Latest Essay

Great stuff.

The Writing Life.

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