Monte Cook Games and Numenera

So the cat was officially released from the bag yesterday: I am now an employee of Monte Cook Games. I’ve taken up the reins as COO, which basically means I’ll be running all the operational, marketing, and business side of the, erm, business.

There are many reasons I’m super, super excited about this. Monte and I go way back, for one, and we’ve been good friends for many years. (There’s a story out there involving the two of us and a crocodile, but for better or worse it’s been swallowed by the intarwebz, never to be seen again–so I’ll just vaguebook about it here.) And then there’s returning to the games industry, my first love (industrially speaking). And of course it’s just nice to rejoin the ranks of the employed. But the main reason I’m excited is this:

To be clear, while I loves me some RPGs, there is no specific game so awesome, in and of itself, that it would draw me to the company that makes it. Numenera is awesome, but what makes me so excited to be working with it is how it’s been received.

Perhaps you are not into roleplaying games. Or perhaps you are, but you live under a rock. In those cases, you may be excused for not knowing what I’m talking about–so let me explain. Monte launched a Kickstarter funding campaign for Numenera last year, looking to raise $20,000 to publish the core book. The campaign raised a bit more than that, and by “a bit” I mean “a lot.” “A whole lot.” Enough to demonstrate in no uncertain terms how huge Monte’s following is and how enthusiastic gamers are for his ideas. And when inXile announced a computer game license for Torment: Tides of Numenera, their own Kickstarter topped $4 million in funding and proved that Monte’s was no fluke.

Third edition wasn’t an accident. Planescape and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil were not aberrations. WotC was not wrong when they courted Monte to lead D&D Next. It turns out people really like Monte’s work–and that he can deliver, over and over again.

When I posted about the end of my last job, I mentioned that I’d love to return to the games industry–but only to a job that promised a level of stability most game publishers can’t promise. Nobody can see the future, but here’s one thing I can predict: Numenera’s going to do great. And so will Monte’s next project. And the one after that.

This is a company that’s going places, and I’m really, really happy to be on board!

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

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On to a New Chapter

I have not been a very good blogger for the past year or so. Nor a good writer in recent months. Not even as good a gamer as I would like to be. The reason? My work at RiverKey Creative has been pretty all-consuming. I was brought on as a senior manager 18 months ago to assist in the turnaround of this terrific, but ailing, company.

Have a look at just one of our many really neat projects:

Despite the cool nature of our work, RiverKey was in bad shape when it came into our hands. We used every means at our disposal to restore it to health. Unfortunately, our best efforts were insufficient, and, over the past couple of weeks, the patient succumbed its wounds. Although some assets and employees may find new homes, possibly in some coherent form, RiverKey as it has existed is no longer. It’s dead, Jim.

Which means I’m looking toward a different future. Game design and writing remain my first great loves, and if there happen to be opportunities in those fields that would provide the stability my family requires, I’ll jump at them. More likely, though, I’m looking for a more conventional home for my talents.

I am an accomplished creator and, even moreso, a manager of creatives and the creative process. I have a particular penchant for bringing order and efficiency to creative processes and teams, and my experience ranges the gamut from written material through still and motion visuals, interactive, and game design. If my strengths interest you, you can find all the gory details over at my LinkedIn profile.

So I’m looking to hire a new employer. The qualities of a successful candidate might include:

• A love of creativity and a belief in its power to change the world. That’s an environment where my leadership skills and extensive experience can help a creative team soar.
• A culture (or the need to instill a culture) of process. I excel at organization; at detail; at bringing efficiency and order to highly dynamic workplaces—and at bringing the rest of the organization along with me.
• A brand beloved by its adherents, or that that will grow to become beloved as is makes its way into the public eye. I cut my teeth on highly-evangelized, identity brands. I understand their communities, and the relationships they have with their constituents.
• An environment that asks the most of its employees and appreciates what they bring to the table. I wear a number of hats with ease, and my experience across a range of disciplines can be a real asset to a company that makes the most of it.

If you have any leads along those lines, I would be very appreciative if you could steer me toward them. You can reach me directly at 276-794-2667. Feel free also to drop me a line ([my first name]@[this site's domain name]) or hit me up on Twitter. A full resume is, of course, available on request.

I think my family and I would lean toward remaining in the Kansas City area, but we’re open to opportunities elsewhere.

So that’s it. I’ve lost jobs before, and ultimately every time the change, while harrowing, led to bigger and better things. My experience at RiverKey was terrific, and I can’t wait to see what it now launches me into!

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)
• Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
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May the Fourth Be with You!

My boy dutifully kicked off May the 4th with a viewing of Star Wars. I lie: He popped Star Wars into the DVD player because that’s what he does on a Saturday morning. He had no awareness of today’s geeky significance.

But in honor of May the 4th, here’s a small, insignificant fascination I have with the original Star Wars.

I remember 1977. Here’s what I remember: 8-track tape players. Really big cars with carburetors under the hood. Pocket calculators that were just beginning to fulfill the promise of actually fitting in your pocket.

Considered awesome because you never had to rewind it!

There were no cell phones. No computers in people’s homes—and certainly not in their pockets. No internet—people wouldn’t start commonly using the web for nearly two decades. Heck: Microwaves and VCRs were just hitting the market. The Atari game console was still several years away.

Star Wars had droids and computers. Nothing special about that; both had been in the public consciousness (and movies) for decades. But when did we become aware of networks and their potential? I don’t recall being at all aware of such things—but when R2 shuts down a garbage disposal from a network interface half a small moon away, the audience went right along with it. In 1977.

I guess maybe this concept was already out there. Or maybe it made such intuitive sense that people bought it without thinking. I don’t remember it being a “wow” moment.

But then, it was Star Wars. It was the summer of ’77, and there had never been an experience like it. Maybe it was just lost in the blinding glare of a hundred “wow” moments.

Am I right to find this bit of trivia fascinating? Or am I misremembering—were we already all like, “Yeah, duh, it’s a computer network. Happens all the time.”?

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

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Martin’s Monday Medieval Madness: Casting Call

I’ve talked a lot recently about the cover of The Mason of New Orleans. Here’s a related point: The image of Martin it portrays.

Martin, as envisioned by cover artist Drew Baker.

So one of the interesting things about commissioning a piece of artwork like this is seeing someone else’s vision of the people and scenes you’ve created in your written work. Oddly (perhaps), I have a clear vision for some of my characters. If I were casting the movie version of The Mason of New Orleans, for example, the role of Madeleine would go to Naomi Rapace. (I wasn’t really familiar with her before Prometheus, but when I saw that I was all like, “Holy crap, that’s Madeleine!”) But in other cases—including that of Martin—my vision wasn’t so clear. I didn’t know exactly what Martin looked like, so this image of him was sort of a surprise to me.

I think it works. Heck, I’d go so far as to say it’s helped me firm up an image of him in my mind. And now it’s got me thinking who I’d cast in other roles. Celestine? Stephan? Gaspard?

What are your thoughts? Is that the Martin you’d pictured? Who would you cast in some of those other roles?

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
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Martin’s Monday Medieval Madness: Books and Covers

The process of commissioning cover art is an interesting one. In the old days, it was pretty simple for the author: The publisher handled it. Maybe you got a chance to comment on or even approve the choice of artist or the design, but if you weren’t Stephen King, you probably didn’t even get that. Hopefully you liked it, but in the end what matters to the publisher is not that it’s true to the author’s vision—or even true to the story—but that it sells books. We’ve all read books with covers that seemed barely related to the content, and that’s why.

As a self-publishing author, I had the chance to right that wrong—but at the same time, I lost the author’s luxury of caring only about my vision. Like the publishers of yore, I had to worry equally—or perhaps moreso—about selling the book.

And what sells a book? Opinions vary, and sometimes it just comes down to a certain magic, but I think a cover painting needs to convey atmosphere. It needs to be colorful and eye-catching (in the world of electronic publishing, it has to look good at many sizes, all the way down to icon scale). It needs to tell just a bit of a story. It needs drama and tension. Most importantly, it needs to ask questions, so the reader wants to crack that book open in search of answers.

Way, way down at the bottom of the list, it needs to represent something that happens in the novel.

Unless this is your first visit to my site, you’ve seen this already. More times than you probably want to. So, what the heck, here it is again.

The events in my cover “happen” in Chapters 10 and 11, so if you’ve read the book (or the chapters I posted here on this site) you might recognize that stage of the story. But you might also notice that no scene exactly like this occurs: The bloodied arm, the hunted skulking, and the frescoe of St. Martin don’t all occur at the same exact point in the story. As the reader, should you be outraged? Should I, as the author? Not, I think, if the painting has achieved the goals I mention above.

So what do you think? Did the fabulous Drew Baker (who, unlike many cover artists, did in fact read a draft of the book before composing this) knock it out of the park? Is this a book you’ve gotta read? Or should I have insisted on something right out of an actual scene?

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)
• Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
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The Reviews, oh, the Reviews!

It has been a week since The Mason of New Orleans went live on Amazon, and I have been incredibly fortunate in that several people have taken the time to review it. Even more incredible: They seem to like it! The novel has received nine reviews as of this writing, with a very gratifying average of 4.8 stars. Here are a few snippets:

“The story vividly evokes medieval times from the point of view of a modern mason, magically thrust upon the twelfth-century scene. His character made it easy for me to get into the book because Martin’s reactions seemed to mimic how I might face troubles like swords, horsemanship, cults, ruthless nobles and more: with wit, courage and modern knowledge, applied as best he can. The twists in Martin’s adventures were always fresh, and I never got caught in a trope trap. Indeed, it is not going too far to compare this to “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” yet it’s all the more enjoyable because it embraces the opportunities rather than using them as a foil or for commentary on modern life and troubles.”

“I have a degree in history, and I loved the historical accuracy of the setting. The author clearly researched what life was like in medieval Europe, which of course really makes Martin feel like the fish out of water that he is. It’s easy to settle in and view the world from Martin’s perspective. What is foreign to you is foreign to him. And in Martin’s new world, not everything works out the way it would in our more relaxed society.”

“Martin was a well-written character and hearing his internal dialogue gave the book a great sense of humor as well as an enjoyable take on the time-travel genre.”

Now here’s the thing: Most of these reviews were written by beta-readers of the novel—people who responded to my call back in July and received ARCs in trade for a willingness to review the book when it came out. Just one or two are by people who read the book since its release. Which begs the question: Where is your review? So here’s an offer:

Read The Mason of New Orleans, then post a review to Amazon or any other public forum (EN World, anyone?) where interested readers might find it. It’s easy. Then post a comment below letting me know that you’ve done it, and where people can find it. You are under absolutely no obligation to say nice things—if you don’t like it, feel free to say so.

I will personally send the first three people who do so a giant kiss. A giant Hershey’s Kiss, that is. (Offer valid only within the US of A.) Along with my undying gratitude. Because:

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)
• Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
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And It’s Live!

The Mason of New Orleans is now available at Amazon.com:

Click through to Amazon.com!

If you’ve followed this blog and maybe read a few chapters along the way—or if you’ve ever enjoyed any of my work on D&D, Deadlands, d20 Modern, Star Wars, The Last Crusade, Millennium’s End, Hell on Earth, Psychosis or anything else—I urge you to check it out. Of everything I’ve written, this is the one thing I may be most proud of.

C’mon, it’s $3.99. What do you have to lose (you know, other than $3.99)?

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
• Follow my writing diary on Facebook at Charles M Ryan, where I post frequent short bits on the writing process and state of my current projects
• Encircle me (is that right?) on Google+, where, like most people, I have no idea what I’m doing

Martin’s Monday Medieval Madness: A Cover!

The novel goes on sale tomorrow. TOMORROW!

Here’s the cover for you:

Awesome cover art by the fabulous Drew Baker!

If you like the cover painting, I strongly urge you to check out the terrific work of fantasy and gaming artist Drew Baker. Drew has been a favorite of mine for many years, and it’s a real honor to have a piece of his on the cover of this novel. (In case you missed it, many moons ago I posted some early sketches for this piece.)

Well, I’m too nervous about tomorrow (that’s when my novel comes out) to write anything more.

Did I mention when the novel comes out? In case I didn’t, it’s tomorrow. TOMORROW!

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
• Follow my writing diary on Facebook at Charles M Ryan, where I post frequent short bits on the writing process and state of my current projects
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Release Date: 11 December!

Yes! After letting The Mason of New Orleans languish for three months, despite being pretty much ready to go, I am finally unleashing it on the world! Barring some unforeseen catastrophe, it will hit Amazon on Tuesday, the 11th of December.

If you have ever enjoyed any of my creative work—particularly the excerpts I’ve posted here over the past two years—I ask you to check it out. You’ve nothing to lose but a paltry $3.99. As I tell my kids when they’re hesitant to try a new food (as kids are wont to be): “Go on, give it a bite. If you hate it, it’s all over in a moment. But if you like it, you may have a new favorite thing for the rest of your life!”

You could do me an even bigger solid by helping to spread the word a bit. In this day and age, there are thousands of new books released every month. To stand out in the crowd, a new book needs to be good—but it also has to generate a little buzz. Any time someone mentions The Mason of New Orleans in a conversation—online or off—the book gets one teeny, tiny boost in it’s chances of breaking out of the pack.

So if you get the chance to say something about it, please do. If not, hey, that’s OK too, but I hope you’ll check it out for yourself. Thanks!

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)
• Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
• Follow my writing diary on Facebook at Charles M Ryan, where I post frequent short bits on the writing process and state of my current projects
• Encircle me (is that right?) on Google+, where, like most people, I have no idea what I’m doing

The Agony of the 3-Star Review

I talked last week about writing reviews on Amazon.com. With any luck, I’m only a few weeks away from reading online reviews of my first novel. That’s exciting, and it’s also crucial: Online reviews are absolutely critical to the successful launch of a new book these days, especially a book by a new author. I am, of course, hoping to see praise heaped upon my work, but I will not be surprised if some folk don’t like it. What I’m really afraid of are no reviews at all—or even worse: The 3-star review.

Why do I fear the 3-star review? To explain that, I have to explain what Amazon reviews really are.

Here’s what they’re not: Reviews. Nobody reads an Amazon review to learn about the inner depths, the hidden themes, and the profound meanings of a book. They read them to get a sense of whether other people liked the book—to figure out whether they might, too. To decide whether or not to buy the book.

And that’s the secret: Amazon’s system isn’t really about reviews—it’s about recommendations. When people read Amazon reviews, what they’re really trying to suss out is whether they’ll like the book in question. And Amazon’s internal systems use reviews (and particularly star ratings) to determine which books get put in front of unsuspecting shoppers. It really helps to think about this as you’re formulating your comments. Because:

Amazon’s 5-star system is really just a 3-star system.

• 5 stars means you strongly recommend it
• 4 stars means you recommend it, but with caveats or reservations
• 1, 2, and 3 stars are all different shades of “don’t bother”

Which brings me to why I fear 3 stars even more than 1. A person who writes a 1-star review probably didn’t like the book. Fair enough. But chances are, most people who write 3-star reviews probably think it’s got a lot going for it. Might even think it’s a great read. But it’s no 100 Years of Solitude. In the world of hotel reviews, or restaurant reviews, or even movie reviews, something that’s decent but not world-class might get 3 stars, and that would be all right.

But not on Amazon, where a 3-star review means the same thing, to both readers and Amazon’s internal systems. “Don’t bother.” So the 3-star review sucks because the person who wrote it probably didn’t mean that.

Am I saying you should never write a 3-star review? Certainly not. I’m just pointing out what that means: The highest of three levels of “don’t bother.” If that’s what you feel about it, by all means that’s what you should give it.

So I hope to see a lot of reviews when the novel goes live. And I hope most of them will rave about the book and give it many, many stars. But I won’t be surprised if there’s some dissent—I just hope it’s good, honest, 1- and 2-star dissent.

Writers live and die by the feedback they get from their readers, so I’d love your comments—there’s a little link just down below to the right. Also:

• Receive an email notification of every update to this site by subscribing (see the link to the right)
• Follow me on Twitter at @charlesmryan, where I post lots of game, writing, and geek news and can often be dragged into conversation
• Follow my writing diary on Facebook at Charles M Ryan, where I post frequent short bits on the writing process and state of my current projects
  
• Encircle me (is that right?) on Google+, where, like most people, I have no idea what I’m doing