The second book in the Little Fears Nightmare Edition line came out today in PDF. This book was a long time coming but I had a lot of fun writing it and I think I came up with some pretty terrifying stuff. Here’s the cover and blurb:

You were a normal kid once with a normal life and a normal family. Then things changed. There was a moment when your life took a sudden turn and you stopped being a normal kid. You became a headline, a statistic, a picture on the grocery store window. A warning for other children.

Maybe you were taken, stolen by a monster, or maybe you simply disappeared.

Whatever happened, at that moment, you became one of the missing.

Book 2: Among the Missing is an expansion to the Little Fears Nightmare Edition game. In it, we talk about what missing children mean in the world of Little Fears, how kids become missing, what happens to them next, how they can help in the fight against monsters, and how they can be saved. Includes expanded GMC rules, new monsters, information about the World In-Between, and a full-length episode titled “The Long Way Home.”

If that sounds like it’s up your darkened alley, check out the official Little Fears website for details on getting your own hardcopy when it comes out or you can grab the PDF right now for just $10 from the good folks at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

As you may remember, I spent a good portion of my summer last year working with the fine folks at High Voltage Software on their upcoming Wii-exclusive shooter Conduit 2. After seeing a few delays (very common in the video game biz), I am happy to tell you that Conduit 2 hits store shelves today. If you have a GameStop local to you, you can pick up the Limited Edition of the game (which includes a 44-page art booklet as well as an exclusive suit of multiplayer armor and a fancy version of the game’s All-Seeing Eye) for the same price as the regular edition other stores have.

I can’t wait to tear open a copy and get playing. I really enjoyed the game while it was in pre-alpha development and can only imagine how good it must be now.

I’ve been a fan of point-and-click adventure games since I was a teen. Like a lot of my hobbies, I came to it through my brother who introduced me to games like Prisoner of Ice, Bad Mojo, and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father. Once I had my own PC, my first game purchase was Sanitarium and I soon moved on to Grim Fandango and Blade Runner, two classics of the genre. I took a break from gaming in the early 2000s but I came back big time in 2005. Quickly upon my return, I rediscovered my love of point-and-click adventure titles. I fell hard for Syberia I & II, Still Life, Puzzle Agent, Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk, and many others. Right now, my computer’s desktop is littered with shortcuts to adventure titles from the new games on retail shelves and Steam to the not-so-new from my personal archive or Good Old Games.

My love of the genre is well-documented, as many online and face-to-face conversations attest. And that love is about to be even more documented as I have recently joined the world’s most popular site dedicated to my favorite genre, AdventureGamers.com, as a Staff Writer. My first article, a preview of the hotly-anticipated A New Beginning is up already, and I’ll be contributing as much as the site’s editor-in-chief Jack Allin and my schedule will allow.

If you dig adventure games, you should already be checking out AdventureGamers.com. My presence there, on the main page and in the forums, is just a bonus, right?

Right?

Danger in Dunsmouth, a scenario I wrote for Adamant Entertainment’s excellent ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying game, hit the virtual shelves today. Here’s the intro:

A trio of witch-sisters has put the New England town of Dunsmouth under their spell. The three wicked siblings are using the ensorcelled citizens to summon an ancient evil from the Atlantic’s murky depths to destroy mankind and set themselves upon thrones as queens of the world!

As humanity’s only hope, the heroes must infiltrate the coastal cult, find out where the charming ladies are hiding, and put an end to this arcane insanity before it’s too late!

Can the heroes stop the denizens of Dunsmouth from summoning a subaquatic cephalopod or will mankind fall victim to a terror older than time?

Find out in… “THE DANGER IN DUNSMOUTH!”

If you’re familiar with Steve Kenson’s rules-light take on four-color superheroes already, you know ICONS delivers a fast-paced and fun time at the gaming table. If you’re not, but are a fan of RPGs such as the Marvel (FASERIP) Game from the 80s, you have to give ICONS a spin. It’s a blast to play.

Check out my take on eldritch horror in the comic book universe with Danger in Dunsmouth, now available at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

First update of the year, only three weeks in! I’m fortunate that I’ve been busy with some pretty cool projects so far this year and, while I can’t talk about most of them yet, I do want to direct your attention to something I helped out with earlier this month.

If you don’t know Chuck Wendig already, I’m sure you soon will. Not only did he just release his short story collection Irregular Creatures, and not only is his novel Blackbirds currently being shopped around by his agent, but he and writing partner Lance Weiler have a short film debuting at the Sundance Film Festival sometime over the week or so. If you’re lucky enough to be in Utah for the event, check it out on a big screen, but if you’re like me, you can watch the YouTube clip embedded below.

Now I had nothing to do with the film but I was recruited to do some writing for the transmedia experience that accompanies it. The short film is just the tip of the disease-ridden iceberg that Chuck and Lance have planned. I won’t go into any further detail on it but I urge you to keep your eyes on the Hope is Missing website and, if you’re on Twitter, follow the #pandemic11 hashtag to get even more of the experience.

So, short film follows, full transmedia extravaganza begins, oh, in about 15 hours or so from this posting. Enjoy!

The Wii-exclusive FPS Conduit 2, published by Sega and developed by the great folks at High Voltage Software, is coming at you soon! GamingBits.com reports the shooter has a North American release date of February 15, 2011. That’s 02.15.2011. Nice!

As you may remember, I spent most of my summer developing the story and script for Conduit 2. It’s been a while since I’ve seen what High Voltage has been doing first-hand but I’m excited for its release. I hope you all check it out when it hits the shelves.

For a peek at the game’s intro, check out the trailer Sega released on Thanksgiving weekend:

(Video embedded from my favorite video game website GiantBomb.com)

I’m very excited to announce that Reactor 88 Studios is producing a film based on my property Little Fears. Filming is slated to start within the next year. I’m writing the script and will work hand-in-hand with Darren Orange and company throughout the process.

If you’re not familiar with Little Fears, a game about kids fighting back against the monsters from Closetland, I invite you to check out the official website where I will post news and updates as pre-production begins.

I released the original Little Fears game in 2001 and have been amazed at where that game has taken me. The reboot, Little Fears Nightmare Edition, was released October 2009 and I have some big plans for it. 2011 is shaping up to be an exciting year.

The past couple weeks have been fairly busy as I prep and execute some personal projects and prospective larger projects. One of those I’m most proud of is the work I’ve been doing to support Little Fears Nightmare Edition. It’s a great game that I love dearly and I’ve finally managed to make the time to release support material for it. First is the Campfire Tales line of standalone ready-to-use episodes and next after (well, during as Campfire Tales is a monthly release) is Book 2 in the LFNE line, titled Among the Missing. No date on that one yet but I’ll update the official Little Fears site when I do.

For those interested, you can get Campfire Tales #1: Beggars Night in PDF format over at DriveThruRPG.

Last week, I put a list together of all the books I had plots for. Nothing new, I didn’t invent on the spot, and I came up with eight titles. Later that day, I remembered another three. Today, I found another. Just typing this up now, I remembered another one.

That’s a lot of imaginary books.

And that’s what they are right now: imaginary. They don’t exist. I haven’t written them. And carrying around the ideas doesn’t make me a writer. After I jotted the first eight, I decided it was time to kick off the novel phase of Operation: Awesome.

The goal is to write three novels within the next six years. One novel every two years is doable. I hope to fill the remaining time with paying gigs and island vacations. The former more probable than the latter but while I’m hoping, why not?

So, three books. Okay, sure. But which ones?

Good question. I have a couple connections with some solid genre publishers. It makes sense to me that I aim in the sci-fi, fantasy, and/or horror direction. I said my goal with Operation: Awesome was to become a better writer first, sell second, and that still holds. I’m still in Phase Four, certainly, but I see no contradiction in rolling both goals into one action, if I can.

I’m aiming at one publisher in specific. I’ve read through their mission statement, history, and have researched their catalogue. I think some of my ideas are well-suited and am currently looking through them, trying to suss out which is the leader. There’s the one I’m sure I can write, write well even. It’s horror, a genre I’m comfortable with, but I wonder about its marketability. It’s a bit strange. There’s another that is in a genre dear to my heart (near-future sci-fi). It’s a thriller and, frankly, is probably too smart for me. It’d be a great challenge, would be impressive if I could pull it off, but I worry about plotting something so complex. Truth is, I’d probably worry about my ability to pull off a coloring book depending on the day. There’s a trilogy I’m psyched for I originally conceived for the Young Adult market. Could be converted though. It’s near-future again, conspiracy this time. There’s another horror one, a mystery, that like the near-future book is larger in scope than I do normally. But y’know what? I normally don’t write novels so maybe stretching out in all directions is exactly what I need to do.

(The other books are either non-genre or Young Adult- or Middle Grade-focused which is outside the purview of this publisher.)

So, anyway, there it is. The next phase of Operation: Awesome. I’m writing my second novel. My first adult fiction novel which means more swearing and twice as many words as I did on that Little Fears: The Wolf Pact book back in 2007. I don’t have a hard deadline yet. I’m already milling on some for-pay projects and am in the running for another gig I’m really excited for. Fingers crossed, I’ll have a very busy holiday season and into early next year. But this is a commitment I’m making to myself. It’s time to push forward.

The next step in this will be choosing the project. I need to think on that but eventually I’ll need to just pick one and go. Any advice on that? What criteria do you use when picking a project from a stack of potentials? How does one idea rise to the top?

I’m heading out to GenCon Indy soon, my first since 2006, and I’m quite excited to see a lot of friends I haven’t in that time and hopefully come away with a few more. I’m going as a civilian this year so don’t have much officially planned but I’m not hard to spot milling about the floor. (I’ll probably have a towel with me.)

For those interested, Little Fears Nightmare Edition will be on sale at Cubicle 7‘s booth (#315) and I’m sure I’ll be around there a fair bit.

I’ll also be at the Diana Jones Awards on Wednesday and most likely at the Ennies Awards ceremony on Friday.

On Sunday, I’ll be at Gameplaywright‘s signing ceremony for their all-about-dice anthology The Bones (to which I contributed an essay). That will be from 1p-2p at the Indie Press Revolution booth (#2339).

Outside of those, who knows! I’m focusing on fun and catching up this year. I’m open to ideas if there’s a gathering or function you wouldn’t mind me crashing. Find me on the floor, on Twitter, via phone or email.

To those going, I’ll see you there! To those not, I’ll see you when I get back (and maybe at a later show sometime).