Another Gen Con in the bag! I’m back from Indianapolis, and now I’m looking at a short week to get a LOT of things done before taking a personal vacation. A couple of quick updates for you, and a big announcement!

More Restless Lightning

Looking for the next offering in Sikander North? The mass market paperback edition of Restless Lightning comes out later this month. If you’ve been waiting for the paperback, make sure you check in with your friendly local bookseller (and if you like it, say something nice on GoodReads or Amazon). And Scornful Stars, book 3 of the Sikander North series, comes out in early December. Pre-order it now!

I’m Writing a TORG Novel! No, Three!

The big announcement for me: I can finally acknowledge that I’m working on a series of TORG novels for the good folks at Ulisses North America. I’m 83,000 words into the first draft of the first book and expect to finish the draft by the end of the month. Tie-in fiction is something I haven’t done in a few years (my last Forgotten Realms novel was published in 2012), and I had some trepidation about taking on the job. TORG is a big, crazy setting and I began the process with not much more than a casual familiarity with the IP. However, I’m finding that I am having quite a lot of fun and the words seem to be flowing, so I guess I have something to say about this world.

I don’t think we’ve announced a series title or book title yet so I won’t spill the beans here, but I will say this much: The Book 1 story begins in Aysle and touches on two other cosms, and I’m using the storm knight Markus Newman as my principal PoV character. Markus is a lifelong gamer who gets every gamer’s wish: he becomes his character. (He’s in England on a dream D&D vacation when the Aysle axiom wash hits.) Of course, you ought to be careful what you wish for. Viola Villiers and Ibis the freedom-fighter also make appearances as viewpoint characters.

Gen Con Quick Wrap

I split my time between manning the Sasquatch Game Studio booth and running Alternity games over in the Baldman Games area. Walking the Exhibit Hall seemed to be the thing I shorted a bit, but I did find a couple of interesting things. I bought a copy of Ragusa, a Euro-style board game from Capital Games and Brain Crack Games. It turns out I’m a sucker for Euro games named after interesting historical places. I was also quite interested in Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon, Ceylon, and Planet, but I’m a budget so I had to pick just one. I guess they’ll go on my Christmas list instead. On the RPG side of things, it looks like the folks at Paizo successfully debuted their Pathfinder 2^nd Edition game, so congratulations to them. I wish it weren’t quite so gigantic, though. My backpack starts feeling heavier when I just look at that mighty tome—I think Paizo might want to consider publishing a more portable version.

My Favorite Beer of the Show

This year the award goes to Sun King Osiris. Sun King is an Indianapolis-based craft brewery. I’ve been a fan of their Wee Mac scotch ale for years now, but lately I seem to be on a pale-ale kick, so I gave their Osiris a try. (I should note for the beer-illiterate among you that there is a *big* difference between a pale ale and an India pale ale, or IPA. A pale ale is moderately bitter and hoppy, while most IPAs are very bitter and feature an overpowering hop finish. I don’t like that big hop finish, so IPAs usually aren’t my thing.) Anyway, I enjoyed my Osiris at the Pearl Street Pizzeria on Saturday night. Want a good pizza and beer at Gen Con? Pearl Street is worth the walk.