Reading, Writing and Gaming
I just finished Steven Brust's “The Phoenix Guards”, it was a fun rollicking romp. He wrote it in the style of his hero, Dumas, and at MisCon he said it was the book he had the most fun writing.
I've also been reading a number of history books on the 1870's Black Hills and Deadwood. The best with the most information has been Estelline Bennett's “Old Deadwood Days”. It was published in 1928 and is an autobiography of Estelline Bennett's young life. She and her family moved to Deadwood in 1877. Her father, Granville Bennett, was the Black Hill's first federal judge. I've been reading these stories for background for the new game I started running on Friday nights at the Sandbaggers Game Club called “Deadwood 76”. It's a role-playing game using a loose version of the World of Darkness skill based system along with my own home-brew rules.
I just finished Harry Turtledove's “The Guns of the South”. I didn't think it was that great, but it must be hard to write historical characters. Harry wrote Gen. Lee as a messianic figure and I couldn't buy into that characterization. Harry Turtledove is MisCon 24's (May 2010) Author Guest of Honor.
I'm picking up Joseph M. Marshall's “Hundred in the Hand” a historical novel of Red Cloud's war. I read his novel “The Long Knives are Crying” about the battle of the Little Bighorn and it was very good.
I am also reading Maggie Bonham's “Prophecy of the Sword”. It is packed full of action, a great sword and sorcery read. I am just finishing Tom Zoellner's “Uranium”, a natural history book about uranium, very informative.
My own writing has been slow, but I am still plunking away at it. I've started a faux diary for a character I am playing in Robert Thomson's Pathfinder game at the Sandbaggers Game club. Just for fun, but it has kept me writing. I was inspired by “The Phoenix Guards” and wanted to try something in a whimsical style. If anyone is interested I could post it here.