Bill Bodden's Blog, page 22

For The Birds

I’ve been a birdwatcher since I was 10 or 12; what got me started was the year when Evening Grosbeaks — colorful seed-eaters mostly found north of the U.S.-Canada border — moved south in search of food and a few found their way to our next-door neighbor’s feeder. After that, I was hooked. My brother Mike and I went out numerous times in early mornings looking for whatever was out there, and sometimes we were surprised by the interesting birds we saw. Often our mom and dad would join us, and we covered a fair bit of wild ground in central Wisconsin over those years. For several years running we participated in the...

To read the rest of this post, please visit my website: http://billbodden.com/2016/06/20/for-...

Who The Hell Is Carl Brandon?

Carl Brandon's story is an interesting one, and needs a little explaining. Back in the 1950s, several white fanzine fans were looking around at science fiction conventions and realizing there were no Fans of Color that they knew of. Fanwriters (at that time) Peter Graham and the late Terry Carr suggested that perhaps one should be invented. A committee was formed and sworn to secrecy, and they began by writing letters of comment (LoCs) to fanzines from Mr. Brandon, in which he eventually let it slip that he was black. Carl Brandon proved so popular that fans scoured the halls at conventions where Brandon was rumored to be in attendance, wanting desperately to meet him.

The rest of this post can be found here:
http://billbodden.com/2016/06/13/who-...

Something To Remember Them By

My parents passed away over the last few years — my dad in January of 2011, and my mom in late July of 2013. Both lived into their late 80s, so they both had a good, long run at life. The last house they owned was a large, unattractive brick structure that was among the first houses in the area built by white settlers. That house was old when I lived there, and frankly, my parents couldn’t keep up with it — especially towards the end — so the place was in pretty rough shape.

That house still holds an enormous stash of memories for me; it’s the house I grew up in. In fact, I hadn’t lived anywhere else until I moved away after graduating high school. One of my fondest memories...

To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2016/06/07/some...

Summer Game Recommendations

It's nearly summertime, and that means summer vacations are a thing many people have to contend with. Fear not! I have a few recommendations for good, portable games to help the summer hours pass in entertaining fashion. These are games that kids will enjoy, but that will also keep adults amused for hours on end. Be sure to check out these titles at your Favorite Local Game Store (FLGS)...

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http://billbodden.com/2016/05/23/summ...

Controversy Over GenCon's Industry Insider List

Gen Con recently announced the selections for it's Industry Insider Program for 2016. First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the Industry Insider committee for a doing a great job of bringing greater diversity to the program. I was part of the program in 2015, and was grateful for having had the honor. I decided shortly afterwards that, though it was a positive experience and I would happily participate again, trying to be involved two years in a row would selfish on my part, so I opted not to submit my name for consideration for the next couple of years...

http://billbodden.com/2016/05/16/cont...

Riding Shotgun With The Law (Part 2 of 2)

After what seemed like hours of tense waiting, Officer Chris Marzullo comes out of the burgled house, waving me over. He explains that we'll wait for me to go in until officers en route have a chance to go over the scene for evidence. Frankly, I'm surprised they would let me into a crime scene at all. I wait outside near the family, awkwardly, not sure what to say to them. In the end, I choose to say nothing, smiling in what I hope is a friendly but not too enthusiastic way. Sure enough, the father has the butt end of a pistol sticking of of his suitcoat pocket. After interviewing the gentleman, the officers seem less concerned about that particular firearm...

http://billbodden.com/2016/05/09/ridi...

Riding Shotgun With The Law (Part 1 of 2)

Some time ago I applied to participate in a police ride-along with the police department of the City of Madison, Wisconsin. I was finally accepted, and took my ride in a squad car on April 26. I primarily wanted the experience as research; I'm working on a novel right now, the story for which involves the main character interacting with police repeatedly. An opportunity such as this is just too good to not take advantage of...

http://billbodden.com/2016/05/04/ridi...

Forgotten Again

Dramatic title aside, it's disappointing to be left off the credits for a book on which I've worked. It's happened to me twice -- once two years ago, and again in the last six months. In both cases these omissions were clearly not intentional, but they present a couple of major issues for me.

First of all, there's the emotional issue of feeling forgotten, left out. This is an issue I personally have problems with, so it's something with which I need to come to terms. Second, and more importantly, it means that this is a book I can't use on my resume -- at least until it's fixed in some fashion to give me proper credit. My worst fear is that, when applying for writing work elsewhere, the publisher or developer will look at that book, see my name is not on the credits page, and assume I'm lying about my involvement to pad my list of credits.

For the full post, please visit my website. Here's a handy link to this post: http://billbodden.com/2016/04/25/forg...

Crushing Hopes and Dreams -- AGAIN!

For the third year in a row, I've been a guest judge at Waunakee High School's Game Design and Theory classes. Taught by long-time friend, colleague, and gaming buddy Aaron Pavao, the class teaches students the elements of game design, and the dizzying array of ways to employ them.

This year, I was able to judge both sections of students: each group had four teams (called "guilds") that worked to design a game. The most common type of creation was a basic board game, some with truly creative themes and design techniques. Each group had fifteen minutes to describe to me how the game worked and play a few turns to give me the idea. I had a tally sheet for each group, with tick boxes to keep track of hitting various basic design goals, and a smaller section for my thoughts. I rarely had enough time to perform a detailed break-down of the game, so I had to resort to encouraging quips to (hopefully) inspire the students to keep at it.

There was a two-hour break between classes, and since Aaron didn't have anything pending to do in-between, he and I went to Sushi Muramoto and gorged on delicious sushi for lunch, Aaron's treat. I had the chef's choice special, consisting of three rolls: salmon, avocado, and spicy tuna. All very safe, but also, all very tasty and satisfying. Then it was back to school for the afternoon class, and another four games to try.

This year, most of the groups seemed to have genuinely been collaborative efforts. While one or two students did most of the talking to me, nearly everyone seemed very familiar with their guild's game and how it worked. Some groups were better than others at getting the rules down on paper in a clear, concise format, but I was pleased to note that, while not every game was to my particular taste, there wasn't one game I thought was poorly designed, and most I would be happy to play again.

Still disappointing is the relatively few women involved in the class -- maybe three total out of two classes and over 30 students. Game design isn't strictly for boys, after all, and there are quite a few talented, clever women actively involved in game design professionally right now. I hope to see more women take an interest in game design in future classes.

I always enjoy my time working with Aaron's classes. The students want to be there and are interested in the subject, and even though they really have no idea who I am (Aaron did gibe them a brief summary of my career in the industry) they seem interested in hearing opinions on their designs. If this is a career -- or even a hobby -- that they choose to pursue in the future, they certainly will have plenty more opinions to look forward to.

Be sure to check out my other blog posts at http://billbodden.com/!

New Blog Post: Day of the Dead Musings

Two fannish acquaintances of mine passed away recently. By Fannish, I mean people who are part of the science fiction fandom community.

I first met Fred Duarte at an Armadillocon back in the late 1980s. Later, when I moved to Austin, Texas in 1993, he and his wife Karen Meschke were two of the people who looked out for me a little. Fred, Willie Sirois and I went to a Houston Astros baseball game in Fred's land-barge, (the Mets won that day, if I remember correctly) and we had a fun time. Later still, after things went poorly at the job I'd moved there to accept, Fred helped celebrate my birthday with me by driving to the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame . They have an impressive collection of memorabilia there, no less for the fact that Texas has an impressive roster of players who made it to the Big Leagues including one of the favorite players of my youth, Cecil Cooper.

To read the rest of this post, please visit my blog: http://billbodden.com/2015/11/02/day-...