Hal Greenberg's Blog, page 2
March 10, 2014
Wee in Review 3/10/14 Edition
Lots going on, and it is mostly good news!Awakened II stories are almost all back from edits from the authors, I am hoping to turn them in by 4//1/14. The cover should be done by May.
The talented Tony Szczudlo will be painting book II's cover.
I have pulled a Mission Impossible theme when it comes to The Awakened series core line, for the first four books I will have a different author paint a cover but keep the theme consistent, and I am trying to get some of the classic game artists from TSR to join in the fun.
I am currently working on The Awakened: Modern and I am using Chicago as the backdrop, so far it has been a lot of fun, these stories will tend to go a bit longer and be more adult themed so up to a rating of "R" if this was a movie while the fantasy line will never go above "PG".
Working on the other books in the series as well and trying to balance my freelance work at the same time.
We just ordered a new cover for the award nominated The Hunt setting for Pathfinder, we will have that as our next focus on Kickstarter. We are excited.
I am going to MegaCon in Orlando as a fan, but am only going on Friday. Looking forward to the break from work and the long weekend.
The next convention I will be a guest at is Salty Bay Con 2014, it is pure gaming with a side of a few morning panels, it is a lot of fun.
Sorry about missing last week, and see ya on the other side.
February 23, 2014
Week in Review 2/23/14-Awakened Update
Got turned down for a freelance job, our ideas were not in line with the publisher, and that is fine, but i do hope to work with them soon.Getting another pitch ready and it is an unusual idea so we will see if that one sticks.
Awakened updates!!
Book II is slowly getting compiled, and once all stories are back from edits from the authors will go to the publisher. A cover should be done by the end of April and will feature the same 3 from the original just in a colder climate (you did not hear that from me).
Book III has officially been greenlit for 2015, so that is awesome.
The Awakened: Modern has officially been greenlit as well for early 2015, so expect to see that before book III.
We are self publishing an eBook for The Awakened to coincide with the launch of The Awakened RPG, it is called The Awakened Island of Bones and will feature one of the islands (not the mainland, I call Grimaton) and part of the excitement of this will be an open call for a few short stories in the book.
More information will be coming soon.
It will come in waves, first have a style guide made public for the setting and than my intent will be to have a pitch for your story no more than 200 words, we will pick a set number based on those and give out the specifics on it to those authors and if they agree we will have them write a 5k or so short and then a few will be selected for the eBook, if picked you will receive monies for your work.
TLDR; Four more The Awakened books for 2014-2015, and RPG as well and an open call for the eBook.
February 17, 2014
Weekend Update 2/17/17 edition
Fall of Man did not fund, looking back we realized we should of started smaller to build up a reputation and a fan base first. So we are going to do just that, we are going to work on a few projects we can successfully get out the door quickly and for about $5k.This will let us fund easier and show people that Samurai Sheepdog can produce products and will be a solid company to trust when you are Kickstarting. Once we have a few of those under our belt we feel we can start bringing out some larger projects like Fall of Man.
It appears like most US backer have the trade paperback edition of The Awakened, if you bought the hardcover or a mix, they will be available soon. The publisher just sent me one of the samples to make sure there were no errors. So I am looking forward to having him get those out to fans.
I am working hard on The Awakened II and more books for that line (more on that soon).
I just finished up another expanded race for CSP (freelance work) and hope to see the two races we sent her but are not for sale out soon.
had a rush request for a small freelance job, and sent that off this AM, it was just a pitch but we had fun on it so I hope it works out.
Other projects are moving along at different rates of speed, and we have a lot of good stuff coming soon to a bookshelf near you.
February 9, 2014
Weekend Update 2/9/14-Inspired
I am going to start with what inspired me as a child.Great stories and art. Terry Brooks, Robert Adams, Stephen King and Margaret Weiss/Tracy Hickman as well as the writers of all of the D&D material of that era. I was in their worlds and wanted to go back, that is what inspired me.
Equally the artists of that time inspired me, the covers of those books, the art for D&D-Elmore, Easley, Holloway, Earl, Dee, Kelly and many others. I always loved the art, it inspired me to go into my mind and think of what else those characters might be doing.
As I grew up I used those inspirations and thoughts and created interesting ideas and I was fortunate enough to get some into print. Even more amazing is some people actually like them!
I have/had the pleasure of working with Holloway, Easley, Lockwood, Szczudlo (to name a few) and get some art from some of the great fantasy artists of this time and have them hanging in my home. I do not go to bars, go gambling, drink or smoke, I spend my time and money living in what I like to call Nerdvana-my house filled with art, props, books, games and fun. I consider myself very lucky to have this life and I needed to thank those from the past, present and future- collaborators, fans, friends and family-THANK YOU!
What inspired me to write about this was the great news that in 2014-2015 it appears we will have 4 more The Awakened books available! The Awakened is already out on Amazon , we have book II in 2014, The Awakened Modern, book III and an eBook tentatively called The Awakened: Island of Bones for 2015, and let's not forget about the RPG setting to accompany this setting.
I am just so grateful for the opportunities I get to enrich my life with the fantastical and I hope it shows through in my work.
Above is a few pieces from my personal collection I have, maybe they will inspire you!
CSP Expanded Races PDF's for C&C are on sale , and another should be available soon.
We have one week left on our Kickstarter and a long way to go. We have some great plans for RPG's and future Kickstarters so Fall of Man will be taking a break but it will be back!
February 2, 2014
Weekend Update 2/2/14
Our Kickstarter for Fall of Man is still going, we are looking a a long horse here, maybe we went too big for out first project, but we are trying!!!The Awakened finally is getting to all US backers with the foreign ones on the way soon for the paperback. Hardcover is experiencing some issues and is still being worked on, hope to here more on that soon.
My collaboration with Stan! is still on, just being shifted due to some priorities.
Samurai Sheepdog has a lot of projects we are working on and just brought in Warren Bailey to the company to help focus on certain projects, and so far we are thrilled to have him.
The Awakened book II is being worked on as we speak, even though the publisher is still working on getting book I out to backers of his Kickstarter.
Just got out flight booked for GenCon, hotel was already secured so now we wait!!!
The shorts for The Awakened II are just as strong as book I and some of the characters will even come back to visit us again!
More on The Awakened RPG soon ™.
January 26, 2014
Happy 40th B-day D&D
D&D was (is) a HUGE influence on me, while there have been times where I may have abandoned the hobby of RPG's, I have always come back to it. Now that I am older I am comfortable with who I am and what I want to do, so it will be with me for the next 40 years.It influenced me in writing and designing games, books and entire worlds.
So I want to say thanks to Gary Gygax, and Dave Arneson (R.I.P to both), you have fed my imagination and my free time and I cannot thank you enough. People do not realize how much it impacted all types of games our kids play today, it brought levels to gaming, races, classes and much more, so even if you are not a player of D7d, your gaming has been influenced by it, so take a second and thank it because most likely something you play and do has been touched by this fantastic game.
The picture above is a 6th edition white box set of the original D&D that I was fortunate enough to have signed by both Arneson and Gygax at the last GenCon that was held in Wisconsin. it is one of my favorite possessions.
January 19, 2014
We are in the first week of the January 2, 2014
Year in Review
This was a pretty big year for me a few firsts:
First piece of fiction published
First anthology printed based on a world I created
First Kickstarter that I assisted in
First time I was a stretch goal for someone's Kickstarter
First time I converted an older book to a new system
First time I worked on my first cover for a piece of fiction
First time I am an artists "agent"
I am sure I missed some...
In addition to firsts it was the first time I have a piece published in about 8 years, so it was great to have my comeback!!!!
2014 looks awesome
I am currently doing freelance fiction and freelance RPG material
Working on my first kids book
Working on a sequel to our fiction anthology The Awakened
Working on Fall of Man Kickstarter for this month and a few more over the rest of this year
And I am sure more will come up-and some is it is just secret at this time.
First piece of fiction published
First anthology printed based on a world I created
First Kickstarter that I assisted in
First time I was a stretch goal for someone's Kickstarter
First time I converted an older book to a new system
First time I worked on my first cover for a piece of fiction
First time I am an artists "agent"
I am sure I missed some...
In addition to firsts it was the first time I have a piece published in about 8 years, so it was great to have my comeback!!!!
2014 looks awesome
I am currently doing freelance fiction and freelance RPG material
Working on my first kids book
Working on a sequel to our fiction anthology The Awakened
Working on Fall of Man Kickstarter for this month and a few more over the rest of this year
And I am sure more will come up-and some is it is just secret at this time.
December 28, 2013
Now doing eBook Autographs
Have a The Awakened eBook, want a digital autograph? If the answer to these questions are yes, go to:
Authorgraphs
Authorgraphs
Week in Review 12/28/13 Edition
Got my copies of
Bluffside for Castles and Crusades
and it looks great.Received the 3rd short for The Awakened II and another great, moving story.
We have postponed Fall of Man on Kickstarter because we read that KS's that start in December tend to do less monetarily.
Received a few images of Tony Szczudlo's upcoming cover for TPK Games and it looks awesome.
Expanded Races: Amber Dwarves is now on sale for C&C art RPGNow, go check it out.
Working on even more goodies for 2014, very excited about it all.
May go to MegaCon 2014 for a day, we will see how it goes.
Playing in my first online Pathfinder game run by THE Jim Butler today, woo hoo.
Have a great New Year and will talk to you all after 2013 leaves and 2014 is upon us.
