Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 51

Boing Boing, Polygon, The Escapist, and N3rdabl3 on Attack! Boss! Cheat Code!

Boy, has there been a lot of coverage of Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet these past few days. It’s all been great to see, and you can see for yourself at Boing Boing…

My 11-year-old daughter, an ardent gamer, was familiar with more of the words in Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! (e.g., griefer, instance, mod, sandbox, unlockable) than I was, but we both appreciated Joey Spiotto’s cute and colorful illustrations that accompanied the terms.

and Polygon…

Here’s a new book, gorgeously illustr...

Games & Books & Q&A: Rachel Simone Weil

I’m really pleased to be joined in this installment of my Games & Books & Q&A series by a video game historian, and by the creator of NES games and glitch art under the alias Party Time! Hexcellent!, and by the curator of computer museum FEMICOM, and by an organizer of Juegos Rancheros, a monthly indie games event here in Austin, Texas.

Bringing all of those folks together would have been a lot of work on my part, except for one thing: they’re all the same person, Rachel Simone Weil. Rachel to...

My appearance on the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum

This is a bit belated, but I appeared this past Friday night on an episode of Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel. Here’s a taste:

Why me, and why this program? One of the subjects I profiled in Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities was serial impostor Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr.

In my book, I focused on this Massachusetts-born high school dropout’s exploits as surgeon “Dr. Joseph Cyr” in the Canadian navy during the Korean War. But when Mysteries at the Museum needed...

Games & Books & Q&A: P.J. Hoover

Games & Books & Q&A series of interviews with gaming professionals about books and with children’s and YA authors about video games. She discusses her neato approach below (yes, I just said “neato”), but first let me get you caught up on P.J.’s career so far.

Central Texas is fertile ground both for technology companies and for books for young readers, and P.J. has been part of both...

Bartography Express for September 2014, featuring Laurie Ann Thompson’s Be a Changemaker

This month, one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter will win a copy of Be a Changemaker (Beyond Words), the new YA how-to guide from debut author Laurie Ann Thompson.

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway at the end of this week.

Games & Books & Q&A: Glenn “Commander” Banton of Operation Supply Drop

Games & Books & Q&A series.

OSD is a 501(c)(3) charity that provides video-game-filled care packages to American and allied soldiers, both those deployed to combat zones and those recovering in military hospitals. The organization plans to increase on-base activities stateside, contribute further to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions wor...

The story behind Modern First Library

I’m guest-blogging over at Cynsations today with a behind-the-scenes account of how the Modern First Library program came about. Here’s a taste of what I’ve got to say:

A widespread urge to Do Something About This led to lots of conversations among authors, editors, librarians, and other champions of children’s literature. It led to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. And it led me to email Meghan Goel, the children’s-book buyer at my beloved local indie BookPeople, to discuss a new spin on the...

One Death, Nine Stories, the audiobook

It never occurred to me to add “Have short story performed by Dion Graham of The Wire” to my bucket list, but I think maybe I’ll do so now, just so I can cross it off.

Graham and Christina Traister both deliver vivid, meaningful readings of the stories in One Death, Nine Stories, one of which is my contribution, “Two-a-Days.” What a neat experience it was to hear my work read — performed — in that way the first time. And the second. And…

Here’s to Be a Changemaker!

My friend Laurie Ann Thompson‘s debut, Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters, comes out today. I’m so enthusiastic about this book that I’ll be giving away a copy and featuring an interview with Laurie in this month’s edition of my Bartography Express newsletter (which you can sign up for here).

I was happy to join other author friends of Laurie’s in showing support for her book in a series of posts last week on the EMU’s Debuts blog. Several of us recounted our own experiences...

Games & Books & Q&A: Sam Johnson of KingsIsle

Pirate101.

CB: What do you remember about the first video game you ever played?

SJ: There’s a few ways I co...