Aaaaaand We're Back!

Hello from Michael's website take 3!  I know, it looks fairly, well, yeah.... that's what it looks like.  but the last one, while looking pretty damn nifty, wasn't very usable.  So!  We're back to this blank blog form.  Which is fine for the moment, but I'll be prettifying it in time.In the meantime,  Brood Parasites continues apace, and Deadzone: Infestation from Mantic Games (background and story by yours truly), has begun to reach backers.  The feedback and buzz has been fantastic, and has left me feeling very warm on the outside when I wake up to comments like this:

If you haven't read it (to change game systems a bit) the fiction in the Deadzone Infestation book is about my speed. It sets up the situation, explains what each faction is doing there and sets the stakes, but leaves the end of the story to the players. Some of the best game fluff I've read for a while, both in terms of quality and for doing its job as game fiction.

Always nice to know what you were aiming for hit the mark.OK so, onwards and upwards.  Brood will continue to be serialised, and I have some more stories being published later this year.  But first, let's get this wesbite sexy.....Michael

Deadzone Infestation and Warpath

So last year I wrote the background and story for Deadzone: Infestation for Mantic Games (and am in the middle of writing extra background for their Warpath game), and now, well, there's this..

It's someone reached into my head and pulled out what I was seeing.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

He's making a list, he's checking it twice

He's going to find out who's naughty or nice

Santa Claus is not subject to the data protection act

Well, it's that time of year again when the world turns just that little bit more crazy. Count that double for me - I'm still getting used to a southern hemisphere Christmas where "Oh the weather outside is frightful" means a whole different thing and the outside Christmas lights are solar powered.

But even though my day job knocks off next week I do not, nosiree. First off I've been contracted by Mantic Games to write some more background for their incoming Warpath wargame. I've already done some with their Deadzone: Infestation tabletop game, so this is familiar ground, but fairly in depth, but I'll get through it.

Secondly, and more importantly, Brood Parasites is chugging along nicely on Patreon, and need more words for the engine. The first audio chapter is up on YouTube and backer can expect chapter two before the week is out and the fifth chapter to their audiobooks before Christmas (thank you, guys!), plus I have to chase up the finished artwork for the cover. This is hugely exciting, but fair time intensive. But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.

And then of course there's the matter of Christmas with two little boys. But they're good kids and very reasonably choose to sleep every night (with a loose interpretation of 'choose'), so there's always time at night... in between Doctor Who episodes.

Anyway, may your December be filled with happiness and good cheer and I'll see you on the other side.

Michael

Deadball - Drainpipes for Strike Posts

Isn't it, wasn't it, mmh? (if you were a teenager in 90s Britain that's hilarious, trust me).

Yes! Mantic Games has just released 'Drainpipes for Strike Posts', an anthology of short stories based around their wildly successful Dreadball game. It features stories from such talents as Guy Haley, David Guymer and, ooh, me!

The Dreadball universe is nice and open, and what's lots of fun to write in, I hope you like it. The anthology is available through Mantic Digital for thethe low price of three British Pound, guvna. SO why wouldn't you go read it?

Michael

Deadzone: Infestation in pictures

Since Mantic Games have announded the first expansion to their Deadzone game and what it will (vaguely) entail, I've been pretty much spending my whole time telling anyone who'll listen I've been writing the background and story for it.  You could say I was excited, and you'd be  on the money.Anyhoo, last Saturday Mantic had an open day at their Nottingham HQ, and wouldn't you know it they had some artwork and renders for show based on my notes.  It's like someone reached into my mind and tore the images free....It's gratifyling and thrilling to see that what imagined tranlsated well into through writing that other people saw something similar in their own head.  It's kinda like telepathy..... I must be sure to sure this power for good. Michael 

Containment Protocol is a go....

Woohoo, publication day is here!  The lovely people at Mantic Games released Containment Protocol over the weekend, a collection of short stories around their tabletop game Deadzone, which was Kickstarted (and to a ridiculously successful degree) last year.  I back it, and on a side note the game is awesome, and this weekend got to be a part of of the growing Deadzone story as my short piece The Hunt was published in the collection.I had a lot of fun writing The Hunt.  The world Mantic have designed in Deadzone very much represents the zeitgesit of today, just as Games Workshop did in the 80s with Warhammer 40,000.  In it, we are presented with a galaxy run on a corporacracy, where the final word of law is what the largest corporation says it is.  It's serfdom in everything but name, which is basically the logical end result if capitalism is allowed to run unchecked.

Sound familiar?  Yup, scratch one down for why I find it so enticing.

Anyway, if you check it out I hope you like it... now I'm off to write another for their Dreadball anthology...

Michael

Breach... and That's a Wrap

Part six of my story Breach appeared in the mantic magazine Ironwatch this week, and I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  Breach was a learning experiance for me.  It's the first time I've written a series and had an enforced deadline to write to.  Seeing the date looming closer and closer really ramps up the pressure to get the words down, but most of all it makes you realise when you're 'that'd good enough' level is.

I don't think the story is as good as it could have been.  Partly because of that point I mentioned where I had to choose timeliness over quality, but also because I really, really, reallyreally, should have plotted it properly before.

Seriously, I had one chapter where my notes were 'Shit hits the fan, yo'.  I'm not exactly sure what the 'yo' was for, but you get the drift.

Tighter plotting would have lead to a tighter story.  The last two parts were nearly 12,000 words all up, and I think I could have gotten away with half of that had I known what I wanted to say.

But as I said, it was a learning experiance, and I've had a lot of nice things said about the story, and hey, i had a tonne of fun writing it.  Let's see what happens next...

Michael

Late to the release, but not to the party

I'm back!  The holiday was a blast, if tiring (if proof is needed, I actually started to go grey at the temples, as Suzie enjoyed pointing out to everyone), and I step back into an Australia which suddenly has The Life and Times of Chester Lewis available to it!I still haven't had to time to read the final chapter of my copy, but I'm itching to see how Steve Rossiter ended the saga.Also since I've been away the first two instalments of another story of mine, Asset Procurement, have seen the light of day in Mantic Games' fan magazine Iron Watch.  It's quick and dirty sci fi fun for anyone who swings that way.And now if you'll excuse me, I have a steampunk epic to finish.  TTFN!Michael