Wow, this has been an exciting week for me!  Crazy busy (hey, this is becoming habit) so I'm going to touch lightly on what I can.

Tinker's Damn (Steampunk Card Game)
Monday, I sent off the prototype of Tinker's Damn for review by my first game company. This is thrilling, not just because the game is finally ready to show others, but because I wowed the owner/lead game designer enough with the inquiry letter to lead him to ask to see the prototype. I know that (like being published as a writer) the journey between "game creation" and "seeing your work on a gamestore shelf" is a long and arduous one, but it feels good to be taking the first baby steps, at least.

And, at the suggestion of just about everyone I've talked to in the industry, I picked up a copy of Brian Tinsman's The Game Inventor's Guidebook and read it this week. What a great resource. I know now why it's so highly recommended for aspiring game creators of all sorts.

Goblin Markets Debuts (and Chart Tops)
Goblin Markets, the long-awaited (well, by me anyway) addition to the Changeling: The Lost game line finally debuted. This .pdf only product was the brainchild of noted White Wolf developer/author Ethan Skemp, and he was kind enough to let some of the rest of us play in his field-o-dreams as well.

It's been very well recieved, hitting number one on DriveThruRPG's Top Ten list within hours of its release, and holding onto that place for several days now. More information, including full color cover art, links to reviews (and a link to purchase the .pdf) can be found here.

When I decided to start a column about etiquette for the RPG/videogame/Browncoat/Steampunk/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Computer/SCA/LARP/Science crowd, I did a lot of debating about the name. Once upon a time, the term "geek" was an insult, after all - a carnival performer who grossed out the audience with wild acts (like biting the heads off of chickens) or, more recently, someone who was odd and didn't fit in because of their overly-intellectualized and anti-social ways.

Thankfully, that's no longer the case. Not only have geeks across the globe reclaimed the word for themselves, wearing it proudly, but companies like ThinkGeek, GeekSquad and Geek Chic (I will have one of their tables before I die! This I swear!) have proven that the term is not only no longer an insult - it's professionally acceptable.

Geek no longer means poultry abuse - the term has come to represent imagination, creativity and intellect. It's a self-embraced nomicker for those who not only march to the beat of a different drum, but invent entire new instruments and musical traditions as they do so.

Whew! The last 3 weeks have been an utter whirlwind of travel, prep for travel, new work (and work potential), projects, play and adventure! First there was the 6 day trip to Indianapolis for GenCon (which I talked about here and here). Then a 9 day respite at home that was spent working on projects (Tacoshark, Tinker's Damn and writing up articles for my One Geek to Another column). Not to mention, of course, laundry, cleaning, and the other exciting aspects of being a work-from-home writer!

Fan Expo was a blast. It was a huge convention (I was totally unprepared for the sheer number of people there) in part because it was actually five conventions in one (Sci-Fi, Anime, Horror, Gaming and Comics). And when I say that, I don't mean "it was one big convention with a lot of little focuses". It really runs like five conventions being held all in the same place. It was fun, and a bit overwhelming. (According to ICv2, there were more than 59,000 attendees - no wonder it felt a little crazy!)

Thursday, I fly out to Toronto, to act as a "Featured Guest" for Fan Expo Canada. Fan Expo is really an interesting convention, as it's actually five conventions all rolled up into one big con.

*  Comic Book Expo 2009 - This is Canada's largest comic book event. Guests include Michael J. Straczynski, Joe Quesada (editor-in-chief of Marvel), Dan Didio (executive editor and senior vice-president of DC) and a plethora of extremely talented comic writers and artists (although not, sadly, my favorite comic artists, Pete and Rebecca Woods).