It's Nice to be Recognised

I'm still in Oman, though this is my second-to-last day, so expect the final two Survival Guide instalments to appear over the next week or so.

In the meantime, I've received a Versatile Blogger award honorable mention from Lord Gwydion over at What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse. I'd like to thank all the little people, you know, the gnomes, the sprites, the halflings....

Gwydion had to tell us all seven things we didn't know about him when he won the award, so, in keeping with the spirit of the honourable mention, I'll do the same.

1: I write fiction. Really good fiction apparently, according to a few agents and editors who've looked at my material over the years. I just never seem to find the time to write. Hopefully, this will change with my forthcoming change of career.

2: I once had a love affair with Games Workshop – right up to about a month after the accountants took over and GW lost it's panache. No, I don't blame GW for the direction it's taken, nor do I rabidly attack it like some folks. But I do miss the good old days when one Warhammer Armies book gave you the lists for all the armies in the game and GW orcs didn't resemble the Incredible Hulk.

3: I love medieval and classical history to the point that I can argue the finer points with professional scholars. I tell myself my amateur scholarship has the side-effect of helping me craft believable worlds and societies for my writing and gaming. Well, I tell myself.

4: My home-brew sword-&-sandals world, Edarnia, has been around for twenty years. Inspired by the Time of Troubles transition in the Forgotten Realms setting, it suffered huge, epoch-changing events with each edition change-over. At least until 4^th ed. After 4^th ed I made a half-hearted attempt to change it once again using the War of the Burning Sky campaign as a model, but gave up in despair. I have a love-hate relationship with D&D 4.

5: My next Edarnia campaign might go one of three ways: The War of the Burning Sky, a sand-box campaign or a mixture of the two. One edition change-over was based on White Dwarf's classic Dark-Rise over Irillian campaign. It might be time for the Dark to Rise Again.

6: I've been writing my "seminal work", the Zama series for about eight years now.

7: I used to be a Trekkie. Now I like Star Trek but wouldn't say I'm a fan. What changed? It or Me? Probably me.

Now, IF I'm reading this right, I have to nominate 7 bloggers for the same award. Hmm. I have a fair few candidates in mind already. Look out for post number 2 coming soon.