Star Command: Exploring The 8-Bit Galaxy

Whenever I’m packing my bags for a convention or a weekend away from Philly, I always make sure I pick up a new iOS game to keep me busy on the train, bus, whatever.

For Chicago Comic Con, I downloaded Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. And for BEA at the end of May, I pretty much played Star Command whenever I had the chance.

One of my biggest complaints when it comes to original mobile games, is that I never really get a full story. Most are designed for quick play on the go with never ending game play (ie: Doodle Jump), not for sitting down and really getting invested.

Star Command gave me a little bit of both.  And it let me explore the galaxy with 8-bit versions of some of my favorite people.

I remember when Star Command was on Kickstarter, and I was all kinds of excited. The premise behind the game is simple. It basically mashes together Game Dev Story with a Mass Effect-style universe and narrative. The galaxy is in trouble, the military is corrupt, it might just be up to you to stop the galaxy from going to war. Read more

The Geek’s Guide to Dating: ARC Giveaway on Goodreads & LibraryThing!

Hooray! Early review copies of The Geek’s Guide to Dating are available on Goodreads and LibraryThing! There are 50 ARCs available on both networks. That’s 100 books! OMG!

GOODREADS

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/47909-the-geek-s-guide-to-dating

LIBRARYTHING

http://www.librarything.com/er/list#13859216

For those of my friends who don’t know what ARCs are, they are Advance Reader Copies. So you’ll be looking at an unfinished version of the book. It’ll be a black and white paperback instead of the hardcover, will be missing some illustrations, and will still be in the process of copyediting.

But hey! It’s your chance to get an early look! And hopefully you like what you see!

And bonus! If you win an ARC on either Goodreads or LibraryThing, I’ll send you a poster with it! 

The Goodreads giveaway runs until July 8th and the LibraryThing one will wrap up at the end of the month. So go ahead and enter!

To my blogger and media friends that might be checking this out, if you’d like to request an advance copy for review purposes, be sure to drop me a line at eric@quirkbooks.com, and I’ll put you in touch with Quirk’s (super fabulous!) publicity crew.

And remember, the book is totally available for pre-order right now! Go head, pre-order a copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local indie bookstore. It hits bookstores everywhere on December 3rd.

Book Expo America 2013: A Recap

Ah, Book Expo America. It’s Comic Con for the publishing industry, and this year’s was this past weekend. I spent four days in NYC talking books, and it was pretty damn wonderful.

Wednesday was the blogger convention, a day full of panels and networking for book bloggers from all over. I met some from across the country, a handful from across the ocean, and spent a lot of time hugging bloggers I’ve been working with since I started at Quirk. It’s always lovely to match a face to an email and/or Twitter handle.

I was surprised last week to hear from my buddy Rob over at BlogAds via Twitter, regarding a spot on a panel during the blogger con. Of course I jumped at the opportunity, and found myself speaking in front of a really large audience.

OMG, right? Luckily, there were some stellar people on the panel (including the fabulous Well Read Wife), and it went off quite well. I learned a bit from sitting on it too. Read more

Exploring Brave New Worlds: Discovering The Joy Of New Comic Book Day

Lately, I’ve been reading a ton of graphic novels and collected volumes of comics.

Part of that was due to working on The Geek’s Guide To Dating (insert obligatory and utterly shameless “pre-order now!” link here). While fussing over the book, I spent a lot of time talking to my comic book loving friends on gchat and via email, as well as hanging around with the guys at Brave New Worlds. All this time spent doing research did a curious thing. It made me want to get into reading comics.

Fast forward a few months and now, every single week, I pop out of the office on Wednesdays before lunch, to pick up a new book at my favorite local shop. I’m joined by a couple of friends at Indy Hall, a coworking space here in Philadelphia. I’ve even managed to drag a few coworkers out now and again. Sup Blair.

Even though I’m not the sort of comic book fan that picks up weeklys (like Adam, Johnny, and Eric from Indy Hall), there’s something about getting together on that one particular day to buy something new that’s exciting. Maybe I’m lucky, getting into comics without knowing all that much, because just about every book I pickup is something entirely new to me. So that enthusiasm that they experience, that rush I see when they run over to the new release shelves, it definitely still rubs off on me a bit.

In recent weeks, I’ve picked up quite a few awesome reads. Highlights include Paying For It by Chester Brown, Hark A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, Double Fine’s Action Comics, and this hilarious Simpsons / Futurama book, The Simpsons & Futurama Crossover Crisis. I also started reading Joe Hill’s excellent Locke & Key series, thanks to a recommendation.

So yeah, even though I’m not picking up weeklys (though that might start happening any day now), New Book Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week. Its been a fun practice in forcing myself to get a new book every single week. Something I haven’t heard of, something entirely new. And I kinda love it.