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About trhickman

International & NYT Best-selling author of SF/Fantasy novels and games.
Website: http://www.trhickman.com
trhickman has written 45 articles so far, you can find them below.

Dragon*Con 2011 Report

Filed under Appearances, News, Update by trhickman on September 9, 2011 at 5:00 pm {2 comments}

Well, Laura and I are both home from Dragon*con … the amazing and sometimes frightening convention in Atlanta, Georgia held over every Labor Day Weekend. It was something of a miraculous event for us this year, marking our return after several years absence.

Thursday, September 1st

Laura and I started the day early, rushing to get to the airport on time. We had previously mailed to ourselves at our destination hotel in Atlanta two boxes from Indianapolis, Indiana and one box from our home in South Jordan, Utah. The Indianapolis boxes were from our GENCON appearance (where our Kokomo crew kept them for us rather than ship them back to Utah and then have to ship them to Atlanta) while the additional box contained some additional ‘Eventide’ books. Since airlines have decided to charge for everything including the nuts on their flights, it’s cheaper to send these things ahead via UPS or FedEx Ground than to pack trunks of them in luggage. The downside is, of course, that with two separate shipments of three boxes AND us coming to the hotel all at the same time … there was some question as to whether we would all arrive in the same place at the same time.

: View from our room — floor 70!

At the airport I realized once again how we had lost the War on Terror … as I trudged through the Kafka-esque process of getting through Homeland Security and its moment at the end where I must hold my ticket in one hand, my ID in my second hand and my belt-less pants up with my third hand while allowing myself to be unconstitutionally search and scanned. Air travel was once exciting and fun … it has now become a dystopian reenactment of ‘Metropolis.’ We flew to Houston, foregoing purchasing a ‘snack box’ and managing to survive only on a half can of Coke Zero, ice and our own snacks packed by the resourceful Laura. George Bush International Airport in Houston, however, offered us immediate solace in the form of a Pappadeaux Seafood restaurant. A little Andouille Sausage and Seafood Gumbo and a shared plate of Shrimp Etouffee and we were set for the rest of the day, walking onto our flight just as it was ready to leave.

We arrived exactly on time in Atlanta, worked things out with the Dragon*Con transportation representatives and were on our way to our hotel along with Michael Stackpole, renown author in his own right and another pioneer in the field of e-publishing.

Much to our amazement, every one of the boxes we had shipped from various locations around the country had arrived and were waiting for us. It was a great omen for an incredible weekend to come.

Friday, September 2nd

It’s Killer Breakfast time! Laura and I emptied one of our suitcases and packed it full of Killer Breakfast materials then, madly, set off in search of a Kinkos where we could print out copies of the character sheets. This turned out to be four blocks in the wrong direction. Eventually feeling the weight of the roller back behind us we staggered into the Killer Breakfast room in the Hilton. There we were delighted to be surprised by Richard Garriott. I first met Richard at Dragon*con twenty-five years before and it was great to see him again. Richard is perhaps better known to you as ‘Lord British’ from his Ultima computer games and, more recently, from his incredible adventure flying into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spending ten days on the International Space Station.

The crowd was already lined up outside the conference room when we arrived and after getting all the equipment properly placed and checked out, we brought them in. Richard graciously agreed to help us with the opening part of the performance as Laura and I launched into ‘Phantoms of the Ravenloft.’

This year’s performance included a tavern in Barovia complete with storm troupers (players begging them to shoot AT them since storm troupers never hit what they are aiming for) and the crash landing by Richard of a Soyuz spacecraft on top of the tavern. There was yet another encounter with Zombies Anonymous (Zomanon) and a rather exciting and confused piece of dungeon crawling through the ‘Hall of Silence.’

Laura also got to sing her rendition of ‘Don’t Kill Me Now Dungeonmaster’ and run the game show ‘The Dying Game’.

That afternoon I performed a reading from ‘Eventide’. This was by acclamation from the audience who, I was surprised, wanted to hear this gentle tale over selections from my upcoming Batman novel. You can watch this reading here if you like…

Tracy Hickman reading at DragonCon from tyanna taylor on Vimeo.

After the reading, I sold all the copies of ‘Eventide’ that I had carried with me to the signing … and even promised one more to a wonderfully patient woman for the next day. This made me late for my scheduled World Building Panel with Jason Bulmahn of the Pathfinder RPG from Paizo and with Mike Capps with Epic Games — creator of the Unreal Engine for computer games. It was a heady experience being on a panel with both of these fabulous creatives.

What could have made the day absolutely perfect for Laura and me? That would be an elegant dinner with Richard Garriott which was one of the most enjoyable evenings we had experienced in a long time. Perfect day.

Saturday, September 3rd

: Kaylee Dress and me!

Up early and a good thing as Laura bravely blazed a path through the packed crowds lining the street for the Dragon*con parade. This so that I could get to an autographing session being held DURING the parade. Not the best of timing for that exhibit booth signing.

This, however, was followed by our official signing … and what a wonderful signing that was! So many great fans coming by … and suddenly Laura and I had run out of Eventide novels AGAIN. Laura rushed back to the room (literally) that was several blocks away and brought back every copy we had left. Only two remained by the time we were finished … and a good thing since I still owed that nice woman from the day before!

Many of our fans came in costume … and this was our favorite and most incredible costumes I think I have ever seen…

After the incredible autographing session we were — again — late for our Old School D&D Seminar. Richard Garriott had come to watch the seminar … and we found him there running it for us when we arrived and joining us on the panel. That’s absolutely appropriate since Richard is very much an Old School D&D man himself. After the panel, Laura and I connected with the woman from the previous day and finally got her the book she had been trying to buy for two days. We even sold the last of our books … and sadly had to turn away a final fan.

Then came our XDM seminar with Howard Taylor — which was so crowded that Laura had to give up her seat to a fan and LEAVE THE ROOM! Then came the rush to get to the writer’s seminar in the Hyatt on Characters that Come to Life. This turned out to be with Eugie Foster, John D. Ringo, Lynn Abbey, Nancy Holder and a surprise moderator … me.

Pressed again for time, Laura and I went straight from this seminar to the Awards Banquet. There was saw William Shatner receive two separate awards. (Laura and I sat at the table kitty-corner from his — we felt so cool!) Then James Darren came onstage and sang three remarkably great numbers. He had starred in the Time Tunnel, ‘T.J. Hooker’ with William Shatner and had even been a hologram on DS9. The many really still has a great set of pipes!

So, how was Dragon*Con? I was SHINY!

Join the forum discussion on this post

Forum for Creativity

Filed under News, Update by trhickman on September 7, 2011 at 1:17 pm {no comments}

It’s time we talked … or at least time we enter into a conversation!

Laura and I are proud to introduce our shiny new forums right here on our Tracy Hickman website. While we have administered forums specifically for our Scribe’s Forge authors and our subscribers in our Dragon’s Bard series … as well as our Xtreme Dungeon Mastery friends … we decided it was time to open up the floor to all your questions about our worlds, works, creative life and projects. This way we can answer your questions about our various (and multiple) endeavors, including our Scribe’s Forge writing seminars, workshops and our publishing program or our Dragon’s Bard series of exclusive, limited-edition novels from our own private printings.

Anyone can read the entries on our forums and all you have to do is log in to the site in order to post your questions. We personally administer these forums so there are a few ground rules. While we strongly encourage discourse and debate — and want everyone’s views to be expressed — we believe that disagreement needs to remain in the realm of ideas and persuasion. Convince us with your reason and your thoughts if you can … but bad language, hate-speech or personal disparagement are grounds for being banished to your room and away from our kitchen table … or forums. Be respectful of others here and you’ll be respected. Try using a flamethrower and your existence will not be acknowledged again. Laura and I are nice folks and we expect you to behave in our house accordingly.

If there is a group or a forum topic that you feel needs to be included, then feel free to post it here in the Forum Suggestion Box. We’ll be happy to oblige you as best we can. And, of course, answer your questions, too.

That said, let the posting begin!

Join the forum discussion on this post

The Best Government Corporations Can Buy

Filed under Thoughts by trhickman on August 30, 2011 at 9:54 am {2 comments}

The other day I got an actual, physical letter from CREDO wanting to know if my phone company wanted a ‘Tea Party’ president.

Now CREDO is, itself, a telecommunications wireless company based out of San Francisco. As a company it is very active in what you might call either ‘progressive’ or ‘left-wing’ politics depending upon your current leanings. According to the Wikipedia, they have raised over $65 million for “nonprofit organizations such as Greenpeace, Planned Parenthood and Democracy Now.

Their argument to me: switch my phone service to CREDO so as to put my money behind progressive political change rather than supporting AT&T or Verizon who, according to them, support Tea Party and/or Republican candidates and such ‘dangerous views’ as ‘wives, be submissive to your husbands’, ‘intelligent design’ and ‘counseling centers that (try) to turn gay men into heterosexuals through prayer.’

When my wife read this letter to me I was filled with anger, outrage and despair. Not because of any party affiliation on my part or allegiance to either ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative’ views. In fact, I support a number of progressive ideas and ideals.

No, I was outraged because this is the next logical step in the death of the American Republic.

CREDO is simply acknowledging a more efficient way of capitalizing and monetizing democracy.

Private capital tends to become concentrated in … a few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. … Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

Albert Einstein (1949)

Einstein’s caution of fifty years ago has become today’s reality. You cannot get elected to office without a boat-load of money. The only entities who have enough cash to get politicians elected are corporations. So politicians enact laws to help pay back the corporations that get them elected (or bail them out when they should have failed like all those other businesses that were too small to have paid enough to elect anyone).

A 2003 documentary film The Corporation by Mark Achbar asserts that the corporation exhibits many of the traits found in psychopaths:

Callous unconcern for the feelings of others.
Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships;
Reckless disregard for the safety of others;
Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning of others for profit;
Incapactiy to experience guilt;
Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior.

And yet, as Chris Hedges points out in his book ‘Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle’, under the American legal and political systems, corporations have the same legal rights as individuals. Worse, because they have access to vastly greater sums of money than individuals, their political contributions … which U.S. politics now demand in titan-sized numbers for the success of any candidate … corporations have vastly greater influence on which candidate you hear and see the most as well as which candidates you NEVER hear of because they have no bucks to become Buck Rogers.

One might argue that this means our government is essentially being chosen for us by psychopaths.

But now, thanks to CREDO, we no longer have to pretend. Instead of bothering to go to the voting booth to select from a field of candidates determined by which corporation gave the most money to their campaign, all we have to do is CHOOSE OUR CANDIDATE THROUGH WHICH CORPORATIONS WE SUPPORT. Then the corporations that are the most successful can chose for us the candidates that they prefer on our behalf … and buy them for us.

I believe in free enterprise. I believe corporations can and do make many aspects of our lives better … but I don’t want my government chosen by their board of directors. Corporate products need to be in stores … not in legislatures.

The best government corporations can buy … is cheap, disposable, hazardous and potentially lethal.

GEN CON Memories

Filed under Appearances, News by trhickman on August 9, 2011 at 10:51 am {2 comments}

Laura and I are now back from our amazing adventures in Indianapolis at the GEN CON Convention held August 4th through 7th of 2011. It was a most amazing convention and — true to most conventions — I sincerely wish that I had seen more of it.

We had, of course, been planning this for almost a year. Our airline tickets had been purchased in February. We had shipped out our Eventide novels, our Killer Breakfast box, Blackshore t-shirts and treasure contest cards all in advance. I had authored two separate DVDs for our two Killer Breakfast events. Our careful plans were all set to be executed.

Then, the day before we were to leave, it looked like it was about to fall completely apart.

I got up on Tuesday and, as is my habit, checked my email. Included was the obligatory notice from Orbitz telling me that my itinerary had been updated. I get these all the time whenever I fly. They usually say something like ‘your flight 1234 departure has been changed from 8:36am to 8:37am.’ But something caught my eye on this one and I started to look closer at it.

It said we were departing Salt Lake City for Denver on Tuesday morning … then departing Denver for Indianapolis on FRIDAY???

Panic. Where’s that panic button?

Four hours later we had our flights straightened out and discovered what had happened. A colossal hail storm in Denver two weeks prior had damaged no fewer than twenty aircraft of Frontier Airlines … all of which had to be taken out of service. Somewhere along the line of rebooking everyone and figuring out what to do, Frontier just moved us to Friday … which would have had us miss most of the convention.

As it turned out, they got it as straight as possible under the circumstances. We flew out on an early flight with United Airlines to Denver on Wednesday and then took what was called a Frontier Airlines flight but the aircraft itself was painted with Sun Country livery out of Miami and a Sun Country crew. They served us cookies in flight and I liked them very much. The end result was that we arrived in Indianapolis only fifteen minutes later than we originally had booked.

Thursday was the first day of the convention and I mostly saw a great deal of our booth at #1553. We were there with Howard Taylor and Jim Zubkavitch telling everyone who came by about our fabulous stories and wares. Laura and I had shipped a limited number of ‘Eventide’ novels to the convention and were gratified as to how well it was being received.

Friday morning brought ‘Killer Second Breakfast’ — which was a new event for us in a completely new location. It was well attended and a great deal of fun. We played ‘Phantoms of the Ravenloft’ and I enjoyed singing at the top of my lungs. That afternoon also brought our XDM seminar and my first book signings for our new Fireborn: Embers of Atlantis novel. It was on sale at the convention through the Fantasy Flight booth although it won’t be available in stores until next month. You can see a little of what’s going on at Fantasy Flight (as well as my own smiling face) in this convention video.

Friday also brought our Blackshore Lunch where subscribers to our Blackshore online serial novel all gathered together for a private repast. It was wonderful to see old friends again and to put faces to our new friends online.

Then came Saturday and the big traditional Killer Breakfast. It was a packed house for ‘Potters of the Caribbean’. Gail Gygax took a moment and spoke about the memorial for Gary Gygax at the beginning of the presentation and then we launched into the show. The unplanned ending where a small boy threw the Holly Hand grenade of Antioch at me, blowing me up and collapsing the game universe was priceless.

Killer Breakfast Crowds

Just doing my job…

At each of our Killer Breakfast events we had a special drawing for Killer Dinner … where the winner and a guest would join Laura and I for dinner on Saturday night. Here we are in our after dinner picture with our winners after a great time that night!

(L-R) Jessica Carmody, Kevin Carmody, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Jake Baker, Sharon Lee Baker

It was an exhausting convention and now we’re home … but filled with many great memories of the friends we met along the way, the game we played and the satisfaction of having lived to play another day.

Come on, get HAPPI…

Filed under Horizons, News, Workshops by trhickman on July 16, 2011 at 7:28 pm {no comments}

Traditionally, by the time a book or service gets from the writer or producer into the hands of the audience … well, it goes through a lot of other hands in between. Each one of those hands takes a little bit of profit from of the top. Which generally means that things end up costing about five to six times what the writer or producer actually gets for creating the thing in the first place.

So, we figure that we would rather YOU and I split that money rather than give it to all those guys in the middle.

We want you to get HAPPI … that is join our Hickman Affiliate Publishing Promotion Incentive program. We gave it that long name because we like the sound of HAPPI. We need to get the word out about our writing seminars and in the coming spring about our new direct to the reader book series. I could either pay a lot of money for worthless advertising … or I can get your help and give you the money instead.

Now before you get the wrong idea with visions of having to invite your neighbors over and pushing writing seminars on them instead of time shares, just finish reading this. I write long books and you read them, too. This little article is nothing compared to slugging down the ‘Deathgate Cycle’…

Someone is going to get this money … either you or the legions of wholesalers, retailers, advertisers and middlemen. I’d rather you got it than them.
It costs you absolutely NOTHING to join. You have to provide enough information for us to pay you but it isn’t any more than you would give to any other online retailer with Paypal. The only difference is that we’re sending you money instead of the other way around.
You can quit at any time without any problem or penalty: if you don’t like it five minutes after you sign up then quit. We’ll still be friends.
Your data is secure: We don’t sell your name or information to anybody. You should have known better than to even think we would do something nasty with your data.

So all we are looking to do is get your help in finding a few great writers looking for that edge that will get their words both read and sold in the age of New Media publishing … and we need your help to do it.

We are offering this affiliate program to you so you will help spread the word about our online writing seminars and workshops … and we’ll pay you a commission for every new author who signs up. That’s right, by joining our affiliate program we will pay you a 30% commission on our online seminars … it’s easy and it’s free.

All you have to do is sign up for our program. You’ll need a Paypal account (we pay out commissions on the 15th of each month), a valid website and the desire to spread the word about our seminars. Once you sign up you’ll receive an email tell you what you need to do to sign into your new Affiliate control panel … and from there you can get the referral links, banners and items you need to start earning your commissions through your website, blog Facebook or Twitter pages.

That’s all you have to do … share those links … and anyone who signs up gets credited to you.

The system is entirely automated and administered by me (that’s Tracy Hickman) personally.

Become a Scribe’s Forge Affiliate … because we would rather pay YOU to help us find the next generation of writers!

Wayne of Gotham

Filed under Books, News by trhickman on May 18, 2011 at 11:31 am {2 comments}

I have begun work at last on my ‘Batman’ novel for Harper Collins. It is currently entitled ‘Wayne of Gotham’ and we now have a Facebook page set up for the project so that we can update you on its progress. Come join us there, like us, and we’ll keep you in the loop as the book is being written.

It begins with young Thomas Wayne, the moody and resentful son of Patrick Wayne, descending into the caverns below the ancestral manor … and relishing the killing of bats. It ends with a final trip to a fateful alley behind a theater.

‘Wayne of Gotham’ is the story two men separated by a generation of tragedy: Thomas, the rebellious heir to the vast Wayne Empire and Bruce, his son whose life is forever altered by witnessing Thomas’ death. The murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne is the torturous point on which Bruce turns to become the Batman. The ‘Dark Knight’s file on the case – #BCF00-001 – has long since been closed, the foundations of Bruce Wayne’s secret life secure in the simple symmetry of a mugging gone horribly wrong.

These foundations are shaken, however, when disturbing bits of information begin showing up in the Batman’s path that question the accepted story. Batman reopens the case file – and discovers a father and mother that he never knew. It was Thomas himself that sowed the seeds of all Gotham’s evils, leaving his son to reap the harvest of his father’s sins.

‘Wayne of Gotham’ is Batman’s investigation into not only the events surrounding his parent’s murder but also his quest to discover who – after all these years – is behind bringing these shattering events to light and why so many have been silent for so long.

Written in a noire-style of grit and stark contrasts, the ‘Wayne of Gotham’ books are set both in the present and in the turbulent decades of the 1950’s and 1960’s: a time of paranoia, protests, HUAC, corrupt police and even more corrupt politicians, utopian idealism, assassination, civil unrest and the Vietnam War.

We hope you enjoy this adventure as much as we are enjoying writing it!

Scribe’s Forge Preview

Filed under News, Workshops by trhickman on March 12, 2011 at 12:17 pm {one comment}

As we are gearing up for the launch of our Scribe’s Forge Online Writing Seminars and Workshops, we wanted to share a small piece of the first video seminar in our six-week series. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our seminars, where you create the next great story … and we provide the tools to forge it’s reality.

Join us at Scribesforge.com!

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