 |
| That's me in the centre, wearing jeans, among the performers |
 |
| And this is me pitching the book to the whooping and hollering of the crowd. That's a mock-up in my hand. |
Showing posts with label Fundraising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fundraising. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
The Night We Raised Some Money
At last I've got some pics from the fundraiser back on July 3. That night paid for the hotel room for five nights in Toronto (and a bit more):
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
A Little Business
Yesterday, I'm in this underground bar downtown, waiting for my publicist to show up, having a beer and talking to the bartender, when this girl comes in. I say 'girl' but she was really 30 . . . only she was in the emotional place between when somebody's who's 20 something is just beginning to realize they can't be 20 something any more.
She's a friend of the bartender, hasn't seen him for awhile and they get to talking. They're doing it right in front of me, however, so I just chime in. He offers her a drink, and she begs off by saying that no, she's quitting her present serving job and looking for a different serving job. Only it's really obvious she wants a drink, just as it is really obvious that this girl drinks a lot. So I said that a drink would be good for her, and that this - the bar - was a health spa. People came to the bar to get healthy. The bartender really liked that, the girl changed her mind and so we went on chatting while she had a beer.
Now, I've spent many years in places like that, with girls like that, because I used to be a cook and there is a type of person that cooks and a type of person that serves. Still, I also talk as eloquently as I write. As we talked, the girl couldn't help swearing, that being her nature, and because she could tell I was a certain kind of person by the way I talked, she apologized for swearing. Whereupon I told her, "Don't fucking worry about it," and she visibly relaxed. After that I was careful to throw in a swear word here and there to make her more comfortable.
The bartender asked her if she'd like a shot to help her nerves applying for jobs, and then didn't wait for an answer. He got a liqueur he liked, a sort of vermouth for which the name escapes me, then poured three shots, one for each of us. Yeah, that kind of bar. Turns out the bartender was also the owner. So, given a shot on the house, by someone I've never met before - this kind of thing happens to me all the time - I threw it back without a word despite the fact that I don't like taking shots. That's how you get along with people.
Eventually the girl gets around to asking what I do, and because I'm there to talk about my book launch and the fundraiser to support the book launch, I tell her I'm a writer. She comments on my speech, and says I must read a lot of books. I tell her yes, I do. Whereupon she answers, "Wow, you'd do really good in prison."
Now, see, this is why I say the things I say of people. Because surely there's a whole class of humans who have come to figure - as this girl did - that the real benefit of reading and writing is that it enables one to blow off a lot of time, whereas if you don't read and write, something really boring like prison is much, much worse. This, clearly, is why I have taken the time to learn things.
In time, the subject of my book emerges and it turns out this girl used to play. So in prison, obviously, I'd be able to read, write and run D&D as well. Life is good.
The publicist came along and after a few hours we worked out some details. The fundraiser is set to go on Thursday, July 3, at a place called Vern's on 8th Ave SW. We have a Celtic performer, Vanessa Cardui, a planned burlesque show, and various other small events. I have agreed to play the DM on stage in a performance of the Dead Alewives' Dungeons & Dragons - Satan's Game, which should be relatively fun. I'm sure there will be video.
I've also agreed to give away my White Box set as the big door prize of the evening. We are planning other door prizes but they haven't been determined yet. I could use a word or two letting me know if the White Box set still has any value to the community. It doesn't have any particular value to me, and we do plan to raise a fair sum of money that night - paying off the performers, the publicist and the airline that will fly me to Toronto. That's where the money should be going.
She's a friend of the bartender, hasn't seen him for awhile and they get to talking. They're doing it right in front of me, however, so I just chime in. He offers her a drink, and she begs off by saying that no, she's quitting her present serving job and looking for a different serving job. Only it's really obvious she wants a drink, just as it is really obvious that this girl drinks a lot. So I said that a drink would be good for her, and that this - the bar - was a health spa. People came to the bar to get healthy. The bartender really liked that, the girl changed her mind and so we went on chatting while she had a beer.
Now, I've spent many years in places like that, with girls like that, because I used to be a cook and there is a type of person that cooks and a type of person that serves. Still, I also talk as eloquently as I write. As we talked, the girl couldn't help swearing, that being her nature, and because she could tell I was a certain kind of person by the way I talked, she apologized for swearing. Whereupon I told her, "Don't fucking worry about it," and she visibly relaxed. After that I was careful to throw in a swear word here and there to make her more comfortable.
The bartender asked her if she'd like a shot to help her nerves applying for jobs, and then didn't wait for an answer. He got a liqueur he liked, a sort of vermouth for which the name escapes me, then poured three shots, one for each of us. Yeah, that kind of bar. Turns out the bartender was also the owner. So, given a shot on the house, by someone I've never met before - this kind of thing happens to me all the time - I threw it back without a word despite the fact that I don't like taking shots. That's how you get along with people.
Eventually the girl gets around to asking what I do, and because I'm there to talk about my book launch and the fundraiser to support the book launch, I tell her I'm a writer. She comments on my speech, and says I must read a lot of books. I tell her yes, I do. Whereupon she answers, "Wow, you'd do really good in prison."
Now, see, this is why I say the things I say of people. Because surely there's a whole class of humans who have come to figure - as this girl did - that the real benefit of reading and writing is that it enables one to blow off a lot of time, whereas if you don't read and write, something really boring like prison is much, much worse. This, clearly, is why I have taken the time to learn things.
In time, the subject of my book emerges and it turns out this girl used to play. So in prison, obviously, I'd be able to read, write and run D&D as well. Life is good.
The publicist came along and after a few hours we worked out some details. The fundraiser is set to go on Thursday, July 3, at a place called Vern's on 8th Ave SW. We have a Celtic performer, Vanessa Cardui, a planned burlesque show, and various other small events. I have agreed to play the DM on stage in a performance of the Dead Alewives' Dungeons & Dragons - Satan's Game, which should be relatively fun. I'm sure there will be video.
I've also agreed to give away my White Box set as the big door prize of the evening. We are planning other door prizes but they haven't been determined yet. I could use a word or two letting me know if the White Box set still has any value to the community. It doesn't have any particular value to me, and we do plan to raise a fair sum of money that night - paying off the performers, the publicist and the airline that will fly me to Toronto. That's where the money should be going.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Small Books
I received three good suggestions for a short book. I'd like to go through them and give a few thoughts.
Create an Equipment List
It was suggested that this would be easy, given that I already have extensive lists and that they are fairly popular. A different list could be created for different parts of the world, using my generator to create prices.
This sounds 'easy' but it really isn't. I mean, it would be easy if I weren't concerened with old fashioned ideas like verisimilitude, continuity, context and so on. For most people, however, I think that an Ethiopian equipment list would look odd and a bit concerning compared to, say, a Rheinish equipment list. For one thing, prices for most things would be sky high in Ethiopia, given that it doesn't make anything that a growing party needs, meaning that it is either shipped in or people do without. There's plenty of gold in Ethiopia, very little iron and even less traditional manufactures. I have very little trouble explaining this to players in my world, but it wouldn't be easy setting it up for strangers.
That is not to say it couldn't be done. In fact, I've pitched an idea to the artist I procured a couple of weeks ago, who is working on the Advanced Guide's cover, that was very much like this. I'd like to produce a series of illustrated 8 by 10 books that covered parts of my world in the manner of this post I wrote last October. This is a long range project, something I mean to do after How to Run and if I am on board with an artist willing to jazz up the book. What with the world being a complicated, endlessly detailed place, I think I could produce such works as long as, well, I live. Heck, one small part of the modern Czech Republic, Moravia, could be such a book. Or Paraguay (Blackrazor could be helpful there). Or the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua (the town of Bluefields was a pirate den in the 17th century). The world offers plenty of inspiration.
I could add equipment lists to it. For now, however, the idea is on the shelf.
Create a List of Essays from the Blog
Well, that's fairly easy. There are some very popular posts, and they could stand a serious edit. The post about the State of D&D, the old one about Mustard, one or two about Dungeon Mastering, definitely the humour pieces and so on. I could dig out about thirty or forty and set up a poll, or just go with the ones I like.
I don't know how well this would sell to you folk, given that you know me and that you've already read those. Some of you I know would purchase it just to support me (some of you beautiful people out there have cheerfully donated money to the cause from your own good coffers - thank you!). I am sure, however, that with a good, lively cover, it would do fairly well at the Expo, as it would be another sales item sitting on the table, one more thing for someone to buy. I think on some level whatever I do, I ought to put that book together just because it will pay for itself eventually.
If people have ideas on which posts to rework, shout those ideas out. I think the How to DM post can be passed over, given the main book, but the other might serve as half such a book's content (20,000 words, 11 point font, 5x7 book ... would be a neat little 120 pager).
So probably, this one is being made anyway.
Write about How to Play
Well, I have covered this with the 10,000 word post, so I'm a little thin on what this would contain that the 10,000 word post does not. Perhaps I could say something about total immersion involvement, or person-to-person conflict from the player's point of view. The idea of having a book on the table (even a thin book, and it would have to be) that had the word PLAY in the title is mouth-watering. I could use some suggestions on content.
It would definitely be an opinion book, which How to Run is not. The latter is founded in principles that are not D&D, that have been translated to D&D in order to make you a better DM. A suggested tag line from the press agent I spoke to yesterday was, "DMing is easy ... If you know how." That comes out of my certainty that most DMs are wallowing. They're unsure of what they're doing, and even when they are doing something right they don't know what it is right. So DMing is definitely hard for most people. I've heard that all my gaming life.
I'd like a similar perspective for the player. Being a player isn't hard; but it is a combination of uncertainty and I think vulnerability. I haven't played that much in the last couple of decades, and now when I do I feel so goddamned comfortable in that I can read the DM like a book. Too damn comfortable to talk about the discomfort of a player without someone reminding me what that was like. I've included a passage in How to Run about the importance of making players feel safe and secure, in order to encourage participation. What would a player's angle on that be?
Pitch me something. Don't worry if it ends up in right field. The best ideas are sometimes thrown in - ie., highlighted - by the least experienced people.
Create an Equipment List
It was suggested that this would be easy, given that I already have extensive lists and that they are fairly popular. A different list could be created for different parts of the world, using my generator to create prices.
This sounds 'easy' but it really isn't. I mean, it would be easy if I weren't concerened with old fashioned ideas like verisimilitude, continuity, context and so on. For most people, however, I think that an Ethiopian equipment list would look odd and a bit concerning compared to, say, a Rheinish equipment list. For one thing, prices for most things would be sky high in Ethiopia, given that it doesn't make anything that a growing party needs, meaning that it is either shipped in or people do without. There's plenty of gold in Ethiopia, very little iron and even less traditional manufactures. I have very little trouble explaining this to players in my world, but it wouldn't be easy setting it up for strangers.
That is not to say it couldn't be done. In fact, I've pitched an idea to the artist I procured a couple of weeks ago, who is working on the Advanced Guide's cover, that was very much like this. I'd like to produce a series of illustrated 8 by 10 books that covered parts of my world in the manner of this post I wrote last October. This is a long range project, something I mean to do after How to Run and if I am on board with an artist willing to jazz up the book. What with the world being a complicated, endlessly detailed place, I think I could produce such works as long as, well, I live. Heck, one small part of the modern Czech Republic, Moravia, could be such a book. Or Paraguay (Blackrazor could be helpful there). Or the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua (the town of Bluefields was a pirate den in the 17th century). The world offers plenty of inspiration.
I could add equipment lists to it. For now, however, the idea is on the shelf.
Create a List of Essays from the Blog
Well, that's fairly easy. There are some very popular posts, and they could stand a serious edit. The post about the State of D&D, the old one about Mustard, one or two about Dungeon Mastering, definitely the humour pieces and so on. I could dig out about thirty or forty and set up a poll, or just go with the ones I like.
I don't know how well this would sell to you folk, given that you know me and that you've already read those. Some of you I know would purchase it just to support me (some of you beautiful people out there have cheerfully donated money to the cause from your own good coffers - thank you!). I am sure, however, that with a good, lively cover, it would do fairly well at the Expo, as it would be another sales item sitting on the table, one more thing for someone to buy. I think on some level whatever I do, I ought to put that book together just because it will pay for itself eventually.
If people have ideas on which posts to rework, shout those ideas out. I think the How to DM post can be passed over, given the main book, but the other might serve as half such a book's content (20,000 words, 11 point font, 5x7 book ... would be a neat little 120 pager).
So probably, this one is being made anyway.
Write about How to Play
Well, I have covered this with the 10,000 word post, so I'm a little thin on what this would contain that the 10,000 word post does not. Perhaps I could say something about total immersion involvement, or person-to-person conflict from the player's point of view. The idea of having a book on the table (even a thin book, and it would have to be) that had the word PLAY in the title is mouth-watering. I could use some suggestions on content.
It would definitely be an opinion book, which How to Run is not. The latter is founded in principles that are not D&D, that have been translated to D&D in order to make you a better DM. A suggested tag line from the press agent I spoke to yesterday was, "DMing is easy ... If you know how." That comes out of my certainty that most DMs are wallowing. They're unsure of what they're doing, and even when they are doing something right they don't know what it is right. So DMing is definitely hard for most people. I've heard that all my gaming life.
I'd like a similar perspective for the player. Being a player isn't hard; but it is a combination of uncertainty and I think vulnerability. I haven't played that much in the last couple of decades, and now when I do I feel so goddamned comfortable in that I can read the DM like a book. Too damn comfortable to talk about the discomfort of a player without someone reminding me what that was like. I've included a passage in How to Run about the importance of making players feel safe and secure, in order to encourage participation. What would a player's angle on that be?
Pitch me something. Don't worry if it ends up in right field. The best ideas are sometimes thrown in - ie., highlighted - by the least experienced people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)