My brother emailed me the other day to let me know that the first book in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series was now available for the iPhone. For those who don’t know the books, they were gamebooks, set up in the choose-your-own-adventure style, but with roleplaying elements such as stats and battles that required the use of 2 six-sided dice. There were a slew of them at one time including the Fighting Fantasy books (also from Steve Jackson) and the Lone Wolf gamebooks from Joe Dever.

These books were more my brother’s thing than mine, but being into fantasy and RPGs, I read them, too. They were fun – a kind of interactive reading experience that you could play by yourself, and in the case of Sorcery! and Lone Wolf, you could create your own continuity. If you found, for example, a particular item in one book, that item might come into play in a future book. But only if you had found it before (though, of course, this depended on the honor system).

Putting something like this on the iPhone, to me, makes a lot of sense. The game aspects can be automated while the choose-your-own-adventure parts are maintained. Only the first of the books is up, but I suppose more will appear if sales are good.

But this isn’t the only content from my youth that is now reappearing on platforms like the iPhone and the iPad. Point and click adventure games are making a comeback, too. Ports of old games have been reappearing with great frequency for mobile platforms. Monkey Island made a lot of noise when it was released for the iPhone. And not too long ago I downloaded an old favorite – Broken Sword – for my phone as well. It makes sense – the iPhone, iPad and even the DS are touch devices and the point and click interface scales well on them (with a few tweaks).

What I wonder, though, is whether this is a purely nostalgic phenomenon (as many of the people who have iPhones remember these games and books fondly), or whether this is simply the recognition that there is an opportunity here. What I hope is that we see some new games being developed with the same interface. Or at least newer entries in series that have long lain dormant. A new Monkey Island game, for example.

Whatever the case may be, I’m holding out for King’s Quest 6. If that happens, I’ll be happy.

Would you pay money to play any of these games again? Or new ones?

I have been remiss in not mentioning the Clarion West Write-a-thon which is going on right now. Some of you may remember this from last year. The idea is simple – during the weeks that the workshop is being run in Seattle, alumni (and others) set writing goals, get sponsors to sponsor them with cash money, and then work toward those goals. Many people share the results with those that sponsor them. It’s like one of those charity walk/run things except with writing instead.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of good causes out there that need your money. Causes that are bigger than whether I write chapters of my novel or not. But I think of it this way – you’re investing in the future of good writing. You’re helping to keep a workshop going that has a history of producing strong genre writers. A workshop that has helped writers like Kij Johnson (who is awesome), Daniel Abraham (also awesome), Cat Rambo (yes, awesome), Rachel Swirsky (very much awesome), Margo Lanagan (super-awesome) and more. So, the way I see it, if you take the money that you would spend on a book or a magazine or other fiction and donate it to the workshop, that’s guaranteeing you good fiction in the future. And it means another group of writers to keep writing the fiction we love, no matter what shape that fiction comes in.

So, my page is here, where you can sponsor me quite easily with Paypal. I’ve committed to writing a chapter a week in my work in progress novel. I haven’t quite managed to stick to that so far (the first week I wobbled) but I’ve been getting back on track recently. But even if you don’t want to sponsor me, consider sponsoring someone else. I think it’s worth it.

Thanks for listening.

I just got word this morning that my story, Flowing Shapes, is currently up and available to read for free at the brand new magazine, Basement Stories. This is their first issue and I’m happy to appear there. I hope the magazine has a long future.

Please check it out.

I refrained from saying anything earlier, despite receiving the acceptance, but now that I’ve received the contract I can reveal that my story,”The Case of the Wounded Heart”, will be appearing in the Lethe Press anthology, A Study In Lavender. The anthology is basically a gay-themed Sherlock Holmes anthology containing stories in which at least one of the characters from the Holmes mythos is portrayed as gay. I love Holmes stories, so I had a great time writing this one. It features Inspector Lestrade. Publication is currently set for summer of 2011.

Hello blog, we meet again.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my last post. Poor old blog, so often neglected. So now you get random comments and updates from the last few weeks.

Last night I got back from Readercon in Burlington, MA which while always a good time was exceedingly good this year. While it took me a little while to get into a swing of things by Saturday I was on the track to Happyville. Saturday night Matt Kressel had a party in our room which was well-attended and which featured readers from the latest issue (#7) of Sybil’s Garage, which debuted at the con. I worked on the issue, so I was familiar with the stories, but hearing them read by the authors made them much more powerful and I’m very proud of Matt and the magazine and glad for even my humble contributions.

And while I still feel virtually anonymous at these things, a few people knew me from my podcast narrations and had some nice things to say about the stories. I have to say it was nice to hear. I enjoy doing the podcasts, of course, but they can be a lot of work and you never know who’s listening to them. Connecting with people who had was great and gratifying.

I have more updates to make and things to mention – coming soon…