Carrie Harris's Blog

So! In case you missed it, I sold eight books in about a month, starting in December and ending on New Years Day. I've got to admit that it felt pretty darned good. Since the world's been kinda tough lately, I thought it might be nice to pass on the pretty-darned-goodness. I sold eight books; how about I give away eight books to celebrate? I love winning books myself, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone there.

But what books to give out? After all, my new titles won't hit the shelves for a while yet. (But it'll be fast! The Supernaturals of Las Vegas series will launch this spring--the books are already written!) So I decided to celebrate my sales with a selection of titles from my new publisher, Inked Entertainment. The lucky winner will receive the following paperbacks. Hopefully you'll discover some new favorites here. You can horde them all to yourself, laughing maniacally, or even give some away if you're feeling generous.

The prize pack includes the following books:
Chosen (Danika Frost #0.5) by Connor Ashley and Charlotte Page (urban fantasy)A Touch Mortal (The Siders #1) by Leah Clifford (YA paranormal romance)Must Love Otters (Revelation Cove #1) by Eliza Gordon (romance)Thrall (Supernaturals of Las Vegas #1) by Carrie Harris (paranormal romance)Running Home (Vampires of Fate #1) by Julie Hutchings (paranormal romance)The Harpy by Julie Hutchings (horror)Kill Order (Maggie Black #1) by Jack McSporran (thriller)Dead Awake by Jack McSporran (YA paranormal)And if you don't win, never fear! Everyone who enters will get a free copy of my zombie short story "Lifegard Research Station #4" and the first chapter of Thrall, the first book in the Supernaturals of Las Vegas paranormal romance series, both in PDF. Also, if you choose to sign up for my newsletter as a part of your contest entries, you get a free copy of my Alien Abducted novella. So in total, you could get a novella, a short story, and a chapter preview just for entering! I will email those to everyone who enters after I pick the winner. I won't save your email addresses, and I won't contact you there again unless you sign up for the newsletter. (Unless, of course, you email me to tell me you're having a problem with your downloads or something.) I also won't give away your contact information to anyone--including other authors--because that's just shady.
The rules are simple! Enter via the Rafflecopter below. You can visit various social media places to learn more about me or about Inked titles, tweet (daily, even, if you want), and sign up for newsletters. This drawing is open internationally, so long as you're willing to wait for customs to do their thing. (I am in the US.) You just have to be 18 or older to enter, since some of the books contain adult type things. It's open through 12 AM Mountain Time on 3/6/2020, and I'll announce the winner on the 7th, which is Thrall's release day!

Some of the entries require that you do something like follow me--if you're already a follower, that counts, so put your info in!
The full rules are in the Rafflecopter, but I've kept it pretty easy. I hope you'll enter and help spread the word, and I'm crossing all my crossables that YOU are the winner!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Got questions? Having a Rafflecopter problem? Leave a comment here or drop me an email at carrie@carrieharrisbooks.com. I'll help you out.

I cannot believe I'm saying this, but the Supernaturals of Las Vegas series is going to print! Thrall, the first book in the series, launches on March 7th, with the rest of the books to follow through April and May. I am more excited than a vampire at a blood bank or a werewolf with a chew toy.

Please note that the books are much better than my jokes just were.

Anyway. As you've probably already heard (and maybe from me), reviews can really make or break a series. With that in mind, I'm launching a new Review Crew. It's simple--I'll give out free ebooks to people who commit to reviewing them on Amazon after the book comes out. Once you post a review, you get the next book! That means you could read the whole series for free, and all you need to do is review them on the 'Zon. You don't need to have a blog or experience reviewing.

I probably don't need to say this, but I will--honest review, folks. They don't have to be all positive, because no book is for everyone. That's totally okay. Talking about the book honestly--about what you like as well as what didn't work for you--will help it find its fans.

I won't just be using this crew for the Supernaturals of Las Vegas books either. When I have review copies of my upcoming books, I'll offer them to the Review Crew first. So if you're interested in reviewing, but paranormal romance isn't your thing, it's still worth signing up. You can pick and choose what you receive.

If you'd like to join the crew, it's easy. Fill out this form, and I'll get back to you as soon as I have copies to share!

It's been a while! These days, I spend most of my time on work--writing books and also working as a freelance ghostwriter and gaming consultant--although I do love my Twitter and Facebook. If you'd like to chat with me on the regular, I hope you'll reach out to me there. As much as I've loved blogging in the past, this space has really become the Big Announcement space and not the Chat About Random Things space it used to be.

You know what that means, though? It means that I'm here with a Big Announcement! The past few years have held a lot of upheaval for me in the professional space. I left my day job in the gaming industry and devoted myself to jumpstarting my writing career. It took some time and a heckload of effort, but I finally have the first batch of news to share!

I sold eight books over the past couple of months.

I'm about as shocked as you might expect, which is really shocked. I'm not sure it'll feel real until I hold them in my hands. But yeah. Eight new books in print, and they'll be coming to you fast. Let me tell you a little about them.

First, we've got the Supernaturals of Las Vegas series, with an accompanying paranormal romance collection. If you've been following my social media, you'll know that I took a dip into writing adult paranormal romance under a pseudonym a while back. The series digs into the dangerous lives and passionate relationships of the paranormal residents of Sin City. Each book brings you a different couple--including vampires, were-scorpions, angels of death, faeries, and more. These books aren't for kids--they're definitely adult romances, although the heat level is fairly mild. I love action and adventure and danger, so they're jam packed full of those things too.

The fine folks at Inked Entertainment have picked up the series, plus eight PNR novellas that are perfect to read over your lunch break or any time you'd like a complete story but don't have the time to finish a whole book. The novellas will be published in a collection called Tryst, and all five of the books will be available in print as well as electronic formats. They've designed brand new covers for them that are pretty smoking hot if I do say so myself.





These books will come out in Spring of 2020, which is right around the corner! I'll update you on the details as they become available.

But that's not all! I also have a new epic fantasy series for adults, which I'm cowriting with Connor Ashley, also for Inked Entertainment. The Assassin's Revenge series is a three book epic about an assassin who isn't exactly what she seems. I've really loved writing about Larina, who uses strategy and intelligence to survive in a dangerous world. She really understands the mental aspects of conflict, and that's been super fun to write. You'll get to meet Larina, her smartass drakon Zemora, and more in the first volume, The Crown of Blood and Fire, which will also come out in 2020.

And look at these gorgeous covers. I cannot decide which one's my favorite, which is a good problem to have.



I'll tell you more about these as we get closer, too!

I'm really grateful to David and Debbie at Inked Entertainment and Kate Testerman, my super agent at kt literary. And to all of you for sticking by me. I hope you're as excited about these new books as I am. I've been flailing around like an excited muppet for the past few weeks!

Today, I had one of those so-happy-you-cry moments.

I saw my first graphic novel on Amazon.

It's always exciting to see a new cover, or to get to announce a new book, although that doesn't usually drive me to tears. This time, though, it's different. Although this will be my 10th-ish published book, depending on how you count, it was actually my first real book. The first one I wrote. The one that got me an agent and then failed to sell.

I wrote it in 2007 and signed with Agent Kate in 2008. The manuscript went to acquisitions over 10 times, I think. It kept coming so close and then falling apart at the last minute. Eventually, we shelved it in favor of what would become Bad Taste in Boys. That sold quickly, and of course I was glad, but I never forgot that first manuscript. I'd started writing it during my maternity leave with my twins, after midnight feedings while I was waiting for them to go back to sleep. I loved that book for a billion reasons. Because it was funny when I needed to laugh. Because it was about strong girls, and I'd just had two of them. Because it was the first manuscript I wrote that made me think maybe I could really do this writing thing.

In my free time, I started turning it into a graphic novel script just for fun, and because I couldn't keep from messing with that story. I mentioned it to Agent Kate in a self-deprecating, isn't-this-a-funny-thing kind of way. She turned around and sold it, to my surprise and delight.

It will hit the shelves in June. I describe the book as GHOST WORLD meets superheroes, which I personally think is awesome except that I'm biased so it probably doesn't count.

I have had the good fortune to make a few of these announcements, but this one takes the proverbial cake. I'm so thrilled and lucky and grateful to be able to share this story with you. It has baby pools and accidental forkings and girl power and peeping toms and government agents and scary teachers modeled after my old high school English teacher, who was the first person to tell me that I should be a writer. I thought the best thing I could do to thank her was put a character inspired by her in a book, so I did. She WAS pretty scary.

It comes out in June, and it's available for pre-order, if you happen to like that kind of thing. I'll post more order links as they come out, too.

It's called ON THE WALL, and I really hope you like it.

This alien and I are both getting jiggy with it. We're excited because it's the Illegal Alien release day!

[image error] This book is a whole lot of new for me. It's my first adult book. It's my first foray into self-publishing. It's the first book for which I got to make up a lot of ridiculous swear words. It makes me happy. And also nervous, because I really like this thing, and I would like to do more of this thing, so I hope other people like this thing too.

In fact, I hope YOU like this thing.

If you read the book and decide that you do in fact like this thing, and you would like more things like this thing, there is something you can do which costs NO MONEY and relatively little effort. REVIEW. Give it however many stars you like. Write a sentence or more than a sentence. "I like this thing and think you might like this thing too" does in fact count as a review.

It might seem like a tiny thing, but it really helps. As soon as a book reaches 20 reviews, all kinds of promotional opportunities are unlocked--but not before then. And further reviews help bump it up in search results and "You Might Also Like This Thing" web recommendations, and so on. I know it sometimes seems like posting that review is a waste of time, but it really isn't, especially for self-published books. It might make the difference between that series continuing or ending prematurely before you find out that Lord Kartafflesalat is really a sentient potato monster, which would be TRAGIC.

But seriously. I've got three books currently planned in the series, but I'd love to write more. If you'd like to see it happen, you can urge it along by reviewing!

Of course, reviewing requires READING. Which requires purchase links! Amazon is being a little slow with the posting of the print copy, but here's what I have so far:
Kindle editionPrint edition from CreatespacePrint edition from Amazon (coming soonest!)More info about the book, with all the currently available linkageThe Createspace book and the Amazon book are exactly the same, but I sure wouldn't blame Prime members for wanting to wait and get that free shipping.
And if the book isn't in your budget right now, I'll be doing some sales and some review giveaways as soon as my copies arrive. So stay tuned here or follow me on twitter to stay on top of that.
Aaaand now I'm going to go dance around my house like that alien. You think I'm kidding, but I'm totally not.

Lots of excitement here at Chez Harris, so let's get right to it!

REMADE DEBUTS ON 9/14

ReMade debuts on Wednesday, September 14th! ReMade is a post-apocalyptic teen drama in serial form--you get an episode a week, just like your favorite TV shows. Their short length makes them perfect for people who just don't have time to read a whole book from cover to cover. Let's face it--life happens. And if it's still too tough to get your reading in, it comes in both ebook and audio formats

If you're interested, you can check out the pilot episode for free and see what you think.

You can also visit the ReMade page and subscribe for the season (and save some cashola and trouble) or buy individual episodes at your leisure.

Episodes come out every Wednesday, and the series is a nail-biter. I knew what was going to happen, and I was still on the edge of my seat when I read the episodes written by the other members of the writing team. My first episode is #3, but you're not going to want to miss any of them!

ANNOUNCING MY NEXT PROJECT: ILLEGAL ALIEN

I wrote a grown up book! With grown ups in it. And aliens, because hey, it's me. I started out writing this book for fun but ended up having so much fun with it that I couldn't stop, and now it's a series. It's about a snarky, middle-aged police detective named Audrey Vorkink--and yeah, I might have inflicted my sense of humor on her. I write a lot faster than the publishing industry moves, so I'm trying out a new thing and self-publishing this series. ILLEGAL ALIEN comes out on October 18th, with the sequel, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING SUSPECT, following in January.

Here's more about the book:

Toledo police detective Audrey Vorkink has a rep for getting things done. She might look like a middle-aged soccer mom (complete with mom bob), but she works hard and unwinds even harder. One night, as she’s meeting with her edgier-than-it-sounds knitting group, a hit-and-run accident turns deadly right outside the building. But something’s fishy about the missing driver, something positively…inhuman.
Audrey can run down any criminal, but what if this one’s from another planet?
Detective stories meet extraterrestrials (maybe) in this laugh-out-loud novel by Carrie Harris, author of BAD TASTE IN BOYS and DEMON DERBY.

You can preorder an ebook copy here! I also intend to offer physical books as we get closer to the release date.
If you're interested in reviewing the book, leave me a comment below or email me at carrie@carrieharrisbooks.com!
Aaaaand look at this gorgeous cover, designed by the brill Steven Novak.

Please note that this book is written for adults. It has bad words in it. I made some of them up. That was fun.
SALLY SLICK AND THE MINIATURE MENACE RELEASE DATE!
If you're looking for something a little more kid-friendly, the second book in the Sally Slick series, Sally Slick and the Miniature Menace, hits shelves on November 8th! I love writing Sally because she's such a strong girl character...and it gives me an excuse to watch lots of Indiana Jones movies and pretend it's work. Here's a teaser about the book:

Every hero has a story. Sally Slick’s is just beginning.
Sally’s frustrated when she’s shut out of the county fair tractor race, but that’s nothing compared to how she feels when the tractor itself goes missing. When she and her stalwart friend Jet Black track it to the grounds of the Circus Europa, they get more than they bargained for. Sally can handle nefarious cultists, mysterious fortune tellers, elephants on the rampage, and high flying aeroplanes, but a chance encounter with a miniaturized menace will change everything she knows about the world. 
One small girl can make a big difference.

Ordering information available soon!
And it comes with another great cover, this one courtesy of Dani Kaulakis!

Young Centurions has a cover! Look at the pretty!!! Speaking of pretty, I also have a new website. I lurved the old one with a lurvely lurve, but I’m starting to branch out beyond teen comedy, so it was time to revise. So it’s double pretty! An explosion of pretty! Like firing a cannon full of supermodels. Only…well…not.
Anyway. We’re in the final days of the Fate MoreKickstarter, which gives you an opportunity to order Young Centurions--along with a bunch of other cool games--now and have it automatically shipped to you when it becomes available. Because sometimes being lazy is okay and even encouraged. But if you’re not into the Kickstarter thing, don’t worry. YC will be available for purchase later, and I’ll make sure to update the pretty new supermodel cannon website with the ordering info when it becomes available. With the Young Centurions game coming out soon-ish, I’ve been talking a bit about some of the cool things you can do with tabletop roleplaying games and kids. I think a lot of parents and teachers would use them more if they only knew how many things you can do with them! I’ve already talked about teaching cause and effect and teaching them the value of failure, and today I’d like to briefly talk about how you can use RPGs to teach kids to solve problems on their own.
I’m going to be honest; as a parent, this is something I struggle with. I want to support my kids. I want them to know they have my help with homework, that I’ve got their back with problems, that they’re not alone in dealing with whatever they’re dealing with. But it’s so hard to keep that in balance, because they also need to learn that they’re capable. Smart. That they don’t quite need me as much as they once did. It’s sad-making but necessary.
The biggest problem that I run into is that they’re used to having constant help and support. They’re used to being able to ask us for the definition of an unfamiliar word or, at the most, look it up on their tablets instead of taking the time to figure it out on their own, which is ironic because sometimes the process of finding the answer online takes longer than it would have taken to just THINK ABOUT IT. And their default is to call for help. They will sit in the chair next to the clock and ask me what time it is. They'll ask me where to look for their lost soccer socks instead of looking in all the places they looked last time. Please don’t let me imply that they’re lazy; I honestly think this is a habit more than it is a willful desire not to figure things out on their own. It just hasn’t clicked that they’re capable of answering all those questions on their own, and my repeated suggestions to look at the clock or stop and think about what they did last time aren’t getting it done. I needed (and still need) to do more.
Here’s where RPGs come in. In a storytelling game like Young Centurions, the players are faced with a series of problems. For example, Eugene Falks is picking on the smaller kids again, and you’re watching from your hideout. He doesn’t know you’re there. Do you stay safe and let him beat up on those kids, or do you help them? Is there a way that you can help them without putting yourself in danger? Maybe you could trick him, but how?
In today’s world, they’d get an adult, right? But this is a no-risk way to explore problem solving on their own.
I find that this approach works best in scenes with kids only, if you can manufacture that scenario. For example, if my husband was playing a character in this scene, the kids would all defer to his decision-making, and for teaching purposes, that’s what I don’t want. So I might use this scenario in a session where he can’t make it, or have him break off with one of the kids and play out a conversation while I run the scene with Eugene Falks with everyone else. And then, no matter how hard it is, I have to resist the urge to make suggestions. Encourage them to think it through. And, if necessary, allow them to fail. Again, remember that we try to make failure interesting in RPGs. Perhaps they take the time to think it through and manage to successfully trick Eugene and get away safely. But maybe their hasty decision making results in them getting pounded. What do you do then? You could shame them by pointing out that they didn’t use their brains and look at the result. Or you could follow that up with another opportunity to do it right. Perhaps their characters are sitting there nursing bloody noses when the original victim sneaks back to thank them for trying. Maybe he got away while Eugene was chasing the characters, and now he wants to reward them with some information about Old Man Jenkins. But the dump, where Old Man Jenkins lives, is extra dangerous. Even more dangerous than Eugene was. So now they’ll have to learn from their mistakes and try it again…after their noses stop bleeding.
And of course, as soon as they do manage to do it right, it’s important to reinforce that. Make sure they realize that they’ve solved this complicated problem all on their own. Talk through the early mistakes they made and how they learned to do better. And encourage them to look at the clock or figure out that definition on their own next time.

As a reminder, which you probably don’t need because I’m excited and won’t shut up about it, I wrote a game! It’s called Young Centurions, and it’s a roleplaying game (RPG) about teenage pulp heroes. There’s excitement! Thrills! Bad guys! And you have to beat them all and make it home in time for supper, or you’ll be in trouble with your Ma. Anyway, you can learn more about it here if you’re inclined to do so.
I’ve been talking about educational opportunities for gaming with kids (you can read the first one here), because as a gamer and a parent, I’ve used RPGs a lot and think more people probably would if only they knew what they were missing. And sure, I hope you might put these suggestions to use with my game, but even if you picked something else, I’d consider it a win. (In fact, I’ll suggest another one for people not into pulp—it’s called Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, and it’s kinda like Avatar: The Last Airbender and How to Train Your Dragon had a baby, and this game is that baby.) In my last post, I talked about teaching cause and effect, and now I’d like to talk about how you can use storytelling RPGs to make failure interesting.
Here’s the thing—as a parent, I’m constantly reassuring my kids that mistakes are good things. That trying something and failing doesn’t mean you suck; it just means that you’ve got a challenge on your hands. That some of the best learning opportunities come from the things that don’t come easy. Each of our kids has their wheelhouse, and of course the other two are jealous. Frankly, if they had their druthers, everything would be easy.
As far as I can tell, that’s pretty normal (as normal as kids get, anyway), but I still think it’s part of my job as a parent to teach them to cope with failure at the least, and to celebrate it if I possibly can. And frankly, I could always use a brush up on that last part myself.
So how do RPGs help? Well, I have to admit that the bulk of this idea comes from Fate. The Fate system books encourage gamemasters (the people who help apply the rules and tell the story, while the other players control specific characters) to make failure interesting. That’s a very different type of gaming than I’d been exposed to before. Before that, a botched roll meant something really bad was about to happen, and a really catastrophically bad roll meant I needed to make a new character, because mine had died or turned to the dark side or whatever. I remember once making a character for an epic fantasy game that was supposed to last the whole year. I spent a long time on her, because if you’re going to spend a year with a character, that person should be pretty cool. Two rolls into the first game, she was dead.
In short, failure was a bad thing in those games.
As I’m gaming with my kids now, though, I’m actively searching for a way to make failure interesting. Because if you know kids, you know the likely reaction to a bad roll of the dice. I have one who would get mad. One who would cry. One who would whine. After a bad roll, the dice hated them; it wasn’t fair; they didn’t want to play anymore. So was the problem with them, or was it with me because I wasn’t showing them the value of failure? I think the latter, personally.
Because failure can be interesting and valuable. Think about all the adventure stories where the hero tumbles down a hole only to discover something important there—maybe the ancient temple they’ve been searching for, or a back way into the bad guys’ base of operations. They pay a price for it for certain—anything from hurt pride to a broken ankle—but without that fall, they’d be wandering around forever without finding what they’re looking for. That failure got them closer to their goal.
That’s the kind of thing I’m looking to do when I’m playing RPGs with my kids. For example, we were playing Monster of the Week, which is a mishmash of Buffy, Supernatural, X Files, and Dresden—and it’s quite frankly awesome. In this story, the creature was very difficult to kill. You had to discover its weakness in order to defeat it, and in the process, the characters took a beating. That could easily be discouraging, but those defeats provided valuable information which would lead them to the monster’s weakness. And as we were playing, I tried to point that out. “Yes,” I’d say, “your character was knocked unconscious, but if that hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have discovered the villain’s amulet on the floor. Now you’ve got a clue. And it all happened because you didn’t give up, even when the odds were against you.”
Now, sometimes the tradeoff is more valuable than others. Sometimes it's a piece of essential information, but sometimes something a little less tangible like the good opinion of another character, or even a personal realization that you need to talk through with them. "How does your character feel right now? Determined? She's not giving up? That's pretty brave, especially when she used to be such a scaredy pants, right? Let's write down a note about that so that when this story is done, we can talk about maybe changing your character sheet to show that she's becoming a braver person."
I think it’s working, because the last time we gamed, my son rolled a bunch of minuses (which indicate failure, if that’s not evident from context). He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and threw up his hands. “Oh no,” he said. “What are you going to do to me this time?” And then he laughed and said, "Bring it on, brah." Other than the part where he called me "brah," I thought that was pretty cool.

So I wrote a game. It’s called Young Centurions, and I wrote it with Clark and Amanda Valentine, who are pretty much saints in my book. It’s a family-friendly RPG about teenage pulp heroes—if you’re thinking Young Indiana Jones, you’re right on the money—and yes, you do have the opportunity to play Sally Slick and Jet Black as they set off on adventure if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s up on Kickstarter now with a bunch of other games from Evil Hat Productions, and it would be very cool if you’d check it out.
Here’s the thing—I’m aware that many fans of my books and people I know in general have never played tabletop RPGs and might not know what they’re missing. I’m a long-time gamer; in fact, my first paid writing gig was for an RPG. And in particular, I think people don’t realize the value of playing RPGs with kids. I know that I’m always on the lookout for fun and inexpensive activities I can do with my own kids that are rainy-day compatible, and gaming fits the bill. Plus, there are so many opportunities for them to learn in a way that doesn’t make you or them want to pull your hair out.
Storytelling RPGs offer a lot of advantages to kids beyond the obvious things like: they’re off electronics for more than five minutes at a time; they’re talking to you in complete sentences about things other than electronics, and they’re being creative instead of passively sitting in front of the TV. Frankly, on some days those things alone would sell me on the idea as a parent, but there’s a lot more there. Today, I’d like to give you an example of a teachable opportunity in storytelling RPGs, just to give you a peek at what I mean. And for clarity, I’m using the word “storytelling” to denote games that focus on telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end rather than crawling around a dungeon and rolling dice to defeat monsters. That can also be fun, but it doesn’t fit the definition as I’m using it here.
One thing I noticed all three of my kids struggle to grasp is cause and effect. The whole logic of one action causing a logical reaction just didn’t click with them. It was particularly evident in their stories—my kids tell a lot of stories, and those things were RANDOM. Magical artifacts and unicorns would appear and disappear without making any sense at all, and people would suddenly stop in the middle of conversations and walk off into haunted forests where no one left alive. Stuff like that. And school-wise, if you asked them questions about what happened next in a book, they’d skip around and totally miss how the elements were related. They could remember them as isolated incidents, but the logical connections were missing.
So I started talking to them about the whole idea of cause and effect, and let me tell you, that was a failure. Without context, they just couldn’t grasp what I was saying, and using examples from the media didn’t work very well, because they had a hard time picturing alternate endings for familiar books and movies, since they already knew how the story was “supposed” to go.
Then I suggested we play an RPG. I used Fate Accelerated Edition (which, coincidentally, is the same system that powers Young Centurions) to create a game about tween superheroes. The characters were siblings who had to keep their superpowers hidden while still fighting evil. I set up a very simple one-shot scenario. At school, one of them discovered evidence that their arch-nemesis had planted a bomb in the building. With their powers, finding and diffusing the bomb would be easy; the real challenge was figuring out how to do it without anyone learning that they were superheroes, because again, that was a secret.
The characters were at gym when they learned about the bomb, and when I asked how they were going to get out of class, the random happened. One of my daughters wanted to light the teacher’s hair on fire and run out of class in the resulting chaos. Which is pretty ridiculous, but this is exactly what I was hoping would happen. Here’s where I started asking questions. “That sounds silly, but what would happen if you lit her hair on fire?” My daughter quickly realized that this wasn’t an option and moved to what was to her a logical alternative. She wanted to pull the fire alarm in plain sight of everyone. Again, there were questions and discussions among all of us about the logical effect that would result from that action. She’d get in trouble, of course, but would that be worth it to save all the kids? Of course it would. But would they evacuate the building if they saw her pull the alarm with no fire in sight? No. So that wouldn’t work.
Slowly but surely, we drew down from the wild and crazy suggestions to some very simple solutions. One character asked to go to the bathroom, went into the stall, and turned invisible. Another one talked back to the teacher until she got sent to the principal’s office, and the third character—a bit of a goody-two-shoes—offered to escort her there. The three of them then convened in the hallway for a bit of fun action in which they located the bomb (solving another puzzle in the process) and disarmed it with time to spare.
All in all, it took about an hour to play, and a decent sized chunk of that time was spent talking out how to solve the problems logically, with the kids proposing possibilities and then the four of us talking through the likely outcomes together to come up with the best options. I’d say they did more thinking than they do with any workbook page I can give them, and here’s the big difference—they hate workbook pages, but they ask me to play “that superhero game” all the time. And it’s becoming a familiar process to them, giving them context to understand how to begin to ask, “What would happen if…” when they tell their own stories and “What happened when…” when they read a passage for comprehension.
And it was damned fun too.
That’s just one example of many teachable opportunities you can create for kids with RPGs, and I’ll talk about some more of them over the next few weeks. In the meantime and as always, feel free to hit me up with questions. There is a learning curve to starting off with tabletop RPGs, but fun and affordable educational activities don’t come along all the time. I’m happy to help out anyone who wants to try one with their kids or students. And of course, I hope you’ll check out the Young Centurions RPG and stay tuned for the cover reveal as soon as it’s available!

Today, I got a big box full of my next book, Dinocalypse Forever, and sweet holy heck is it gorgeous. I haven’t talked about it a whole lot just yet since I wasn’t sure when it was going to hit the shelves. (It’ll get there in the next month or so—I’ll tell you more when I know.) Plus I have to admit something.

I was kinda scared. Because Dinocalypse Forever was the hardest thing I’ve ever written.

This book came into my life at a time when I felt very strongly like a crap writer who wrote crap things that were…well, CRAP. I distinctly remember volunteering to do it and writing the first chapter and then thinking that I might as well go find a nice sword to fall on because there was no way I was going to be able to do this thing justice. I vacillated between intense excitement and abject terror every time I sat down to write pages. And honestly, there was more terror than excitement. I was struggling to write in general, and this was a tough book on its own without the writerly crisis of confidence.

See, Dinocalypse is the third book in a series, and the first two were written by Chuck Effing Wendig. (I have it on good authority that that is in fact his middle name.) Chuck had a scheduling conflict and wasn’t able to write the third book, and my co-conspirators at Evil Hat tapped me as a replacement. For Chuck Effing Wendig. I was flattered. I was terrified. But more than anything, I wanted so badly to do justice to a job given to me people I respect and care about. The guys at Evil Hat are my brothers. It’s more than just a job for me, and that was the thing that scared me the most. That I would let Fred and Chris and the rest of the crew down. That I wouldn’t be able to step into Chuck’s crazy-big shoes. That they would be disappointed. That this series would become the project they regretted because the end was such a letdown.

There was no way to talk about all of this during the whole thing, because to confront it head-on would have paralyzed me. I just had to write. To put the words on the page and hate them but keep on going. And then, afterwards, to read it and think, “Hey, this isn’t as crappy as I thought. It’s even kind of…good?” To grow to love it despite myself and to laugh at the laughable bits and cheer when the bad guys get punched as bad guys should.

Seeing your new book for the first time is always kind of surreal. There’s this weird magical hoodoo that happens somewhere between final edits and the arrival of that box on your doorstep. The words magically transforms from this thing that belongs to you into a real book that other people can own and love (or hate). Something outside of you, over which you no longer have control. So it’s always exciting and scary, but this time was different. This book is different. It’s about heroes that won’t give up despite terrible odds involving psychic dinosaurs and brains in jars. And now that I’m on the flipside, I feel pretty fucking good about it.

The swearing makes it more real. Honest.

If you haven’t read the first two books, I recommend them so highly. They’re high-octane, high-stakes, full-on-crazy-fun. And I sure as heck hope that you think Dinocalypse Forever does the series justice.

I wrote it, and I’m pretty damned proud of it.