sfgray
Explorer
Scott Gray here, writer, RPG editor/designer, and man about town. I've written a new fiction e-book — an epic-fantasy/sword-and-sorcery anthology titled A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales. I'm a notoriously nonexistent poster on ENWorld, but have been a member of the site since 2003 and was a longtime lurker before that, right from the time 3rd Edition got me back into D&D and paved the way for a very gratifying freelance career.
Since i started working as an editor and designer in 2004 (primarily for Wizards of the Coast), i've made great use of the ENWorld forums as a point of reference for my work. Everybody plays this game in their own way, and the mistake that i think too many game designers inadvertently make is to write exclusively for their own version of the game. More than any other source, the folks at ENWorld keep me ahead of the curve on what are other people are doing with the rules and worlds i work on. Your thoughts and feedback have always informed my editing and design — and, i think, have made it better. As such, i've always wanted to find a way to say "Thank you" for a great community and the great discussion that i've gotten so much out of.
A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales is officially out on July 18 on Amazon's Kindle store (DRM-free), with a print volume following sometime this winter. With the permission and indulgence of the most excellent Morrus, i'm making two free PDF previews from the anthology available on ENWorld — the short fiction pieces "Stories" and "A Space Between". [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Space-Between-Prayer-Kings-ebook/dp/B0051OR1FM/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310357431&sr=1-3]"A Space Between"[/ame] is the same story currently available as an e-book promo on Amazon (where it hit the top 10 in the epic fantasy and action/adventure download lists its first week). "Stories" is an ENWorld exclusive, not previewed anywhere else. Morrus and i had talked about the first of the two pieces appearing on the site tomorrow (Wednesday), so hopefully you'll see it shortly.
In addition, when the e-book is officially launched after the 18th, it'll be selling for $2.99 (which i think is a pretty decent price for 135k words/340+ pages of hardcore fantasy goodness). However, unbeknownst to all but a few people, and now all of you, [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Kings-Other-Tales-ebook/dp/B005C2CKN6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310536970&sr=8-2]A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales[/ame] is live as of right now for the Amazon-minimum special introductory price of 99¢. This availability isn't being publicly announced or promoted anywhere except here — a kind of unofficial ENWorld pre-buy, as it were.
The pieces that make up A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales — six all-new short stories, the novella Ghostsong, and the short novel A Prayer for Dead Kings — aren't the sort of stories that would inspire the average fantasy fan to go "Oh, gaming fiction." However, between you and me, that's exactly what they are. These stories have grown out of the tales, legends, and history of a campaign world created nearly thirty years ago (yes, i'm embarrassingly middle-aged). They embrace the ethos and the wonder of gaming whole-heartedly and without apology. And in the end, a big part of why i wrote these stories was to try to capture the sense of heroic struggle — the sense of a dark world challenging everyday characters to take up the mantle of heroism in the first place — that has always been the best part of gaming for me.
I had a great time writing this book, and i hope that folks enjoy reading it just as much.
Since i started working as an editor and designer in 2004 (primarily for Wizards of the Coast), i've made great use of the ENWorld forums as a point of reference for my work. Everybody plays this game in their own way, and the mistake that i think too many game designers inadvertently make is to write exclusively for their own version of the game. More than any other source, the folks at ENWorld keep me ahead of the curve on what are other people are doing with the rules and worlds i work on. Your thoughts and feedback have always informed my editing and design — and, i think, have made it better. As such, i've always wanted to find a way to say "Thank you" for a great community and the great discussion that i've gotten so much out of.
A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales is officially out on July 18 on Amazon's Kindle store (DRM-free), with a print volume following sometime this winter. With the permission and indulgence of the most excellent Morrus, i'm making two free PDF previews from the anthology available on ENWorld — the short fiction pieces "Stories" and "A Space Between". [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Space-Between-Prayer-Kings-ebook/dp/B0051OR1FM/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310357431&sr=1-3]"A Space Between"[/ame] is the same story currently available as an e-book promo on Amazon (where it hit the top 10 in the epic fantasy and action/adventure download lists its first week). "Stories" is an ENWorld exclusive, not previewed anywhere else. Morrus and i had talked about the first of the two pieces appearing on the site tomorrow (Wednesday), so hopefully you'll see it shortly.
In addition, when the e-book is officially launched after the 18th, it'll be selling for $2.99 (which i think is a pretty decent price for 135k words/340+ pages of hardcore fantasy goodness). However, unbeknownst to all but a few people, and now all of you, [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Kings-Other-Tales-ebook/dp/B005C2CKN6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310536970&sr=8-2]A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales[/ame] is live as of right now for the Amazon-minimum special introductory price of 99¢. This availability isn't being publicly announced or promoted anywhere except here — a kind of unofficial ENWorld pre-buy, as it were.
The pieces that make up A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales — six all-new short stories, the novella Ghostsong, and the short novel A Prayer for Dead Kings — aren't the sort of stories that would inspire the average fantasy fan to go "Oh, gaming fiction." However, between you and me, that's exactly what they are. These stories have grown out of the tales, legends, and history of a campaign world created nearly thirty years ago (yes, i'm embarrassingly middle-aged). They embrace the ethos and the wonder of gaming whole-heartedly and without apology. And in the end, a big part of why i wrote these stories was to try to capture the sense of heroic struggle — the sense of a dark world challenging everyday characters to take up the mantle of heroism in the first place — that has always been the best part of gaming for me.
I had a great time writing this book, and i hope that folks enjoy reading it just as much.
