marshmallow meeps and an 8-bit wwdn coat of arms

Yesterday, the final two T-shirts in the first round of my collaborations with Jinx were released.

Like Rules Lawyers, this idea amused me greatly, and I was shocked to discover that someone hadn't done this already. Maybe it's too small a slice of overlap in the Venn Diagram, but I think it'll be pretty popular with the people who get it. I couldn't come up with a description for this, so Jinx did this, which I think is appropriately cute:

Always in season, these tasty marshmallow treats are not to be consumed until all tiles have been placed and all scores are tallied. Low in calories but packed with win, MEEPS are guaranteed to occupy your territories and satisfy your sweet tooth. A fat free gaming piece brought to you by Wil Wheaton and the folks at J!NX.

The last shirt we did is my favorite of the whole batch. Behold, the WWdN:iX family crest!

This wasn't originally in the 8-bit style, but Sean at Jinx thought it would be cool, since their artist Chris Hope does a lot of 8-bit designs. I wasn't sure it would work … right up until the moment I saw it, and realized that it couldn't be done any other way. If enough people ask, we could probably make this into a sticker, or a hat.

The description I wrote for it amuses me:

The actual Wheaton family crest, while historically accurate, isn’t all that awesome, and while it probably reflected something relevant to my ancestors, it feels … well, dated by about 800 years.

So I asked myself one day, “if I could make a coat of arms for my little portion of the internet – my kingdom, I guess you could all it – what would it look like?”

The motto came to me instantly: “Don’t Be A Dick!” The rest followed quickly, representing the load-bearing pillars of my existence: science, gaming, Sci-Fi, and writing. We wrapped up the whole thing in a classic 8-bit package, and the WWdN Coat of Arms was born.

All my designs are available in basic, women's, and premium (which is a softer fabric, usually American Apparel, with a slimmer cut) and in sizes from S-2XL.

In case you missed them, the other two designs are both RPG-related: My Sword Glows Blue in the Presence of Rules Lawyers, and Never Forget Your Roots.

code kansas

After being away for much of the last month, I finally got to have a date with Anne on Saturday night.

We made dinner together (seriously, that's one of life's great, simple pleasures) and then watched Black Dynamite from Netflix on our Roku.

The original plan was to watch Forbidden Zone on DVD (remember those?) but I stupidly bought the color version, and I wanted Anne to see it in glorious black and white, so we went to the on-demand section of Netflix to find something that would entertain, without being too serious. I recalled one of my friends raving about Black Dynamite a few months ago, and Netflix said that I'd probably give it 5 stars, so we paid the ticket and took the ride, and were completely on board within the first three minutes of the movie. There may have been some high fiving and jive talking from the two of us, or I may have made that up; we'll never know for sure and I ain't telling.

"This is everything I wanted Grindhouse to be," I told Anne when it was over.

"This reminds me of when we were dating," she said. "I'm so glad we watched this!"

Let me explain: when we were dating, we watched tons of bad 70s movies, and our favorites were the Blaxploitation films like Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, and of course Shaft. We loved those movies so much, that when we got married, we walked into our reception to the theme from Shaft. For reals.

Black Dynamite the greatest homage to Blaxploitation this side of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. It's clever, it's self-aware, it's a whole lot of fun, and it looks and sounds fantastic.

I love movies like this that aren't afraid to take risks, that aren't focus-grouped into an unsatisfying beige paste, that are unapologetic and proud to be different. If you like the same things I like, I think you'll want to give it 5 stars and a thousand upboats, too.

The Guild: Season 4

Here's the teaser trailer for season four of The Guild:

anyone interested in a short fiction collection?

I have a question for everyone who reads my blog: if I put some short stories I'd written together into a little collection and sold it at Lulu, would you be interested?

I ask this because I collected a few short stories into a limited edition chapbook for last year's PAX Prime, and it's been sitting here, in my computer, just sort of staring at me accusingly and asking why I didn't release it to anyone in the world who wanted it.

It's just four short stories – well, two short stories and two stories that are slightly-longer than flash – that haven't been collected in any other place.

It will be available worldwide (anywhere Lulu ships). I'll keep the price down, and offer it in print and digital editions (probably around $7 and $5 each, if I've calculated the economics on Lulu correctly) … but here's the catch: it will only be available for one week. (I don't have a good reason for that, I just think it's cool to make something that's a limited edition. Wait, that's a perfectly good reason; a cromulent reason, even.)

Here's the introduction to the PAX edition:

The Day After and Other Stories

Every year, before the summer convention season gets underway, I pull a few excerpts from whatever I plan to release in the fall, take them to my local print shop, and make a deliberately lo-fi, limited edition chapbook to take with me on the obligatory summer convention circuit.

I’ve done previews of Dancing Barefoot, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Memories of the Future, and in 2008, I pulled together a sampler that eventually became Sunken Treasure.

While Memories of the Future is 2009’s “big” fall release, it didn’t make sense to me to release a Memories-based chapbook this summer, because one already exists.

It looked like there wasn’t going to be a 2009 entry in the traditional Wil Wheaton Zine-like Chapbook Extravaganza, until I realized that I have several pieces of unpublished fiction sitting in my office, just waiting to be published.

“Hey,” I said to myself, “people keep asking me to write and release fiction, and I’ve been waiting until I have an actual novel to give them. But these things totally don’t suck, and I bet readers would enjoy them.”

“That is an excellent idea, me,” I said. “And have I mentioned how smart and pretty you are?”

“Oh, stop it. You’re embarrassing me,” I said.

Together, myself and I collected some of my (mostly unpublished) fiction and put it into this chapbook, for safe keeping.

Even though this is limited to just 200 copies, it represents a significant step for me in my life as a writer, because it’s the first time I’ve collected and published stories that I made up. (You know, like a writer does.) I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your support!

Wil Wheaton

Pasadena

2009