An Interview Of Yours Truly By Author William Dietz, With Input From David Drake!

I was recently interviewed by William C. Dietz, adventure fiction author extraordinaire, about the miniatures industry.

The interview request via email was a bolt out of the blue. I knew I had heard that name before, and with a little googling, I realized the magnitude of who it was, deigning to communicate with little-old-me.

Holy -EXPLETIVE DELETED-!


This was THE William C. Dietz. The guy who wrote the Legion series of science fiction novels, among many, many others. He's done Star Wars novels. Mass Effect. HALO. The man is heavy hitter, to say the least.

Holy -EXPLETIVE DELETED-!

And he wanted to interview me. The nobody who sculpts minis on a computer!


Holy -EXPLETIVE DELETED-!

Needless to say, I was floored. The interview was via email, so I had a chance to measure out my words, and answer the questions without sounding too much like the yammering buffoon I am in real life. At least I hope so.

The questions ranged from licensing deals to methods of production, and how authors could safeguard their property when dealing with miniatures manufacturers.

I gave him the straight dope, as I have experienced the business for the last twelve years or so. Khurasan, Rebel, Critical Mass, all got nicely-placed mentions. The big dogs in the industry as well; Reaper, GW, Privateer Press, DP9, among others.

I hope I didn't overstate the point, but I really wanted to convey a message that was free of rose-colored fantasy. My focus was blunt, but honest: Nobody really gets rich doing this. It's more for the love of seeing your vision become reality on the tabletop.

When it came to licensed properties, I mentioned in passing how David Drake, the godfather of futuristic military fiction, had made a deal with Ground Zero Games and Old Crow in the UK to bring Hammer's Slammers to the gaming masses. I didn't think much of it, and turned my answers back into Mr. Dietz to edit and publish.

So what does Mr. Dietz do?

He does a follow-up, supplemental interview with David Drake, the man himself, to confirm my mumblings. I saw the addendum when I saw the review copy of the column.

My words were on the same page as this guy.

What came out of my mouth next, was, you guessed it...

"Holy -EXPLETIVE DELETED-!"

I've been a fan of David Drake's since I was in high school over twenty years ago. The man is an icon.

His answers seemed to confirm my own, that minis was a labor of love by true fans, and that he enjoyed the company of gamers and game industry folks. It was a very cool thing to put in print.

Well, I'll stop the frothing fanboy treatment, but needless to say, I was in heaven from my brush with greatness, rubbing figurative elbows with two titans of modern science fiction.

Click here to download a PDF of the interview. It's about 2 Megs.

My thanks to Mr. Dietz and Drake for a memorable experience.

Enjoy the interview.

Best,
John Bear Ross

Comments

Lead Legion said…
Greed. Great interview. And what a chance to hobnob with the stars of science fiction.
Barks said…
Great questions and answers, I can see this becoming a useful introduction for many in the future- "just read this".
Don M said…
Outstanding interview, this is a saver!
Koloth said…
Thanks for linking to the interview. Been a fan of David'swork for years, and got my copy of the original Slammers rules signed by him at the Salute show he mentions in the article.
Wes said…
This happened to you because you deserved it. It is often the humble ones that are over looked, not this time.

Enjoy this moment, and congrats from
Noel.
Mark Mondragon said…
Grats John! You have made, and continue to make great contributions to the tabletop gaming industry so it’s no surprise to me that you ended up on the same page as David Drake.

Great interview and a great read!

All the best!
Mark-
MIK said…
Holy -EXPLETIVE DELETED-!

Very nice chief, downloading it now to read, looking forward to it.
Great stuff! I'm not at all surprised they wanted to interview you actually.

I'm about to release not one but two of the designs you made for me, once I get the castings--the karkpanzer (l) and the Stikk Skuttler. To think, I have famous designers making models for me.

Hmmm, can I have your autograph? :-)
Great interview! Very insightful and cool as hell to have the 3 of you on the same project.
Unknown said…
been out of the loop for a few weeks, just wanted to say congrats!
Eli Arndt said…
Wow, insane. Not just one, but two of my favorite authors. Local guy, Dietz just gained serious cool points for me.
Eli Arndt said…
Wow, insane. Not just one, but two of my favorite authors. Local guy, Dietz just gained serious cool points for me.
Lepp said…
How did I just find this? I emailed Mr Dietz a WHILE ago (been a fan of the Legion series for years, and from that I knew he answers his own emails) talking to him about sci-fi gaming and 15mm in particular, in the hopes of finding out if a Legion line had crossed his mind/might be in the works. I brought up (duh) JBR as the only person I would trust to design the quad walkers, and his response mentioned contacting you for an interview, and you agreeing to it; I gave up looking for it some time ago. Just found it scrolling through tags looking for the RUM-V series; glad it all worked out so well! (and yes, I'm totally bragging, but it wasn't out of the blue - there's quite a bit of overlap between your fanbases)

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