Are you ready for a little culture with your Doom? Well, even if you’re not, get ready because id Software has picked up an award-winning science fiction author to pen Doom 4.

We still don’t know much about the game, but according to Computer and Video Games, award-winning British author Graham Joyce is now attached to the project. His prizes include the British Fantasy Award, Imaginaire Award and the World Fantasy Award for titles like The Facts of Life, Indigo and Dark Sister.

So what’s he going to do with Doom? Unfortunately, Joyce only said, “I can say that id have hired me to help develop the storyline potential.”

It has become a tradition for me to auction off naming rights to one of the characters in each of my novels. In the past, I’ve done this locally, with a church group. People would ‘bid’ cans of food that they would donate to the local food bank, and the winner got to name a character in one of my books. The first appearance was Lord Penrod, named for a woman who’s last name was–not surprisingly–Penrod. Lord Yomen in THE HERO OF AGES changed the tradition slightly in that I started describing the character to look like the person who won the auction. Warbreaker’s Llarimar is another of these winners.

When I started working on the Wheel of Time novel, it was my assumption that I would forego the tradition for this particular book. I wasn’t planning on doing anything. But then the awesome Pat Rothfuss (by the way, Pat, I’m going to answer your email soon. Sorry–I got distracted. Bad Brandon!) started up a charity drive this Christmas. This was a particularly bad year for charities, as a lot of people were tightening their belts and cutting their spending. I read several articles talking about how difficult a year it was going to be for a lot of people in underdeveloped areas of the world, where the economy doesn’t just mean fewer trips to the movies–it means children starve because there isn’t enough food to be had.

At that moment, I realized that we had something very special in the Wheel of Time book–an opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up. I wrote an email to Harriet, telling her about the charity that Pat had been using for his drive. It’s called Heifer International. Instead of just giving food to the poor, they go into developing countries, give them animals to care for, and teach them how to use the livestock to create a sustainable source of income and food. It’s a fantastic idea, and a worthy charity. I asked Harriet if she’d mind me auctioning off a character in A Memory of Light. She was behind that 100%. As some of you may know, Robert Jordan did something like this once, giving a walk-on part to a fan in one of the books. There are a LOT of people who need to be named in this story, and so why not let a few of those names and descriptions go to real people?

…

During the Last Battle, there will be a lot of groups fighting the Shadow. Well, we’re going to develop and include a special group to represent the Wheel of Time fans who donate in our charity drive.

And, of course, planning for that all important NEXT BOOK. The strange life of the author, wherein I’m pondering the next book six months before most readers will get to read the last, such that by the time it comes out, I’m thoroughly buried in the next project where praise or criticism for the last are both equally burdensome. Oh yes (you can’t see, but I’m beating my chest), it is so terribly hard to be a maverick creative! Anyway, let it never be said that I keep you in the dark. The next (fifth) book will be a standalone not unlike Best Served Cold – that is taking place in the world of the First Law and featuring some minor characters from the trilogy in more central roles – but if you can think of Best Served Cold as Dark Fantasy meets Hard-Boiled Thriller, this book will be a kind of Dark Fantasy meets Hard-Edged War Story, and will be the thrilling tale of one great battle for control of the North, over the course of three days, from several points of view on both sides and at different levels of the action. Characters will include – a world weary crew of Named Men, a keen young lad desperate to become a hero and claim a name of his own, a Prince determined to regain his father’s lost throne by any means necessary, a girl who may or may not be able to talk to god, and a fencing champion dispatched to the North as the King of the Union’s observer. Naturally there’ll be blood on the snow, blood in the mist, blood in the rain, blood on standing stones, treachery, heroism, cowardice, and blood. Oh, and hilarious banter. And blood. Current, but very, very rough no-promises-made-please-don’t-hurt-me-if-I-miss-it projected publication date is October 2010.

Welcome to The Dragon Federation where SFF book bloggers and the fans that love them gather to talk, discuss and intermingle with the book blogging community.

Each blog, whose owner/author is a member of this forum, gets its own spot (if they want one) where you can meet the authors, discuss their posts and keep up to date with what is going on.

There are two restricted sections. Sword and Spacecraft Tavern for blog owners only and The Ink-Stained SFF Authors where the blog owners and SFF authors can get together and chat. Sorry, no general members allowed. We want our plans for world domination to remain secret!

There is also a chat room! You have 2 options. Click on join chat at the bottom of the forum (Home) page and it will open into a full page chatroom or you can use the smaller version on the portal page.

Registrations must be approved and I will get to them as soon as possible (real life permitting). If you are a SFF blog owner or SFF author, please do not assume I will recognize your user name. Send me a PM so I can set you up with permissions to the appropriate forums.

Once your registration is approved, please setup your profile. (Note: keep your signature within reasonable limits for those of us on slow connections!). Then introduce yourself and make yourself at home.

I hope you all enjoy your stay!