For all of you budding artists and writers out there, I am giving a seminar at Dragonmeet South West this sunday. The seminar is designed for those of you wanting to break into the world of freelance writing/Art, or for those of you who already work in the field and would like some extra hints and tips.

Magazines are a great place to start and so the seminar is designed to give instruction on contributing to S&P. From submission through to published piece, this seminar will give you the knowledge that you need to get noticed and start earning money for your talents, by doing something that you enjoy.

As an added bonus I will be joined for a Q&A session by a writer and an artist who already contribute to Mongoose projects on a regular basis. Darren Pearce writes dor S&P and also for the Lone Wolf Bonus Adventures, whilst his talented wife Gill Pearce is an artist who has worked on several projects with myself and others. Between the three of us we should be able to answer all questions from a range of perspectives.

Be sure to sign up early as seating will be limited. The Seminar is taking place from 1.30pm to 2.30pm.

Charlie

As most of you have heard, I have spent the past few months working with the guys over at Rebellion, to produce a bonus CDROM to go with Black Missions, the special edition of the 25th anniversary edition of Paranoia:Troubleshooters.

This is now complete and ready to go to press so i thought that it was only fair to let you in on what is actually on the CD!

Interrogation - This section contains the confession booth interrogations of four of the original masterminds behind Paranoia. The Computer questions Dan Gelber, Greg Costikyan, Eric Goldberg and Allen Varney about their involvement with the treasonous propaganda, known as the Paranoia Roleplaying Game.

Past Books - This section contains PDFs of the following 15 Paranoia titles, previously published by Mongoose:
Alpha Complex Nights
Alpha Complex Nights 2
Big Book of Bots
Crash Priority
Criminal Histories
Extreme Paranoia
Mandatory Mission Pack
WMD
Sector Zero
Service Service
The Mutant Experience
The Thin Green Line
The Traitor's Manual
The Underplex
War On [Insert Noun Here]

Computer Slogans - This section contains lots of classic Computer catch phrases that will be useful to GMs. And as if that wasn't enough, we have given you the choice of gender... do you hear The Computer as a man or a woman? the choice is yours!

Sound bank - lots of Paranoia sound effects for GMs to enhance their Paranoia sessions.

Screensaver - A Paranoia screensaver, which could potentially be used as a GM screen.

It has been a strange couple of weeks here. Although the oddest thing to have happened in quite a while occured on Wednesday when the cleaner opened the cupboard under the stairs only to find a small dog had been deposited there. Apparently the little chap was a cheerful little soul who liked sandwiches and is now happily residing in a local animal shelter. It was a young beast, perhaps somewhere between 6 and 18 months old - probably a no longer wanted Christmas present, sometimes people just make me grrrrrrr....

Meanwhile, in the world of work, I have just finished a load of work on Scoundrel and I am now waiting for the art to come in. The latest in the career books we have been producing for the Traveller game this one is a doozy. For all those Han Solo types out there (and for all the Jabba the Hutt wannabes).

I have also been working on (both) the Traveller vehicle books, which have required a fair bit of extra effort on them. It looks like I will be in over the weekend in an attempt to get the book ready to be laid out next week. Almost all the art is in and it looks very nice indeed... First up will be the civilian book, shortly followed by the military version. With advanced construction rules and plenty of example vehicles, this should prove invaluable for GMs everywhere.

As I wait for the latest offerings from the writer regarding the vehicles I am plugging away on the next Conan adventure: To Save A Kingdom. A pretty nifty adventure it is too...

Never a dull moment.

Just a quickie, but we have just taken delivery of Catacombs of Hyboria, Machines of War and Warbirds of World War II. They will be in stores next week, and preorders will be going off tomorrow - for everyone else, they are ready to order!

The advance copies of the new Hammers Slammers books have just reached our office, and they look jolly spiffing! Lots of lovely hover tank goodness inside!

I could be wrong, but I am fairly sure that this is currently the only full colour hardback in the RPG market that was printed in the West (or at least somewhere other than China/Taiwan), and the craftsmanship of the book does the US proud! Will is already paging his way through the book, making notes about how he can 'improve tne awesome' for his next full colour project - Judge Dredd!

Anyway, preorders for Hammers Slammers will be going out next week, and you can expect to see it in stores just a little later this month.

Over the past while, we have been making oblique references to strange presences in the office. Today, we can happily reveal that we have been joined by the 'other' UK RPG publisher, Cubicle 7! Still, it is better in their own words;

*Cubicle 7 Joins Rebellion Group*

/For Immediate Release/.

*/The British publisher of role-playing adventure games and card and
board games, Cubicle 7 Entertainment has announced that it has joined
the Rebellion Group of companies. /*

Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and
Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a
games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the
company has published role playing games from a growing list of
properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures
(based on DC Thomson's 80's Starblazer comic series) and 7^th Circle's
Chinese fantasy Qin.

Victoriana is a fabulous fusion of Victorian adventure and fantasy myth,
SLA Industries is a gritty futuristic urban horror fuelled by classic
British punk imagery, whilst Starblazer Adventure is set firmly in the
heart of classic 80's space opera where gigantic fleets prowl the
starlanes and devilish scientists operate enormous engines of
destruction. The English translation of French publisher 7th Circle's
Qin propels players in to the epic fantasies and tragic events of
ancient Chinese legend.

Cubicle 7 will join other sister companies in the Rebellion Group;
2000AD, the British comic book publisher, Abaddon Books the publisher of
sci-fi and fantasy novels, Mongoose Publishing (another British RPG
publisher) and Rebellion itself, the massive UK based video games
developer established in 1992 by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley.

The company will be now based out of Rebellion Group offices in Swindon,
UK and their support will allow Cubicle 7 to focus on a major licensed
mainstream release later this year as well as a busy monthly release
schedule.

"/This is a great move for the company and one that will certainly
benefit the fans of our games. It allows us the time and resources to
fully support our existing lines as well as giving us the backing to
bring new ideas -- and licenses -- to the marketplace./" said Angus
Abranson of Cubicle 7. "/It places us firmly were we wanted to be in
several years time, right now/," added Dominic.

Jason Kingsley felt Cubicle 7 was a great addition to the Rebellion
Group's circle of creative companies. "/We have been aware of Cubicle
7's ambitions and enthusiasms for some time and approached them with a
view to combining resources to make a good thing great. Rebellion is
very excited to be welcoming C7 into its family. Wonderful things await!"/

For further information, interviews or images please contact Chris Birch at

Chris@cubicle7.co.uk
Find out more about Cubicle 7 games at www.cubicle7.co.uk

*About Rebellion*
Rebellion is well known for the Alien's vs Predator franchise games
which first came out on the Atari Jaguar in 1995. Recently Rebellion
secured critical acclaim with Sniper Elite for Namco in 2005, Miami
Vice: The Game for Vivendi Games, James Bond: From Russia With Love for
EA and Rogue Trooper for Eidos in 2006 and was nominated for two British
BAFTA awards for 'Best Character' and 'Best Screenplay' later that year.

In 2007 Rebellion teamed up with LucasArts to produce Star Wars
Battlefront: Renegade Squadron and the chart topping Harry Potter and
The Order of the Phoenix with EA for PSP as well as a brand new Aliens
vs Predator game in the form of Requiem for Sierra. During 2008
Rebellion produced Call of Duty: World at War for Activision on PS2
gaining yet more chart success.