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I gave a reading and signed books last night at the University Book Store for my novel City of Torment. Photography by Erin Evans (author of soon to be released FR novel, the God Catcher). My fellow reader was Jak Koke, author of Edge of Chaos.

I've attempted to add a couple photos of the event, not sure if they've attached.

Last Friday, Rich Baker and I held a playest for some D&D game material we are working on. We were a little anxious going in, because we didn't know how it would work. Of course, that's why you playtest; a playtest is the experiment that proves or disproves your hypothesis.

I'm happy to report that the playtest was a rocking success! Sure, we had to throw out a few contaminated petri dishes, but the cultures produced the miracle antibiotic we were hoping to discover (to extend the earlier metaphor).

I've been in playtests where this was definitely not the case, so I am keenly appreciative of the ones that work out so serendipitously.

A very interesting article posted to DDi regarding your warlock character's partron:http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drcact/20091116

The article suggests making your patron a named entity with motivations and desires that go beyond being a mere power source, and provides sample named patrons in each of the pact types.

I did much the same in Plague of Spells with my warlock character Japheth, whose patron is Neifion, the Lord of Bats. Neifion is an archfey, an enigmatic fey whose love of blood and personal power runs headlong into Japheth's desire to save himself from the consequences of his addiction to a helldrug called traveler's dust.

During Chris Perkin's last game session, my 15th level tiefling warlock critted twice in three rounds, thanks to a combination of powers and paragon features. Both strikes dealt in the neighborhood of 50 points of damage. For the first time, my dice rolled "hot" and I got to feel what other strikers must feel like. I sort of like it.

Here's to hoping my dice remain "hot." It's time for the other side of the bell curve to feel a little love!

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have already seen my Book Nook interview. If not, check this out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZeJz2iPgX4