My First Post to ShadowSpinners

1 May 2013 by Matthew Lowes

I’m honored to have been invited to join a handful of wonderful writers at ShadowSpinners, a blog from good people who write about bad things. I’ve been in the trenches with many of these writers, cranking out short stories at Elizabeth Engstrom’s ghost-story and fantasy/science fiction weekends, and the initial salvo of posts were a great read.

My first post is up today. I hope you’ll check out the site, link, post, and share. This promises to be an interesting blog for anybody who likes in horror, mystery, and dark fantasy fiction, writing in general, and all things related.

There’s a new post every week!

http://shadowspinners.wordpress.com/

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Roleplaying Games in Development

10 March 2013 by Matthew Lowes

Announcing the development of not one, but two roleplaying games: Grimstone and Weird. I have been quietly developing and writing these games for a while now and look forward to having early playtest versions done soon.

Grimstone Fantasy Roleplaying is a traditional fantasy game based in the 3.5 OGL. It will be largely compatible with early editions of the Original Fantasy Roleplaying Game and with the numerous games of the Old School Renaissance. However, Grimstone features a unique class system with specialized feat lines, a fully developed skill system, and a unified system of magic. I am writing the entire game from scratch, including all spells and monsters to acheive a cohesive streamlined system that represents my ideal in fantasy gaming.

Weird Roleplaying is an original universal rules-light system inspired by weird fiction throughout the ages. It is being designed for fast character creation, streamlined gameplay, and easy adaptiblity to any genre, setting, or source materials. I’m very excited about the possiblities for this game. Weird is like a skeleton key for roleplaying games. It is designed to minimize GM prep time and to make improvisation and adapting adventures from other systems easy and intuitive.

Grimstone and Weird will ultimately be released through my company, Ealdanleoht Books and Games along with a number of original adventures for each system. Stay tuned for further developments.

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ELEMENTS OF CHESS gets reviewed on Amazon

8 February 2013 by Matthew Lowes

A good review of Elements of Chess is up on Amazon.

Check it out here:

ELEMENTS OF CHESS Reviewed

Thanks to Rik for the Comprehensive and highly favorable write-up.

The book is eligible for free super saver shipping through Amazon, or you can order your copy here:

ELEMENTS OF CHESS

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ELEMENTS OF CHESS Available Again!

15 January 2013 by Matthew Lowes

I’m very happy to announce that after resolving some minor printing issues, Elements of Chess is available again. You can purchase your copy here. This book is great for anybody with an interest in Chess. It’s aimed at beginning to intermediate players, but players of all levels will find lots of information well organized, clearly written, and illustrated with carefully chosen diagrams.

Elements of Chess has been years in the making. I wrote it around 2005 while helping to coach a high school chess team. A few years later I had it edited. After that, the book sat dormant for a few more year before I started work on publishing the book independently. A lot of effort has gone into making this the best book possible for beginning to intermediate players. Buy a copy and let me know what you think.

If you enjoy the book, please take the time to review it on Amazon, and post a link on your social networks. Feel free to send me your questions and comments. If you’re interested in more of my fiction and games, subscribe to my site, follow me on Twitter, and support my future work by purchasing my books and ebooks.

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New Year of Writing

9 January 2013 by Matthew Lowes

2013 is starting to sink in and I am gearing up for an exciting year of writing. First and foremost among my projects is writing Book Three of The Three Earths, a fantasy trilogy I have been working on for a long time. I’m very excited about finishing this epic story and getting it in the hands of more readers. I’m committed to finishing the draft this year, which will make next year very exciting as well.

I’m also hoping to get some more short stories written. Notably some more horror stories set in Auxerre, Wisconsin, and perhaps another sword story set in Nara. I have some ideas for some fantasy stories as well, and who know what else will come up.

I’ll be continuing with my independent publishing projects as well. After some small technical glitches, Elements of Chess will soon be available again. Next up, I’ll be making available some of my previously published short stories as Kindle ebooks. Other formats will likely follow, so if you read something other than a Kindle, let me know what formats you want.

Lastly, I am working on some roleplaying game projects that will soon be in the initial playtesting phase. I’ll make announcements about those soon. For now I can say one is an OSR compatible variation on classic fantasy roleplaying, with a few modern and a few original elements. The other is an original system designed to be highly adaptable to any setting and for easy use with adventure modules from any system.

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Reading eBooks

29 November 2012 by Matthew Lowes

I was slow adopter when it came to ebooks, but just bought an ebook copy of The Weird and am quickly reaching a point where I prefer an ebook to a paper book (pbook?). I have an older Kindle and an iPad. Simply put, it’s far more convenient to be reading something on my iPad, which I always have with me, than to worry about toting a paperback around.

The arguments against ebooks, mostly rooted in sentimentalism or fear, have already died down. There’s no doubt that ebook reading is on the rise, and I can’t help but think that ebooks will continue to gain popularity, especially as reading technologies rapidly improve.

Personally, I love that I can have a whole library with me without carrying an extra load, and that I can read in the dark with a backlit screen. I like not having to hold a book open, and the ability to instantly look up words is nice as well. However, I still can’t take my iPad in the bathtub, which remains a sticking point.

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Elements of Chess temporarily unavailable

29 November 2012 by Matthew Lowes

Please note that Elements of Chess is temporarily unavailable for purchase due to a small printing error that I am in the process of resolving. My apologies for any inconvenience. I want to make sure you get the best book possible.

Elements of Chess should be available again sometime next week. I will make an announcement when it is ready. Thanks for your interest!

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