The Leipzig Entertainment Show & A future trip I may have to take (for writing reasons)

It appears that E3 is pretty much dead in this country. For those who do not know what E3 is, it's the big electronics exposition that highlights the new computer games and consoles that are in the industry's headlights. Well, because it's the place for geeks to be, every geek and his mother shows up at this thing every year. It got to the point where the industry insiders didn't like the outsiders showing up to the insider convention, so they decided to do away with the big E3. Well, that's good for avoiding the outsiders, but it also put the whole industry in somewhat of a bind, because the publicity from these shows, notwithstanding the beautiful booth babes that causes every 31 year old nerd who lives in his basement to believe he actually has a chance with a hot model, is what actually sold future games. Now, well, the industry kind of screwed itself.

So, the industry in/outsiders have decided to hype a different show as the insider show that every outsider should be at. And it appears to be the one taking place in Leipzig. PC Gamer sent my favorite executive editor Kristen Salvatore this year to Leipzig's Game Convention. Supposedly, it was the gaming convention to see. I think if it comes down to it, I would enjoy attending this convention, if it ever becomes possible.

My favorite part of Kristen's weblog:

8/24/06: Not only do I appear to be on the correct tram, but I have also successfully negotiated buying tampons in eastern Germany.

Sometimes, I love PC Gamer.

However, my real reasons for wanting to go to eastern Europe has more to do with the latest book I am completing. It is a rewrite of a previous novel I wrote that takes place in eastern Germany, Poland and the former Soviet Union. It takes place during the August 1991 coup attempt, which is actually quite important to the retelling of this novel. I've done a lot of out of country research, but until the Soviet Union fell I was never really able to plan to take a trip into the area to research the locations themselves. When I first wrote this book (previous To Touch the Unicorn, but current title is closer to 72 Hours in August), I was not allowed to travel to any of the communist countries because of my intelligence background. Now, it shouldn't be a problem anymore. I've pretty much given up on working for my country again because their application process is broken and dysfunctional. It's too bad but what can you do.

So I figure in a few years from now, I'm going to be doing an extensive trip to the locations that will probably be used in this novel. At least that's the plan.

In other news, a publisher is planning to publish one of my earlier novels. They sent me a contract, and it's not a subsidy publisher either. Now, I just have to wait the period of forever it takes to publish these things, and all will be fine. I'm writing this novel under my pen name instead of my own because it is a different kind of novel than my usual stuff. I'm planning to build up both names on their own. I figure I'll let the scholars of tomorrow make the connections between me and the other names I choose to put on other novels. Gotta keep them doing something, otherwise they'll spend all their time trying to destroy Christmas.

Stumble It!