John Helfers interviewing Randall Bills-the success of the first two Kickstarters was so great that CGL don't need them to maintain and expand the plastic minis any more. They will likely still do Kickstarters in the future as they're the best marketing pushes the gaming industry has, but the minis line will continue without them.
-Force Manual: Davion is in the warehouse, Force Manual: Kurita is at the printers
-When will Randall's next novel be out? He's still working on it, the outline is 70% but he needs to adjust it. He's got a couple of short stories on the docket first, and it planning to work on them in the mornings during his tour to get back into the swing of writing.
-When will Mike Stackpole's Red Corsair novel be out? They're hashing out a deal with his agent at the moment.
-If Randall were to write an alternate history, what would it be? Randall kinda got to do that already with the Genecaste. He also noted the Genecaste were somewhat influenced by the Hyperion Cantos (presumably the Ousters)
-They're working on reducing the Shrapnel queue response time
-Will there be additional asset cards for vehicles on the MUL? Absolutely, they're working on getting all record sheets and BSP cards added.
-The audiobook of Close Quarters will be released to Kickstarter backers soon
-Could CGL do audio dramas a la Big Finish? That's a different rights category to audiobooks. John had a quick discussion with a company who does them at DragonCon so contact CGL if you want them.
-More early Clan fiction? Randall is still working on a series of short stories about Jennifer Winston. The first story is very dark and is set when she's 14, so he's working hard to make sure it's not exploitative and his wife and daughter are doing sensitivty reading
-Any update on getting The Sword and the Dagger back? John hasn't spoken with Ardath Meyhar's estate in a while, he'll try again soon.
-More Fox patrol merch? Randall was unaware of how popular they'd become, he's on-board with getting more stuff about them out.
-Will we see the Filtvelt/Tortuga war "on-screen?" More a Ray question but they're open to Shrapnel submissions
-Any update on a replacement for German distribution? Nothing on the game localisation side, but they are very close to making a deal for fiction, ebooks and audiobooks with a German company.
-Crescent Hawks pack with a Phoenix Hawk LAM? Maybe, the 40th anniversary of the compuer game is coming up in a couple of years. (Ray said in chat: No, no LAMs)
-Will CGL show photos of the veiled resin art now they're complete? Not a bad idea, they might put a blogpost together
-Forcepacks based on the old company sceanario packs? Great idea but it might not be practical
-People brought up reissuing the Dragoons and Kell Hounds books in PDF, they talked a bit about trying to get the rest of the back catalogue online and also into PoD
Fiction roundtable with John Helfers, Phil Less, Russell Zimmerman, and Mike Ciaravella-In the Shadow of the Dragon should be the next novel out, then Without Question then Trial of Bloodright and Letter of the Law in that order
-Any experiments like Blood Avatar in the works? Voidbreaker probably fits the bill of being different, it's a spy thriller
-Crossover fiction when? It's highly unlikely
-Favourite issue of Shrapnel? John can't narrow it down to one issue, but 15 stands out - then he went back and said 1 because they were so happy with getting it done and getting the magazine into existence. Phil was very happy with issue 7 because it marked an expansion of the art program. They started with two pieces in 6, then 4 in 7 and now most stories have original art. Mike really enjoyed issue 2. Russell talked about how he and Stackpole were signing books earlier in the con, someone came up to him with issue 15 and said "hey, didn't you write the Kell Hounds story in here?" He replied "I wrote
a Kell Hounds story in there"...
-John mentioned the translating of German novels to English and the new German fiction partner again
-Favourite Merc units? John: Isengrim, ELH and Death Kangaroos. Phil: McCarron's Armoured Cav and 21st Centauri Lancer. Russell: Wilson's Hussars. Mike: Seychelle's Stonehearts and Knights of St. Cameron.
-New Author only Shrapnel? Phil liked the idea
-Any thoughts of doing another anthology like Legacy? Maybe a Warship? They liked this idea
-Would Mason Dunne come back? He'll be in Trial of Brithright
-Any thoughts on bringing the One-Eyed Jacks back? They liked the idea
-On a scale of 1 to 10, how much have they enjoyed putting the Isle of Skye onto maps and not explaining anything? They have an idea for a story that's been floating around for a year
-Favourite ’Mech? Russell: Thunderbolt. Phil: Stormcrow. John: BattleMaster. Mike: Devastator
When is Russell getting a full-length novel? He's turned in a short novel, has a serial novel coming up in Shrapnel and he's got a few other things on the way.
-Favourite sourcebook? Phil: Operation Klondike, Russell: Mercs Handbook 3055. Mike: jihad Conspiracies and StarCorps Dossiers. John: Tales of the Black Widow Company.