Great news today! Huffington Post named Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks one of "14 Holiday Gifts For Any Middle-earth Lover's Library."
I am honored to be in the company of these other fine books. The post says Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks is "a moving and funny look at the saving grace and inspirational power of fantasy."
and:
"Journalist Ethan Gilsdorf travels around the world on a poignant and hilarious quest to rediscover his youthful love of fantasy role playing games and Tolkien. He explores Oxford, England (where Tolkien taught and wrote most of his books), Marquette University in Wisconsin (where he gets to hold manuscript pages from The Lord of the Rings) and New Zealand (visiting the locations where the film trilogy was shot). It's a moving and funny look at the saving grace and inspirational power of fantasy."
Thanks so much, Huff Post. Read more.
Tolkien & other nerds: I recently had the pleaure of nerding out about The Hobbit (and the new Desolation of Smaug trailer) and other Tolkien, D&D and fantasy topics with the Tolkien Professor, aka Corey Olsen, and Noble Smith (my collaborator over at Dungeons & Dorkwads)
The Tolkien Professor chats with authors and uber-geeks Ethan Gilsdorf and Noble Smith. Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. Noble Smith is the author of The Wisdom of the Shire: A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life.
You can find them both at the webpage Dungeons and Dorkwads.
Download this episode here, or subscribe to The Tolkien Professor on iTunes.
Let the dork-offs begin!
Announcing Dungeons & Dorkwads, a site for all things D&D, nostalgia and bad jokes. In our first post, Noble Smith and I geek out about a 1970s Smaug the Dragon miniature figurine and its resemblance to Pinky Tuscadero, the Fonz's +7 Motorcycle of Shark Tank Jumping, and a hobby shop called Unicorn Castle where they had girls for sale.
What are we trying to accomplish? We’re not sure. What is our mission statement? We don’t have one (yet). But what is this site all about? Dorking-off.
What is a dork-off, you ask? Noble and Ethan, we are not-so-youthful dorks, with an unhealthy attachment to the role-playing games of our glory years — D&D especially — and assorted fantasy, science fictional and pop cultural artifacts. Here at Dungeons & Dorkwads, we exhume and celebrate these lost relics, be they worn dice, faded hand-drawn maps, broken lead figurines, beat-up Tolkien boxed sets or Hoth or Happy Days dioramas. (We’d like to see one that combines both universes.) Then, we geek out about them.
What stories do they unleash from the Tomb of Memories? What did it all mean to us? Were those years in the dungeon a complete waste? We think not. Along the way, we let these dork-offs take us in whatever direction that pleases us. Expect side trips to the lands of Tatooine, Middle-earth, Gilligan’s Island, Lego, and Loni Anderson.
- See more at: http://www.dungeonsanddorkwads.com/whats-a-dork-off/#sthash.unqTcAjf.dpuf