Bill Fawcett (writer)

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William B. Fawcett (born May 13, 1947) [1] is an American editor, anthologist, game designer, book packager, fiction writer, and historian.

Contents

Life

Fawcett and fellow science fiction writer Jody Lynn Nye were married in 1987. They first met at a science fiction convention in 1985. At that time, Fawcett owned a gaming company in Niles, Illinois, and Nye began to work as a freelance writer for the company. [2]

Career

Bill Fawcett was one of the players in early Dungeons & Dragons games being played in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, using photocopied prototypes of the rules handed out by Gary Gygax. [3] : 166  Darwin Bromley brought Fawcett on as a partner in Mayfair Games soon after the company was formed in 1980, and they worked together to design the game Empire Builder (1980). [3] : 166  As a veteran role-playing gamer, Fawcett got Mayfair involved in the RPG field, and the company kicked off its Role Aids line with Beastmaker Mountain (1982). [3] : 166  Fawcett was friends with Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey, and FASA was able to leverage their connection with Mayfair to obtain a license to publish Thieves' World role-playing game adventures from 1982–1984. [3] : 120, 167  Fawcett and Jordan Weisman designed the robot arena fighting game Combots (1983) for FASA. [3] : 121 

Fawcett produced the Crossroads books (1987–1988), a series of licensed gamebooks published by Tor. [3] : 168  He also authored the short-lived SwordQuest gamebooks series. [4] He edited the book The War Years 1: The Far Stars War (1990). [5] With David Drake, he co-edited The Fleet series (1988-1991), as well as its sequels, Battlestation, Book One (1992), and Battlestation, Book Two: Vanguard (1993). [6] As a book packager, Fawcett was able to arrange a publishing deal between Wizards of the Coast and HarperCollins for novels set in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse of Dominia; the first novel in this series was Arena (1994). [3] : 278 

His 2008 book, Oval Office Oddities, was described as "Chock-full of information—trivia, anecdotes, charts, illustrations, etc." focusing on the lives of American presidents and their wives. [7]

Works

Fawcett and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro write mystery novels together under the pen name Quinn Fawcett. [8] Fawcett was also a field historian for the Navy SEAL museum in Fort Pierce, Florida, and has co-authored work on the US Navy Seals in Vietnam. [8]

As writer

Mistakes in History series

  • Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing
  • 100 Mistakes That Changed History
  • Men At War
  • It Seemed Like A Good Idea
  • How To Lose A War At Sea
  • Doomed To Repeat
  • How To Lose WWII
  • How To Lose The Civil War
  • Hunters And Shooters
  • How To Lose A War
  • It Looked Good On Paper
  • Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies and Foibles [7]
  • You Said What? [10]
  • How To Lose A Battle
  • You Did What? Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters (with Brian Thomsen) (2004) [11]

SwordQuest series

  • SwordQuest: Quest for the Unicorn's Horn (1985)
  • SwordQuest: Quest for the Dragon's Eye (1985)
  • SwordQuest: Quest for the Demon Gate (1986)
  • SwordQuest: Quest for the Elf King (1987)

Short-stories

As editor

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References

  1. ↑ "Fawcett, Bill". Library of Congress Authorities (lccn.loc.gov). Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  2. ↑ Scalf, Abby (July 24, 1998). "Wauconda native creates fantasy worlds for readers". Daily Herald . Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. ↑ Katz, Demian (2006-08-24). "Series - SwordQuest". Demian's Gamebook Web Page. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  5. ↑ Ings, Simon (Summer 1991). "'The Far Stars War' edited by Bill Fawcett (Book Review)". Foundation : 105.
  6. 1 2 3 Westfahl, Gary (Summer 1994). "'Battlestation' edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett (Book Review)". Foundation : 118.
  7. 1 2 Budasi, Teresa (March 2, 2008). "In praise of bathroom reading". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Teri Smith and Jean Marie Ward (1998). "Author interview: "Bill Fawcett: Admitting to Influence". Crescent Blues. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Asprin, Robert L(ynn) 1946-". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. January 1, 2005. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ Gillespie, Nick (December 14, 2007). "You Said What?". Reason.
  11. 1 2 "Thomsen, Brian M." Contemporary Authors . January 1, 2007. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 "Kurtz, Katherine 1944- (Katherine Irene Kurtz)". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. January 1, 2008. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Fleet Series". Good Reads.
  14. ↑ Green, Roland J. (July 5, 1992). "John Varley's Wacky Future Lunar Society". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  15. ↑ Douchette, John-Henry (May 3, 1998). "Inside the Nacy SEALs War Stories by Sea, Air and Land". The Virginian-Pilot . Norfolk, VA. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  16. ↑ Flaherty, Dolores; Flaherty, Roger (July 26, 1998). "Lonely explorers of isolated lives". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  17. ↑ Shenfeld, Hilary (September 22, 1997). "Making Contact: Most Scientists Agree That Humans Will Discover Life on Other Planets Someday, but What If That Life Finds You First? A Wauconda Man's Book Tells You What to Do". Daily Herald . Arlington Heights, IL.[ dead link ]
  18. ↑ "Flint, Eric 1947–". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. January 1, 2006. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Ward, James M. 1951- (James Michael Ward, Jim Ward)". Contemporary Authors. January 1, 2008. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  20. ↑ Kelly, Marguerite (November 30, 2007). "Time to Pull the Plug on Son's Gaming Habit". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  21. ↑ Esser, Doug (July 9, 2006). "Take a hike, go on a date, explore space—Northwest style". The Columbian. Vancouver, WA. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
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