Michael Stackpole

Michael Stackpole (born 1957) is, among other things, a science-fiction author best known for his Star Wars and Battletech books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont. He has a BA in history from the University of Vermont.

From 1977 on, he worked as a designer of role-playing games for various gaming companies, and wrote dozens of magazine articles for the industry. During this time, in response to the accusations of Patricia Pulling and a few others who felt that the "occult" elements of Dungeons & Dragons were driving people to Satanism, murder and suicide, perhaps even as part of a vast Satanic ritual abuse conspiracy, Stackpole did a research study on all American legal cases where injury or death had been attributed to gaming, and found that not only were the links to gaming very weak, but that even if all of the reports had been valid, they showed that gamers were violent or suicidal far less often than the general public (see External links below).

In the 1980s, Stackpole began designing computer games for Coleco and then Interplay Productions. The best known was Bard's Tale III. He also designed and wrote for role-playing games such as Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes and Wasteland (computer game). In the case of Wasteland, he is featured not only in the credits, but also in a photo on the inside cover of the box art, where 6 of the game's scenario designers and 1 tester donned costumes to represent ingame characters. ^*

In 1986 Stackpole wrote his first novel, the fantasy story of Talion: Revenant. However, the manuscript would not be published until 1997 by Bantam Books. His editors believed that a 175,000 word book was too long for an unknown author. The story remained unpublished for the next 11 years and then only minor changes were effected by Stackpole's editor, Anne Lesley Groell. Stackpole clarifies these issues himself in the afterword of the published version of Talion.

In 1987 he began writing novels set in the BattleTech universe for FASA, and became one of the most popular authors in that genre. Some of his Battletech books were used as the source for a televised animated series.

Based on that popularity, he was selected to write several novels in the Star Wars universe for Bantam Books.

In addition, he has written several highly praised novels and short stories based in settings of his own creation. His most recent complete series is called the DragonCrown War Cycle. Like many of his works, these books break many fantasy conventions: among other things, the stories feature the advent of firearms in a fantasy setting.

The first of his next series (The Age of Discovery Trilogy) came out in March of 2005, and is set in yet another all-new fantasy world, with an unconventional approach to magic and mastery in any given field. The second in this new trilogy was released February 28 2006.

In the Forward to his book "Outbound Flight" Timothy Zahn thanks Michael and issues a challenge at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit

His web page is http://www.stormwolf.com

The Secrets

Michael Stackpole also writes and publishes an online newsletter entitled The Secrets. The Secrets newsletter offers tips, tricks, and tidbits about writing (especially fantasy). It is aimed towards the serious writer, and includes information about getting books published, but casual writers can certainly benefit as well. Topics discussed in the newsletter range from how to beat writer's block to how to build a world, and even how to manage writing as a career.

The Secrets Newsletter requires a subscription. Issues are released periodically. As of June 7, 2006, the latest issue (Issue 50) was released on April 15 2006.

Podcast

The Secrets Newsletter has an "audio companion" in The Secrets Podcast. The podcast deals with much the same information as the newsletter, but it presents it in fifteen- to twenty-minute long audio segments, voiced and recorded by Michael Stackpole himself.

The podcasts are free and require no subscription, but older episodes have been retired and are no longer available on the main archive.

Novels

Age of Discovery

Published by Bantam Books.

2005 A Secret Atlas
2006 Cartomancy
200? A New World (Release date unknown)

DragonCrown War

Published by Bantam Books.

2000 The Dark Glory War
2001 Fortress Draconis
2002 When Dragons Rage
2003 The Grand Crusade

BattleTech

Published by Fasa Corporation.

=Warrior

1988 Warrior: En Garde
1988 Warrior: Riposte
1989 Warrior: Coupé

=Blood of Kerensky

1989 Lethal Heritage (FASA)
1990 Blood Legacy (FASA)
1991 Lost Destiny (FASA)

=Other BattleTech

1992 Natural Selection (FASA/ROC)
1993 Assumption of Risk (ROC/FASA)
1994 Bred For War (ROC/FASA)
1996 Malicious Intent (ROC/FASA)
1997 Grave Covenant (ROC/FASA)
1998 Prince of Havoc (ROC/FASA)
2002 Ghost War (ROC/WizKids)

Dark Conspiracy

Published by GDW.

1991 A Gathering Evil
1991 Evil Ascending
1992 Evil Triumphant

Others

1994 Once a Hero (Bantam Books)
1994 Dementia (Roc/Target)
1997 Talion: Revenant (Bantam Books)
1997 A Hero Born (HarperPrism)
1998 An Enemy Reborn (HarperPrism)
1998 Wolf and Raven (Roc/FASA)
1998 Eyes of Silver (Bantam Books)

Other Publications

1989 Game Hysteria and the Truth
1990 The Pulling Report
1994 GAMA News, Model Retailer, March, 98-99

External links

Personal Website (index page last updated 15 October 2005)
Bibliography on SciFan
The Pulling Report: the result of Stackpole's research (see above)
Wars CCG Short Story collection online
Interview with Mike Stackpole by GameSpy
Michael Stackpole discussion at theforce.net Message Boards
Pen & Paper listing for Mike Stackpole
Interview with Michael Stackpole on Slice of SciFi
The SciFi Podcast Network, host of The Secrets Podcast forum.

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