Bill Fawcett (writer) explained
William B. Fawcett (born May 13, 1947)[1] is an American editor, anthologist, game designer, book packager, fiction writer, and historian.
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] 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). 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). 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. Fawcett and Jordan Weisman designed the robot arena fighting game Combots (1983) for FASA.
Fawcett produced the Crossroads books (1987–1988), a series of licensed gamebooks published by Tor. 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 multiverse of Dominia; the first novel in this series was Arena (1994).
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.
Works
Fawcett and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro write mystery novels together under the pen name Quinn Fawcett.[7] 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.
As writer
- Cold Cash Warrior: Combat Command in the World of Robert Asprin's Cold Cash War (with Robert Asprin) (1989)[8]
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[9]
- You Said What?[10]
- How To Lose A Battle
- You Did What? Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters (with Brian Thomsen) (2004)
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
- Crafter I (with Christopher Stasheff) (1991)[11]
- Gods of War (1992)[11]
- The Fleet anthology series (with David Drake) [6] [12]
- The Fleet: The Fleet (1987) aka The Fleet, Book 1 [12]
- The Fleet: Counter Attack (1988) aka The Fleet, Book 2 [12]
- The Fleet: Breakthrough (1989) aka The Fleet, Book 3 [12]
- The Fleet: Sworn Allies (1990) aka The Fleet, Book 4 [12]
- The Fleet: Total war (1990) aka The Fleet, Book 5 [12]
- The Fleet: Crisis (1991) aka The Fleet, Book 6 [12]
- Battlestations anthology series — sequel to The Fleet anthology series [6]
- Battlestation (with David Drake) (1992); aka Battlestation I[13]
- Battlestation II (with Christopher Stasheff) (1993); aka Battlestation: Vanguard[11]
- Battlestations (2011); omnibus edition of Battlestation I and Battlestation II
- The Teams: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs with Kevin Dockery (1998)[14]
- Making Contact: A Serious Handbook for Locating and Communicating With Extraterrestrials (1998)[15] [16]
- The Warmasters (2002)[17]
- Masters of Fantasy (with Brian Thomsen) (2004)[18]
- We Three Dragons: A Trio of Dragon Tales for the Holiday Season (2005)[19]
- The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance and Addiction in the 'World of Warcraft (2006)[20]
- Liftport: Opening Space to Everyone (2006)[21]
- Nebula Awards Showcase 2010 (2010)
- Book: Shadows of the New Sun : stories in honor of Gene Wolfe . Tor . Mooney, J. E. . Bill Fawcett . amp.
External links
Notes and References
- https://lccn.loc.gov/n85039438 "Fawcett, Bill"
- News: Scalf . Abby . July 24, 1998 . Wauconda native creates fantasy worlds for readers . . January 7, 2019 . December 14, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191214121033/https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-68938864 . dead .
- Book: Shannon Appelcline . Designers & Dragons . Mongoose Publishing . 2011 . 978-1-907702-58-7.
- Web site: Katz . Demian . 2006-08-24 . Series - SwordQuest . 2023-02-23 . Demian's Gamebook Web Page . en.
- Ings, Simon . Summer 1991 . 'The Far Stars War' edited by Bill Fawcett (Book Review) . . 105.
- Westfahl, Gary . Summer 1994 . 'Battlestation' edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett (Book Review) . . 118.
- Web site: Teri Smith and Jean Marie Ward . 1998 . Author interview: "Bill Fawcett: Admitting to Influence . January 8, 2013 . Crescent Blues.
- January 1, 2005 . Asprin, Robert L(ynn) 1946- . dead . Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329181811/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3417300017.html . March 29, 2015 . February 21, 2015.
- News: Budasi . Teresa . March 2, 2008 . In praise of bathroom reading . . dead . February 4, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329163957/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-11F365D2A818C158.html . March 29, 2015.
- Gillespie . Nick . Nick Gillespie . December 14, 2007 . You Said What? . Reason.
- January 1, 2008 . Kurtz, Katherine 1944- (Katherine Irene Kurtz) . dead . Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329183501/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3070000085.html . March 29, 2015 . February 22, 2015.
- Web site: The Fleet Series . Good Reads.
- News: Green . Roland J. . July 5, 1992 . John Varley's Wacky Future Lunar Society . . dead . February 22, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329183457/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4118330.html . March 29, 2015.
- News: Douchette . John-Henry . May 3, 1998 . Inside the Nacy SEALs War Stories by Sea, Air and Land . . Norfolk, VA . dead . December 7, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924162513/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-68469841.html . September 24, 2015.
- News: Flaherty . Dolores . Flaherty . Roger . July 26, 1998 . Lonely explorers of isolated lives . . dead . February 4, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329163937/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4449804.html . March 29, 2015.
- News: 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 . . Arlington Heights, IL .
- January 1, 2006 . Flint, Eric 1947– . dead . Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329163939/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3483100058.html . March 29, 2015 . February 4, 2015.
- January 1, 2007 . Thomsen, Brian M. . dead . . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329183455/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2698700338.html . March 29, 2015 . February 22, 2015.
- January 1, 2008 . Ward, James M. 1951- (James Michael Ward, Jim Ward) . dead . Contemporary Authors . https://web.archive.org/web/20150329164039/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3072400224.html . March 29, 2015 . February 5, 2015.
- News: Kelly . Marguerite . November 30, 2007 . Time to Pull the Plug on Son's Gaming Habit . . dead . December 7, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924183632/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-11358901.html . September 24, 2015.
- News: Esser . Doug . July 9, 2006 . Take a hike, go on a date, explore space—Northwest style . The Columbian . Vancouver, WA . dead . December 7, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924191026/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23306813.html . September 24, 2015.