Continuing with Random Acts of Publicity, I want to tell you all a little bit about my pal, Amber E. Scott.

As has happened with many of my writing friends, I read Amber well before I met Amber.  Her work graced the pages of Dragon magazine back before its fall, and as a happy coincidence it turns out that she wrote one of my favourite articles, “The Story So Far”, featured in Dragon #329.  And as usually happens, once her name was in my attention I couldn’t help but see it almost everywhere; in Dragon magazines, on the Giant in the Playground Games site, and eventually in book after book of my beloved Pathfinder RPG.

Of course Pathfinder is where I find Amber the most these days.  Not only has she contributed to many Adventure Paths and Pathfinder sourcebooks, but she co-wrote one of my new favourites, “Halflings of Golarion“.  You must understand, I’ve had zero interest in playing a halfling character since I was thirteen.  But “Halflings of Golarion” turned me around and made the little buggers cool again!  How cool?  Cool enough for me to play a halfling sorcerer in an upcoming Pathfinder campaign (That the campaign is GMed by Amber had nothing to do with my choice, I’m shocked you would even suggest such a thing).  We’ll see who the “shorty” is when he is raining lightning down on all those other punks…but I digress.

That leads me to what I enjoy about Amber the most: she is a gamer just like me.  She loves this hobby and is enthusiastic about running and playing RPGs, but at the same time has been able to discipline that enthusiasm, which allows her the opportunity to write exciting and interesting material for the hobby she loves.  Not many gamers achieve that, and yet if you met Amber you might never know she was one of them, as understated as she is about her work.  For me, finding out Amber has written something usually goes something like this: pick up new Pathfinder book; notice Amber’s name in the writer credits; call Amber on her new work, to which she will reply with some variation of, “Oh, yeah, well I worked on that a while ago, now.”

So if Amber is reticent to trumpet her own achievements, well, I am more than happy to take up that slack.  She is an amazing writer of gaming material, with an ability to simultaneously excite and inform players and game masters.  She is also an accomplished fiction writer, which anyone who has read The Duke’s Wolf can attest.  So accomplished in fact, she has a new serialized story, The Seventh Execution, which has just begun on the Paizo site.  I can’t recommend it enough, and I will be hard pressed not to pester her for a sneak peak at the second chapter at tomorrow night’s Pathfinder game.

Beyond her writing ability, Amber is all-around one of the nicest people I have encountered in the crazy, mixed-up world of RPGs (her husband Jason is right up there, too).  Not only is she fun to talk to and game with, but she has been enthusiastically supportive of my own freelance game-writing intentions (even though those intentions haven’t yet borne fruit).  If you have a chance to talk to her, do it.  If you luck into a seat at her gaming table, get ready for fun!  And hey, gaming companies, if you need a super-talented writer, she is your gal; check her out at Medesha Freelancing (and if she is busy, well, why not take a chance on a newcomer…).

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