About

Arinn Dembo. Photograph by Judith Paxton.

Since 1994, she has worked primarily as a reviewer and a developer in the computer gaming industry. She has built worlds and contributed background fiction to a number of popular PC titles, including Homeworld, Ground Control, Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Homeworld: Cataclysm, and most recently Fort Zombie. Her largest creation to date has been the Sword of the Stars universe, which comprises the background fiction of Sword of the Stars and its three expansions, Born of Blood, A Murder of Crows, and Argos Naval Yard. Her novella The Deacon’s Tale, set in the Sword of the Stars universe, was published by Lighthouse Interactive in 2008 and was re-printed as a full novel is 2011 by Kthonia Press. She is currently the lead writer at Kerberos Productions, a game development studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is hard at work on the company’s lead title, Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter, and has been named lead designer of another unannounced project.

The author is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and SF Canada. In her spare time, she has raised two lovely daughters, achieved a degree in Anthropology and a second degree in Classical Archaeology, made two cameo appearances in zero budget horror movies, and won a few local awards for her photography and cinematography. She presently lives in British Columbia.

Print

An exhaustive list of every place that I have published an article, essay, poem or story in the last twenty years would be impossible to compile (not to mention boring). This is a very small selection of “highlights” which I hope will put my work in context. I freely admit that this list does not represent every word I have written and published over the years.

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Logo of the New York Review of Science Fiction

My publication history dates back to September 1991. Issue #37 of The New York Review of Science Fiction featured my essay “Impassion’d Clay” on The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers.

Back issues or scans of the essay may be available through NYRSF. This particular piece has been noted by Powers scholars; it was one of the first serious attempts to grapple with his body of work in a genre publication.

The piece was quickly translated and reprinted in Spanish in the early 1990′s.

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November 1993 issue

My reviews for Computer Gaming World were written and published in 1995-1996. I covered a wide variety of titles, generally reviewing games that were simply too strange, obscure or disturbing to be of interest to reviewers with greater seniority. This required me to wade through a great many games which were simply lamentable… but I also got the chance to enjoy some real gems which were being overlooked because they hadn’t been “hyped” in advance.

I was also the only reviewer on staff with a serious interest in horror, which gave me the chance to cover interesting games which pushed the boundaries of computer gaming as a medium for story-telling: Phantasmagoria, Seventh Guest, and Gabriel Knight were important experiments in the form.

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Cover art for F & SF June 1996, painting by Kent Bash

My short story “Sisterhood of the Skin” was published in the June 1996 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, although it had originally been sold in 1994. It has been reviewed by Jim Bailey in his Short Fiction Round-up.

“This is a very strong SF story. A factory fishing vessel is plundering the waters of a virgin planet to feed the hungry masses of other worlds. Sci-Med Officer Tso is confronted with the mystery of the native silkies, a walrus-like species that has killed one of the crew. As she investigates the death and performs an autopsy on one of the silkies, she discovers that they may hold the key to her own problems of identity and self-image.

Well written and well drawn images of the world and the culture of the vessel create a strong backdrop to the characters personal story. Arinn Dembo is a writer to watch.”

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Cnet Gamecenter's former logo

When editor George Jones left Computer Gaming World Magazine to become the editor of a new website for gaming journalism, he quickly built a stable of reliable professional reviewers to provide quality content. The result was Cnet’s Gamecenter, which quickly became the most popular site for gaming news and reviews on the web.

Between 1997 and 2000 I wrote thousands of words of content for Cnet Gamecenter and contributed reviews, articles and walk-throughs of countless games. Highlights included the chance to review the first few Age of Empires games, as well as some of the earliest MMORPGs (including Meridian 59, Ultima On-Line and Everquest) and classics like Zork: Grand Inquisitor, The Curse of Monkey Island, Caesar III, Grim Fandango, Baldur’s Gate, etc.

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Delta Green: Dark Theatres (2001) by Armitage House

In 2001 my novella “Suicide Watch” was published by Armitage House, the makers of the Delta Green role-playing game series. Dark Theatres was an anthology of stories set in their Delta Green universe. I became involved with the project through a personal friend, Bob Kruger, who was initially the editor of that anthology. When Bob asked me in the late 1990′s whether I could write a Cthulhu Mythos story adapted to the Delta Green universe, I made some minor changes to an idea that I had already been working on, and submitted the resulting piece as a friendly gesture.

The story went through some turbulence on its way to publication, as not everyone at Armitage House agreed that it was really “Delta Green” material, and apparently there were some objections to its length as well as some of its themes. This said, the story eventually was published in its entirety, thanks to the efforts of my editor Bob Kruger and the support of John Tynes, who was then a working partner at Armitage.

A selection of comments and reviews:

“This anthology of Delta Green short stories presents a good introduction to the conspiracy/horror concepts of the DG world. Some stories are better than others, and each tale has it’s own merits, but the story by Arinn Dembo stands head and shoulders above the rest. The story, a DG-flavored explanation of the life and times of a rockstar who closely resembles Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, is truly fantastic in my opinion. I’m probably a bigger fan of the story because of the unsolved mystery of Cobain’s death, but it’s well-written and sucks you in with a mixture of present-time and flashback sequences. I recommend the book as both an introduction to DG, and as a source of fresh new historical fiction authors. –Amazon.com”

“At the danger of sounding like a DG shill, Dark Theatres is my favorite collection of Lovecraftian fiction by anyone except HPL himself. And I think that Suicide Watch may be one of my favorite pieces of Lovecraftian fiction, period. –Del Rio, alt.horror.cthulhu“

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Imagination Fully Dilated: the Literated Artwork of Alan C. Clark

My short story “Between the Lines” was written as an experiment in inspiration. There is a standard relationship which exists between writers and visual artists, a sort of unwritten contract which is very rarely broken. Typically the writer is the dominant partner creatively (even if he or she is inferior in talent), because visual art is created to “illustrate” or “illuminate” the written word. The words come first: the art is based on the words, and takes them as inspiration.

This basic relationship (writer first, artist second) is repeated in countless media, from television and film to comic books and children’s books–words first, then pictures. There is nothing necessary or “natural” about this arrangement, however–it is sanctified only by collective force of habit. What if it was the writer whose job it was to follow the visual artist? What if pictures came before words, and writers had to tell a story that somehow explained or enriched a visual image? What if we could read something which was not an illustrated story, but a “literated” picture?

Artist Alan C. Clarke has thrown down this gauntlet to many genre authors over the years: can you make a story from this art? I was just one of many to attempt the feat. My story was published alongside many other SF tales based on Clark’s paintings in an anthology from Fairwood Press, titled Imagination Fully Dilated: Science Fiction. And I must admit, Clark’s painting did inspire some strangely compelling ideas. I have written about many strange “meetings of the mind” ever since.

So basically what I’m saying is that I blame Alan C. Clark. Any writer who would like to attempt the Clark Challenge should check the Dilation Exercises which the artist has generously posted to his blog.

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Best Fantastic Erotica anthology, published by Circlet Press

In 2005, Circlet Press threw open its transom for a writing contest called “the Best Fantastic Erotica”. The prizes they offered for winning short stories were rather impressive, so I sent them a little piece I had written about an exotic encounter in a far-off place.

“Monsoon” went on to win the grand prize in that contest, and was published in an anthology of the runner-ups and honorable mentions in 2007. Of all my fiction to date, I believe “Monsoon” has generated the largest ratio of reviews-to-word-count. In any case, I am very glad that so many people enjoyed the little tale.

“Tan (Sex in the System) presents the top stories from Circlet’s Best Fantastic Erotica contest in an anthology that runs the gamut from sensual SF to surreal fantasy. Arinn Dembo’s “Monsoon,” the deserving prize winner, tells the tale of Benton, a photographer and womanizer traveling in India, whose encounter with a mysterious seductress results in an eerie surprise…” –Publisher’s Weekly, March 2008

“Monsoon” by Arinn Dembo…It’s not surprising that this lushly written story of an exotic one-night stand was selected as Circlet’s winner. Dembo so firmly and skillfully establishes the South Asian setting you can practically feel the baking heat and smell the curry…the slow build-up to the payoff is exactly the sort of subtle, sexy style that’s rewarding in an erotic story.” –Lydia Thorn, Uniquely Pleasurable

“The opening story, “Monsoon” by Arinn Dembo — by far the best contribution — is a gentle, elegant and subtly disquieting piece where a photo journalist travelling in India is visited during the night by an unidentified lover who satisfies his physical and emotional needs.” –Mario Guslandt, SF Site

“Monsoon” by Arinn Dembo is one of the best stories I have read in a long time, something I could easily have seen in The New Yorker back in the day when they were accepting slipstream fiction and more female authors.” –Carol Ann Moletti, “On Women’s Fiction”

“The lead story ‘Monsoon’ by Arinn Dembo gets my vote for the finest piece in this anthology, written in the lush, exotic style of Ian McDonald’s 2007 Hugo Award Winner “The Djinn’s Wife”…

Dembo layers this story with beautiful imagery of a woman’s power to evoke comfort as a mother (indeed even Mother India), a lover, a cook, or a servant. The life-giving power of the female, embodied by the monsoon rains that give life back to the land, threads through this haunting tale. “Monsoon” is the kind of erotica that could be found in any fantasy or literary fiction anthology; the sexual content blends so seamlessly into the story, it’s hardly noticeable.” -Carole Ann Moletti, The Fix: Short Fiction and Poetry Review

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H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror 2009

Since I am a life-long fan of H.P. Lovecraft, I thought it would be fun to sell a story to a magazine named after the Old Gent himself. I was somewhat less thrilled when the publisher chose not to actually print the last issue of the magazine, but to simply release it as a pdf. I was even less thrilled when the pdf they released had not been copy-edited. Accordingly my name is misspelled in H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, not once or even twice, but three times. And there are also a few problems with the printing of my story, which contained a good many Latin and Italian words which probably confused the spellchecker to no end.

Nonetheless, despite a few typos here and there, my short story “ICHTHYS” is still readable. It’s a horror story for the Easter holiday, written at the inception of my interest in the catacombs of Rome and the history of the Primitive Church.

Earlier Games

I joined the video gaming industry as a player in the very early 1980′s, when I stumbled onto one of the first arcades in my hometown set up in the basement of the Crystal Tavern. The cocktail-table release of Space Invaders was the jewel of the place, but I was better at Galaxian. The standing console versions of Donkey King, Asteroids and Centipede took more of my lunch money than any schoolyard bully.

I discovered PC gaming via the text adventures and rpg’s, and soon left Leather Goddesses of Phobos and The Lurking Horror behind in favor of Ultima IV and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. I still have many guilty favorites from the 1990′s, and fond memories of many classic games on their first release. It was an extremely fertile period, in which so many of today’s powerhouse genres and franchises were born. Meridian 59, one of the first multi-user dungeons. Doom. Fallout.

I published my first reviews in the PC gaming press in 1995 and made my first contribution as a game developer in 1999, with the release of Homeworld. As of 2011, there are ten successful releases on my resume. Eternal thanks to the fans who supported each and every one.

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Published by Sierra, developed by Relic (1999)

Homeworld was developed by Relic Entertainment in the late 1990′s. During the development cycle, the publisher, Sierra Entertainment, was satisfied with the majority of the work done by Relic to create an innovative, exciting science fiction title.

Martin Cirulis was hired by Sierra to work briefly with the Relic team as a freelance gun-for-hire. After having reviewed the basic premise for the game and the technology that Relic had developed for gameplay, he scripted the game’s story campaign, including all dialogue and speech events, and wrote the majority of the game’s manual, in particular the descriptive passages on the available ships.

My role in the making of Homeworld was somewhat smaller. While Cirulis worked independently on the script, he brought me in to help create the culture and history of Kharak and its people. For fans of the game and its lore, I helped to develop the basic social structure and cultural institutions of the Kushan, and I was directly responsible for writing the Kiith Histories of the Soban, Manaan and Paktu groups. Because we worked jointly on our contribution to Homeworld, Martin Cirulis and I are credited under a joint pseudonym, “Marcus Skyler”.

Paktu believes fiercely in independence, and despises priests and dictators. Its people are optimistic, innovative, and venturesome—and when things are darkest, someone will almost always repeat the kith’s motto: “I can smell the sea.”

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developed by Massive Entertainment, published by Sierra

Ground Control was developed in Sweden by Massive Entertainment, and published by Sierra in 2000. After having worked successfully with the Relic team, Sierra Entertainment felt confident that Martin Cirulis could to help polish the single-player campaign and to add some color and depth to the background fiction of the game. He was sent to Sweden to meet with the team, review the gameplay features and premise of the game, and work out some story content.

As with Homeworld, Martin Cirulis wrote the script for the single-player campaign of Ground Control, although he did not have any input in casting and directing the voice actors who performed the lines. My contribution to Ground Control was simply in producing fictional background material which was offered on the game’s promotional website, and published in gaming magazines to stir interest in the game.

This was actually quite an interesting job, and gave me the chance to experiment with a variety of fictional styles, including vignettes, diary entries, and comic book scripting. Once again, Martin Cirulis and I were credited for our work on Ground Control as “Marcus Skyler”.

In retrospect, one of the most interesting features of Ground Control was the ability to play through the game as a female character. One of the two playable factions of the game was led by a strong, competent female commander. I enjoyed writing about Major Sarah J. Parker in the game’s background fiction; honestly, I think computer gaming could use more characters like her. Someone should give that lady her own game!

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developed by Troika, published by Sierra

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra in 2001. Unlike Ground Control and Homeworld, the developers of Arcanum did not need a script or a campaign for the title. What they were looking for was an extremely colorful manual, with a great deal of Victorian-inspired background fiction, as well as some promotional fiction teasers for their website.

Arcanum was a rewarding project in many ways. I got the chance to try my hand at steampunk fiction, which was a great deal of fun and allowed me to indulge my love of Charles Darwin and Richard Francis Burton, two Victorian gentlemen I’ve always greatly admired. The game is also a fan favorite, and many people who do not know of my other work have played it.

Arcanum was also the last time I used the “Marcus Skyler” pseudonym. Although Martin Cirulis and I have continued to work together on other projects, we have been credited independently since 2001, as the division of labor has been much more clear.

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developed by Barking Dog Studios, published by Sierra

Homeworld: Cataclysm was developed by Barking Dog Studios, another Vancouver-based development studio. The publisher of Homeworld, Sierra Entertainment, wanted to release an expansion, but the team at Relic was occupied with the development of other titles. Martin Cirulis was hired by Barking Dog to provide design input and script a single-player for the expansion, and also directed the voice-acting for the game. Once again I joined the team as a freelance writer to provide some content for the manual and the game’s universe.

I provided several pieces of background fiction to the manual of Cataclysm, and I also did some voice-acting for the game. The studio recording sessions were a lot of fun.

The Oracle of Tala was also much visited in ancient times, not only for the sculptures on the temple grounds, but for the mysterious rites practiced by its temple women. Here the Somtaaw dedicated prayers and ceremonies not to the Celestial Father and Son, but to Kharak Herself. The World Goddess is depicted in most of the temple’s tapestries as a graceful Lady, dressed desert-fashion in flowing robes. She wears a veil to cover Her face, like a Manaani traveler. Sometimes the hand She raises to hold that veil in place is bare, stripped to the bone; the Veiled Lady is associated with the mysteries of death, and Her veil is a metaphor for all that we do not know and cannot understand.

The temple women of Tala were said to have the gift of prophecy, and they were often consulted before any serious undertaking was planned; they also were visited by those who had lost loved ones in the desert, and asked to perform funeral rites for those whose bodies would never be found. Some of the prophecies and pronouncements of the Somtaaw’s Oracle have become quite famous. For example, legend has it that the Tala’sa turned away pilgrims who came in 491 to make an offering for the souls of the Paktu, when it was believed that the kiiths of the First Migration had been lost in the sands of the Great Banded. “Come again and offer for the soul of Majiir Paktu in another season,” she told them, speaking on behalf of the Goddess. “He has not yet come to me.”

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Kerberos

In 2004, several members of the core team which made Homeworld: Cataclysm and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon founded a new independent game development studio, Kerberos Productions. I joined the team from the first day as Lead Writer of the company, and have since written the background fiction and contributed design elements to the studio’s science fiction franchise, Sword of the Stars, and its horror franchise, Fort Zombie.

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developed by Kerberos Productions, published by Lighthouse

Over the course of the several years I have worked with Kerberos as the lead writer on multiple titles, and I have had the opportunity to develop the Sword of the Stars universe to a truly unprecedented degree. Through multiple content updates and expansions, I have had the opportunity to move an entire universe forward through time, developing the culture and technology of an entire galaxy at war.

I created four races for the initial release of Sword of the Stars, including a future version of Homo sapiens. I also had the pleasure of consulting on deep gameplay elements, scripting promo trailers, contributing as a voice actor, and of carrying on an ongoing, highly productive conversation with the fan base for many years both before and after release of the game. At this stage I think it is safe to say that the creation and development of the Sword of the Stars universe has been the best and most satisfying work of my writing life.

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developed by Kerberos Productions, published by Lighthouse

The first expansion for the Sword of the Stars universe introduced a fifth alien race and a variety of new gameplay elements; in many respects, Born of Blood had as much content as many stand-alone games. In order to promote the new title, I also began writing and posting a series of fictional teasers to the Kerberos forums. Because the fans became so attached to the protagonist and his adventures, this work eventually coalesced into a novella, The Deacon’s Tale, which covers the emergence of the Zuul as a major military threat in the SotS universe.

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developed by Kerberos Productions, published by Paradox

A Murder of Crows, the second expansion for Sword of the Stars, was released through the auspices of a new publisher, Paradox Interactive. The game introduced a new alien race, the Morrigi, and once again the universe moved forward in time, with the empires of the game increasing in scope and sophistication. One of my favorite elements in this expansion was the Xenotechnology Tree.

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developed by Kerberos, published by Paradox

At the end of the development cycle for Sword of the Stars, the team at Kerberos made a final expansion. Argos Naval Yard was the last great burst of creative energy which went into Sword of the Stars before the team turned its energy full-time to the development of the next era in the game’s evolving universe, Sword of the Stars II.

As of 2010, the last update and the last bundled edition of Sword of the Stars and all expansions have been released. This era of the SotSverse is now designated “SotS Prime”, and it is packaged and sold as Sword of the Stars: the Complete Collection.

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The Lords of Winter are coming.

Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter is a full stand-alone sequel set in the Sword of the Stars fictional universe. Unfortunately for Kerberos and I, the game was released before its time, and both the game and the studio suffered through a storm of controversy.

This is not the first time we’ve been in the eye of the hurricane, however, and we refuse to give up on the game. For fans of my work, I am still compiling the game’s Encyclopedia, which will contain many more entrees on gameplay elements as well as standard entries on the races, technology, political factions and cosmic mysteries of the game. We remain very proud of the game’s truly gorgeous new graphics engine and the metric ton of beautiful ships and art, its new approach to empire management, and its revised approach to tactical combat.

Fans who want to support our quest to perfect Lords of Winter and develop the game’s planned expansions can show their support by buying a copy of the game and its Immersion Packs. If you already have them, you’re my hero and I love you.

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developed by Kerberos Productions, published by Paradox Interactive

Fort Zombie was an experimental game for Kerberos. With a tiny budget, a very short development cycle and a skeleton team, we tried every new idea we could throw at the wall: a new engine with a new programming language, new problems to solve in art, effects and animation, and a host of new problems in design and story-telling. The ultimate goal was to explore the ideas and technology we would need for a much more ambitious adventure/rpg title, Northstar.

After years of working on Sword of the Stars, it was a genuine pleasure to stretch my legs and create a new horror universe. I also had the chance to experiment with PC games as a story-telling medium, and come up with some new ways to deliver fiction to the audience. Re-playability is a crucial to the Kerberos design philosophy; I had to find new ways to inject some backstory, atmosphere and human feeling into Fort Zombie without sacrificing the ability to play it more than once.

The resulting title was predictably imperfect, and as planned was released as a discount title in 2009. Full price, it was $9.99, and is often available for 1/2 or even 1/4 of its release price at Gamer’s Gate. What never ceases to amaze and delight me is that Fort Zombie continues to find a loyal audience. There are even people who say it is their favorite game, and many others who recognize its flaws and still love it because it is a title that they have waited years to play: a true “survival” game about life during the Zombie Apocalypse…rather than yet another game about shooting zombies.

The simple idea behind Fort Zombie is best expressed by philosopher Dr. Cornel West:

“You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.”

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Kthonia Press

In 2011 I formed a relationship with Kthonia Press, a group of independent creative talents who produce games, comics, art, fiction and non-fiction. At least three books of my fiction and non-fiction will be published by Kthonia in 2011-2012, and other projects are currently in development.

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Cover art by Jaan-Paul van Eeden

A revised edition of my old novel The Deacon’s Tale, first published in 2008 by Lighthouse Interactive, was released by Kthonia Press in October of 2011. The new edition has been revised and features five new appendices on the races of the Sword of the Stars universe. The book is available in all possible formats, including .mobi, .ePub. .pdf and print. Please visit the publisher`s website to order the book directly and give the maximum support to both the author and the publisher, or drop by Smashwords for instant download of .ePub or .pdf, or Amazon here to get it conveniently in Kindle format.

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Monsoon and Other Stories, by Arinn Dembo

Now available in trade paperback and varuoys e-formats, this collection of short stories and poetry spans the last 20 years of my writing career. Monsoon and Other Stories collects my prize-winning short story “Monsoon” and several other poems and tales which I have published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies since 1993, but the book also includes one or two pieces which have never been seen in print before to sweeten the deal.

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Now slated for June/July of 2012, Seeing Red will collect my essays on feminist subjects, violence and the author’s trade, including selected reviews and critical reflections on books and film. Also included are few short stories and essays on music, including those originally published with On-line Music Review and The Anti-Oprah Book Club of Joe Bob Briggs.