We were contacted by a brand new online fiction magazine called Tales from the Menagerie. They publish all sorts stories, art and poetry for $3. They have said that all the money they get from magazine sales during Desert Bus (not profits, ALL the money) will be donated directly to Desert Bus. They’re even going to pay the PayPal fees!

Tales of the Menagerie is full of creativity, but their creators are clearly full of love for the children. We’re thrilled to hear about this, and we hope you all check them out www.talesfromthemenagerie.com

Our friends at Fangamer happened to actually be located in Tucson, and they were looking for the most authentic Desert Bus experience. They’ve got into their own van and they’re heading to Las Vegas! In fact, since we’d recently crashed the bus, we restarted so this could be a real competition.

Of course, we can’t let them beat us, so we want you to send us a picture of how you would slow down their bus. Our bust exists in virtual reality, so they can’t slow US down. But they can go faster than 45MPH (I think). How would YOU ensure our victory? Send the pictures to contests@desertbus.org

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I want a statue of a character voiced by Jack Black without getting a Kung Fu Panda toy from Burger King?” Now you can! Steve Dengler got us these magnificent statues of the main character from Brutal Legend, and we’ve got one to give away with a Megacynics t-shirt!

All you need to do to win this is make some Megacynics fanart with Ash, Steve and two other people who have appeared in Megacynics. You have until tomorrow at 1:00PM. Send in your art! Win big!Super big thanks to Steve Dengler and all the folks at Double Fine for getting us this statue.

We will be auctioning off this amazing ThinkGeek Tauntaun Sleeping Bag Prize Pack soon
after we finish our 1pm call-in with Peter Sagal. Get your bidding fingers ready!

This lot already comes with the highly coveted Tauntaun sleeping bag (pictured left), 5 ThinkGeek t-shirts (size XL), and a Magic D20 of Destiny.

But wait! There’s more!

More prizes will be added to this lot! 

Tune into the live feed to see what ThinkGeek has given us to sweeten the pig.

Life has never been so good for geeks.

We got Chapter 6 of the amazing Dengler & Butts series! This chapter was written by Mitten:

—

There were four terrorist teams, fifteen minutes

 

and only two Steves.

 

They ran.

”We are not enough.” Dengler analyzed and crunched his brow, ” we need backup”

”We’re off the case. There is no backup”, grumbled Butts.

”We are still on a case. The upper case.”, aswered Dangler and pulled out his iphone, ”by the power of Steve, there is always backup”.

 

Butts peered at the screen and beheld an IRC client.

”Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!”, Dengler typed aloud, ”terrorists approach the moonbase!”

 

Criplow!

A sniper shot shattered the phone.

The Steves jumped behind a lamp post.

”Did it get through?”, butts inquired amid a shower of bullets.

”As long as there is the bus, there is hope”, replied Dangler.

—

Also, here’s Kroze in leather pants.

Host of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Peter Sagal is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and regular columnist for the New York Times Magazine, and Runner’s World. He’s written for the Chicago Tribune, andHouston Chronicle.  His book, titled ‘The Book of Vice: Very NaughtyThings (and How to Do Them)’ was published in2007.

If you have anyquestions for Peter, leave them in the comments section below, and we’ll pass them along when he calls at 1:00PM.

Ernie Cline is a novellist and screenwriter who you may know best as the writer of the film ‘Fanboys’, released in 2009. In addition to his scriptwriting, Ernie has been named chamion of the Austin Poetry Slam on two seperate occasions and has recently published  a novel by the name of ‘Ready Player One’.

Ernie will be calling in at 11:00AM, so tune in and see what he has to say!

Monte Cook is most famous as co-designer of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition, and writer of the third edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. He has worked on countless RPG products for Iron Crown Enterprises and TSR/Wizards of the Coast, including lines such as Champions, Planescape and Dark*Matter. In 2001, he became an independent publisher, and was one of the first to produce material online under the Open Gaming License. Under his Malhavoc Press imprint, he self-published many products, including Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, and cumulating in Ptolus, a book that is regarded by many as the ultimate fantasy RPG setting. He has since worked on an experimental subscription-based adventure project called Dungeon-a-Day and consulted on the design of the Pathfinder RPG. He now writes the “Legends and Lore” column for the Dungeons and Dragons website.

He’ll be calling in to Desert Bus at 10AM , so please leave him your questions below.

One of the great things about Desert Bus is the SHEER variety of stuff we give away and auction off. We’re not just into video games and general geeky items though, we also like rad books!

Author Omi Inouye is back again, donating copies of A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek, Andre Curse: A Storybook about Recursion, and the Infant’s Guide to Calculus. You can find more about her at www.omionline.ca. We also have a 50 Word Stories Prize pack donated by our own Tim Sevenhuysen, an awesome package of delights from Sam and Fuzzy author Sam Logan and a signed copy of Kate Beaton’s new book Hark! A Vagrant, donated by Matthew Murray!

The sharp eyed among you will note all these great authors are Canadian… Somewhere a beaver is wiping away a tear of pride.

In the endless fight between Team Kroze and Team Ashton, Morgan solicited posters to support Team Kroze. Kroze himself was on hand to judge which one was the best. At the end of the day, they had to pik the one from Derek H, with this majestically simple poster.

Here are the hopefully still effective runners-up.