Great call today with Alex Shvartsman, who is a candidate for “most interesting person in the world.”
Alex and I met 30 years ago in Philly or NJ or New York (most likely), and have been friends ever since.
He ended up having 5-7 great years as a pro player, traveled the world to play in and win major events (in an innovative fashion — he’s played in events on six continents!), began learning how the game business trade worked while on his travels, opened the longstanding & successful shop King’s Games (located in Brooklyn), then went on to write & edit dozens of sci fi & fantasy titles with many of the top writers in the field (Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ken Liu, George Martin, and so many others).
Along the way, Alex began translating books to & from the Russian & Ukrainian market for many top authors, and has also worked on many successful games such as Ascension and the upcoming title, Reclusion (made with fellow former Magic pros Alan Comer and Brian Weissman).
When Alex creates, he is happy. So he pretty much always creates. :)
If you want to check out is current gaming effort, visit https://www.reclusionthegame.com.
If you want to check out Alex’s speculative fiction, visit https://alexshvartsman.com.
Thanks Alex!
IN ADDITION:
I’ve tried to avoid sending out too many emails, so I didn’t send out this video with Paul Barclay on Friday — but it was a great call that’s worth visiting if you were ever deeply into Magic: the Gathering or want to know behind-the-scenes topics that really only a few people know. Paul knows some of the most esoteric aspects of the full-stack Magic-baking process, and he did a fantastic job here recapping those aspects.
Lastly:
All of these recordings are available wherever you listen to podcasts (with the exception of YouTube Podcasts, as I need to chat with Substack about how that flow is presently broken — all part of the fun).
I imagine most of us who are interested in this content are more podcast-forward than video-forward, but I also admit I could be wrong on this.
You should be able to find all available podcasts & relevant access points here: https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/podcast
Even more lastly:
I submitted the audiobook to ACX late last week, so hopefully within the next week the audiobook will go live on Audible, Apple & Amazon.
Crossing fingers. :)
Thanks all!
