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ConGregate 2025

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Bill Fawcett

Bill has taught, been a game designer, author, corporate trainer, and a college dean. His entire life has been spent in the creative fields and managing other creative individuals. He is one of the founders of Mayfair Games, a board and role play gaming company.  As an author Bill has written or co-authored two dozen books and dozens of articles and short stories. As a book packager, a person who prepares series of books from concept to production for major publishers, his company Bill Fawcett & Associates has packaged over 500 titles for virtually every major publisher. These include a number of best selling Science Fiction, Mystery, and Action novels. He founded, and later sold, what is now the largest hobby shop in Northern Illinois.

Bill’s first commercial writing appeared as articles in the Dragon Magazine.  At Mayfair Games he edited the “Role Aides” Role Playing Game modules and supplements released by Mayfair in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period he also designed almost a dozen board games such as Empire Builder and Sanctuary

In 1994 Bill joined with a team of programmers to form Catware featuring him as producer and designer.  Catware released Swords of Xeen ( New World Computing) as part of the Trilogy game set, Star General, a strategic game based upon the six Fleet books (SSI) that was one of the 20 best selling games in  the year of its release, Las Vegas Games (New World) and is now working on a On-line Role Playing Game. Bill produced and designed the computer RPG game Shattered Light for Simon and Schuster.  Bill Fawcett continues to develop new internet and app projects.

His novel writing began with the juvenile series, Swordquest for Ace Penguin Putnam Publishing. The Fleet series he created with David Drake has become a classic of military science fiction. Bill has collaborated on several novels including mysteries such as the Authorized Mycroft Holmes novels, the Madame Vernet Investigates series.  As an anthologist Bill has edited or co-edited almost 50 anthologies.   Bill Fawcett & Associates has packaged well over 350 novels and anthologies for every major publisher Bill is the editor of Hunters and Shooters and The Teams, two oral histories of the SEALs in Vietnam.  His most recently published works include It Seemed Like a Good Idea and You Did What, How To Lose A Battle, How To Lose a War, and It Looked Good on Paper: Engineering disasters through historyHe also wrote Oval Office Oddities, containing thousands of fun facts and strangeness about US Presidents,. Recently published 100 Mistakes that Changed History and Trust Me, 100 Leadership Mistakes that Changed History and 101 Stumbles in the March of History.

Coming out in 2024 Never Again, a military SF novel set in the near future and three sequels.