Leigh Ronald Grossman

Leigh Ronald Grossman (Born 18 November 1966) is a writer, college lecturer, editor, and occasional reviewer. He teaches in the English Department at the University of Connecticut and is the president of Swordsmith Productions, a book development and book production company that is currently developing online courseware for universities in the Philippines. Grossman was a guest of honor at Lunacon 51 and Unicon 2008. He has been a speaker, program participant, or professional guest at many literary conventions, including Worldcon, World Fantasy Convention, World Horror, Origins Game Fair, and World Dracula, and regional conventions such as Arisia, Boskone, Connecticon, Minicon, Philcon, Readercon, and Southern Exposure.
Background and education
Grossman is the author of thirteen published books from six different publishers, and has reviewed books for Absolute Magnitude, Horror Magazine, and Wavelengths. Previously, he was the pre-press production supervisor at Avon Books, an editor at Byron Press Visual Publications/Multimedia, and a college-level history and writing instructor. He lives in northeast Connecticut.
Grossman currently teaches at the University of Connecticut (writing,
book publishing, science fiction, and fantasy in both traditional and online
delivery methods), and has previously taught at Rutgers (European
history) and Bloomfield College (American history, women's history, the West in American history,
the literature of business, writing and creative writing, etc.),. He was one
of the original instructors in the Weekends at Bloomfield College B.A.
program for adult learners. He has a dual B.A. (Temple University, 1988)
in history and English, and an M.A. (Rutgers, 1990) in modern European history, with a focus on nineteenth-century
British history, especially the history of reading.
Grossman's writing credits include recent novels The Green Lion and
The Golden Thorns; nonfiction works The Red Sox Fan Handbook, The
Adult Student's Guide, and The New England Museum Guide; along with
several other books, he was the original review editor for Horror
magazine (where he primarily reviewed dark fantasy). In addition to
nonfiction, Grossman writes fantasy and historical fiction.
Wildside Gaming System
The Wildside Gaming System is a pen-and-paper role-playing system that Grossman developed. The system is designed to be more a framework that gamemaster can use with any setting, time period, or genre. As a result, the system appeals to wide variety of gaming styles as gamemasters can implement every rule allowed or a bare minimum, and everything in between. Character creation is somewhat unique among pen-and-paper role-playing games because the player must role dice to determine background traits. The combat system is not based on hit points but rather a difference in dice roles between combatants(higher is better in this case). Combat can result in anything from instant death on a single dice role to nicks and cuts on lower roles.
Published works
Books
* The Wildside Gaming System 2nd Edition (Wildside Press, forthcoming, 2010)
* The Pomfret Prayerbook (Wildside Press, 2008)
* The Golden Thorns (Wildside Press, 2008)
* The Green Lion (Wildside Press, 2007)
* The Wildside Book of Loot (Wildside Press, 2007)
* The Red Sox Fan Handbook (Rounder Books, 2005)
* The Wildside Gaming System: Fantasy Roleplaying Edition (Wildside Press, 2005)
* Bubbles's Butterfly Hunt (Scholastic, 2002)
* The 2002 Red Sox Fan Handbook (compiler, 2002)
* The New England Museum Guide (compiler,with Jamie Johnson, 2001)
* The Adult Student's Guide, Second Edition (2001)
* The Red Sox Fan Handbook (compiler, 2001)
* Closing the Deal (Learning Express, 2001)
* The Adult Student's Guide (Berkley, 1999 with Lesley McBain)
Books edited and co-edited
* Rock & Roll! And the Beat Goes On..., Cousin Brucie with Rich Maloof (Imagine Publishing, 2009)
* The Flyfishing Encyclopedia, Tom Rosenbauer (2009)
* Crusade of Kings, R. Scott Peoples (Wildside Press, June 2008)
* Koboldly Where Gnome has Gone Before, Robert Altomare (Wildside Press, June 2008)
* The Internet Guide for Families, Lisa Jo Rudy (2002)
* What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor, compiled and annotated by Douglas Morgan (2002)
* The Internet Guide for Seniors, Lisa Jo Rudy and Peter Cook (2001)
* The History of Windham County, Volume I, Ellen Larned (2000)
* The History of Windham County, Volume II, Ellen Larned (2000)
* Tiger Cruise, Douglas Morgan (Tor Books, 2000)
* The Angel of Death, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (HarperCollins, forthcoming)
* More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Cannon and S. T. Joshi,annotaters (Dell Books, 1999)
* The Soul of an Angel, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Avon Books, 1999)
* The Angry Angel, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Avon Books, 1998)
* The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, S. T. Joshi, annotater (Dell Books,1997)
* The Essential Frankenstein, Leonard Wolf, annotater (Plume, 1993)
* Invader, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1994)
* Emperor, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1994)
* Dictator, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1994)
* Warrior, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1993)
* Marauder, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1993)
* Predator, William F. Wu (Avon Books, 1993)
* The Ultimate Witch, anthology (Dell Books, 1993) (associate editor)
* The Ultimate Zombie, anthology (Dell Books, 1993) (associate editor)
* The Essential Dracula, Leonard Wolf, annotater (Plume, 1992)
Magazine articles
* "Midshipman's Hope/Challenger's Hope/Prisoner's Hope/Fisherman's Hope" (untitled review article), Absolute Magnitude (Winter, 1996)
* "Larque on the Wing" (untitled review article), Wavelengths (Summer,1994)
* "1945" (untitled review article), Horror 6 (1996)
* "Lost in Translation" (untitled review article), Horror 6 (1996)
* "Doc Sidhe" (untitled review article), Horror 6 (1996)
* "The Faery Convention" (untitled review article), Horror 6 (1996)
* "Black Thorn, White Rose" (untitled review article), Horror 5 (1995)
* "Once a Hero" (untitled review article), Horror 5 (1995)
* "Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls" (untitled review article),Horror 5 (1995)
* "Tomorrow Sucks" (untitled review article), Horror 5 (1995)
* "Metal Angel" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4 (1994)
* "The Glass Mountain" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4 (1994)
* "Lost in Booth Nine" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4 (1994)
* "Gun, With Occasional Music" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4(1994)
* "Strong Spirits" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4 (1994)
* "Deadweight" (untitled review article), Horror 3-4 (1994)
* "Animals" (untitled review article), Horror 2 (1994)
* "The Wolf of Winter" (untitled review article), Horror 2 (1994)
* "Larque on the Wing" (untitled review article), Horror 2 (1994)
* "Better in the Dark" (untitled review article), Horror 2 (1994)
* "Deathport" (untitled review article), Horror 1 (January, 1994)
* "Alternate Warriors" (untitled review article), Horror 1 (January, 1994)
* "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" (untitled review article), Horror 1(January, 1994)
* "The Encyclopedia of Death" (untitled review article), Horror 1(January, 1994)

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