Osprey Publishing is busier than ever and we’ll be bringing all the latest news to our booth at HISTORICON 2010. Come and check out our new books on Midway, Mons Graupius, US Fast Battleships, Cavalry of the Thirty Years’ War, The French Foreign Legion and Carthaginians as well as THREE new series. Join us at the whirlwind of activity that is our booth for:

• The launch of Field of Glory: Renaissance a completely new set of rules for a fascinating period in military history
• Two more new series: Weapon, the development, use and impact of weapons from RPGs to Katanas, and Command, military biographies concentrating on the business of leadership on the battlefield
• Sneak previews of new and soon to be published titles before anyone else sees them
• Daily competitions with prizes that include advance copies and books signed by the authors and illustrators
• Sponsorship of the Best Osprey CampaignSeries Competition
• Osprey authors René Chartrand and Angus Konstam will be attending the convention and hosting various seminars
• Painting demonstrations from Peter Dennis, well-known British artist, whose works grace many an Osprey book!
• Artist David Rickman is also hosting his popular seminar on pirates and how they really dressed

Best Osprey Campaign Series Game Competition

This competition will be between gamemasters for the best presentation of a battle at HISTORICON inspired by one of Osprey’s Campaign series titles. The winning GM(s) will receive a grand prize of TEN (10) Osprey books of their choice, including books that are yet to hit the shops! To register your game, please check the field of the GM Event Registration Form that it is an entry in the Osprey Campaign Competition (see link, for GM Event Registration at left).

Osprey Contest Winner - Adam Carroll

Osprey Contest Winner - Robert Smethurst

Osprey Publishing Seminar

Insights into Osprey Publishing: The Latest News and How To Write For Us.

Richard Sullivan, Marketing Director, from Osprey Publishing will be hosting a seminar (Sat. 2:30 PM) to talk about the company in more detail and to give you some sneak previews of new titles. Topics will include how Osprey makes their publishing decisions, what is the best way to submit a synopsis if you are interested in becoming an author, what their bestsellers are, who to contact with about new title ideas and news on the latest series and plans for the future.

Attendees should also plan to stop by the Osprey Publishing info booth located in the Exhibit Hall to ‘Meet & Greet’ Osprey authors and artists, and to enter daily giveaway contests for HISTORICON – a great way to get free Osprey books!

René Chartrand Seminars

Former Chief Curator, Parks Canada, Ottawa, worked for nearly three decades of experience as a curator of specialized in military history in Canada’s National Historic Sites. Mr. Chartrand worked on the development and restoration of most of Canada’s historic forts. He has also been attached to the Department of National Defense by ministerial request. He is also the author of over 30 books dealing on a broad range of military subjects pertaining to the Americas and Western Europe, and is also a lecturer to military, academic and specialized audiences in North America and Europe. Educated in Montreal, Boston, and Nassau, Bahamas, he has carried out extensive research in archives, libraries, museums and historic sites in Canada, the United States, France, England, Spain and Portugal. Currently, Mr. Chartrand acts as a consultant for the development of military historic sites and museums. He also occasionally serves as historical advisor for documentaries. Mr. Chartrand is currently a governor of the Company of Military Historians and its vice president for publications.

René will be presenting the following three theme-related seminars: Louis XIV’s Army (Thurs. 7:30 PM); Pirates: From Valued Allies to Hunted Down Terrorists (Fri. 12 PM); Fighting The Good Fight in 17th Century North America (Sat. 1:30 PM); plus he will also be part of a theme panel – From Pike to Bayonet: Battlefield Evolution 1600-99 (Fri. 5 PM). See Events (PEL) link at left for complete details.

René will also be available for ‘Meet & Greet’ and book signings at the Osprey Publishing booth (check the booth for days/times at the convention).

Peter Dennis Seminar

Peter Dennis is a well-known British artist, whose works should be especially familiar to history buffs and wargamers alike, as they grace many an Osprey book and rules set!

Peter was b orn in 1950, and was inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn, and studied illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects, including many Osprey titles. A keen wargamer and model maker, he is based in Nottinghamshire, UK.

Peter will be presenting the following seminar twice during the convention – Creating An Osprey Battlescene: An Artist at Work (Fri. 9 AM and Sat. 3 PM): Peter Dennis, acclaimed Osprey artist comes to HISTORICON for the first time to talk through and demonstrate the complexities of creating an Osprey battlescene that is historically accurate and visually exciting. Peter will be showing some of his artwork and demonstrating the process from getting the initial sources to completion. He has brilliantly illustrated dozens of Osprey books including the Field of Glory covers.

Peter will also be available for ‘Meet & Greet’ and book signings at the Osprey Publishing booth (check the booth for days/times at the convention).

Angus Konstam Seminars

Angus was brought up in the Orkney Islands, off the north of Scotland. At age 18 he joined the Royal Navy as an officer, and sailed the waters of the Caribbean – an area he'd write about later. He then studied history at the Universities of Aberdeen and St. Andrews, where he wrote his Masters thesis on early naval artillery. This research later formed the basis for Sovereigns of the Sea, his groundbreaking history of Renaissance warships.

In 1985, he began working for the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London, becoming a Senior Curator of Weapons. His first Osprey book on The Army of Peter the Great was published in 1993. In 1995, Angus moved to Key West, Florida to become the Chief Curator in the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. It was there that he developed his interest in piracy, and he spent the next decade and a half trying to unravel pirate myth from pirate reality. He spent six happy years in Key West, and wrote several more books, including The History of Pirates, the first of four major works on piracy. He is now regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject. He returned to Britain in 2001, and he now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is a full-time author and historian.

Angus makes frequent television appearances as a historian, pirate expert and literary spokesman, and he also lectures extensively at literary events both at home and abroad, and is an occasional book reviewer in the press. He had been a wargamer as long as he can remember, and while he games anything from the English Civil War to the Second World War, his “core periods” are all “Horse and Musket” – particularly the Napoleonic War and the Seven Years War. That said, he also admits having a technical love affair with the T-34, HMS Warspite and the Sopwith Camel. [Click on the following link for Angus’ wargaming website Edinburgh Wargames.]

He is the author of almost fifty Osprey books, including The Russian Army of the Seven Years War, Lepanto 1571, Guilford Courthouse 1781, The Forts of Celtic Britain, Pavia 1525 and British Battleships. His “real” books include Sovereigns of the Sea, Piracy: The Complete History, Blackbeard, The World Atlas of Piracy, There was a Soldier: First-Hand Accounts of the Scottish Soldier, Salerno 1943 and The Battle of North Cape. He is currently working on a critical study of General Montgomery’s performance during the Normandy Campaign. As he says, a non-critical one would be much harder to write. [For more information, click on the following for the personal website of Angus Konstam.]

Angus will be presenting the following four theme seminars: The Pike’s Last Swansong: Wargaming the Wars of Billy, Jamie & the Sun King (Thurs. 12 PM); Karma and Naval Gunnery: The Anglo-Dutch Wars (Fri. 10 AM); Buccaneering for Pleasure and Profit: The Truth about Henry Morgan (Sat. 2 PM); Bare-Arsed Banditi: The Highland Charge Exposed (Sun. 9 AM); p lus he will also be part of a theme panel – From Pike to Bayonet: Battlefield Evolution 1600-99 (Fri. 5 PM) – see Events (PEL) link at left for complete details.

Angus will also be available for ‘Meet & Greet’ and book signings at the Osprey Publishing booth (check the booth for days/times at the convention).

David Rickman Seminar

An independent author, historian and illustrator whose works have appeared in exhibits and publications in this country, Canada, Great Britain and Spain. He has published several articles and authored a living history costume manual for California State Parks. His illustrations have appeared in exhibits and publications in this country, Britain and Spain, including nine Osprey Publishing books and the magazines Military Illustrated: Past and Present, Ristre and Military Collector & Historian. He is currently working on articles about pirate dress, Spanish colonial troops in Texas and the Russian Navy fighting Indians in Alaska.

Rickman was born into a military family, lived in Japan as a child, but grew up mostly in northern California. From an early age, he has had an almost equal love of history and art. Finding it hard to settle on a major in college, Rickman graduated with a degree in history from the University of California but decided to abandon plans for graduate school and chose a career in illustration instead. In 1984, Rickman moved to the East Coast to pursue this dream, having already worked on Dover Publications’ series of high-quality coloring books. He admits that his pictures were too detailed to be much fun to color, but found that the work allowed him to combine historical research with illustration. Rickman produced works for Dover such as “Cowboys of the Old West,” “Plains Indians,” and “California Missions.” For a while, he also illustrated children’s textbooks but already knew that his greatest enjoyment came from investigating the past and bringing it to life. Rickman especially enjoys overturning popular ideas about how the past looked. In the years that followed, he researched and illustrated for the National Park Service the ancient Anasazi Indians, Alaska during the Russian Era and Spanish colonists and soldiers. Rickman hopes someday to concentrate on works that he can research, write and illustrate by himself. He is also head of exhibits for Delaware’s state parks system, where he has enjoyed, among other assignments, furnishing an American Civil War-era fortress and planning the restoration of a World War II coast artillery battery with adjacent barracks. Rickman lives in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife, Deborah, an art historian specializing in textiles, costumes and furnishings.

Rickman’s interest in pirate costume grew out of a few coincidences. As an historian, he has studied the clothing worn in Spain and Mexico in the 17th – early-19th centuries. As an illustrator, he has long loved the work of Howard Pyle (1853 – 1911), who was famous for his stories and illustrations of pirates and buccaneers. Pyle was also known for the meticulous research he did for historical illustrations, especially those of early America. Rickman always loved the distinctive way Pyle dressed his pirates, but wondered if it was in any way historical. It then occurred to him that what made Pyle’s pirates so distinctive and the popular image of Gypsies dressed alike in headscarf, earrings and sashes. Why? The connection, he realized, had to be Spain – or at least a popular image of how Spaniards dress. But after years of researching Spanish colonial costume, David knew better. And so his hunt began . . .

Rickman will be presenting the following theme seminar about pirates: From the Spanish Main to Hollywood: The Evolution of Pirate Dress, Real and Imagined (Sat. 7 PM); see Events (PEL) link at left for complete details. He will also be available for ‘Meet & Greet’ and book signings at the Osprey Publishing booth (see the Osprey Publishing booth at the convention for details).