Month: April 2003

Long Time, No Update

Yeah, yeah, I know. Things have been intensely busy since the last time I posted. I let it be known, in a very limited fashion, that I was available again for game-industry work, and before you could say “get a life!”, I suddenly have a number of things on my plate, including a few consultancy gigs and some writing (including a request for a synopsis/sample chapters combo for a game publisher branching out into novels).

This is great, because it confirms that I’m still able to draw enough contracts to be able to keep myself employed full-time in this business. On the other hand, it also has its down-side, mostly due to the fact that I’m still working the corporate gig for at least the next couple of months, and so I’m essentially in a position where I’m working two full-time jobs. This can be exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting—July is looking like it’s going to be fun. My lease at my current residence ends at the end of that month, and so we had been planning to move to Kansas then. Well, I just found out that due to a couple of the consultant contracts that I’ve entered into, I’m going to need to attend the Origins game convention in Columbus during the end of June, and then also attend the GenCon game fair in Indianapolis at the end of July…and somewhere in between the two, I need to pack up the entire contents of my house. Fun!

Thanks to Mike Mearls, I have a place to stay for both shows, since he had the forethought to reserve hotel space for any of us wacky game-designer types who want to crash with him. Just need to get my plane tickets, and my badge, and I’m good to go. Here’s looking forward to running around like a chicken with my head cut off, from late June to late July.

GMS

Nostalgic reprieve in an awful day…

VH1 Classic just got through playing Howard Jones’ “What is Love?” Massive rush of sense-memory, there. Holy mid-80s, Batman.

Been thinking a lot of the past, largely due to the impending return to the place where I lived from 1984-1988, and again from 1990-1997. For some reason, though, I tend to dwell on the earlier period, rather than the latter….I suspect because they were, in retrospect, happier times. 84-88 was high-school and the first year of college. 90-97 was the rest of college, and the gradual disintegration of my marriage. I guess that I’m hoping that the move back to Kansas is filled with the sort of happiness and potential of the earlier period, and not the dismal collapse of the latter.

Today sucked. I had my court appearance for the traffic violations that I mentioned about a month ago. I was basically told that there is no way in hell that I can do this without a lawyer,(and no, you can’t have a Public Defender because you make too much—despite the fact that you live paycheck to paycheck), and that they’re going to set another court date a month from now. The judge told me that, as a FIRST TIME offender, with a SPOTLESS driving record, I’m looking at around $1300 in fines, a 1 or 2 year suspension of the license, and then, after reinstatement, a $250/year surcharge for 3 years, that I’ll have to pay to New Jersey whether or not I live here. My god, I hate this worthless, polluted swamp of a state. It’s a serious contender (with Georgia) as the worst place I’ve ever had the misfortune of living.

GMS

Officially Back in the Biz…

Part of the coming relocation back to Kansas is a return to full-time game industry work. To that end, I’ve spent the latter part of the last week lining up some gigs (more on these later). My design house, Adamant Entertainment, also went public this week, with a new website and the announcement of our first product, FVLMINATA D20.

GMS