Just Some Rambling

I tried to think up a witty title for today's entry, but to no avail. Probably because I don't have anything terribly earth-shattering to report, just a bunch of little stuff all jumbled up. So bear with me if this seems disjointed. It probably is.

1) Went for a morning walk/run today and in typical Pacific Northwest fashion the sunny day turned into a downpour. Needless to say I kicked it up a notch once my shirt had soaked through and I couldn't see for the rain in my eyes. What a great way to start the day: exercise and shower in one fell swoop. Wish I'd brought shampoo.

2) SWAT: The Movie opened this weekend. Gotta go see it, but haven't. Later this week. I'll try and post a review, for what it's worth.

3) I dug out an old half-written novel I started years ago. Not sure why, since I have another I'm trying to finish. I stumbled across it on my hard drive last week and started reading, got hooked, started thinking. Now I can't sleep at night cause my brain's writing the rest of the story. But that part's not really new. If I get ambitious, I'll try to post the first few chapters here. It's radically different than Cult of the Double Axe. Cult is pretty light; this other piece (tentatively titled Chosen) is awfully dark and heavy. It'd probably end up stuck in the horror section of the book store.

4) The GURPS SWAT playtest is scheduled to start today, though as of this writing it's not up yet. Probably will be soon. Likewise, playtest on All the King's Men is going to start up Real Soon Now. Good grief; concurrent playtests, my worst nightmare.

5) The short story for Silver Age Sentinels is complete and has gone through three or four revisions, thanks to suggestions from various folks. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but at least now I know why. There's a scene missing from the story that would have allowed me to get into a secondary character's head (Gray Ghost for those of you in the know). The submission guidelines said 3,000-6,000 words, however, and Hero - the short story - is already at 5,850. Couldn't do her justice in only 150 words, so I never wrote the scene. If the piece gets picked up, I still retain the copyright, so I'll eventually have to write the scene and include it in the "director's cut" - which will, of course, be posted here in all its superhero glory.

6) I cancelled a lot of projects last week, the ones that had been hanging over my head and causing a lot of stress. The toughest choice was to tell Mongoose I wanted to revoke my application for their salaried writer position. It's not the job that would have been tough, but their writing assignment/test fell at exactly the wrong time for me to do a halfway passable job. Maybe another time. I also stepped down from a slot with Game Storm for next year. I was going to oversee a "How to Get Published in the RPG Industry" workshop for next year's con, but (as I've mentioned before) my schedule is just too tight. Northwest Gamers wanted a monthly column on gaming, but I turned that down too (sorry, Greg!) They were tough calls, all, but at least I have a little room to breathe.

7) Actor and author Wil Wheaton is doing his book signing at Powell's Books in Beaverton, starting at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, August 13. I'll be there, so will Andrew Hackard, managing editor of Steve Jackson Games. Come on by if you can.

I'm outta here for now. Going to clean up Hero and get it sent off, work on Chosen or Cult for a while, and grab lunch at the local Burgerville. With Dragonflight coming up next weekend, don't look for too much more out of me until at least a week from now.

Make sure and swing by Powell's if you're in the Portland area, or come up to Dragonflight in Seattle next week. Until then...