Catching Up

First, a quick apology to any regular readers out there; I've been a bit neglectful of posting regularly this past week or two. I think I'm running a little low on writing creativity these days, what with finishing up project number 5 out of 6 in the last five weeks. Apologies around, but hang in there - we're in the home stretch.

As for actually catching up, I'll toss out whatever random thoughts hit me, in no particular order:

Been sick most of the week, finally slept 14 (!) hours night before last - well, night and half the day - and I'm feeling better. Hope that's the worst of it, since it's amazingly hard to write when you're sick. It can be done, mind you, it's just not something I'd like to make a career out of.

I finished up 10,000 words for the unmentionable GURPS project that's due tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm not finished with the material - that is, I have more to add. So I'm going to have to spend today cutting and writing until it all fits and actually contains the material I think is most relevant. I don't mind cutting to tighten, but I sure hate the idea that I have to cut out several hours of work I've already put it. Geh.

Haven't heard back from AEG or Hogshead on either of the bits I've done for them. Well, the Hogshead is more than a bit - it's a 20,000 word book. But still. I know they're busy, and one of the things I've learned being a freelancer is how to wait. It used to be I'd worry my email box by checking it every ten minutes, waiting for a reply. Nowadays when I finish a project, I strike it off my dry-erase calendar and move on.

Going to sign up for National Novel Writing Month soon - also known as "NaNoWriMo." You'll be seeing a lot of that abbreviation in November, so remember it. Repeat after me: "NaNoWriMo." Good.

Anyway, the point of NaNoWriMo is to get everyone that signs up to write an entire novel of at least 50,000 words (bah! paltry!) from November 1 to November 30. Since I don't have a lot of heavy deadilnes that fall then, I think it'll be a nice break from game design and a chance to unleash some pent-up creativity. The rules say you can outline and plan in advance, but you can't start on the book until November 1. Also, it has to be a new novel, not an existing one you're already working on. Works for me. More on this as it gets closer.

Lastly, if I haven't mentioned, I'll be at Orycon next month (November 13-ish?) in Portland, Oregon, so if anyone is planning on attending, be sure and look me up and introduce yourself.

That's it for now, kiddies. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.