More Reasons I'm Not an Artist

http://www.brianunderhill.com/illos.html

Argh!

For those of you that think being a freelance game designer and author is just mad cool, lemme give you a peek into what I'm trying to decide this week.

First, the editorial comments on GURPS WWII: All the King's Men just hit my doorstep, and I have to have those done by Friday. Secondly, I'm trying to get an outline cleaned up and ready for a contract for GURPS WWII: Banzai! so that I can move ahead on that project without wondering how much I'll be paid. Next, I still have the short superhero fiction for Silver Age Sentinels and a short story and script for Horror Rules hanging over my head, unfinished. Still no word from Patrick Kapera at AEG for the Spycraft short and NPC write up (the Sara Wagner story, for those of you who remember it), and I hate to bug the guy again but it would be nice to either give him the rights, or turn the project into something else, even if only a free pdf.

Add to the mix the fact that Mongoose Publishing is looking for a salaried, full-time writer (to pump out about a million words a year!) but they have an exclusivity clause, which would mean no more GURPS for a while. In addition, Hogshead Publishing is trying to "develop a long-term relationship" with a new writer for an (apparently) new line of books. I've been in fairly close contact with Mongoose and have a query in to Hogshead, but we'll see what comes of it.

And finally, Steve Jackson Games has asked me to participate in yet another project for 2004 that promises to take up a big chunk of my time.

This doesn't even begin to take into account that I'm also trying to finish a novel - a process that's not exactly working out at the moment.

"What's the big deal?" you ask. Not enough hours in the day to do it all, and yet not enough certainty that any of it will go through so that I can safely disregard all the others. If I knew I could keep the bills paid with one or two of the aboveforementioned contracts, and that they'd actually come through, and that I'd actually get paid, I'd take 'em. But it's all something of a crap shoot, and I never was very good with dice.

Calgon, take me away!

SWAT Hand Signals

Okay, this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I mean, laughing-so-hard-I-couldn't-breathe funny. Maybe it's cause I just finished up GURPS SWAT and the movie's due out in a couple weeks, but this seriously cracked me up.

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~shane/stasj/div_bilder/signals.png

5-2-1

Just got back from a great walk in the sun! I know, should have worn a hat and 5,000 SPF sunblock, but I couldn't help it. The sun was nice, the wind was blowing a little, so it was tank-top and shorts for me today. Nice.

Anyway, Dragonflight, the big Seattle gaming con, is approaching and I thought I'd nudge anyone that hasn't made plans. It's a great con - my favorite of the year. I'll be running two sessions of GURPS SWAT, and since I'm sharing the Guest of Honor slot with Cheapass Games' James Ernest, we planned a big game of Diceland Ogre for Saturday. It'll be a big tournament, with the winner taking on James and I in a final battle for the fate of the free world. Or something.

So if you're free over the weekend of August 15-17, make some plans. Grab a dorm room (they're cheap!) and come play games day and night! Trust me, you can do a daily 5-2-1 (5 hours of sleep, 2 meals, 1 shower) for a weekend. It's worth it.

At the Movies

Having had a week or so off, I've been catching up on movies I should have watched earlier. Here's my opinions in a nutshell. Take 'em for what they're worth. :)

The Scorpion King. Decent cinematography and fight scenes. Plot needs work though, and The Rock is just not an actor (especially when trying to look surprised). Between the arrows that hit bad guys and hurl them backward 20 feet into the air, and the stolen scenes from The Sword and the Sorcerer (the harem bit) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (the rolling gong), I had kind of a hard time getting through the movie. (I'd also like to know how the bad guy lit his swords on fire at the end - were they made of old paint cans and gasoline-soaked rags?) Anyway, if you like Conan and Xena, you'll probably like this. Personally, I would give it about a 4 on a scale of 1-10, except Kelly Hu is awfully dang hot. So for her sake, let's call it a 5. (Are you listening, Kelly? Drop me a line, we'll do lunch!)

Sum of All Fears. Had a hard time getting past the timeline inconsistencies. This is supposed to be a Jack Ryan movie set in 2001, but we've already seen Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin as older Jack Ryans in the 80s and 90s. That was distracting. Not a bad movie otherwise (especially if you've not seen the others). Still worth watching, though. I give it a 6. Maybe more, if I liked Ben Affleck. (Are you listening, Ben? Drop me a line, we'll write a script together)

Signs. M. Knight Shaymalan's excellent Mel Gibson flick. I enjoyed this one a lot. Don't have too much bad to say about it, actually. Even Shaymalan's cameo performance in it was decent (unlike Stephen King's horrific cameos in his own movies!) This one gets an 8.

The Bourne Identity. I still can't get into Matt Damon, especially as a supposedly top-notch agent, etc. I read the books (all three), and he just didn't live up to Jason Bourne, IMHO. It was, however, still a good movie. Weak ending, but otherwise not bad. Wish it hadn't deviated from the novels so much, but what can ya do. I still give this one a 6.5.

Driven. I like Stallone as much as the next guy (especially now that he's getting older), but this movie was just bad. The plot was contrived and convoluted, and way too much time was spent showing totally worthless crap before the races. If you want to see a good race movie, go get the perennial Days of Thunder and leave this one on the shelf. It merits a 3... maybe a 4 at best.

XXX. I've never been a big Vin Diesel fan, really, until I saw him on Conan O'Brien, admitting to being a roleplayer back in the day (apparently he played D&D a lot - talked about his fighter, and more). So his geekdom, and willingness to admit it, endeared me to him a little. Otherwise, I doubt I would have picked this movie up at all. Having said that, it wasn't half bad. Loaded with action and special effects, and weak on plot, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'll give geeky AD&D-playing Vin a 7 for this one.

So... that's my recent movie watching binge in a nutshell. Feel free to disagree. :)

Yay! New Books!

Got a shipment from Amazon today, including the 2003 edition of the Fiction Writers' Market, and the Tri-Stat version of Guardians of Order's Silver Age Sentinels. I was glad to see both arrive - I love getting new books - but it means I have to get to work on the short fiction bit for SAS, and finish up Cult of the Double Axe.

Oh well, getting new books is always good. Even if it means more work. I suspect that if I didn't have a pounding headache today, I'd be happier about it all. :)

League of Extraordinary Special Effects

Went and saw LXG today. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a sort of Steampunk-ish comic book turned into a movie (starring Sean Connery). It was a fun movie, but very light on plot and characterization. I wasn't real impressed in general, but I'd watch it again.

I think if they'd put about 10% of the special effects budget into a better script, it would have seriously kicked. As it is, it's a fun romp, but full of plot holes and two-dimensional characters. I give it a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

"Climb Mount Niitaka"

Well, I officially started work on GURPS WWII: Banzai! yesterday. Planning on tracking my time on this one very closely. I've estimated how many hours I spend on any given project in the past, but I'm determined to figure out how many I actually spend in research and in writing. The writing part is fairly easy to estimate, but the research, not so much.

So anyway, at this point, I'm 5 hours into the project (most of it research, though I did manage to crank out 750 words). Although I've been given a 6-month deadline, I'm trying to impose a 3-month deadline on myself so I can get the project done before it starts to get annoying, and so I can get focused on other projects more quickly.

As always, details will follow.

SWAT Assaults SJ Games

Well, it's official: The first draft of GURPS SWAT was emailed to SJ Games at 6:26 pm, PDT, on July 12, 2003. Yippee! :)

Seven out of Five Americans don't do the Math

Matthew at Defective Yeti is hilarious. Go check out his site for a good laugh.

For a sneak peek, check out one of my favorites:

7/5 Americans

Bit of News about the Band

I just added a blurb to the band news page about a phantom upcoming gig that we're not playing. So if you're expecting to see us at the Kelso Bridge Market this Sunday, go read it. :)

We now return you to our regularly unscheduled ramblings.

Banzai, not Bonsai

Well, I'm about committed (or should be committed!) to the GURPS WWII: Banzai! project. It's a 90,000 word sourcebook for Japan, China, and the Pacific War. I was originally slated to co-author it with Hunter Johnson, but he opted out due to a busy schedule. That lays the whole thing in my lap with a (roughly) six-month deadline. Not terrible, but it's about half the time I'd like. Thing is, it promises to be decent pay, so I told Gene Seabolt (WWII line editor) I'd go for it if he could get me the proposed pay rate.

I also dropped a line to Randall Bills about info on doing a Battletech novel. I've kinda tossed the idea around for years, but have never done anything about it. We'll see what comes of it, if anything.

Anyway, I guess I'd best pour myself into Banzai! and see if I can get some fiction done as well (Silver Age Sentinels, Horror Rules). Looks like my week-long vacation lasted about 4 1/2 days. . .

The Obligatory "Catching Up" Post

Despite some additional research coming up (namely, tagging along during tactical training with the local SWAT team), the first draft of GURPS SWAT is done and ready to go. Deadline isn't until July 15, but I'll be shipping off the first draft sometime in the next few days.

Because I had some extra time to tweak on it, it ended up at 36,000 words - some 20% over contract. So I spent last week whittling it down to size. I think it's a better book because of it, though. Here's hoping SJ Games agrees.

In other news, I hit something small, but unyielding today, and ended up with a flat tire. It's not a horrible thing, really, but it's a huge annoyance. Especially considering that sending off SWAT tomorrow was supposed to kick off my one-week vacation. Guess that'll have to wait until Tuesday, after the tire's fixed.

Not a lot of other news to report, except that I'll be vegging in front of the TV or something for the next week or so. I've got projects I need to get to, but none are contracted deadlines at the moment, so it'll be kind of nice to take a breather. Watch this space for coming post-vacation reports and upcoming project updates!