Categorizing the Past

 Professional  No Responses »
May 132008
 

In my old office, I had a bookshelf on which I put one of everything I’d ever worked on. It was one of those slap-together, particle-board cheapies from Staples, taller than me, with five shelves. I filled it up a while back and had started in on a new shelf. I’m proud of my work, and I figured if I didn’t display it, who would?

In the new office, though, I don’t have space for two or more shelves of books, so I’ve decided to put away projects on which I wasn’t a primary creative—things that I edited or produced but didn’t write. The metric ton of products we put out when I was at Pinnacle is mostly gone, for instance, as it occupied a couple shelves all by itself.

For other projects, I’m only keeping out a few representative bits. I put away the binders full of WildStorms cards, for instance, and most of the R.E.V.s toys too. They just suck up too much space, especially since I’m on to other things now, and I need those shelves for reference and research books.

It’s a lot of stuff, but that’s what you end up with when you’ve been working on things like this for nearly 20 years. Time to trim back the past, though, lest it suffocate the future.

Spring Cleaning

 Professional  42 Responses »
May 122008
 

It’s been quiet on the site here over the past few weeks as I scramble to catch up with deadlines. I’ve had a lot of work tossed at me this year, which I’ll be the last to complain about, but it’s meant long days juggling it all. When I’m crunching on a project, I always hate to post here, as I’m sure some of my editors check up on this site, and I never want them to feel like I’m spending time here that I should be putting toward a project.

That said, it doesn’t take that long to post something. I type fast. So I’m going to step it up a bit, as best I can.

Another thing keeping me busy is cleaning my office. More like consolidating, actually. We moved into the new house here in November, and there’s room for me here, so I’m working at home again. Then, a couple months ago, the landlord at my old office told me he’d lined up a new tenant (I’d warned him I’d be leaving in a bit) and asked if I could get out soon—like “that weekend” soon. So I did.

A few of my good, stalwart friends helped me move, and that Sunday we dumped all the stuff from the old office into the new. And there it sat—until this weekend.

We have relatives coming in this week, so I finally have a deadline on this project to motivate me. My office now looks like a game, book, and comic store exploded inside of it.

There’s no way I can keep all of these things, much as I would love to. While the new house is much larger than the old, we still have seven people in it, and I’m making a real effort to rid myself of things I don’t need. Games, books, and comics I haven’t touched in years—other than to move them from one place to another—rank high on the list of Things That Must Go. I’m keeping at least one copy of everything I’ve worked on (that I have, that is), but the rest has to find another home.

This means I’m going to do one (or perhaps a combination) of several things:

  1. Donate everything to my local library.
  2. Sell everything on eBay.
  3. Sell everything through an online consignment shop like Hobby Hearse.
  4. Sell everything to a retailer like Noble Knight Games.

Any recommendations? What would you like to see?

Blood Bowl: Killer Contract

 Blood Bowl  4 Responses »
May 062008
 
Blood Bowl

Bbkc4I just sent off the script for Blood Bowl: Killer Contract #4 to my editor Ian Brill at Boom Studios. I’m having a ball writing these comics, and I can’t wait to see them in print, which I’m told should happen soon. I’m eager to wrap it all up with issue #5, just so I can see what happens.

I mean, I know what happens in the larger sense. I outlined the entire miniseries before I started in on it. But there’s so much distance between an outline and a script, and I invariably come up with all sorts of ideas while actually writing that the two don’t often match up. As with reading, writing is an act of discovery.

Right now, though, I need to write an outline for my next novel for Wizards of the Coast. After that, I can get back to my next computer game project or three.

To celebrate finishing issue #4, though, here’s an image of the cover I found while wandering around the web. I hope you enjoy it.

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