Merry Christmas

Okay, I really was going to post more often than this. I guess this will end up fairly long then. First, the work side of things...

I do have some website updates that I still haven't uploaded. This is because they include links to the forums that I set up. I haven't been ready to set all of the various sub-forums or monitor the forums so I haven't uploaded the links yet. I don't really expect the forums to take off right away, but that is okay. In any case, I need to be able to stop by them myself to monitor them.

I really hoped to have products out by now, but that simply hasn't happened. Early last October I decided to go with color cover art that would go for the entire City Streets line. I contracted with an artist to have that work done. He crapped out on me. I was spectacularly disappointed as I was paying pretty well and the contract promised to pay On Delivery. At the same time I contracted with a graphic layout specialist to create some easy-to-use templates for the City Streets line (and another possible line). I was paying toward the high end for the layout templates because these were going to be re-used. Again, I contracted to pay "on delivery." Well, nothing got delivered and this really, really threw me. I emailed several times and allowed an extra month. Still nothing. I had to send messages "rescinding" the contract due to non-delivery. I can't contract with someone else and then have someone deliver something late and demand payment. This brought me right up to the holidays so I made the difficult decision to go ahead and delay releases for as long as necessary to get things done. I have several locations written but I still need art and cartography.

Cartography is one of my other difficult areas. I have someone that was planning to do at least one map for me, possibly more. I'll be in touch with him again after the holidays are over (ie. next week).
It is "interesting" to be on the publishing side now. As a freelancer I have people that owe me literally thousands of dollars (I believe the total is about $5K US now), now I see why publishers would complain about people having work turned in late, etc.
It looks like the strongest luck I have is with writing, several people are working on short manuscripts now. I am hoping the delays due to art constraints won't frustrate those writers. I want to have 4 solid products already finished before I release the promotional freebie. I guess this means 5 products finished and ready, and I am not there yet.

Okay, brighter times, fun and family.
We have had a wonderful Christmas here. My parents spent some time with us before Christmas, then we had a relaxing Christmas with just our family before heading off to Houston to spend time with my wife's family. Christmas morning the kids actually let us sleep late. The baby woke up fairly early, but fell back to sleep and my wife let he and I stay in bed until around 9 AM. That is total decadence for us. The children loved their gifts, although our 8 month old was content to play with the paper and boxes for a while before moving onto his toys.
I have heard stories about horribly stressful Christmas Days for some, I guess we are lucky. We spend a lot of time reminding the children of the "reason for the season" and teaching them to be thankful for what they have. I can't say there wasn't some stress before the holiday while getting ready, but really, that has always been pretty minor.
The weather here in San Antonio has been wonderful so the kids have had a lot of time outside, along with plenty of time inside on their new video games. We have been able to simply relax and enjoy ourselves a bit. My wife just got back from taking the kids off to the Library (and a little shopping) so I suppose I better finish this up.

I guess the next thing we have coming up is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We don't even have plans right now. We are just letting things happen and it is amazingly stress-free. I don't really do "resolutions" for New Year's. I do make lists of goals though. I will probably list those here in a few days so I have a nice reminder next year at this time of what I did, and did not, get done.