Thursday, June 25, 2009

As I Suspected

Well, time really flew by this week so I haven't gotten anything out. I sort-of expected that. I have already made plans for next near in the May/June part of the year. The end of school and first few weeks of Summer Break have simply been insane. Next year I will make plans to have some compilations ready to go so that there is something released, and I hope to run a Father's Day promotion as well as joining Vicki Potter and Tabletop Adventures for the Mother's Day promotion.

I leave for Washington DC tomorrow morning for a family vacation. I will return July 4th.

Sometime around July 9th/10th I will release "The Mug and Bottle" which is a bit of a mix of a bar, drug-den, and brothel (sort-of). In two of my campaigns one or more characters decided this place was such a horrible dive that they burned it to the ground (seriously).

I should be back to every other week releases after that, at least for a while. I hope to have some additional product announcements in July as well. Yes, despite the lack of releases, I HAVE been working on several different books that I hope will raise some sort of interest.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Medieval Battles

Lately, I have been trying to keep the family posts on my personal blog and post material related to GU and writing here. The truth, of course, is that they often overlap. As a stay-at-home dad I often play various games with my kids and often get ideas for various projects from their activities, words, and actions.


This past week DS#2 was able to go to a summer camp class at the San Antonio Academy titled "Medieval Battles"--he actually wanted to do this last year but the classes were full before we could figure out the schedule for the summer. This year, I got him in the class and he had an absolute blast.

Basically, this is a large-scale wargame using fantasy and historical troops. As you can see from the pictures, the game is very extensive. This was originally designed by Allen Hamilton and has essentially been play-tested for over 20 years now. It turns out Allen and his sons are interested in publishing the rules set for this game and I gladly volunteered to help them. Whether that help involves GU releasing the game, or simply helping them get set up to release the rules themselves, I will certainly help them anyway I can.

I am ALWAYS in favor of large tactical games that inspire the imaginations of children. If you live in the San Antonio area I strongly encourage you to find a way to get your children into one of these summer school classes. The San Antonio Academy has them every year (always run by Allen and/or one of his boys). You might want to sign up early though, they often fill up. DS#2 is already chomping at the bit to do a "Master's Class" later this summer. We'll have to wait and see whether or not we can do that. I will sign him up if I can.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Busy Week

This is another busy week with some morning camps for DS#2 and DD and a number of other activities. DS#2 turns 10 on Thursday and is having a few friends over tomorrow night for a sleep-over to celebrate. Of course, Saturday is also my anniversary, so I have to make plans for that too.

In other words, I don't know how much work I am going to get done this week. I have an awful feeling that I will suddenly have about 3 things completed at once and then have to decide how to take care of releasing them. I prefer that problem to having nothing ready at all though.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Grumble

Okay, the May/June drought continues. I will have some time to work this morning, but probably not enough to get things done. We have had so much time outside in the sun lately that I decided this afternoon is going to be a bit of "recovery" time inside. This means it will probably be a "game afternoon" with board games and possibly some RPG time with the boys.

Well, it is time to take the three oldest off to morning soccer camp. A few quick trips after that and then back home to work for a bit.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Working Away

Well, despite the insanity of this week I have still been getting some work done. Still haven't quite accomplished a solid block of 2-3 hours but that should be here pretty soon. I should have something released on Friday.

During my "free" time I have been looking at how I want to do the layout for some POD offerings in the future. Really, it shouldn't take so much of my time, but contemplating font choices and layout issues does become important eventually. You can do things with print layout that you can't really do with layouts designed for on-screen reading. I am not 100% positive how much work I want to put into doing 2 layouts (one print, one .pdf) for various books. I'll probably talk more about those issues when I have made final decisions on how to approach them.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Next Release

As I mentioned in the last post, and will try to have up on the website tonight, I have written off this week in terms of releases. The number of activities the past few weeks has been, well, outrageous. Next week I will have more time to write as well as blocks of time set aside to get layout and artwork completed.

I will also have time to actually email and talk to several people about some projects. It is pretty bad when you can't find time to keep in touch with people.