Glad to leave January 2017 behind, frankly – it was not my best month ever. It began with the death of my Mother-in-Law on January 9 — between my wife and I, this was our last surviving parent — followed immediately by having to euthanize my 17 year-old cat the very next day. Midwinter Gaming Convention the next weekend was a pleasant diversion, but I brought home the worst cold/flu case I’ve had in more than a decade, and was out sick — coughing so hard I was giving myself headaches and even threw up once — for almost two weeks. Naturally my wife got it too; just as I was recovering, she was hitting the worst aspects of it. Then there’s the national political scene here in the US, but that’s a topic for another blog post. We round out the month with the news that one of my brothers has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and that pretty much sums up the shitstorm that was my January. I’m tired.

The upside of all this crap is that I have several projects for which I turned in work at the end of the month. I’m finally able to talk a little bit about them, and it’s been pretty tough to not spill the beans before now! Okay, because I was flat on my back with the flu so long, my part in those projects was late, but only by a day or two, so within the realm of reason all things considered. The developers/editors I’ve worked with on these projects have been very supportive and understanding, for which I am extremely grateful.

The first project I’ve been working on was Onyx Path’s Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers — an introductory-level product for the new Pugmire roleplaying game. I can’t talk specifically about what I’m working on, but I’m delighted to be involved with this project.

The second project is the Ghost Hunters book for Onyx Path/White Wolf’s classic World of Darkness setting. It’s meant to be a more generic book, one that can be used as an add-on for any of the individual settings, particularly Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and Wraith. That was FUN. I haven’t had the chance to dabble in the World of Darkness since I turned in my text for the Vampire: the Masquerade Ghouls & Revenants book, so it had been well over a year.

The third project was a piece of short fiction for the upcoming Pugmire anthology. I was most excited about this opportunity because I really want to work on more fiction in 2017, and this was an excellent way to get started. Thank goodness I began working on that story earlier in the month: if I hadn’t, I’d still be working on all three documents even now.

I published my year-in-review blog post for 2016 at the beginning of January: In it, I mentioned that I’d only had five paying projects I worked on last year. With three under my belt already at the beginning of February, my hope of having more work out there this year is looking very attainable indeed.

And while I’m at it, I’d like to direct your attention to my convention schedule for the 2017. A few things may change but hopefully not much. There’s space to add one or two more events if the chips fall the right way for me…

At this point it’s difficult to say for certain when these three projects will see print. GenCon seems so far away, and yet, with all the behind the scenes production work — editing, proofreading, placing orders for the artwork, layout — that needs to happen before each of these three books can even be sent to the printer, August may be cutting things just a bit close. We’ll see how that plays out. Starting the year off with several paying projects is invigorating, and helps damp down the awfulness of the month’s other news.