Autumn is my favorite season. Even here in Arizona, there's a palpable change in the air. It's cooler at night. There's occasional storms. And what signs of life exist - flowering plants still bravely putting forth blossoms, patches of lush green in the otherwise dying grass, the potted lilies that are stretching green tendrils skyward as if they thought it was spring - are all the more precious for the air of decline going on around them.

Autumn feels like that, to me. While some folks find spring to be a time of energy, for me it's always been the fall. It's when new projects seem to come to me, new endeavors really take hold, and it's a time of change, growth and accomplishment.

Maybe because of that, I've got a lot of new things on the plate or recently finished, both professionally and personally. Some of them, I can even talk about!

Number One has to be the new roof. The full story is here, but the long and short of it is - over the past year, the Viking and I reroofed our house here in Bisbee. And, it's finally done. Hurray us! See, bet ya didn't know I was such a multi-talented boggan!

Connections - Also a great success is the fact that the home/virtual school project is working out wonderfully. Not only is the Valkyrie happier and healthier (not a single bout of "the cough" that plagued us all year last year and kept her out of school for 6 weeks spread throughout the school year!) but she's merrily studying Japanese and several Honors classes and maintaining a high B average (and perhaps even more miraculous for a teen, a wonderful attitude!) throughout. For those who are looking for options other than their public brick-and-mortar school, I heartily recommend Connections Academy. It has literally changed our home/school situation 100% for the better.

South Beach - Having found ourselves grown sluggish (and the scale dial creeping slowly into the uncomfortable zone) the Viking and I set ourselves on the South Beach Diet plan again, a few weeks ago. While I'm not a big fan of "diets" (for a multitude of reasons), in general the SB is a much healthier way of eating than we revert to - lots of salads and fresh vegetables, lean meat, low-fat dairy, and (after the first two weeks) a reasonable amount of whole grains and fruits. As opposed to the high concentration of non-whole grains and starches that our normal diet consists of, it's really an improvement, and we can already feel the difference in our energy levels.

GMing - I ran my first tabletop game in several years at Rincon at the beginning of the month. Despite my nerves, folks seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I plan on running another one at NeonCon in Las Vegas early next month! Lots of awesome gamers and industry folks will be coming out to enjoy LV's fantastic November weather (and what looks to be an amazing convention). You should try to make it too!

Some work-ish bits worth mentioning:

One Geek to Another - I have to say, I've been blown away by the positive response to One Geek. In just two months, the column has gone from a thought to an ongoing feature that's syndicated on several remote sites and magazines. We just celebrated our two month anniversary, with a couple of contests and much rejoicing. We've tackled touchy topics, like cheating GMs, rude co-workers and poor hygiene, and in upcoming months, we have many more tough subjects planned. So thanks for your support, and keep coming back!

Indie Project #1 -Conventions for the Aspiring Game Professional is doing really well - I've never done an indie project like this before, so I wasn't sure what to make of it, but the feedback has been really good. I'm totally excited to be helping folks help themselves to get their foot in the door in the industry. It's been up at OneBookShelf.com, and at the Flames Rising pdf store since I published it last month, and I'm in the process of making it a part of Indie Press Revolution (which is a great place to find independently created games and game-related products!) and potentially a few other sites.

Indie Project #2 - Working on an indie game project with another industry pro. Can't really talk about it yet, but it should be ready for consumption soon. And I think it's going to be hella sexy.

Guest Blog - I was invited to do a guest blog at Flames Rising (my favorite site for everything horror!). As a point of conjunction between One Geek to Another and Flames Rising, I chose the topic of Halloween Etiquette. The results are up - take a look!

La Serenissima - Thanks in no small part to the wise advice of author J.C. Hutchins, who was kind enough to verbally beat me over the head and shoulders for giving up too early, I've begun working again on my novel, La Serenissima. The response thus far has been encouraging, and by encouraging, I mean "Your writing is beautiful, the premise is engaging, but it's just not quite ready yet. Here's how you could improve it." It's a place that the ultra-talented author C.E. Murphy calls - One Step Shy... So, now  I'm at the "get the rest of my work handled so I can dive into revisions" stage. I won't be participating in NaNoWriMo again this year (it's become a tradition for me /not/ to do NaNoWriMo, because of Autumn being such a hectic season for me.) But I do have plans for a self-imposed revision retreat (sans internet, family and household responsibilities)  in December, wherein I will lock myself away from everyone for a week or two and focus all of my attention on making LS into the work that I believe it can be. I'm terrified, but excited beyond belief.

The Rest of My Work - Which, brings us to the rest of my projects, most of which I can't discuss in detail. I'm in negotiations to do a series of short stories (related, like a story-arc from a good television series) for one very awesome game company. I'm working on a short story (set in the same world as La Serenissima) for an independent anthology with a bunch of really awesome writers. And I was just asked to participate in a book about one aspect of gaming (but not a game book in the sense of a rule book) that I'm very very excited to be a part of.

Speaking of work - I should get back to it.  Thanks for visiting!