First up, we just released the Wizards of Shadowfell PDF after a long gap in our release schedule.

Look for more releases to folow right on the heels of this PDF.  To get things moving a bit faster I had Daniel Perez (High Moon Media) help with the layout. I am still buried under a massive To-Do list at the new house, so he really helped get this one out the door.

One thing I noticed and thought I would comment on.  Flip-Book previews.  When I started doing them people liked them a lot.  OBS jumped on board and implemented the feature so you don’t even have to code any HTML or configure an XML script.  (Which I do for all my previews; it gives me greater control but the OBS solution is a cake walk to use.)  So OBS has this great feature and I never see anyone using more than a page or two in the preview.  Why?  I let people see each and every page; just like a real bookstore where you can flip through a book before you buy it.  I was checking out a couple of products on the new release page and flipped through three or four pages of a fifteen dollar (!) book and that’s all they would show me.  For that kind of scratch I want to see as much as possible. So come on publishers; why so stingy with the previews?

My wife has driven the motorcycle to work the last couple of days.  She told me she really enjoys riding and save a bunch of time since she can use the HOV lanes.  I take my bike less often, but once the move is completed (I am still camping out at our old place for about two more weeks.) I’ll be doing the same.

I saw the new Clone Wars movie the other day with my in-laws.  I enjoyed it but it did feel a tad “Saturday morning cartoon”.  The soundtrack was Star Wars but just “off” enough to feel like a cheap imitation.  There was no crawling text to start the movie off; that part was narrated.  While these things threw me off a bit they were not deal-killers.  I enjoyed the animation style a lot, and the battle scenes were very well done.  One thing I really hated; the whole plot of this film.  [Spoiler ahead. You have been warned!] So Jabba’s kid gets kidnapped.  Now the Jedi/Republic want to get him back so the Hutt clan will let the Republic use the Outer Rim shipping lanes in the war effort.  So you have Jedi working with Jabba, Jedi Masters essentially bowing down to the “Mighty Jabba” etc.  Hated it.  Jabba isn’t the head of the Hutt Clans, never was.  And Tatooine was supposed to be this little backwater no-where planet no one ever heard of; and it turns out Vader was from there and it was a major strategic factor in the Clone Wars and Yoda, Anakin and Count Dooku all went to Jabba’s palace!  Look all you people lucky enough to work on Star Wars stuff; there are MILLIONS of planets out there in our favorite galaxy far, far away.  How about we have some stories revolve around new places instead of Endor, Yavin, Hoth, Couresont and Bespin.  (At least Alderan won’t be bothering us again!)  Again, I enjoyed it but felt Jabba got way too much ‘respect’ for a gangster.  How about the Republic roll in there with like a zillion clones and just TELL Jabba they are gonna be ‘borrowing’ the space lanes for a while?  And if he doesn’t like it then they can send a few Republic Commando’s or even some Jedi to “aggressively negotiate” for them! My two cents.