I finished this book last night:

From the back cover:
Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer.

It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business.

And now Owen is their newest recruit. It’s actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.

Business is good…

Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

I heard about it on one of my “daily read” Blogs over at MadOgre.com and read the first chapter free at the authors website HERE. I really enjoyed the first chapter, so when I heard the book was shipping I ordered it from Amazon and devoured it in a few days. Great book, funny, plenty of action; lots of twists. The author KNOWS his guns, but doesn’t make the error of just throwing “Gun Porn” into his prose for the sake of it. This book (and it’s in-progress sequel) would make a really fun campaign setting for an RPG! If you want a good monster-romp, this is well worth your time.

Black Tokyo will hit this weekend, possibly Monday if we have trouble recording the Publisher Audio Commentary with Chris Field.  Given that he is half way across the US from me we will be doing a conference call that I will record and edit.  Should be fun.  Right behind that Chris has another huge 80’s action sourcebook ready to go, along with a few D7ACU’s.  We will be hitting February hard with releases from Otherverse and Skortched Urf’ Studios.

[Secret Project] is well under way.  Another week or two and it will be ready to unveil.  Again, this project is gaming related, though not PDF Publisher related.  This one is for the wargamers, card gamers and just plain gamers out there. (I haven’t left out you comic book fans either!)

I just signed up for the D&D Experience Con which will be held almost in my back yard.  I am slated for a couple of 4th edition pre-view games on Thursday and Friday night.

I threw my hat in the ring to see if I could get access to the 4th edition SRD through OBS.  They will be partnering with eight or ten publishers who sign NDA’s and agree to the terms.  Should find out this week if I “made the cut”.

I am also working with a writer on putting the finishing touches on another Adventurer Essentials release; Iron Rations!

More info soon.

Still putting the finishing touches on this one; but I thought a peek at the new cover was in order:

It’s been a LOOONG week since I posted last.

My “Real Job” had me hopping last week, but the overtime pay will be nice on my next paycheck.

Saturday the 19th we held our Star Wars Saga Edition gaming session which lasted well into the wee hours of the morning.  Our group of daring Sith Anti-Heroes wreaked political havoc on the Galactic Alliance and Corellia specifically; setting the stage for the conflict to come.  We are also about the begin our trials to become full Sith (7th level).

Monday was Lobby day here in Virginia, so I spent all day down in Richmond with the VCDL lobbying on behalf of gun rights.  The Million Mom March held a protest as well as an (appropriately-named) “Lie-In” outside the building.  Pro Gun-Rights supportes were out in force with an estimated 400 people visiting the various legislators and attending hearings.  Here is a short “after action report” I sent to a few people via email…

As some of you might know, yesterday was “Lobby Day” here in Virginia.  I went to Richmond yesterday with approximately 400 other pro-second Amendment supporters to lobby our legislators about several upcoming bills introduced this session.  We met in the lobby of the government building.  Those of us with carry permits are allowed to enter the building while armed; so we did!  The metal detectors were singing.  Showed my permit, and we were in.  (I was toting my Kel Tec P3AT in a pocket holster, while others were openly carrying.)  In the lobby they were handing out the “Guns Save Lives” stickers; bright Orange with black writing, so I got one on my chest and one on my back.  We then divided up into more manageable groups of six to eight people and headed upstairs to see a handful of assigned representatives.  We spoke to two representatives and two “legislative assistants”, thanking them for their support and asking for continued support.  The VCDL had prepared a summary of each of the upcoming bills and weather the organization supported the bill or not; as well as spelling out why/why not.  The summary sheets were left with each of those we spoke with.

Once we finished with our assigned contacts, the four of us that drove down together decided to go see our specific representatives.  (We all live in the same district.)  Our first stop was Delegate Moran.  He’s not paticurally gun-friendly.  He was in a meeting so we waited in the outer office with his secretary before we could go in.  She noticed the gun carried by one of our group, and commented that she didn’t like guns.  To which my friend said “Neither does your boss, that’s why we’re here to talk to him.”  We chatted a bit until the meeting ended and went into his office.  Another man slipped in with us, asking if he could tag along.  That man turned out to be Jeff Knox, the son of Neal Knox and the current head of The Firearms Coalition!

So we got to spend a few minutes with them, expressing our views on the upcoming bills.  In the end Delegate Moran said he didn’t want to “change” the existing gun laws, which is a good thing.  (But he’s played the “I’m Neutral on Guns” card before and then supported bad legislation in the past.)  After that meeting we went to see Del Marshall who also represents our district.  There was already a large VCDL group in his office, so we waited (Jeff Knox was still with us) until they left so we could see him.  But by the time they were done it was time for him to go to a caucus meeting, so we only got a few seconds with him in the hallway.  He is solidly pro-gun, and knew my friend Rick from several previous discussions; so it was a quick but good meeting.

We headed back down to the lobby, to see if anything else to do or people that needed seeing.  We were done for the day, but the Million Mom March folks, sporting Yellow “Close the Gun Show Loophole” stickers, were holding a protest across the street to include an appropriately named “Lie In”.  We had a bit over an hour to kill before that, so we headed down the street for lunch, then back to the protest.  The MMM set up on the steps of a small bell-tower building a microphone, ringed by signs etc.  The Orange stickers of the VCDL/Gun Rights supporters easily doubled their numbers.  We had plenty of our own signs like “Freedom is NOT a Loophole”, “Here Lie Unarmed Victims” and others.  After their speeches, which were difficult to hear because their generator was louder than their speakers, the proceeded to a small clearing for the lie-in part.  I walked over to a rail front and center to watch.  Most of the news cameras lined up in front of me.  One lady came over and dropped her purse and stuff to go lie down.  She snidely said to me “Why don’t you join us and see what it’s like”.  I didn’t reply, but thought to myself “That’s why I carry a gun, so I DON’T have to lie there with you and see what it’s like to be a victim.”  Aside from a handful of MMM organizers, the bulk of their numbers were clearly college students.

Our numbers were at least double the MMMers at their protest.  They tried to get the police to eject us, but the police told them their protest was a spectacle and since were were just watching and not interfering that we had every right to be there.  I hear one lady on her cell phone after it was over cussing about all these %$^# Orange stickers.  I also noticed one camera crew that literally got in the face of any pro-gunner having a conversation.  A couple of guys in front of mer were just talking, not loudly heckling or anything, but having a conversation about what was going on.  They stuck a camera in their face and a boom mike right up on them hoping to catch a good sound byte.  To my knowledge they didn’t get anyone on tape saying anything stupid.  Several media interviews were given once the protest broke up, both pro-gun and anti got camera time.

Some of the news coverage…

http://news.oldva.org/?p=79

and here’s the AP story:

http://news.oldva.org/?p=80

and one from the Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/147920

Ch 4 News report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGTTjc3gcfc

News 4 at 5 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ2Q3nOwOxc

News 5 at 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEmwFH0jyr4

Here is the VCDL after-action report sent out later that day:

We estimate that almost 400 gun owners showed up at the General
Assembly today!

There was a SEA of orange “Guns Save Lives” badges on all floors.

It was truly impressive.  The cavalry had arrived!

The metal detectors were going off almost continuously at times and
the overwhelmed police had to bring in extra people to handle the huge
load to check CHPs!

Once inside, people were assigned to a team.  The teams went through
the building talking to Delegates and Senators and leaving VCDL
Legislative Analysis documents with aides.  I talked to some aides who
were quite impressed with the quality of the VCDL people and the sheer
number of members that seemed to be everywhere.

Elevators were jammed with people and even the stairs were jammed!

GUN SHOW BILL

I arrived at 8:30 AM for the hearing of SB109, Senator Marsh’s “Gun
show loophole” (AKA, the private sales registration) bill in the
Senate Courts of Justice.  Testimony on the bill began at 10 AM.  The
antis got 35 minutes to speak, as did our side.  Only two or three VT
parents spoke, the rest of the speakers were either police (disgracing
the badges on their uniforms) or lobbyists.

The antis brought up their usual baloney and misleading “facts.”
Colonel Massengil and the Superintendent of State Police (who was in
uniform) spoke in favor of the gun show bill.   Massengil tried to
tout himself as being pro-gun.

When asked by one of the Senators how many criminals got their guns at
a private sale at a gun show, the Superintendent had to admit that he
didn’t know.

While the antis spoke, all the gun owners were quiet and did not
disrupt or heckle them.

But, when our turn came to talk, things were different.

Joel Patridge, the NRA lobbyist for Virginia, was heckled and applause
at the heckling drowned him out at one point.  He looked at Senator
Marsh, the committee chairman, to bring order.  But Marsh, who had
been running the meeting with an iron fist before, just sat there for
a while and then weak-wristedly brought down the gavel and the room
finally came to order.

I spoke after Joel, and it was even worse.  Again, as I spoke the
antis heckled and were very unruly, clapping loudly and long at the
heckling.  When there was an outburst, I would stop speaking and wait
patiently for Marsh to get around to bringing order.  The suddenly
weak-wristed Marsh would eventually get around to bringing order.

When I started pointing out that the bill would be onerous on dealers,
gun shows, and private sellers, Democrat Senator Saslaw shamelessly
playing to the hecklers, ask me if the VT parents had been
inconvenienced. ( More on Senator Saslaw other antics in an upcoming
alert.)

Again unruly applause and heckling took over the room as Marsh sat
there impotently.

In the end the committee decided to vote on the bill on Wednesday at
the 2 PM meeting.  I will be there for the vote.  I am optimistic -
delaying the vote was probably done because Marsh didn’t have the
votes to pass his bill.  But it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.

Our side presented itself well and the antis showed themselves to be
their usual rude and inconsiderate selves.

THE “LIE”-IN

At 12:45, EM Dave Vann was taping signs on member’s backs with
messages like, “Freedom is NOT a loophole.”  The members then headed
over to stand around the antis when their protest started at 1 PM.

We had about 200 people show up at the protest, dwarfing the
approximate 100 antis!

As I approached the protest, I was taken aback by the image of all
those white VCDL signs blanketing the protest, drowning out the antis’
messages.

And the antis got mad.  They tried to get us kick out, but the police
told them that their protest was a spectacle, which draws spectators.
He pointed out that we weren’t doing anything but standing and
observing, all of which is protected by the First Amendment.

The antis, fuming, walked away from the police officer to pout
somewhere else.

We had one member assaulted by an anti who shoved him out of the way,
saying, “This is OUR protest!”

Nice people, aren’t they?

–

It is 10:30 PM as I write this and I am STILL at the General Assembly
listening to key mental health bills.  Activist Roy B. Scherer was
kind enough to loan me his computer to type this alert while I am
waiting for a bill to come up.

It looks like we may well end up with a good, supportable, mental
health bill.  But the Devil is in the details and we will be looking
at the final wording to see if it satisfies our concerns and watching
the bill to see that bad wording isn’t slipped in.

I will be at the General Assembly again on Tuesday (tomorrow) the
Senate is going to hear the library ban bills, amongst other anti-gun
bills.

I will advise the outcome of those bills.

ANY INTERESTING LOBBY DAY STORIES?

I am collecting interesting stories of things that happened on Lobby
Day.  Either interaction with the antis or perhaps with Delegates and
Senators.  If you have such a story, email it to me.

I have not seen the news, but we should have been all over it.  I was
interviewed by the AP, WRVA (radio station in Richmond) and TV stations.

Thanks to leadership and many of our EMs for their help making Lobby
Day a success!

VCDL -  good turnout, good work - I’m proud of you guys!

——————————————-
***************************************************************************
VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.

VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org

Last night was dinner with some friends after work, so we got home about 9:00pm.

Tonight I’ll be fencing, and then work on some PDF releases until bed time.  I’ll be working on more PDF releases throughout the weekend as well, as well as putting the finishing touches on Black Tokyo which should be completed and ready for release early next week.

I have also contracted for phase II of [SECRET PROJECT] which should be completed in two or three weeks as well.

I still have not seen Cloverfield but my friend (out Star Wars GM) saw it while I was down in Richmond, and he gave it a glowing review.  Can’t wait to see it.

More info soon!

Wow, half way through January already!  Things have been VERY busy for me.

First, the 4th edition SRD.  I am not gonna pony up five G’s for it cuz, frankly, I don’t have it.  I also don’t think PDF sales will help me re-coup that money in the few months that early adopters will have the advantage.  I’ll wait just like everyone else and support 4th edition a year from now.  If OBS decides to work a deal to allow publishers access I’ll happily take advantage; though I suspect if they were to work it out they would offer it only to exclusive partners. Time will tell if WOTC/Hasbro will play ball.

On a personal note, I am fairly excited about the pending release of 4th edition.  I’m looking forward to it as a DM and a player.  Some of the guys I game with locally are going to the D&D Experience con next month.  I want to get up there as well.  Our DM is going to be running some games up ther, so we switched out local group from his home-brew campaign to 7th level Ebberron characters.  (My Warforged fighter and his +1 Keen Greatsword laid waste to many a foe!)

Things are advancing rapidly for [SECRET PROJECT] and I hope to roll it out for public consumption soon.  I think it will be especially good since the overall slump in PDF sales is continuing.  I have been doing some behind-the-scenes and not-so-glamorous work to get things ready for a public announcement.

Black Tokyo is nearing completion; the artwork is in and the final layout is being composed.  Look for it soon!

Right behind that we have another large project; more details on that one soon.

And I still have a few shorter PDF’s on deck including the North Side Spiders; a Modern Arcana Drow Street Gang, a couple of D7ACU’s and more.  Plenty to keep me busy.

Plus, I opened my big mouth and told the guys where I go fencing I’d help them move their site to its new domain name.

We are playing our Semi-Monthly Star Wars campaign this Saturday, so that should be fun.  I need to cast more Hirst Arts blocks for the game.  One more thing to add to my To-Do list!

Saw the series premier of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, I really enjoyed it.  Last nights episode had one weak spot in the middle where Sarah got all girly-wishy-washy about offing a ‘old friend’.  So River Tam-inator plugs the dude and Sarah freaks out.  I don’t want to see Sarah Connor, the most bad-@$$ action babe since Ripley plunged into the Alien nest using a pulse-rifle taped to a flamer (or vice-versa, if you prefer), turn into some chick who “just can’t cope” and unleashes the tears.  She’s HARD, she’s driven and the world is * literally* out to get her son.  She’s the momma-lion.  You can show some human weakness, but she better not come off as some chick on the Oxygen network or some Lifetime movie of the weak.  Rant over.  Two thumbs up so far on the show; keep up the good work.  (If you missed them you can see them over on the Fox website.  No link…look it up you lazy bastards! ;-)  Google is your friend.)

I got a hand-full of images back from Anthony which will finish up the artwork for Black Tokyo.  I’ll finish up the layout ASAP so we can finally send this one out the door.

I am also making headway on [Super-Secret Project] in the last twenty-four hours.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am very excited about it.  (It is gaming related, but not PDF or publishing related.)

I spoke with Louis Porter Jr. last night for a while and we discussed the 5K price point for the 4E SRD.  Obviously I will not be laying down that kind of scratch for an early crack at it because I don’t think I’ll make the investment back.  So unless several publishers are able to pool their resources I’ll just wait patiently like everyone else.

More info soon.

I went by the used book store near my house yesterday.  I found a whole mess of paperback novels for ten cents each; so I picked them up as a form of “reference material” for an upcoming project related to D20 Modern.  (Plus, I just really like to read!)  I also took my daughter the the library on Saturday, and while she was picking out some books I came home with several of my own. I mostly went with reference books from the library such as the Acrobat 8 Bible and books on programming and CSS.

Went fencing on Saturday morning.  It was quite a workout.  I am feeling it today; I ache all over.  I guess its been a while since I used most of those muscles!

AE: Gold Piece dropped off the front page, so I’ll put another new PDF up today or the next day.  I have several almost ready.  I also have a couple of very large projects nearing completion; I hope to have both of them released in January.

I planned to get some work done last night when I got home.  I had some dinner, watched a bit of Ninja Warrior on G4 and before I knew it the couch had cast a sleep spell on me.  (I missed my Fortitude save, big time.)  So I woke up near 11pm and had trouble sleeping cuz of my power-nap.  Slept fitfully all night.  The end result; I didn’t get any of the items on my “To Do” list checked off.  I’ll plan on doing some more work tonight.

Went fencing last Wednesday night for a bit.  I am out of shape.  (Or, more accurately; in a ’round’ shape!) My arm was really burning, but it was a good workout.  Will probably go again Saturday morning.

Saw a post on the OBS Publisher Forum about the 4th Edition SRD.  No one I know has a copy of it, or has any idea exactly when it will be available. Patiently waiting.  I hope it comes out sooner rather than later, as I think it will really help the overall slump in PDF sales.  I predict a strong resurgance in the PDF market when it hits.  I think there will continue to be a core group of 3.5 edition players whose main source of continuing support will be PDF’s.  Then there will be the new 4th edition SRD, coupled with the Wizards ‘Digital Initiative’ thing.  I hope there will be some way for electronic publishers to integrate our content; that could be HUGE for the PDF/Electronic market.

Anthony hits another one out of the park!

So yesterday in the AM I sent Anthony an email asking him to do a cover for the long-awaited Black Tokyo project because I didn’t like the stock art cover I had put together a while back.  About an hour later he sent me a sketch asking for my opinion of it.  (I told him it had to be a PG-13 cover.) I made a couple of comments, and let him go to work.  When I got home last night from work, THIS was waiting in my inbox:

Wow.  Nuff’ said.

Back at work today.  Traffic was nice, but I expect it will be back to its normal, frustratingly slow pace by weeks end.

I updated some numbers on my spreadsheet and figured I would share a bit more info on what Skortched Urf’ Studios accomplished in 2007.

We released 44 PDF projects in 2007. That averages out to 3.6 projects a month, which is *almost* one a week.  (Which is what we were shooting for.)  But I took two months (Aug & Sep) off and released no products during that time.

On RPGNow our best-selling title for 2007 was Mega-Feats: New Paths to Victory with 79 copies for the year.

Our Fantasy Firearms PDF came in second with 75 copies sold.

I am not going to go into a bunch of financial info about the year, but I just had my boss come in and give me my raise for the new year here at my full-time job.  It’s your typical cost-of-living raise, which is what I was expecting.  I made more than twice the amount of money selling PDF’s as I got for my raise.  (Of course, I used most of that money to keep paying artists and writers so I can keep putting out new product; but you get the idea!)

Some of my 2008 Goals/Resolutions:

*Work out more.  (Fencing and Volleyball come to mind, not just throwing weight around a gym.)

*Paint both my Warmachine Factions before GenCon.

*Write more of my own projects.

*Launch [TOP SECRET PROJECT].

*Release 50 PDF projects.

*Become a Platinum Publisher on OBS.