It is 7:41 a.m. on a cold, blistery morning. Instead of snow, it has managed to rain for several days and the sky resembles the appearance of dirty cotton. The cinnamon crops on my farm are slowly climbing up out of the ashes (my breeding of chickens is not going well), website tweaks for my new theme are pending my programmer’s ability to break the space-time continuum, and I am dying to return to blogging. So here I am, writing a blog post, because only I can hold myself accountable to my goals and my words.

This year has been a transition year for me in the sense that I’ve had to balance creative concerns with “the day job.” Fundamentally, I am an artistic person who has often struggled to combine my creative nature with a career and my writing goals. It’s challenging because, as you might imagine, the left or logical side of my brain would like to slaughter the right and, as a passionate person, sometimes it is difficult to balance my enthusiasm for storytelling with my desire to do a damn good job. Oh, with that money thing. Because, you know, there’s this thing called “financial security.” In my distant past, creativity was lauded only when it becomes apparent that the right side of the brain is responsible for more than incredible songs, stories, paintings, and sculptures, but when it affects a company’s bottom line. Often, you’d also have to be in the *right* position to be heralded. Worker bees, not so much. I’m of the mind that insight and impressions come from the right side. When you get that a-ha! moment that comes from reading between the lines, this is a very right brain thing.

I am enjoying the Director of Marketing position at Steve Jackson Games because it allows me to merge my professional background with my personality. For this company? It works and it’s also a great fit for what I’m doing with John. One of the larger projects we’re wrapping up with Matt M McElroy and the staff at DriveThru, is to ensure that his back catalog of comics is available for fans to download or print through Dork Storm Press on DriveThruComics.com. Just yesterday, I was admiring a translucent blue Jolly Jumbo d6 which immortalizes his smokin’ reindeer. The whole process of how art gets turned into dice and toys and games just stuns me.

Now that I’m getting into a day job groove, I’m looking ahead at what’s on my storytelling and game writing plate. Short answer? Bigger projects. This means less promotion-related activities because I won’t have the bevy of new (shorter) releases to promote. I’m not certain how I feel about the whole self-promotion thing right now. For me, it’s like jumping up-and-down saying “Look at Me! I’m Awesome! NO. YOU’RE AWESOME! NOW BUY MY BOOKS! WHEEE!” a lot. There’s some who’ve taken to writing advice and done well. Meh. MUCH easier to promote with John or with Steve Jackson or with anyone else than my own stuff. Sure, when I was back in H.S. I could probably do that and not give a flying squirrel, but now (and due to many Real LifeTM circumstances) I’m a *lot* more humble than I used to be. From what I can remember at least. I did one promotional opp for The Queen of Crows on this post, also because we’re offering a print edition. The black-and-white version has been released and the color version is in proofing. So today I’ve done my duty.

Hence, one day… In a weird conflux of Mobius events… I, too, may need to hire someone to do my own damn PR… (I’d rather be stuck in a studio writing and drawing and twisting and painting.) Well, at least I have that business thing down now. These days, one *has* to take a series of small business classes to navigate the publishing waters. I really liked this post by Chuck Wendig titled 25 Financial Fuck-Ups Writers Make.

So, the current plan is to blog more. Promote less. Continue to do things my way. Tell conventional wisdom to piss off. Before I leave you, a small rant minus the swearing:

*AHEM*

Begin rant/

Telling someone they can’t *possibly* know what they’re talking about unless they have direct experience with any topic or living through said experience pisses on the following disciplines/careers: reporters, critics, historians, anthropologists, analysts, therapists/counselors/psychologists, attorneys, writers, and editors. Telling someone they have to be in any said discipline to have a qualified opinion implies that they don’t have a brain. Guess what? People HAVE brains! Not everyone has the IQ of a doughnut!

/End rant

Mood: Contemplative with a Splash of Getting Christmas’d Out
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Not enough.
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Does laundry count?
Word Count Logged Yesterday: (Pending New Tracking Method)
In My Ears: Final Fantasy X-2 Soundtrack (YuRiPa Fight No. 1)
Game Last Played: Picross 3D for Nintendo DS
Movie Last Viewed: Harry Potter on Blu-Ray
Book Last Read: Dark Faith anthology
Latest Artistic Project: Byzantium chainmail bracelet with pink/iris green/black rings
Upcoming Release: Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem