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tafeanornToday I started in on seriously catching up on work. I cleaned the kitchen. I weeded (partially) out gravel parking lot. I worked on Ellis. All things that I just haven’t had the time or energy to tackle. It felt really good.
Then Becca and I went out thrift storing and garage saleing. We found some games -- nothing spectacular, but a new copy of Word on the Street, a Scrabble, a Rumikub, a Castle Risk, a Battleship and a few others that I don’t recall at the moment. And we just had some together time, which has been hard to come by. That felt really good as well.
And then worked more on Ellis. It is coming along well. The real work is done -- it’s all written, all playtested to my satisfaction, and laid out. It just needs four things: a major proofreading, artwork, a cover and maps. I have a map artist and a cover artist working right now. Their works in progress look very good, and though it’s coming along slower than I’d like, they’re going to look great. That leaves me with proofreading and art.
Christine got the first go-over of the manuscript and made a bunch of great comments in record time. And then Layla and I are going over it as well. It’s slow going and that’s disappointing on a let’s-get-this-thing-done-and-move-on perspective. But at the same all three of us have noticed and commented on how well it intrigues the reader and draws them in. It’s not a stuffy, academic-style world book. It’s actually fun to read. The fiction quickly demands that keep reading to kind out what happens next, so you tell yourself that you’ll skim through the next section, but that section grabs you and makes you savor it, forgetting for a moment the fiction.
We’re all probably biased for having spent so much time in this world working on this project, but even still, it’s extremely good. Better than I imagined it could be when I first started working on it.
And then artwork. The interior artwork is going to be nearly all public domain images. Not Dover Books line art that you see in all of the indie RPGs, but scans of actual medieval and classic artwork. I did that for one main reason -- I really wanted that style of artwork but found few reliable and affordable artists willing and able to do it. It just also happens to be free and thus very affordable.
So I’ve been searching for art. Online, searching through galleries of medieval manuscripts. The Maciejowski Bible. The Manese Codex. The University of Heidelberg has a stunning collection of manuscripts available on their website and you can just download the entire book as a .pdf. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ I’ve been to our local library and gone through all of their art books. I’ve been through my personal library . . . So it’s coming along. I probably won’t start actually inserting images until we get back from vacation.
Then Becca and I went out thrift storing and garage saleing. We found some games -- nothing spectacular, but a new copy of Word on the Street, a Scrabble, a Rumikub, a Castle Risk, a Battleship and a few others that I don’t recall at the moment. And we just had some together time, which has been hard to come by. That felt really good as well.
And then worked more on Ellis. It is coming along well. The real work is done -- it’s all written, all playtested to my satisfaction, and laid out. It just needs four things: a major proofreading, artwork, a cover and maps. I have a map artist and a cover artist working right now. Their works in progress look very good, and though it’s coming along slower than I’d like, they’re going to look great. That leaves me with proofreading and art.
Christine got the first go-over of the manuscript and made a bunch of great comments in record time. And then Layla and I are going over it as well. It’s slow going and that’s disappointing on a let’s-get-this-thing-done-and-move-on perspective. But at the same all three of us have noticed and commented on how well it intrigues the reader and draws them in. It’s not a stuffy, academic-style world book. It’s actually fun to read. The fiction quickly demands that keep reading to kind out what happens next, so you tell yourself that you’ll skim through the next section, but that section grabs you and makes you savor it, forgetting for a moment the fiction.
We’re all probably biased for having spent so much time in this world working on this project, but even still, it’s extremely good. Better than I imagined it could be when I first started working on it.
And then artwork. The interior artwork is going to be nearly all public domain images. Not Dover Books line art that you see in all of the indie RPGs, but scans of actual medieval and classic artwork. I did that for one main reason -- I really wanted that style of artwork but found few reliable and affordable artists willing and able to do it. It just also happens to be free and thus very affordable.
So I’ve been searching for art. Online, searching through galleries of medieval manuscripts. The Maciejowski Bible. The Manese Codex. The University of Heidelberg has a stunning collection of manuscripts available on their website and you can just download the entire book as a .pdf. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ I’ve been to our local library and gone through all of their art books. I’ve been through my personal library . . . So it’s coming along. I probably won’t start actually inserting images until we get back from vacation.
