I sometimes have to question my line of work as compared to my political beliefs. For those you haven't figured it out I would call myself a weak-willed socialist. Others might call me a left-wing pinko or a long-haired hippy freak. To this I take offence, my parents were long haired hippy freaks. I am much more reasonable.

What does this have to do with freelance art? Most.... oh who am I kidding... ALL of my art jobs are for Role-playing games that are rife with guns, guts and glory. Now my parents (the afore mentioned long-haired hippy freaks) raised me as a pacifist. Yet my livelihood, and my chosen past-time are all on some level, vicious bloodsports. Why?

It's not because I am rejecting the beliefs of my parental generation. I am still very much a pacifist, yet I enjoy the idea of all my friends trying to storm up the beach at Normandy while I, taking the role of the Germans mow them down. I go into great (sometimes sickening) detail of the effects of their attacks. Heads explode like a crimson sea spray. Units cry out from pain an make pitiful attempts at last words that trail off in coughs of blood. And I love doing it...

And if you love doing it too, Savage Worlds hits stores this month** and comes highly recommended. Fast furious, fun. Just ignore that little tickling in the back of you brain that says "Can't we play the game where we all cooperate to help build a better society?" and reach for the auto-shotgun. It's a keeper.


**Update**
The Savage Worlds release date has been pushed back to early '03, sometime around March. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

"If Bush and his NRA buddies hadn't prevented the formation of a national database for ballistics fingerprinting, the police would have been able to trace the sniper's bullets to the actual gun that he is[was] using. He might have been caught by now. But no -- we must protect the rights of the sniper to make sure that his constitutionally-protected assault weapon is not registered or on any kind of list anywhere, anytime." - Michael Moore

October?... where'd September go?

I have been so hard at work on the tradedress for Savage Worlds that I've been very bad at updating this thing. But then again, I realize that nobody reads this so who cares. here are some cool links... you non-people you.

• I'm Working on a cool new CafePress site for John Kovalic creator of Dork Tower.
  
• Raise the blood with a high-octane vist with the Viking Kittens
  
• Get ready for my annual Night of the Day of the Dead party by reading up on some Ghost Stories
  
• More Spookie Stories
  

Welcome from the road..

This transmission comes to you live from San Jose, CA and Worldcon 60.Business has been great and we've made a cool impression on the west coast sci-fi fans. Here is a brief run down of the past few days.

WEDNESDAY
Arrived in San Jose around noon, checked into the luxurious Fairmont hotel. Savannah and I were stuck with a single-bed room but we'll work it out. Almost all of our stuff had arrived safe and sound so we proceed the long an arduous task of hauling it from the Hotel to the convention center. After several hours we had finished set up and called it a day. I discovered the hotel pool and Savannah and I enjoyed an early evening swim.

THURSDAY
The dealers room opened at 11AM and we were immediately surrounded by ravenous fen shoving money at us. After 7 lovingly grueling hours we retired back to the hotel... and the pool. Not for long however. It seemed that we to put in an appearance at the BASFIC room party as "honored" guests/hosts. we stayed as long as we could without offending anyone then Savannah and I made a break for food. This was around 10PM and we learned that food and 10 is rare creature in San Jose.

FRIDAY
More of the same on the floor. Amazing rushes followed by 10 min lulls. After the Dealers room closed we went right to dinner at 50's themed restaurant "Johnny Rocket's" and as Savannah retired to bed I went to see the Lux Radio Theater troupe perform "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker", a funny take on Star Wars as if it had been a 40's era radio play ( Starring Mickey Rooney as Luke Skywalker, Humphrey Bogart as Han Solo and... dum dum dum Bella Lagosi and Darth Vader...). a fun time
was had by all.

SATURDAY
Busy Busy Busy, Larry Niven stopped by the table. Had Dinner at Johnny Rocket's again. Wandered into a Belly Dancing party on the 15th floor of the Fairmont. Swung by the LA in '06 party on the 19th floor.

SUNDAY
Stilly Busy Busy Busy, Phil and Savannah went for Vietnamese food I chose to get my dinner from a local toasted sub-shop. Went back to the LA in '06 party, got sorted as a "Clone Donor Canadate" for the Space Cadets. I then hung around the filk rooms and caught Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff doing a great Tolkein song, set to the tune of the Beatles Come Together --

..got to be a Ringwrath,
he's just too hard to see.
Come to Mordor -- Right Now
With the Ring.

MONDAY
Not much to say. We put in a few hours in the Hucksters room packed up our stuff and made a run for the airport.

Hey folks! Welcome to Arcane Times.

I’ll be on the road for the rest of the week. But if you are in San Jose this weekend I’ll be at the 60th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in the McEnery Convention Center, San José, California ( Thursday, August 29 through Monday, September 2, 2002 ) and say hi. Patrick Stewart will be there Friday night. ( More here. ). And it's not too late to buy a membership from Online Registration, using PayPal. One-day rates are here.
I’ll be running the Studio Foglio booth in the dealers room and hanging out with Savannah and the filkers in the evening ( possibly at the same time, depending on Savannah’s tolerance levels ). I’ll also be working on the last of the Savage Worlds: Evernight art so stop by and see me in action.

Till next time -- Cheyenne.