I’m writing this about 4 hours before I need to hop out of bed and catch a plane, so this is going to be brief (and unillustrated). I want to log a couple of those hours with a bit of shuteye.

THANK YOU
First and foremost let me say it again: THANK YOU. My profound gratitude goes out to every single fan and supporter who laid down their pledges for the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Kickstarter. Most of the team has been working like beavers since it wrapped up. Ken has been writing furiously, Rick has lined up all the printing and merchandising, while Steve has made the temporary tattoos and the bookmark and a first draft layout for the Free RPG Day handout we’re going to do. It’ll have an abbreviated version of the new rules, and an adventure or two that Ken is putting together.

Me, I haven’t actually done much on this just yet. (Don’t shoot me! I’m just telling it like it is.) I knew that I had a bunch of old business on my plate which had to be cleared up before I could plunge into dT&T.

PAINTING FROST & FIRE
The thing I have been doing almost non-stop for the last month, up to 12 hours in a day, is painting. Remember that Frost & Fire post I mentioned back in October? It got tabled for two months while I worked on dT&T, along with several other things. I had an extension to the deadline, but that extension lasted only until the Emerald City Comic Con … which is where I’m headed in the morning. The painting is done, and it’s going to the show with me. ECCC is giving The Gathering artists (more on that below) an amazing venue to meet and greet with the fans, to show our new paintings and many old ones. A huge collection of original Alpha Magic art will be on display as well.

I am proud as hell of my painting — it lived up to the wild expectations I spoke of back in October. I’m not going to show you here, at least not right now. If you want a glimpse, you have a couple of things you can do. If you have tickets to ECCC, it will be on display. If you can’t attend ECCC but can make it to Seattle in the next month or so, check out the Krab Jab Studio, where many of the new original paintings will be on display in the public gallery through March.

THE GATHERING ART BOOK
If you can’t manage to reach Seattle, then you’ll have to be a little bit patient. You see, The Gathering art book is on Kickstarter right now. This is the first place my new painting will be published. If you want to get a copy of the book, don’t hesitate too long. Due to contractual obligations, there is a hard cap on the number of copies which can be made. If you are interested in this project, you’ll need to get on board before things sell out.

You might get a glimpse of my painting while the Kickstarter is in progress. I can’t promise that will happen, and I don’t know when, but the organizers (Jeff Menges and Pete Venters) are slowly letting people have a peek at the new art, one artist at a time.

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
I am hoping to get to some other conventions this year. I have my eye on GenCon, and I expect to be at TusCon here in Arizona in November. I do not plan, at the moment, to sell this Frost & Fire painting, so I will be exhibiting it at conventions I manage to get to. I will have prints to sell at some point — I have a small run available exclusively at ECCC — and will be taking orders for canvas prints as well. This also will wait for a little bit, however, to give pride of place to The Gathering book.

THEN BACK TO dT&T
As soon as I get back to town, I’ll be headed up to Phoenix to meet with the other Fellowship members. From that point onward, I will be working on Deluxe T&T-related things full time. With the Frost & Fire painting under my belt, my artistic confidence is at an all-time high, and I’m really eager to get into the work.

Next, I’m going to juggle elephants. That should be a snap after all these other things, and a good way to relax and wind down.