Other than the vanished empires, ancient manuscripts, and armed rebellion, this post has nothing to do with gaming

Last month, this article showed up in The New Republic: How a team of sneaky librarians duped Al Qaeda . It describes how a team of librarians, archivists, couriers, and regular people smuggled a huge trove of priceless ancient manuscripts out of Timbuktu in the midst of a fundamentalist uprising, essentially saving them from being destroyed forever.

Unfortunately, the manuscripts are still in danger from the change in climate and conditions. I'm involved in running an Indeigogo campaign to help fund the preservation effort. The project is appealing to me as a gamer, a geek, and a lover of knowledge. It's like being present when the Library of Alexandria has caught fire and finding you have a bucket handy.

There's a lot about this project that's amazingly cool. Not only is it chance to save something priceless from disappearing forever, but it's a chance to personally become a part of saving it. We're able to physically put each contributor's dedication on the box of a manuscript they helped save. I suggest checking out the video. It's worth seeing.

When will things get back to normal?

The answer is not very soon. Thanks again to everyone who offered kind words on my art and/or supported the Kickstarter. It was a blast. I'm still dealing with the last few wrinkled of fulfillment, but it's essentially done.

I've got a bunch of new projects in various stages from "just an idea" to "almost ready," but everything is on hold now as I'm getting involved in a new and entirely different crowdfunding effort. It's not game or art related, particularly, but I'll post a link here when we launch nonetheless, because it is pretty cool and very exciting!

The Eye of the Storm

This is a weird weekend. For the first time since the beginning of January, I don't have any pressing Kickstarter-related things I have to be doing. The poster has already been delivered to the printer. I've seen a proof and it looks fabulous. It'll be ready next week. Jez is wrapping up the last bit of layout on the book. He doesn't need any more artwork from me. I've ordered the huge pallet of shipping tubes for the poster and stored them in my basement. I don't have anything to mail yet. Next week is going to be crazy. The week after will be crazy. But this week, I get to relax.

Aliens for Epidiah

My friend Epidiah requested some alien drawings, so I took a little break from doing layout on the Seattle Survival Guide book (almost done!) to draw these. They're in the mail, Epidiah!

Ten Awesome (and difficult) maps I want to Make

1. Colonial site on Mars, the Moon, or Europa, based on accurate topographical maps.
2. Chernobyl exclusion zone
3. Kowloon walled city
4. Cyberpunk Rome
5. London, done Venice style after the ice caps have melted
6. Post-singularity Portland Oregon
7. Seattlehama, from the novel Yarn
8. Portions of a Warhammer 40k Hive City
9. San Francisco with the Alien Landing Site
10. Alien Occupied Hollywood

What's Going On?

What a few months it has been! I just wanted to post a quick blog update and let people know what's going on. The Kickstarter for the Seattle Doomsday Map was a fabulous success, and now I'm deep in the process of fulfilling the backer rewards. I spent today printing and signing backer postcards. The Dee Dee's Survival Guide is a hair away from the final edit and layout. I'm ready to make the poster order as soon as the book design is ready. Things are looking great! In the Real World, my work has never been busier (I work as a tech writer and consultant), which means even more things to squeeze into the day. On the horizon I've got a few more art projects, as well as a Dungeon World campaign faction game thingy that's sort of half Stars Without Number, half How to Host a Dungeon. So life is busy! I can't wait until things slow down and I have more time to blog.


Printing backer postcards! Oh my, there are a lot of them.

Pre-ordering for Seattle Doomsday Map

It turns out a lot of people missed the Kickstarter for the Seattle Doomsday Map, so I've set up a page where you can pre-order the poster: Seattle Doomsday Map Home Page. Backers will get their maps first, I promise, and naturally not all the exclusive rewards are available, etc.