Happy Valentine's Day!

Kiss your sweetie! Buy some Chocolates! It's Valentine's Day! Is it a manufactured holiday? Maybe. Who cares. It's a day to celebrate love, show your sweetie you care about them, and maybe talk your way into some action in the bedroom. What's not to like!

Great weekend at GGE. Getting ready to head to Chattanooga in 4 days for ConNooga (I guess in the South I should say that I'm "fixin' to go to Chattanooga" - I'm from the South, hence the reason I feel free to make fun). I did some running and started a marathon training plan that should culminate in a marathon on or around Halloween. I did plenty of writing on Sanction. Some planning for Pendragon and Stitch. Green is busily reviewing/editting The Warchitect and Return To Glory and Danger Guild is being drawn as I type. All good stuff!

It's good to be busy.

Holding it together

Well, one month into 2011, and some things have gone great and some not so great. I have managed to keep my work out going, but I have also been living a bit of an indulgent lifestyle so while I have maintained my fitness, I have only dropped 1 pound of holiday weight. Then again, if I drop 1 pound a month, then by the end of the year, I will be thrilled and maybe I can move a little quicker than 1 pound a month if I get focused.
I have done better with school. Rolling along in school and inching closer to my Master's Degree, though it will still be a year or so (and I'm glad it will be - not ready to repay my student loan).
Writing has been minimal, unfortunately. I wrote some on my ever-evolving Pendragon Story. I made some notes for 2 metahuman stories, I sent all of the finished properties off to Green for editting. I did get some art going again on Danger Guild and I am hopeful that I can get that one moving. In fact, I feel better about DG now than I did last year so hopefully some samples will start to appear. Right now it looks like it will be a full length graphic novel in B&W though color might be an option. If not for the first release, then definitely as a re-release.
I have been reading a lot. I have kept up my regimen of 1 non-fiction and 1 fiction book at all times. Finished a couple so far. Almost finished with "Gates of Fire" (I don't think those 300 Spartans are going to make it!)
So, as I grade my first month of 2011, I would give myself a C+ or a B-. I need to up the writing and production of GGE properties and that would get me to at least a solid B or B+.

Asking before receiving

I read a Dilbert cartoon a day or so ago in which Dilbert is sitting in his cubicle and he reflect that "I ask for so little."
There is an introspective pause and then Dilbert realizes...

"And boy do I get it!"

I think we all try to ask so little of life, of others, of ourselves and yet we feel victimized when we get so little. Why wouldn't we? We haven't asked for more! I am as guilty as anybody of this...probably more so, because I have prided myself on asking for so little.

And boy have I gotten it! I need to change this...right now!

Brief GGE Update

Some brief GGE news:

Think I found a new artist for Danger Guild. I loved our previous artist, but he's just got too much n his late to spend time with us. It's a good problem to have as an artist, I would say, being able to turn away $$$.
In any event, we'll get rolling on Danger Guild again and get some samples out as soon as they are available.
Sent three finished works off to Green for his review and editting. While Gates provides a lot of the mechanics of story crafting, typing, and businessy stuff, Green provides a huge amount of the creative effort. Our stories tend to have very distinct characters, distinct imagery and snappy dialogue. A good deal of that comes from the (sometimes twisted) mind of Green (Tim Green for those who don't know).
So with one under contract, three in editting and one being drawn, we are about to develop a couple of new properties.
Also planned for this year is a total website revamp, and hopefully adapting some of our prose work into graphic novel scripts or screenplays.
It just all takes time and that is the one thing we can't make more of.

General News

Lots of random thoughts.

• The new Clash of the Titans is good, but not great. I like the 1981 version better. The new FX are amazing, but I miss the whimsical style of Ray Harryhausen FX.
• I am loving Batman Brave and Bold on Cartoon Network. Cool show and it shows some more minor DC heroes
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars continues to get cooler and cooler
• I am addicted to Smallville, but he needs to fly already!
• I am reading "Feast of Crows" by George RR Martin. The whole Ice and Fire series has been awesome, but I am almost finished with this book and I need the next one to come out! "Dance of Dragons" has been ongoing for like, 5 years! I need it in a bad way!
• How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie.
• I  played some MagicQuest with the kids over Spring Break. fun and immersive.
• I made a return trip to Medieval Times. My last visit was in 1986. It is still fun.
• I am feeling really inspired about writing some King Arthur stuff. George RR Martin will do that to me. I might read some Bernard Cornwell next. It does the same. In the meantime, I am playing Medieval: Total War 2. Cool game.
• On the writing front, Del is working on "Danger Guild" illustrations. I split "Warchitect" into a duology. I have been writing on "Rodentia" and "The Pendragon Chronicles" and "The Forsaken" is being considered by a publisher. If I get a rejection letter from this publisher, I have 2 more lined up who want to see it.

Well, that's this weeks random musings

What we love

You know what we love at GGE? (list in no particular order)

Horror movies
Science fiction movies
Fantasy movies
Sci-fi/fantasy novels
Comic books
Super hero movies
Beer
Roleplayers
Comic book conventions
Vegas
The Beach
Halloween
Christmas
Running and lifting weights
Geeks
Girls
B-rated Monster movies
Motorcycles
America

Lots of other stuff, but that is a pretty good list.