Another Crazy Week – more behind the scenes
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:48 pm
More behind the scenes at Palladium Books
One crazy week is behind us, and a new one is about to begin.
Last week was part awesome, part fun and part frustration.
Rex Barkdoll came to town to visit the Palladium offices. Rex is the chief architect behind the new Palladium website. He came in Tuesday and left Sunday morning. He got to meet the Palladium crew including Mark Dudley, Thom Bartold and Matthew Clements, and Rex had fun ransacking the Palladium warehouse for books and items to take home with him as well as a few items for a couple of his friends.
Rex Barkdoll is one of those people who reaffirms your faith in humanity. He’s a young and vibrant 24 year old filled with ideas and dreams, and the talent to make them a reality. Best of all, he’s a great guy. Everyone took an instant liking to him.
In between him and Thom killing bugs and fine-tuning the Palladium website, we talked about all kinds of things and plotted out future plans for Palladium Books, the website, Twitter, videos on YouTube and many other things.
I did a lot of talking and meetings last week. Met with Mark Dudley as well as Matthew Clements, and contacted some other freelancers.
Mark Dudley is another force of nature, though sometimes I see little bits of strain as he fights to make his own dreams (within and outside Palladium) a reality.
As for Matthew Clements – he reminds me of a couple other 26 year olds I knew in the past. A couple guys named Erick Wujcik and Kevin Siembieda. Matthew is a dynamo of ideas and I don’t think there’s anything he cannot do when it comes to writing and concept work. You’ll start to see his contributions to the Palladium Megaverse® in the next few months. He’s already turned in one finished Rifts® manuscript (one of our secret projects) and is working on 2-3 other secret Rifts® projects as well as developing one of the Rifts® comic strips (I hope to write the other). On top of that, he’s working on a few other things that are under wraps.
Nick Bradshaw is another guy who is a fountain of talent, ideas and unchecked imagination. And wait till you see the artwork he’s done for Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms. It’s fantastic. When Mark Dudley saw the art it blew him away. Nick has been growing as an artist and experimenting to find the right approach, pitch and tone for his work. With a little recent art direction from me, I think Nick has found the right balance and he’s going to surprise everyone. Heck, he might very well be the next Ramon Perez. I’m not kidding.
Greg Diaczyk (writer) is another gent whose imagination is on fire. I think Greg walked away from the Creators Conference with new insight and a fired up imagination. Chuck Walton, Irvin Jackson and from what I’m hearing, Amy Ashbaugh, are also burning with ideas for upcoming Palladium projects.
I spoke with artist Mike Wilson recently, and he volunteered to do three fantastic illustrations for Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms that nailed what I wanted. Wow, I think his artwork is even better than ever. It was great talking with Mike and catching up with him. He’s a super-guy. You can expect to see a couple illustrations here and there from Mike in a number of upcoming books.
There is just so much talent and energy at Palladium Books right now, and on so many levels, that I am filled with awe some days.
So why am I frustrated? Because while we have soooo many great people and great projects in the works, it all takes time. Time and money, and it never seems like we have enough of either. That frustrates me. And nothing ever seems to go easy, darn it.
I’m frustrated because I would hire Matthew, Rex, Mark, Nick and a few other people to the Palladium full-time staff so fast it would make your head spin – and they’d all take that job in a heartbeat . . . except Palladium can’t afford it. That frustrates the heck out of me. In the meanwhile, we do our best with what we have, and with these guys helping out on a freelance as well as volunteer basis.
This week is going to be another crazy week . . .
I can feel it building. But I’m hoping it will be crazy busy, because it is filled with an explosion of writing! I’ve got Matthew Clements coming in to help with rewrites and editing, and I feel fired up on that front myself.
I intend to push hard the next few weeks to get books out one after another, and that’s a big step to getting Palladium strong. That’s frustrating too, because we're always working hard, putting in long hours and pushing the envelope. Guess I’m just feeling a bit keyed up and a little behind the eight ball as deadlines slide, no matter how hard we work and there is so much good stuff in the pipeline.
Online Sales: At least online sales were good over the weekend. Now, if only they hold for awhile until we can peel out 3-4 new titles in quick order, starting with Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™.
Rifts® Free Quebec™ should ship on Wednesday. It’s always good to get popular titles back in print.
Rifts® Lemuria™ is another book that is going to be awesome. Robotech® New Generation and Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames too.
While I'm writing, Wayne and Alex will be working away on The Rifter® #55. So, yeah, that explosion of new releases should just be a few weeks away.
Keep the faith. Keep the good vibes and sales coming our way. And keep a positive frame of mind in these frustrating and challenging days everywhere. If you do, I will too. Deal?
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer and Game Designer
© Copyright June 6, 2011 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited™, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.
One crazy week is behind us, and a new one is about to begin.
Last week was part awesome, part fun and part frustration.
Rex Barkdoll came to town to visit the Palladium offices. Rex is the chief architect behind the new Palladium website. He came in Tuesday and left Sunday morning. He got to meet the Palladium crew including Mark Dudley, Thom Bartold and Matthew Clements, and Rex had fun ransacking the Palladium warehouse for books and items to take home with him as well as a few items for a couple of his friends.
Rex Barkdoll is one of those people who reaffirms your faith in humanity. He’s a young and vibrant 24 year old filled with ideas and dreams, and the talent to make them a reality. Best of all, he’s a great guy. Everyone took an instant liking to him.
In between him and Thom killing bugs and fine-tuning the Palladium website, we talked about all kinds of things and plotted out future plans for Palladium Books, the website, Twitter, videos on YouTube and many other things.
I did a lot of talking and meetings last week. Met with Mark Dudley as well as Matthew Clements, and contacted some other freelancers.
Mark Dudley is another force of nature, though sometimes I see little bits of strain as he fights to make his own dreams (within and outside Palladium) a reality.
As for Matthew Clements – he reminds me of a couple other 26 year olds I knew in the past. A couple guys named Erick Wujcik and Kevin Siembieda. Matthew is a dynamo of ideas and I don’t think there’s anything he cannot do when it comes to writing and concept work. You’ll start to see his contributions to the Palladium Megaverse® in the next few months. He’s already turned in one finished Rifts® manuscript (one of our secret projects) and is working on 2-3 other secret Rifts® projects as well as developing one of the Rifts® comic strips (I hope to write the other). On top of that, he’s working on a few other things that are under wraps.
Nick Bradshaw is another guy who is a fountain of talent, ideas and unchecked imagination. And wait till you see the artwork he’s done for Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms. It’s fantastic. When Mark Dudley saw the art it blew him away. Nick has been growing as an artist and experimenting to find the right approach, pitch and tone for his work. With a little recent art direction from me, I think Nick has found the right balance and he’s going to surprise everyone. Heck, he might very well be the next Ramon Perez. I’m not kidding.
Greg Diaczyk (writer) is another gent whose imagination is on fire. I think Greg walked away from the Creators Conference with new insight and a fired up imagination. Chuck Walton, Irvin Jackson and from what I’m hearing, Amy Ashbaugh, are also burning with ideas for upcoming Palladium projects.
I spoke with artist Mike Wilson recently, and he volunteered to do three fantastic illustrations for Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms that nailed what I wanted. Wow, I think his artwork is even better than ever. It was great talking with Mike and catching up with him. He’s a super-guy. You can expect to see a couple illustrations here and there from Mike in a number of upcoming books.
There is just so much talent and energy at Palladium Books right now, and on so many levels, that I am filled with awe some days.
So why am I frustrated? Because while we have soooo many great people and great projects in the works, it all takes time. Time and money, and it never seems like we have enough of either. That frustrates me. And nothing ever seems to go easy, darn it.
I’m frustrated because I would hire Matthew, Rex, Mark, Nick and a few other people to the Palladium full-time staff so fast it would make your head spin – and they’d all take that job in a heartbeat . . . except Palladium can’t afford it. That frustrates the heck out of me. In the meanwhile, we do our best with what we have, and with these guys helping out on a freelance as well as volunteer basis.
This week is going to be another crazy week . . .
I can feel it building. But I’m hoping it will be crazy busy, because it is filled with an explosion of writing! I’ve got Matthew Clements coming in to help with rewrites and editing, and I feel fired up on that front myself.
I intend to push hard the next few weeks to get books out one after another, and that’s a big step to getting Palladium strong. That’s frustrating too, because we're always working hard, putting in long hours and pushing the envelope. Guess I’m just feeling a bit keyed up and a little behind the eight ball as deadlines slide, no matter how hard we work and there is so much good stuff in the pipeline.
Online Sales: At least online sales were good over the weekend. Now, if only they hold for awhile until we can peel out 3-4 new titles in quick order, starting with Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™.
Rifts® Free Quebec™ should ship on Wednesday. It’s always good to get popular titles back in print.
Rifts® Lemuria™ is another book that is going to be awesome. Robotech® New Generation and Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames too.
While I'm writing, Wayne and Alex will be working away on The Rifter® #55. So, yeah, that explosion of new releases should just be a few weeks away.
Keep the faith. Keep the good vibes and sales coming our way. And keep a positive frame of mind in these frustrating and challenging days everywhere. If you do, I will too. Deal?
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer and Game Designer
© Copyright June 6, 2011 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited™, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.