I hope people are not too frustrated about the delays on Dyval. I’m frustrated enough for all of us.
The delays have little to do with Carl Gleba or his writing. The ideas are brilliant, the writing is good. Some books – especially the BIG books, those over 160 pages – are monsters that take forever. There are a zillion stat blocks (which take much longer than writing prose/text) and a lot to consider as we write. There are story continuity elements, rules issues, gruesomeness considerations and other things to deal with.
It doesn’t help that I have to split my time and focus on business matters -- cash flow, money, paying bills, auctions, contracts, assigning artwork, coordinating with artists, writers and staff, new business opportunities, advertising, legal matters, Christmas Grab Bags, holidays and trying to have some tiny bit of a personal life (yeah right).
Even delegating the work to half of these things leaves a lot to do. Ultimately, I end up dividing my day between business and writing. It takes a while to ramp up the creative energies and get into a creative rhythm. Each interruption breaks that rhythm and requires energy to ramp up again. It’s kinda like highway gas mileage vs stop and go city driving. It’s the curse of being the lead creative guy and the head business guy.
And then some books just go slow and seem to take extra time. Dyval is one of those books and, as is so often the case, I don’t know why. Dyval is epic, what’s done is nothing short of fantastic, I'm having fun working on it, the writing is just going slow.
Good news
By contrast, I think Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® is going to get done like lightning. I already have a ton of notes and ideas for it and something like five sourcebooks. Likewise, I think Heroes of the Megaverse® is going to practically write itself. Weird, I know.
That’s why it is so hard to define the creative process. Of course, we’ll try to do just that on the Monday, November 5, podcast on Gateway to the Megaverse® when I’ll be talking about writing, where ideas come from, how to get published by Palladium, and a number of related topics. Carl Gleba and a few other freelance writers are likely to be present to share their ideas and experiences too. It will be fun and interesting, I promise. I’ll also have a kinda BIG announcement to make on the podcast.
Meanwhile, there is nothing but excitement and enthusiasm at Palladium. We have scores of RPG sourcebooks being written for just about every major line (Rifts®, Nightbane®, Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Heroes Unlimited, BTS, Ninjas & Superspies).
According to our intern, Margaret Haley, a submission of a Chaos Earth novel is excellent. That’s just her opinion, but she usually has a pretty good eye for that sort of thing.
Short stories for the Rifts® Chi-Town anthology book are starting to come in.
Adventures for the download program are being finished.
I'm talking to 3-4 companies about doing ancillary products like a Rifts® character generator and sourcebooks for Palladium Fantasy®.
We have a handful of secret projects in development. Things we think you will find to be fun and desirable.
I’m not feeling tired, despite the workload and the last few years of excruciating hours of work and the stress of the Crisis of Treachery. On the contrary, I’m enthusiastic, energized and full of ideas!
There is a palpable excitement in the air at Palladium Books. A greater excitement than there should be, perhaps. It’s as if the wind has changed and something big is about to break for us. Crazy? Maybe. Gut feeling? I hope so. Delirium from long work hours? Probably the most likely explanation.
But I think it’s real. I think, at least emotionally, we have turned a corner at Palladium Books and good things are going to come of it.
I continue to unleash my imagination and let my mind soar. I did so even in the dark times and dared to dream. You should to.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artists and Dreamer
© Copyright November 3, 2007 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, and Coalition Wars® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Naruni, Cyber-Knights and other titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.