Normally at this point in writing my newsletter, I take the time to reflect on how the past month has gone, and see if there’s something poignant, inspiring, or simply interesting to relate to the ongoing life of a full-time freelance creative. But to be honest, most everything has been eaten up with one fact:
I am once again a home owner!
After many many months of navigating the nuances of British home buying and endlessly proving that, no, we’re not laundering money from the US and yes, I am actually both a British and American citizen and yes, I do in fact make money at my job, we finally traded contracts and put in our down payment on that beauty above. For obvious reasons I won’t give the address, but I will say we’re still living in London, albeit further away from city center than previously.
(Side note: I just typed “centre” and had a moment where I was confused why it was marked as incorrectly spelled. I should talk about code switching between British and American English sometime….)
We’re planning to move in a few weeks, which will be right before UK Games Expo and OPP Con (more below on those), so the next couple of months are going to be chaotic. Combined with a few projects I’m working on, all of which are under NDA for now, and I’ve got a lot going on.
One of the downsides is that I have to say farewell to the coworking space I’ve used for the past year. If, by some chance, you’re in the Hackney area and looking for an artistic cowork space at a reasonable price, I highly recommend Grow Studios. They have been a great group of people to work with, and really helped us get through a tough period of three people all trying to work from home in one flat.
I’m actually a little surprised at how fast time has flown. In some ways it feels like I’m still settling in, but it’s been nearly 18 months since we moved to London. This is also the fourth move in that time, and hopefully (knock on wood) the last one for a good long while. I’m excited to move into our new home, but a part of me will miss Hackney.
Anyway! The next time I’ll be writing this will hopefully be from my new home, so in the meantime, let’s talk about some news!
News
First off, as I mentioned, I have some conventions coming up! I’ll be running some games at UK Games Expo, which will be in Birmingham from 31 May until 2 June. Sadly, all four of my events are sold out (!), but I’ll also be at the Onyx Path panel on Friday, 13:00 to 14:00, at the Piazza 3 Board Room. Come say hi!
After that, I’ll be in a large number of panels at Onyx Path Con. Luckily for folks not in the UK, that convention is entirely online, and all the panels will be on our Twitch channel. Here’s the schedule:
Next, my Marvel RPG adventure, Revenge of the Super-Skrull, is now available on PDF! This was originally an adventure written exclusively for Roll20, but they’ve decided to make it available as a meaty 39-page adventure. I’m really happy with how it turned out, so if you want a great introductory adventure to get people right into the thick of a Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game story, this is a great way to do it!
Finally, if you prefer less superheroic punching and more espionage punching, They Came from [CLASSIFIED]! is now available on PDF and print-on-demand! This is a hilarious comedy game in the vein of Get Smart, Austin Powers, and Johnny English. I’ve enjoyed working on all the They Came From…! games that I’ve been hired for, but I think CLASSIFIED might be my favorite. I highly encourage you to pick it up!
My Media
I’m still savoring The Essential Harlem Detectives by Chester Himes from last month. It’s not dense at all, but I’m finding it’s a book I much prefer reading when I have a comfortable and quiet hour or so to really enjoy it, so I’m happy to take my time with it. I also picked up a couple of Sherlock Holmes (well, Mycroft Holmes) books from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that I read a few years ago, gave up prior to the move, and regret getting rid of, so I’ve rebought them. Of course, I also bought the entire DVD set of Transformers: Energon and even plan to watch it, so maybe I shouldn’t be trusted with these things.
So instead, let me talk about Fullmetal Alchemist.
FMA is one of those animes from around the early 2000s that I remember liking but also never got around to finishing. Then a different version of it came out, and I actually spent a large chunk of lockdown and beyond watching that with a friend, but again never finished it. Recently I discovered that there have been very nicely produced hardcover versions of the manga called Fullmetal Edition.
It’s not just the manga rereleased in hardcover. It’s a completely new translation with new lettering, printed larger and on higher quality paper, and reorganized to fit in eighteen volumes instead of the 27 of the original English releases. I’ve got the first three volumes now, and they look and feel fantastic.
Honestly, even though I’ve never finished it, I deeply love the world of Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s a distinctive flavor of fantasy with tons of political intrigue, moral dilemmas, and complex characters, all while keeping a sense of fun and hope. There’s even a dash of cyberpunk in it with the fantasy-ish cyberware you see on the cover there. And the lead character is named Edward! I’m trying to pick up one volume a month, although given that it’s been printed over the past few years and the publisher only occasionally does new print runs, it’s been a bit of shopping around to find each new volume as I’m ready for it. Still, I’m enjoying the hunt, and so far every volume has been worth the effort.
Anyhow, that’s it for this month. See you (from a different location) in June!