I know it’s April 1. I don’t do April Fool’s anymore. Call me an old man screaming at a cloud, but I feel like there’s too much disinformation on the Internet these days to willfully contribute to it, even in jest. So it’s just another normal newsletter this time.
Still, let me start with the conclusion of what I mentioned last month: the Curious Cats of Mau crowdfunding campaign is over! 702 backers helped us raise more than 200% of our goal ($42,250 out of $20,000), which is a success. If you compare it to the Realms of Pugmire Kickstarter, it seems lower (had 1,052 backers, raising $65,524), but in my experience supplements tend to earn about half what core rulebooks do. That’s generally true in sales as well as crowdfunding campaigns. Curious Cats actually ended up doing closer to 2/3rds, so that’s incredible! It really speaks to all the hard work of the team to get it out there, and to the community who felt this was a great project to back.
So, after all the adrenaline (and exhaustion) of the campaign, comes the emotional crash. I’m wiped out. I’m obviously still working on things, such as reviewing the playtest feedback we got on Curious Cats and working on a couple big Onyx Path projects, but it also means I was happy to take a half-day today on Easter instead of working all the way through like I normally would. I’m also looking ahead to see if there’s time for me to take a week off or even a long weekend in the near future.
It’s important to take care of yourself as a self-employed freelancer. I’ve inadvertently become a bit of a mentor to another person in my coworking space, as they’re considering going into freelancing themselves. There have been some interesting discussions, particularly around British vs. American business etiquette which I’ve found intensely helpful, but also a lot of ground I’ve covered before. And yet, it’s been good to go back over it. Partially because I do enjoy mentoring, but partially because it’s good to reiterate I already know with a fresh eye. So as I find my attention wandering and my temper growing a bit shorter (both signs of stress for me), I find myself only really listening to my own advice when I give it to someone else.
It also reminded me that I have a lot of great clients right now. I know if I went to them and said I needed a bit of time away, I’d get it unless there was something absolutely critical, and even then we’d be able to negotiate it. It’s genuinely hard to find people, particularly in creative industries, who appreciate work/life balance, so I am thankful I have clients (and indeed, friends) who understand and respect this.
That said, beyond the obvious health benefits, it’s good to refresh in order to get better ideas. I have a few projects I’d like to work on (yes, including more Realms of Pugmire products), but if I’m so focused on getting the workload in front of me done, I don’t have the bandwidth to kick around new and creative ideas. Granted, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can force myself into that mode if needed — one of the most valuable skills you can have as a professional creative is being able to summon creativity on demand — but it’s always better if you don’t have to force it.
(Can you tell my family’s doing a rewatch of Brooklyn Nine-Nine for the holiday?)
Anyhow, just another day in the word mines. Some days it’s fun and effortless and nothing but a joy, and some days it’s not. But it’s still the best job in the world, and I’m glad over seven hundred people continue to think the results are worth it.
News
But enough of that. You’re here for some updates, so let’s get to it!
One of the upshots of the Curious Cats of Mau crowdfunding campaign is that we got a jumpstart funded! These low-cost products really help promote the products, so it’s always great to get them as stretch goals. I already had a pitch I was sitting on, so I’ve now hired that writer to go ahead with things. I can’t wait to see the final result!
I also ran a two-part actual play of Curious Cats of Mau on the Onyx Path Twitch channel. It ended up being a lot of fun, and another one of my more experimental games. Check it out!
Also, Screenrant listed Realms of Pugmire as one of their ten coolest unofficial settings for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition!
My Media
Weirdly, I half planned to use this section to talk about Ulysses by James Joyce, because I was in the act of rereading it and I got the impression many people don’t manage to read it once, let alone twice. Sadly, the copy I was reading actually started disintegrating in my hands (or at least, the ink on the covers was constantly getting on my hands), so I threw it away from frustration — not with the prose, but with the physical book itself. I’ll get back to that when I’m in the mood to buy another copy.
Instead I’ve started on The Essential Harlem Detectives by Chester Himes, and not only is the book better physical quality, but it’s been great to read.
The book is actually four novels in hardback: A Rage in Harlem, The Real Cool Killers, The Crazy Kill, and Cotton Comes to Harlem. Himes has been on my noir reading to-dos for a while now, and when I saw this attractive edition, I had to have it. I’m only about a hundred pages into the first novel, but already I can tell this is going to sit comfortably — both on the shelf and in my head — with my Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler books.
The novels cover the exploits of two Harlem police detectives, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed. They’re brutal, wisecracking cops working the brutal, wisecracking underworld of Harlem. Himes does an amazing job of portraying both the dark shadows and the bright lights of the Black community of Harlem, all with punchy language that still finds time for the occasionally exquisite detail. I look forward to savoring the rest of this book over the next few weeks.
But for now, back to email and doing a little more work before I call my short day… well, short. See you next time!