I must admit I was feeling a little down towards the end of 2003. I didn’t have a lot of energy, certain projects continued to vex me, and “the next big thing” always seemed over the hill. I had planned to do a ton of work over Xmas time but in the end I did but a moderate amount. Spent the rest of the time playing Knights of the Old Republic, hanging out with Nik and Kate, and getting together with old friends. I think that was the right thing to do.

At the start of the new year I hit the ground running. I had a very productive week, capped off today by sending in the advance check for the literary license we just signed. Between that, the Red Star license, and several other deals in the works, Green Ronin has a lot going on this year. Rather than grind me down though, it seemed to energize me. I was going from project to project, making plans, sorting details, finding freelancers, concepting ads, nailing down release schedules, and so on. I got a lot of stuff done and ended the week feeling optimistic about 2004. There will surely be rough spots (there always are) but if we can weather the next couple of months we ought to have a good year.

It also helps that we have a bunch of seriously good releases coming out soon. I sent back the proofs on the Psychic’s Handbook today and that is a dynamite book. Very well designed and illustrated, with a gorgeous Todd Lockwood cover, it’s perhaps the best Master Class book yet. We also got proofs for the Book of Fiends this week and it looks fantastic. If we can’t sell a crapload of a 224-page book chock full of demons, devils, and daemons, then something is very wrong. Today I reviewed art for two Mutants & Masterminds books too, the Annual and the Nocturnals. Again, really cool stuff. Ted Naifeh (of Courtney Crumrin fame) did some standout work for the Nocs book.

The rest of this weekend I’ll be finishing my development pass on Aasimar & Tiefling: A Guidebook to the Planetouched. As I was hoping, it too is excellent and will not require much work on my part. I love it when that happens.

Looks like I’ll be running a new roleplaying campaign this year too. We’ll see what the gang picks. I gave them options from Star Wars to Pendragon to James Bond 007 to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We’re bringing in two new players and hoping this influx revitalizes our groups somewhat. At the end of last year, we had ceased roleplaying entirely and were just playing a Mordheim campaign. Fun, of course, but neither Nik nor Kathryn had much interest, so a return to roleplaying should be a good thing.