Sunday, May 15, 2016

Bad News and Good News

As I'm sure you've guessed, the times I'm able to get into the zone for proper blogging have been few and far between lately. Aside from obvious reasons that I'll get into in a moment, what is motivating me to write today is anger.

You see, earlier this week, I discovered that a friend of mine had died. Not only that, but she had died about a month ago. It was a sudden illness, so there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary last time I saw her. But that was some time ago. Longer than I care to admit, actually. She was a good person and actually pretty cool to game with. She just had a big personality that I could only really handle in limited doses. So there's a bit of guilt in with all the grieving, too.

So where does the anger come from? Well, when her old roommate came by to give me the news, I verified by checking the obituaries on the local paper's website. I found a brief notification of her death, but no mention of services or surviving family or any of that business. And that set me off. The thought that nobody cared enough to write the obituary or hold a service has really bugged me.

I later found out that she would get a memorial service next month. 2 months after her death. While I'm glad she'll have gotten some sort of memorial, the delay feels unconscionable to me.

This is relevant to this blog not only because she was a personal friend of mine, but also a gamer and an Oz fan. Regretfully, the period in which I was initially developing AiO was a time where I was taking a bit of a hiatus from her. I did give her a copy of the finished product, though.


So with all this anger at my more or less forgotten friend, I decided to take that energy and make a rare leap forward.

I know I teased the notion of a magic supplement, giving some more depth to the magic rules for AiO called The Wizard's Magic Bag. And that teasing went unfulfilled. Behind the scenes, the product was done, complete with interior art and layout. But I still needed cover art. I was in talks with one of my artists to do the cover, but that fell through the cracks like so much else has done lately.

So I decided to kitbash a cover for this product and release it, not only to get my own rear in gear, but as something of a memorial to my friend. This one's for you, Meghan.

The Wizard's Magic Bag, now available!

Also, since it is L. Frank Baum's birthday today, the Royal Podcast of Oz did another full-cast reading of one of the Little Wizard Stories. This year, it was "The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman," featuring me as the Tin Woodman!

Give it a listen!
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