Day: August 3, 2023

I haven’t ventured far from the hotel room this morning. It is already nearing noon and I know I should be finding an Uber to take us to the convention center. I’m excited. I’m especially excited to see what the vibe is like here. I do not do many gaming conventions outside of Arizona, and to jump into one that brings 50,000+ is a huge leap. The sheer gravity of the thing is overwhelming. It also shows me where I am in the so-called pecking order and what I need to do in order to raise my profile.

I am ready to raise my profile. My partner and I discussed that yesterday. She wondered at first if I was really ready. We looked at the work of some of the other writers I’m connected to and how much more prolific they’ve been over the last few years. Those writers do this full time. They quit the day job and focused on writing as a means of primary income. That is not what my budget sheet looks like. However, writing is extremely important to me–moreso than the handful of projects or novel a year that I currently crank out. I experience as much lull as I do grind, which means that I’m still dealing with that long ramp up to get going writing. When I have a flow of projects, that ramp up period is behind me and I keep going and flowing steady until the work runs out. I do not want the work to run out. I do want to be the guy who is always getting published and writing bigger and better and more engaging projects. That means raising my profile to the point where people want me to write stuff for them and (or?) being able to write without an organization behind me.

How do I raise my profile? That is part of why I am here. I want the team to know that I am ready and I am hands on and I am willing to pitch in and show up and develop those relationships required to better my standing. It is a step forward. It is one of many I need to take to get to where I want to be as an author and contributor.

Football is back. I didn’t even know! I knew about the training camps, but to realize there is a game–a JETS game–tomorrow leaves me flabbergasted. FYI that may not be the correct use of that term, but it is what I got for the feeling. I’m at GenCon enjoying the opportunity to be a part of the roleplaying world for the first time in a long time. I’m going to take a minute tomorrow to walk the field at Lucas Oil stadium where they will be playing roleplaying games. That is nuts to see two of the biggest fascinations of my life collide in that way.

Football is a huge part of my life. The three original franchise boys all play or played, with the youngest starting his HS journey on the 22nd. So that too is 20 days out. Everything feels like it is happening all too fast at the moment. All of it feels like I’m trying to spin around really fast in order to see everything. I likely won’t be seeing the pre-season hall of fame game tomorrow, but I may have a chance to catch some of the action on the 10th when other teams take the field. It is time to start thinking about what these squads look like and how I feel about them in terms of fantasy capital, because that time has also come round… or is about to.

Next week I will begin the positional breakdowns for any fantasy drafters who are reading this outdated form of media. Gotta reward the fans.

Some Thoughts:

1. Cesar Chavez is struggling after a 15 yr old student drowned on their football retreat. There are a ton of unknowns here. One I keep going over in my head is how he got left behind. It stands to reason that other players on the team were involved in him being left behind. The idea that not one kid noticed he was missing seems false. More evidence will emerge over time. Why? because kids talk.