Shiny new thing!

Some of you will have been aware that I've been working on the same laptop since 2017 which, in laptop terms, is practically the Dark Ages. Despite despite my being temporarily between employments, my wife agreed that I could drop a modest chunk (of family money; Precinct Omega doesn't have enough in its coffers to shell out for me, right now) on a suitable replacement and, today, it arrived.

Key to my needs, when deciding on a new device, has been its ability to comfortably run Blender, as I hope to continue developing my own skills in this area - in particular to support the eventual release of new Ballmonsters! miniatures. And fortune favoured me, too, as my original order turned out to be out of stock and the supplier has instead sent me an even better version (higher spec graphics card) than the one I paid for!

I'm happy to report that the preliminary transfer of the work-in-progress on Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark has gone swimmingly. Editing is going extremely well and I have opened discussions with David Sondered for a new piece of cover art, and with Mike Doscher to licence more of his existing portfolio for Midnight Dark just as I did with Infinite Dark. Mike has even offered to do some original pieces especially for the book, because people who send you $500, no questions asked, for the right to use artwork you've already completed are the kinds of people that artists tend to like helping out.

I am looking at maybe using some AI-generated pieces because, at the end of the day, it's a sci-fi game. But only if I can't secure enough art from Mike for the needs of the book, which I think will be pretty unlikely.

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may also notice that I seem to have woken up a bit, artistically, recently. I'm enjoying having my hobby mojo back and am thinking that it's time I also acquired a new airbrush as my venerable Badger Patriot is probably ready to be relegated to priming and terrain only.

Anyway, back to the new laptop: I am installing all of the relevant important software and copying across any assets I don't have in the cloud. But if you can't reach me for any reason, it's probably because I've hit some snag or other, so don't panic.