Latest Release: Future Player's Companion in Print!

The Future Player's Companion is now in print, and should be gracing the shelves of discriminating game stores as I type this. Formerly released in three electronic volumes by The Game Mechanics, the FPCs have been combined into a single book and published by the great folks at Green Ronin. The FPC was written by myself, Neil Spicer, and Rodney Thompson. Anyone who plays d20 Modern or d20 Future (or any combination thereof) should find the book to be indispensable.

In other news...

It's not that I've given up writing at Borders/Seattle's Best, but given my near-daily forays into that neck of the woods, I'm starting to dislike the drive. You see, the thing that attracts me to Seattle's Best is the size of the coffee shop. It's large, roomy, with lots of tables. It gets crowded, but the clientelle is rarely obnoxious. I've found that it's easy to go into "writing mode" while I'm there, and I get lots of work done.

As I mentioned, though, there's the drive. With afternoon traffic during the week, it can take me nearly 45 minutes to drive home. Between the time spent in traffic and the horrid price of gasoline, I've started to desire a place that is somewhat closer to home. That's not to say that I haven't tried other places in my neck of the woods. None have made the cut. I've tried a number of the local Starbucks shops, but they're either a) too small, or b) rife with distraction.

So I learned about a week ago that a new coffee shop has opened up just down the street from me, maybe five minutes away. "It's A Grind" looks to be a franchise, though I've never heard of it before. I went in today to give the place a shot, and I found it to be a pretty satisfying place to work.

On the plus side, the prices are pretty good (as far as coffee shops go), the coffee I had was tasty, and it wasn't crowded (which is a double-edged sword; there needs to be a steady stream of customers to keep the place in business). The folks who were there (the barrista girls and a few customer-types, including a few local cops) weren't obnoxious. On the down side, it's a smallish place. There are two tables near the rear of the place, by the restrooms, which are perfect places to sit and work, but I have a feeling they'll be prime real-estate for people like me.

I'll go back there tomorrow morning and do some more work on the WotC book. For now, I need to keep any eye on my child before he tears the place down around us.