Since February, I have been on a freelancing hiatus. Back then, I stated “I don’t want to rush back into game industry freelancing just to find work again. … What do I want to be doing in the game industry, or elsewhere, as a creative and artistic expression?” I wanted to use that time to take a break, re-evaluate why I freelance, and to pursue other creative projects that had interested me. Then the pandemic unexpectedly extended that hiatus much longer than I expected and added all new levels of busyness and stress that I had not expected. We are just now, months later, finding any kind of rhythm to our lives again.
So why end my freelancing hiatus now, while the pandemic is still ongoing? To be honest, I wasn’t planning to end it yet. I thought I was going to ride this hiatus on through the fall semester at Tayor.
My #WildUpland video series is drawing to a close as I prepare for the fall semester to begin. I have a couple more weekly videos to post, then this will become an occasional series. I will still post videos as I am inspired by the local wildlife, but not on a regular schedule like I have been. So I was considering what I wanted to work on next.
My adult daughters have moved into apartments to start their fall semester of student teaching in area public schools. For weeks, the house was chaos as we prepped and packed, then moved them out while social distancing for the pandemic. Now the house is nearly back in order and so much quieter and less busy. Evenings and weekends are not as busy for Angie and me on our own.
My personal research and writing is ongoing, and I am feeling much more creative again and looking to get back into some painting and crafting again soon. Our pace at home is slowing down, with fewer people in the house and less overlapping schedules and responsibilities. As the house gets more organized again and Angie and I find a daily rhythm, I am more relaxed and emotionally calm.
Into the midst of this slower pace, quieter time, and clearer minds, an opportunity dropped that required thoughts, prayers, and a discussion with Angie. A friend in the game industry, who I have enjoyed working with previously, suddenly announced he was publishing a roleplaying game in an established world I really enjoy and a gaming system I love. Red Scar Publishing, led by Marc Langworthy, announced on the social media nets the upcoming release of Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game to kickstarter. I commented how excited I was, and suddenly my inbox lit up with a question, “Since we have officially announced, I was going to ask you if you happened to have the name or two of a proofreader we could solicit for Hellboy.” Wait, there is an opening on the creative team for a Hellboy RPG that uses 5e?!
I delayed my response and talked to Angie quickly to be sure she was okay with what I was going to say. and she was. She was and the conversation continued. I asked if I happened to be available if they would be interested in me joining the team myself rather than recommending others. And as they say. the rest is history. We were mutually excited for me to join the team, first as proofreader but then moving into other roles with editing, indexing, and perhaps some writing as well. I am so excited to be working with Marc Langworthy again. We worked well as a team and produced some great books. Looking forward to getting to know the rest of the creative team as well!
So that is it really. I ended my freelancing hiatus because an amazing opportunity for a game I am passionate about happened to open up just as my life was showing available time and energy to work on a freelancing project again. That said, I am NOT returning to full freelancing again, as I do not have the margins in my life right now to work on multiple projects with numerous publishers, like I did before. I am going to focus on just this one passion project and see where it leads. This will be more fun than work, which is what got me into freelancing initially. Perhaps after this project I might work on others. But for now, I am focused on Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game!
Congrats on finding that passion project!
We at TimeLine are still on hiatus. I am hoping to find the bandwidth to start back on The Morrow Project soon.
I hope you can return to your creative projects soon.