Hello! -- um, actually, no ...

[töff]

This is a bit of a farewell to CG, and an apology, and a thank you.

It's a farewell because my life has just taken one of those unexpected 90 degree turns: the print shop I worked at for 19 years just shut down, leaving me rather without a job. And I suddenly realized that I now have the opportunity to do what I have kinda always wanted to do: write fiction ... professionally ... support myself with it, if I can. I'll be starting cold in a new career, from zero. It means getting serious about writing. It means putting all my time & energy & heart into it. And it means giving up a lot of things that I used to spend my "leisure" time on ... programming, roleplaying games, artwork ... and artwork must include cartography. I will miss all of these things terribly, but they literally have no place in my new attitude.

It's an apology because I have one huge project here -- the map of the solar system -- that I am basically just gonna drop like a hot potato. I hate to do it, but I have dropped my bimonthly publication, Wayfarer, a victim of the new paradigm, and the solar system map was part of that. There's also the Woadsbury map, which you guys were awesome enough to give a monthly challenge award to, and which I said I was gonna keep working on. I really was gonna. Hmm. Sigh.

And it's a thank you because, in all honesty, this is just about the coolest bunch of people I have ever met. This forum is amazingly friendly and positive and supporting. Do you have any idea how rare that is in a web forum? And it's not just a bunch of people sitting around being friendly ... there's fantastic map art being created here, in great abundance, not to mention lots of really helpful tutorials. Warm-heartedness and content production: a one-two punch that makes this place five aces IMHO. I have been honored to associate with you guys, and I will miss this place horribly.

So, farewell! If I strike it rich with a book, and I need a map for it, I know where to come

-- töff

[Ascension]

Dude, no.

No.

Sigh.



Good luck, bro and please try to stop by once in a while and keep us updated on how things are going for you. You're one of the most respected dudes here and where will we get our sci-fi fix from? All the plants will die. I hope you make oodles of cash and have lots of time to visit us.

Your friend,
Chris "The Ascension" Gonzalez

[ravells]

No....noo....nooo!

Toff you are too talented a designer to drop all design work like a hot potato. By all means write, but show some design agency your work. You were wasted in the print shop and you should make something of your talents.

I'll really miss you (sniff - not an ironic one either). Please pop by now and again if only to say hello.... oh and pm me your email. If you're not going to be around here, Id like to stay in touch.

Ravs

[Jaxilon]

At least roll through when you hit that "writer's block" and need a shot in the arm.

Good fortune in your new career, I wish you all the best even though I am one of the new guys here.

[rdanhenry]

Good bye and good luck. I hope things work out for you.

[Coyotemax]

Dude!! Best of luck with your choices, I really hope thing work for you. Feel free to lurk around every once in awhile and don't be afraid to toss an opinion or some suggestions

I know you gotta do what yo gotta do, but don't be a stranger

[Redrobes]

Aw man what a loss ! Not only your extremely pro and unique maps but also that off the wall colorful banter too. Well, I understand that you need to focus. You cant focus on many things all at the same time. So very best of luck with your new project and may some of that off the wall banter find its way into character dialog.

I sorta think that some kind of inter-ative fiction with drawings and maps and so on would be something you would be real good at. I get the feeling that the age of words on paper are nearing their end.

I am sure the guild will be active should the lure of it tempt you back now and again. Glad that you posted tho we have lost some great guys to only wonder what happened to them.

[Steel General]

That's a real bummer about you're job and I'm sorry to see you go...but it seems like this has also granted you a great opportunity to do something you really have a passion for.

Be sure to 'drop-in' when you can and fill us in on how things are going.

You'll always have a 'home' here...

Good Luck!

SG

[Gandwarf]

I hate goodbyes... so let's make this short. Good luck with the writing and do drop by some time!

[Talroth]

Honestly, as a writer myself (bad one likely), and as someone who spends a fair bit of time around professional published writers, I have to say that your plan to drop so many hobbies completely is a Very Bad Idea.

Don't do it. Seriously.

Never force yourself to sit and write for more than 2 hours at a time. Get yourself a digital watch with count time timer, set it to an hour and keep it nearby while writing. If you ever find yourself having greatly slowed for the last few minutes, or having rewritten the same thing over and over again, start the timer. If you hear the timer go off and haven't felt a change, get up and walk away. Again set your timer for 2 to 4 hours, and do NOT return to writing unless you feel you're hit with something major inspiration wise, and that hit better feel like a freight train. Don't even think about writing or your story while you're on break, do something else.

Also take breaks, vacations from writing. Put what you are working on down, and either write something completely different for a few days to a week, or find something else. Every professional writer I know (Who isn't putting out formulaic drivel such as found in the romance novels sold to house wifes at the supermarket) uses such systems, and find they greatly increase their over all productivity and quality of writing.


And good luck! You said you were writing fiction, but what kind?