On This Date:

• A bunch of monks in Canterbury witnessed the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater (on the moon)
  
• the Battle of Waterloo drove Napolean to give up the French throne… again
  
• Churchill gave his "Finest Hour" speech (about a different French battle)
  
• Roger Ebert, Paul McCartney (same day, 1942), Carol Kane and Uday Hussein were born
  
• British comedian Bernard Manning died (today, actually)
  
• Today is the liturgical feast of Saint Elizabeth of Schonau
  
• The US House of Representatives votes to declare what would become the War of 1812 – you know, the one where Washington, DC, falls to British troops and the White House got burned? – and the "War Hawks" can't get enough of it.

Petur's daughter speaks Icelandic. She's four. She's also better at math than I am.

A lot of what we're talking about today involves bigger-than-just-the-department news and company business, which we're not going to tell you about just yet. But it involves, a little bit, the move into our new offices, which draws ever nearer. We're all really excited about that, if only just for the added space (and the ability to buy beer within walking distance).

As White Wolf continues to grow, we the Game Studio are going to change the way we operate within the company a little bit. I don't think you'll see much of a change out there, at least for a while, but in the building things will be different. A good different. Better air-conditioning, I hope. It's like the same temperature in the conference room as it is inside my body, and that's no good.

You know what's tricky? The randomized part of the randomized boosters that go with collectible-card games. In the case of our new EVE CCG expansion, The Exiled, we're experiencing a randomization issue with the packs that'll push its release back a couple of weeks. That issue is, essentially, that they were not random enough. So we're getting that fixed.

We'll be getting a little bit of face time with one of our favorite Vampire authors, Ray Fawkes, this week. He's in the neighborhood this week, so we'll be showing him the WW good time (and, I hope, playing Vampire) before he's gone.

John's continuing to make Scion: God happen, with new revised text coming in even now. He's also monitoring incoming text for Exalted books like Celestial Directions 3: Heaven (being developed by Stephen Lea Sheppard, who I'm going to start calling "Shep").

Scroll of Kings for Exalted is in Bax's hands now for early development and is soon to be given authors. Abyssals is finding its authors now. Apparently that book will be all about the naked.

Craig says, "I put in seventy-five cents and I got a monkey and two penguins." That looks more like a brown cow, Craig, but whatever. I'm not going to challenge him as long as he's got those seabird bodyguards.

No more time for banter. We've got to get this meeting done so that Rich can get on to his next one.

Brian's doing the lettering for Exalted comic pages and is art directing The Roll (OMGLOL!!!1!KTHXBY) of Glorious Divinity. Plus he's got two more ads to do.

Ethan is turning Winter Masques into a real, live book, and then taking some much deserved time to recharge his creative batteries. He's also got things happening with a book called Banishers, for Mage.

Aileen is making plans for her part of making Winter Masques into a real, live book with pictures and graphics and prettiness and all that. She's also soon to send Mysterium to press, but it's hard to get clear information about that book… 'cause it's so mysterious. She's also venturing forth into the wild to find a cover for Changing Breeds. If it's furry, she may have to skin it.

the matt has new Scion: Demigod proofs up for his fellow Productionites to peruse. Then he's on to realizing the cover for Requiem for Rome. (The pre-visualization he's got of it is already fucking great, though.) The EVE Online buy-in-store DVD is walking calmly ahead. the matt's also taking a couple of days as a much-deserved mini-vacation this week, so which him well.

Craig is doing the last of the art direction on Requiem for Rome (which spills a little bit over into art direction for Fall of the Camarilla). He's also presenting design sketches for the interior for review this week. He and I are also putting together something for the prize-winning authors of Bloodlines: The Chosen.

Chaney has Reliquary almost done and is then on to Mage's Mind's Eye Theater edition.

I've just released the newest Storytelling Adventure System (SAS) story, Blood Red and Ash Gray, and am now developing Chuck Wendig's SAS story for Changeling: The Lost. That one, "The Children's Contract," should be out around the same time as Changeling itself. I'm also working on some new proposals and pitch documents, which are about things too far off and secret to share with you now.

Petur is experiencing the joy that comes with the randomization issue in The Exiled. In Iceland, it seems they don't have "Monday" and the things that come with it. But he has darling, super-intelligent daughters, so he'll be fine. Petur's also taking over our board game and card game development, so he's sifting through proposals and making plans for the future.

Aaron, our Operations Manager, is talking with printers and shippers and continuing to slave away on secret projects, of which I shall say no more.

Now, let's jump to the Chad. He's handling our convention planning for Origins and coordinating some new-office type stuff with Aaron this week. This is what Chad is like, all sweater-vests and biting the heads off snakes:



Intern Merry is doing something with proposals and working with Aaron. He has a list of action items. Nice knowing you, Merry.

Chandler is finishing work on the new Quarterly and is then helping us make the first Mage SAS product happen. Also, Ned's got her putting desks together. Careful there, Chandler.

This is also the week where we start swapping interns, apparently. Intern Jessica is inputting the matt's notes on the new Quarterly. Sounds like she's got it easy.

Current Location: White Wolf Bison Ranch
Current Music: Quantazelle, "Pedwards"