The Economic Outlook

The world economy is in rough shape right now. Like the rest of the U.S., for many freelance writers the economic outlook is bleak. As a personal example, just since the first of the year I've lost two different sources of income to the difficult times. One magazine I wrote articles for once or twice a year has just informed me that they are eliminating the use of freelance writers altogether for the foreseeable future as a cost-saving measure. Another publication I've contributed to monthly for more than six years is closing up shop altogether. This certainly isn't good news for me, but is nowhere near a crippling loss... yet. I can't help but think of how many thousands of people have lost their sole means of making a living, and my heart goes out to them.

Every opinion I've heard agrees on one thing; our economy will get worse before it gets better. To put things into some kind of perspective, every job lost is one less person who can afford to buy the products we write. If you have the money to spare today, please consider making a donation to your local food pantry. Even a modest ten or twenty dollars can feed a family of four for several days. Please do what you can to help those less fortunate than yourself get back on their feet; there but for the grace of God go all of us.

Family Games: The 100 Best

I'm just finishing up my contribution to Family Games: The 100 Best edited by my buddy Jim Lowder and published by Green Ronin Publishing. 2007 saw the publication of the first volume, Hobby Games: The 100 Best. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to contribute to that one as well, writing the appendix on finding the occasionally elusive hobby game titles.

If you aren't familiar with the series, Jim invites 100 game experts - designers, publishers and other notables - to write short essays on one of their favorite games in the given category. The likes of Matt Forbeck, Richard Garfield, John Kovalic and many, many more contributed to Hobby Games, and the line-up for Family Games 100 is no less stellar, including White Wolf mainstay Jess Hartley and Monica Valentinelli of Flamesrising.com fame.

I can't talk about which game I've covering, so you'll have to wait until Gen Con to find out for sure. Suffice to say, I'm very excited about this opportunity to contribute to such an interesting and influential book, and can't wait to see the finished result!

Welcome!

Greetings! This is my blog about writing. Since a number of people cover the nuts and bolts of writing far better than I ever could, this blog will concentrate on the business of writing and being a freelance writer, as well as occasional info about me and my writing career. Thanks for stopping by; there will be more content here shortly so come back soon!

Bill