March 31, 2015: My First Big Writing Gig

Some of you know that, in addition to being Marketing Director for Steve Jackson Games, I do quite a lot of freelance writing and game design for other companies, including Evil Hat Productions. That started a few years ago, when they asked me to do some system development on a book called Strange Tales of the Century.

I guess I did well on that, because next they wanted me to write a chapter in The Paranet Papers, the first big supplement for The Dresden Files RPG. It was my first big, high-profile writing gig for them, in a game I loved about a novel series I devour voraciously as books are released. It led to a lot of other opportunities (some of them in the same project, many of them in other projects), and writing that chapter was a big milestone for me.

And now The Paranet Papers is up for preorder. And that blows my mind.

This industry has been really good to me, and seeing that preorder page go up was a big reminder of just how good. Getting the PDF of the final book was . . . well, it was a big deal.

-- Brian Engard