Ten Years

So, I forget the exact day (November 30th? December 1st?), but this week marks the tenth anniversary of my being let go from TSR/ Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro for the third and, it turns out, final time.

I was pretty unhappy about it at the time -- it was the only one of the three that I took personally -- but it turned out to be a blessing, albeit well-disguised. When I'd been laid off the previous time (about a year after Third Edition came out) I'd kept in close touch with my former co-workers and did several projects freelance for WotC* (most notably co-editing d20 CTHULHU). This time I decided, rather than going the freelance route, to devote myself full-time to completing my  edition of THE HOBBIT manuscript ('THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT'), then already many years in the works but slowed by my only being able to work on it evenings, weekends, and vacations.

Since that massive project was completed and published (and gone through two subsequent revisions) I've been really busy with other Tolkien-related projects, including several in the works right now (like the Flieger festschrift). When the schedule's allowed I've done a little rpg work as well, mostly for the good folks at Kobold (with some for SuperGenius and others). But not for WotC -- by their choice, not mine (they simply never returned any of my calls inquiring about possible freelance work). Which is a little sad, but did help me make a clean break and start anew with Tolkien as my main focus. Which has worked out really well.

So here's to celebrate ten years of doing the thing I most want to do, with hopes that I'll be able to continue doing it for a long time to come.

--John R.
current reading: THE INN AT CORBIE'S CAWW, ABYDOS: EGYPT'S FIRST PHARAOHS . . .





*and others, including Green Ronin, Decipher, White Wolf, Guardians of Order, et al