(Make that "I bought it and it's awesome') kthxbai.

Wil, you are a truly amazing writer. You move an entire generation of geeks with stories about what you ate or which underpass you drove under or what you did at work. It's awesome to witness. Yet, I feel your fear. I know what it is to swim in the safe harbour of a blog, convincing yourself that it's just "something not serious I whipped up". I'm glad you wrote Hunter. I will buy it, hopefully from your hands in the next year. But know that THIS scared, self-doubting gifted writer is convinced that you would slay as a novelist. You'll be an instant success. Tell you what, if you take the plunge before I do, I'll call your bet and do so too. heaven knows I finally made it to self employed, I might as well take the final step.

I'm sure the steel one I gave ya takes about 10% of that :) Sorry I missed you while I was shopping for gifts for the kids. I managed to score an awesome painting for Rory and a special game for Nico I can't talk about right now :) It suuuuure is awesome though :)

Late to the game, I'll be at Gen Con too (didn't make the Media Guest list though, I'm Media). I'll be co-hosting the off-con Drunken D&D game and a few other games/demos of stuff I wrote. Mostly this year I'm going to play and mingle with fans and friends. The last 2 were about networking with the Industry. I'll drop by your booth and say hi and try to bamboozle you into a game. Mouse Guard perhaps?

Freakangel rocks. Wanna fight creative funk? Why not create a D&D campaign/one-shot based on that: D&D PCs that killed the world at age 17. A great excuse to create Epic level PCs and try them out. :) BTW my wife is exactly like Anne re: Home renovation... and she too became quite the geek since we've been together so I think it is infectious. Rock on mate, beat that funk. Oh and I keep telling people that there should be a Jedi Wii Fit where we'd lift shit up by balancing on the wii board!

Excellent, timeless wisdom. I'm one of those creative types that woke up probably too late to make a living out of it, having developed professional skills that drove me away from writing and teaching (2 of the things I always do best). Now, nearing 40 (I think we're both the same age) I redirected my career to corporate training seminars. They allow me to reconnect with my true creative loves: writing (the course materials with jokes and fiendish role playing exercises)and public speaking (doing the actual teaching). So your acting teacher got it spot on, so it for love. For writers: Blog, write, make long comments on facebooks! For teachers: teach friends, teach yourself... Eventually you'll get lucky and strike gold. Thanks man. See you in Boston