Status Report #18
about 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 04, 2022 at 09:08:57 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: We're so close to done with the appendices. Howard has begun work on the cover and endpapers. Tracy has the files for audiobook recording and is sneaking in recording sessions around his other obligations.  Details  below.

Most of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're one of  the 46 people who haven't, specific step-by-step instructions for the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

• Intro & Chapter 1-15: Complete!
• Appendices Complete: Accessibility,  Bibliography, X-treme Guide  to Conversational  Storytelling, Random  Story Generator, Secret  History, DIY Initiation Rites, Riddles Answers, List of Legendary XDMs
• Appendices nearing completion: Imposter Syndrome, XDM Leveling Chart, QUIRK Generator, X-treme guide to comedy,  NPC Generator  Tables,  About the Contributors, XD20 updated Character sheet, X-treme Nonplayer  Character & Creature Codex (NP3C). 

Illustrations done: 238 (+20 from last update.) (There are also 100 flipbook animation images for a total of 338 images in the book interior.)

Illustrations pending: 8

Pending illustrations include: Capstone art  (a big illustration to mark the end of the body of the book and the  start of the appendices), 4 About the Contributor illustrations (We need  to get updated reference pictures of Tracy and Curtis for Howard to  work from), 3 for endpapers, and the cover art.

Chart Redesign: We need to apply copy edits  to all of the charts in the book and make sure they are uniform in  graphic design. right now the ones that are updated don't match each  other nor do they match the ones that we pulled straight from the prior  edition.

Flipbook animation: All in place and ready to go.

Table of Contents: Sandra is in charge of this and will finalize it when the last bits of the appendices lock into place.

Book Cover Design: This is big and important to get right.

Once all of the above is done (hopefully inside the next two weeks)  we'll tackle sketch page design, Character Stand Up PDF, and more desktop  backgrounds.

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book: (includes the printed end  papers and spot gloss): So close to done!
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has the files and is squeezing in recording around his other obligations.
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with end paper design.
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you to download as   soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers matching the mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come later.
• Desktop Backgrounds:  If these are included in your pledge level, you can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds  as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be coming as  Howard  makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're  done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):  These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on these until after the printed books arrive in our hands. We'll collect information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being ready to sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked that level:   Complete!
• Streamed book Illustrations: as complete as it is going to get. Sorry we didn't deliver more of these. Howard's Twitch has recordings of past streams.  We've prioritized getting illustrations done over streaming the creation of illustrations.

How the past weeks went

We've had a couple of weeks where we get to the end of them and KNOW we've been busy the entire time, but somehow feel like we should have been able to get a lot more done. This is one of the reasons it is valuable for us to have these bi-weekly updates with clear progress markers so that on the days where we feel like we've accomplished nothing, we can look at progress and see it wasn't nothing. Much of Howard's time and energy went into the NP3C, which had 38 illustrations and 38 matching mini-stories about the character or creature he had drawn. We also did a bunch of juggling with the layout in that section because I wasn't sure whether it made more sense to flow the text from page to page or if I should create individual text boxes for each character.  If you haven't worked with a graphic design program you may not know what I mean by "flowing text" So I have some screenshots for you.

For this first image I've given you the view of my entire InDesign workspace with all of the tabs, buttons, and controls. Yes it is a very complex program and most of what is visible has been useful to me at one point or another. But the thing to focus on is the Lorem Ipsum text in the white document. You can see that there is a light blue bounding box around the text. If I change the shape of that box, the text will flow to fill up the space. It doesn't fully fill this box because I only put in one paragraph of text.

So now we zoom in for a better view on that text box.  I copy/pasted the same paragraph multiple times so that there was more text than would fit into the box. The key thing to notice is that little red plus sign on the lower right corner of my bounding box. It is letting me know that I have "over set" text. Which means that some of the text can't be seen because the box is too small.

So I click that red plus and create a second text box next to the first one. All of the text that doesn't fit into the first box automatically flows into the second linked box. The linkage remains the same no mater where I place these boxes in relation to each other. I can put them in wrong order on opposite ends of the book and the changes I make in the first box will affect the flow of text into the second one.

Things get even more interesting when I start combining images with text.  Here I've dropped a picture of a dwarf on top of the first text box. But right now the dwarf picture isn't interacting with the text at all.  She just covers up the the text by sitting on top of it. You can also see that the image has its very own blue bounding box which is separate from the text box. (I just aligned the lower right corners of the boxes for convenience.)

That is when I use the "Text Wrap" tool to say that this image should affect the flow of text. Now the text is dodging the dwarf image, or more specifically, the text dodges the blue box surrounding the dwarf image. More text is flowed into the second text box because the dwarf is taking up place in the first one.

However I don't always want to have a clear white box around my images. Often I want more organic shapes. This is when I start to work with something called a "clipping path" around the images. I place little connection points and then drag them to create a space around the dwarf so that the text can know where it is allowed to flow and where it can't. Making clipping paths is tedious, but the effect is good. You can see that the text is flowing differently into the second box because of the changes I'm making.

But it isn't until I push the dwarf image behind the text box that you get the full effect of the text flow around the dwarf. You can still see the bounding box around the dwarf image, but text is flowing along the (now invisible) clipping path rather than being ruled by the bounding box.

So now lets look at our little dwarf in place on her page in the NP3C.

You can see blue guidelines on the page which won't be in the final book. They're in place to help us make sure that each character gets approximately equal space on the page. At first I was trying to keep each character's text separate from the others in unlinked text boxes, but flowing the text turned out to be the better option because we could give slightly more space to some characters and less to others. Also it meant that I could copy and paste the entire text document all at once instead of piecemeal.  This is particularly important as Howard hasn't been working on them in order.  

We only have a few more NP3C entries to wrangle and we're so close to being done. So that's our update for now.  Your next update will be Friday March 18.

Thank you so much for backing our project!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Status Report #17
about 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 05:10:30 AM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: We're elbows deep in the appendices and hope to have them done before your next update. Then we have the cover and we're off to print. Tracy's schedule is more complex this month than anticipated and Sandra is working with him to find a time for audiobook recording. Details  below.

Most of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're one of the 46 people who haven't, specific step-by-step instructions for  the   survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

• Intro & Chapter 1-14: Complete, ready for final error checks.
• Chapter 15: 1 Art left!
• Appendices Complete: Accessibility,  Bibliography, X-treme Guide to Conversational  Storytelling, Random  Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Riddles Answers, List of Legendary XDMs
• Appendices that just need a voice pass to add jokes: Imposter Syndrome, XDM Leveling Chart, QUIRK Generator
• Appendices waiting for Howard to draft:  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play (Needs to be evaluated, we may have already covered this material in the main body of the text),  NPC Generator Tables,  About the Contributors, XD20 updated Character sheet
• Appendices that need more art and more writing: X-treme Nonplayer Character & Creature Codex (NP3C).  Howard has 11 more pictures to draw for this and 25 short descriptions to write.

Illustrations done: 218 (+57 from last update, Sandra (and the calendar) won the argument about re-drawing all the hands, so those 27 illustrations moved to the "done" column.)

Illustrations partially done: 4 (One in main body text, 3 in NP3C)

Illustrations pending: 13  

Pending illustrations include: Capstone art (a big illustration to mark the end of the body of the book and the start of the appendices), 4 About the Contributor illustrations (We need to get updated reference pictures of Tracy and Curtis for Howard to work from), 8 more for the remaining NP3C spaces.

Chart Redesign: We need to apply copy edits to all of the charts in the book and make sure they are uniform in graphic design. right now the ones that are updated don't match each other nor do they match the ones that we pulled straight from the prior edition.

Flipbook animation: Sandra needs to go through and make sure all the lower right corner drawings are correctly placed and in the correct order to produce the animation effect when pages are flipped.

Once all of the above is done (hopefully inside the next two weeks) we'll tackle cover design, bookplate design, printed end page design, sketch page design, Character Stand Up PDF, and more desktop backgrounds.

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book: (includes the printed end  papers and spot gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Sandra is working with Tracy to make space for audiobook recording in his schedule which ended up being more complex than anticipated for February.
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design.
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be  giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you to download as  soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers     matching the mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come later.
• Desktop Backgrounds:  If these are included in  your pledge level, you can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be coming as  Howard makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):    These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on  these until after the  printed books arrive in our hands. We'll collect   information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready   to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked that level:   Complete! 
• Streamed book Illustrations: as complete as it is going to get. Sorry we didn't deliver more of these. Howard's Twitch has recordings of past streams.  We've prioritized getting illustrations done over streaming the creation of illustrations.

How the past weeks went

Despite a pile of complex family stuff, we've moved this project forward significantly in the last two weeks. The "end of project" momentum has us moving at a fast pace and the end is in sight. Sandra won the discussion about Howard re-drawing all of the hands in the card tricks chapter, but only because Howard gets to draw 40 pictures for the Non-Player Character and Creature Codex (NP3C). Fortunately these drawings are pulling characters who have appeared throughout the book and each drawing is a single character in a static pose so they are going very fast. He's already done 30 of them. These are also the images that will go straight into the Character Stand Ups pdf, so that will be ready soon too.

I'm hoping that by next update I'll be able to show a before and after of the Imposter Syndrome appendix because it is a beautiful example of our co-writing process. I've drafted it and handed it off to Howard for a voice pass. Once he's done, you'll be able to compare the two versions. But Howard is focused on finishing the arts before switching to writing brain, so I don't have that comparison this week. 

For now, we both need to dive back in and get this project done. Your next update will be Friday March 4.

Thank you so much for backing our project!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Status Report #16
about 2 years ago – Sun, Feb 06, 2022 at 09:35:34 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: The illustrations for the main body of the book are almost complete. All that remains is organizing the appendices and detail work on the table of contents, copyright page, etc. Oh, and the cover. We need an updated cover image. Tracy is scheduled to record the audiobook this month. Details  below.

Most of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're one of  the 59 people who haven't, specific step-by-step instructions for  the  survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

Howard has been working on finishing at least three pictures per day  for the last several weeks. In addition to that, we've done a lot of  work to define spaces and pick jokes, so there are a lot of art pieces  that are sketched or partially done rather than fully complete. I've  updated the counts to reflect this.

• Intro & Chapter 1-12: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 13-15: in progress now (Mostly done)
• Appendices mostly set: X-treme Guide to Conversational  Storytelling, Random  Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation  Rites, Accessibility,  Bibliography: Waiting on final organization by section, art is lighter  in the appendices so these will go fast.
• Appendices in flux: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the   Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play,   Conquering Imposter Syndrome: In second revision. We have notes for these. Mostly they need to be tightened up and given a voice pass to add jokes. Howard will tackle them as he reaches them in his art   progress through the book. Art is lighter in the appendices so these  will go fast once we get to them.

Illustrations done: 161 (+31 from last update)

Illustrations partially done: 4

Illustrations probably done: 27 (This is an ongoing negotiation.  Howard would like to redraw  the hands showing card tricks in Wonders of  the Gods, Sandra isn't sure he'll have the time. Howard is sure it can  go really fast. Sandra keeps squinting at the calendar. Currently Sandra is winning this negotiation.)

Illustrations pending: 4 in main body text.  ≈ 5-10 in appendices.

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book: (includes the printed end  papers and spot gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a space in his schedule to record and produce in February. Sandra will be contacting him about specific scheduling.
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
• Streamed book Illustrations: Howard's Twitch has recordings of past streams.  We've prioritized getting illustrations done over streaming the creation of illustrations. 
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you to download as soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers    matching the mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come later.
• Desktop Backgrounds:  If these are included in your pledge level, you can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds  as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as  Howard  makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're  done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):   These will be hand drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on these until after the  printed books arrive in our hands. We'll collect  information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready  to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked that level:   Complete! (It was recorded, but Sandra needs to get  permission from all participating parties before posting a link to the  video.)

How the past weeks went

Short update today because we've got a really good working momentum and we want to get back to it. 

Howard has slammed through illustration work these past two weeks and we're almost done with the main body of the book. We still have work on the appendices and the cover, but I'm hopeful that will go quickly as well. 

Tracy is scheduled to do the audiobook recording sometime this month. Sandra has yet to confirm exactly when that will happen. 

Sandra has been working on the last bit of notes merging, after which she'll be tackling the table of contents, credits pages, Legendary XDMs page, copyright info and all of the other little details that are very important to get right. 

All of this work on XDM2e is being balanced with our work on other ongoing projects. The combination is keeping all of us very busy indeed. So we'll cap off this update with a chapter header image that Howard is particularly proud of.

That's our update for now. Time for us to refocus on working. Your next Status Report will be Friday February 18.

Thank you so much for backing our project!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team

Announcement: Trampier Homage T-shirts Available!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 05:44:19 AM

Greetings Backers,

A quick second update to let you know that we have some shirts available. Howard's Dave Trampier homage drawing was really asking to be put on a shirt. You can order them Here. We have an assortment of colors and sizes up to 6x. 

Since our shirt supplier is print-on-demand and ships directly to customers, you'll have to place a separate order for shirts. They can't be combined with your Kickstarter order. (Sorry about that.)  However, you can order any of our other apparel items and they'll ship along with your Trampier shirt.

The quality on these shirts is solid. Howard has been wearing his prototype and cycling it through the wash for a couple of months. It still looks great.

Thank you so much for being part of our project!

Sandra Tayler

Status Report #15
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jan 22, 2022 at 05:02:40 PM

Greetings Backers,

Welcome to your bi-weekly status report.

TL;DR: We've found some good working momentum and have made significant progress. We work well in crunch mode and need to get everything  finalized before Tracy records the audio book in February. Details  below.

Note: the issue with shipping on PDF-only pre-orders has been resolved. It was a problem that only applied to people who placed their orders after the Kickstarter closed. 

Most of you have filled out your surveys. Thank you! If you're one of the 59 people who haven't, specific step-by-step instructions for  the survey can be found here. If you didn't get your survey email, or have lost it, you can go to this link to get access to your survey: https://xdm-x-treme-dungeon-mastery-2nd-edition.backerkit.com/

Status by Chapter

Howard has been working on finishing at least three pictures per day for the last several weeks. In addition to that, we've done a lot of work to define spaces and pick jokes, so there are a lot of art pieces that are sketched or partially done rather than fully complete. I've updated the counts to reflect this. 

• Intro & Chapter 1-10: Art complete, waiting for final layout and design
• Chapter 11-14: in progress now
• Chapters 15 : waiting on art.
• Appendices mostly set: X-treme Guide to Conversational Storytelling, Random  Story Generator, Secret History, DIY Initiation Rites, Accessibility,  Bibliography: Second notes merge, art is lighter in the appendices so these will go fast.
• Appendices in flux: QUIRK Generator, NPC generator, About the  Contributors,  X-treme guide to comedy,  Adapting for one shot play,  Conquering Imposter Syndrome: In second revision. We have notes for  these. Mostly they  need to be tightened up and given a voice pass to  add jokes. Howard will tackle them as he reaches them in his art  progress through the book. Art is lighter in the appendices so these will go fast once we get to them.

Illustrations done: 130 (+29 from last update)

Illustrations partially done: 14

Illustrations probably done: 27 (This is an ongoing negotiation. Howard would like to redraw  the hands showing card tricks in Wonders of the Gods, Sandra isn't sure he'll have the time. Howard is sure it can go really fast. Sandra keeps squinting at the calendar. Howard will probably win this eventually.)

Illustrations pending: ≈ 50 (40 confirmed art spaces + more because Howard keeps finding spots to add extra art and jokes.)

Deliverables List

This is the comprehensive list of things we owe to you as part of this project.

• XDM2e Hardback book: (includes the printed end  papers and spot gloss): Almost text complete. Illustrations and design in process.
• XDM2e PDF: This will release to backers at  about the same time we send the book off to print.
• XDM2e audiobook: Tracy has blocked out a space  in his schedule to  record and produce in February. Sandra will be contacting him about specific scheduling this week. 
• Signed Bookplates: We'll need to design these, that is likely to happen concurrently with cover design and book interior design.
• Streamed book Illustrations: Howard's Twitch has recordings of past streams.  We've prioritized getting  illustrations done over streaming the creation of illustrations. It is  possible that organizing a couple of streams this month will be helpful  motivation, we'll see.
• Quest for the Tavern PDF: We'll actually be giving you two versions, the original is ready  for you to download as soon as you fill out your survey. The updated one with  numbers   matching the mechanical changes to the XD20 system will come later.
• Desktop Backgrounds:  If these are included in  your pledge level, you can get zip files of the desktop  backgrounds as soon as you fill out your survey. More will be  coming as  Howard makes art and we'll do a drop of additional aspect ratios before we're done.
• PDF of printable character stand ups: Howard is working on these  as he creates illustrations. The full PDF will available shortly after  the book goes to  print.
• Sketches in books (or on separate papers):    These will be hand  drawn by Howard Tayler. We can't get started on  these until after the  printed books arrive in our hands. We'll collect information on customizing sketches as we get closer to being  ready  to   sketch.
• Attack on Santa's Workshop PDF: Complete! Available to you as soon as you fill out your survey.
• Game with Tracy for the 6 backers who picked  that level:   Complete! (It was recorded, but Sandra needs to get permission from all participating parties before posting a link to the video.)

How the past weeks went

We finally hit a good working rhythm on this book. Having the concrete, daily metric to hit (3 completed images per day) really helps Howard manage his ADHD and stay focused. He likes being able to answer the question "Did I do enough work today?" by comparing work-done to a clear expectation. He averaged 2.4 completed pieces per work day. But if you add in the 14 partially complete pieces he did more like 3.4 pieces per day. To give you a Howard's-eye-view of the creation process, I'm going to copy directly from one of his twitter threads. 

Howard: My digital artwork has progressed by leaps and bounds ever since I figured out how to layer in my reference pieces and (*checks notes*) shamelessly trace them. The tracing is not the final product, obviously. It's a way to quickly get past the part where my eyes lie to me about negative spaces and perspective and whatever else, and skip ahead to later steps. In some cases I'll take the traced layer and begin mesh-warping it in order to "cartoonify" the picture. I then ink over that, and the final result looks like a correctly proportioned cartoony version of whatever the original reference was. That's how I got from this photo of a passenger jet to this single-panel at the end of an #XDM2e chapter.

The wings are stubbier, the plane is foreshortened for perspective, and the fuselage & cabin is chonky. I needed bigger windows in order to get facial expressions + the entire plane + the landscape all into the same picture. Now, in some cases I'll straight-up trace-and-run, but that only happens when I took the reference picture myself. Like this spot illustration of a remote control and an X-card.

In this case I positioned our Roku remote and an oversized game card (I forget which game) and snapped a photo at the correct angle. Then I created the X-card digitally, face-on, no perspective. Then I skewed the corners to align with the reference card. Then I inked, by hand (complete with my signature shakiness) the outlines, scribbled some shading, and called it done.   (This is from #XDM2e chapter 9, "Conflict at the Table," and it illustrates a couple of tools for getting in front of possible conflicts.) Now, in many cases I'm tracing my 2009 illustrations in order to clean them up for this printing. Here's the before-and-after of a possibly-smokey-but-definitely-angry bear (from the section about incorporating open flame in your games.)

I fixed some proportion and alignment issues with the hat and the right side of the face, but everything else was just tracing over the original lines, and then making sure the line weights and detailing were consistent.   20 minutes, while watching TV. 

Now there is ONE case where I traced a public-domain photo, and kept the proportions and everything the same. I felt like I had to, because it's a famous scene, and is right below a paragraph which mentions "... Montparnasse levels of derailment."

I messed with the background quite a bit in order to make the "Montparnasse" sign bigger. I also did a lot of knock-back of the background line art in order to make the train "pop" without having to paint it grey. There's way more going on here than just "I traced a photo!" TRIVIA: There's a label on the train in the original photo, and it looked like it said "QUEST," which seemed very serendipitous for an RPG supplement.   It's in French. It says "OUEST."   Oh well. I put my signature in that space instead.

This piece took about 45 minutes. The first fifteen were spent finding ZORK logos (some official, some not) and then cutting them up into reference pieces.  This is an XDM2e spot illo below a section called THE ZORKIAN "LOOK."

Yes, there's some meta-humor in there, because I'm adopting the ZORK logo's look for a treatment of the word LOOK in a discussion about how "I look around" can be such an important player action in tabletop RPGs, just like "LOOK" was important in ZORK.

Hey, look! The LOOK looks pretty good in place under The Zorkian Look."

In related news, the turnaround between illustration and layout is REALLY FAST here at Chez Tayler.  @SandraTayler is driving the layout side of things, and I cannot begin to tell you how nice it is to immediately know whether or not an illustration works.  As tedious as iterating page layout can be, at least doing it in-house (literally in-the-same-house) with Sandra Tayler goes fast. I would lose all momentum forever if I tried to illustrate a book over email or some such. I've finished three pieces today, tweaked one that I'd called "finished" yesterday, and laid out four more. And I think we just defined sizes and rough placement for three pictures I haven't even imagined yet. 

--End of Howard's Twitter thread.

Howard is not kidding about the fast turn around. He'll deliver an image to me and within a few minutes I can have the image in place and an updated page printed for the binder which sits next to his desk.

That's our update for now. Time for us to refocus on working. Your next Status Report will be Friday February 4.

Thank you so much for backing our project!

Sandra Tayler and the XDM2e Team