There we go.

I told you those riders and goblins would appear.

We’re still in the holding pattern of “nothing new to report” updates, but finished pieces of art are hitting my desk with startling regularity at this point. On the other hand, one of my artists is currently in the process of getting uprooted out of his second apartment in as many months. (Which sounds like a complete nightmare.)

So… two steps forward, one step back.

I am very tempted to say at this point that we are perilously close to the point where I would have the art in hand necessary to start the final layout pass on the book. (After which we would have another pass to lay in the SRS, then a final digital proof, and then the additional proofing steps required for the physical book.) But I remember that the first time I was tempted to say something like that was in December of last year just after I finished revising the Grimoire… and then all my artists disappeared. So, like I said, still in a holding pattern here.

This is another “holding pattern update” for Legends & Labyrinths: I’m still not at the point where the production of the book is entirely in my hands (i.e., I’m still waiting for artists to deliver finished pieces), so I’m still not willing to start making guarantees and promise release dates (having been met with so many disappointments and setbacks over the long history of this project).

But I am, as promised, waving my hand in the air and saying, “Still here.”

Meanwhile, I have now seen work-in-progress pieces featuring the adventuring parties of both of the Legend in Your Own Time groups. Well, sort of. One of the pieces currently only has the horses and wolves the characters will be riding. But I’ve been promised that the characters will appear in the final piece! 😉

(And since this was WIP was actually delivered to me a couple of weeks ago, I should be seeing the finished piece within a few days.)

Two weeks ago, I promised to continue posting “holding pattern” updates to let people know that I hadn’t suffered a Michael Vick-style concussion and forgotten what Legends & Labyrinths was.

Well, we’re still very much in a holding pattern and still at least a few more weeks away from entering the actual Final Countdown for Legends & Labyrinths. (And that’s assuming that some new disaster doesn’t strike.)

But things are progressing and additional art updates are hitting my desk with heartening regularity. To tide you over, here’s the latest work-in-progress update on “Adventurers at Rest” (the piece I showcased as concept art last time):

As I mentioned previously, I wasn’t planning on initiating this sequence of posts until I had the last of the final art in my hands. But my post about running a forum-based adventure over on theRPGSite a couple days ago has inexplicably resulted in two people sending me scathing e-mails demanding how I can possibly justify running online adventures or developing prep notes for Eclipse Phase scenarios when Legends & Labyrinths still hasn’t been published.

Well, it’s largely because there’s nothing for me to do. As I’ve expressed previously, we’re waiting for art. And the reason we’re waiting for art is because paying for that art was the entire point of the funding initiative. It’s frustrating that we’ve had artists flake, but we’ve got some really great artists working on it now and it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be able to realize Legends & Labyrinths as it was intended to be.

So if you’re wondering why I have time to write updates here on the Alexandrian or run games for my friends, it’s because the choice isn’t between “working on L&L” and “doing this other thing”. It’s between “doing this other thing” and “doing nothing”. Because you really don’t want to see what the art for L&L would look like if I was trying to fill the gap in my spare time:

(aww yeah… pay me $40 for a full-glossy hardcover of that, baby)

Notably, none of the excoriating e-mails I have received have been from the people who have actually given me money for Legends & Labyrinth. I appreciate the patience all of them have shown in waiting for the book to come to fruition. And I hope that the art they’ve helped me pay for — and the beautiful book that art will make possible — will be worth the wait for them.

Meanwhile, here’s a concept sketch (not a finished piece!) to give you an idea of why we’re waiting for the professionals to do their thing:

This is not really an update for the status of Legends & Labyrinths because there’s not really anything new that I can discuss right now: The hold-up remains the artwork that was offered as a contributor reward. When the original artist flaked it initiated a series of cascading failures.

But I did want to generally assure people that progress is being made. And I’m hoping to have an actual update sooner rather than later. Until I have something actually concrete and in my hands, however, I don’t want to get into the business of publicly counting my chickens before they hatch.

I appreciate your patience, and I hope you can believe me when I say that nobody wants this ordeal to be over more than I do. There are days when this book feels like the Rock of Sisyphus to me, but I have to honestly believe that eventually the rock will find its resting place; you’ll all be able to enjoy the game; and I’ll be able to move on to new projects.

Thanks.