I NEVER WANTED TO BE ALONE

This is Stephen V. Cole Posting:

When I started Task Force Games, I did it (partly) to have people to work with and hang out with. I didn't want to be a lonesome game designer sitting alone in a room and working on games. I wanted to be a gregarious game designer hanging out with gamers. For the first year, I had to drag my then-partner (Allen) to work as he preferred to work alone in the quiet while I preferred to work with people around me. Later, we actually had an office, and so I got to have people around me while Allen locked himself in the smallest office farthest down the hall. For a few years after TFG split into two companies (TFG and ADB) I worked alone and hated it, then Petrick came to work for ADB and I enjoyed having at least some days each week that I had people around me. People to bounce ideas off of. People to share observations, thoughts, and ideas with. For the last 20 years, Petrick and I have spent most hours out of most days in a room together, each working on our own projects, but each available to discuss our projects when we got stuck or needed another point of view. We just finished three intense weeks working on Captain's Log #37 (mostly my project this time, even though previous issues had been half his and half mine) and X1R (about 90% his project, about 10% mine; I did the master ship chart and some of the ship names, and some proofreading). Having now finished both projects, I find myself suddenly alone, and not really happy about it. Petrick is out in the warehouse trimming Captain's Log. (Due to the supposed danger of the cutter, our insurance company will only tolerate company stockholders running it, and due to a screwup by the printer who did the cover, every book has to be trimmed on three sides instead of just one.) I am sitting in the office doing the "things to do before Origins" list, and have just about finished the "Do before May 1st" part so I can start on part 2 "Do before June 1st". Sigh. I don't like working alone, but we need those books trimmed. Normally, Captain's Log is about 50-50, but this time, because Steve was finishing X1R, I had to do most of his parts of Captain's Log (or do other parts to replace some of his articles). Now, in working on the "Origins prep" list, I find myself looking at the things in green (assigned to him) and doing whatever I can because I'm running out of things in blue (the ones assigned to me). Leanna has already done the things assigned to her (in red) except for one item that she cannot do until Monday (we leave at 5pm Monday). Soon enough, Petrick and I will be locked in a car for three days and I won't be alone, and by tomorrow he'll be back in the office working on is "green items", but for today, I'm working alone, and I don't like it. Leanna knows I don't like being alone much, so she comes in here every few minutes with some trivial thing she needs me to do or sign.