[OFFICIAL] Re: Whats Next

Hi all,

Sorry for the slightly misleading header on this post - I'm not actually
telling you what's next, or when, because as we all know promising a
release date on anything in this industry is a sure-fire way of ensuring
that it'll be delayed at least another six months.....	;-)

What I DO want to do is take this opportunity to have a chat with you
all,
update you on what's been going on and let you know the state of play on
various things.

2000 has not been the easiest or most productive year  (cue violins....
<grin>) - since last November I've been running the whole of GZG
single-handed again, as Dave (who had been working for me as a caster
since
'97) had to go and find a "proper" (ie: better-paid) job outside the
industry, for various reasons including getting married, moving house
etc.!
Many of you will know that apart from the two years or so that Dave was
involved, GZG has ALWAYS been a one-man outfit (me) - those of you
who've
seen the tradestand at shows in the UK may or may not realise that most
of
the 'staff'  there are friends and volunteer helpers for the weekend
rather
than actual GZG employees. Now, back in '97 and earlier the company was
still small enough that I could just about do it all single-handed, but
now
it isn't, and in order to keep things going through 2000 I've been
having
to concentrate on the day-to-day stuff, casting, mouldmaking, packing
orders etc, leaving very little time for the creative side of rule
writing,
making new ships etc. That we've still managed to have a steady stream
of
new releases throughout the year is down to the fact that most of them
have
been figures, which I have sculpted by outside freelancers, rather than
the
starships, vehicles etc. which I do myself (when I get the time!).

Now, the reason for telling you all this is partly to explain why there
has
been very little this year in the way of new FT stuff or resins (or
books
for that matter, though I did manage to get FB2 out against all the
odds!),
and also why the mail-order turnround has at times been slower and a bit
more erratic than I'm happy with, but also as a lead-in to telling you
that
as of next Monday things should start to change for the better!

I've finally found a suitable new member of staff - Paul Lewis is
joining
GZG as a full-time employee as of next week, making it back to a two-man
business again! Paul is a long-time games enthusiast and rabid collector
of
all things game/SF related (I think his attic will develop its own event
horizon soon....he has more Micromachine ST bugs stashed away up there
than
I want to think about (and no, he WON'T sell any of them)), and has
spent
the last sixteen years managing a bookshop in Ipswich, so he knows the
retail trade well. He's been helping me out at the shows for most of
this
year, so many of the UK listers will probably know him by sight anyway,
and
he already knows his way around the stock and product range pretty well
so
the "induction period" should be fairly short.
It'll naturally take a little while for Paul to get up to speed on
everything and for his presence to be felt in all areas of operations,
though in some things ther'll be an almost immediate improvement - the
first thing we want to work on is improving the mailorder turnround time
drastically, and it will also mean that there will be someone at the
workshop manning the phone during normal weekday hours again, so it will
be
much easier for you to get through to place phone orders.
Eventually, the intention is that Paul will be looking after a lot of
the
day-to-day running of production, packing and despatch, which should at
last free up some of my time again to get back to designing and writing
- I
won't promise a flood of books in 2001, but there should at least be
something to keep both the ground-pounders and the vacc-heads happy.....
;-)
 I can also get back to building starships at long last, so look forward
to
some fill-ins for the Islamic fleet along with a whole lot of all-new
stuff! Who knows, I might even have a few spare hours to think about
some
15mm vehicles...... <tempt, tempt...>
On the rules front, as I explained there hasn't been a whole lot
happening
snce FB2, but there IS a bit of tinkering going on behind the scenes
which
I hope will accelerate very soon, I'll let you know more about that in
due
course....

A number of people (especially those who contributed stuff for it!) have
naturally been asking about the scenario book that was planned for the
end
of last year; well, it HASN'T been canned, but the time I had planned to
work on it with Alex (lined up as editor) pretty much co-incided with
Dave
leaving, and as a result it got shoved on a back burner until such time
as
I had the chance to deal with it - rest assured it WILL happen, as will
all
the other promised releases - FMA, BDS, FB3, FT3, DS3 etc etc - but at
the
moment I have no firm plans as to what order they'll be tackled in. I've
been reading the recent list posts about this with interest, and I will
say
that (at least in intention, and without predjudice!) FMA is probably
quite
near the top of the list for what gets pulled out of the hat first......

Well, that's about it - thanks to you all for reading this ramble (if
you've got this far.... <grin>), and thanks for all the support and
input -
it's the sales that keep us going financially, but it's often this list
that keeps the enthusiasm and ideas alive!

Here's to a good 2001 (the REAL new millennium) for all of us.....

Jon (GZG)