I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks, but here’s some big news: I’ve accepted a position with ZeniMax Online Studios to work as a senior writer on the Elder Scrolls Online game!

So, what does this mean?

First of all, I’m moving from the Seattle area to the Baltimore suburbs. In fact, I’ve got a moving pod on the way to my new rental already, and I’ll start the drive across the country in a couple of days. I’ll be a geographical bachelor for a few months while my wife Kim packs up the rest of our Washington house and gets it ready for sale. She’ll join me in Baltimore this fall, and we hope to buy a new house in the Hunt Valley area by this time next year. Our daughters are remaining in Washington for now: Alex is in a graduate program at UW and has moved out anyway, while Hannah has at least another year to go at Central Washington University. But we expect a full house when the girls get breaks from school, and we’ll be close to the rest of our family for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Professionally, I’m super-excited to join a great team of writers and content designers at ZOS working on one of the top MMOs around. I’ve been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls Online over the last couple of months, and I think it’s a great game. I’m eager to see what I can bring to the world of ESO.

Now, I expect that you might have some questions about what this means for other things I’ve been involved in, so here goes . . .

Are You Going to Keep Writing Books?

Yes, although I’ll need to prioritize my new day job. I’m currently in the middle of a trilogy of TORG novels for the folks over at Ulisses N.A.; the first one, Maelstrom Bridge, should be published sometime this summer. I hope to continue my Breaker of Empires series with a fourth Sikander North story, but at the moment there are no concrete plans for that: the publisher needs to see some good results from Scornful Stars to get behind a fourth book. (So, if you want more Sikander and you haven’t bought Scornful Stars . . . WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?) Finally, I have an ambitious new alternate-history story that’s currently making the rounds, and I hope to have some news to share about that any day now.

I have managed the “write in evenings and weekends” plan before – most of my Forgotten Realms novels were written after hours, on my own time. I may have to slow down a little, but I’ve got projects on the assembly line and I’m looking forward to seeing them published.

What about Sasquatch Game Studio?

I’m stepping away from active participation in Sasquatch. We’ve got some work to do on one more sourcebook for our Alternity RPG Kickstarter campaign, and I’ve arranged some freelance help to get that book finished. Going forward, Dave Noonan and Steve Schubert will handle all Sasquatch business decisions and product development. I wish them the best!

What Else Are You Working On?

Not much, at the moment. Between ESO and a bit of moonlighting on my own writing projects, I’m going to have my hands full for the foreseeable future.

Baltimore, Really?

Hunt Valley is north of the Baltimore beltway, and it’s really nice. It’s basically on the edge of Maryland horse country, and you don’t have to drive more than 10 or 15 minutes from ZeniMax to be out in some surprisingly rural landscape. For now I’m in Towson near the Rodgers Forge neighborhood, but I’m looking forward to permanent house-hunting next spring when Kim’s settled in, we’ve had a chance to explore the area, and our lease is winding down. Oh, and I’ve already found a great brewery not far from work: BC Brewing. It’ll be fun to explore a few more over the next couple of months!