Just had to share this. You’re looking at a quick and dirty photo of the work-in-progress painting for the back cover of my upcoming book Up Up Down Down Left WRITE: The Freelance Guide to Video Game Journalism. I am consistently blown away with the amazing work cover artist Blake Wheeler comes up with – particularly since I usually provide him with a crappy Photoshop doodled and hand-scribbled mess with vague notes. This is what he comes up with. Amazing! He’s also been a really stellar guy to work with.

So yeah, the book is coming along! Still shaping up for an August 2013 launch, which is DAMN SOON! I’m wrangling the final bits of front and back matter for the book. Very psyched to have master freelancer, editor, and game journo veteran (and current @Gamer EIC) Andy Eddy on-board writing the foreword for the book. Additionally, editor and freelance comrade Andrew Hayward has been an invaluable asset in shaping the text and helping me spit-shine this beast into something we’re very proud of and eager to share with you all. He’s worked tirelessly on this thing with me over the past few months and numerous rounds of editing and tweaking.

More updates will be coming along shortly, including some early coverage and whatnot. Stay tuned!