Looks like something's happening behind the scenes - Shapeshifters (specifically, and animation related to the cover art) made the daily illuminator today - www.sjgames.com/ill.
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

Many thanks to fellow MIB Erik Zane, who let me know this weekend that the book's page at the SJG website now shows the cover. Go there and click on the thumbnail; you'll get a nice, big image. There's also a wallpaper linked off the same page, and you know it's already on my machine at home.
The color scheme is a little monochromatic, but that's okay with me. However, after all the crap I took from the playtesters over the book being "werewolf-centric", the cover of course has a wolf on it. Someone in the art department doesn't pay attention to playtest groups, eh? Go fig.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Hey, Bob? I saw that you just updated the DW page, but couldn't figure out what you added/changed...."I was an Otaku before those kids came along and changed the meaning of the word."
-- HM "Howling Mad" Wilson to more than one team-mate.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home
When you call my name it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there
I hear your voice, it's like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes, Oh God I think I'm falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes
Heaven help me
When you call my name it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there
Like a child you whisper softly to me
You're in control just like a child
Now I'm dancing
It's like a dream, no end and no beginning
You're here with me, it's like a dream
Let the choir sing
When you call my name it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there
Just like a prayer, your voice can take me there
Just like a muse to me, you are a mystery
Just like a dream, you are not what you seem
Just like a prayer, no choice your voice can take me there
Just like a prayer, I'll take you there
It's like a dream to me
-- Madonna, Like A Prayer
(Written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard)


-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

The link to 'Vocal reader/fan Rob Kelk has included DW2 on his list of the dozen best fanfics on the Web.':
robkelk.tripod.com/links.html
is no longer valid.
try:
robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/links.html

In going over material relevant to a little bit of new text I was writing last night, I realized with a shock that I had, without intending to do so, inserted an in-joke when I initially wrote the book.
One of the sample races is a carnivorous morph lightly inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing. Only after rereading their description last night did I realize that I had made their unshifted form look just like the Vermicious Knids from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (that's the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, aka "Willy Wonka", for those who don't know)...
I suppose I should have included a racial quirk which compels them to spell out "SCRAM" any time five or more of them see members of other races...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Except for the Bibliography, which I continue to hack at, I believe I have gone through the last round of major input from me on the book. My editor's deadline is the 21st, which means we're mere days away from permanently putting down The Book That Would Not Die...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Well, not specifically.
But I was browsing the Oxford English Dictionary SF project (www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml), and I noticed that the earliest cite they have for the word 'morph' is 1995 as a verb, and 1994 as a noun.
This seems oddly late to me, and it occured to me that if anyone would have reference material on this, it'd be Bob...
('Shapeshifter', by the way, is 1967, though 'shapeshifting' is 1884.)

Kohran pushed her glasses up her nose, never taking her eyes off the unconscious man on the cot. "It is not unheard of," she said quietly. "There are ancient words for people who could do this, who could project their spirit energy out of their body in any way that they wanted.""There are?" Ohgami's eyes snapped to hers. "What are they?""Shugenja," Kohran whispered. "Magus. *Wizard*."---------------"It's a beautiful piece of work, but you'd never find me getting into one."---------------"What are you using to generate your steam? I mean, don't get mewrong, but I don't see a coal car hanging on the back of these things. And you guys have neither the theory or the resourcesfor atomics."Kohran gave me a sly little smile, spun a couple of dogs and popped open a hatch. "Look there. See?"I frowned at first, not sure of what I was seeing. It didn't seem to make sense, like an Escher print expressed in reality.Then I had a sudden moment of double vision, as two completely different paradigms overlapped and blended. "Holy shit," I whispered. "Ah, you understand. Yes," Kohran replied. "It is what you think."I shook my head. "And I thought *my* world had a handle on magitech. I'd never have... I mean... *damn,* woman."She giggled.
(No promises... just a little fun I came up with.)

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Just a little rambling note...
Don't take this as gospel or any kind of promise, but Peggy and I have idly discussed writing some joint adventures of Doug and Shadowwalker together in various worlds. So far the two definite "that-would-be-cool" settings that we've come up with have been the early-20th-Century Egypt of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books, and Silent Mobius. (Peg's a big Silent Mobius fan. And I want to see Shadowwalker shred a Class 2 or higher Lucifer Hawk by screaming at it.)
Anyway, nothing's really solid here, just a lot of "it would be neat if"ing. But I've come up with a tentative name for the series and I wanted to share it -- "Drunkard's Vacation".

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.