Gah! It's Been So Long!

Hi guys! Glad to see there are still some folks stomping around the old place. How was Japan? And Comic Con? And Dragon Con with Stephen Hickman?
I landed a concept art job for a burgeoning video game studio called L337 Media here in Austin. I'm getting paid in stock right now, since the company's just starting out, but it takes the sting out of having to work for reverse mortgages. I'm under an NDA, so I can't post anything, but we just pitched to Square Enix and things apparently "went well". If it gets picked up, I'll have a game credit with Square Enix! (!!!)
I'd kill for an art director right now, though, my bosses are marketers, designers, and pitchers before they even remotely approach the art spectrum. On the one hand, I have a lot of artistic freedom, but on the other, I can get confused about what they have in mind. Like "Make this more realistic, more dramatic, and more movie-like". Slightly conflicting.
I'm also marketing one of my novels. I've gotten some promising feedback from agents, but no one's said "yes", yet. Sword-and-sorcery is not the current trend, modern day fantasy is. Curses!
I hope everyone's doing okay and livin' well, all artsy and stuff. I miss any intelligent, art-related conversation. Seriously. I have no one local I can talk to about that kind of thing (but I do want to join the SCBWI, Austin has a chapter.) I hadno idea how lucky I was surrounded by all of you.