I haven’t hidden my attitude about drugs and alcohol. I don’t drink. I don’t drug. Includes cigarettes. Doesn’t include coffee. But despite my strong feelings on the subject of substance abuse, in America especially “drug chic” is seen as a legitimate fashion statement. Street smart. Savvy to the underground. Able to make things happen, get things done. Good fighter. Persuasive hustler. Leather jacket, engineer boots, bling on the fingers, neck and ears. If you fit the bill, don’t be surprised when a stranger propositions you with a little sampler as you’re sitting at your favorite club sipping Cherry Coke with your mother-of-two, Christian publisher.
So this problem (not really a problem) cropped up on the MG3K forum (which is a happening place full of wit, banter and hard questions about gender, sex, war and religion... as well as hilarious escapisms like Chocolate Wolf Morphing). Where do you put your freaking cards when you aren’t playing?
Hardcore players keep their cards in the traditional plastic protective sheets (oh, yes, darlin’, they fit... I ain’t that stupid) while others, like little ole me, keep theirs in small index card boxes, separated with the nifty cardboard slips that come with those things. But whatever the solution, it isn’t provided in the Starter Deck. I got to thinking about that and I, well, didn’t like it.
Enter my publisher (again).
Me: Jennifer? Hey, here’s the deal: Sorry to hassle you in the middle of Thanksgiving and everything but I really want the Starter Deck to ship with a box.
Jennifer: The deck is packaged flat.
Me: Yay, I know. Is that going to be a problem?
Jennifer: Have you been drinking?
Me: Of course not! (Pause.) Can we do it?
Jennifer: Anthony (the MyPyre booster designer) designed a gable box to be sold separately. It’ll carry cards. It has a nice little handle.
Me: I don’t like gable boxes.
Jennifer: Why not?
Me: They remind me of Happy Meals.
Jennifer: When were you to tell me this?
Me: I just did.
Jennifer: (Pause.) Okay. If you don’t like gable boxes then what do you like?
Me: Coffee. Chocolate. Brown eyes. That little flowered number you wear to conventions—
Jennifer: E.J....
Me: I want two boxes. One box the shape of a perfect cube with a built in Kamon-ori lid that folds seamlessly. I want a stone pattern on this cube and it’ll be called a Rock. The second one is the size and shape of two Rocks side-by-side. This one is patterned like a brick. It can hold two stacks of cards. Same built in Kamon-ori lid. It’ll be called a Brick. One would be in the Starter Deck. Unassembled. Easy to slap together with just a bit of tape. Cool?
Jennifer: (Long pause.) You want me to create a box called a Brick?
Me: Uh-huh. A brick of cards.
Jennifer: A brick of cards. (Pause.) Like a brick of marijuana?
Me: But it’s a brick of cards.
(No answer.)
Me: Or a rock of cards.
(No answer.)
Me: Please?
Jennifer: I love it.
And so, working with a independent publisher willing to bend the rules, reshape culture and stir up trouble once again pays off. Watch out world.
E.J.
