The Maplewood Review's voters' guide for the general election is now online. Besides giving candidates an opportunity to update or correct their biographical information, the Review also asked us three new questions.

Labels: biography, campaign

Posted by John Nephew at 10/25/2007 02:36:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

I've been off the campaign trail this week because I've been out of town on business. I am at Gen Con, an enormous event focused on games, particularly hobbyist games like the ones my company, Atlas Games, publishes. Tens of thousands of gamers converge on the Indianapolis convention center to find new games, to meet the creators who make the games they enjoy, to buy games and game-related merchandise, and most of all to play games pretty much around the clock. Seriously -- at 4 AM, you'll find people in the hotel lobbies and the Steak & Shake, playing card games or talking about their day's imaginary adventures.

This year our new release for the show is a very special project, a book entitled 40 Years of Gen Con. The convention is now owned by friends of ours, and they licensed Atlas Games to produce this illustrated history of the show, to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Yesterday I took the day away from the exhibit hall booth to play in a special event that I've long wanted to try, the National Security Decision Making Game. (I figured just by playing this I'd be able to claim more foreign policy experience than at least half the current field of presidential candidates!) I wrote up the experience in an entry on the Atlas Games blog.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 8/19/2007 10:49:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Earlier this week, I wrote about receiving AFSCME's endorsement for my city council race. I wanted to take a moment to talk about another kind of endorsement I've been getting, which means a great deal to me — the unsolicited public endorsements of friends and colleagues from my professional life as a publisher and writer. Nicole Lindroos, Matt Forbeck, and Ryan Dancey have each known me for ten to twenty years, and have been my competitors as well as collaborators at various times. At the risk of appearing immodest, here are some excerpts from their blogs commenting on my run for office.

Nicole Lindroos, general manager of Green Ronin Publishing: "It is precisely this incisiveness, this shrewd understanding of fiscal responsibilities and unflinching willingness to go to the guts of a problem that has made John such a formidable businessman. He would be an excellent asset to any board of directors, advisory committee, or council."

Matt Forbeck, game designer and novelist: "While I know next to nothing about Maplewood, I know John, and he’s just the kind of candidate any city needs. I’ve counted John as a good friend for years, and I’d trust him with both my checkbook and my kids, much less helping run a city in which he and his wife Michelle live."

Ryan Dancey, business consultant and former brand manager at Wizards of the Coast: "I suspect that John’s politics, at least on the big issues, and mine, are quite different . . . On the other hand, I know him to be absolutely honest, rigorously logical, and compassionate. On that basis alone I would support him for any office he might seek to hold."

I've always tried to run my business in a responsible and ethical manner. It's humbling to see people who have known me for such lengths of time give me a positive grade, and then some. Now my job is to earn such confidence from the voters of Maplewood.

Labels: biography, campaign, endorsements

Posted by John Nephew at 7/04/2007 11:54:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Back in April, when we went to the Nature Center celebration, we picked up a kit for measuring trees and submitting them to the "Great Tree Search." Ostensibly this is a contest to find the biggest tree in Maplewood, but I think it's really about recruiting volunteers to document some of our city's oldest and most treasured trees.

One of the reasons we picked our house back in 2001 was because of its many trees. They are not only beautiful and majestic, but they provide wonderful shade, making it more pleasant to be outside in the yard in the heat of summer and also keeping our cooling bills lower. Trees are a multifaceted asset: ecological, environmental, economic — and just plain nice to have around.

This week we finally pulled out the kit from the nature center and took measurements of our four trees we judged to be the largest. Michelle and I figured out a useful trick -- lacking a tape measure long enough for the height of these trees, we put one of our long outdoor extension cords to work for measuring. We marked off 20-foot increments on a 100-foot cord. Michelle would stand at the tree, and I would pull the cord out to the distance for measuring the tree's height (using their handy triangle tool with the level and mirror). Then we just had to measure from the nearest 20-foot mark. This seemed to be more accurate, since we could see the cord was in a straight line, as opposed to walking away from the tree in smaller measuring increments (and inevitably zig-zagging a bit along the way).

I'm less confident about the accuracy of our crown spread measurements. Part of the problem is that three of our four trees have branches that go far over fences into neighbor yards, or in one case (our biggest tree in the woods in the back) it's hard to see up through the foliage of lesser plants below.

So here are our candidates, and their measurements today recorded with the Nature Center for posterity:

Tree	Circumference	Height	Crown Spread
Boxelder*	124 inches	74 feet	59 feet
Pin Oak	107 inches	79 feet	52 feet
Silver Maple**	89 inches	86 feet	50 feet
Pin Oak***	117 inches	92 feet	56 feet

*From talking with more tree-savvy people, we're not entirely sure this is a boxelder, given its size. We were basing its identity on the leaves, using the identification booklet that came in the Tree Search kit.

**This is the tree pictured above.
***We think it's a pin oak, but we're not entirely sure because we couldn't make out the shape of its individual leaves from the ground.

Labels: biography, events

Posted by John Nephew at 6/23/2007 10:02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

We've got a number of mulberry trees in our yard, and over the past couple of years I've been making mulberry jam and mulberry syrup (which is, to be honest, failed jam that didn't get enough pectin to gel right; but it makes a wonderful topping for vanilla ice cream or pancakes -- in fact, I think I like it better than the jam).

When we moved into our house in 2001, Xcel came out right before the closing and hacked down all the plants along our eastern property line (where their power lines run back from the street). A new generation of plants has since grown up, including several mulberries, which are now bearing fruit. Adding their output to that of the much older mulberries in our back yard, and this year looks like a record harvest! As usual, the birds and other critters will be getting the bulk of it, but I went out this morning to make sure Michelle and I got our modest share before the summer gets too busy.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 6/17/2007 10:23:00 AM | Permalink

As I drove to work today, I heard on the radio that Kurt Vonnegut, a titan of American literature, had died.

My introduction to Vonnegut's writing came via coffee. During my senior year at Carleton College, a friend who had just graduated, John P., and a friend of his from high school, Chad S., opened a coffeehouse across the street from my apartment on Division Street. They named it Goodbye Blue Monday. I learned from Chad that this was an homage to the alternate title of his favorite Vonnegut novel, Breakfast of Champions. I had heard of Vonnegut, but had never read his work.

I was a regular at the coffeehouse, stopping there each day after I picked up my fledgling publishing company's mail from its box in the post office on the opposite side of Northfield's town square. As I made my living in the solitary pursuits of freelance writing and editing, with this new publishing venture on the side, the coffeehouse was a place where I could mix work (reading my mail, proofing a manuscript, or dreaming up ideas for a new project) with a modest daily allowance of human interaction.

Every day, the mugs of the coffeehouse were a reminder that I really should read some Vonnegut sometime. While I suspect most people are introduced to Vonnegut with Slaughterhouse 5 (my wife, Michelle, loved to use it when she taught college English — which, as an aside, is just one of the many reasons I have been madly in love with her since we first met), my first exposure to the author was thus Breakfast of Champions, the story of the lonely science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, an automobile dealer, and the author himself. Actually, it's a little hard to describe. It delighted me, in any case, and launched a minor binge of buying and reading Vonnegut novels.

So I'd like to offer a virtual coffee toast to the memory and work of Kurt Vonnegut. Let me quote the epitaph he wrote for his imaginary science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout, in Breakfast of Champions: "We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 4/12/2007 10:52:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

We recently brought a temporary resident into our home, and his name is Astro!

Astro is a foster bunny from the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society, an organization that Michelle and I have been involved with since its inception. Besides giving MCRS monetary support, Michelle and I have both volunteered our time — Michelle was the past editor of its newsletter, I served on its Board of Directors, and Astro is just the most recent of the many rabbits we've fostered.

We've chosen to support MCRS for a number of reasons. It's a small, local organization, entirely run by volunteers, and we have personally seen (and benefitted from) its success and effectiveness. We know that our support makes a meaningful difference, whether it's giving money that helps MCRS promote its educational mission and so improve the lives of pets and their owners, or giving a rabbit a second chance by providing a temporary home before adoption (there's only so much room in the Twin Cities' animal shelters, and MCRS serves as an "overflow" outlet for the crunch times when more rabbits are surrendered or confiscated by animal control authorities than there is space). Animal welfare is important to me because I believe we are stewards of our world and the living creatures within it; I think we have a moral responsibility to care humanely for the animals domesticated by our ancestors over the past thousands of years — animals that are now dependent upon us.

I especially admire MCRS because of its pragmatism. One of the most innovative and successful programs it has worked on is a partnership with PETCO. At an increasing number of PETCO stores in the Twin Cities — seven of them now, including the one here in Maplewood — adoptable rabbits are featured in the store, and cared for by both PETCO employees and MCRS volunteers. Near the rabbits are educational materials about rabbits as pets. Special "adoption day" events are also held in the stores, when more adoptable rabbits are brought to the store and lots of volunteers are on hand to educate and answer questions. In fact, Astro is staying with us as a break after spending a month in the Roseville PETCO store.

Some animal advocates see corporations like PETCO as the enemy, because of policies that activists would like to see stopped (such as buying from rabbit breeders to sell to the public, thus encouraging overpopulation; rabbits are the #3 animal surrendered to shelters after dogs and cats). While some activists shunned PETCO, MCRS recognized an opportunity.

The reality is that keeping rabbits for sale is a lot of work, responsibility, and expense for a pet store, and not really profitable in itself. The rabbits are perceived as a service to pet shoppers, as an attraction (isn't it fun to go into a pet store and see cute furry animals?), and as a way to land the real business, which is the pet food, supplies, etc. MCRS found that PETCO was delighted to stop selling rabbits, and instead to feature adoptable rabbits, to utilize the knowledge and time of MCRS volunteers in caring for the animals, and to benefit from the good public relations exposure. In fact, the PETCO Foundation (a charitable foundation funded by the corporation) has now become an important donor to MCRS. They are directly aware of the good that comes of this program, which is also becoming a model for similar programs elsewhere in the country. The president of MCRS has been a featured speaker at national conventions, to talk about how this program works so others can emulate it.

I've been wanting to write about MCRS, not just as an aspect of my biography for this campaign website, but because I think it illustrates some important principles that guide my view of politics as well. There's a purist way of thinking that says people who don't live up to your criteria (whether that be political ideology, or "litmus test" issues, or whatever) should be shunned and rejected and locked out. In contrast, it seems to me that it's terribly important to engage with the people that are sometimes labeled "the enemy" by partisans and activists. Too much devotion to abstract principles can prevent parties from agreeing on a common course of action that might actually benefit both of them. The fact is that different individuals and organizations often have principles and goals that we might say are competing, but not actually contradictory.

By engaging with an organization that has a different set of priorities, and finding a practical course of action that serves them both, MCRS and PETCO have both come out winners — as have the rabbits, the new rabbit owners (who have been educated to ensure that they're more happy with their new pets), and even the local animal shelters (since those educated pet adopters are less likely to surrender their animals).

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about rabbits as pets, please visit the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society website at mn.companionrabbit.org. You can see a list of some of the currently adoptable Twin Cities rabbits in the care of MCRS at Petfinder — and for that matter, if you're interested in any kind of pet, Petfinder is a wonderful resource for finding animals of all species that need homes. And if you visit the PETCO up by the Maplewood Mall, be sure to see the adoptable bunnies in person!

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 3/29/2007 01:49:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Shannon Appelcline of RPG.net has been publishing a series of articles about the histories of game companies. This week's installment is a history of Atlas Games, the publishing company that I founded in 1990 and still run today.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 3/07/2007 10:18:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

I often joke that I've never had a real job. I started down the self-employment path in high school, and apart from a handful of part-time jobs in college, that's what it's been for more than twenty years for me.

When I got back from Ireland in 1981, my friend Matt introduced me to a game that had become all the rage in the 6th grade while I was away: Dungeons & Dragons. This wonderful game was like gasoline on the creative flames that Irish castles and history books had kindled, and led to a lot of my adolescence being spent writing up fantastic adventures for the imaginary heroes my brother and neighborhood friends made up. Around the age 14, it dawned upon me that I was putting quite a lot of time into this hobby, and I wondered if I could find a way to make money from doing it as well.

(I'd always had an interest in business. Sometime under age 10 I devised a plan to buy bulk bubble gum balls from the grocery store up the street and sell them individually to kids on our block. Despite a mathematically sound business plan, this venture failed to turn a profit. I eventually realized that my little brother and business partner was eating the inventory...)

I learned about freelance writing and submitting articles and stories to magazines, and realized that one advantage of submitting manuscripts by mail to strangers is that the people reading them can't know that you're not old enough to shave.

I worked hard, took the many inevitable rejections in stride, and learned everything I could from the helpful suggestions of editors to improve my work. When requested, I revised and resubmitted material. The perseverence paid off – not long before my 16th birthday, I got my first acceptance letter and a contract to buy one of my articles. The article appeared in print in April 1986, and I was officially a professional writer.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 2/25/2007 11:12:00 AM | Permalink

When I wrote about growing up a couple of days ago, I left out a very important year of my childhood. In 1980, my family moved to Ireland. My dad was taking a sabbatical, and then teaching in St. Scholastica's study abroad program on Ireland's west coast in the spring. My mom was getting her Montessori elementary certification in Dublin. Thus I spent a very impressionable year surrounded by Irish culture, thousands of years of enchanting Irish ruins, and going to an Irish school, where there was an intense focus on creative writing and history. (Is it any wonder Ireland has turned out so many great writers?)

In 2004, my dad went to Ireland again for the same teaching program. Michelle and I took the opportunity to return to the Emerald Isle (she had visited it briefly in college when she was studying in London for a semester). We flew to Dublin with my mother and one of our nieces. My dad met us there, and we all bundled into a tiny European rental car and drove across the island and back, visiting many places I remembered fondly from my childhood.

On one day of this trip, Michelle and I hiked to the top of Croagh Patrick, a traditional pilgrimage destination amidst the rugged landscape of County Mayo. Here's a picture of us after our hike, with the mountain behind us.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 2/17/2007 06:42:00 PM | Permalink

This website is a way to introduce myself to the voters of Maplewood, so in some entries I'll be talking about my life. I may as well start at the beginning!

I was born in Milwaukee in 1969. Before I was a year old my family moved to Duluth, where my father had gotten a job teaching at the College of St. Scholastica. In Duluth I attended the Carmel Heights Montessori preschool, Holy Rosary School, and then the Duluth Cathedral School, where I graduated second in my class. (My class, 1987, was the last to graduate under the Cathedral name; it is now known as the Marshall School.) Among other things, I lettered in two sports (track and cross country skiing), was a member of the Knowledge Bowl team (state champions, my senior year), and a National Merit Scholar. Thanks to another scholarship I was a member of the first sister-city delegation between Duluth and Petrozavodsk, which gave me a chance to visit the Soviet Union before it dissolved (and get ticketed for jaywalking in Moscow!). I am the middle child of five, with three sisters and one brother. Both of my parents are teachers: my father is a professor of philosophy (ethics is his specialty), and my mother founded the Montessori School of Duluth, where she is the principal and an elementary teacher. It's not a surprise that I've had a life-long love of learning and education. My mother tells me my first word was "book."

Growing up in northeastern Minnesota made me a lover of nature. My family bought a “rustic” log cabin on a lake up north of Duluth in the early '70s. “Rustic” here is a code word for “no indoor toilet” -- today we still rely on an outhouse. Many fond childhood memories are of days spent at that cabin – hiking in the woods, swimming in the lake, fishing, gathering berries and making jam, pretending to be Robin Hood with a bow and arrow, and making our own toys out of strange and wonderful objects that had been left behind by the blacksmith who built the place in the 1930s.

My childhood also included many trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, canoeing in summer and even skiing and camping on frozen lakes in winter. My parents taught me the importance of protecting and preserving nature, as well as the responsibilities we had as visitors (such as not to leave trash behind).

One of the reasons Michelle and I chose our Maplewood home in 2001 is the presence of so many trees and lakes, which remind me of my childhood. I still love the North Woods, and find comfort in its beauty and solitude. After more than thirty years, the sunsets seen from the cabin's dock still take my breath away.

Labels: biography

Posted by John Nephew at 2/15/2007 05:38:00 PM | Permalink