Ten Years of Amateur Sleuthing!
Dear Amateur Sleuths and Master Sleuths,
This month marks my anniversary of being a full-time team member of HeR Interactive, Inc! Some of you know my story: after college I became Game Production Intern in June, 2010. In November, the Marketing Intern, and in June 2011 the Marketing Coordinator, joining the team full time.
Wow! TEN YEARS (well, longer than that, really because of my internships.) Let’s take a quick look down memory lane in reflection of the past decade…
Ten years is a lot to summarize, but I must mention some of my cherished memories in no particular order:
- Doodling pictures for the Amateur Sleuth Blog posts.
- Sharing behind the scenes teases from our office.
- Interviewing fellow team members.
- Tasting and promoting a real-life Koko Kringle chocolate bar!
- Visiting new food trucks with the team.
- Playing hacky sack in the afternoons for a little exercise.
- Trying to figure out who was leaving mysterious Easter Eggs in my office desk.
- 101 Twitch parties with all our greatest Nancy Drew friends!
- Voicing a minor character in The Silent Spy (cookie lady)
- Voiced the giggly girl talking to Ned in Midnight in Salem (secretly Ned’s new girlfriend, lol)
- Getting my 6th grade picture into a game (Alibi in Ashes)
- Making Vlogs and fun videos for YouTube.
- Working alongside 7 terrific interns.
- Writing over 300 weekend puzzles, codes, ciphers, riddles etc.
- Getting to be involved with game walkthroughs and puzzle testing before we reach Beta.
- Visiting the recording studio, feeding actors their lines, and getting to meet the voice of Bess Marvin, Frank and Joe Hardy, and one of actresses for George Fayne.
- Making and sharing official game trailers and reveling in everyone’s excitement!
- Also, launching 11 new games and getting people just as excited about it as I got! (This is my favorite part!)
Here’s to another decade of Nancy Drew games and HeR Interactive’s Nancy Drew community! What’s around the corner, you might ask? Well, more Nancy Drew games, of course! New merchandise and exciting things are indeed ahead.
My dear friends, Amateur and Master Sleuths alike, a new adventure awaits me in my career. That’s right – I never imagined this day would come, but there is a new opportunity for me on the horizon. However, I will NOT be leaving the Nancy Drew community. You’ll see me around! I will be a HeR Interactive advisor on future games, and hey! maybe even guest post on the Amateur Sleuth Blog again! Nonetheless, HeR Interactive and I have a future ahead, just in different offices.
It’s hard to say goodbye, but I’m not really leaving. I just won’t be an official team member anymore. Change is hard, and this is quite bittersweet for me. No worries, though! There are some great team members at HeR Interactive who are working hard behind the scenes… I can’t say much but be sure to subscribe to the official newsletter to stay up to date on all the exciting things to come! (Or follow HeR Interactive / Nancy Drew Games on social media!)
I do hope to stay in touch with all of you with my personal accounts and channels! Follow me, Calina Herman of @story_retold, on social media or checkout my website: www.calinaherman.com. If you see the little cartoon Red Panda on social media, you’ll know that’s me. You’ll especially know it’s me because my real face is around as well as a ton of Nancy Drew stuff, haha! What can I say? I’m a super Nancy Drew nerd…
And now, I leave you with this Nancy Drew blessing:
May your doors always be unlocked! And stay sleuthy!
- Calina “Little Jackalope” (Joyce) Herman
Hey it’s been great reading the awesome behind the scenes and sneak peeks for the past ten years! I have been a fan of Nancy Drew since maybe 2007 but actually started following the social media accounts of HeR Interactive around 2010 or 2011, can’t remember when exactly…
Anyways, thank you and hope you have an awesome day! =D
– Amy, known as mdetective12 on the HeR message boards
Aw, thanks for sharing, Amy! It’s always been a pleasure to see our comments come in over the years. Keep up the great fun you have on your own social media accounts (I’m already following you.) 😀
Hello Calina and HeR Interactive!
I’m sad to see you go, but know you will continue to do great things for the gaming community! I am currently going into my senior year at colleg studying graphic design and animation, hoping to one day get into game design! Nancy Drew games have always been my favorite, and are a HUGE part of the reason I want to go into this field one day. I would love to be more involved in the HeR community in any way I can! Please reach out to me if there are going to possibly be any future openings especially for anything I can do while in college! I can’t begin to explain in words how much of a dream this would be to me. 🙂
Hello Sydney! That’s an awesome topic to study at college! My one tip for you: DO IT. Practice graphic design and animation on the side, even if it is for a fake company, real company, not for paid, just make up projects to do so that you have a great portfolio that displays the skillsets you learned! 😉 Also, keep an eye out for potential job postings by HeR Interactive and any other game or marketing company. (Marketing often needs graphic, still or moving in their campaigns). 😉
Thank you so much for your response and being such an inspiration to me! I appreciate your messages and I wish you the best on all your future endeavors. I’ll definitely follow your words of wisdom and work on improving my portfolio!
That’s the same message that Tess gave me when she wrote me a letter saying that she doesn’t work at herintereactive anymore “May the door be unlocked”, that’s cool that you will be an advisor for Herinteractive on future games, I will make sure to watch future Nancy Drew videos on StoryReTold, I will miss seeing your comments on the amatuer slueth blog but I know that as long as I play the games, that’s simply all that matters.
I will miss seeing your comments here on the blog, Jillian! <3 Maybe I will see you around on social media in the future!
Sounds good see you on the twitch stream feeds!
Just one question can I still send you a christmas card? What address would like me to send it out too?
We will miss you LJ! It was awesome getting to join you on your blogging adventures! Thank you so much for everything you’ve contributed to the ND mystery series over the years. You’ll forever be a treasured part of the community. My best wishes to you on your new journey.
Aw shucks, thanks, SavvyDetective! 😀 I will miss being a voice to the fans from an official position. And you are most welcome!
This makes me sad 🙁 even though I had a hunch based on your ‘secret’ messages in the past few blog posts 😉 you were the last of the old HER we knew and loved, it definitely won’t be the same. But, I’m very happy for you and your new opportunities. Best of luck to you!
awww, we’ll miss you! Is someone else going to be writing for the blog?
Hi Karen,
Although I could never replace LJ, I will be taking over the ASB. I actually just posted my first blog post today! -Indy
yAY! r u @ HER
Hi Karen, yes I am back!
I’m sad to see you go. Thank you for all you have done and will do for the Nancy Drew world.I wish you and your family all the best.
We will miss you so much! I am so glad I got the chance to meet you at the Nancy Drew convention in Maine! It is a special memory and it was one of the highlights of that convention for me. I wish you all the best in your new adventure! <3 -Erin
i’ll miss you so much!! but i am so glad that you have a great opportunity to move forward with your career and i wish you the best!! you’ll always be our fave 🙂 thank you for all of the hard work you have done over the years! good luck x
I agree with “Me” I figured through the past few posts to that things were about to change. I guess since I first followed the Blog, there used to me lots of posts everyday that I would enjoy reading. Lately it’s not had hardly any posts so i figured something was going on. I hate all the original employees are leaving cause it won’t be the same. We will have the games to remember what it used to be. I have followed this blog prolly for about 8 years I’d say. I have enjoyed the blog posts and all things Nancy Drew. Yet, life happens and sometimes it’s time for change. It won’t be the same without “Little Jackalope” but hope everything goes well and enjoy the kiddos! Stay sleuthy!
This made me tear up I can honestly say through you I became more interested in the HeR community, and even Nancy Drew itself. While I’ve only followed this blog for three or so years, it has really changed my interest in Nancy Drew for the better. As I wish you the best, it’s almost hard for me to because I can’t imagine not having you post here every week! I know you’ll do amazing things, and I’ll be searching for your name in the credits of the next game!
LJ,
Thank you for your work with HeR over the last 10 years! 10 years is quite the accomplishment and with such a great company.
You will be missed in your current role, but I look forward to seeing you pop in for a visit when you can! 🙂
Best of luck with your new adventure!
We’re going to miss you so much LJ! Good luck on this new adventure of yours. I’m so happy for you.
Who will be taking over your blog after you leave?
It won’t be the same without you. Once again, good luck with your new adventure!
felicity18
Hi Felicity18,
My name is Indy! I was a previous Summer Intern and have been back at HeR for some time now. I just made my first new ASB blog post today! -Indy
I’m sorry to see you go. Thank you for everything that you do!
Hey LJ, thanks for everything over the years from birthday shoutouts to all these posts and insights into the future nancy drew games coming out. Also all the twitch streams and I was lucky enough to win a pack of physical strategy guides on The Haunted Carousel stream series you guys did and oh boy were those streams fun, I look forward to see the future for you and Her Interactive. Thanks Again one last time!
Good Luck on your next adventure Calina! You will be missed! I watch all your videos on your YouTube channel “StoryRetold”.
you will be miss, i hope the next person does it good as you did it. Good Luck on your next adventure Calina
I remember waiting all week to watch ND streams on Twitch; wow, so much time has passed! Good luck on new adventures LJ! 🙂
Are the Nancy Drew Books that have new covers today, are they the same as the old ones? But just with a new cover?
Hi Mary, This is kind of a tricky question to answer. It really depends on what version of the books you are talking about! I am no expert. The original yellow back books came out in the 1930s. From 1959 through 1978, the first 34 yellow back books in the series were revised and cut down from 25 chapters to just 20. The question of what they cut out or revised changes from book to book but they were generally updated to tighten up to story and to make them more inclusive. If this is something you are interested in I would suggest trying to find some of the original texts and read the current or “new” ones to compare. I have not personally read any of the 1930 originals vs. the 1959 rewrites. I do have an original Secret of the Old Clock so maybe in the future I will do a compare and contrast ASB post!