GenCon (the rest)
Sorry for the delay in getting all of this posted. I've been struggling against the flu, which I believe I caught somewhere among all the hand shaking. This is comforting, as it means that some of the illness that I thought I was giving myself for being nervous was actually a physical ailment. I'm going to take comfort in that!
GenCon Thursday
I'm a big believer in positive thinking. You envision the best possible result to any given situation and it's more likely to happen. So before the convention, I was doing my very best positive thinking, picturing long lines of people just dying to buy my book.
This, I recognize, is hopelessly optimistic. Perhaps had I actually believed it wholeheartedly, I would have made it so. The fact that I didn't sleep well and was so nervous I was ill leads me to believe that my whole heart was not behind my optimism, and my inner pessimist decided to have a hay day while I was lacking sleep.
Happily, the result landed somewhere in the middle. Thursday wasn't a huge sales day, but we did sell some and we got to talk to a lot of people about how awesome the new game is and how great it is that we've already launched a tie-in novel series to go with it. Along with plugging the books, I had great fun hanging out with Lindsay Archer, who may very well be a soul sister as we gelled incredibly well. (This comes as no real surprise to me, as we are both Browncoats and Whedonites, and there is certainly an obvious kinship there. And it's obvious that we've been on the same wavelength while working on the novel, as her depiction of my characters could have been pulled from my head.)
The morning actually began with my making a delivery run for the Living Kingdoms of Kalamar tables. The Kenzer and Company folks decided that all new players would receive a copy of the campaign sourcebook-a huge present for new players! The first morning, out of a table of seven players, six of them were brand new, so Michael Meike (one of the campaign directors) and I trekked back from the room where the game was being run to the exhibit hall (where only I was allowed in as we were well before hours) back to the game room. We turned the books over to Brian Spurling (the table judge as well as the Conventions Director for Living Kalamar), enjoyed the awed expressions of those receiving them, and headed back toward the exhibit hall. I went inside to get to work helping set up in whatever way I could (most of the work was already done, and hanging from the booth was a large banner featuring the cover image for Into the Reach and my name in large print-egads!).
Then, the doors opened. Thursday is not the busiest day for GenCon, but there were plenty of people rushing into the hall that first morning. We looked very professional and ready to sign. Very professional, I've discovered, does not bring in the crowds. And so I developed my Kaylee-esque line: "Come talk to us! We're fun!"
This had various incarnations, including: "We're interesting!" (which didn't work as often as "fun") and "We're cute!" (which was usually Lindsay's tag line to my pointing out that we were fun and worked about twice as often as my line alone). Hawking this way worked on about a quarter of the people walking by the booth, some of whom actually bought the book thereafter. Several people from the Game Publishers Association stopped by, so I got to meet people I'd before only known as e-mail addresses or screen names. There was much chatting, many people who promised to return on Sunday when they did all their shopping, and generally a good time had by all. In moments that weren't busy, I quickly copied down my script for True Dungeon onto note cards, so I could practice my lines, if only by transferring them from one paper to another.
I also stole the idea I mentioned in this journal before about having everyone sign a copy of my book. People seemed to really like this, and it does make for a really cool souvenir, so it's definitely something I'll do again.
At four o'clock or shortly thereafter, I headed off and back over to the Mariott, where I ate a quick dinner and got ready to get into my drow make-up. We'd been recommended to put a purple layer on and use that as the base, but in my mind, drow are a good bit darker than the purple make up I had. So I did the purple base, then sponged the black make-up on top. This worked brilliantly until I ran my finger along my cheekbone and managed to smear the black make-up all over, losing the textured look. Deciding that I'd basically lost, I blended the black make-up into the purple, turning myself incredibly dark from my face to my dress's neck-line. It didn't look bad necessarily, but I'll put it this way: I was really glad I was going to be in a dark room.
I smuggled myself into the Dungeon through the True Tavern by hiding under a very large cloak loaned by one of the other workers. (No one was to know that there would be a drow in the last room, so keeping it secret was of utmost priority.) Sadly, I couldn't really see behind the cloak draped over me, and had to have one of the security folks lead me over to the back-stage area, where I could finally take the cloak off, readjust my wig, and get a light source and walkie-talkie. (I suspected the walkie-talkie wouldn't be necessary, but ended up being very glad I had it!) And then, the show was on. I wandered into the room where I'd be spending the next three hours and change and watched as one of my drow sisters ran through the script, greeting the adventurers as they came in. (As I discovered when she left, this was Rebecca King from NERO, who I knew from the Game Publishers Association mailing list.) She left after that group went through, and I had a full twelve minutes to prepare my lines and get ready for the next group to come in.
The first several groups had that twelve minute gap, so I assumed this was normal. So when I noticed a lantern outside the curtained door to my room, I assumed that the adventurers were just early, or that one of them was a ghost and had wandered ahead. Finally one of them said, "Are we still waiting?" and I, with great dismay, realized they'd been waiting for half of their twelve minute slot, for me to invite them in! I called them in, gave them an abbreviated version of the monologue they were supposed to get when they entered the room, and called over the walkie-talkie to find out how I should handle the situation, as in six minutes (half the time a normal group had), another group would be entering the room!
Very luckily, the group was extremely clever, and was one of the three groups I had to actually solve the riddle of the room. They didn't solve it using the correct information, but they came up with the right answer for entirely wrong reasons, just before time ran out. Whew! I sent them on and the True Dungeon trouble shooter who had appeared to help me left as I welcomed the next group. (After that incident, I always began my lines with, "Enter, if you are ready!" so that I'd be sure everyone got the full chance to solve the puzzle.)
After my shift was over, earlier than I expected as all the drow were scheduled to overlap, I tried desperately to clean off my make-up, to no avail. So, purple and slightly bruised from the scrubbing, I left the Mariott with the intention of heading home, only to run into dragonladyflame in the food court downstairs. She invited me to sit and hang out with her and several friends, which I was glad to do. So we chatted for awhile until my contacts decided they were quite done with being in my eyes, and I hiked back to my hotel, where I gladly took off the heels I'd worn all day in an effort to save myself from having to bring an extra pair of shoes to the convention center. (This, I realized as I took them off, was the height of foolishness. Better to carry more stuff than be stuck all day in a new pair of heels.)
GenCon Friday
Along with "We're fun!" I added: "Don't walk by… you'll miss it!" This actually worked on one out of five people walking by, and once people got to chatting with us, they usually bought something at the table. Lindsay also joined me in serenading people who walked by, typically singing "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me" to any pirates who walked by, or the theme song from Firefly at the variety of Firefly and Serenity themed shirts. I once sang the Batman theme song as well, which didn't work quite as well. This led to the hook, "We sing and dance on command!" and "You have to buy the books, but the entertainment is free!" I should have realized at some point along the line that being a writer is also like being a carnival barker. Now I know.
I visited with Laura and Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Mike Meike (aforementioned friend and co-director of Living Kalamar) had purchased my book on Friday and taken it over to show it to Laura Hickman, proclaiming me to be up and coming and giving me all manner of praise. So when I began talking to Laura, she was incredibly excited to tell me that I'd had someone over at the booth promoting me the day before! Tracy Hickman ended up coming by the booth later in the day and buying a copy of my book, which I was only too tickled to sign. (He signed my souvenir copy as well, to my eternal delight.) The Hickmans have a podcast, and they may interview me in the future (an honor I'm still not quite sure I believe!). I'll definitely post should something that occur!
This also allowed me to add, "Tracy Hickman bought this book!" to my repertoire of why people should buy it. This worked about 90% of the time for people who were hedging on whether or not to buy the novel.
Later, I popped by Rich Burlew's booth to say hello and had the lovely surprise that he remembered who I was! I promised to stop by when they had a chance to leave the booth. (The Order of the Stick fans created that line that, in my positive thinking, I had imagined for my booth. So perhaps my positive thinking just moved itself over a couple of booths to make itself a reality…)
Still later, I heard over the loud speaker that Tim Waggoner and Edward Bolme (who, I've mentioned before, I greatly admire) were both signing in the Wizards of the Coast booth. I ducked out of my duties, grabbing the Eberron short story collection I'd been reading, which they'd both contributed to. They both cheerfully signed it for me and wished me luck on my own book. I told them they should stop by the booth so that people would think I was important. (Edward Bolme did stop by, but while I was gone! I was crushed. Luckily, I got to see him later. See Saturday.)
I believe this was also Friday, but it might have been Saturday…. I tracked down Mark Smylie of ASP, who I will hopefully be working for/with on a future project. We talked about his game and comic, Artesia, and about the Fuzion system he and his game designers used and retooled to better fit the setting. The comics that the ASP team put out are absolutely amazing as far as the art is concerned, and I'm very much looking forward to having the chance to read the actual comics! Alas, book one of Artesia is sold out, so I'll have to wait for the reprint.
Again, I'm not sure what day this happened, but I got the chance to meet some other New England Browncoats and some Rhode Islanders who will soon be on the New England Browncoats mailing list. The Rhode Islanders actually came back and chatted several times, and promoted the new RPG and the novel for us throughout the convention. Thanks guys! (Another convention patron actually showed some potential publishers I'd met my name in the credits for the RPG, promoting me as well as the books. You get a big thank you as well!)
In the evening, Brian Spurling and I found the Q'doba (hurrah!), then headed back to the convention center to catch the Ennies award ceremony. (We'd already missed a chunk of it, alas, but it made the decision of whether to go to the Ennies or whether to see The Gamers: Dorkness Rising quite easy, as missing the first half of an awards ceremony is one thing where missing the first half of a movie is entirely another.) Serenity RPG won for production values, Dog Soul's Baba Yaga won for best e-book, and Paizo Publishing and Green Ronin seemed to split the rest between them. I did finally get to meet the DogSoul people, which was pretty nifty, and it'll be fun to see if the win will increase sales of the title I did for them, as it's in the same series as Baba Yaga.
GenCon Saturday
Crisis! My sister was supposed to catch a bus from Chicago to Indianapolis, but the city bus that was supposed to get her to the station on time ran more than a half-hour late, and she missed it. Several phone calls later, she decided to get into her car and drive down, and I promised since she'd be using gas money and getting in a good bit later, she didn't have to pay for her half of the day-badge I'd bought her.
This was followed by another crisis! While changing the booth signs, my souvenir copy of the book had been misplaced! I had to go most of the day without having anyone sign it, and so missed out on a bunch of signatures, as I think Saturday was probably our biggest sale day.
Sometime Saturday morning (I believe), I used the "Tracy Hickman bought my book" line on someone who had just come up to the booth, and continued on saying, "I did a happy dance." He said, "Would you buy a happy dance if I bought your book?" I said, without thinking, "Sure!" then added, "Lindsay will, too." Lindsay looked at me in something nearing sheer terror, and I said, "Hey, you did that conga thing yesterday." Sitting in her chair, she started doing the hand motions for the conga line, then stopped mid arm-roll and looked at the customer, saying, "But you have to buy it first." With that preview, the customer actually did buy the book (I don't think he'd even looked beyond the first page at that point), and so I did a little happy dance shuffle and Lindsay did a rendition of "Staying Alive" from her seat at the table.
We have no pride, nor shame.
I got to have lunch with Joe Slucher of Empty Room Studios. We'd met the day before at the White Silver booth, and we had a great time talking about the industry and the studio and the general differences between doing freelance art and freelance writing. Alas, we missed Jake Richmond, also of Empty Room Studios, who was at the Key 20 booth. (He did look for me at White Silver at one point, but it was at one of the moments when I wasn't there, so he left me an advertisement for his new game, Panty Explosion, which has some really inventive mechanics and is a great anime-style game.)
In the afternoon, Keith Baker's name sounded over the loud speaker, so I again skipped out of my booth and headed over to remind him that he'd promised to stop by (and also to have him sign the short story collection I'd had Edward Bolme and Tim Waggoner sign the day before). He also remembered me and said he'd be by right after the signing was over. So I dashed back, and in about a half hour, he and his wife made it over to the White Silver booth, where Mr. Baker also purchased a copy of my book! (I also got to have my picture taken with Bossy the Cow!)
Still later in the day, crises averted! My sister called to let me know she was in the area, and my publisher found the missing signing copy of my book! I decided to go to Author Alley, where I'd heard over the loud-speaker that Keith Baker would be, along with Edward Bolme, Tim Waggoner, Matt Forbeck, and James Wyatt. I've loved Matt Forbeck's work as well (I wrote a very positive review of one of his "Mark of Death" books for Virgil and Beatrice awhile ago), so I was excited to meet him, even though I had nothing for him to sign. I'd been planning to buy Tim Waggoner's new book, Thieves of Blood, anyway, so I thought I'd buy it there. But Author Alley only had the books of the independent authors who had entire booths there, not the books of the writers who were guest signing. So I had Keith Baker sign my signature copy of my novel (he passed it down the row and everyone looked at it), then I dashed back to get my short story collection, which I'd foolishly left at the booth, so James Wyatt could sign it for me. I stopped at the Wizards booth to buy Thieves of Blood, then hurried back to Author Alley (where I was greeted with a rousing cheer, led by Keith Baker, of "Alana's back!" Have I mentioned that I think Keith Baker is incredibly awesome?).
Tim Waggoner signed the new book that I brought over, James Wyatt signed the short story collection, and after something akin to pleading on my part, Matt Forbeck also signed the short story collection, in spite of not having contributed to it. (He wrote, "Next time I'll try to submit a story!")
So, after hanging out a little bit with the Wizards writers, I decided to network with the indie writers who had booths there, and actually recognized a couple of them from google commercials in the links section of my gmail. One of these was Dylan Birtolo, whose novel The Shadow Chaser made the "must have" list; I decided to buy it for my friend Chris, who is serving in the army in Iraq and deserves to have some books sent his way.
A half hour before the dealer hall was to close, my sister called from somewhere in the convention center. I gave directions, but decided it would be easiest just to run and find her after she said she was at the Dip 'n Dots booth. (I had noticed this location before. Mmmmm, Dip 'n Dots.) I made it to the booth and still couldn't see her, until she ran up behind me and called my name, and hurrah! We were united! But the joy wasn't over, as she'd managed to bring my parents with her, a complete surprise to me. It had been months since I'd seen them, so we had a quick reunion as I led them back to the dealer hall. I dragged my sister around so she could get the GenCon experience (in ten minutes) and see the booth and meet the Hickmans and Margaret Weis, and Renae and Jamie Chambers (two of the Margaret Weis Productions staff members who are among my favorite people of all time). I did not, to her dismay, remember to introduce her to Rich Burlew, but time was short, and I had to quickly switch her out of the badge and switch my father into it so he could come in and buy books for practically everyone in my family.
We went out to dinner with all the White Silver gang and had sushi. (This should have been about the time that I realized I was coming down with the flu, as I could only manage to eat four pieces of maki and some edamame.) My sister, who is studying massage therapy, gave my publisher a massage, which I believe has endeared her to everyone at White Silver (except perhaps those who didn't get a full massage…). After dinner, we met Brian Spurling at the hotel and wandered together to catch the shuttle to the White Wolf party, which dragonladyflame had invited me to on Thursday night. It was great fun hanging out with dragonladyflame and her friends and meeting some folks outside of the dealer hall context, but alas, the cloves someone was smoking at the club went straight to my lungs, and after about a half hour, I couldn't breathe. The three of us made a hasty exit (missing Digger from Margaret Weis Productions, much to my dismay; he's a cool guy and it would have been fun to hang out), and while I reminded myself of how to breathe, we wandered back to the convention center to say hi to Mike Meike, who had been judging the D&D Open the entire convention. We ran into Dave Christ, one of the major volunteers for the RPGA, and chatted about the Living Campaigns and how eager we are to get Living Kalamar back into the RPGA room instead of being independent. We also saw Shawn Merwin (who I'd run into already a few times over the convention; not only is Shawn one of my favorite Living Kalamar module writers, he's also the Factionmaster for the Xen'drik Expeditions Crimson Codex faction) and got a few moments to chat before he had to do actual work. After that, my sister and I crashed back at the hotel, as she had to be back on the road at seven a.m. to make it back to work on Sunday.
GenCon Sunday
The last day of the convention was also my last chance to a) play any games, b) buy the stuff I wanted to buy. I managed to satisfy A by playing the Xen'drik Expeditions delve and working my way toward the Adventuring Prodigy campaign card (which allows you to use 28 points instead of 25 when building your character). Though I only got to play once and didn't earn the card for myself, I gave the rest of my generic tickets to Mike Meike (who played the first adventure with me). He managed to procure one of the cards for me, which accomplished one of my goals for the convention.
I did manage to wander around and accomplish B as well, though I spent most of the day at the White Silver booth, trying to convince people that the remaining money in their budget was fate that they were meant to purchase our books. I am now the proud owner of Artesia, Out in the Black (the adventure for the Serenity RPG written by Tracy and Laura Hickman), The Gamers (which I've wanted for years since I first saw it at Origins 2004), and several books to which I contributed.
I intended to buy a paperback from Margaret Weis Productions for my friend Chris, as the last time he was in Iraq I bought him books at a convention and had Margaret Weis sign them. Unfortunately, the newer paperbacks were long sold out, and I'm positive he has most of the older ones, so I wandered to the Wizards booth hoping they had something. Instead, I found Erik Scott de Bie, who I had run into earlier in the week. (The convention staff had misspelled his name any number of times, and he'd told me about having to get his badge changed.) I asked him to tell me about his book, and was hooked enough by his description that I decided Chris would like it (and I'd read it first…)
James Wyatt was also in the Wizards booth, which made up my mind for me on buying his new book. (In the Claws of the Tiger had been on my list to buy once I got home, but when I had the author at the convention to sign it, it moved up in the priority list. I also heard a rumor at the convention that James Wyatt actually does some fun theosophical work in his fantasy novels, and now I'm entirely intrigued, as I am always looking for more good theosophical fiction.)
As far as Sunday events, I finally got to meet Ed Greenwood in person. Years ago when I was first considering submitting work to Wizards of the Coast, I corresponded with him briefly on how to start working in the industry. He was a great help to me, and I kept his e-mail address after leaving the company I was working for so I could get in contact with him should I ever succeed. When I started my mailing list to let folks know about the novel, I put him on it as well. So when I introduced myself, he did indeed know who I was and was glad to meet me! Later, he came over to the White Silver booth to get a copy of the book. He took my hand to kiss it, but instead of doing the kiss-the-back-of-the-hand thing I was expecting, he ran his long beard about halfway up my arm (causing a tremendous blush, for which I was subsequently mocked by everyone at the booth). In fact, I was so flustered (and amused) that I completely forgot to have him sign my signing copy of the book.
Rich Burlew also made it out of his booth on Sunday and managed to come by and also bought a copy of my book. Now there is a picture of Elan inside the back cover, which really makes the whole book happier, I think. (What wouldn't be happier with a picture of Elan added to it?)
So the short of it is that a whole slew of famous people who I admire now own my book. I am thrilled and entirely intimidated…
Sunday night I helped tear down the Kenzer booth and the White Silver booth (as much as I could without getting in the way), then got to spend the evening with my folks. By this time I had finally figured out that I was getting sick, and my mother (as mothers do) took very good care of me and helped me pack. We got to spend part of the day together on Monday as well before they dropped me off at the airport and headed back on their long drive home.
And that, in a really long nut shell, was my GenCon experience. We didn't sell out of books and I didn't have a long line just waiting for my signature, but I think it was a great convention and I feel like I've definitely made good headway into getting the book out there and getting it noticed. We'll see how it goes from here! (It may actually get sold in Sweden, as a bookseller from there was asking how to order it internationally…)
Now I think I'll go back to sleep and try to shake off the flu bug…
GenCon Thursday
I'm a big believer in positive thinking. You envision the best possible result to any given situation and it's more likely to happen. So before the convention, I was doing my very best positive thinking, picturing long lines of people just dying to buy my book.
This, I recognize, is hopelessly optimistic. Perhaps had I actually believed it wholeheartedly, I would have made it so. The fact that I didn't sleep well and was so nervous I was ill leads me to believe that my whole heart was not behind my optimism, and my inner pessimist decided to have a hay day while I was lacking sleep.
Happily, the result landed somewhere in the middle. Thursday wasn't a huge sales day, but we did sell some and we got to talk to a lot of people about how awesome the new game is and how great it is that we've already launched a tie-in novel series to go with it. Along with plugging the books, I had great fun hanging out with Lindsay Archer, who may very well be a soul sister as we gelled incredibly well. (This comes as no real surprise to me, as we are both Browncoats and Whedonites, and there is certainly an obvious kinship there. And it's obvious that we've been on the same wavelength while working on the novel, as her depiction of my characters could have been pulled from my head.)
The morning actually began with my making a delivery run for the Living Kingdoms of Kalamar tables. The Kenzer and Company folks decided that all new players would receive a copy of the campaign sourcebook-a huge present for new players! The first morning, out of a table of seven players, six of them were brand new, so Michael Meike (one of the campaign directors) and I trekked back from the room where the game was being run to the exhibit hall (where only I was allowed in as we were well before hours) back to the game room. We turned the books over to Brian Spurling (the table judge as well as the Conventions Director for Living Kalamar), enjoyed the awed expressions of those receiving them, and headed back toward the exhibit hall. I went inside to get to work helping set up in whatever way I could (most of the work was already done, and hanging from the booth was a large banner featuring the cover image for Into the Reach and my name in large print-egads!).
Then, the doors opened. Thursday is not the busiest day for GenCon, but there were plenty of people rushing into the hall that first morning. We looked very professional and ready to sign. Very professional, I've discovered, does not bring in the crowds. And so I developed my Kaylee-esque line: "Come talk to us! We're fun!"
This had various incarnations, including: "We're interesting!" (which didn't work as often as "fun") and "We're cute!" (which was usually Lindsay's tag line to my pointing out that we were fun and worked about twice as often as my line alone). Hawking this way worked on about a quarter of the people walking by the booth, some of whom actually bought the book thereafter. Several people from the Game Publishers Association stopped by, so I got to meet people I'd before only known as e-mail addresses or screen names. There was much chatting, many people who promised to return on Sunday when they did all their shopping, and generally a good time had by all. In moments that weren't busy, I quickly copied down my script for True Dungeon onto note cards, so I could practice my lines, if only by transferring them from one paper to another.
I also stole the idea I mentioned in this journal before about having everyone sign a copy of my book. People seemed to really like this, and it does make for a really cool souvenir, so it's definitely something I'll do again.
At four o'clock or shortly thereafter, I headed off and back over to the Mariott, where I ate a quick dinner and got ready to get into my drow make-up. We'd been recommended to put a purple layer on and use that as the base, but in my mind, drow are a good bit darker than the purple make up I had. So I did the purple base, then sponged the black make-up on top. This worked brilliantly until I ran my finger along my cheekbone and managed to smear the black make-up all over, losing the textured look. Deciding that I'd basically lost, I blended the black make-up into the purple, turning myself incredibly dark from my face to my dress's neck-line. It didn't look bad necessarily, but I'll put it this way: I was really glad I was going to be in a dark room.
I smuggled myself into the Dungeon through the True Tavern by hiding under a very large cloak loaned by one of the other workers. (No one was to know that there would be a drow in the last room, so keeping it secret was of utmost priority.) Sadly, I couldn't really see behind the cloak draped over me, and had to have one of the security folks lead me over to the back-stage area, where I could finally take the cloak off, readjust my wig, and get a light source and walkie-talkie. (I suspected the walkie-talkie wouldn't be necessary, but ended up being very glad I had it!) And then, the show was on. I wandered into the room where I'd be spending the next three hours and change and watched as one of my drow sisters ran through the script, greeting the adventurers as they came in. (As I discovered when she left, this was Rebecca King from NERO, who I knew from the Game Publishers Association mailing list.) She left after that group went through, and I had a full twelve minutes to prepare my lines and get ready for the next group to come in.
The first several groups had that twelve minute gap, so I assumed this was normal. So when I noticed a lantern outside the curtained door to my room, I assumed that the adventurers were just early, or that one of them was a ghost and had wandered ahead. Finally one of them said, "Are we still waiting?" and I, with great dismay, realized they'd been waiting for half of their twelve minute slot, for me to invite them in! I called them in, gave them an abbreviated version of the monologue they were supposed to get when they entered the room, and called over the walkie-talkie to find out how I should handle the situation, as in six minutes (half the time a normal group had), another group would be entering the room!
Very luckily, the group was extremely clever, and was one of the three groups I had to actually solve the riddle of the room. They didn't solve it using the correct information, but they came up with the right answer for entirely wrong reasons, just before time ran out. Whew! I sent them on and the True Dungeon trouble shooter who had appeared to help me left as I welcomed the next group. (After that incident, I always began my lines with, "Enter, if you are ready!" so that I'd be sure everyone got the full chance to solve the puzzle.)
After my shift was over, earlier than I expected as all the drow were scheduled to overlap, I tried desperately to clean off my make-up, to no avail. So, purple and slightly bruised from the scrubbing, I left the Mariott with the intention of heading home, only to run into dragonladyflame in the food court downstairs. She invited me to sit and hang out with her and several friends, which I was glad to do. So we chatted for awhile until my contacts decided they were quite done with being in my eyes, and I hiked back to my hotel, where I gladly took off the heels I'd worn all day in an effort to save myself from having to bring an extra pair of shoes to the convention center. (This, I realized as I took them off, was the height of foolishness. Better to carry more stuff than be stuck all day in a new pair of heels.)
GenCon Friday
Along with "We're fun!" I added: "Don't walk by… you'll miss it!" This actually worked on one out of five people walking by, and once people got to chatting with us, they usually bought something at the table. Lindsay also joined me in serenading people who walked by, typically singing "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me" to any pirates who walked by, or the theme song from Firefly at the variety of Firefly and Serenity themed shirts. I once sang the Batman theme song as well, which didn't work quite as well. This led to the hook, "We sing and dance on command!" and "You have to buy the books, but the entertainment is free!" I should have realized at some point along the line that being a writer is also like being a carnival barker. Now I know.
I visited with Laura and Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Mike Meike (aforementioned friend and co-director of Living Kalamar) had purchased my book on Friday and taken it over to show it to Laura Hickman, proclaiming me to be up and coming and giving me all manner of praise. So when I began talking to Laura, she was incredibly excited to tell me that I'd had someone over at the booth promoting me the day before! Tracy Hickman ended up coming by the booth later in the day and buying a copy of my book, which I was only too tickled to sign. (He signed my souvenir copy as well, to my eternal delight.) The Hickmans have a podcast, and they may interview me in the future (an honor I'm still not quite sure I believe!). I'll definitely post should something that occur!
This also allowed me to add, "Tracy Hickman bought this book!" to my repertoire of why people should buy it. This worked about 90% of the time for people who were hedging on whether or not to buy the novel.
Later, I popped by Rich Burlew's booth to say hello and had the lovely surprise that he remembered who I was! I promised to stop by when they had a chance to leave the booth. (The Order of the Stick fans created that line that, in my positive thinking, I had imagined for my booth. So perhaps my positive thinking just moved itself over a couple of booths to make itself a reality…)
Still later, I heard over the loud speaker that Tim Waggoner and Edward Bolme (who, I've mentioned before, I greatly admire) were both signing in the Wizards of the Coast booth. I ducked out of my duties, grabbing the Eberron short story collection I'd been reading, which they'd both contributed to. They both cheerfully signed it for me and wished me luck on my own book. I told them they should stop by the booth so that people would think I was important. (Edward Bolme did stop by, but while I was gone! I was crushed. Luckily, I got to see him later. See Saturday.)
I believe this was also Friday, but it might have been Saturday…. I tracked down Mark Smylie of ASP, who I will hopefully be working for/with on a future project. We talked about his game and comic, Artesia, and about the Fuzion system he and his game designers used and retooled to better fit the setting. The comics that the ASP team put out are absolutely amazing as far as the art is concerned, and I'm very much looking forward to having the chance to read the actual comics! Alas, book one of Artesia is sold out, so I'll have to wait for the reprint.
Again, I'm not sure what day this happened, but I got the chance to meet some other New England Browncoats and some Rhode Islanders who will soon be on the New England Browncoats mailing list. The Rhode Islanders actually came back and chatted several times, and promoted the new RPG and the novel for us throughout the convention. Thanks guys! (Another convention patron actually showed some potential publishers I'd met my name in the credits for the RPG, promoting me as well as the books. You get a big thank you as well!)
In the evening, Brian Spurling and I found the Q'doba (hurrah!), then headed back to the convention center to catch the Ennies award ceremony. (We'd already missed a chunk of it, alas, but it made the decision of whether to go to the Ennies or whether to see The Gamers: Dorkness Rising quite easy, as missing the first half of an awards ceremony is one thing where missing the first half of a movie is entirely another.) Serenity RPG won for production values, Dog Soul's Baba Yaga won for best e-book, and Paizo Publishing and Green Ronin seemed to split the rest between them. I did finally get to meet the DogSoul people, which was pretty nifty, and it'll be fun to see if the win will increase sales of the title I did for them, as it's in the same series as Baba Yaga.
GenCon Saturday
Crisis! My sister was supposed to catch a bus from Chicago to Indianapolis, but the city bus that was supposed to get her to the station on time ran more than a half-hour late, and she missed it. Several phone calls later, she decided to get into her car and drive down, and I promised since she'd be using gas money and getting in a good bit later, she didn't have to pay for her half of the day-badge I'd bought her.
This was followed by another crisis! While changing the booth signs, my souvenir copy of the book had been misplaced! I had to go most of the day without having anyone sign it, and so missed out on a bunch of signatures, as I think Saturday was probably our biggest sale day.
Sometime Saturday morning (I believe), I used the "Tracy Hickman bought my book" line on someone who had just come up to the booth, and continued on saying, "I did a happy dance." He said, "Would you buy a happy dance if I bought your book?" I said, without thinking, "Sure!" then added, "Lindsay will, too." Lindsay looked at me in something nearing sheer terror, and I said, "Hey, you did that conga thing yesterday." Sitting in her chair, she started doing the hand motions for the conga line, then stopped mid arm-roll and looked at the customer, saying, "But you have to buy it first." With that preview, the customer actually did buy the book (I don't think he'd even looked beyond the first page at that point), and so I did a little happy dance shuffle and Lindsay did a rendition of "Staying Alive" from her seat at the table.
We have no pride, nor shame.
I got to have lunch with Joe Slucher of Empty Room Studios. We'd met the day before at the White Silver booth, and we had a great time talking about the industry and the studio and the general differences between doing freelance art and freelance writing. Alas, we missed Jake Richmond, also of Empty Room Studios, who was at the Key 20 booth. (He did look for me at White Silver at one point, but it was at one of the moments when I wasn't there, so he left me an advertisement for his new game, Panty Explosion, which has some really inventive mechanics and is a great anime-style game.)
In the afternoon, Keith Baker's name sounded over the loud speaker, so I again skipped out of my booth and headed over to remind him that he'd promised to stop by (and also to have him sign the short story collection I'd had Edward Bolme and Tim Waggoner sign the day before). He also remembered me and said he'd be by right after the signing was over. So I dashed back, and in about a half hour, he and his wife made it over to the White Silver booth, where Mr. Baker also purchased a copy of my book! (I also got to have my picture taken with Bossy the Cow!)
Still later in the day, crises averted! My sister called to let me know she was in the area, and my publisher found the missing signing copy of my book! I decided to go to Author Alley, where I'd heard over the loud-speaker that Keith Baker would be, along with Edward Bolme, Tim Waggoner, Matt Forbeck, and James Wyatt. I've loved Matt Forbeck's work as well (I wrote a very positive review of one of his "Mark of Death" books for Virgil and Beatrice awhile ago), so I was excited to meet him, even though I had nothing for him to sign. I'd been planning to buy Tim Waggoner's new book, Thieves of Blood, anyway, so I thought I'd buy it there. But Author Alley only had the books of the independent authors who had entire booths there, not the books of the writers who were guest signing. So I had Keith Baker sign my signature copy of my novel (he passed it down the row and everyone looked at it), then I dashed back to get my short story collection, which I'd foolishly left at the booth, so James Wyatt could sign it for me. I stopped at the Wizards booth to buy Thieves of Blood, then hurried back to Author Alley (where I was greeted with a rousing cheer, led by Keith Baker, of "Alana's back!" Have I mentioned that I think Keith Baker is incredibly awesome?).
Tim Waggoner signed the new book that I brought over, James Wyatt signed the short story collection, and after something akin to pleading on my part, Matt Forbeck also signed the short story collection, in spite of not having contributed to it. (He wrote, "Next time I'll try to submit a story!")
So, after hanging out a little bit with the Wizards writers, I decided to network with the indie writers who had booths there, and actually recognized a couple of them from google commercials in the links section of my gmail. One of these was Dylan Birtolo, whose novel The Shadow Chaser made the "must have" list; I decided to buy it for my friend Chris, who is serving in the army in Iraq and deserves to have some books sent his way.
A half hour before the dealer hall was to close, my sister called from somewhere in the convention center. I gave directions, but decided it would be easiest just to run and find her after she said she was at the Dip 'n Dots booth. (I had noticed this location before. Mmmmm, Dip 'n Dots.) I made it to the booth and still couldn't see her, until she ran up behind me and called my name, and hurrah! We were united! But the joy wasn't over, as she'd managed to bring my parents with her, a complete surprise to me. It had been months since I'd seen them, so we had a quick reunion as I led them back to the dealer hall. I dragged my sister around so she could get the GenCon experience (in ten minutes) and see the booth and meet the Hickmans and Margaret Weis, and Renae and Jamie Chambers (two of the Margaret Weis Productions staff members who are among my favorite people of all time). I did not, to her dismay, remember to introduce her to Rich Burlew, but time was short, and I had to quickly switch her out of the badge and switch my father into it so he could come in and buy books for practically everyone in my family.
We went out to dinner with all the White Silver gang and had sushi. (This should have been about the time that I realized I was coming down with the flu, as I could only manage to eat four pieces of maki and some edamame.) My sister, who is studying massage therapy, gave my publisher a massage, which I believe has endeared her to everyone at White Silver (except perhaps those who didn't get a full massage…). After dinner, we met Brian Spurling at the hotel and wandered together to catch the shuttle to the White Wolf party, which dragonladyflame had invited me to on Thursday night. It was great fun hanging out with dragonladyflame and her friends and meeting some folks outside of the dealer hall context, but alas, the cloves someone was smoking at the club went straight to my lungs, and after about a half hour, I couldn't breathe. The three of us made a hasty exit (missing Digger from Margaret Weis Productions, much to my dismay; he's a cool guy and it would have been fun to hang out), and while I reminded myself of how to breathe, we wandered back to the convention center to say hi to Mike Meike, who had been judging the D&D Open the entire convention. We ran into Dave Christ, one of the major volunteers for the RPGA, and chatted about the Living Campaigns and how eager we are to get Living Kalamar back into the RPGA room instead of being independent. We also saw Shawn Merwin (who I'd run into already a few times over the convention; not only is Shawn one of my favorite Living Kalamar module writers, he's also the Factionmaster for the Xen'drik Expeditions Crimson Codex faction) and got a few moments to chat before he had to do actual work. After that, my sister and I crashed back at the hotel, as she had to be back on the road at seven a.m. to make it back to work on Sunday.
GenCon Sunday
The last day of the convention was also my last chance to a) play any games, b) buy the stuff I wanted to buy. I managed to satisfy A by playing the Xen'drik Expeditions delve and working my way toward the Adventuring Prodigy campaign card (which allows you to use 28 points instead of 25 when building your character). Though I only got to play once and didn't earn the card for myself, I gave the rest of my generic tickets to Mike Meike (who played the first adventure with me). He managed to procure one of the cards for me, which accomplished one of my goals for the convention.
I did manage to wander around and accomplish B as well, though I spent most of the day at the White Silver booth, trying to convince people that the remaining money in their budget was fate that they were meant to purchase our books. I am now the proud owner of Artesia, Out in the Black (the adventure for the Serenity RPG written by Tracy and Laura Hickman), The Gamers (which I've wanted for years since I first saw it at Origins 2004), and several books to which I contributed.
I intended to buy a paperback from Margaret Weis Productions for my friend Chris, as the last time he was in Iraq I bought him books at a convention and had Margaret Weis sign them. Unfortunately, the newer paperbacks were long sold out, and I'm positive he has most of the older ones, so I wandered to the Wizards booth hoping they had something. Instead, I found Erik Scott de Bie, who I had run into earlier in the week. (The convention staff had misspelled his name any number of times, and he'd told me about having to get his badge changed.) I asked him to tell me about his book, and was hooked enough by his description that I decided Chris would like it (and I'd read it first…)
James Wyatt was also in the Wizards booth, which made up my mind for me on buying his new book. (In the Claws of the Tiger had been on my list to buy once I got home, but when I had the author at the convention to sign it, it moved up in the priority list. I also heard a rumor at the convention that James Wyatt actually does some fun theosophical work in his fantasy novels, and now I'm entirely intrigued, as I am always looking for more good theosophical fiction.)
As far as Sunday events, I finally got to meet Ed Greenwood in person. Years ago when I was first considering submitting work to Wizards of the Coast, I corresponded with him briefly on how to start working in the industry. He was a great help to me, and I kept his e-mail address after leaving the company I was working for so I could get in contact with him should I ever succeed. When I started my mailing list to let folks know about the novel, I put him on it as well. So when I introduced myself, he did indeed know who I was and was glad to meet me! Later, he came over to the White Silver booth to get a copy of the book. He took my hand to kiss it, but instead of doing the kiss-the-back-of-the-hand thing I was expecting, he ran his long beard about halfway up my arm (causing a tremendous blush, for which I was subsequently mocked by everyone at the booth). In fact, I was so flustered (and amused) that I completely forgot to have him sign my signing copy of the book.
Rich Burlew also made it out of his booth on Sunday and managed to come by and also bought a copy of my book. Now there is a picture of Elan inside the back cover, which really makes the whole book happier, I think. (What wouldn't be happier with a picture of Elan added to it?)
So the short of it is that a whole slew of famous people who I admire now own my book. I am thrilled and entirely intimidated…
Sunday night I helped tear down the Kenzer booth and the White Silver booth (as much as I could without getting in the way), then got to spend the evening with my folks. By this time I had finally figured out that I was getting sick, and my mother (as mothers do) took very good care of me and helped me pack. We got to spend part of the day together on Monday as well before they dropped me off at the airport and headed back on their long drive home.
And that, in a really long nut shell, was my GenCon experience. We didn't sell out of books and I didn't have a long line just waiting for my signature, but I think it was a great convention and I feel like I've definitely made good headway into getting the book out there and getting it noticed. We'll see how it goes from here! (It may actually get sold in Sweden, as a bookseller from there was asking how to order it internationally…)
Now I think I'll go back to sleep and try to shake off the flu bug…