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Over the weekend I attended World Fantasy.  I was actually dreading this convention.  I have a hard time with large groups of people I don’t know.  I don’t like that about myself, so I’m trying to change it.  In the month before, I’d been practicing starting and maintaining conversations with strangers, but I knew my skills weren’t where I wanted them to be, and the whole thing made me extremely anxious. 

On Thursday night we went to the con for a couple of hours.  I had a couple of very brief conversations, but was very, very tired.  When I went to bed that night I made a list of all the things I’d rather do than have to talk to strangers for two days straight.  Tooth drilling and pelvic exams were both on the list. 

And then on Friday something magical happened.  I arrived at the con.  I started talking to the people who were talking to people I knew.  I got to know them.  Then I walked around with some of them and met other people they knew.  My group of con friends spiralled out and out until there were a large number of people I was comfortable talking with.  Even the strangers didn’t seem so scary anymore.  

At dinner on Saturday night I discovered that my agency is full of people who remind me (hilariously) of the guys at the Keep, both in temperament and interests.  I fell into a familiar rhythm of joking and geekery.  By the time we were ready to go home on Sunday morning I was exhausted, but still wished I could spend a couple more days–of all things–talking to strangers, and the awesome people I had met.   

Now I want to do it again, which is not something I ever thought I’d say about a con.  I don’t expect it’ll be super easy for me next time, but this success gives me confidence.  And that’s  good thing. 

A longer post is coming later, but I’ve been waiting forever to announce that I’ve signed with a new agent.  I have a personal policy about not announcing things on the internet until ink is dry, but it is now.  I’m working with Eddie Schneider at JABberwocky.  So yay! 

I’m leaving town tomorrow to go to World Fantasy in San Jose.  It’s actually at the same hotel as my high school winter ball.  Good times. 

I wish I’d had half a second to think about the convention and prepare for it…but I’ve been running around like crazy all month, with this week speeding up into a crescendo of busyness.  I have no idea what’s going on at the con, besides the dinner I’m going to on Saturday night.  I’m not going to have time to find out tonight, as I’m running off to shoot aliens with friends.  This is necessary, as I badly need to wind down before I wind all back up again for the weekend.

We have one Schlock left for sale.  After that, we’ll have a reorder coming in a couple of weeks.  We didn’t even do any of the advertising stuff we usually do for this mini.  By the time I was ready to make web banners and forum banners and write a product pitch, our inbox was already full of orders.  There just wasn’t time.  I’ll get it all up for the next run, though.  We’re ordering quite a lot of them, in hopes of being able to keep them in stock for several months at least.

This weekend is going to be crazy.  My list of Things To Do for next week is already a mile long.  I am tired and frazzled and the end of the busy is afar off.  But I’m busy doing things I love (and things that I don’t like but are related to things I love) and so I’m happy.  It’s good to be happy underneath the incredible frazzle of busy. 

It is snowing.

Also I am running around like a crazy person trying to get a million things done.

This is due, in part, to our release of the Schlock mini yesterday. Schlock was sculpted by Melissa Mayhew, and is (obviously) inspired by Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler. We sold 2/3 of our inventory in the first 24 hours. Good thing we already have a reorder coming.

 

Sometimes I wish other people would just do their jobs and do them right.

That is all.

I have spent most of the last two months working on projects for Garden Ninja. I finished the accounting project earlier this week (thank goodness). I’ve been working on painting better so that I can pitch in when Drew has too much business to handle alone. I’ve just finished all the minis I had lined up to paint. I wanted to be done by the end of October, so I finished a week early. That’s good, because at the beginning of November I’ll be headed back to writing again. (Can’t say I’ve missed it. The break’s been very nice.)

Anyway, here are some of the projects I’ve been working on. (A couple of the minis in the group shots are Drew’s, but most of them are mine.

Many minis here.