I'ts been a loooong week

[Kevin]

What a week.

I was afraid we couldn't get D-Bees of North America done by Friday, but we did it. The book looks freakin’ great and I know people will enjoy this bad boy. It should ship around April 27, 2007 give or take a day or two. Which, of course, means we will have it in time for the Palladium Open House.

Now, I’m about to start working on the stats and source material for Rifts® Machinations of Doom. This is another tight deadline, but if we get the book done by next Friday, we’ll have it in time for the Palladium Open House, May 4, 5, & 6.

My Birthday was Monday, April 2, Bill Bailey’s was April 5, Julius Rosenstein's is today, April 7, so we celebrated them all yesterday, Friday, April 6th. Bill passed on the celebration, but I saw him this morning and gave him a couple of gifts, including the Death of Captain America (Bill’s an old comic book buff). I could only get him the second printing, but he was pleased to get a copy at all.

Once D-Bees of North America was finished, my mind and body just all kinda ground down to a crawl. I think the events of the past week, long work days and sleepless nights finally caught up with me. I was afraid I’d be too pooped out to enjoy the birthday party, but after I showered and shaved, and everyone started to arrive, I perked right up. We had a blast. Mostly just talking and relaxing, but it was really a nice time.

Kathy Simmons (my sweetheart) started the evening off with a bang by cooking up a storm. I couldn't believe my eyes: A fabulous sea food pasta, meatballs, cheese and spinach stuffed shells, breaded chicken, and an array of chopped fruit, plus birthday cake, of course. Everyone was surprised, impressed and dug in for seconds and thirds! Yum. I told her she shouldn’t have gone through all the trouble, but she said she enjoyed it and that it was a nice release for her after the funeral for Cindy.

The rest of the evening was pleasantries with about a dozen close friends, including, of course, the guys from work. Our friends, Mike and Diane, may be moving to Florida (Mike can’t find work here in Michigan) and another friend, Thom, just lost the job he loved the day before due to budget cutbacks (10% of the company was let go). For Kathy and I, the funeral of Cindy Bailey was still fresh, yet somehow the evening was all laugh, talk and pleasantries. It was a wonderful evening that probably would have gone into the wee hours of the morning, except that my second wind blew out around 11:30 PM and I tossed everybody out to get some much desired sleep.

Now, I’m back at the office trying to get caught up on odds and ends, so I can dive into Machinations of Doom. Next is Hades (it's going to be epic), the Open House (so excited), Dyval (another great book) and . . . gosh, all kinds of books you are going to enjoy. I sabotaged myself by talking on the phone for two-hours with my pal, Shawn Hall, so I better get to work.

Keep the faith.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist, and Old Guy (51 years old! How did that happen?)
© copyright April 7, 2007