Murmurings from a madman

[Kevin]

Things to do

Today, August 31, 2006, was a weird day. It started with me making a list of something like 20 things to do. Answer e-mail, review the Robotech contract, assign artwork for the next 3-4 books, file copyrights on X, Y & Z, send out contracts, do Ubercon cover, write a book or two, etcetera, etcetera.

What actually got done

Somehow, very little got done from that list! I did correspondences, e-mails, and some other things, but my attention was pulled in an unexpected direction -- cleaning and sorting.

So many things have fallen through the cracks or gotten shoved aside in the last year as we struggled to keep Palladium afloat, that there is just tons and tons to do. Even simple things like cleaning and reorganizing. I ended up spending 9 hours shuffling papers and cleaning the office (parts of which had turned into a nightmare of jumbled paperwork, old magazines and junk). Hey, we have 2500 square feet of offices, so that's a lot. I also orchestrated the cleaning of the mail room, parts of the warehouse, and rearrange one of the offices with Wayne. Alex, Julius and Margaret spent 3 hours cleaning and there’s still plenty to do. Gosh, I don’t even wanna think about reorganizing the production area upstairs (and boy does it need it).

A New Volunteer starts next week

This wasn’t some whim out of the blue, it was inspired, in part, by the fact that we had to make space for yet another unpaid, volunteer. This time it’s an old pal, Tony Falzon, who will be working to expand Palladium’s presence in the mass market and other retail venues and means of distribution. Tony was Palladium’s very first salesperson back in the Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy/Weapon Book days, and he volunteered to give us hand, free of charge, for the next few months. What a pal. I still can’t believe how generous everyone is being to help get Palladium back on its feet.

More toys on my Ebay store

Alex Marciniszyn, who manage my Ebay store for me, will be putting up another 60-80 toys over next few days. Batman, X-men, Avengers, other superhero toys and odds and ends. If yer into toys, check ‘em out, there are some cool items. We’ve yet to put up Star Wars stuff yet.

Deadlines, deadlines . . .

It’s 11:15 PM Thursday and one of those 17 hour days that still isn’t enough to get caught up. With two trade shows over the next week, I won’t be able to dive back into Rifts® Sourcebook One till after September 12 (it's gonna have a lot of new data). Meanwhile, Wayne is busy putting together and editing The Rifter #36. Alex has been helping with additional editing, Carl Gleba just finished the third book in the Minion War series, John Zeleznik is almost finished laying out Rifts® & The Megaverse art book, and I expect to get Rifts® D-Bees of North America any day now. So our Fall line up is looking good if I can ever find the time to finish writing, reworking and editing them all!

My plans for Labor Day Weekend . . .

I wish I was taking a nice, long 4-5 day weekend, but I’ll be working thru Saturday in the futile hope of catching up at least a little. Hope our online sales stay strong throughout the weekend. Hard to say during holidays.

Sunday and Monday however, will be resting at home with my sweetheart, Kathy, doing a little yard work, reading and maybe catching a movie. Hey, two days off sounds wonderful.

After the weekend . . .

Tuesday is back to work and prepping for the trade show. Wednesday is driving up to Madison, Wisconsin for the ACD Games Day trade show. Wayne and I hope to have dinner with our pal, Teresa Mead, and then tackle the trade show Thursday and Friday, driving back home Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

Then we fly out to the Alliance/Diamond Comics trade show in Baltimore the following Monday for another 3-days of networking and selling. Busy, busy, and you wonder why books are late.

There’s probably more to talk about, like how I've already been lining up guests for the 2007 Palladium Open House/gaming con, but my mind is turning to mush at this point.

Thanks for listening to mutterings and murmurings.

Kevin Siembieda
President and stuff