Madhaven, Log Jam & Origins

[Kevin]

Rifts Madhaven

Madhaven is finally done, at the printers and is nothing short of fantastic! I think you guys and gals will love it. Unfortunately, the books suffered from “first time writer syndrome” (nothing uncommon there) and had a lot of ideas that needed to be expanded upon and retooled. That required me to spend the last three weeks rewriting, tweaking and retooling things for final publication. Its to be expected, but it delayed getting Madhaven out sooner. Sorry.

Ah, but I can honestly say you have never seen a World Book (or a place) quite like Madhaven. The authors, Brandon Aten and Taylor White, did a fantastic job with one great idea after another and making Madhaven unique, different and scary. Really scary. Check it out. And you count on seeing much, much more from these to talented writers.

Where does the time go?

I can’t believe it’s the end of June and we’re getting ready to roll out to Origins (and I mean any minute now).

Things have been insanely hectic. Ask Brandon Aten/Galactus Kid and maybe he can explain in greater detail.

Part of it has been the Crisis of Treachery and everything involved with it. Even the good stuff – you guys and gals coming to our rescue and buying a ton of product, the Megaverse United prints and a million well wishes – stole two months of our time. Two great, valuable months that have given us a shot in the arm, but two months (actually to date, 3 months) without any new RPG books. Not good.

Another part of the problem is, we’re all a bit overwhelmed. We don’t have enough people to handle the work load, and that’s compounded by not having the money to hire anybody. We’re taking advantage of unpaid interns (our new intern, Margaret, starts July 11).

The future. Another is we are spending and incredible amount of time on product and things for the future (as in the next 3-12 months). Some awesome stuff too if we can pull it all off, but prevents us getting books out NOW, darn it.

A Log-jam of product

That means we are sitting on a pile o’ books waiting to get finished and sent to the printer!

I hope the log jam of titles is about to end! Madhaven is at the printer and should ship around July 13-14, 2006.

Madhaven should be quickly followed by The Rifter #35 our Swimsuit Spectacular with something like 30+ great swimsuit pin-up illustrations you are gonna love. This issue is definitely going to be an instant collector’s item.

Powers Unlimited 3 will be next (end of July or beginning of August), followed by the re-release of Rifts® Spirit West and The Western Empire Palladium Fantasy. ALL by August 7, in time for Gen Con.

Unfortunately, it will mean less of me being around online as I work insane hours for the next five weeks! I hope you understand

Origins 2006

Don’t know if Origins will be big for us, or a bust. I’m praying for big, but we never really seem to do well at Origins, and we don’t have any new product.

Well, we do have a surprise new T-Shirt that we’ll be offering online in July or August (sneak peak at Origins), and new wooden pins/badges, and photocopies of Madhaven (autographed and for sale) and we will have all our backstock titles, some original artwork, the Megaverse United prints and other prints.

Of course, Wayne and I look forward to see a lot old and new friends at the convention. That’s always the best part, laughing and talking and signing autographs for the fans, exchanging ideas and having fun.
Hope to see a bunch o’ you there.

Oh, oh, getting dirty looks. It's noon and we must leave for Origins!

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda