A bit of an update and Origins Report

[Kevin]

As always, it seems we are behind deadline and working hard to catch up as we juggle a dozen different things at once.

As of this morning, we’ve sold 1659 A Megaverse United prints!

We are busy working on The Rifter #35 (it’s gonna be something special!) and the new Summer Catalog while plotting scheduling for the next few reprints (Western Empire, Powers Unlimited 2 and Rifts® Spirit West).

Today was actually quite productive. Wayne and I got our latest color advertisement out to ICV2's Game Magazine (Gen Con issue), an article for Games Quarterly Magazine, and a number of e-mails and correspondences as well as the afore mentioned work on The Rifter #35. I also chatted with Carmen Bellaire about corrections and errata for Powers Unlimited 2, spoke with Thom Bartold, and met with Jeff Hansen for about a half hour. Of course, my day started at 7:30 A.M. and I’m writing this, still at work, around 11:30 P.M. It’s been a long, but productive day. Poor Wayne clocked out around 9:30 P.M. (puh, only a 12 hour day) and Alex and Julius went home around 11:00 P.M.

We are all excited about Rifts® Madhaven which should ship next week, Friday, and The Rifter #35. This swimsuit issue will have something like 40 pin-up pages, a lot of great artwork, some surprises and fun. There’s also a bunch of news, updates and info in this issue.

I was gonna have a page or two hyping up the Christmas in July Super-Collector’s Grab Bag, but we’ll probably only have enough artwork for 140-170 of them, and we have already sold 50 in the last five hours!!! At this rate, we’ll run out by the end of next week! I’m trying to dig up more artwork outta my own dwindling collection to push the number available to 200, but I don’t know. We may also get a couple of other artists to donate some additional artwork.

PLEASE NOTE: We are still waiting for the donated artwork from Ramon Perez and Kent Burles, as well as the prints from John Zeleznik -- all of which are in transit and should arrive by the middle of next week (around July 12), so be patient. It may take us a week or two to process the initial orders, but don’t wait as they are going fast. Oh, and thanks for such an exuberant response! We’ll try to make sure the Grab Bags are something special for everyone!

Origins 2006 Convention Report

There’s not a lot to talk about. Origins seemed a little quieter than usual this year, but then that might have been because we were off to one side toward the back of the hall. We made a couple grand profit thanks to getting the booth for free (thanks GAMA folks), but nothing to write home about.

People were nice and I had fun talking with a number of fans, but there were periods of boredom when nobody was around. We had the good fortune to be across from Margaret Weiss Publishing. Jamie Chambers and his adorable (and incorrigible) wife, Renae, were a lot of fun to hang around with, chat and be silly. Both are good people, we traded product and Jamie won the People’s Choice Origin Award for his Serenity sci-fi RPG. Congrats!

Chris McKenna from Dragonfire Laser Crafts (the folks who made our laser etched glasses and some wooden pins for convention sales) helped make the con fun by dropped by regularly to chat and clown around. We also ate dinner with him and crew one evening at the food court. They are all good people, and Chris is a lot of fun.

I saw old pals like Connie and Roger Bechtel, Jolly Blackburn, Dave Kenzer, Don Reents (Chessex Dice), John Zinser (AEG), and others, but I didn’t get a chance to hang around with them much. Truth be told, I was pretty tired before I even arrived at Origins and I tried to relax and rest as much as I could, especially after being on my feet after 8 hours at the booth. We made a few new contacts and friends, and generally had a nice time.

My gaming buddy, Doug Lamberson, was a big help at the booth, and so was freelance writer, Jason Marker. Both were fun and pleasant to be around, and not afraid of a little hard work.

Well, that’s it for now.

Thanks for listening to my muttering and murmurs.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
President and Night Owl