Note: the reference to bringing a fifth of Jack Daniels as part of my pre-con checklist was a joke. For the record, I barely even drink the stuff ;)
ConFusion Day 1:

I got of to a GREAT start on Friday. I hadn’t even left Lansing yet when stuff started to hit the fan. First, I’m getting ready to leave and my map/directions to the hotel flew out of my hands. This resulted in a Moby Dick-esque chase around my parking lot that lasted nearly six minutes. What made the scene even more silly was that I carrying a cup of coffee (with no lid) while running around. Hilarious.

After I finally got on the road, I was nearly run off the road by a Budweiser truck trying to merge off the highway as I was trying to merge on. So I missed my merger and pulled into a medical center down the road.

Much to my surprise, I happened to pull into the EXIT driveway. After surviving the confused looks from those trying to leave, I pulled into the parking lot and turned myself around to get back on the highway. Later, when I was near Dansville I realized that all of the cash I had been saving for the Con was still back at my apartment in Lansing.

I made a quick stop at a truck stop and hit up an ATM. Problem solved, but I was still mad at myself for being so forgetful. It could have been worse though, at least that was a problem I could easily fix without having to drive back to Lansing.

Things got better once I made it to the hotel. I met up with Dean and after I checked in I helped him and his gang set up the Art Show. I got to meet Guest of Honor Carl Lundgren and even helped him set up his display. Very neat. After that I got cleaned up and came down to put my time in on Artist Alley where I shared a table with illustrator Steve Brown. I didn’t have any buyers but I had people ask about the book and take a few of my free mini-pins. The pins have turned out to be a really great idea: people are glad to take them from my table and I also put some out around other places in the hotel, and they go pretty quick.

I left the Art Show around 9 so I could hit up the ConSuite and sample the tasty chili. After that I explored the rest of the Con. I ran into Freon and Jim Hines. I chatted with Jim for a while, this was our first time meeting but we’ve been talking via the internet for a few months now. The first thing he said was “I didn’t recognize you without your Jayne Hat,” as he is accustom to seeing my Livejournal avatar with the picture of me wearing it.  We discussed the signing we’re doing in March at Bestsellers Books & Coffee (along with artists Dean Stahl and Adam Talley) and other writing stuff and he introduced me to some other writers. He also owns the most amazing leather jacket I’ve ever seen in my life: this thing is full of compartments and pockets – very handy. It is like if Batman made a leather jacket for Fonzie.

I wandered around the hotel, hitting up the MST3K room party and the Futurama room party - where they had Popplers (popcorn chicken), Slurm (Faygo Moon Mist) and Chicken a la Bender (salted chicken).


Welcome to the Food of Tomorrow!


Slurm!


a fellow con-goer.

I also hung around the first floor and hit up the dance party – and attended the traditional Time Warp dance at midnight. I finally called it a night sometime around two or three in the morning after hanging out in the ConSuite for a little while.

 ConFusion – Day Two

Had a hard time sleeping last night, don’t know why. Probably all the fun I had the night before – or all the junk food I ate all day Friday (including a whole bag of Red Vines). Managed to pull myself out of bed in time to hit up the ConSuite’s pancake breakfast, which was good because I was very hungry. I put in my long shift in the Art Show room, holding down the fort in Artist Alley with Steve Brown once again – we talked about all kinds of science fiction & movie stuff.

I got to watch Carl Lundgren be interviewed by the guys from Cult Pop. That was fun, I even talked shop with a couple of the camera guys.

I snuck out at one point and made it over to the Dealer’s Room. I bought a copy of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and chatted with George Mcvey from Hamtramck Idea Men comics, who has been working in comic books since the 1960s and use to do work for “the Big Two.”

I also stopped by the Elder Signs Press table and chatted with William Jones (we were on the H.P. Lovecraft panel together at ConClave in October) and I bought a copy of High Seas Cthullu (which I had it signed by William and a few of the contributors who were around). I got back to Artist Alley and stayed there until 5:30, when I took off for dinner. I met up with some writing friends and Jim, an editor for Tor Books at a local restaurant (Anita’s Kitchen – great food). It was fun. Jim told me I need to send copies of The Magic of Eyri out to newspapers, magazines or anyone I think would like the book in hopes of getting some press and/or blurbs. He told me I should have done that back in May when the book was published, but to still give it a shot (he also had a great story about meeting Sir Edmund Hillary many years ago).

Back at the hotel, I got ready for the wackiness that is Saturday at the Con – a lot of people don’t even get to the Con until Saturday, so it is the busiest day. The Masquerade was in full swing, much to the surprise of the non-Convention hotel guests (lovingly referred to as either Muggles or Mundanes by the Con-goers). We had some issues with the non-convention guests, specifically this group of teenage hockey players. They kept trying to sneak into the various convention rooms (Dealer Room, Game Room and Art Show) without badges – which is a no-no. Dean had to chase a gaggle of the kids out of the Art Show, who were being kind of nasty.

Saw some great costumes – including a pair dressed as Kiff and Bender from Futurama.

Kiff and Bender from Futurama

Another highlight was the Roving Pirate Party: these guys and gals had a movable bar shaped like a pirate ship and they traveled all around the hotel, making people walk the plank, suffer the lash or eat a lime. Fun stuff. I attended the obligatory Time Warp dance at midnight (I apologize to all of those who had to watch me dance), which was a hoot as always and after that wandered to and from the ConSuite to other room parties.

Roving Pirate Party


Roving Party Party

Made some new friends on Saturday, which made the evening more entertaining than Friday, when I was mostly wandering around by myself. Watched a bit of Bender’s Big Score back a the Futurama Room Party and after killing some time at the ConSuite, hung out in the Game Room and played a couple of fun games.


Bender's big costume.

I’m surprised I was even functioning at this point, let alone being with-it enough to play strategic games because it was after 3 A.M. and I was very exhausted. I don’t remember the name of the first game, but you had pick random tiles out of the box and try to form cities, roads, etc. It reminded me of Settlers of Catan – but this game only took about a half-hour.


Me and my adoring public in the Game Room. NOTE: This is a really horrible picture of me. Yikes.  I was really tired.

Next, I played a great game called Mad Scientist University – it was a story telling game and similar to Apples to Apples. You’re given a random card with a random object (“Jump Rope”, “Stuffed Animals”, “Glow in the Dark Stickers”, etc) and the player who acts as Judge for the round flips over a scenario card (“Win an Election,” “Solve Energy Crisis”, “Take Over the World,” etc) and you have to explain how you’d use your item to win that scenario. Everyone makes their pitch and the judge picks the best/their favorite. It was good, silly fun.

After that I capped off the evening(morning) by watching some Firefly until I fell asleep around six in the morning.

ConFusion – Day 3.

I managed to get up with enough time to get ready before check out at noon. Didn’t get too much sleep again Saturday night/Sunday morning, but no regrets here. After checking out, I set up camp once again in Artist Alley. Had people ask about the book and plenty of people took my mini-pins and promo cards – ended up selling a copy too. I even traded one to Steve Brown for a sketch. It was fun to watch everyone leave the hotel and pass by the Art Show room.


Me in Artist Alley.

Three o’Clock finally came, and with it the end of the Art Show. I packed up all my stuff, said my good-byes and thank-yous and rode off into the sunset (and by that I mean I met up with my parents for dinner at a nearby Chili’s).

ConFusion – Epilogue

I sold two copies of the Magic of Eyri (well, traded one – but I was thinking of buying a sketch from Steve anyway, so it evened out). Made some great connections and some new friends. I feel like I got more of my money’s worth this time around than at ConClave. I didn’t really go to any programs, but I think I had more fun because I was more comfortable and I actually knew people this time around.

Being in Artist Alley may not have been the best location for selling books, but I think not being on panels or anything contributed to my lower sales too. The Dealer’s Room is the place to be selling books, but that’s okay – I still had a fun time in Artist Alley and actually I had more of a captive audience because it was just Steve and I. A bunch of people talked to me about my book, so it was worthwhile to be there.
I should have left more mini-pins out at other places in the hotel, that seemed to work when I did: they’d always be gone when I got back. I have some left, but that means I’ll have them for the signing in March and/or Penguicon.

I had a blast – but I was exhausted last night when I finally got home. I’m really glad I had today off from work because of Martin Luther King Day, I slept for like eleven hours – and I really needed it.