LTUE XXV: Day One
The first day of Life, The Universe, and Everything is typically slow, and this year was no exception. That didn't stop us from having a pretty good time, though. I set up shop in the registration area, got a vendor number so all my stuff can be sold through the BYU Bookstore's register, and hung out with friends.
Kevin and Karen came in from Albuquerque -- I met them for the first time at Chimaeracon, and then again at WorldCon in Los Angeles. Lots of local friends, peers, and pros were on-hand as well. These events are as more like family reunions as anything else.
I drew a few pictures, sold a few pictures, (including two to my friend Mark who hearkens back to Sarasota twenty years ago -- thanks Mark!) and drew and decided NOT to sell the picture above -- not until I'd taken it home and scanned it. Yeah, I'll probably use it in the margins of Book VI when we go to print sometime in 2009(?).
(By the way, if you haven't already gotten a book, you might not know that they've got lots of fun marker-pieces like that one in the margins.)
I had to bail early, cutting short my participation in a fascinating green-room discussion of "how to get away with a murder" (note: we'd only execute these plans if the victim needed to be dead more than we needed our own souls). Why the early out? I had a dinner date with John Ringo.
John isn't one of the LTUE guests this year. He just happens to be out at one of the local resorts skiing with his daughters, and told me he'd be in town. Cool! Sandra and I drove out to the lodge, John picked a very nice steakhouse, and we ate like we were on an expense account. John and I talked business for a little bit (BOOM! We ARE on an expense account!) and regaled each other with convention horror stories, most of which are unfit to print here.
All told, it was a full day well-spent. Tomorrow is my main address, though, so I need to tweak my slide deck and then get some solid sleep.
With a belly full of deliiiiicious steak. Mmmm... Thanks, John!