But I digress. I merely wanted to explain part of the reason why this postmortem is so long in coming. The convention was extremely busy, even more so than usual. Gen Con is always my busy convention, usually because I am splitting my time between working a table, talking on panels, spending time with friends I only see a couple of times a year, and of course talking with other professionals to see if there are more writing opportunities. This year, added to that mix, I had my board game that I wanted to put in front of any publishers who might possibly express an interest.

In summary, it was absolutely amazing, and I have more work to do than I have ever had on my plate before when it comes to my creative endeavors! This is very exciting and a wonderful problem to have. First off, I was able to talk with several companies about my game. For most of the companies, it was very short since these were cold calls. I would talk about the game briefly and drop off a one-sheet of information. I have yet to hear from any of those, but there is still time.

More directly, I was able to present my game to a couple of companies. Both of the ones that I spoke to in detail about it acknowledged that it was very well designed and expressed an interest in playing it. Considering that these were professional game publishers, I was very excited to get that reaction! One of the companies did admit that the game was not for them because of some of the mechanics, but they told me that they thought it would only be a matter of time and finding the right publisher. The other publisher said they might be interested in it and we would talk further.

Considering this is the first time I have ever attempted designing a board game, I am ecstatic at the reviews and feedback I am receiving. I also pulled it out for a few other writers and friends at a writing get together, and while we didn’t get to play the entire game before last call, they did very much like what they played and said they would like to play a full game sometime. So now I am starting to believe that it is only a matter of time until I can officially add game designer to my resume!

As far as the writing is concerned, I had some very good meetings with people who want to see work that isn’t created yet! I don’t want to speak about such things in too much detail until we see what happens, but I do want to say that I have a heck of a lot of work to do! As I mentioned before, this is a very good problem to have. No I just need to find the time to create it all.

Outside of business, it was great to see old friends and meet some new ones. As per usual, we did our annual True Dungeon run. It was fun, but for the first time in many years, we did not survive the final room. We thought we had a final solution, but we ran out of time to test it. It did not help that someone (yes, me) suddenly got a bloody nose in the last minute of the puzzle. I honestly don’t know what happened, but my nose literally started running blood in the darkness. I think I freaked out the DMs in the room more than myself or anyone in my group! Needless to say, there was no real damage; it was just a random freak accident. It definitely added something different to the adventure!

As always, I stayed until Sunday to enjoy some peace and quiet before having to brave the airport once again. Thankfully, I was not flying Delta, so was not affected by that insanity on my trip home. It was uneventful, for which I am extremely grateful.

All in all, it was a wonderfully productive convention, even if it was even more exhausting than normal. Many positive things came out of it, and I am excited about the prospects laying before me. Now it is time to get back to all that writing I mentioned!

So I have returned from Origins Game Fair, and I am glad to say that I returned safely and without any major incidents. Compared to last year, this is a huge improvement. All in all, I have to say that it was an amazing convention. There was so much that happened that I know I won't be able to capture it all, but I will mention some of the highlights in no particular order.

First and foremost, I cannot stress how awesome it was to see friends I only get to see a couple of times a year. It is always a blast to see friends from far away and play games with people I don't see often. Codenames was intensely popular, as I knew it would be. I brought it to introduce some writer friends to it, since I thought it would be up their alley. I first pulled it out when a bunch of the writers were gathered at the Three Legged Mare for dinner. As we were about to head back, the rain started to come down in veritable sheets. A bunch of us decided to wait it out and stay in the bar rather than run through the downpour. We wound up picking two people from the bar who saw the game and said "We love that game!" Our immediate response was "Why don't you join us?" We played a couple of rounds and loved it. By the time we had finished, the rain had tapered off and we were able to make it back to the hotel without getting drenching wet.

Aaron Rosenberg and I were amazed that the powers that be let us sit next to each other in the library. Not only that, but we were allowed to sit next to each other on panels. That was incredibly fun and entertaining! But, I don't know if we will ever be allowed to do it again. I will say, he is an extremely helpful panda.

Working the table went well, and I was up to my usual antics. Traffic seemed slow, but as I tallied up my final numbers, it appears that I actually sold almost as many books as my previous year at Origins. Only two less in fact. So from the business side, it was good. In addition, this was the first year that I had my trilogy available at my table at Origins. Last year, I was able to have the hardback version at Gen Con, but this is the first time I had the paperback version and the first time that I had either available at Origins. The joke that I received (and told) a couple of times was that it was the first time I had a book on my table at Origins with my name on the cover. According to the final numbers, over 2/3rds of the books that I sold were my trilogy. I am excited about this and I feel that it reinforces my decisions to focus on my trilogy moving forward rather than continuing to have a large collection of anthologies. I will still bring new ones as they come out, but in a lot less quantity and with a more decided focus on my books.

While I was there, an author that I very highly respect took a moment out of his day to pull me aside and speak to me. He said that I was a good writer (which was a HUGE compliment) and that I had the skill to make a major career out of my writing (which was an even larger compliment). He told me that I was reaching a point where I needed to decide if I wanted to focus on my antics, or let my writing stand for itself. This was a very sobering conversation, and something that meant a lot to me considering the source. It also gave me a lot of faith in my writing and what I am going to be pursuing from here on out.

Following the example of Robyn King, I need to say that I had a massive bucket list item crossed off this weekend. I had the honor of sitting at a signing table at the Catalyst booth. You can see a picture of it here. True, true, I finally got an opportunity to use my head. Nonetheless, that did not dampen my excitement for being part of this. I am officially a Shadowrun author now. There is nothing that can be done to take that back. There is official evidence! And you know that once it is on the web, it cannot be removed. Catalyst even invited me to sit at their table and watch the Origin Awards.

Even with all of these highs, there is one thing that trumps it all. I designed a board game and had the opportunity to demo it in front of a major publisher. It was probably one of the most nerve-wracking things that I have done at a convention since I first started going to conventions as a professional writer. It was AMAZING.

It went as well as I thought it possibly could have. I was astounded by the feedback that I received. I received some critical feedback, but I was told that the amount of feedback I got was less than the players give for some published and released games! There are some few adjustments that need to be made, but it is still in the development and balancing process, so I expected as much. Still, it was not a lot of criticism. They even enjoyed playing a three hour long game without complaining about the length or wondering when it might be over. That alone is a huge compliment!

The next morning, I received an update, which made things even better. After that, the next day, I received even more updated information, and it was even better than I had hoped. It literally was a situation where I thought it was as best as it could have possibly been, and then it kept getting better. I do not have words for how excited I was and still am! The current update is that I am going to be running a demo for it in the near future here in the Seattle area. The people that I need to run it for live in the nearby area, so it made sense to wait until after Origins when we have more time and the play through wouldn't be as stressful. I am looking forward to that and can hardly wait to set it up!

Whew. I think that is most of the highlights. It has been an amazing weekend and even with as much as it burnt me out, it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thank you everyone for making it such a wonderful convention, with more stories, more games, and more good times all around! Convention-wise, next stop is Gen Con!