CuteGod Development: (44 / 172 requirements)
Wind, Bear, and Moon Proposal
Summer Biking: (203.5 / 400.0 km)

Apparently, unlike some of you, I don't use my computer during my vacations or during GenCon. :) So, after six days of enjoying myself, I'm finally back from another wonderful trip. I left on Wednesday morning and came back a few hours ago, here on Monday. This was the first time I've ever run a game at GenCon (Exalted of course) and I had some really cool news from the end of it.

Actually, the first one was wandering over to the White Wolf booth and talking to a random person who ended up being one of the Exalted developers. I did the first thing that came to mind and thanked him for creating a great game. We got to chatting and apparently he knew of my comic (whee), my online map (squee), and actually heard of me (bouncebouncybounce). I kept running into him the next three times I went to the booth, mainly to pick up Monte Cook's World of Darkness, Sidereals, Changeling, and something else. If anything else, the ego boost along floated me along through the trip.

Fluffy had a great time, though she encountered something new at GenCon: the Impossibly Cute Twenty-Something Gamer Boy (ICTSGB). In packs, hordes. One of them was playing her husband in a LARP and she got flustered. And she kept talking about them, but I can't disagree. There were a lot of good-looking twenty-somethings in there, including a set that wanted to join my game but it was in the last hour. I'm including the ICTSGG also, though I appreciate both sets.

Speaking of looking good, I got a chance to chat with The Original Dylan. He wasn't classified in the ICTSGB group (sorry), but he was placed in the Improbably Cute group by a few members of my group. :) Good thing I don't seem to be capable of being jealous, otherwise I could have been. Looking forward to seeing his next novel, plus he liked my idea for Case of the Morning Zombies (more squee). Dylan also told me some things about Muddy Reflections that I need to work on, and I'm really anxiously waiting for his and scienceprincess' reviews of my novels so I can try improving my writing and finally get published properly.

I also got to chat with Charles Embrey Jr. who wrote the Lost Keep of Kaywall. Given the fact I didn't write what I felt was the most positive review, apparently he was really appreciative that I did and apparently was telling people about my review of his book. I was completely and utterly surprised about that, mainly because it was an honest review (as I want others to give me) and I would have loved it, I was surprised he did. He told me about the sequel, which actually sounded like a good story (and I'll be picking it up as soon as I can). So, it was really nice to find out that he didn't hate me and actually appreciated what I did.

I did end up doing the rest of the Author's Alley. I'm apparently a very chatty person and everyone seemed to enjoy talking to me. I asked them if they minded if I read the book and did a review like I did for Dylan's and Charles' book and everyone thought it was a grand idea. I mean, I'm going to read them anyways. So, I've added the following to my reading stack:

• Sails and Sorcery edited by W. H. Horner
• Elfhunter by C. S. Marks
• Sharamitaro by Jonathan M. Rudder
• Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Bad Guy edited by W. H. Horner
• Shadow Over Shandahar by T. R. Chowdhury and T. M. Crim
• A Prisoner's Welcome by Shane Moore
• Into the Reach by Alana Abbott

So, I'm going to be reading for a while. Which is okay. With the Wizard call for submissions September 1-Jan something, I'm going to write Morning Zombies for NaNoWriMo and submit that. So, I got a 1.5 months to working on polishing up my Exalted stuff, cleaning up some rules, finishing CuteGod and charm cards before going at Zombies. So, my next three months are nicely planned.

Speaking of updating rules, I talked to someone at WizKids about my house rules for using their Pirates minatures with Exalted and they loved it. They even gave me their business card to send them an email about it.

I appear to have lost the card.

I tore apart the hotel room three times trying to find it. So, this is a very important lesson. When an industry insider gives you a card, treat it as treasure? k? Like platinum, not copper.

In the lessons arena, I learned a bunch about how to run a con game. And how to run Exalted in a con. First one: CHARM CARDS! I must get my charm cards cleaned up because I lost an hour of my four hour game just getting everyone up to speed. Also, 1-2 battles is pretty much the max for mass combat and never, ever give the players too many options. On the other hand, it was a 3 hour planning session that everyone liked. The second one was must better planned, but only one person showed up. Another lesson: don't run a game during a massive party at a con, no one shows up.

Overall, I had a wonderful time. Got a lot of stuff to work on in the next, lots of reading and saving up money (blew a bit more than I wanted to), and basically relaxing for a few months.