Andrian's (Late) AC Report, Part 2
Andrija Popovic
Not all of Friday was spent at work. I got to play a little bit. Usually
where I could squeeze in a moment or two. After all the artists were
settled in, I got a little time off.
First thing I did was hop to the Artist's Alley and say 'Hi' to Amy
Pronovost, aka Amara. I was really surprised she remembered me!
Apparantly the way to some women's heart was through Star Wars fan
fictions about Wedge. :) I had hoped she would draw a portrait of the
characters my friends and I were playing in our Star Wars Game (Griffon
Squad, Third Flight. Our Motto: "We're not outnumbered; we're in a
target-rich environment.")
Unfortunatly, she couldn't do straight Star Wars commisions anymore
because she's working for Lucasfilm on their Star Wars Kids magazine.
But she did put aside a numbered copy of her limited "Maulrat" print for
me. It became a present for my roommate, Ed, one of the world's greatest
Star Wars fanatics. He's getting it framed. :)
After that, I ran to the dealer's room and made a quick circuit of the
place with Capricia, assessing the crowd size. Wow, it was full. While
there, I stopped at Lisa's table to grab an "I am a Writer" badge and
two really nice prints (The dancing couple and kitsune). Lisa was on the
floor, stamping out buttons like crazy. I hope she got a little time off
from the presses to enjoy herself.
I then ravaged the dealer's tables like a Dark Eldar army. First stop
was the Mailbox Books table. While I miss Ed Zolna dearly, (when I sent
him a 'change of address' letter after graduating, he wrote back and
congratulated me), the new management is doing a bang-up job. Not only
did I finally get the issue of Yarf! I was published in but I grabbed
all the back-issues of _The Tai-Pan Project_ I'd missed.
Then, I hopped to Jeff Eddy's table and picked up issues one and two of
Anthrolations. We discussed my contribution to the book and how we'll
it's doing. Anthrolations is an excellent short story magazine and is
getting a lot of good attention from SF fandom. They also pay for
contributions. :)
We then hopped over to the 'extended' dealer's room. I picked up two
Paul Kidd novels from Vision while there (Felt tacky buying them from
someone else when the publisher had a booth there) and then we had a
long discussion with the people behind the Ironclaw RPG. The first thing
about it was the parody of "Slayers: The Movie" on the cover. After
talking with the people behind the desk and getting into a really
detailed discussion of RPG's (I also plugged 7th Sea quite a bit. Yes, I
am enamored with that game), we decided to check out a demo later that
night.
After another stint at the art show, I went to the "Playing God for Fun
and Profit" writer's round table. There I had the supreme luck of
bumping into Dawn Kull, a friend of mine coming to AC for the first
time. Dawn, for those of you who don't know, plays Doris on Tapestries
and runs the Tavern there. Just log on and check the 'LC' list. It's
usually got at least 20 people in it.
Dawn also writes a lot of great short stories and some of the best
erotica I've ever read. She was going to AC to promote a joint project
with Jay 'Fisk' Naylor, but the production was delayed and she got a
chance to take in the sights.
The round table was great. It was not worldbuilding for worldbuilding's
sake. They emphasized character first and warned everyone away from
"Worldbuilder's disease." Basically you spend so much time working on
how the plumbing works in your world, you forget to actually create
stories and characters that live in it.
After helping close out the art show, Capricia and I were exhausted. We
thought about going to the 9:30pm IronClaw demo, but we were just too
tired. So we took a nap and it gave us just enough energy to attend the
more laid back artist's reception. Frankly, I'm partial to any functon
that gives out free cheese. :)
After the reception, we wandered to the FNC party and browsed through
several issues. Brian Feir, aka Jenora, was there and he invited me to
participate. But the work demands were really high and I wasn't sure if
I could meet them, so I respectfully declined. During the party, I did
get to talk with Skates for a while. We would have liked to stay a bit
longer but, we had an early morning on Saturday.
So we decided to crash a little bit after midnight and forego the dance
entirely. Which is a pity, since I passed Dawn on the way there. She and
her friend looked quite nice in their Catholic school-girl outfits...
Saturday, July 1,
This was going to be a busy day, one way or another. Not only was the
art show open the whole day but we had the adult art auction as well and
my friend Chris would be in town for the day. He grew up in the King of
Prussia are and was visiting his mom for the 4th, so he decided to drop
by for the day. Luckily we had a good meal thanks to Petercat, who
treated us to the buffet at the restaurant & bar. Yum. :)
Caprcia and I found ourselves in a quandry. We wanted to stay in the art
show and wait for Chris, but Capricia really wanted to go to the
IronClaw demo. So we split tasks. I'd watch the art show and look for
Chris while she went to IronClaw and brought back a review. Capricia's a
very experienced gamer and knows a good system when she plays it. :)
Things had slowed down a little and I got a chance to work on the short
story I was revising for Lynx. Chris did show up around 11 and hung
around the art show. While he wouldn't admit it, Chris is a decent
artist himself and found the show...intimidating. His jaw dropped at a
lot of the pieces there. Not because of the ratings, mind you, but
because of the detail and quality in the work.
Capricia ducked back in during a break and chatted with Chris, telling
him about the game system. They'd just finished generating characters
and going over the rules. When Capricia headed out again, Chris and I
went through the schedule and looked for panels that would interest us.
When lunchtime rolled around, we'd pretty much fixed on a schedule for
the day. I was just hoping the schedule would hold...
To Be Continued...
--
Andrija Popovic
vu...@erols.com
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