Thursday, August 6

Possessing the mistaken impression that the dealer's room would open at 8:00 a.m., we dragged ourselves out of bed and zombied our carcasses up to the Convention Center only to find out that it didn't open until 10. Picked up our badges (having none of the trouble some other folks have reported--I guess there's something worthwhile about getting there that early) and found a nice quiet corner to catch a little more rest before beginning our orgy of conspicuous consumption. Pausing to buy a Gen Con backpack (I thought they'd be cheesy, but they were actually quite cool) and a T-shirt, we found an unoccupied spot on the 3rd floor.

I sat down to read my copy of Mike Stackpole's Wolf and Raven and Dan decided to get some sleep (as much as one can get using one's lumpy backpack as a pillow). However, our area didn't remain unoccupied for long. We'd only been there for a few minutes when this little boy about two years old came up to Dan, leaned over, and stared at him with the most earnest possible look on his face. Normally neither of us is crazy about kids this age, but this kid was seriously cute. After a moment he ran away, only to return several more times. He never said anything, just stared. He even dropped his toy sheep on Dan at one point, although he returned for it later. It was a cute way to pass about half an hour.

There was quite a crowd gathered in front of the doors as the dealer's room prepared to open. Having never been to something like this before (our experience is with small college cons, not something this big) we didn't know what to expect, but I was looking forward to seeing the FASA booth. When the doors opened we immediately headed in with the crowd and looked around.

The FASA booth was easy to spot: it was one of the bigger ones there and had a great location. I was duly impressed by its size and detail, and immediately started casting around looking for the hardback which was supposed to be on sale there. Dan spotted the sign: "Hardbacks go on sale tomorrow at 1:30." Sigh. Turns out there was a problem with the printer which caused the delay.

I was quickly consoled, though, when I found the box of original artwork for sale. There was lots of cool stuff there, but I immediately glommed on to the Harlequin pen-and-ink from the Cyberpirates! sourcebook. I didn't realize it until he commented on it, but the artist of the piece, Fred Hooper, was sitting right there as I bought it. I asked him to sign it for me, which he did very graciously. He also dubbed me "his favorite person for today" since I was the first one to buy one of his originals. That's him in the yellow shirt and green cap.

Moving down the line, I bought a print of the Dunkelzahn cover from Portfolio of a Dragon and met Jim Nelson, another of FASA's talented (and very easygoing!) artists. He signed my Dunkie print for me; while he was doing that I asked him if he had any other things for sale. He told me he had one of Lofwyr down at the art show, and it was for sale. Great! That's one of my all-time favorite SR pictures, so the chance to own it (especially on the first day of the Con when we were still in possession of most of our cash) was too good to pass on. I told him I'd go down and look at it, and in all likelihood buy it.

Spent awhile longer at the FASA booth, picking up two softcovers (one for us and one for a guy in France who had sent me something earlier in the year) and an Earthdawn book. Then we headed out to the rest of the dealer's room.

There was an incredible array of stuff on sale there. My favorites were the stuffed Cthulhu (very cute, and available in your choice of color and pattern), the "cabbit" (there's a picture of it on this page), and the shoulder dragons. I passed on Cthulhu and the cabbit (and regretted the latter bigtime when they sold out) but I couldn't resist the little blue-and-silver shoulder dragon. I walked around the rest of the day with him sitting on my shoulder. Dan and I both spent a fair amount of time drooling over sharp pointy things (we collect them) but decided not to buy them because of the difficulty in getting them on the plane. Still, Dan was intrigued by a weapon called the "Butt Weasel" (don't ask--there's a picture of it below. And no, that isn't me in the picture. It's the lady from the Rowan Tree). He took a flyer and was sure to get the Web address of the company that had it for sale.

After finishing up at the dealer's room (for now, anyway) we headed downstairs to look at the art show and try to find Lofwyr. Lots of very impressive artwork but many talented artists, but no Lofwyr! Headed back upstairs, found Jim Nelson, and told him we didn't see it. Just to show how cool he is, he actually walked back downstairs with us and showed us where it was--all the way in the back, but we still should have noticed it. I was embarrassed, but he was very nice. I immediately bought it--$150 was a bargain for such a nifty piece of Shadowruniana. The picture on the right doesn't do it justice; it's much more vividly colored and gorgeous.

Moving along through the day, Dan and I attended the "What's Up with FASA?" seminar, which was mostly concerned with Battletech but had some SR content. Then, leaving Dan to go back to the dealer's room again, I headed off to the first half of Mike Stackpole's writer's workshop. It was full to bursting; the man not only knows his stuff, but he's an engaging speaker, too. I always learn something new every time I attend one of his seminars.

We were going to try to get into the Shadowrun tournament (we didn't make it in at prereg) but both of us decided we were too tired to stay up that late, so instead we headed off to a restaurant that our cabbie (see Aug. 5) recommended: a place called Butch's Casino Steak House. The atmosphere was...er...quaint (especially the two drunken guys at the next table) but the steaks were fantastic. Headed back to our hotel about 10:00, vowing to get some sleep this time so we'd be awake for tomorrow.

On to Friday