It’s been quiet the last day or two as people are preparing to run off on vacations and long weekends. Today, Friday, should be absolutely dead. Which means we should get a lot of work done.
For many of you, it’s the first long weekend of the Summer and the first chance since winter to get out of town and party or golf, or swim or relax or whatever you do to let your hair down and have some fun. That’s cool.
For Palladium, it’ll mean slow sales for the next four days. Nothing we can do about that. The guys will get a much needed three days to relax and recharge.
For Brandon Aten it means WEDDING BELLS! If I recall correctly, Brandon is marrying his sweetheart, Martha TODAY or tomorrow! Holy cow, I forgot to send the wedding card that has been sitting on my dang desk for the past TWO weeks! Yikes. Congratulations! All of us at Palladium Books send you both our warmest wishes. We hope you have a long and joyous marriage.
For me, it means I’ll be taking a couple days off to relax with my sweetie, but only a couple. Pretty bad when your idea of a long weekend is two days off in a row, eh? Oh, well, gotta save the company, write some books and all that jazz.
I worked extra long hours during the week, sleeping over 2-3 nights to get caught up things. I got a lot done and feel like it was a very productive week, but still didn’t get caught up with everything I needed to do. Never enough time. On a related subject, Ramon Perez, not yet used to being in business for himself (the art business, of course), lamented to me how he knows where I’m coming from. Every day he makes his list of things to do. Every day it seems he only gets a third of it done and the remaining items get added to the next day’s list. Yep, I know that feeling.
Heck, half the time I don’t know the day’s date. I was surprised to realize today was May 25th (sorry Brandon, you know we love ya). This is due in large part to the fact that we are always dealing with deadlines and thinking weeks and months into the future. For example, assigning art for a book that is coming out 2-5 months from now. Case in point, I just approved a color cover by Mike Mumah for the October issue of The Rifter! Zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.
I’m still basking in the afterglow of the Palladium Open House. The fun, the friendship, the playing of games, meeting so many smiling faces, and the post-event online hype, excitement and retelling of adventures was just plain awesome. About a half dozen people sent us photographs, including James, Alex, Isaac, Randi, Eric and Mark. Thanks very much. Hey, if anybody else would like to send us a disk or email of POH photos we’d love to see ‘em. Wayne and I were so busy, we forgot to take photos ourselves. And poor Kathy was so busy, she didn’t see hardly any of the event, including the costume contest and my panel talks. Wayne had to throw together a photo montage for her on DVD (complete with music) to see the event she helped to host. Yikes.
I have four favorite “post Open House” moments.
1) Visiting with the Emmels and Joe Bergmans on Monday after.
2) Chatting, laughing and goofing around with Julius, Alex, Wayne, Thom and Tony while we cleaned up on the Tuesday after.
3) Reading all the cheerful and excited accounts posted on our message boards by you guys and gals who were there. Nice.
4) Getting Joe Bergmans' design documents for his Dead Boy armor with a big, bold note that read, “To Kevin – who believes in the potential of everyone. Thank you.” That note meant a lot to me. It makes me smile and feel good every time I think about it. I try, Joe. Thanks for noticing.
Excited about recent releases and upcoming products. Work on Hades is coming along nicely and I assigned out the femme fatales to be written up by Palladium Freelancers for The Rifter® #39. It’s going to be a fun issue.
Hated the "flash forward" to Lost. I hate that our "heroes" become losers when they get off the island, especially Jack. Didn't they learn anything? I hate that Locke was right. I hate that we know the ending, now. I hate that next season will be the rescue and our heroes readjustment (or maladjustment) to the real world. And if that's the case, the last season will be their struggle to return to the island and/or finding their place in the real world. It just ruined it for me, just like Aliens Three (if you accept its existance, and I don't, heck, even Fox pretends Aliens 3 never happened), because it ruins the epic story of Alien movies 1 & 2. At least for me. I predict Lost viewership will drop another 30% next season and that it may be cancelled before the fifth and final season. Ironic that the writers/producers caught lightning in a bottle and then "lost" their way.
Speaking of Heroes, the TV show. Loved its season finale. I knew what was coming in the end, right down to the two brothers, but loved it anyway. Hope they can keep up the fun and pace next season. I dislike time-travel elements, because they can be easily abused and become a crutch, so I'm worried about that aspect, but I'm guardedly optimistic.
And how about those Sopranos . . .
Gotta get back to work. Hope you all have a fun and safe holiday weekend.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist, and Murmurer
© Copyright May 25, 2007