I had a great time at Visioncon and it did me a lot of good.
My trip started last Thursday with a flight to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. As usually at O’Hare, I had a mile to walk to my connecting gate. Exercising 30 minutes with a brisk walk every day has me in good condition, so the walk was a breeze. Best of all, Jolly and Barbara Blackburn were on the same flight to Springfield, Missouri, so they were already at the gate. As a result, the hour layover just flew by and felt more like 15 minutes as we caught up with each other.
It was great seeing my dear friend Jolly and his adorable wife, Barb. They are both outstanding human beings and lots of fun. We sat across the aisle from each other on the plane too, but the ambient engine noise by the wing made conversation difficult.
The trip to Springfield was a short hour or so and then 20 minutes to the hotel. Jolly and I were pleased that our rooms were across from each other.
That’s when the adventure started.
I’m allergic to feathers and cannot have even one down pillow in the room or my ears plug up, sinuses run, a pounding migraine quickly develops (the kind that makes you want to vomit) and the glands in the sides of my neck swell up so bad that I can’t turn my head. Never a good thing.
This unusual allergy always makes travel a pain in the neck as more hotels than you might think have down-filled feather pillows, and it can be a problem getting foam or hypo-allergenic pillows.
The Visioncon hotel room contained down pillows and a down comforter. No big deal, Jolly I went to the front desk, explained my situation and they said they’d take care of it.
Jolly then took me to meet the Visioncon staff at the pre-convention dinner. There I met Kevin, Melody, Ashley, David, Mark, Chris, Karrissa, Scott, Dave and a bunch of other very nice people whose names I’m afraid I don't remember. It was nice to have a couple of friends like Jolly and Barb when you’re a stranger in a strange land and not knowing what to expect, which put me at ease from the very first second. I was surprised, however, to see another familiar face in the crowd, Mark Oberle. He even had a seat saved for me at a table.
The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner (I had a Caesar salad, a hamburger and water), enjoying old friends, making new friends, and engaging in good conversation and laughter.
About three hours later, I go to my room and the feather-filled articles are still present. Jolly and I go back to the front desk. “Oh, you’re the guy who needs the foam pillows. Here you go,” and they hand me three, comfy pillows. Cool. I go back to my room, and put the down pillows and comforter in the hall. Read a little, watch a bit of TV and decide I better hit the hay. It’s then that I realize I have pillows, but I don’t have a comforter or even a blanket. That’s okay, I figure I’ll sleep under the sheet and turn up the heat.
I wake up around 5:30 AM freezing. The heater isn’t working, and the drain in my sink won’t drain.
Ah, convention adventures.
Visioncon Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday morning, Mark Oberle, who lives in Springfield while he goes to college working on a Master's Degree or two, was kind enough to take me, Jolly and Barb to a delicious breakfast, and then drive us around to a couple of game and comic shops, plus a used bookstore. It was fun. We met with long-time Palladium uber-fan, Lucas Buck, for breakfast and he joined us on our trip around town. Lucas drove in from Illinois. He also has aspirations to do freelance writing and turned in his manuscript before the weekend came to an end. We all joked around and had fun.
The hotel mostly fixed the problem with the heater and sink, though neither ever completely worked.
Around 2:00 PM Friday, we all went down to the open gaming area where guests had their tables. We were surprised to find a handful of fans already waiting and eager to meet us. Again, it was cool that the Palladium table was next to Jolly and Barb so we could talk and clown around during the convention as well as watch each other’s wares.
That made for a fun afternoon of meeting gamers, shaking hands, signing autographs, chatting and sharing stories. I had shipped a box of books (about 30 total) which began to sell even before I finished setting them out on the table.
It was Friday that I first met an impressive gentleman by the name of Joe Ryan. He is a huge fan of Rifts®, Palladium Books and me. He told me how much it meant to meet me, I signed his books, sold and signed some more, exchanged contact information, and Joe introduced me to a number of other cool cats. Joe has gone through his own share of illness and hardship which has left his body broken, but not his indomitable spirit. I felt humbled talking to this sweet and caring uber-fan. My time with Joe and his outspoken love and appreciation for me and Palladium Books is one of those epic moments where you know life is good and there are real heroes in the world.
Joe and virtually EVERYBODY I met at Visioncon served as a much needed reminder of how deeply my publications (as well as the Weekly Updates and these Murmurs) have touched people’s lives. It seemed like every time I turned around there was another enthusiastic and smiling face thanking me for coming to the convention and for creating the Palladium Megaverse®. I heard from several people how they would not have met and fallen in love with their spouse if not for my games, or made friends for life, or been inspired to write, or to do artwork, or start a gaming convention. It was a pretty incredible experience for me, second only to our own Palladium Open Houses.
Best of all, between the positive and triumphant response to the Megaverse Insider Lemuria offer and Visioncon, my spirit and imagination has been energized and I’ve been a dynamo ever since. Thank you for the inspiration and energy.
After the Convention Opening Ceremonies and dinner, I had a panel talk. The panel started at 6:00 PM with Jolly Blackburn, Mark Oberle and me. Around 7:30, Jolly had to leave to do something else, but Mark stayed with me and we continued to talk. (Okay, I did most of the talking. Sorry, Mark.) I answered every question people asked. Folks came and went and came back again. That’s because I talked and talked and talked till almost midnight! And then I signed some books and chatted a bit one on one.
Apparently, around 9:00 PM, the room was supposed to be used for a LARP event, but they found an alternate location. When I learned of this, I told by the gent running the LARP he should have kicked me out. He laughed and said, “Heck, I’m not going to tell Kevin Siembieda and the 20 people in the room, he has to stop and leave. I just found another room we could use.” As you might expect, I was teased (and deservedly so) for now holding the record for the longest panel talk in Visioncon history – and they’ve held 20 Visioncons! I have to admit, almost six hours is a record even for me. Three hours I’ve done many times, but six. Yikes. Thank goodness Mark and everyone who participated said they had a great time. I know I did.
Visioncon Saturday, February 18, 2012
Saturday was more signing books, talking with fans, sharing laughs, selling product (sold 85% of what I brought) and having fun.
I realized by noon that I was losing my voice (between the cold and my yappin’ all night it’s not a surprise). That wasn't good, because I had a 1:00 PM Palladium Fantasy game to run with 14-16 players.
I managed to keep my voice (whew) and we had a blast. I ran my Lord DeSilca game and all the players were excellent role-players.
Then it was back to the table to meet and chat with gamers, sign more books, get my photo taken with people, look at artwork, check out the dealers' room, buy some stuff, make more new friends and have more fun.
Mike Leonard joined the fun on Saturday, though I suspect it was a bit too much, too soon. Though it was great seeing Mike and I know he enjoyed himself, he’s still in the early stages of recovering from his car accident, and I know his leg was hurting. I had told him to stay home, but he is “Madman” Mike for a reason. Get well my friend, and send that Rifter® cover in to Wayne as soon as possible.
I must have looked pretty worn out by 9:30 PM Saturday, because a dozen people must have told me I should go to the room and lay down for a while. I took their advice, called my sweetheart, Kathy, and we talked for awhile. Sometime around 10:30 I closed my eyes "for just a minute” and woke up in the wee hours of the morning. I missed the parties, but felt rested Sunday morning.
Visioncon Sunday, February 19, 2012
I had to leave for the airport at 11:30 AM and shared the shuttle ride with some interesting guys in the movie business, Robert Leeshock (who turns out to be Polish like me) and pyrotechnic expert Tom Seymour, both of whom are good guys.
The trip home was safe and easy.
That’s my Visioncon in a nutshell. There are other stories: I met a couple of impressive artists, had a couple nice chats with author Shane Moore who signed and gave me a couple of his books (meant to give him one of mine but I didn’t have anything I wrote by the end of the convention left to give), talked to some of the awesome people from G.A.M.E. (another cool Springfield convention) and was invited to their convention in October later this year! I just don’t think I can make it. October is a big month for me and Kathy Simmons with our massive Halloween display at her house and related festivities, plus the Alliance Open House is usually around the same time and I have to go to that. Don’t think I want to be out of town two October weekends in a row. So my apologies if I didn’t mention somebody I probably should have.
Thank you everybody at Visioncon. Keep those imaginations burning bright and game on!
Hey, see the Thursday Weekly Update for more about what's going on at Palladium and how Visioncon and the Megaverse Insider has gotten me into hyperdrive.
Gotta run, I have advertisements to finish and a bunch ‘o books to get into your hands.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Game Designer and Optimist
© Copyright February 22, 2012 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited™, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.