Hell week continues
Today and the last 6-7 days have been hell. (Okay, Graduation parties late on Saturday and Father's Day was relaxing and nice. I also had a nice conversation with my daughter on Sunday. She's doing great and we had some nice laughs. But other than that . . .)
Hellish in that we’ve been working, insane, long hours on a number of projects yet continue to slide off deadlines and release dates. Arrrgh. I hate that more than you can imagine.
Hellish in that a lot of the work has had to do with planning, organizing, bookkeeping, filing, and numbers. I hate numbers. I wanna be writing and editing.
Hellish because the temperature outdoors has been hellishly in the 90's and humid.
Hellish in that it seems like everything is coming due NOW! Gen Con stuff (ordering tables, chairs, carpeting, name badges), whipping up a few different ads, Palladium’s new catalog, and finishing Hades, Dyval, etc. among other things that needed to be done yesterday!
Hellish because a dear friend is in the hospital and seems to be doing poorly. Plus, Hank, my dear Dad, suffers from dizzy spells and he gave me the news that they seem to be getting more frequent. Not real serious, but not good.
Hellish because there has been a number of unpleasant things to deal with: leaning on a few slow pay accounts (never fun, but we need our money to pay our bills, dang it!), filling out applications, Gen Con prep, tipping in signature cards into the last 200 Machinations of Doom, juggling bills, getting a physical for a new insurance policy, getting ripped off $150 and loosing the light fixture that came crashing down because of a jerk (that's another $150 to replace, so this story ain’t done yet, and the jerk is messing with the wrong guy), not to mention writing the 73 descriptions for our current Palladium Collectibles and Art Auction and plotting our next auction in a week or two.
Then again, a bunch of GOOD things have been going on too.
The Palladium Collectibles and Art Auction
The auction is looking to be a great success! 65% of the items have bids in just the first 2-3 days! And many of the bids are pretty darn high! Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, it is very appreciated. Palladium gets a quick influx of cash, and you get a cool collectible. I know you’ll like the items when you get them, too.
I may have Alex put up some more art in a day or two as well as in our next auction. I didn’t have the time to put everything into this auction; namely a bunch of my own artwork, some other Palladium artists, animation, Robotech cels, more proofreader copies of books and other odd items and collectibles. Most of the stuff we’ll offer in the next auction will be different, although there will be a few similar batches of posters, I think. Palladium’s next auction will be in a week or two (June 30?).
I want to say I could NOT have done this auction (or the next) without Alex Marciniszyn. Alex took ALL the photos, posted ALL the items, and generally worked his keister off to do this. Thanks Alex, you're the best!
The Rifter® #39
R-39 is looking great! It goes to the printer tomorrow (one week late). It will still ship early July, probably around July 10th. We had a lot of fun with it, and hope you guys and gals enjoy the 20 deadly and beautiful women of this year’s swimsuit issue.
John Zeleznik is happy and crazy
John got his advanced, sample copy of Rifts® and the Megaverse®, the Art of John Zeleznik and was delighted with it. He too feels it is one of nicest looking art books he has ever seen -- excellent reproduction quality, nice paper stock and just plain gorgeous. The book is beautiful and a happy Johnny Z exclaimed, “Kevin, I could not have asked for a more perfect end-product. Thank you.” You’re welcome John, this book deserves to be fantastic.
I have now shown the sample book to at least 20 different people (including my banker and her 3 assistants) and EVERYONE is blown away by it. First, by the art and quality, then by the low price. I’m telling you, EVERYBODY who has ever played a Palladium game or just plain enjoys good sci-fi art will WANT this book up! I know it seems like I’m ranting, but . . . well . . . I have to rant! I can't get over how great this book is. It is the most beautiful book Palladium has ever published. And it’s historic, and full of memories, and fun to read and look at.
Why is John Zeleznik crazy?
He crazy, because he has spent days digging through his archive of sketches, picking out those appropriate for the book, and won't stop! He has dug up about 170 pencil sketches appropriate for inclusion in the Collector’s Masterwork Edition, and thinks he can top out at around 190 or 200 total. There is no stopping this guy!
Get this, he calls me up and asks, “Kev, some of the sketches are bigger than the book (8 ½ x 11 inches), do you think the buyer would mind if I carefully folded the image so that it works as a larger, ‘foldout’ image?”
How cool is that? I told him that, no I didn’t thing anyone would mind getting a larger piece of original artwork!
Then he asks, “So some of the sketches are concept art for Skraypers that do not appear in the art book itself or in Skraypers. Do you think people might want these unpublished sketches? I mean, they were used in the creation of my Skrayper characters, after all?” Yes, I do. An unpublished concept sketch? I know I’d like one.
Wow, I still can’t get over that John is even willing to do this. He could sell these as original art and make a bundle. John told me he wants each book to be special, his way of giving back a little something to the fans. And how nice it is, to get an art book and get one of the sketches or concept art that went into creating the very artwork depicted inside the book. Incredible, to me at least.
Rifts® Hades and Dyval
Awesome. Looking awesome. 'Nuff said.
Robotech® RPG
Contract negotiations have gone as well as we could expect. Hint . . . I’m looking forward to bringing the Robotech® RPG to a new generation of gamers.
Sales seem to be climbing
Online sales and mail order have been slowly climbing up for the last week. Which is a huge relief, provided it continues. Although as of 7:00 PM there were NO new orders for today yet! It is very unusual to get no orders or only 3-6 in a 24 hour period. I don’t know if it's because everyone is at the auction or what. That won’t be good if sales bottom out for more than a day or two, but it seldom does.
Okay, gotta get back to other work. Keep those imaginations burning bright.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist, Auctioneer and Busy Guy
© Copyright June 19, 2007