Falling to Earth

I attended GenCon Indy for the first time this year as a vendor with my lovely and talented friend Nica serving as my booth-babe and Midia expert. We were located in Authors' Avenue, in the very back of a massive Dealers' Hall. Though my placement was poor due to reserving the last available table, I felt a decent number of people passed by my booth within reach of my often-too-chipper greetings and comments. I met a lot of very interesting people, saw some spectacular costumes, and had several very rewarding conversations with other authors on a similar level as myself.



Recounting the full four days of activity would be tedious and would quickly become tiresome, so I'll just list some quick highlights here: A minstrel played his lute for me and my booth-babe, a rowdy pirate and a fair maiden and child shared the booth next to us, and a 'crier' peddled his wares at all unsuspecting passer-byes. I donated a book to charity, was offered to enter an anthology, was given three books by other authors, and gave a book to my friend Ed Greenwood (a prolific author and neat character). My booth-babe wore four wonderful costumes to awe and inspire our patrons, and on Sat. I also wore an outfit that may have made some wonder of my questionable moral character. I met Ruth Thompson, who's art I've adored for over a decade, and had some good times with my friends Anne, Trava, and Tim. I met a German with an awesome accent, and a 'Jew from Jersey' of whom I've heard many interesting things.





When all was said and done, I sold enough books and met enough people to consider the weekend 'not a total loss'. I had fun, got to play an 'author' for four days straight, and got to hang out with my good friend and co-author, Nica. The only sad part of my 4-day GenCon experience was that come Monday... I had to fall back to earth.

I believe that my working weekend has inspired something in me, something mostly dormant until now. I'm done nibbling at the bit. I'm finished dabbling. I am ready to dedicate my life to the writing craft and wholly throw myself at earning my keep with my pen. I want to be an 'author' every day of the week and not have to fall back to earth after a few exhilarating days of getting to be Kimber Grey.