Category: News

Con-Zombified

Spearcarrier

I am back from OMG con yesterday around 1700 hours. Today I’m still exhausted. My feet still hurt. And it’s time to return to the mundane world of commissions, clients, and computer screens.

I broke even on hotel and table costs, but not on how much it took to get everything ready at the last minute. But this is no reason to get upset, unless we’re discussing my house payment or the light bill. This is actually a big success. My table had a couple of major issues I couldn’t compensate for in regards to layout. If I had been 100% prepared, I would have done a lot better. And I have returned with determination to fix the table as a result.

The highlight of the convention for me was a bomb threat.  Or maybe it was because someone pulled the fire alarm. I’m not sure which of the two stories I heard are true, but I’m going to go with bomb threat because that’s the more interesting version. Yes, I’m sure the perpetrator was watching everyone file out of the convention center with a smile on their face and an evil chuckle. But this didn’t stop the fun. The boffer groups did outside fighting. All of the colorful cosplays were there for my personal viewing pleasure. And then the ice cream truck came.

It’s my personal theory that the ice cream truck driver was the person who called in the bomb threat. They drove by and you could hear the crowd cheer. And then dozens of cosplayers were bounding across the convention center lawn after the truck. It was like a scene from a crazy movie. All I could do was laugh.

I got a little cranky on Saturday because being in the sun from the bomb threat for so long made me ill. I can’t do sunshine anymore, which is tragic considering I’m from Florida. So in my crankiness I thought I was doing very poorly. After I was able to go to the hotel, rest, and take a shower I realized I had done better than I usually do. Thumbs up.

I did a lot of filming, heard the OMGcon drama story of why they’re not close to my house anymore, and overall had such a wonderful time I was sad to see it end. All I did was sit in my booth, too. I can’t imagine how much fun it would have been if I’d been able to go to some of the panels and events. Alas, my husband was not able to attend with me and I had to man everything alone. I’m a big girl. I didn’t mind. But that is where the exhaustion comes in – from not being able to take a break and having to leave the table alone just long enough to run to the bathroom.

So on my project list I’ve got to buy another modular wire cube set. I’ll have to order it because it’s not available in stores anymore. That’s the key to fixing my table. I’m going to start ordering prints of my work, create a display book, and move along. One person at OMGcon said I had a lot of stuff. Actually, I had about as much as a lot of other people it’s just that I was unique in my wares… and I couldn’t organize them as well as I should have. I’m going to fix that. And what I’m doing will transform, too. I usually have a lot of stuff because I do a lot of things. But I want my table to specialize more.

Some of my things sold out, which helps with the transformation. I know what I’m going to have on my table, and I already have an idea of the layout. Now. I just have to execute.

The Afterglow of Oh crap! Here We Go Again!

Spearcarrier

This morning I’m uploading all of the nifty things I recorded and can share from Arch Anime Con (last weekend) on my Youtube channel.

I’m also importing them over to the Patreon sticker club.  These will be free posts.

I’m not sure what all I can say about Arch Anime Con except it was nice to get back into the pool and swim around a bit. I had so much fun. I even cosplayed with a chicken lady at one point. I came home with less stuff because, well, people like my stuff… and the assumption that I had two weeks to get ready for OMGcon (which I did indeed manage to get a table for).

My husband looked at the schedules and informed me that it was this weekend. Okay, I thought. I just gotta print some things and get the table put back together. It’s not enough time to replenish my copies of The Heavenly Bride, but I’ll compensate with flyers or something.

My husband then explained to me that OMGcon had grown from the tiny baby in diapers I remembered to a full-fledged adult with four stories and more people than I could count. I think I wet myself at that point.

What do you do when you panic? Well, I’m an American and this means I’m going to throw money at the problem. I’ve spent the past couple of days running from city to city trying to find precious parts for my printer because I don’t have time to simply order them. Mortgage payment? We don’t need no stinking mortgage payment. We need ink for ze printer. So on and so forth.

I do enjoy doing conventions, but I’m so frazzled from all this running around while at the same time trying to get work done on my very important commissions (cuz, my clients are kind of important to me) that I’m really glad I normally only do only one or two conventions a year. After OMGcon I’m done until next year, and next year hangs on actually being able to get a table. I do admit that I’m considering a third convention this year in December, but I’m only thinking about it at this time… and I’m going to be a lot better prepared if I do.

I’ve decided to view OMGcon as an opportunity. Not only is it kind of cool that I went there for Akashik and am now returning for my artwork and to promote The Heavenly Bride, it presents a chance for me to put my artwork up in a way I’ve always wanted to and just be a creator. My printer is a Pixma 9000 Pro, and boy does it make some high quality work. I’ve been printing 13″ x 19″ posters of artwork I’ve created just for art’s sake. I’ve got posters for things that have never surfaced to the public, even. I don’t have a lot of copies of each poster, but I have them. And I hope people will love them in that eager “love me” mood artists tend to get into. I hope the cost price is affordable for folks.

I’m also digging some of my remaining Taus figurines out of storage. Even though they were created for Akashik, they’re still ‘valid’ because of The Heavenly Bride. And besides. They need love. Haven’t you ever seen Toy Story?

Oh well. It’s time for me to stop chattering and get back to work. I’d like to finish a couple of commissions today on top of getting things together. Wish me luck. Or give me thousands of dollars. Whichever will work the best.