Feb 16 – Pasco, WA to Castle Rock, WA 265 miles
First, I want to start this by saying that my expectations of RadCon, while higher than my previous years, didn’t come even close to the reality. I appreciate how us book sellers are now out where people can see us. HUGE improvement over the hole we were in before.
I can hear the joint voices crying out to me, “So why was it so much better than before?”
Finding out how many loyal fans I had in the area,
~40% better sales,
A request by Barnes and Nobles to come and do a book signing/reading and possibly even have my books stocked on the shelves,
A possibility of having one of my short stories (“Programmed Loyalty” which can be found in the Impulsive Walrus Anthology “Well… It’s Your Cow”) turned into a dialog play by an international voice actor!
Now all authors (but maybe not readers) know that getting ANYONE to take notice of your works or you is difficult. At RadCon I not one but TWO such wonderful interactions in the space of the weekend. I can tell you I was walking on air the whole weekend.
But all wonderful things must come to an end. Sunday rolled around and I found out that the dealer’s areas closed at 2PM, not the 4 or 5 I’m used to. This made it possible I could make it HOME to sleep in my own bed (and other reasons I’ll note below). I decided to grab hold of this opportunity with both hands (which is why you didn’t get this blog yesterday).
So, why head home? Well, why not? Also, I’d learned that living in the trailer, as I’d stocked and packed it, very difficult. Primarily I needed to be a yoga master to move around. I’m not that young any longer. I needed to remove several items, move others, and make a few items in my woodshop to make the trip more viable.
The cassette toilet was a mistake. It took up a HUGE amount of real estate inside and even as an emergency use, would fail (It took me a goodly amount of time to get it out). I removed several other remnants of an earlier camping trip (two chairs and a backpacking mattress) as well as some leveling jacks that I’ll never use. I moved some blankets (just in case it gets REALLY cold) into the storage as well as my dirty clothes bag. I can tell you that this alone made it feel like I’d just added an extra bedroom to my mobile closet.
To see all of the posts go to www.tanstaaflpress.com/tgrt
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