Hey all, Sam here.
Okay, well, we are still working on physically recovering from Gen Con, but I think we have enough energy to get this post put together. Actually, David has an easier recovery time than me, because I had to go to work Monday and today, because my department at work is rather small and so our needs are different than his department. It’s fine, because most days my job isn’t super hard (thank goodness).
Anyway, I’ll hopefully have a little time over the next couple of days to get a few more posts up here, because I have lots to talk about, and Gen Con usually leaves me feeling a creative rush and energy to do things, and I want to use that to try and work on making this blog a bit more active again. We’ll see how well I do and how long that lasts.
All right, let’s get into the Gen Con recap.
This is just a few images from the panels, because they’re all pretty much a picture of writing professionals sitting at a table and talking to the room. But the final photo is me with author Jim C Hines, who I got to meet and chat with for a while, which was awesome. Overall, I went to a bunch of panels, took like 25 pages worth of notes, and came out of it feeling emotionally drained (in a good way) and hopefully in a position to make a few adjustments to my life so I can work on my creative pursuits more. It was a great time, and you can check out my Gen Con schedule post if you’re interested in knowing what panels I took. I am very happy to share my notes, and I think the only panel I didn’t end up going to was the one on Imposter Syndrome. They had actually briefly covered that topic in other panels, and I wanted to check out the vendor floor to try and get some morning limited merch drops.
Oh, and while I was at the Writer’s Symposium, I also happened to run into Mychal Threets AKA the new/current host of Reading Rainbow. He was so nice and it was great to get to tell him to keep spreading that library joy.
Speaking of the vendor floor, it was packed like it always seems to be, but I did take a few photos on the floor. I should, at some point, try and take some photos to show off just how large and how crowded the whole place is. Although, saying that, there are plenty of other folks who took photos and videos from the event. Seriously. Search Gen Con Running of the Nerds and you’ll see the massive crowd waiting to enter the vendor hall on day one. It’s crazy. There’s like 70,000 people at the convention.
A couple of fun moments from wandering the show…while waiting to meet up with my husband, I saw author Matt Dinniman and got to say hello to him, so that was really cool, and when we were nearing the close of the vendor hall on Thursday, DCC audiobook narrator Jeff Hays came over the loudspeaker to warn us all about level collapse. It was a fun way to end the first day.
Overall, I was able to pick up a few items from vendors we enjoy, as well as some new items from vendors who had cool games and/or products. I don’t think we’ll do a full con haul in this post, but we might post our hauls on our Instagram accounts (@SamRushingBooks for me and @freestateofgeek for David).
You can’t have a Con experience without getting some good food, so here’s just a few of our meals from the four days of the convention. The pierogi from The Forking Pierogi were so good (David had them like three or four times). The first photo shows the BAMF, which had a kielbasa, bacon, onions, and a truffle aioli all over pierogi, and the Kung Pow Chicken, which was a General Tso’s chicken and green onions over pierogi.
The second photo is ramen, from Wei Ramen, which we have been going to for I think three years now for at least one meal every Gen Con. We were sad that the boba and mochi donut place attached to the restaurant wasn’t there anymore.
Finally, the last two photos were my birthday meals, because my birthday was during the convention. I started the day with a Surf n Turf lobster roll from The Naughty Lobstah, and that was fabulous. I’ve had them as my birthday breakfast for I think three years now, and it’s always worth it. My birthday dinner was on the complete other side of the spectrum, because we had a Skyline Chili near our hotel, so I got a spaghetti 5-way, which was so delicious. All in all, it was an excellent trip for food.
Like I said, I’m not going to do a full run down of my haul, but I will share a few things I picked up. I got myself a physical copy of the Cartograph solo roleplaying game, as well as the Cartograph dice, and a completely unplanned crochet raven from Ravensridge Emporium.
A couple of the games I picked up because they sounded fun (and I heard about them from Jaysen Headley AKA Ezeekat. Those are Bookshelf and Bring Your Own Book. For Bookshelf, you are trying to make a tower of cards, little book tokens, and a cat token. And for Bring Your Own Book, it’s a similar game play to games like Cards Against Humanity, except you are getting your answers from books instead of a hand of cards. It sounds really fun.
Then there’s a couple of books I picked up, like the Con Exclusive edition of Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon (and yes, it’s signed), and they were also selling early copies of Critical Role’s The Mighty Nein: Stories Untold (which is out August 11th). I’m actually currently reading Stories Untold and really enjoying how these stories fit into the larger story and events surrounding Campaign 2.
Finally, yes, of course I ended up getting some dice. Most of these sets are from Sirius Dice’s upcoming release of their Critical Role dice and their Ravenloft dice, as well as their Ravenloft treasure packs, but there is also the Nevermore dice set from Black Oak Workshop.
All right, so there you have it. A quick rundown of all the shenanigans and fun from Gen Con. Thank you so much for stopping by. That is all from me for today, but I will be back soon with more geeky content. I still owe y’all a July Wrap-Up and a whole bunch of book reviews.
Free State of Geek 