LONESTAR SHINDIG/APOLLOCON

Roadtrip to Houston for the Lonestar Shindig / Apollocon. My first trip to Houston via car. Tonbo is coming along as a practice run for my first out-of-state convention with Fan Done in Las Vegas in July.

Arrive, set-up. Not enough room for the super Serenity Banner, but that's okay. Getting better at arranging the table, although height has pretty much become a necessity. Also took a bunch of Firefly trading card specials in a lovely case I bought from Michael's and promptly broke on the way down there. It still displayed the cards well, it just had no cover. :(

Con recap:
FRIDAY
- wanted to go to subway for dinner, found out it was closed, went on to con program-book recommended chinese place. only round-eyes around, slow somewhat inattentive service as the staff was busy watching chinese tv. mediocre food, left vowing not to return or endorse. doubletree cookies rawk!

SATURDAY
- chuck's house of pancakes & hot green tea. beautiful hand-made geisha bobblehead doll. bit of brisk business. feeping creatures next door (overheard potential customer: i like this one, but i'm not into bondage. overheard stunned proprietor after re-count of potential customer comment: what?! they are asexual pieces of code!). tonbo found dr. marc & family (figures, i have to go to houston to see these people when they live less than 30 minutes from me ^_-) who were hanging out with peter s. beagle. media guest from farscape, although i haven't watched enough to go over and get an autograph. tired at end of the day. fuddruckers for dinner (ah, the comfort of chain restaurants!). pack local bags since have to check out tomorrow.

SUNDAY
- got my cds autographed by greg edmonson (firefly soundtrack) and cedric (on the drift filk) and autographed their posters (fab idea). attended and participated in the fan merchandise panel (my name is kestrel and a make fan merchandise. hi kestrel). moderated by lee martindale who i've latched on to due to her fiery personality, local residence (plano), browncoatedness, and
professional writership. hope she doesn't get sick of me. bought some of her chap books from yard dog press and talked with the lady about publishing and ya. Also got beverly hale's auto on her ya book, the essence of stone. spent some more money of peter s. beagle books, saw large art prints of rebekah naomi cox's work, which is absolutely stunning! pack out with the help of Houston Browncoats minions and arrived home before dark.

super shiny weekend! the houston browncoats put on a truly stellar event.

table pics available at Fan Done website - link at bottom of the page

NEW FOCUS

I've removed the countdown counter from this website. Having spent the past 6 years chasing money, I am re-evaluating my priorities, my skillsets, and how I want to spend my time.

I will be focusing on my writing. I have always been a writer. My goal now it to become a published author. The first step will be a self-published children's easy reader picture book. The next, an edited collection of submissions, pusblishing method TBD. Lots of ideas, lots of started manuscripts, lots of work ahead.

I honestly don't know when I'm going to retire. It will be before 65, ideally before 55, hopefully before 45.

And while it may seem I have choosen the more difficult path, at least I will be enjoying the travels this time. And no, I don't think the journey is more important than the destination, but I do believe it can feel a lot better if you like the road you are traveling.

LLOYD-QUINN BOOKS

home to the writings of
Kirean LLoyd-Quinn

BtB BIZ PLAN

Met with Ellington Hawke to create the BtB business plan. Showed him a dummy book of BtB that I had coil bound at OfficeMax that morning.

7.5 hours later the notes were done, future life was viewed as simpler, nom de plume (pen name) and publishing company identity existed.

Now I just have a lot of work to do. ^_^;

DOUBLE A CHARGER

So, while BioPerformance is on hold, pending the jury trial in September, I've become involved with a product pre-launch opportunity.

It's a cell phone charger, about the size of a case of lipstick or a 55 caliber bullet (pick which image you prefer). Holds a single AA battery, and gives you an extra 2 hours of talk time, or 40 hours of stand-by time. If nothing else, I'm keeping one of these in my car for emergencies.

There are earlier versions of the charger out there, as you can see from the Good Morning America and FOX news reports, and the face that it was sold on QVC. What's coming out in June in an officially launch is a newer model with a better chip and 10 cell phone adapters. Also, anyone who buys the product gets a lifetime of free adapters(just pay a small shipping & handling fee) - so no worries about whatever new cell phone you're going to use in the future, they have you covered.

Several cool aspects:
1. You can sign up for free, go read all the info in the back office, and walk away if you see nothing of interest. You don't have to buy any product.

2. No fees to "join" the business. If you want to make money, you are buying the product at wholesale and selling at retail. SRP is $39.95 and (obviously) you are buying for less than that, so the difference is your profit. There are other bonuses you can achieve depending how many units get sold.

3. How many people do you know have a cell phone? How many might be interested in this? Big market, don't you think?

4. (one of my favorites) the next product they are going to release is an iPOD charger based on the same concept. So for one AA battery, you can get extra tunes. Not bad at all.


So, there you go. Another step on the path to financial freedom. Because I don't want to be sitting in a cube until I'm 65.