Arsenic Lullaby Blog- Comic-Con INternational day 5 and recap

I...am exhausted. And being a bit overtaken with anxiety. It is a hell of a thing for your brain to deal with- going from five straight days of people asking for your autograph, telling you how much they like your work, ect...to it all just ending instantly. Imagine the affect on your cars transmission if you jammed it into park while doing 75mph on the freeway. That's the affect this has on my brain. I've gone from working and planning non-stop for several months, then signing books non stop for 10 hours a day, to not having anything to do but sit in a hotel room until morning when I have to go to the airport. I really don't know what to do with myself right now.

Let's recap I guess.

Day five went fine. Which means somehow the fates have passed me by as far as handing out calamity during the convention. It almost feels like I let everyone down, not having some bizarre incident. It also feels almost like the show hasn't really happened yet, as if the week was all a dress rehearsal or something.

Maybe...it was all the positive energy coming from Steamit that warded off whatever fate gremlins usually make there home at my booth.

There was almost an incident, in which I was going to get into a thing with some "get out the vote" numbskulls. I'm all for signing people up to vote...but trying to do so in the middle of an isle, in a jam packed comic book convention, in front of my booth where I am trying to conduct business, is not the time or place. AND it is against the rules because it's a fire hazard. If it was okay to just stand in the middle of the isle and solicit people EVERYONE would be doing so. It's not allowed and doing so in front of my booth in particular is flat out dangerous. There are 160,000 people in that building and my booth faces and exit/entrance. Stop and let that sink in for a moment...and imagine a fire alarm going off or or forbid some other incident...and these people ate set up blocking the exit. So any manner of incident that would cause a need for an evacuation would result in tens of thousands of people needing to get by/through them and their little portable display. Ever see what happens when a giant crowd is running for an exit and a few people at the front fall down? It's not pretty. Which is why I had already imagine how best to shoulder block them right into fucking wall and out of the way as violently as possible...should the need arise

Here's the thing...at that show I am competing with nearly every other publisher there is, as well as video game companies, movie companies, tv companies...all of us in the same building competing for fans ( dollars). I being an independent publisher cannot afford to let one single person/opportunity pass by...and so three numbskulls interfering with the flow of traffic in the crowded isle in front of me is a big fucking problem. I have to invest about 7000.00 in that show, and I have a total of about 40 hours to make that money back, selling 20.00 books. If three a-holes cause a problem for even two hours...that's now 38 hours left in which to make back 7000.00. AND...it's stupid idea. No one is thinking about Cal-exit or whatever their hair brained issue was at the largest comic book convention in the U.S. You might as well try to get people to sigh up for PETA at a monster truck rally. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

And, I'd like to point out that they didn't set up in front of DC or Marvel or Sony or any company they knew could just have them removed with one phone call...they set up in front of me. No doubt assuming I'd have no pull in having them dragged out.

Normally I'd let their very presence bother me increasingly until it's like a hot tack in my eye. BUT...I'm trying to keep the positive energy going, so I didn't drop kick their clipboard out the door and chuck their portable display into the isle to be trampled by godless nerds on their way to some exclusive funko pop toy. I just went about my business and as luck would have it, within 20 minutes or so they got tired of being showed around by an uninterested crowd of comic book fans and sort of just wandered off.

...yeah...I know that as far as something to complain about, that's pretty thin...but I'm trying to give you SOMETHING worth reading. Aside from that, I just signed autographs for 10 hours a day...and that's not a very interesting story, is it? Would you rather I just droned on and on about how many people told me I'm great? Because I'll do that, don't think for a moment that I'd shy away from it. ...Also, I still don't have all the video figured out...I'll probably just have to post it on bitchute or something and post the links here.

Lemme take a moment to show you the real stars of the show. The Arsenic Lullaby team. These are the people that help set up the booth, pack, unpack, talk to all the fans and get others interested in my work...and deal with me for five days (the five days of the year my normally massive ego is even more inflated). They are badasses. These people in this pic got roughly 500 copies of Arsenic Lullaby into the hands of new readers and old fans in four and a half days. I know that convention well, there aren't many publishers moving anywhere near that number of any specific book, that includes Marvel and DC.

They do all that by tirelessly talking to complete strangers non-stop on my behalf. It's fucking humbling that they are willing to that.

There was also a A.L. reader and later a kid who both helped for a little bit so they could take breaks, but he wasn't around when I took the picture.

...I don't have much else to add right now, my brain is very tired and confused. I'm gonna try to get some sleep.

More later.