August 12, 2003

For those of you that have somehow stumble upon my website and do not already know this, I am the Senior Director of Programming and On-Site Publications for Dragon*Con. 

Dragon*Con is the largest sci-fi/fantasy convention of it's type in the United States, hosting some 350+ guests, 20,000+ attendees, and 1200+ volunteers every year.  It's my job to make sure that all of the guests have discussion panels, and that none of those panels overlap, and that they aren't scheduled for times when they aren't there (such as having not arrived on the plane yet).  With over 20 fan tracks, and 1500+ hours of programming, this is a major undertaking.

I am also the person you love (and sometimes hate), that does the layout, design, typesetting and editing for the Progress Report, the Pocket Program, and the schedule grids.

With Dragon*Con being less than three weeks away, I am sure you can understand when I say, time is at a premium.

While it's amazing to have such a place of responsibility in a high caliber convention like Dragon*Con, the reality is, until it is over, my personal life is at a stand still.

This means I have not finished the Manga section of my website, nor have I had time to include any new artwork in the Portfolio section either.  I am so behind I actually cancelled my Art Show space at Dragon*Con this year.

But all is not dreary and bleak!  

Sometime after Labor Day, the convention will have ended and I will be on the path to many new and exciting things for this website, including a complete redesign, updated portfolio and resume, and yes, you heard it here, manga!

Currently, I have an experimental writing project underway. It is an ongoing fictional journal of a vampire, Lysette, written in retrospection.  The goal has been to post once every other day more of the story.  I started this project as a way to vent my creativity without having a lot of time to devote to it, and also as a way to improve my writing skills.  It is genre horror/human study, and can be found here: Lysette's Soliloquium and in the Pen to Paper section of my website. 

Hope to see you all at Dragon*Con, and don't forget to come back here when it's all over!

June 30, 2003

Believe it or not - this site's been updated!

You can now click on any thumbnail in the Portfolio section and actually get a larger picture.

I know it's not much, but it needed to be done.  

I also have an actual online journal that can be read by clicking this link Dire Epiphany.

And if all goes well, within the next two months the entire Manga section will be filled out, and the weekly pages will start being posted.

Stay tuned, there's lots happening here and heading your way!

October 28, 2002

I've added a few poems and short stories to my Pen to Paper section.  

I have also finished my first non-fiction piece about growing up adopted, and finding out as an adult that my heritage wasn't what I believed it to be.  It's entitled Adoption: Breaking the Seal on Secrecy.  You can find it in Pen to Paper, or by click here.

October 27, 2002

I had an absolutely fabulous time in New Orleans!  Though probably not the cleanest city I have ever set foot in, the people were super easy to get along with, and the food, oh heavens, the food was so good, I think I must have put on a hundred pounds just looking at it! 

For those of you that don't already know, David and I  just got promoted to Senior Directors of Programming and On-Site Publications for Dragon*Con.  Needless to say, it's taking up a great deal of my time right now and probably will for the next month or so while I try and figure out all my new job functions.

I didn't take my laptop with me on the trip since it's so hard to get things through security at the airports these days, so I didn't get any writing done.  Now that I am back, I will hopefully be able to finish the updates to my portfolio and get the non-fiction piece on being adopted done within the next week. 

In the meantime, I've added a Guestbook to my site.  So, feel free to sign it and let everyone know what you think about my site or my work.

October 18, 2002

Dragon*Con is over, and I have caught up on some much needed sleep, as well as completely redesigned my web site.  

Unfortunately, I am going away for the weekend for a Dragon*Con post-Con, pre-Con meeting.  But don't worry, I'll be back on Tuesday!

The portfolio section is still being modified, with descriptions of each piece there being added on a daily basis until I get them all done.  

Also, you will notice the Manga section has been added, but until I finish revising my portfolio, I won't be adding to it.  Once that's done, and I have started on the Manga section, I will be adding some short stories, poems, and the like to the Pen to Paper section.  

Ok, well, that's not completely true, I have already put my Non-Identifying Adoption/Birth Information there.  Though, technically, I didn't write it.  So, if  you're interested in learning more about me, before I was adopted, that would be the place to check.  I am also writing a non-fiction article about what it was like growing up as an adopted child, and what it has meant to and for me over the years.  I will probably have it up before I even finish the portfolio section, since my laptop is only a 486.  (For those of you that don't remember, that was a long time ago, before the Pentium I, none-the-less the P4s.)

Have a great weekend, and try to stay dry!

August 18, 2002

Well, as many of you know, it is almost that time of year again.  Yes, that's right, it is almost time for Dragon*Con!  (Aug. 30 - Sept. 2, 2002)

For those of you that don't know, Dragon*Con is the largest Sci-fi/Fantasy Convention in the US, hosting some 300 guests, and 20,000+ attendees every year.  It is also one of my most ambitious endeavors.

For the last several years, I have been the Director of Onsite Publications and the Daily Dragon.  

Each year, about 7 days prior to the convention I receive all the data for the Pocket Program.  It's a 64 page front and back half-page booklet detailing the events at the convention, as well as when and where everything is.  That gives me about a day and half to two days to convert an access database to a well laid out type-set booklet and get it to our printer in time to print 20,000 copies and have the ink dry (one year, the pages were still hot when they were delivered).

This year marks the first time in five years that I have gotten the database 13 days before the Convention!  As glad as I am about this fact, I have to admit to having some nervousness involved in it.  It's like I almost have too much time to do it.  I started working on the schedule grids (like a TV Guide for the Convention) today and found myself pushing through it at a psychotic's pace.  Old habits die hard. 

I got lucky again earlier this week when someone from the Convention's art show called and cancelled.  Looks like I will have a display up after all for all of you wanting to see my work first hand.  

 As great as all this is for me, it's not so good for all of you.  It means that those descriptions for the art in the Portfolio I promised you are going to have to wait until post-Con.  Also, I've decided to start a new comic - mostly because the characters are running around in my head telling me to draw them, and to hurry up about it.  

Don't feel bad though, I've told them to sit in a corner and wait patiently like good boys and girls until after the Con, then I will draw them all and share their stories with you.

In the meantime, I did add another digital art piece.  The cute little one in the picture is my son when he was four (and that was almost nine years ago now - ugh!) I guess I needed a creative outlet today.  You can view it at the bottom of the page in the Portfolio, or click here.  Hope you all enjoy it!

See you in a couple of weeks!

August 10, 2002

So, it's around 3:00 in the morning.  I can't sleep and I am feeling nostalgic - a dangerous combination no matter how you try to look at it.  Remember, friends don't let artists draw while sleep deprived.  Now, where did I put my pencil?

In any case, I thought I would share my nostalgia with you and scanned some old comic strips I did for the college paper back in 1994.  You can see it here, or go to the Portfolio and click the thumbnail at the bottom of the page. The jokes are dated, and the art style is nothing like I do now, but I hope you all enjoy it anyway.  

August 7, 2002

I have added my Portfolio.  For now, the thumbnails only lead to a larger version of the piece.  Over the next week or so, I will be adding descriptions about each item. 

I have also added my personal Resume, a Contact page, and a Links page.

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© 2002 Animetion Ink/Cassy Gordon;  All rights reserved.