Long story short: if you liked the first book, the series gets better. The hard work of figuring out the overall situation is over-- now you get to see how everyone deals with tough circumstances. Some of it is surprising-- very surprising.

I enjoyed the first three books of the series: Ill Wind, Heat Stroke, and Chill Factor. They all have a very different feel but share being fast, fun reads.

Joanne goes through a lot in these books. In the first book she's on the run, hunting for a hidden ally... and facing a devastating clock; she's dying to a corrupting demon twisting within. Her balance and resourcefulness in the face of her many challenges is wonderful and completely engaging.

The end of the first book sets up the second-- but the hope you're left with at the end of the first is swiftly tempered. It's a dog eat dog world, and she's completely reliant on others for her sustenance. The book wanders a bit, but the core relationships are solid and well done. The end is very incomplete-- really, it's just an open hook for the third book. The resolution, returning her to normal life is a little vague and... obvious, but it mostly works.

The third book is a bit more "normal life" despite the unusual circumstances. There's some appealing flashbacks that do a good job of explaining more about Joanne and where she came from. The additional development is nice, though the rape and interrogation scene was disheartening. (More disheartening that it had to happen in her storyline; she had plenty of motivation without it.) This time the book resolves clearly, then tacks on an open hook to the 4th book.

A slew of library books came in so I set the series aside for now-- but I enjoyed them all.

The book has the struggle intrigue rich books always suffer; there's a complex set of interactions and history that the major players all know, but the reader has to get introduced to them as transparently as possible. The author does a good job of not info dumping intensely, though separating the dreams and history from the book's current day is tricky the first time it comes up.

In the end, I liked the characters-- they are all flawed, but most have extenuating (or at least explanatory) circumstances. The nebulous evil is very shadowy-- we only come to certain proof at mid-book (from a minor character's POV, and at the end (for the movers and shakers).

The book doesn't even pretend to come to a real conclusion; it ends on a turning point, but there's no clear break or circumstance to ground it. Despite my grousing, I do want to look up the other books in the series and see where the characters wind up. The end of the world's a good place for drama...

I love this style of poetry and look forward to reading more. Sadly, this is the library's only copy of her poetry.

Meeting writers of blogs and RPG books was less exciting than I'd anticipated. Despite following people for years, it's all one way, so conversations really stalled at the "nice to meet you" stage. Which, really, is fine-- I'd never pushed to make them closer before, and a con with so many new faces wasn't the place.

Conversely, finally meeting the people I've been writing with for a couple of years was neat. We didn't schedule enough together time-- I could have spent a day, easy, in camaraderie, but we were all trying to fill our GenCon, most were traveling with other friends, and so on. Still, it was great to meet them, the same night we won the Ennie-- which was nice. The ceremony was too long, and Pathfinder's roll of victories (something like 11 of 21 categories) got a little embarrassing after a while. The workshop the next morning was great-- I'm not a huge public speaker, but it was very comfortable passing the conversation and questions back and forth, due to our years of interaction. Winning a silver Ennie was great-- I think it caught us all off guard. Selling out the 50 con copies of Eureka was gratifying-- all the way through the design I though the product category was a long shot because so little system neutral stuff does well. I was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise-- though some of that was due to our sights not being too large.

Open board gaming was a way to fill the cracks; it was interesting to see which games were popular enough to maintain tournaments years after their release. The Rio Grande room was great-- they had a roving demo staff who would come up to you when you sat down at a board, and would walk you through the first couple of turns. I got to try out several new games, which was a nice spot of fun. They also had Dominion's new expansion, Prosperity, which really broke the mold of the first few sets. It's intentionally inflationary, and I suspect that it won't mesh well with core sets Dominion-- or, rather, that games using Prosperity cards will feel more like Prosperity than core Dominion.

I blew off a game for more dealer's hall roaming Sunday. The dealer's hall was impressive, sometimes overwhelming. Each time I'd hit an area I'd see new booths I'd somehow not noticed on the previous pass. Given my biases, it was more amazement at the variety of goodies out there than the need to buy much that struck me... but the IPR booth was dangerous, particularly when a designer pitched their own game.

Sunday morning we also got a very quick demo of Battles of Westeros, FFG's new "Battlelore" core set. We all liked it right away, and I think it's a lot like a Euro-game version of most tactical minis games; about a 90 minute play time, simple but deep rules, with lots of room for strategy but a strong influence by luck. We bought BoW and it's been a frequent play this week. We have the rules down pretty smoothly now, and once the new game luck wore off for me, Jennifer enjoyed it too.

It was sometimes overwhelming, often fun in a small way, sometimes fun in a huge way, and simply an amazing experience. I have no idea when I'll get to go again, but I hope it's some time soon.

More on the RPGs (from the original post):
Burning Wheel was great to see in play; I’ve long owned it, but had been intimidated by the rules. I now think I could tackle it.

Dresden was great– I love the novels– but what really made it sing was watching the non-Fate players “get” Aspects. We did some crazy big, crazy cool stuff. I’m going to steal the GM’s big marker and index cards for keeping track of scene and city aspects– having them in front of you reminded you to tag them for awesomeness.

My Star Wars game involved some really well run intrigue. It was great to play with my normal Star Wars GM– he’s long run it, but hadn’t had a chance to actually play. Winding up the accidental straight man, and rolling incredibly lucky just when the story required that I not do so was great.

Learning byswarm’s “Dark Golden” world and Pathfinder was neat. The easy grapple rules really were impressive, and familiarity from long play of 3.5 made it relaxing.

It was fun, entirely light-- and entirely forgettable. There's very little I retained-- well, remembering freeform. Perhaps, if something specific came up in conversation, I might remember something more, but I don't consider most of it added to my stock of knowledge. (Other than the extended series on the Mayflower, which was particularly interesting.)

Her decision to intercede on her husband's behalf is surprising-- it doesn't come from an excess of love the way you'd imagine. Her time in the underworld is bold, deeply marking-- and annoying, given how she's treated. Passion comes in the least likely place-- and returning to the world above is a sacrifice, not liberation.

The men are alien and distant, separated by her status and the difference between the reader's and the characters' mores. It's a fascinating look that encourages me to dig deeper into Greek literature.

I drove up to the north end of town, following up on some leads by Mark and some research on cityfeet and showcase. The first stop was Cedar and Nees. It's an interesting, long space that's not too deep; a bit more than 70' wide x 30' deep. It's a little hidden behind the corner gas station, but I think it's a good space. [There is no major anchor this corner-- it's a corner strip around a gas station.]

The interior pictures are working left to right across the suites.

I like it. It's a little quirky, but it looks like our store will complement the center well.

SEC First and Nees [Save Mart]: There's one space buried in the back, hidden behind a McDonalds from the street, and as far from First as you can get.

The center seems to be thriving; the above store was the only vacancy on the corner. The neighbors aren't perfect, but the big problem seems to be line of sight. From First, Save Mart "bumps out" to hide this wing of shops. From Nees, there's a McDonalds in the way.

The opposite corner is the Vons shopping center. There are more openings in this center (5). The front pod is full, and the western leg of the L is pretty full despite 3 vacancies-- there are a lot of little shops, including shoe repair, Dave's Happy Dragon,and bigger stores like Round Table on the street end. The first pictured monument sign is for this leg.

The first space, 7763, probably won't work-- it's only about 1200 SF.

The next two spaces are side by side, ripe for the combining. Together, they'd be 2400 SF.

On the First Street side of Vons, there's a good sized former Gym (2,230 SF) next door to a good sized former Karate of 2,632 SF. Unfortunately, there's no good space on the monument signage for those two spots. They are pretty convenient to the road however.

Now the gym:


Of these, I think the Gym could work best. It's 2230 SF, which is pretty close to the size we want. It's a busy, thriving corner and lots of people would drive past it to get to Vons and the shops along the other line. Unfortunately, we'd have to do a lot of talking to get these rates anywhere near what we want our total rent to come out to.

The individual spaces in this building are too small-- around 1050 SF apiece. (About 20' wide x 45' deep.) Which makes two just about ideal-- and there are lots of side by spaces available.

This complex looks good. The neighbors aren't high rent, so hopefully they're not asking crazy prices. Leasing by Commercial West.

The next most promising space is Mission Village, just off 41 at the south-west corner of Shaw and Fresno. (Across the street from Fashion Fair.) The best space is the former Kenpo Karate at 373 W. Shaw. The real estate agent wrote back with the asking price, but emphasized that the price isn't in concrete-- we can negotiate. It's 2100 SF. Leasing by Mark Saito.

Two doors down is 377, a former Awakenings Salon and Spa. It is larger, 2740 SF-- probably too large to make work at expected prices. There would also be some demolition-- on the right side is 8-10' offices. At the rear it looks like some office/storage space is set off.

My camera died at 385. It's a long narrow space, about 18'x60', which is probably at the low end of what we're looking for. (It might be 1400 SF?)

Those two locations are both promising. I like the Karate Space at Mission Village, and the idea of the 103/104 spaces at Bullard and Fresno. Mission Village may have some issues with parking-- it's a lot of restaurants, so their hours match hours rather than freeing spaces at 5 pm. At 1 pm, even with the four stores along the back empty, there wasn't a large expanse of free parking.

Below are the "needs a little work", or less immediately appealing spaces.

Barstow and First, South West Corner. (Headliner shopping center.) This is diagonal from Hoover High.
In the L shaped building behind the Vallero gas station are several shops, including my hair cutter and a greek grocery store. At the east end, along First, is an endcap space, 777H. At first glance it is well divided-- but it's actually strongly asymmetrical thanks to the offices along the back and left edge. We would either have L shaped gaming (along the back and right), or have to remove all of the walls for a better division. Pacing, the store seems to be 45' wide x 36' deep. Click through for captions describing the pictures.

Across the parking lot on the same corner is Blackjack Meat Market-- a store that never opened. That space will also be available soon-- and, because they were working inside, I was able to take pictures from inside. I think this space is something like 27' wide x 45' deep.

Dad and I revisited the north west corner of Fresno and Shaw-- the corner with World of Baseball. (The Gallery Plaza [PDF].) We liked the look of Suites 115/116, currently combined into Xpress Gym. It's about 30' wide-- but, deceptively, is almost 90' deep. I loved the current division, but suspect it's just too much space. I mentioned putting in a permanent partition along the current divider-- basically returning it to suites 115 and 116 and just renting half. Dad didn't like it (and I agreed)-- it'd be too dark in the back half of the store.

View Larger Map
On reviewing the PDF, it looks like the space is 2906 SF.

On the same corner is 350 E Shaw, the former Rochester's Big and Tall. It's huge... but might have potential if we hived off the eastern half. It's about 48' deep by 105' wide; if we took the eastern 40' or so, it'd be a good size. That would mean cutting it off just to the right of the security grating in the 6th picture. There is also the former changing room cube cutting out the back of the store to deal with. (We might extend the R changing room partition forward as the divide between retail and gaming.)

Barstow and Cedar, north west corner. Diagonal from FSU. Bulldog Plaza [PDF], pretty pictures, no prices. Former CVIP.net and Piece of Cake, Between China Station and University Bookstore. Blinds covered half CVIP the space, and I didn't take pictures of Piece of Cake. Internally, there are a lot of partition walls running through the place-- there would be a lot of demo to make it work. In pictures it's hard to see, but the space extends pretty deep. And the picture is of only half the space-- beyond the left partition was about an equal amount of additional space, all behind blinds.