[OFFICIAL] assorted comments!

OK chaps (and chapesses of course, if there ARE any on the list...)

Just got through reading about 100 emails in the last couple of hours,
having got back from EuroGenCon last night!
There are lots of threads that I'd have liked to have commented on
individually, but it would just take too long, so please excuse me
putting
several into this one posting.

EuroGenCon was pretty good, not as many people as last year apparently
(mainly due to it only being confirmed about ten weeks ago, due to the
uncertainty over TSR UK with the WOTC business) but still great fun.
Business was steady, and it was good to meet a few UK list members
(Roger,
Paul etc.). Ate too much junk food and got very little sleep (I don't
drink
much, but Tim and Dave who were with me got ritually rat*ss*d most
nights;
Saturday evening ended with a very large water-pistol battle in the
Students' Union bar - Tim's "welcome to Beirut" impression from behind a
table was quite effective - and they both arrived back at their rooms
around 3am on Sunday morning carrying an aubergine......). Can't wait
for
next year.  :)

Bought millions of blisters of minis off a fellow trader who was selling
a
load off at 50p and £1 per pack (bankrupt stock from several shops I
think)
- lots of fun stuff including Terminator II figs, Aliens, Living Steel,
Rifts, Castle Falkenstein, Space 1889 (25mm boxed sets!!), Vampire,
Legions
of Steel and loads more! Ha! More lead to never paint and never use....
I'll probably end up selling kost of it on at later shows....

[Aside note: we heard the news about Princess Diana as a rumour in the
trade hall Sunday morning, and no-one really believed it at first.
Remember, we'd been cut off from all outside media on a University
campus
since Thursday. The really spooky thing is that it was over EuroGenCon
two
years ago that John Smith died (Tony Blair's predecessor as Labour Party
leader, for non-UK list members' info), and no-one believed that either
until we managed to get a paper.
I'd like to add my sadness and condolences to those already expressed on
the list.]

Meanwhile, back at the plot....

Allan, thanks for organising the survey about people's opinions on
supplements. I'm looking forward to the results.

On the subject of the proposals for contributions towards putting future
supplements together, thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm. Some
thoughts
and discussions have already been had about this, and I'll hope to be
talking more about this soon. At the moment, I'm picking the brains of a
writer friend who has been involved in editing more than one "shared
world"
anthology, to get ideas about producing a set of guidelines for the FT
universe (a universe "bible"), which will hopefully keep submissions
within
the kind of lines that I'd like the background to run. Once I can get
something like this done it will make it much easier for anyone to
submit
ideas that still fit what I have in mind, which will make them much more
publishable. I have a fairly developed mental picture of how the FT
universe looks and works, but that doesn't help you guys much until I
can
get it down in writing!

More on this soon.

Jon (GZG)