As I type this, it is gone 1am - yup, the sleep patterns have been well and truly messed up by Gen Con and travel to the US.

The show was good - one of our best yet, I would say. Attendance seemed to be very good, and there was a lot of traffic through the Mongoose stand, from those seeking the latest releases, to others just wanting to say hi! Anyway, highlights from the show, in no particular order;

* Watching Traveller, Paranoia, Earthdawn and Fantasy Craft duke it out for the title of best seller on our stand.

* Between the plane flights and the hotel, seeing eight different films - and falling asleep 15 minutes before the end on every single one of them. With Nicola Cage's Knowing, this turned out to be a plus, as it was a good film up to that point. Less good with Angels & Demons and Wolverine.

* Meeting the staunchest members of the Mongoose Infantry demo team, some of whom have been with us for eight years. Go guys!

* Watching Victory at Sea steadily sell out, with rushes after each demo game the guys ran.

* The Girls of Gen Con. 'Nuff said.

* Watching Kelly try to eat a slice of chocolate cake that was nearly as large as her head (and that is not stretching thinngs at all).

* Picking up a huge stock of Troll Lord books during a particularly good product swap. And promising to have drinks (yeah, and the rest) with Steve at GAMA next year.

* Watching the delight in the eyes of 2000AD fans when they see the new Judge Dredd book.

* Waking up one night in the hotel to find myself on the floor, sitting up straight, cross-legged, facing the wall. Weird.

* Forcing Dom from Cubicle 7 to order Jambalaya because I wanted to see what it looked like. Then regretting I had only ordered a burger.

* Hearing some very complimentary things from distributors about where Mongoose stands in the grand scheme of things.

* Discussing the possibility of a Kung Fu Fishing game during one of several brainstorming sessions. The results of the others are unprintable.

* Getting to meet some of the faces behind our Flaming Cobra titles for the first time.

* Seeing some new ideas for packaging. . . certain items, and thinking 'we _so_ have to do that.'

* Finding the skywalk that led straight from our hotel to the convention centre - across two blocks. Saved me from the heat of the city (literally).

* And finally - getting back to England. Love you, America, but there is no place like home. . .

Well, I wanted to be in a state of readiness a few hours ago, but it looks like I have finally got all the ducks in line for Gen Con - so, aside from my own luggage (must remember the passport. . .) I have a minutes for readers of Planet Mongoose!

As usual, lots has been going on here at Mongoose HQ. I'll take you through some of the highlights;

1. Advance copies of Judge Dredd, Scoundrel and Western City have all arrived at our office. Judge Dredd looks spiffingly good, and Scoundrel has already had some good reports from those who have seen it. And don't forget Western City, a wild west RPG from Redbrick (producers of Earthdawn) that does not need a Games Master! We have just finished getting advance copies out to those who pre-ordered the books, with the exception of a few Judge Dredds - if you don't see it in the next couple of days, then you will (like us!) be waiting for the main delivery, just after Gen Con. Sorry, but the printers did not send us enough to cover all orders (which is not our standard practice anyway, actually - however, if we have books in one hand and orders in the other. . .).

2. Speaking of mail orders, if you have been waiting for Earthdawn, it is on its way to you right now. Apologies for the delay, but demand for this game has been very high, and as soon as we restock, they have leapt right off the shelves! We have now fortified in depth and, as well as getting all existing orders out, can pretty much handle anything more you can throw at us!

3. Just a quick reminder, mail order will be a little slow over the next week, as most of the mail order staff will be at Gen Con. However, we will be hitting all orders as soon as we come back, so there should be just a lag of a week or so at the very most.

4. The first two all new miniatures for our forthcoming Judge Dredd miniatures game have just turned up at our office. As soon as they get a lick of paint, we'll run some previews of them. They are two new Street Judges to widen the range a little (judges are going to be very popular under the new system. . .), and every one is generally agreed that the judge tapping his daystick in his hand is the meanest! We'll have some more Judge Dredd miniatures coming soon, and then we'll be waiting for models from the 'other' miniatures game we are working on, scheduled for a late Q1/sometime Q2 release next year, assuming nothing spanners up the works. . .

5. Speaking of (very) advanced copies, we have just received the first Traveller referee's screen in the office, and it looks, well, lush is the only word, really! We have used the thicker 'luxury' card stock again, and it has a nice heft to it, as well as a panoramic view of a Type-S cockpit for the players. This will be getting a serious work out in our office game when we get back from Gen Con, as well as the all new Traveller Character Pack. Both of these will be on general release a little later this year, and should add a lot to your games.

6. Fans of Lone Wolf will be pleased that Book 11 is already at print, and Book 12 will be following it as soon as Mr Dever gives it approval. Also, we will soon be setting a date for the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Gamebook, and we are just adding the final material to it now. Then we have to get cracking on the first supplement! Expect very, _very_ easy rules on this one, based on the original gamebooks, that will allow you to focus on character and story. Oh, and expect it to be digest sized and, thus, very easy on the pocket too!

7. There have been lots of rumours flying around both the RuneQuest and Conan camps. Don't worry, news for both of you will be coming very soon. . .

8. We have had a recent flurry of orders for Paranoia: Black Missions, and I expect the last of our stock to disappear in the next week or so (dpeending on how many people do/do not miss out on it at Gen Con, I think!). If you are really after this tome, don't delay - pre-order it from us or your local retailer this week.

9. And if you are attending Gen Con, please swing by our booth (421) and say hello! A lot of the Mongoose crew will be there (though not necessarily at the same time - we have a lot of meetings to attend this year!), and all our newly released books will be present, from Judge Dredd and Scoundrel, to Fantasy Craft and the Earthdawn Companions!