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Reflections from DragonCon
September 3, 2008
If you were at DragonCon, I hope we connected. If you weren't, I hope you take a look at my videoblog--it's just a fraction of the fun we had.
After a white-knuckled drive down to Atlanta from Charlotte (isn't it always?) we arrived with only minutes to spare before the author registration line closed. I had a 10 pm panel on "Fightin' and Writin'"--how to write engaging and (en)grossing battlescenes. On the panel with me was noted military SF writer John Ringo and two former special ops guys. Given that everyone except me had been in the military, I'm possibly the only one on the panel who had never really seen combat or personally hurt someone. (That's OK with me--I have a vivid imagination.) Fortunately, the audience was mostly interested in the technicalities of medieval warfare, which none of us had personally experienced, and that made for a lively discussion. As you can see on the videoblog, I ran into old friends Davey Beauchamp, Jean marie Ward, Chris Jackson and JF Lewis, and made new friends with Lori Hildebrand, DM Paul, KL Nappier, Elyssa Malcohn and Ray Franks (MonsterCon--Concord NC)
On Saturday, I fueled my need for java with the perfect boo brew--a cup of Black Dog coffee from Coffee Shop of Horrors. These guys have great positioning--with names like "Reanimator" and "Netherworld", as well as really good coffee. You can watch my tribute clip here:
Saturday was my day for a reading/chat and we had a good time talking about books in general as well as my world of the Winter Kingdoms. Whenever I wasn't on the panel, I was in the dealer room or at someone else's panel. I enjoyed getting to see Mike Lee, Laurelle K. Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon talk about "how dark is too dark" (there apparently is no such thing as 'too dark').
Sunday I was busy with a panel on Viral Marketing/Web 2.0 (as you may know, marketing is my 'day job' and I don't seem to be able to outrun it, even at a con!) Actually, I love to talk about podcasting and online marketing tools like social media, SEO, etc. because it's just plain fun! And then late night, I was on a really neat panel called "Memento Mori" all about ghosts and the supernatural, a long-time obsession of mine. My fellow panelists were Christina Barber, Jonathan Maberry, Elizabeth Donald and John Everson, and we had some good stories to tell! On the day 3 videoblog, you can also catch author/artist Janna Wurts, Alethea Kontis and Sherrilyn Kenyon, plus comic artist Mike Bocianowski with his Yets!
Of course half of the fun of DragonCon is watching the costumes. I even got my picture taken with "Londo Mollari" from Babylon 5! (It says so on his business card.) People-watching is a real sport at DragonCon, and there are so many amazing costumes (as well as silly, salacious and things that make you go "hmm") that it's hard to know where to look. My personal favorite was the Elvis Vader you'll see on the videoblog.
And then there were the celeb sightings. We spotted Walter Koenig (Checkov/Bestor) and Mickey Dolenz (Monkees...possibly there because he sang the theme to Scooby Doo, Where Are You, which deals with ghosts and UFOs???) and waited to see Adam West (best known to my son as Catman from Fairly Odd Parents) but missed out on seeing him. We passed Katherine Kurtz on I-85 on the way down (hard to miss the Deryni license plate and I recognized Katherine at the wheel). And of course, every podcaster, artist, author and media attendee is a celeb in their own right--so it makes for a jam-packed weekend.
Of course, the only sad part about DragonCon (besides the fact that it has to end) is that there is too much good programming and not enough hours in the day. You can't possibly get to every track you'd like to see, and choosing is hard. But there's always next year!
And if you missed them, here are the links to Days 1-3 at DragonCon!
Day 1: http://www.youtube.com/v/hK7XOYgrGEA
Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/v/zQnfvLl85Hk
Day 3: http://www.youtube.com/v/8UEbJwAgnCA
See you at MonsterCon (Oct. 4-5) and the Carolina Renaissance Festival (Oct. 25-26)
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