On the road again: DragonCon, day 6

Wake up.  Work.  Shower.  Work.  Check out.  Drive.  Work and eat lunch.  Ride--and work.  Get home.  Work.  Eat dinner.  Work.

That was pretty much my day, the final day of DragonCon for me, the day after the con officially ended. 

A few closing thoughts on DragonCon:

The crowds are amazing, as is their energy.  Though written SF is definitely not the top priority for the majority of folks, books and stories matter enough that every panel I saw had plenty of attendees.

The people who run the con came across as incredibly well organized.  I'm sure there were plenty of hitches behind the scenes, but from my perspective, these folks did great work.

The con organizers treated me very well.  I was happy with my panel selection, and they were always great to me.

On balance, I absolutely hope to return next year, assuming I can get a hotel room.

Now, though, it's time to unpack.

I hit the road again Sunday.

Oh, boy!

On the road again: DragonCon, day 5

After a little morning work, I tromped down the stairs--the elevators were jammed with fans who were checking out--to my one con activity of the day:  a panel titled, "Ask My Anything!"  The plan was that four other writers and I would answer whatever questions the audience threw at us, and that was pretty much what happened.  Almost all of the questions focused on topics related to publishing, both in the traditional ways and self-publishing.  The time passed reasonably quickly, and the audience seemed pleased, so I'd call the panel a moderate success.

After lunch, which I once again procured from the nearby food court, I walked a bit, did a little work, and had a lovely nap, a rare treat. 

Dinner was a decent Italian meal at one of the local Figo chains that just happened to be right near that Jeni's I'd visited earlier.  (Okay, so it wasn't all luck.)  Naturally, dessert was delicious ice cream.

Back at the hotel, the con, which officially ended late this afternoon, was barely present.  Here's a shot much like the others I took from my favorite people-watching spot in the Marriott's lobby.

As you can see, the crowd of determined partyers is a tiny fraction of what it was during the other nights of the con.

Tomorrow morning, I will catch up on whatever work has arrived and then head to the car before noon for the long drive home.

On the road again: DragonCon, day 4

You can reach a nearby food court from two of the main con hotels via an enclosed walkway, so that place has done a banner business for both lunch and dinner.  I've taken lunch there each day, and I did so again today, choosing Aviva for the second time.  The food was once again delicious and fresh.

I spent a lot of time in the art show today, studying my two favorite paintings.  Ultimately, and after much thought, I spent entirely too much money on a bid for the piece that turned out to win the Best in Show award.  As luck would have it, I won, so a very beautiful oil painting is going to be riding home with me Tuesday.

In the late afternoon, I did a signing at the booth of The Missing Volume, my friend Glennis LeBlanc's store.  Glennis is always gracious at signings, even to authors who do not sell many books for her; I, sadly, am one of those.  I did sign books for a few folks and had a lot of nice conversations, so as signings go for me, it was a good one.

On the way back to the hotel from the dealers' areas, I stopped at a local CVS to pick up more Coke Zero for the room.  While doing that, I passed this sign, which I have seen before and quite like.

Click an image to see a larger version.

No, I did not order the Leeroy Jenkins, but I did smile at the name.

After some work, I headed out to a pleasant and tasty dinner at the nearby White Oak Kitchen.  The place is a very short walk from the hotel, and the food was good enough, but it just couldn't hold a candle to last night's meal or even the one at Bacchanalia a few nights ago.

On my usual walking and people-watching late-night tour, I spotted this woman showing off her Sharknado costume.  Nice concept. 

The crowds at the Marriott were definitely thinner than last night's, but the people-watching was still good, and excellent costumes were plentiful and easy to spot.

The energy remains infectious.  Though I always stand apart from the festival and can't even imagine how I might participate in any of it, I do enjoy watching and listening.

Tomorrow at 11:30 a.m., I have my final event of the con, a panel with four other writers.  I have no clue how many folks will attend, so if you're at the con and reading this, come check us out!

On the road again: DragonCon, day 3

My day began rather earlier than I would have preferred, because a mixture of shouts and amplified speech carried all the way from the ground to my room on the eleventh floor of the hotel.  The shouts came from excited fans getting ready for the annual DragonCon parade.  The speech was courtesy of a man who was letting the entire convention-going crowd know that they were going to hell because they were worshiping false idols.

I am all for free speech, so I respect the man's right to buy a mic and an amp and try to save the crowd.  I am also fine with his wanting to save us all.  What I find annoying is the assumption that any of the people here were actually worshiping false gods.  Though I believe con-goers are passionate in their interests, I've never met one who had a lick of trouble understanding the difference between God with a capital G and any of the actors, performers, writers, shows, games, or whatever else they enjoyed.  I further believe that the vast majority of the con-goers self-identify as having some serious religious conviction.  So, to that one loud man:  Dude, know your audience.

Anyway, I watched the parade from my balcony, where the view was excellent and I didn't have to fight a crowd.  I couldn't see any details, obviously, but I had no trouble recognizing all the groups--including this one, from Baen Books.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The parade lasted about an hour and a half and featured many types of groups, from the Battlestar Galactica crowd to the Star Wars storm troopers, and from the comic-book superheroes to the Doctor Who characters.  I was happy to see a small set of Monty Python gumbys.

After some work and a shower, I grabbed a quick lunch and joined the Baen Books Traveling Roadshow panel.  Because I haven't yet finished the next Jon & Lobo book, I had nothing to contribute to the panel, but it was still a fun time.

Work was light, so I devoted the next couple of hours to wandering through all of the many vendors in the two floors full of dealers.  Though most of the stuff on offer here does not appeal to me, I still enjoyed looking around.

Dinner tonight was an amazingly good meal at Gunshow, a relatively new Atlanta restaurant.  The food was so good, and the experience sufficiently interesting, that I'm going to write a separate entry on it later.  (I now owe you three restaurant reviews; I am keeping track.)

Around eleven, I went strolling for about an hour, checking out the usual spaces and also going to another hotel, the Westin, that I rarely visit.  The people-watching at the Marriott was as good as always--and the crowd was the biggest yet.

With all of the thousands of people here, and with all of the folks in the SF/F community whom I know, I did not encounter a single person I know.  Not a surprise, but a testimony to the sheer size of this beast of a con.

Another day at DragonCon.

On the road again: DragonCon, day 2

Unfortunately, I spent almost all of today's daylight hours in my room, again, working.  I did get out for a quick burger for lunch and a walk through the large art show.  While on that walk, I ran into and chatted with Dan Dos Santos, an artist whose work I very much like.  He did the cover for The Wild Side, and I liked it so much I bought the original painting.  In person, he was friendly and humble and altogether delightful.  I quite liked him.

I also spent a few minutes talking with Annie Stegg, an artist whose work I had never seen before.  Her paintings were lovely, pieces that frequently exhibited a strong Pre-Raphaelite influence.  I will certainly be on the lookout for her art in the future.

At 5:30, it was time to do my comedy show.  The audience numbered around 40, larger than I'd feared, smaller than I'd hoped, and big enough that the sound of their laughter carried into the hall and drew in more people.  As best I can tell, the show went quite well; I know the whole audience laughed for nearly the entire set.  (I'm dropping the bits where they didn't laugh.) 

After the show, I gave myself the reward I had mentioned yesterday:  a trip to the local Jeni's for some ice cream. Publisher Toni joined us, and we had a grand time talking and enjoying scrumptious ice cream sundaes.

Back at the hotel, work had piled up once again, so I spent a few hours catching up.  I then headed out to people-watch, first in the lobby of the Hyatt, and then in the Marriott's lobby.  The crowds tonight were way larger than last night's.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Downstairs, a small rave was in progress, the beat pounding upward, the dancers all having a grand time.

I stayed for a surprisingly long time, watching the people, listening to the music, and finding myself smiling and invigorated at the sheer energy of the crowd.  The enthusiasm here is contagious.

I routinely read and hear discussions of how SF/F is dead, but this con, like many other large cons, puts the lie to that statement.  SF/F has carried the day, moved into video games and other games of all sorts, into TV shows and movies, and into the culture at large.  Sales of paper books may be down, but overall book sales--ebooks do count--are up.  The people at this con are, by and large, young and engaged and passionate about their interests.  Those interests touch every aspect of the fantastic.  If you asked them if science fiction and fantasy were dead, they would wonder if you were insane.

Are they all reading SF/F novels?  Most assuredly no.  But some of them are, and they are numerous.

I have always been hopeful for our field, and I am even more hopeful now.

On the road again: DragonCon, day 1

As best I understand it, DragonCon didn't exactly officially start today--that happens tomorrow--but nonetheless registration was open, the con held some panels, and thousands of fans flooded into the area hotels.  A con this big is an amazing thing to watch happen, a mob event of huge proportions.

Due to work, I spent almost all of the daylight hours working in my room, but I did get out for lunch and to register. 

Lunch was at a very good Mediterranean place, Aviva by Kameel, that sits in a nearby food court.  The lamb shawarma was by far the best I've ever tasted.  Kameel, the proprietor, was working the line and is one of the most cheerful people I've ever encountered.  His enthusiasm and happiness were contagious, so much so that when he greeted people with "My friend" or "I love you," he felt genuine.  If you're in this area and seeking lunch, check out Aviva--and hope Kameel is working.

I'm lucky enough to be a guest at the con, so I got to register in the separate area for guests.  The process was quick, painless, and even pleasant, thanks to the very nice man who took care of my registration.  (His badge was backward, so I didn't get his name.) 

He pointed me to a back corner of the room to get my pocket program and program book.  A man was sitting on a shelf there; the things I needed were behind him.  He was deep in conversation with a friend, but as I drew closer, he stopped talking, grabbed the two items I wanted, handed them to me, and said, "Here you go, friend."

The man was Lou Ferrigno. 

I said, "Working con registration incognito?"

He chuckled, smiled, winked, and returned to his conversation.

He could not have been nicer. 

After some more work, I headed out to the Baen Books launch party, an event in honor of new books from David Weber and Timothy Zahn, who collaborated on an Honorverse novel, and John Ringo, whose third book in his plague (aka zombie) series was launching.  At the party, Baen Slushmaster General Gray Rinehart sang a few songs.

Click an image to see a larger version.

I enjoyed his performance.

Next up was dinner at Bacchanalia, an Atlanta restaurant that has drawn a lot of Beard attention.  The fixed-price, five-course meal was top-drawer; every single bite was delicious. 

In the same shopping center, I was surprised to see this lovely sight.

I had no idea that Jeni's operated shops outside Columbus, but I was psyched to see this one.  You can bet I'll hit it sometime before I leave town.

Back at the con, before returning to my room and more work, I went walking and people-watching--always a great activity at DragonCon.  Here's a view into one side of the main Marriott lobby.

The quality of many of the costumes is incredibly high. 

Tomorrow, I have a lot of work to do, but at 5:30 p.m. I will be performing my new comedy show, Mr. Poor Choices II:  I Don't Understand.  I am terrified that the audience will be tiny, two or three friends, but I've done what promotion I can.  I will hope for the best, and then give whatever audience shows up an hour of laughter. 

Check back tomorrow to read how it went.

On the road again: DragonCon, day 0

Sometimes, I'm so dumb I can barely believe it.  Today, I had one of those times.

I got up after a modest amount of sleep and went straight to work.  I wanted to be completely caught up before I got in the car to go to Atlanta and DragonCon.  I finished all my work, showered, and was getting ready to go.  I rushed out.

After driving to Hillsborough, where we planned to eat lunch, and after walking almost to the restaurant, I realized I had changed my dressing ritual by rushing and in the process had left my wallet at home. 

Dumb.

Back home we drove, so I could get my wallet.

Total time cost was about a hundred minutes. 

Dumb.

The rest of the car trip went well.  When I wasn't driving, I was working on my tablet, but I could not keep up with the volume of email that was coming my way. 

I did tweet a picture of the butt-crack side of the giant metal peach; you won't want to miss that.

After checking into the hotel and finding the room to be completely fine, I headed to dinner.  The meal was a tasty one, courtesy of Alma, a place that offered an interesting combination of Brazilian and Mexican dishes.  None were great, but all were good.

Back at the room, I found a giant maelstrom of work email, which took me until the wee hours to finish.

Tomorrow, the con starts.

5 reasons you should come to my comedy show at DragonCon

What comedy show, you may ask?

Why, thank you for asking.

This coming Friday, August 29, DragonCon has graciously given me an hour-long showcase at 5:30 p.m. in Embassy A-B of the Hyatt.  I will be filling that hour with my latest comedy show,

Mr. Poor Choices II:  I Don't Understand

Now that we have those basics out of the way, let me get back to the reasons I promised.

5.  To learn why so many people call me Mr. Poor Choices--and yet I'm still alive.

4.  To discover a way to make a hotel room your own that I guarantee you won't have thought of before.

3.  To feel good:  No matter how badly you've behaved in a mall, I'll make you feel better about yourself.

2.  To appreciate your mother more by hearing why my mom was the world champion of bad gift giving.

1.  To find out just exactly how insane my spending impulses get at four in the morning.

Most of all, of course, come to laugh and have a great start to your evening.

If you're at the con and want to attend the show but can't remember the details, just look for one of these posters.

We'll be putting them everywhere the hotels let us.

I hope to see you Friday!

Where you should be next Friday late afternoon: Dragon Con, seeing my comedy show

Yes, as you can learn from my Appearances page, I will be in Atlanta at Dragon Con.  At 5:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, August 29, I'll be in Embassy A-B in the Hyatt doing my latest comedy show:  Mr. Poor Choices II:  I Don't Understand. 

You should be there.

As I understand it, the room has plenty of seats, so I need plenty of people to fill them.  Comedy works best with a good crowd, so you should come and help be a part of one.

If you come, you'll learn about some of my more interesting poor choices, laugh a great deal, and leave for dinner with a smile on your face.

Spread the word, please.

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 6

Up early after too little sleep, work, shower, and a long drive home; that was how I spent most of the daylight hours.

The early evening went to seeing Ben Azevedo (opening act) and Levi Weaver (main) at a local coffee shop. Both put on very good shows, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I knew some of Ben's music but had never heard Levi. When his set was over, I bought a t-shirt and all of his CDs.

Much work and unpacking to do, then Sunday I hit the road again.

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 5

Like most cons, this one transformed into a ghost town in the space of half a day as programming wound down and the con ended in the late afternoon. Also like most cons, though, five to ten percent of the people stay to the end, which in this case makes for thousands of fans still hanging around. Even in its departure, Dragon*Con makes its size apparent.

After work and shower, I headed off to moderate the panel, "Who wants to be a writer?" As I've noted earlier, my fellow panelists were Terry Brooks, Mercedes Lackey, and Timothy Zahn, all New York Times bestsellers--and Brooks a big-time seller. About a hundred folks showed up for a largely Q&A discussion that I moderated. Our messages were amazingly consistent for four so very different writers, so I hope the would-be writers in attendance found the panel useful.

Afterward, I worked for quite a well, wandered a bit, enjoyed a good dinner, and will soon pack.

Tomorrow, I will once again attempt to stay current on email while riding in a car on the way home. (Don't worry: while I'm driving, I won't be doing email.)

By the way, if you're a fan of Sarah's writing and you're not reading her blog, you're missing out on some fine bits, such as this on a local fireworks show:

I’ve never heard or seen anything like it - the light in the sky and the hills lying silent and black against the dark blue of the night, the explosions striking them like drums.

Yeah, that's my daughter.

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 4

Went to bed late and slept reasonably late, though nowhere near as late as I'd hoped.

Woke up, worked, showered, and headed off to be a guest auctioneer at the charity auction.

That, sadly, proved to be a bust. I thought I was going to work for an hour as an auctioneer, which can be fun and is a kind of performing. Instead, what the two current auctioneers wanted was for me to hold up the books I had donated, say a few words, and then get the hell out of the way so they could work. Which I did. Regardless, between my books and the ARC of The Wild Side, we raised about $150 for Dragon*Con's charity, which is a good thing.

Next up was the Baen brunch, which was a nice time in a revolving restaurant with a great view of the city. The conversation was generally good, as was the food.

The rest of the afternoon went to work, after which I listened to a panel in which Michael Whelan talked and answered questions about his horror paintings and his art in general. I don't know him personally, but I love his work, and he comes across as a very level-headed, creative, great guy.

I opted to watch the masquerade from the room, rather than sit on line for hours, but ultimately had to stop because the announcers were so mean to the contestants that I couldn't stand to listen to them any longer. While I certainly agree that some of the contestants needed to brush up on their presentation skills, there's simply no excuse for guys with microphones who are supposed to be helping with the event instead being jerks to contestant after contestant.

After some work and when the masquerade was over, I wandered a bit, perched, and people-watched at the Marriott. Amazing, simply amazing. I've never seen another con on this scale, nor one with so much happy energy. Very cool.

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 3

Yesterday, I thought this con was huge. Today, all the people who couldn't get off work on Friday joined the crowds, and suddenly Dragon*Con went from huge to ginormous. Walking anywhere is, consequently, rather difficult, but the compensation is that the people watching is absolutely amazing.

Quick notes from the day:

Woke up to the sound of the parade beginning. I'd heard of the Dragon*Con parade before but never really considered it, preferring instead to dismiss it as some small fan thing. Mistake. It is huge, impressive, full of joy, and a ton of fun to watch--which I did, from my hotel room balcony. Using only my iPhone's camera, here's a shot of the crowds lining the part of the route that I could see.


That's only a tiny section of the total distance the parade covered.

The event lasted about 45 minutes and contained hundreds of people in all sorts of costumes. Some entrants were even complex floats, such as this smoke-breathing rock monster.


I quite enjoyed it but ending up running a few minutes late to my reading because of it. To my pleasant surprise, four people showed up--and I didn't know two of them. Both of those folks had read every book of mine, seemed to enjoy the Diego Chan section I read, and asked intelligent questions.

After the reading, I rushed over to Glennis' booth for The Missing Volume to be available to sign books. A half hour to make it from one event to another would be more than generous at most cons, but here it was tight.

From there I headed back to the Hyatt for the Baen Traveling Slideshow, where I spoke about the covers of a few books of mine. The crowd was loud and enthusiastic and very supportive.

I caught a scheduling break next, because the panel I was to be on moved from another venue to the same location as the Baen presentation. I actually had time to breathe, then took the stage with Christopher Robin (a con staffer), John Ringo, and Mike Williamson for an hour-long session on libertarians in space. The room was packed and the discussion far-ranging, but everyone seemed to have a good time.

After a break to grab some food and do work came the banquet. The food was pretty darn bad, the chicken about as rubbery as it could get, so we were glad to have already eaten. The banquet provided two treats, however, that made it worth attending.

First was a short performance by James Darren, who is still quite the entertainer.


The other was the pleasure of watching William Shatner receive both an award from the con and a proclamation from the City of Atlanta. He is a fun speaker and definitely livened up the event.


Evening brought more work and a couple of hours of wandering and people watching, which as I noted earlier is quite a treat here.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be a charity auctioneer for an hour!

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 2

Though I had hoped to be offline today, I ended up having to devote most of the daylight hours to working in my room.

When I finally was able to get to the con, first stop was a hotel food cart for a nutritious lunch of hot dogs and Diet Coke--classic con food.

Then, the dealers' rooms.

Like the rest of the con, they were large, but no larger than a WorldCon dealers' room. The variety was interesting, as was the small presence of books: only two actual SF book dealers.

We roamed around quite a bit, talked to some folks, and ended up catching one of the odder events to be at any SF con I've attended: wrestling. I had to share with you a picture of this extreme match, which featured a trash can, a cookie tray, and a broom.



The art show mixed traditional art-show panels with booths in which the artists were personally selling their creations. The variety was good, as was the overall quality. As I'd expected, most of the art was, I believe, over-priced, so very little of it had bids, but I still enjoyed seeing it.

Dinner was at a restaurant in the hotel. The food was all at least tasty and sometimes quite good, so the meal was a better than I expected experience.

The people watching here remains stupendous. So many folks in so many different costumes are wandering the halls and cramming the lobbies that you can have a great time just looking around.

My favorite odd moment of late last night occurred deep in the night as I was heading back from the ice machine. Another guy was walking toward it. He was wearing only very short shorts and a diver's mask. The mask was loose around his neck, as if he'd just pulled it down.

I didn't ask. Sometimes, mystery is better than any answer.

On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 1

Wow, is this con big. It isn't in full swing, there's been almost no programming, all I've done is register and wander a bit, and yet I am already amazed at its size. A big WorldCon these days draws about four thousand attendees; Dragon*Con will have ten to eleven times as many folks here. That's big.

Other observations from this very tiring day:

Work demands made my departure only 2.5 hours later than I planned. I should start thinking of that as the new norm.

Seven hours in a car is a long drive, but I didn't do most of the driving and so was able to keep up with most email via 3G.

A Shoney's in South Carolina made a so-so milkshake, but the walls of stuff for sale were amazing. I should have taken pictures. The sign reading "Shalom" right next to the stuffed bear and the pictures of the local police force were particularly charming.

The Metro Cafe serves completely serviceable food.

The energy here is amazing, the way SF fandom used to be twenty or more years ago--but on a bigger scale than SF fandom ever managed. Or maybe this is just the evolution of SF fandom; I like to think so but then wish books were more important.

A good 20% of the attendees appear as old as the fans at most SF cons, but the rest do appear younger.

Costumes are everywhere and, yes, the stories are true: lots of very attractive women in sexy costumes are roaming the halls.

Every single staffer I've encountered has been amazingly nice and helpful.

John Ringo is currently alone tomorrow on a panel called "Liberals in Space." Wow.

I'm so tired I'm almost punch-drunk, so I'm signing off.

Tomorrow, I hope to sleep late and see a lot of the con (and magically keep up on work).

Two additional appearances in the next 12 months

Anytime you want to know what cons (and other events) I'll be attending, you can check out my Appearances page. Sometimes, though, special factors make me announce them here in the blog.

One of those factors involves next year's Chattacon 37: they've asked me to be Toastmaster, and I've agreed. So, if you're planning to be anywhere near Chattanooga the third weekend of January, 2012, come by and say hi. I've never been to either the city or the con, so I'm quite looking forward to seeing the place, meeting the good folks there, and, of course, sampling their barbecue.

The other news is that I've decided to risk the huge crowds and go to this year's Dragon*con, where I'll be one of its many guests. I've heard great things about this con, but the combination of the Labor Day weekend timing and the crowds have kept me away--until now. Again, if you're planning to attend, try to find me while I'm there, and say hi.