The Monster Comi-Con Post
This post is pictureless, because I didn’t take my camera. It would have been just one more thing to keep track of, and since I had enough to keep track of and the UnSullen One was charged with keeping track of me, there was not a hand left over, so to speak.
I’ll just have to use words to paint a picture. Hee.
We got into San Diego at one in the morning on Friday, after a thirty-three (or so) hour train ride. (More about that tomorrow.) It was a cool night, but I felt greasy after so long on a train–really, train showers hardly deserve the name, though they’re better than anything an airplane could possibly come up with.
By two AM we were in our hotel room, and by two-fifteen I was out like a light. The morning dawned bright and sunny, and we wended our way down to the convention center (about eight blocks away) to check in with Alex, our favorite Orbit publicity guy.
Dear Reader, I was not prepared. Now, I’ve done DragonCon, so I thought I was reasonably well-equipped to handle this convention even if the UnSullen One left me to my own devices (which he was wise enough NOT to do, as it turned out.) DragonCon seemed more manageable. In contrast, ComiCon was a couple football fields worth of crowd (instead of just a single hotel lobby and assorted panel rooms full of crowd broken into manageable pieces.) The dealer’s room/exhibition hall was, quite frankly, a madhouse. I haven’t been pummeled like that since Plant and Page did their reunion tour and hit the first bars of Gallows Pole.
We managed to find the Orbit booth, and what did we see but Jacqueline Carey signing books? I almost lost all my air. I adore Jacqueline, and she gave me one of my very first cover quotes for Working For The Devil. We keep missing each other when she comes to the Beaverton Powell’s to sign, but this time we actually got to stand in the same room and chat for a wee bit once she was done signing. We didn’t get to go into any depth, but just being in the same room at the same time–FINALLY–was overwhelming to me. I did get to tell her how much Phedre meant to me, and how much I love her books, which was AWESOME with a side of AWESOME, covered in thick AWESOME SAUCE.
But she couldn’t stick around, and neither could I. I had a panel to get to–Eyes on the Present, about how we (the authors present) used the supernatural in our stories. Marjorie Liu, LA Banks, Kelley Armstrong and CE (Catie) Murphy were the stars; Justine Musk, Kate Brallier, and I were along for the ride. I think it went well. I was floored that both CE Murphy and LA Banks had heard of me, and Marjorie Liu said she read my Friday writing posts. *boggles* Holy CRAP.
There’s just something about one’s peers expressing approbation; it’s one of the best things in the world. And goddamn, LA Banks hugged me! And CE Murphy and I got along swimmingly–we both like to create trouble, it seems. Kate Brallier was a rock star, and Samantha Sommersby (the moderator) was very organized and very nice. All in all the panel went so smoothly–we could have gone, as Catie Murphy said, for a couple more hours.
The panel was taped, so you’ll be able to see the harpoon joke I made, and hear LA Banks talk about fish dreams and pregnancy tests. I’ll link to it as soon as it’s up.
Right after the panel we went to the autograph section of the convention, which was easily half a football field and jammed with people. We had a respectable line for two hours or so, during which I sat between Catie and Samantha, and I doubt much more fun could have been had by anyone. I got to see copies of the Hotter Than Hell anthology at last, and signed so many books my wrist began to cramp.
When that wound down, it was time for a short break, and Catie introduced me to Lanny Liu, who I would want to illustrate the second Steelflower book (when I can snatch enough time to write it) as well as the Hedgewitch series. Then it was back down to the Orbit booth to sign lots of Devil’s Right Hands for giveaway.
I was in the thick of signing when a man came up and told me he was a junior-high school teacher, and did I think DRH was appropriate for junior high schoolers? I blinked.
“Well, there’s graphic violence and some obscenities in it–” I hazard.
“Well, the violence is okay. What kind of obscenities are we talking about? Are they, like, on each page, or–”
This went on for five minutes, until Jacqueline Carey (bless her heart), who I hadn’t noticed was standing right there (since I was focusing so hard on each individual signing) finally said, nicely but firmly, “It’s a free book, for God’s sake. Just take it.”
Yep. You read that right. Jacqueline Carey saved my ass. MEGA SCORE!
I finally finished signing I-don’t-know-how-many books, not just DRH but some backlist too, provided by the awesome folks at Mysterious Galaxy (who rock the Casbah, by the way). The evening wound down in a comedy of errors that ended up with me missing dinner with the Harlequin folks, but everything worked out in enough time for me to see MaryElizabeth from Mysterious Galaxy (who is so sweet and wonderful, it’s hard to believe) at dinner, and afterward meet Alex for drinks. It’s fun to talk to other people in the industry. Half the “business” at conventions gets done in the bars, I swear. Or maybe more like three-quarters. That’s also where a lot of brainstorming happens.
I was told Saturday would be more intense than Friday, but I couldn’t imagine it. I finally fell into bed and passed out until I absolutely had to be up Saturday morning at 8, since I was signing at 10 in the Orbit booth. (This time it was copies of Night Shift and stock for Mysterious Galaxy.)
And Lordy, but it was a MADHOUSE. Saturday was, I suspect, the biggest day of the convention. The crowd was so intense in the exhibition hall that I had to literally hang on to the UnSullen One’s backpack so we wouldn’t lose each other. Saturday was also when the costumes came out to play, and boy howdy, people spent a lot of time and love on their costumes. I saw She-Ras, stormtroopers, X-Men (classic, comic, and movie), Jedi, little kids dressed as Yoda, lots of Mario Brothers and Zeldas and Links, plenty of Poison Ivys and at least two cross-dressing Power Girls, lots of classic and Dark Knight Jokers (though lots of the Dark Knight Jokers had unsmeared makeup, which was a head-tilting “Whuh?” moment), at least four Riddlers…and, dear Reader, were I to go on I could make a whole monster post just about the costumes.
I signed a lot of Night Shifts and then gave a podcast interview for Shaun Farrell of Adventures in Scifi Publishing.com (he’ll tell me when the interview goes live) during which I talked about publishing, Dante Valentine, open vs. closed series, and writing advice. And plotting and pantsing, and other things I’ve no doubt forgotten. I hope I didn’t sound like a moron.
After that it was time to bolt some breakfast, since the UnSullen One had been a total rock star and fetched them from the little restaurant inside the San Diego Courthouse, which serves food good enough for the Westin concierge to recommend. I was more than ready for lunch/breakfast/something solid, so we sat outside and watched the SCA combat demonstrations while scarfing. Incidentally, that’s when I got burned, I think–either there or during the walk back to the hotel slightly later, after we saw the art show and took a slow turn about the exhibition hall. That was the sum total of my non-working bit of the convention–I didn’t even get to hit any panels, we were going so fast most of the time.
We managed to get back to the hotel in time for Alex to take us to dinner. (He was pretty pleased at the volume of books signed.) I believe I’ve mentioned de’Medici in San Diego already, but ZOMG, Caesar salad dressing made AT YOUR TABLE. I was seriously feeling some heat exhaustion by then, or I would have totally ordered tableside flambee. *giggles madly*
Alex had another party to go to, and I begged off, because at that point my head was pounding, my tummy was upset, and I was in cold sweats and shaky-legged. Yep, the San Diego sun did me in. Fortunately, getting back to the hotel helped. The UnSullen One poured water down my throat, and after some Tylenol and a cool shower I crawled into bed, made sure the alarm was set for 4AM, and passed out so hard I doubt an earthquake could have awakened me.
Sunday morning we were up by 4, at the train station by 5:15, and on the train to Los Angeles to catch our connection by 6:15. And that was the sum of my ComiCon experience. It sounds a lot more organized than it actually was, considering it took the UnSullen One’s entire attention to navigate me from place to place and keep enough food and water in me to keep me from falling over in between signings–not to mention getting me back to the hotel for little things like changing clothes and sleeping.
And it wouldn’t be a Big ComiCon Post without a bulleted list or two, would it? So here’s the Good and Not-So-Good Things.
Good Things About Comi-Con:
* THE FANS! This is #1. It was awesome to be around so many people who wouldn’t think I was strange because I could list the reasons I love Claremont & Lee X-Men better than any other X-Men, or where I could argue Original Star Wars vs. Recent Star Wars with a random person in a crowd. And there were all the awesome fans who told me in person that they liked my books, or who could tell me how much they loved Japhrimel or Jace, or Jill vs. Dante. The fans totally make any con. Thank you, all of you.
* Finding out LA Banks and CE Murphy, not to mention Marjorie Liu, knew my name. GUH. Total dork squealy fangirl moments were had by Yours Truly.
* Pendragon Costumes. These guys rock all the way to the Casbah and back. I wonder if they’d do a Japhrimel coat?
* Speaking of costumes, did I mention they kicked ass? Especially the pink Darth Vaders, the Narutos, the Stargate peeps, the Darth Mauls…stop me…
* The Owlship from the upcoming Watchmen movie. You could TOUCH it. *dies*
* The lack of scuffles in a crowd of thousands. We were very well-behaved.
* Seeing Seth Green up close–no, I didn’t mug him, we just watched as he walked by.
* Waving back and forth with Jim Butcher–neither of us had time to stop, but we did wave. Hee.
* Signing until my wrist swelled up. I mean, that’s a problem any author is happy to have.
* The art show! Wow!
* The lovely folks of the San Diego PD, who directed traffic patiently and calmly. And the volunteers who gave their time to make the convention a success–they were everywhere, and they were uniformly calm, well-informed, and grinning ear-to-ear.
* Mysterious Galaxy! Best bookstore EVAR!
* The fifty zombie nurses wandering the streets of San Diego en masse, moaning and lurching.
* The Westin San Diego. The showers are FABULOUS, and the Heavenly Bed lived up to its name. Plus, the staff were awesome.
* Getting home and seeing my kidlings. They missed me, I missed them, and seeing them running toward me on the train platform was sweet beyond belief.
* Getting home and finding the house in pretty-good shape. The Muffin really worked hard on keeping things corralled while I was gone.
And the, well, Not So Good Things:
* Crowds. I really have trouble with crowds, and my fear of public speaking is intense. It helps to focus on one person at a time during signings, but still, that was stressful.
* The rubbish overflowing. On the other hand, it was good to see people didn’t just throw stuff wherever. There was remarkably little trash on the ground.
* Associated weirdness and rudeness, which was again, remarkably little considering the 150,000 people (minimum) there.
* Ticket scalpers. Come ON, guys.
* Overstimulated and overstressed toddlers. While I advocate the right of parents to include their kids in great experiences like conventions, I saw plenty of kids screaming because of the overstimulation. Kids don’t have the same endurance as grown-ups do for that sort of thing, and there’s a reason why I either leave mine at home or plan according to their energy and comfort levels. My radar pinged on several little people who could have gotten trampled/lost in the crush, but I didn’t see any really lost kids while I was there.
* The heat. It’s nobody’s fault, but I’m really sensitive to it. Heat exhaustion is NOT FUN. It was a relief to get home.
* My email inbox after five-six days of total nonconnectivity. *cries*
So there you have it. I’m sure I’m forgetting a LOT of stuff, but if I wrote everything that happened I’d be doing this post for a week. It’d be the War and Peace of convention posts.
I’m still exhausted, but nowhere near as exhausted as I would have been had I flown down there. Which brings me to tomorrow’s post: the Train Ride! It deserves a whole monster post of its own.
Stay tuned!
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