North American Discworld Convention - Friday
Oh look what I'm doing again. Three weeks late. Whee. God I wish I had done this right away when I remembered more. The general feeling of the con still lingers, but a lot of the detail is lost. At least I have lots of pictures. :)
Before we get started, the hotel!
The con staff had some neat decorative touches placed here and there.
Moving on to Friday. As I recall, I had a shower and then went downstairs with Tiffany to try to check out the dealer's room, which was scheduled to open at 10 AM. When we got there, we found a happy little sign saying it would not actually open until noon. That pretty much left us with nothing to do for a couple hours. On the bright side, there was food. The consuite at this place was unbelievable. Bagels, muffins, and fruit in the morning, cheese, crackers, cookies, and other snacks all day. Plus water and soda and coffee. This was the first con I've been to where you could live off the consuite all weekend if you really wanted to (aside from stuffing yourself with rice at Detour, anyway).
We did run into one of our tablemates from the previous night's trivia contest, now dressed as the Bursar, and an interesting take on Archchancellor Ridcully:
Around noon we poked our heads into the dealer's room for a bit. We didn't have a lot of time, but I was able to check around to see if anyone had the black-cover Good Omens in hardcover (nope; I'd have to make do with the signing materials I had). There was some fun stuff, a lot of books of course, but also some jewelry and costume pieces and geeky bumper stickers (my favorite: Do autoparanoid schitzophrenic agnostic dyslexic insomniacs lie awake at night wondering if they might be the dog that's out to get them?) and the like. And a table full of Rocky & Bullwinkle plushies. Just a few weeks earlier my sister and I walked past a store with a Mr. Peabody plush as part of its window display, and commented to each other that we wished it was on sale so we could get it for our dad, so I couldn't resist the golden opportunity. I also snapped up a book of Wallace and Gromit side story comics, but they turned out to be disappointingly lame. Boo.
Partway through this my second roommate, Valerie, arrived and I ducked out for a while to get her a key and show her to our room. She wasn't interested in the Opening Ceremony, which was starting soon, so I hurried downstairs again to attend with Tiffany.
It was pretty standard stuff presented by the head of the Seamstress Guild - introductions of each of the guests, etc, plus amusing but firm reminders not to pitch your novel to the editors and agents in attendance - followed by a big lead-up to Sir Terry's appearance. The proper horse with curtains befitting a knight had proven difficult to obtain, but the seamstresses had procured a fitting alternative:
I really need to get a camera that takes better long-range pictures indoors. -_-
After this, Sir Terry was given the microphone and free rein to chat us up for a while. I must confess to being an absolutely pathetic fangirl when it comes to Sir Terry Pratchett; I can't tell you exactly what was said at each session because although I listen obsessively to everything the man says it's always drowned out in my memories by the internal squeeing. I'm sure there is video of all the main events on YouTube, however, if you're interested. I think some of this first talk was about his knighthood, since the seamstresses introduced the topic. I do remember that he brought up his Alzheimer's diagnosis and told us that he doesn't feel much different than he did a year ago, which was heartening. He spoke more quietly than he did the last time I saw him, but he's older, too. On the whole he seemed fine. :)
Afterwards I swung through the dealer's room again. I had texted my sister about the Peabody plush and she wanted Snidely Whiplash. So I got that one, and Dudley's horse. No idea how I was going to fit everything in my suitcase to get it home, but I decided not to worry about that. xP Then it was time for The Linecon Experience. Tiffany and I had both been assigned to Sir Terry's first autographing session, starting at 3 PM. Some awesome certificates were handed out with our registration materials as "tickets" for admission (I'll scan mine later). Everyone was entitled to two items autographed at their assigned time.
We lined up, and were given numbers to hold our place in line. The idea was that you could wander off or sit somewhere in the room without having to stand and wait, but since they didn't have any system in place to tell everyone which numbers were currently being signed, it didn't work that smoothly. I heard they fixed the process in later sessions, but it was easy enough for Tiffany and I to hang around in the room until it was our time to join the signing line. Alas, Sir Terry doesn't do personalizations anymore, but I got several the last time I met him, so I wasn't heartbroken about it. In fact, I preferred the name-only signature on Once More With Footnotes, which has turned out to be very valuable and was eyed with envy by the other people in line. o_o It's a pity about Good Omens, though, I've heard he and Neil Gaiman used to each write half of a joke in that one.
I got some bonus picture time thanks to Sir Terry's critiquing of a nearby Watch costume. :3 (Too perfect. "It should look like you've fought and nearly died in it," he said. Later in the weekend it came up that he's fascinated with set design, specifically the techniques used to make fake buildings and things look worn-out and ancient, so it made sense in retrospect.)
I grinned like a complete goon in every picture I have with him, I was just so excited! ^^;;
We were done getting our autographs early on. Tiffany wanted to go to this Igor Olympics thing, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I went along. The organizers ended up persuading us to sign up for some of the events. xP So I participated in an eyeball-rolling race, a limping-while-balancing-an-eyeball race, and a Pin the Knob on the Wizard's Staff (hurr hurr) contest. Didn't win anything, but it was all just silly fun anyway. I got a little annoyed by someone's outright cheating >.> but hey, at least I participated.
When that was over we went to the hotel bar/restaurant for dinner. I sent Valerie a text inviting her to join us, but she was busy getting ready for the party that evening, so again it was just me and Tiffany. I didn't mind at all, we were getting along great, and a couple of people we recognized from the Igor event were seated next to us. :) Unfortunately, the service sucked. What is it with con hotels refusing to believe they'll need extra staff for a sold-out event? There were just two waitresses handling everything, bar and outdoor patio and inside seating. It was ages to get anything. Fortunately we weren't in a hurry and the food was very good.
That evening was the much-anticipated Seamstress Guild party. Unlike my roommates, I hadn't brought anything particularly nice to wear, but I had a lace-up shirt that was kind of in the spirit of the thing. When we got downstairs, it turned out we didn't really need to get dinner on our own after all - there was more food! The buffet was mobbed, though, so it was just as well we didn't have to fight for something to eat. The room setup was kind of unfortunate; half was filled with tables that never had any empty spaces and the other half still had regular rows of chairs from the normal Main Programming setup. There wasn't a lot of room to move around. Valerie went off to do her own mingling, and as Tiffany and I are both shy people, we spent much of the evening being wallflowers and trying to avoid a nosy guy that took a creepy liking to us.
My roomies!
There was a little costume contest, where Sir Terry gave out awards to his favorites. Some fun costumes there. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I assumed there would be even better stuff on Saturday. My mistake. :\ Got a good number, though.
Ronnie, the fifth horseman of the Apocalypse:
Twoflower, the Disc's first tourist:
You can't really see it, but it does say "Born to Rune" on the back of his robe:
That's cutting me own throat!
Nobody wants to be Moist.
Can't remember which watchman this was, exactly.
Cheery Littlebottom in her evening wear:
Vimes found his cow!
Another take on the Archchancellor.
Miss Tick. Her hat had a hidden spring that popped up into a point!
No Discworld convention is complete without Rincewind.
The Man. He had a nicely shabby and worn-out suit, although you can't really see it here.
Oddly, there was no Death in attendance, but the rest of the family was around:
Feegle!
Anoia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers!
Wizards photoshoot!
There was a witches photoshoot too, but I couldn't get a clear picture. :(
The Bursar from earlier got one of the special awards. He was carrying around a little jar of dried frog pills (gummi frogs) and offered some to Sir Terry. "I'm in desperate need of them," was the reply. xD There was super bonus hilarity when a Nanny Ogg received an award, along with a human Greebo. Track that incident down on YouTube, if nothing else. And some amusing moments where Sir Terry tried to talk into his beer bottle instead of his microphone. He'd had a few by then. x3
Sir Terry with the Guild:
After all this, Tiffany and I got incredibly lucky. We were hanging around near the stage signing the guestbook that was to be a gift for Sir Terry when he decided to sneak off the back of the stage and try to mingle with the crowd. He didn't get far, which is a bit sad, it must be disappointing in a way to get so well-known that you can't wander among your readers and drop in on random conversations anymore. But he entered the crowd right where we were standing. :D I wish I were bolder, because people were getting pictures with him, and while I got one too he was talking to someone and the flash was really bright and it didn't turn out well. :\ I'm such an Agnes. -_- Tiffany, on the other hand, got a really nice picture with him, and he even struck up a short conversation with him that, like me, she was unable to remember the details of later. xD She and I were really similar fans, and it made the weekend so much more enjoyable. I hit the jackpot of Roommate Roulette on that one. ^_^
I really wish I'd had a costume or at least something nicer to wear, because there were professional photographers in attendance, and as a special gift Sir Terry paid for everyone at the party to have a formal photo taken! I went ahead and did it even though I was in casual dress, because what the hell, free photograph. The photographers did a fine job, and the pictures were ready for everyone to pick up later in the weekend.
Tiffany and I ducked out of there relatively early. The lovely thing about a book convention is it's not at all weird to spend some of it reading in your room. xP The fourth member of our room party, Joyce, arrived around then, and we all went to bed amazingly early for a convention. I felt like some kind of failure at cons, haha, but I think it was the time zone change that did it. And as a result we were all able to wake up early without needing an alarm. :)
Before we get started, the hotel!
The con staff had some neat decorative touches placed here and there.
Moving on to Friday. As I recall, I had a shower and then went downstairs with Tiffany to try to check out the dealer's room, which was scheduled to open at 10 AM. When we got there, we found a happy little sign saying it would not actually open until noon. That pretty much left us with nothing to do for a couple hours. On the bright side, there was food. The consuite at this place was unbelievable. Bagels, muffins, and fruit in the morning, cheese, crackers, cookies, and other snacks all day. Plus water and soda and coffee. This was the first con I've been to where you could live off the consuite all weekend if you really wanted to (aside from stuffing yourself with rice at Detour, anyway).
We did run into one of our tablemates from the previous night's trivia contest, now dressed as the Bursar, and an interesting take on Archchancellor Ridcully:
Around noon we poked our heads into the dealer's room for a bit. We didn't have a lot of time, but I was able to check around to see if anyone had the black-cover Good Omens in hardcover (nope; I'd have to make do with the signing materials I had). There was some fun stuff, a lot of books of course, but also some jewelry and costume pieces and geeky bumper stickers (my favorite: Do autoparanoid schitzophrenic agnostic dyslexic insomniacs lie awake at night wondering if they might be the dog that's out to get them?) and the like. And a table full of Rocky & Bullwinkle plushies. Just a few weeks earlier my sister and I walked past a store with a Mr. Peabody plush as part of its window display, and commented to each other that we wished it was on sale so we could get it for our dad, so I couldn't resist the golden opportunity. I also snapped up a book of Wallace and Gromit side story comics, but they turned out to be disappointingly lame. Boo.
Partway through this my second roommate, Valerie, arrived and I ducked out for a while to get her a key and show her to our room. She wasn't interested in the Opening Ceremony, which was starting soon, so I hurried downstairs again to attend with Tiffany.
It was pretty standard stuff presented by the head of the Seamstress Guild - introductions of each of the guests, etc, plus amusing but firm reminders not to pitch your novel to the editors and agents in attendance - followed by a big lead-up to Sir Terry's appearance. The proper horse with curtains befitting a knight had proven difficult to obtain, but the seamstresses had procured a fitting alternative:
I really need to get a camera that takes better long-range pictures indoors. -_-
After this, Sir Terry was given the microphone and free rein to chat us up for a while. I must confess to being an absolutely pathetic fangirl when it comes to Sir Terry Pratchett; I can't tell you exactly what was said at each session because although I listen obsessively to everything the man says it's always drowned out in my memories by the internal squeeing. I'm sure there is video of all the main events on YouTube, however, if you're interested. I think some of this first talk was about his knighthood, since the seamstresses introduced the topic. I do remember that he brought up his Alzheimer's diagnosis and told us that he doesn't feel much different than he did a year ago, which was heartening. He spoke more quietly than he did the last time I saw him, but he's older, too. On the whole he seemed fine. :)
Afterwards I swung through the dealer's room again. I had texted my sister about the Peabody plush and she wanted Snidely Whiplash. So I got that one, and Dudley's horse. No idea how I was going to fit everything in my suitcase to get it home, but I decided not to worry about that. xP Then it was time for The Linecon Experience. Tiffany and I had both been assigned to Sir Terry's first autographing session, starting at 3 PM. Some awesome certificates were handed out with our registration materials as "tickets" for admission (I'll scan mine later). Everyone was entitled to two items autographed at their assigned time.
We lined up, and were given numbers to hold our place in line. The idea was that you could wander off or sit somewhere in the room without having to stand and wait, but since they didn't have any system in place to tell everyone which numbers were currently being signed, it didn't work that smoothly. I heard they fixed the process in later sessions, but it was easy enough for Tiffany and I to hang around in the room until it was our time to join the signing line. Alas, Sir Terry doesn't do personalizations anymore, but I got several the last time I met him, so I wasn't heartbroken about it. In fact, I preferred the name-only signature on Once More With Footnotes, which has turned out to be very valuable and was eyed with envy by the other people in line. o_o It's a pity about Good Omens, though, I've heard he and Neil Gaiman used to each write half of a joke in that one.
I got some bonus picture time thanks to Sir Terry's critiquing of a nearby Watch costume. :3 (Too perfect. "It should look like you've fought and nearly died in it," he said. Later in the weekend it came up that he's fascinated with set design, specifically the techniques used to make fake buildings and things look worn-out and ancient, so it made sense in retrospect.)
I grinned like a complete goon in every picture I have with him, I was just so excited! ^^;;
We were done getting our autographs early on. Tiffany wanted to go to this Igor Olympics thing, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I went along. The organizers ended up persuading us to sign up for some of the events. xP So I participated in an eyeball-rolling race, a limping-while-balancing-an-eyeball race, and a Pin the Knob on the Wizard's Staff (hurr hurr) contest. Didn't win anything, but it was all just silly fun anyway. I got a little annoyed by someone's outright cheating >.> but hey, at least I participated.
When that was over we went to the hotel bar/restaurant for dinner. I sent Valerie a text inviting her to join us, but she was busy getting ready for the party that evening, so again it was just me and Tiffany. I didn't mind at all, we were getting along great, and a couple of people we recognized from the Igor event were seated next to us. :) Unfortunately, the service sucked. What is it with con hotels refusing to believe they'll need extra staff for a sold-out event? There were just two waitresses handling everything, bar and outdoor patio and inside seating. It was ages to get anything. Fortunately we weren't in a hurry and the food was very good.
That evening was the much-anticipated Seamstress Guild party. Unlike my roommates, I hadn't brought anything particularly nice to wear, but I had a lace-up shirt that was kind of in the spirit of the thing. When we got downstairs, it turned out we didn't really need to get dinner on our own after all - there was more food! The buffet was mobbed, though, so it was just as well we didn't have to fight for something to eat. The room setup was kind of unfortunate; half was filled with tables that never had any empty spaces and the other half still had regular rows of chairs from the normal Main Programming setup. There wasn't a lot of room to move around. Valerie went off to do her own mingling, and as Tiffany and I are both shy people, we spent much of the evening being wallflowers and trying to avoid a nosy guy that took a creepy liking to us.
My roomies!
There was a little costume contest, where Sir Terry gave out awards to his favorites. Some fun costumes there. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I assumed there would be even better stuff on Saturday. My mistake. :\ Got a good number, though.
Ronnie, the fifth horseman of the Apocalypse:
Twoflower, the Disc's first tourist:
You can't really see it, but it does say "Born to Rune" on the back of his robe:
That's cutting me own throat!
Nobody wants to be Moist.
Can't remember which watchman this was, exactly.
Cheery Littlebottom in her evening wear:
Vimes found his cow!
Another take on the Archchancellor.
Miss Tick. Her hat had a hidden spring that popped up into a point!
No Discworld convention is complete without Rincewind.
The Man. He had a nicely shabby and worn-out suit, although you can't really see it here.
Oddly, there was no Death in attendance, but the rest of the family was around:
Feegle!
Anoia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers!
Wizards photoshoot!
There was a witches photoshoot too, but I couldn't get a clear picture. :(
The Bursar from earlier got one of the special awards. He was carrying around a little jar of dried frog pills (gummi frogs) and offered some to Sir Terry. "I'm in desperate need of them," was the reply. xD There was super bonus hilarity when a Nanny Ogg received an award, along with a human Greebo. Track that incident down on YouTube, if nothing else. And some amusing moments where Sir Terry tried to talk into his beer bottle instead of his microphone. He'd had a few by then. x3
Sir Terry with the Guild:
After all this, Tiffany and I got incredibly lucky. We were hanging around near the stage signing the guestbook that was to be a gift for Sir Terry when he decided to sneak off the back of the stage and try to mingle with the crowd. He didn't get far, which is a bit sad, it must be disappointing in a way to get so well-known that you can't wander among your readers and drop in on random conversations anymore. But he entered the crowd right where we were standing. :D I wish I were bolder, because people were getting pictures with him, and while I got one too he was talking to someone and the flash was really bright and it didn't turn out well. :\ I'm such an Agnes. -_- Tiffany, on the other hand, got a really nice picture with him, and he even struck up a short conversation with him that, like me, she was unable to remember the details of later. xD She and I were really similar fans, and it made the weekend so much more enjoyable. I hit the jackpot of Roommate Roulette on that one. ^_^
I really wish I'd had a costume or at least something nicer to wear, because there were professional photographers in attendance, and as a special gift Sir Terry paid for everyone at the party to have a formal photo taken! I went ahead and did it even though I was in casual dress, because what the hell, free photograph. The photographers did a fine job, and the pictures were ready for everyone to pick up later in the weekend.
Tiffany and I ducked out of there relatively early. The lovely thing about a book convention is it's not at all weird to spend some of it reading in your room. xP The fourth member of our room party, Joyce, arrived around then, and we all went to bed amazingly early for a convention. I felt like some kind of failure at cons, haha, but I think it was the time zone change that did it. And as a result we were all able to wake up early without needing an alarm. :)