Comic Con Recap, part 3!
Day two of the Con- panels, book signings, more accent crushing on China Mieville, and a power outage!
Friday!
Friday morning found us starting the day on the con floor again, picking up tickets for Richelle Mead's signing in the afternoon. Of course I was all fangirled out, in my molnija mark t-shirt! Ninja Boyfriend and I wandered around on the floor for a while, killing time, picking up random swag, and I had the hugest bag to put it all in, one of the big Green Hornet bags that he had picked up for me while I was running through the line at the Fox booth to get a poster tube. This year I was really wanting a poster tube, since I was getting posters from everywhere. Since we are moving soon, I want to put up posters all over the front room of our new place, sort of how I did the hallway of our old apartment two years ago in a mosaic of con posters, promo cards, and other miscellany.
While wandering the floor, we got stuck while some celebrities were coming down from a booth after an interview, and I had my second moment of wishing for a better camera, since Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park walked right past me and I couldn't take a good picture! Next year, I swear, better camera than just my cell phone.
Ninja boyfriend wandered off to go to panels or game or something- he doesn't tell me where he goes, he just vanishes, like the ninja he is- so I wandered alone for a while, and picked up a few books, including Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, which the bookseller told me I would like if I was a fan of the Dresden Files. I met up with my parents, and we lurked Random House for a while, because they were giving away Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, who I'd had such an accent crush on from his panel! This is a super blurry photo of me with him as he is signing my book, and a better shot of my parents with him:
I'm usually pretty cheap when it comes to buying books, and I usually won't spend on hardcovers unless it's for an author I already know I love (like Jim Butcher!) but I got over my cheapness and shelled out $30 for the only-available-in-hardcover The Passage, by Justin Cronin, because I'd really liked the concept of the book when he explained a sliver about it at his panel on Thursday! My parents got a copy of it too, and we all took pics with him:
While on the floor, we took some snapshots of more people in costume:
This scary dude; I have no idea who or what he was, but he was seriously like 7 feet tall and all growly, so whatever he was, it was freaky:
And these guys from Society for Creative Anachronism, who seemed surprised and impressed that I actually knew what SCA stood for. My mom was impressed with their hand made chain mail!
Then we had just enough time for me to go switch out my books (I'd brought all my Vampire Academy books, including two hardcovers, and I checked them that morning so I wouldn't have to carry them around and kill my back all day, so I had to go drop off what I was carrying and get them out to be signed!) I dropped off Sandman Slim, which I would have cause to regret later, and picked up VA and was ready to go meet Richelle!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, maybe either because there was some professional interview thing going on with her while she signed, or maybe just in the interests of time. But she is so tiny in person! She is so much shorter and smaller than I thought she was, from her pics on her Facebook and stuff. As she was signing my books, she noticed the editions of some of them, and commented that some of them were original editions, first editions. I was like "Really?" cause I had never thought about it, I just bought them right when they came out. She was like "well, you can't get rich off them, but yeah, these are first editions." and as I was thinking about that, she was like "that's good, it means you've been with me since the beginning" which was nice, since that is the case, I have been a fan of VA since it first came out! My mom was right after me with my last two books, the hardcovers, and she told Richelle that I was having her borrow them, since I'm her go-to person for book reviews and recommendations. Even though we couldn't take pics, she gave all of us zvezda charms that she'd had specially made, which are the the tattoos that the guardians get when they have killed too many Strigoi to count! (and if that doesn't make sense... then you should read the books cause they are awesome and then it will all become clear!)
After the signing, we took time for lunch, and I saw this girl up on the Mezzanine, with an awesome sign! I was like "ME TOO!" She could have been dressed up as Rose, since she was blonde already, but she was just a girl with a sign. Isn't everyone waiting for their doctor to come and take them away to explore the universe in a big blue police box?
After lunch was time for another urban fantasy panel. This one was called "Bite Me: Evolving Urban Fantasy Beyond the Vampire Phenomenon." Diana Gill from HarperCollins moderated this one, and panelists were Richard Kadrey, Marjorie M. Liu, Lauren Kate, Jocelynn Drake, Merrie Destefano, and Mario Acevedo. It was another uneven panel; while the panelists had interesting things to say, some of the questions weren't that great, and my favorite author on that panel, Marjorie, barely talked at all. Although she did say that she was tired and maybe jet lagged, and its no wonder, since she writes two of her own book series (Dirke and Steele, paranormal romance, and Hunter Kiss, urban fantasy) as well as several comics for Marvel! Richard was just snarktastic though, which made me glad I'd picked up his book. And Mario has always been funny- he even created a Myspace page for his main character Felix Gomez, where Felix takes constant potshots at Mario for mischaracterizing him!
After the panel, we went to the signing area up in Sails Pavilion, on the off chance that they'd have Marjorie's new book in the Hunter Kiss series- it wasn't scheduled to be released until the following week, but since she was there to sign it, Mysterious Galaxy had brought a limited supply! So, that was cool, to be able to get the book a week early and have her sign it. At this point, all my books by her are signed, since I have seen her at three successive cons, and she is always so sweet. I remember one year I ran into her at the Marvel booth, and had a fangirl moment, and she was so nice; I know some of us fans can be crackpot crazies, and I always appreciate an author who seems to like us even though we are a bit weird at times.
This was about the point I was wishing I'd not checked Sandman Slim, since Richard Kadrey was great on the panel and I wished he could have personalized it for me! But I ended up getting something else from him instead, so it all worked out.
After the signings, we went across the pavilion to the other side of the convention center, to the "What's up with Penguin" panel, moderated by Anne! She and the other two editors, Jessica Wade and Mardie Cohen, discussed new and upcoming releases, showed previews of cover art, and did giveaway drawings. I didn't win anything, but I was sort of gratified to realize that a couple of the upcoming novels that interested me a lot I had already received advanced reader copies of, down in the booths. So that was pretty good.
After that panel, we checked our stuff and went out into downtown for dinner. We went to the Gaslamp Strip Club, where you cook your own steak. I've been there a couple times before, once with the parents, at last year's Con, and once a few years before that for a friend's going away dinner party. And the last couple of times we went, it was a decent experience. Not so much, this time. We waited for over an hour, mostly because even though we had one of those buzzer things that they give you, someone else walked up and said that they were us, and even without the buzzer, the hostess sat them! And it's not like my name is all that common after all, so it was total BS. And our waitress had a bad attitude too- who seriously asks you if you'd like a refill of water? Just refill the stupid thing, it's water, it's free! So, yeah, not planning on going back there again.
After dinner, we headed back to the convention center, so we could watch the Syfy Friday lineup of Eureka and Haven. And sadly I had no idea what was going on with Eureka, since I missed part of last season and hadn't seen any of this season. And Haven is sort of meh, I think the writing is really weak on that show. But still, better than going home to a dark house... because San Diego Gas & Electric, in their infinite idiocy, had done some stupid scheduled outage thing in April, and didn't finish the work that needed to be done... so they were doing another planned outage, from 10:00pm on Friday night until 8:00am Saturday morning. So, even watching meh TV on a big screen in a room of like 1000 other people is better than going home to flashlights to pee with!
Up next: part four of my recap, with drinking, an argument over a badly explained policy, a dead phone, zombies... and a stabbing!
Friday!
Friday morning found us starting the day on the con floor again, picking up tickets for Richelle Mead's signing in the afternoon. Of course I was all fangirled out, in my molnija mark t-shirt! Ninja Boyfriend and I wandered around on the floor for a while, killing time, picking up random swag, and I had the hugest bag to put it all in, one of the big Green Hornet bags that he had picked up for me while I was running through the line at the Fox booth to get a poster tube. This year I was really wanting a poster tube, since I was getting posters from everywhere. Since we are moving soon, I want to put up posters all over the front room of our new place, sort of how I did the hallway of our old apartment two years ago in a mosaic of con posters, promo cards, and other miscellany.
While wandering the floor, we got stuck while some celebrities were coming down from a booth after an interview, and I had my second moment of wishing for a better camera, since Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park walked right past me and I couldn't take a good picture! Next year, I swear, better camera than just my cell phone.
Ninja boyfriend wandered off to go to panels or game or something- he doesn't tell me where he goes, he just vanishes, like the ninja he is- so I wandered alone for a while, and picked up a few books, including Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, which the bookseller told me I would like if I was a fan of the Dresden Files. I met up with my parents, and we lurked Random House for a while, because they were giving away Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, who I'd had such an accent crush on from his panel! This is a super blurry photo of me with him as he is signing my book, and a better shot of my parents with him:
I'm usually pretty cheap when it comes to buying books, and I usually won't spend on hardcovers unless it's for an author I already know I love (like Jim Butcher!) but I got over my cheapness and shelled out $30 for the only-available-in-hardcover The Passage, by Justin Cronin, because I'd really liked the concept of the book when he explained a sliver about it at his panel on Thursday! My parents got a copy of it too, and we all took pics with him:
While on the floor, we took some snapshots of more people in costume:
This scary dude; I have no idea who or what he was, but he was seriously like 7 feet tall and all growly, so whatever he was, it was freaky:
And these guys from Society for Creative Anachronism, who seemed surprised and impressed that I actually knew what SCA stood for. My mom was impressed with their hand made chain mail!
Then we had just enough time for me to go switch out my books (I'd brought all my Vampire Academy books, including two hardcovers, and I checked them that morning so I wouldn't have to carry them around and kill my back all day, so I had to go drop off what I was carrying and get them out to be signed!) I dropped off Sandman Slim, which I would have cause to regret later, and picked up VA and was ready to go meet Richelle!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, maybe either because there was some professional interview thing going on with her while she signed, or maybe just in the interests of time. But she is so tiny in person! She is so much shorter and smaller than I thought she was, from her pics on her Facebook and stuff. As she was signing my books, she noticed the editions of some of them, and commented that some of them were original editions, first editions. I was like "Really?" cause I had never thought about it, I just bought them right when they came out. She was like "well, you can't get rich off them, but yeah, these are first editions." and as I was thinking about that, she was like "that's good, it means you've been with me since the beginning" which was nice, since that is the case, I have been a fan of VA since it first came out! My mom was right after me with my last two books, the hardcovers, and she told Richelle that I was having her borrow them, since I'm her go-to person for book reviews and recommendations. Even though we couldn't take pics, she gave all of us zvezda charms that she'd had specially made, which are the the tattoos that the guardians get when they have killed too many Strigoi to count! (and if that doesn't make sense... then you should read the books cause they are awesome and then it will all become clear!)
After the signing, we took time for lunch, and I saw this girl up on the Mezzanine, with an awesome sign! I was like "ME TOO!" She could have been dressed up as Rose, since she was blonde already, but she was just a girl with a sign. Isn't everyone waiting for their doctor to come and take them away to explore the universe in a big blue police box?
After lunch was time for another urban fantasy panel. This one was called "Bite Me: Evolving Urban Fantasy Beyond the Vampire Phenomenon." Diana Gill from HarperCollins moderated this one, and panelists were Richard Kadrey, Marjorie M. Liu, Lauren Kate, Jocelynn Drake, Merrie Destefano, and Mario Acevedo. It was another uneven panel; while the panelists had interesting things to say, some of the questions weren't that great, and my favorite author on that panel, Marjorie, barely talked at all. Although she did say that she was tired and maybe jet lagged, and its no wonder, since she writes two of her own book series (Dirke and Steele, paranormal romance, and Hunter Kiss, urban fantasy) as well as several comics for Marvel! Richard was just snarktastic though, which made me glad I'd picked up his book. And Mario has always been funny- he even created a Myspace page for his main character Felix Gomez, where Felix takes constant potshots at Mario for mischaracterizing him!
After the panel, we went to the signing area up in Sails Pavilion, on the off chance that they'd have Marjorie's new book in the Hunter Kiss series- it wasn't scheduled to be released until the following week, but since she was there to sign it, Mysterious Galaxy had brought a limited supply! So, that was cool, to be able to get the book a week early and have her sign it. At this point, all my books by her are signed, since I have seen her at three successive cons, and she is always so sweet. I remember one year I ran into her at the Marvel booth, and had a fangirl moment, and she was so nice; I know some of us fans can be crackpot crazies, and I always appreciate an author who seems to like us even though we are a bit weird at times.
This was about the point I was wishing I'd not checked Sandman Slim, since Richard Kadrey was great on the panel and I wished he could have personalized it for me! But I ended up getting something else from him instead, so it all worked out.
After the signings, we went across the pavilion to the other side of the convention center, to the "What's up with Penguin" panel, moderated by Anne! She and the other two editors, Jessica Wade and Mardie Cohen, discussed new and upcoming releases, showed previews of cover art, and did giveaway drawings. I didn't win anything, but I was sort of gratified to realize that a couple of the upcoming novels that interested me a lot I had already received advanced reader copies of, down in the booths. So that was pretty good.
After that panel, we checked our stuff and went out into downtown for dinner. We went to the Gaslamp Strip Club, where you cook your own steak. I've been there a couple times before, once with the parents, at last year's Con, and once a few years before that for a friend's going away dinner party. And the last couple of times we went, it was a decent experience. Not so much, this time. We waited for over an hour, mostly because even though we had one of those buzzer things that they give you, someone else walked up and said that they were us, and even without the buzzer, the hostess sat them! And it's not like my name is all that common after all, so it was total BS. And our waitress had a bad attitude too- who seriously asks you if you'd like a refill of water? Just refill the stupid thing, it's water, it's free! So, yeah, not planning on going back there again.
After dinner, we headed back to the convention center, so we could watch the Syfy Friday lineup of Eureka and Haven. And sadly I had no idea what was going on with Eureka, since I missed part of last season and hadn't seen any of this season. And Haven is sort of meh, I think the writing is really weak on that show. But still, better than going home to a dark house... because San Diego Gas & Electric, in their infinite idiocy, had done some stupid scheduled outage thing in April, and didn't finish the work that needed to be done... so they were doing another planned outage, from 10:00pm on Friday night until 8:00am Saturday morning. So, even watching meh TV on a big screen in a room of like 1000 other people is better than going home to flashlights to pee with!
Up next: part four of my recap, with drinking, an argument over a badly explained policy, a dead phone, zombies... and a stabbing!