Adventures in San Diego, 2010!: seanan

Adventures in San Diego, 2010!

So before we get too far from the convention, a few high (and low) points of San Diego 2010. Because otherwise, y'all will beat me with bricks in a dark alley somewhere, and I just don't have time for that.

This year, I was able to import Tara and Amy (webmistress and fiddler, respectively), and the three of us shared a room with Sunil (media madman) at the Gaslamp Marriott. Not only were we less than a five minute walk from the convention center, allowing us to easily drop things off in our room, but the hotel gave us free candy. Right there at the front desk, free candy. Amy and I decided that we were having the convention experience we would have designed for ourselves at age seven. Except for the drinking, this was probably true for the entire weekend.

Rebecca and Ryan were kind enough to pick me up from the airport; after they dropped me off, Amy and I went to get our badges while the car went back for Tara and Sunil (landing two hours later than I did). Hilarity and admission followed. Tara went off to hang with her friends, while Sunil, Amy, and I went to see an improv performance by Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. They were decent, and the show was fun (especially since Amy got me a Long Island Iced Tea). The only real downside was Sunil accidentally ditching us while we were in the bathroom, but we went and met Rebecca and Ryan for Wendy's, so there was really no bad there.

Thursday was my first panel, The Power of Myth, which was a lot of fun, as was the signing which followed. I gave Amber Benson a copy of An Artificial Night, which she thanked me for, as now she would not be required to steal it. Tara, Amy, and I had lunch with Tanya Huff at the Cafe Diem, because the Cafe Diem is awesome. I also shopped. A lot. I enjoy shopping. I got a White Phoenix Jean Gray doll for my cover designer at Orbit, because I believe in bribery, yo. It was fun!

Thursday evening, Tanya, Tara, and I attended the Brilliance Audio author dinner, which I spent drinking Mai Tais, eating interesting things, and chatting with Phil and Kaja Foglio. My life, so hard.

Friday was my booth signing at Orbit, during which I signed a hundred copies of Feed. In the process, I drew ninety-nine tiny chainsaws, and one tiny Godzilla destroying a city. Again, my life, so hard. I had to miss the X-Men panel to do the signing (wah!), but I was able to attend the panel on James Gunn's Super (he needs to call me), which looks totally awesome. I had a second signing at the SFX booth later in the afternoon, and we gave away another fifty copies of Feed, one to the creator of Being Human. Totally awesome.

Friday evening, Tanya, Amy, and I attended the Penguin FangFest, which I spent drinking pineapple mojitos, eating cupcakes, and chatting with awesome authors. I finally met Charlaine Harris in the flesh, and it was hysterical. Exchange as follows:

Me: "Hi, it's great to finally meet you. I'm Seanan."
Charlaine: *politely blank look*
Me: *displays name tag*
Charlaine: "SHAWN-ANNE!"

*hugging*

I love having a weird name. After that, we went to the Boom! party, where I met Paul Cornell and his lovely wife, Caroline. Paul is one of my favorite humans, as he shares my love of the Black Death and giant flesh-eating lizards. I'm just saying.

Saturday was my second panel, The Rise of Zombie Fiction, which was a) mad fun, and b) reinforced my desire to write up a handbook for people doing panels at this sort of thing. Priscille from Books for Boobs came to the signing in a perfect Delirium costume, and I tried to eat her plush bear. Amy and I managed to catch the Warehouse 13 panel (Allison Scagliotti for Georgia Mason, anybody?), and then went off to dinner with John Grace at a very nice steak house. They served me port. MY LIFE, SO HARD.

Sunday, it was goodbyes and final shopping runs, and Tara and I had breakfast with Paul and Caroline before Amanda and Michael came to carry me away.

It was a good con. This writeup does not include hiding behind Anton, getting awesome swag and buttons from Rae, lots of hugging, accidental soda-based encounters, the dissolution of the Sacred Order of the Deli, ice cream, Gini Koch, late-night sammiches with Tanya, awesome dealer's room finds, free books, cheap books, expensive books, cookies, the art show, or repeat encounters with Felicia Day. But it does include a lot of awesome.

Also, if anyone came away from the con with a spare Sanctuary T-shirt, I am open to trades. Just saying.

dragonsblog

July 28 2010, 20:09:59 UTC 6 years ago

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So Charlaine Harris is an alumna of my school, and went there at the same time as my parents, though they don't appear to have known her. The school is generally beside themselves, famous alum ahh!

And I tried to say your name to a guy at a local bookstore so I could get your book and he couldn't understand me. The South, accents are fun.

Everything I read about Comicon just makes me want to go more. Harumpf.

seanan_mcguire

July 28 2010, 20:23:20 UTC 6 years ago

Comicon is not for the faint of heart, but if you like crowds and don't mind standing in lots of lines, it can be a singularly awesome time. I've been going since my teens, and I really love it. Every convention is a different adventure.

July 28 2010, 20:39:15 UTC 6 years ago

I've got a fainting disorder, which is only vaguely controlled, and one of the things that triggers it is standing for long periods of time. So while I have it, I don't think cons are an option. Sadface. So I look at pictures and read people's con reports and say 'neat!' a lot.

keristor

July 29 2010, 06:20:36 UTC 6 years ago

Media cons. At ordinary fan mainstream cons there aren't usually any lines (nor autograph sessions, which is probably why the lack of lines), and usually the crowds are not as big. If there's a local con near you with a couple of hundred people (rather than the thousands at the big ones like Comicon and Worldcon) most of the time is likely to be sitting either in programme items or around chatting.

I can't do standing either, some combination of my back, knees, calves or ankles will object strongly and tell me about it in ways I can't ignore (if I'm really lucky all at the same time) and I collapse. Plus I gert claustrophobic in crowds. So the big media cons are out for me as well. But there are plenty of others even here in England.

July 29 2010, 14:36:33 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, yeah. As

keristor says, you might be fine with non-media cons, but SDCC would only work for you if you had a companion and a wheelchair. :( But non-media cons are also a blast!

nolly

July 29 2010, 16:39:41 UTC 6 years ago

Also, most cons, including SDCC, are pretty good about accommodations, especially for line-waiting. Whether it's "go to the head of the line", "use the short line", or "here's a chair", they're usually happy to work with you. For SDCC, the exhibit floor might be a problem without a chair / scooter, and maybe the signings (I didn't go to any, so I can't say how they work those), but the programs probably not -- sitting in line is perfectly acceptable.

alicetheowl

July 28 2010, 23:23:26 UTC 6 years ago

At Dragon*Con, we joke that it only has one ride, but it must be fantastic, because everyone's always on it, and we rush to get back on every time we're not on it already. (The line ride, of course.)

July 29 2010, 14:36:41 UTC 6 years ago

I love this!

July 29 2010, 16:53:41 UTC 6 years ago

One of the things I learned early on about Dragon*Con was that it's way more fun if you just savor the entire experience. The crowds, the weaving around hotel basement labyrinths, the clogs in hallway traffic . . . and ESPECIALLY the lines.

The guy we were in front of at the registration line last year probably thought we were nuts. Maybe we are, but we were already having a blast, and the con hadn't even started.

The Shakespeare Tavern helped. We saw "The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" that night. It really helped us get in the mood.

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