Dragon*Con report

So this past week-end I made my yearly pilgrimage to Atlanta aka Geek-Mecca. There I dress-up, I talk to authors and I find out what is coming out in the next year. I go to all the publishers panels so I now have a pretty good idea about what I am going to be buying for this next year. But the most amazing parts of the Con are talking with my authors. Like every other reader in the world I love my authors. They help me make it from day to day, so when I can sit in the same room as them and talk about their works, hear from new books that are coming out, and just in general bask in the glow of cool.

So my first author I saw on Friday was Kevin J Anderson. Now I have met Mr. Anderson five years ago at Dragon*Con. He has been one of my authors for many years before that but after meeting him, he became even more so. He is a good reader, he likes his fans, and he is willing to answer questions about up coming books and the like. While over the past two years because of Facebook he and I have talked a lot. Now I realize that 'a lot' to me is really nothing to him but he is nice. So we talk about books, publishers and just about everything to do with writing. Last year when he read the first two chapters of his book 'Death Warmed Over' I was there. When he talked about it on Facebook, I responded. Well long story short he gave me a ARC copy of it over the summer. Super cool and the book is hilarious. You should read it for yourself and see. So when my spouse and I get some time on Friday to go to the vendors for about an hour we head to Mr. Anderson's table to get some books. He sees me, comes around the table and hugs me. In public. Like I'm someone he likes. My face was so red. It was and is very flattering and awesome. Then when we went to his reading, as per normal, he hugged me again. I still blush just remembering it. So Mr. Anderson is awesome and nice and one of my authors.

The other author I met this past week-end was Robin Hobb. She was on a writing panel and when the panel ended I walked to tell her how much I enjoyed her novels over the years. She, my spouse and I end up having a 20 minute conversation, where she gave writing advice and we helped her with Dragon*Con. Because if you have not been to Dragon*Con then you will get so lost in it all. Dragon*Con is over five hotels and has about 60,000 people on average. So she was a little lost but nothing serious and we told her where to find what she was looking for. Her reading was good too but she only had one chapter to read so the last 30 minutes of the panel was Q&A. Not bad for her first Dragon*Con. I really hope that she comes again next year.

The publishers panels of course were great but the best coming soon panel really is the YA Lit. That is because the panelist give a hand-out with all titles, the publishers, when and if it is a series the other names of the books to everyone there. It is run by four librarians from the Atlanta area and is always great. There are some really good stuff coming out this year just to warn you. Dragon*Con was wonderful and I wish that I could go to it again this week-end but I'll live for the next year until that most magical time of the year comes again. Thanks for reading and see you next week!