I-Con report
Wow, it’s already Thursday and I haven’t posted my I-Con report yet! So, without further ado:
I-Con 27 Report
My buddy Dave and I headed up Friday afternoon—I took my daughter to preschool first, and then we drove out. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we got to I-Con around 4:30. Picked up our badges, met up with Glenn, and the three of us headed out for dinner with Glenn’s dad at Tara’s. If you’re ever out in Port Jefferson, I heartily recommend this place! It’s a bar-restaurant, very casual and no-frills, and the food is excellent! And cheap—I had homemade soup, salad, fries, onion rings, and an excellent T-bone for $15. And the hot wings, oh, the hot wings. . . . .
After dinner we stopped off at 7-Eleven for Slurpees—they have Iron Man helmet Slurpee cups! Awesome! Glenn and I had to get them, of course. Dave laughed at us—his loss. Then we headed back to I-Con for my first panel. Kradical and I were the only two of the four listed panelists to show up, so Glenn sat in to keep us company as we talked about writing tie-ins and particularly how to find something you could call your own even in a licensed property. It went reasonably well. Then we bummed around the dealers’ room and the green room for a little bit before heading off to the Destinies radio show for their special I-Con edition. Always fun. After that Glenn, Dave, their friend Audrey and I went to a diner for dessert. Then it was back to Glenn’s mom’s house—she was graciously putting us up for the weekend, though at least since she was out of town she didn’t have to put up with us—where we stayed up talking until 4 before finally calling it quits.
Saturday Dave and I decided to speak with Russian accents all day, both to annoy Glenn and for our own amusement. I think it worked. We got up at 8:30—was supposed to be 8 but oh well—and all got ready quickly before hitting the con and the green room for some breakfast. Another quick jaunt through the dealers’ room and then it was off to my second panel, on Gems from the Slushpile. That was fun—it was half entertainment (“Here are some of the things we’ve seen submitted over the years”) and half education (“Don’t ever submit something like this!”).
Back to the green room for food and then over to True Tales of the Comic Book Industry, which was cool (and the only panel I went to purely as a spectator). That was immediately followed by Bob’s Film Previews, which is always great—we got trailers for Iron Man, Get Smart, Forbidden Kingdom, and others. Dave and I went looking for some of his other friends after that, and finally found them over by the Art Show—we all hung out for a bit and then headed out for dinner. Tip: If a restaurant was closed due to a fire, check to see if it’s open again before going back. Tip Two: Corsets and laughing hysterically are not a good combination, not if you want to ever breathe normally again.
After dinner we hit the cabaret, which had some really great performances (like the Boogie Knights, who I had never actually seen perform before) and some really bad ones (horrible, horrible filk!). Glenn and Alan and Lisa hadn’t really eaten any dinner, so after the Boogie Knights performed we five fled and wound up back at Tara’s for food. Ah, more hot wings! We got to bed around 2, which was better than the night before.
Sunday we got up around 8 again, got ready, packed up, and Dave and I headed out to the LIRR station to pick up jendaby. Yay! The three of us traipsed over to the con, got her badge (thanks to a very good friend), went to the green room and had breakfast. I had a signing at 11 so I went there while jendaby and Dave perused the dealers’ room and the art show.
The signing was good—I was paired with Sarah Beth Durst, a very cool YA fantasy author I’d met briefly at LunaCon, and we had a great time chatting in between signing things. Then it was back to the green room for lunch—yes, my life revolves around food—before my 2pm panel on Lies and Myths About Publishing. This was by far the best of the three panels I did that weekend—we had a ton of people in the audience, everyone on the panel had a lot of interesting things to say, we all had a lot of fun and the audience seemed really pleased as well.
Jendaby had ditched me for the Boogie Knights concert so Dave and I caught up with her down there, and the three of us wandered the dealers’ room and the green room one more time, catching up with a few friends, before calling it a day. We headed out and got home around 5, where deltagrl and the kids were waiting moderately patiently for us. Ordered pizza, caught up, chilled out, and then I gave both Dave and deltagrl rides home before going home myself and collapsing.
All in all, it was a really good weekend. I got to hang out with some old friends, made a few new friends, improved a few industry contacts, was on several good panels, and had a lot of fun.
I-Con 27 Report
My buddy Dave and I headed up Friday afternoon—I took my daughter to preschool first, and then we drove out. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we got to I-Con around 4:30. Picked up our badges, met up with Glenn, and the three of us headed out for dinner with Glenn’s dad at Tara’s. If you’re ever out in Port Jefferson, I heartily recommend this place! It’s a bar-restaurant, very casual and no-frills, and the food is excellent! And cheap—I had homemade soup, salad, fries, onion rings, and an excellent T-bone for $15. And the hot wings, oh, the hot wings. . . . .
After dinner we stopped off at 7-Eleven for Slurpees—they have Iron Man helmet Slurpee cups! Awesome! Glenn and I had to get them, of course. Dave laughed at us—his loss. Then we headed back to I-Con for my first panel. Kradical and I were the only two of the four listed panelists to show up, so Glenn sat in to keep us company as we talked about writing tie-ins and particularly how to find something you could call your own even in a licensed property. It went reasonably well. Then we bummed around the dealers’ room and the green room for a little bit before heading off to the Destinies radio show for their special I-Con edition. Always fun. After that Glenn, Dave, their friend Audrey and I went to a diner for dessert. Then it was back to Glenn’s mom’s house—she was graciously putting us up for the weekend, though at least since she was out of town she didn’t have to put up with us—where we stayed up talking until 4 before finally calling it quits.
Saturday Dave and I decided to speak with Russian accents all day, both to annoy Glenn and for our own amusement. I think it worked. We got up at 8:30—was supposed to be 8 but oh well—and all got ready quickly before hitting the con and the green room for some breakfast. Another quick jaunt through the dealers’ room and then it was off to my second panel, on Gems from the Slushpile. That was fun—it was half entertainment (“Here are some of the things we’ve seen submitted over the years”) and half education (“Don’t ever submit something like this!”).
Back to the green room for food and then over to True Tales of the Comic Book Industry, which was cool (and the only panel I went to purely as a spectator). That was immediately followed by Bob’s Film Previews, which is always great—we got trailers for Iron Man, Get Smart, Forbidden Kingdom, and others. Dave and I went looking for some of his other friends after that, and finally found them over by the Art Show—we all hung out for a bit and then headed out for dinner. Tip: If a restaurant was closed due to a fire, check to see if it’s open again before going back. Tip Two: Corsets and laughing hysterically are not a good combination, not if you want to ever breathe normally again.
After dinner we hit the cabaret, which had some really great performances (like the Boogie Knights, who I had never actually seen perform before) and some really bad ones (horrible, horrible filk!). Glenn and Alan and Lisa hadn’t really eaten any dinner, so after the Boogie Knights performed we five fled and wound up back at Tara’s for food. Ah, more hot wings! We got to bed around 2, which was better than the night before.
Sunday we got up around 8 again, got ready, packed up, and Dave and I headed out to the LIRR station to pick up jendaby. Yay! The three of us traipsed over to the con, got her badge (thanks to a very good friend), went to the green room and had breakfast. I had a signing at 11 so I went there while jendaby and Dave perused the dealers’ room and the art show.
The signing was good—I was paired with Sarah Beth Durst, a very cool YA fantasy author I’d met briefly at LunaCon, and we had a great time chatting in between signing things. Then it was back to the green room for lunch—yes, my life revolves around food—before my 2pm panel on Lies and Myths About Publishing. This was by far the best of the three panels I did that weekend—we had a ton of people in the audience, everyone on the panel had a lot of interesting things to say, we all had a lot of fun and the audience seemed really pleased as well.
Jendaby had ditched me for the Boogie Knights concert so Dave and I caught up with her down there, and the three of us wandered the dealers’ room and the green room one more time, catching up with a few friends, before calling it a day. We headed out and got home around 5, where deltagrl and the kids were waiting moderately patiently for us. Ordered pizza, caught up, chilled out, and then I gave both Dave and deltagrl rides home before going home myself and collapsing.
All in all, it was a really good weekend. I got to hang out with some old friends, made a few new friends, improved a few industry contacts, was on several good panels, and had a lot of fun.
posted by Gryphon Rose @ 7:21 AM
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