First off, two apologies for the previous posting, I missed quite a few involved people from the previous days. Most importantly, I missed a chance to refer to the Wandreys as “The Wondrous Wandering Wandreys”.
Sorted.
Brian Hampson was there to help as I plotted with Doc. Quincy Allen seemed to be the legit right hand man of Ms Kenyon during her Black Hat Ball, which was awesome to see. Mark Stallings was there as well and I met a few other new people too. Finally, at the speakeasy that night, I finally got to say hi to the Speaker himself, Rob Hampson, as well as a quick hello to John Ringo, Jerry Phillips, Nate “No Step on Snek” Balyeat, the Cochrane’s, and Mel Todd, who was graciously on drink duty. I also had the honor of officially meeting Mike Williamson and Chuck Gannon. If I’ve forgotten anyone else, I apologize.
Friday “The Day of Panels”
With DragonCon standard minimum sleep time, we woke up early. I dressed as Captain Hammer and Donnie became Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III. We got breakfast in time to make a 9am D&D game. By pure accident, we wound up with a perfectly balanced party and had a blast in my first Fifth edition experience (I normally have a rule against getting into odd numbered editions of any game, on principle).
After killing demon goats and a few puppies, we again re-learned the lesson of circumnavigating a building to find the end of a line whilst attempting entry to the Exhibitor’s/Dealers in America’s Mart.
Donnie got a satchel in preparation for buying stuff. This was somewhat timely because then we discovered Utilikilts, where I learned Donnie had never had a kilt- because they had no pockets. I took the opportunity to let the sales lady teach him about the greatest of all gateway kilts and their immense functionality. I am proud to say he now has one. At some point, he found a fellow Critical Role cosplayer, chatted her up, and solidified plans to attend a Critical Role photo shoot.
On the third floor (I think) we were entranced by the vigorous sales pitch of the Great Alphinius Goo, founder of Gooey Games, who sold the most completely developed adventure settings I have yet to find. Donnie was satisfied with the pitch and made a happy purchase.
Just like last year, I found Carolina Game Tables and Wyrmwood and dreamt of buying my very own gaming table. The sting from the Great Geek Chic Disaster is still a bit too sore. Someday.
It was time to split up again, as he returned to the second day of his panel, and I ran off to:
Anthologies- A little soul crushing to hear the incredible amount of people who submit versus the small number of people who are accepted. On the other hand, I do sympathize with the doorkeepers. Apparently I’ve been incredibly lucky so far, I assume that won’t last.
Four Horsemen Universe- Always good. I credit last year’s panel with getting me writing again. A dam broke while I sat there last year and a story began spilling into my head, the first I’d written in a decade. This year it was good to hear more of the progress, and envision myself on the panel someday in the distant future.
Mil Sci-Fi Writers and Creators- My third panel stalking Chris Kennedy, first time seeing David Weber. Good all around talk.
Handwavium- A good panel, my first time seeing Quincy Allen and Chuck Gannon on a panel. I need to learn more Physics.
Gimme a Break- my first chance to see John Ringo on a panel this year, as well as fellow Burqueno Tamsin Silver. Good info on ways and means to break into the industry. Much more encouraging than the Anthology panel.
And then, as my heart began to race, my palms got sweaty, Eminem began playing in my brain (“You only got one shot!”), and I realized I had eaten and drunk very little in quite a while, I walked the short distance to where I would be on my first ever DragonCon panel. I’ve been going, irregularly, for 17 years. To top it all off, I knew I would be hiding in the shadow of the “No Kidding There I Was” giant himself, the great Mike M. I did have Kevin and Griffin there for support and Mike ZW down on the end. As soon as someone delivered a bottle of Maker’s Mark and Mike M poured me a cup (Mike M, despite being the God of the panel, was still quite nice and humble), it all went dark and I woke up the next morning. Okay, not quite, but I am pretty sure I rambled quite incoherently for much longer than I should have and forgot most of my well-rehearsed finer points on the subject of “Airdrops Gone Bad”. I was definitely not on the level of Cher and Demi Moore stories, but I am told that my facial expressions and (hopefully helpful and respectful) pantomiming of the other stories was sufficiently comical.
Afterward, I met a nice couple, the Ascol’s, to whom I told the story of John Ringo and The Red Leather Demon Hand Bikini. At that point, I am pretty sure I was suddenly possessed by a strange being from another dimension and, as such, cannot be held accountable for anything that happened until roughly 3 am. Except for the quest I gave Tara. I totally claim credit for that.
Saturday, “The Lost Day”
I had intended to take Donnie to the parade. Yeah… next year.
I did get up in time to get dressed as Mal Reynolds and rush off to hop onto my second ever panel, the Military Cosplay panel. My short version is 1) Please do not intentionally disrespect whatever uniform you put on, I would hope that’s obvious; 2) You do you, make it as good or as simple as you’re up for; 3) If it’s a show, movie, book, historic, or whatever, that’s always fine; 4) watch out for stolen valor- if dressing straight like modern military, intentionally get something wrong and/or make it obvious in some way that you’re cosplaying.
I had a chance for some more Chik Fil-A (my #1 Con go-to if you haven’t noticed) and headed to the room for a little more recovery nap… Which almost made me late for the third panel I was on- Delphic Oracle (I was on-time to a minute late, totally nailing the Tanker aircraft standard). I’m a little humbled to say I sat next to Jody Lynn Nye. Wow. There were many other great panelists as well and I had no business being there. But it was a blast. Our new band, the Delphic Minivans, should be putting out their first album- with their characteristic ever-changing nonsensical lyrics, lots of triangle, and lots of cowbell- by the end of the year. Maybe.
Had a great dinner at Hard Rock with some good friends, Donnie included. Donnie had just come from an epic Critical Role photo shoot. He had found his tribe. I couldn’t be more proud, DragonCon, good job people!
We then headed over to the Chris Kennedy Publishing get together, to catch up the the Kindle Unlimited Writing Factory crew. There was an incredible Four Horsemen cosplayer and all the other usual suspects. I took the chance to finally pitch the novel I had been told I was writing. The leap has been taken. Now I just have to crank something out that would not more appropriately fertilize flora.
Headed to the Speakeasy for an opportunity to talk aircraft with the Speaker’s father as it was his birthday party. A true honor.
I broke that off to head down to the Fightin’ and Writin’ panel and got many notes for what I consider one of my weaker areas of writing (“they do fighty stuff, they win, next…”). I ran back to the room to grab a cigar, where Donnie was deeply into the Gooey Games game books. Then back to the Speakeasy to finally hang out on the balcony and get some general chill time with Ringo and crew.
Sunday, “The End of Days”
Once again, despite a late night, Donnie and I got up early enough to have breakfast and get to another 9am D&D game. This time I wore my steampunk air captain getup w/brown Utilikilt.
DONNIE KILTED UP!!!
At the game, our party was horribly balanced. We had three halfling thieves with identical stats and I nicknamed us “the Triplets”. Still a good game, we killed some goblins, became the lords of tiny goblins (some brilliant thinking on Donnie’s part), fought a tiny giant, and won ourselves a tiny bear as a pet. Good day’s adventuring.
Enroute back to the Exhibitor Hall, we came across Ringo again, stepping out for a moment from the Baen “Do”. In my Con brain, I totally failed to finally introduce Donnie. Apparently this drastic oversight was made up for sometime later in the day, when Ringo saw Donnie getting food and introduced himself. I am so bad at these things.
Attempting to enter the Exhibitor’s Hall, we finally went the correct way to reach the end of the line, only to find that it had folded back on itself and we were better off RE-Circumnavigating the building to get to where the double-backed line ended. Can’t win for losing, or something.
Anyway, we saw the rest of the exhibitors hall, Donnie got more costume accoutrement for next year, and I bought the Munchkin “Moop’s Monster Mashup” game because, well, I had to. It had my name on it.
On the way back, we finally made it to the Art Show. Always amazing.
Donnie and I split up again so that I could attend the Masters Of Military Sci Fi panel. Enroute, I encountered, with heavy heart, the saddest part of all of DragonCon. The closed Chik Fil-A. A moment of silence, please…
I ate something okay but way less satisfying, and went to the panel. Another great panel, well moderated by Chris Kennedy, and good discussion and inputs from all the authors.
Then it was off to the Dragon Awards where several friends were nominated. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t heard the results, but congratulations to all the winners. Well hosted by Chuck Gannon.
And then I did something I had not done in years and had promised myself I would never do again. I found the end of the line for the Masquerade Costume Contest, and I sat down. And waited. And waited. And waited. I felt that attending the costume contest was one of those experiences that Donnie should have. I’m not even sure I consulted him on the subject. Hmm.
Great costumes, though I’m gonna get all crotchety and ask when it became more performance than straight costume making. The answer is, I realize, a long, long time ago but I will still lament. There were some wonderful performances, particularly Elsa and Anna (“Stop the song, stop the song!” was very clever), but most of the time I felt the time limit should be shorter. Don’t they know we all have zero attention span? I loved the outfits, but come on- get on stage, hear the explanation, bada boom, bada bing, get off the stage. OTOH, I imagine if I ever spend that much blood, sweat, toil, and tears crafting one of those impressive creations, I’ll probably want to have as much time on stage as possible to show it off. So… the guy who wrote the first half of this paragraph can pound sand.
After the contest, there was an attempt to knock out a game of Delta Green, which I have yet to play, which fizzled mostly due to my failure to secure a good, quiet location. The 10th floor of the Marriott, while quiet enough from 3am until 6pm, is not quiet enough at 10pm. You’d think I’d be smarter than that. I am not.
Failing that, Donnie called it a night so he could pack for his early flight.
I resolve that next year we will: 1) attend the parade; 2) see Voltaire; 3) find the Walk of Fame and see the famous people (the ones we haven’t already accidentally bumped into).
I went off to catch up with my Eurotrip clad friends in the Hyatt. They have directed that next year I will be the Absynthe Fairy (watch the movie if you’re unsure what I mean by that). Fluggenziegenstrausser.
We went to another, and final, stop in the Speakeasy… which was apparently the last ever time I will rock it in the Speakeasy as it will not be reopening next year. Another moment of silence, next year this will certainly be even sadder than the closed Chik Fil-A. Truly the end of an era.
And then…dun, dun, duuunnnnn…… IT WAS TIME FOR CRUXSHADOWS!!!!!
This weekend I gave quite a few people the long, obnoxious rundown on my very first Cruxshadows concert. In a future post I will expound because it was a life changing, near religious experience and must be given its very own space here.
All the usual suspects were there, or, at least, all of what I consider my “new” crew. None of my crew from the first three years were there, but all of the crew that’s developed in the years since were present.
As always, an epic performance. The concert, like those of any good band, never ends the first time they walk off the stage. As usual, they came back for a two song encore. The first, which they had not played the previous year, is to me the most sentimental and defining song of Cruxshadows. It was the only one I had known the very first time I saw them. I heard the first few chords and I was suddenly 17 years younger, dressed in a metallic mesh shirt and dancing with a brunette in a Red Leather Demon Hand Bikini. For those few minutes, I had found my way back to heaven.
Finally, as always, they played Marilyn, My Bitterness.
The greatest thing about Cruxshadows is that, when the concert is over, they do not wave and leave the stage. For one, they have already called as many as will fit up onto the stage with them, so that would be near impossible. For another, they will then stay as long as it takes to shake hands with, take selfies with, and hug whoever waits to do so. Rogue is not done until there is no one left to interact with. They are the best to their fans as any band I have ever known.
After all this, everyone was turning in, but I was not quite done. I went to the smoking deck of the Marriott, lit up one last cigar (they are few and far between at home), and let myself come down from the great high of the concert.
My thoughts drifted from that very first DragonCon- which I plan to write about in the coming days, to my family at home who I missed and would be returning to, to the extraordinary task that has been laid before me, courtesy of my number one writing mentor. I will not let him down.
Leaving DragonCon is like leaving a life as royalty in a wondrous magical castle on a cloud with all of your best family and friends… and returning to work in a salt mine or to toil in dusty fields. My apologies to any salt mine workers of dusty field toilers I may have just offended. You guys are awesome, and I feel your pain.
That was DragonCon. 357-ish days until the next one. Sometime, in the near future, as I said, I might have to tell the story of my first.
