DragonCon Report #6: an hour with Peter David

Just when you thought that this thing would never get posted (and, at several points, I didn't think it would be), it goes up.

Peter David is at the end of every Star Trek track at the end of every year.  He's the last hour on the last day of the convention. The way he told the story one year, someone in charge of scheduling said "Peter David? He's the last person I'd want to see," and random minion wrote down "Peter ... David ... last .... person."

And so a tradition was born.

Anyway this is an hour video.  He starts by killing time with some DragonCon memories, discusses projects he has with Will Smith (a movie called After Earth), his problems with the publishing industry (which suddenly doesn't make me feel so bad), and more.

Music blog: Elements, by Lindsey Stirling

Yeah, the DragonCon video extrazaganza will have to stop for the moment, due to technical difficulties.

But here's some music. Enjoy.

DragonCon report #5: Photo Layout

My attempt to upload Peter David's full panel [mentioned yesterday] has been continuously flouted by YouTube, so you folks will have to be stuck with a few measly photos.

Granted, some of these photos are of some fairly spectacular stuff.  For example, we have this lovely woman on the right here, as Jessica Rabbit.  Unlike some people, who came in with obviously plastic measurements, this woman was your standard beautiful woman.  She carried it off well because she had simple sexy down pat.  Yes, if you’re wondering, I do think sexy is more than just a collection of physical attributes.

But, obviously, that might just be me.

That's one of the nice things about DragonCon -- people are there to be looked at.  You can take a photo of a stunning person, then sit down from each other on the same rug because both of you have feet that are in serious pain.

Let me see, there were a whole boatload of costumes at DragonCon.  CosPlay is very much a factor.  And, while I would have really liked to have taken photos of whole crowds, it was too dark to capture all of them, at least with my camera.

One particular group was called CosPlay deviants. I'm sure you can find them online somewhere -- they even have their own calender.  

I'm not entirely certain where the deviant parts come in, but what do I know?

As you can see, on the left we have yet another very lovely poison Ivy. You'll remember that a few days ago, I came across the same one twice -- there were actually so many kicking around at DragonCon, I couldn't keep track of them all.  And I had shot one on Friday, and one on Sunday ... even though it was the same exact woman.

But, well, I'm not exactly complaining.

One strange little phenomenon, though, were the ones doing full on impersonations.  Batman isn't that creepy unless he's sneaking up behind you and playing with zip lines in an atrium ballroom.

However, when you have a woman dressed like Harley Quinn (from the video game Arkham Asylum) and doing a pitch-perfect impersonation?  That is bloody terrifying.

She was actually go good, when she walked off stage at one of the many costume judging, she was actually called back by the crowd, and host Peter David (dressed on the left as the Green Hornet) so she could keep doing an impression of Harley.

Welcome to DragonCon.

Anyway....

Yes, there were women out there dressed in more, um, interesting costumes.

Exhibitionism at DragonCon?

 No, really?

Why do you ask?

Ahem....

I'm not complaining.  That's all I'm going to say about it.

There were other good costumes there that had no cleavage involved.  For example, we had one fellow in a very good Spawn outfit.

Yes, I know that he's a guy, therefore there can be no cleavage, but that has never stopped a Con-Goer before, why should it start now?

And if you have no idea what I"m talking about, you have obviously not been to many Conventions.

Moving right along....

This next costume will be of interest because it's of Carol Danvers, aka Miss Marvel, part of the Marvel comic universe, and possibly a participant in one of the upcoming Avengers movies, Guardians of the Galaxy -- which means we might be looking at one of our next Avengers.

No, no cleavage exposed here, either. But, again, I'm not complaining.

Besides, there's a reason I didn't post my photos of the "Power Girl" CosPlayer.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now, don't you?

Be well all. I hope to have Peter David live tomorrow.  Here's hoping.

DragonCon report #4: For A Lord Of Time, and Torchwood

This was a DragonCon Report that went a little sketchy.

How sketchy was it?

It was so sketchy that I'm going to have to resort, once again, to other people's DragonCon vids on youtube.

To start with, a little bit of strange, strange music.

If you don't know who Peter David is, he writes stuff.  A lot of stuff.  Ever read comic books with the Hulk? He wrote that. X-Factor and Young Justice? I think he owns them both.  Any good Star Trek novel, he wrote that, too.  He's written Halo novels, any movie novel adaptations not written by Max Allen Collins, Spider-man comics, Fable novels, and King Arthur (Mayor of NYC), an a wolf gets bitten by a werewolf and turns into a man for three nights a month, and .....

Anyway, Peter David, he writes stuff.

In this case, he also did a song parody for Dr. Who.  I can't even begin to describe it, so I'm going to show it to you.  However, be warned, I will be posting the rest of this panel later in the week. I would have posted it yesterday, but my internet wanted to take over six hours to post it to YouTube, and I had to get to work in the morning.

Enjoy



And this was a panel with John Barrowman discussing Torchwood.  If you like that sort of thing.

DragonCon Report #3: Fightin' and Writing with Ringo; Buffy with Marsters and Landau

A Poison Ivy on line, with Zombie backup.

So, yesterday, believe it or not, didn't go exactly as planned. I would have sworn that I had filmed at least twenty minutes of the Furlan / Boxleitner panel. So much for that idea.

I had taken notes, but much of the notes I had taken had been posted online in various and sundry pieces and parts.

As I said, it wasn't exactly as I wanted it to go.

However, one of the things I did get to record involved John Ringo.  You might get the impression that John Ringo is my favorite author, given how much he's been mentioned lately (and considering my review of his latest novel). He might be, but considering that I read practically anything that's not nailed down, that would be hard for me to say.

I can tell you that it would be nice to be John Ringo when I grow up.  I'm already about as sane, but I would like to write as much, and as often ... then again, that would presume I'm also published, so....

Anyway, John Ringo appeared at one panel on the Saturday night of DragonCon, called Fightin' and Writin' ... yes, it was spelled exactly that way, try not to shoot me.  Things went a little strange with the audio, so I spliced the bad audio to the end --  the last part might be harder to hear, but it's a small part of the whole video. I thought the facts he went through are fun.

Writers really should be taking notes.

I shot her twice on two different days.
The Ivy's started to blur after a while.

Now, next, there was another panel that I was not at.

Again, it was a panel that I could not get in to.

Welcome to DragonCon.

Who was on this panel? The case of the Avengers? The leaders of a major TV show? Major film stars?

James Marsters and Juliet Landau.

If you're asking "Who?" the answer is Spike and Drusilla from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe.

Anyway, this will be the last video I post for this week. The last time that I did a DragonCon report, I was pounding out transcripts for a month.  I am so not doing that again.  So I'm going to take my time, and assemble a lot of my notes in an orderly fashion.

Don't be surprised if I have a whole blog dedicated to pictures at some point next week.

Now, on with the vid.

DragonCon report #2: Babylon 5 and Firefly

Wonder Woman at DragonCon

[No, I will not be doing a 9-11 article this year. Everything I could say in the matter was covered last year.]

Believe it or not, I didn't get into a lot of panels at DragonCon because they were standing room only, and not even that. The Lord of the Rings panel was crowded out, Torchwood panels were crowded out, even guests Adam West and Burt Ward (Batman and Robin from the 60s) had so many fans that the place was crowded out.

However, as John Ringo has said, what happens at DragonCon, stays on YouTube.

So, who needs to go when stuff is being filmed?

Answer: Me. Much of what I did go into didn't even get put online.

So, one panel, which I didn't get into, is a Firefly panel.  For those of you who don't know Firefly, it is a sci-fi western of Joss Whedon's from about ten years or so ago.  This panel had Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, and an appearance from Adam Baldwin -- his first appearance in years, since he was busy working on a show called Chuck.





Below the break, Babylon 5 stars Mira Furlan and Bruce Boxleitner (aka: Tron), discuss their work on the show.

DragonCon Report 1: Marketing Wins, Epic Fails, MacGyver, and Rocket City Rednecks

A casual Con-goer at DragonCon, dressed
in a Witchblade costume

Yup, I'm back from DragonCon.  This has possibly been one of the craziest I've ever been exposed to.  One panel said that the registration was up 30% this year, and another one mentioned that "We stopped selling tickets around 50,000 this year.  That's what we told the fire marshal. Shh."

Yes, "50,000" people spread over five hotels.  Did I ever mention I have a mild phobia of large groups of people?

Let me see, a few things worked, a few didn't.  You remember I had at least two evil plans for DragonCon.

One was an epic fail. I was going to give copies of It Was Only On Stun! to John Ringo, Timothy Zahn, and Peter David, and hope they liked it enough to give me a blurb.

John Ringo said that, since he tends to write in the voice of books he read, he was rereading his own books.

Timothy Zahn stated, before a room full of people, that he hasn't read fiction in ten years.

By that point, I didn't even bother with Peter David.

However, on the other hand, I was going to hand out flyers for the five free days I was giving out my book to Kindle users.  I had 500 flyers.  The free promo period ended last Thursday. I had 1304 people read the book. So, I guess that's a bit of a win.

Anyway, moving right along, we're going to start the first DragonCon report with something a little lazy -- to start with, I'm going to post a video of Richard Dean Anderson, better known as MacGyver, or as an officer from Stargate, the tv show.



Now, I found him a little boring, and if you folks agree, well, I'm going to try to make it up to you with a video of Travis Taylor (author, physicist, runs a show called Rocket City Rednecks) and John Ringo (author, author, and font of a lot of various and sundry knowledge),  Sadly, it's only ten minutes.  I couldn't get into this panel, since it was standing room only, and I didn't feel like being fit in with a shoehorn.

I actually thought it was kinda awesome, but I'm a nerd.



Be back tomorrow with more vids, and photos, and maybe some written reports.

Book review: Masks, by RM Hendershot.

To begin with, all of the heroes were dead. Dead as a doornail. Ten years ago, they were all slaughtered as part of a supervillain’s killing spree after he learned that he was dying of cancer. After that, no superheroes call LA their home anymore.

Enter Rae Masterson , the “mask” known as Peregrine -- powerless, unless you count snark as a superpower. She has nine arrests under her belt, even though five of them have been of Captain Catastrophe, whose name is suitable in more ways than one. Our story opens with Rae witnessing the kidnapping made by one of the local supervillains, Cobalt.

In another part of the universe, Trevor Gray, a former sidekick, modeled somewhere along the lines of Tim Drake, has been recruited by one of his fellow homeless to find his friend – someone who had been kidnapped by Cobalt.  He's a genius-level detective ... but he still can't understand girls.

As Rae and Trevor investigate the abduction from two different angles, they run into each other, and hilarity ensues.

Welcome to the world of Masks, by RM Hendershot, a superhero novel that openly states that this will be "different" from all the others out there.  Is the author right?

I generally don’t like Young Adult novels. You have to get someone very specific and very good to get me to bother with one. Timothy Zahn, David Weber, Peter David, CS Lewis, are the few authors of YA books that I’ve read and that I’ve liked. Take your Hunger Games and your Twilight, and I’ll sooner given you back Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Chronicles of Nick first.

However, I like this one. It’s witty, and it’s fun, and it’s smart. It’s better than anything comic books – the usual medium for such things – has put out in years.  Unless you count J. Michael Straczynski.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and that’s not because I helped with one of the death traps. It has a lot of stuff most comics lack – character, for one. Everyone here has a surfeit of personality, even the bad guy, and the sidekicks, and the local superman equivalent (everyone has at least one). Chapter eleven has a shootout between three female characters, and not one mudwrestling joke…. someone should send it to DC Comics.

Everyone in it has a solid story arc ... or a character arc, if you prefer. And our hero and heroine have some good, natural chemistry.

It has the snobbery of high school, the stupidity of bureaucracies (in short, it's very realistic) and, the most important part: this book doesn’t treat the audience like they’re stupid.  The last time I saw someone treat the audience like this with superheroes it was Straczynski. It has offhand references to the Fischer King of Arthur, and even Universal monster movies. They also have some nice nods to actual comic books -- there is a Busiek hall, named after the creator of Astro City, a Lieber hall, named after Stanley Martin Lieber, who also goes by the name Stan Lee.

Not to mention, I also like the art. I’d post a few samples, but they’re not mine to post. No, this isn’t illustrated; they’re just pictures at the opening of each chapter, that’s all. But they’re nice and straightforward, and I can tell who’s who. Which puts the artwork above some Marvel comics I’ve read.

All in all, it was fun. There were some nicely executed Hitchcockian moments along the way, as well as some moments that J. Michael Straczynski would love.  Is it Les Miserables? No, of course not -- the book's too short.  But it's fun.  But Ms. Hendershot also has a plan, and a multiple-book arc, so we'll see how it all shakes out. 

The novel is quite enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone who believes in truth, justice, intelligence, and heart.  And ghost cowboys. Can't forget the ghost cowboys.

Buy it here -- seriously, for some reason, it's disappeared from Amazon and B&N.

I Have an Evil Plan, with Zahn, Ringo, and David.

Holidays are generally not great days for my blog traffic.  This upcoming labor day, that's a good thing, because I'm going to be at DragonCon.

Yes, DragonCon, in beautiful downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  You can check out their guest list here.

I intend to enjoy myself, and unleash my evil plan.

Okay, it's not necessarily evil, but it should be interesting.

For newcomers, It Was Only On Stun! is a murder mystery at a science fiction convention. And, since I've published this bloody book mostly through my own stubborn efforts, I'm going to try selling as much as possible, and one thing that would help would be blurbs from authors, giving me positive reviews. Really positive reviews.

In short, I hope to give a copy of my book to Peter David, Timothy Zahn, and John Ringo. Why these authors?  You mean aside from the fact that they are all kick-ass writers, and popular in the science fiction community?

Peter David and John Ringo have a similar sense of humor to mine ... or I developed my sense of humor by reading them, pick one.  I find Ringo inspiring, and David usually entertaining, when he's not putting his politics into it.

Timothy Zahn is "only" an amazing author, and most likely responsible for resurrecting Star Wars as a franchise (sadly, the book franchise might be the only reason Lucas felt comfortable trying the prequel trilogy.  Bonus: Zahn has gone everywhere that Lucas has, and has outperformed the little sot.)

Right now, my major hope for the convention is that I don't have security sicced on me for trying to hand an author a novel.  Signed, of course.

On the plus side, I know Peter David has out-and-out advocated this procedure, so I can at least tell him that I'm only following his own advice. 

On the other hand, if Zahn found it creepy, he could call the 501st Imperial Stormtrooper Legion (see my Sean Ryan Trailer.).

And John Ringo ... well, he's ex-82nd airborne, and legions of his fans are military vets. I really hope he doesn't mind. And that he likes the book.

It's going to be amusing.

Music Blog: Nightwish's Last ride of the day

A regular job has come my way, so it's starting to eat up time I would otherwise use for the blog. So, you'll find more and more music blogs popping up as we go along.

This I grabbed from both John Ringo (see: recommended reading), and Mookie, of Dominic Deegan.

The group is Nightwish, who I've had in prior music blogs. The song is the "Last ride of the day."

And I suggest you hang around for the lyrics. They are truly something to be inspired by. I couldn't get the video I wanted, mainly because it couldn't be embedded. I'll live.