Saturday, September 11, 2010

Dragon*Con 2010

Dragon*Con 2010 was, well, Dragon*Con.

There was of course the insane rush of people, the Star Trek celebs, and even Stan Lee. Yes. That Stan Lee. In fact, we stayed in the same hotel. I even know someone who knows someone who knows someone who claims to have ridden in the elevator with him. But that is unimportant. Not that he is, but, well, you get my meaning.

The important thing was this: J.C. Hutchins finally won a Parsec. Sorry P.G., you are now the sole owner of the biggest loser title. Quite an accomplishment though. Really.

But J.C. Hutchins won a Parsec for his novella Personal Effects: Sword of Blood. Quite the tale. It is the prequel to his transmedia experience Personal Effects: Dark Art. The icing on the cake was then Hutch asked his sister to take a picture with me. I didn't ask, first anyways, he wanted a picture with me. How fricken cool is that? I mean really. The newly crowned Kentucky Colonel, podcasting pioneer, awesome author (he's going places folks), and all-around awesome dude wanted a picture with lil ol' me. It was just too cool. And the tattoo @alphasis was sporting was quite possibly the coolest I have ever seen.

I COMPLY.

Of course it wouldn't be Dragon*Con without another adventure in Getting Pissed with the FDO. Such pure entertainment. The highlight of which is easily when Scott Sigler did a little ballet for us all. Following that bit of fun Adam Savage just happened to show up in the hotel bar where were all crashing.

There was even a good bit of fun to be had with the always entertaining P.G. Holyfield who happened to be even more generous this year in the absence of Christof Laputka. You know, that giant, man of German descent who is behind the audio adventure The Leviathan Chronicles. And this year I didn't look like the local stalker at all the podcast panels following the podcasters. I branched out and spread my sickness in multiple places.

Coolness never ends at Dragon*Con.

With the massive amount of awesome from the weekend, what could possibly be better?

That's easy. I got episode 9 of FETIDUS from the hand of James Durham. It was just an insane experience. What started as a brief file transfer turned into a 2 hour conversation. That followed lunch with James and Christiana Ellis the day before. That lunch was so intimidating sitting two mental giants and quietly providing input in a mumble as I shoveled more food in my mouth. It was lunch, after all. Food does take priority. (But as a warning: Don't get the chicken salad with fried chicken. Not a pretty result.) It was, in all, an unbelievable and otherworldly experience. So cool.

In addition to all the cool things that happened over the weekend I managed to get myself inspired. I'm now sitting on a writing schedule that goes until April of next year. It's daunting to look at. Seven months worth of planning. Wow. That's something I never thought I would do in the past. In actuality, I've never planned more than a couple days in advance, much less such a stringent schedule. Now comes the difficult task of balancing classwork, work, and then my writing. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

The awesome never ends at Dragon*Con. And just like last year, I'm already looking forward to the next Dragon*Con. Though I do believe I'll branch out and hit up BaltiCon this year. Gotta love those conventions. So much fun. And the people there. Well, they're too cool for school. I've never met a more open, accepting, and helpful group of people than the folks that can be found in the podosphere.