Dragon*Con 2011

My wife and I spent the weekend in Atlanta at Dragon*Con. For those who don't know, Dragon*Con is an annual convention for fans of anything sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and downright weird. On September 2nd-5th, fifty thousand people descended on a few blocks around the Peachtree Center, swarming the Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton and Westin hotels. There were zombies, stormtroopers, Whovians, Trekkies, and just about everything else you can think of, plus lots of scantily clad Wonder Women. Or should that be Wonder Womans? And in case you're wondering why my wife allowed me to stare at Wonder Woman, it's because she was too busy gazing at muscle-bound gladiators to notice.

But apart from people-watching and costume-admiring, we spent a lot of time sitting in on panels where actors, writers, or otherwise professional types discussed things and answered questions. Does this sound nerdy and boring? Well, it wasn't, so there. And if it was... well, deal with it.

On the TV and movie front, we sat in with some of the cast from Battlestar Galactic including Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Tricia Helfer (Cylon Number Six), Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek, and also Apollo from the original 1970s series), and Tahmoh Penikett (Captain Karl 'Helo' Agathon).

Then onto a Torchwood panel with Nana Visitor (best known as Major Kira in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and a Walking Dead panel with Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh, the cop's so-called best friend), and Laurie Holden (Andrea, the one who shot her zombie sister in the head).

The True Blood panel included the author Charlaine Harris herself along with Kristin Bauer (Vampire Pam), Joe Manganiello (Werewolf Alcide), Jim Parrack (Human Hoyt), and Denis O'Hare (Russell Edgington, the late Vampire King of Mississippi). I can't think why Joe got so many cheers from adoring females. What IS it about him?

We also sat in on a V panel with Joel Gretsch (Father Jack Landry) and Laura Vandervoort (Lisa). Being the daughter of the alien queen Anna, Laura said she spent most of her time on the mothership, so was in an empty room with green screens. Joel said he spent most his time on the fathership.

I walked right past Sylvester McCoy, the 6th Doctor. And in the Saturday morning costume parade we saw the original Scotty from Star Trek dressed as..., well, Scotty from Star Trek. I just missed seeing Martin Landau, which was a shame, because I loved that old Space 1999 series.

The second biggest audience was for Tom Felton, aka Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies. He was really good, but then, he's English. :-)

But the biggest audience, not surprisingly, was for Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia from Star Wars, in case you live under a rock). She's just not very princess-like, though. Or maybe having her home planet of Alderaan blown up by the Death Star has made her cynical and irreverent. But she was a lot of fun.

On the author front, we saw Charlaine Harris again on one of a few author panels, as well as the legendary Terry Brooks, Jonathen Maberry, Mercedes Lackey, Timothy Zahn, Elizabeth Donald, Kevin J Anderson, S M Stirling, Scott Sigler, and Michael Z Williams.

Author panels are different to actor panels. With actors, it's fun to see them in the flesh and see what they're like in real life, but I find the audience questions very same-y; I've lost count of the number of times actors have said how much they liked working together on set and how they felt like one big family... but there were some funny stories as well, and you come away wanting to see them on TV again so you can say, "I met him/her!" Okay, "met" isn't really the right word. The only big actor I've really "met" is Edward James Olmos at last year's convention; he was washing his hands at the next sink along in the restroom, and we talked for a minute. You see how I mingle with the stars?

With authors, it's interesting to learn how they do things and how they got where they are today. Sci-fi writer Kevin J Anderson writes his novels using a digital recorder as he takes walks through the woods. Terry Brooks' classic Sword of Shannara was a massive bestseller, but the sequel was rejected by his editor, who tore it apart and suggested Brooks rewrite 400 pages (which he eventually did). Unlike most authors, Mercedes Lackey had no rejections at all for her novels. But then again, she "knew" people.

By the way, it turns out that Terry Brooks' Shannara series is pronounced "SHANNER-rah" and not "Sha-NAR-rah" as I thought. But I'm not the only one. Many, many people in the audience were muttering, "Is that how Terry pronounces it? Really?" I think the general consensus is that the author is wrong.

I've come away from all these panels with a new (or maybe just a more solidified) direction. I'll continue self-publishing my Island of Fog books and not bother trying to submit it to publishers or agents. But I won't self-publish anything else until I've tried and tried to find a publisher. I've heard this before, but it's always a nice reminder to hear when super-famous authors are rejected numerous times before striking it lucky. I've only had a few rejections for Island of Fog, and I self-published even before those; I really didn't give it a chance with traditional publishers at all.

So, as they say in all the good sci-fi shows: Never give up, never surrender, so say we all, and long live the Doctor!