DragonCon and After

DragonCon and After

DragonCon was a great, weird, crazy, rewarding time. It had been many years since I'd been to DragonCon, and it was no longer the convention that I remembered at all. The crazy knob had been turned to 12 with all the costumes, parties, and whatnot. In some cases, this is cool. I got to watch the parade and there's something pretty cool about seeing not just a bunch of guys dressed up as Ghostbusters, but with the ECTO-1, the Ghostbuster's Car. Or an actual steampunk airship. Or 100+ stormtroopers marching together down a city street.

But on the other hand, 60,000 people crammed into any space can provide challenges, and when about half of them are wearing huge, unwieldy costumes, well, that gets not only crazy, but just unworkable.

The reason I was there, however, was to attend panels on the game track and they were amazing. I can't say enough good things about them. First of all, they were very well attended. Each panel I was on must have had between 100 to 300 people. The questions the audience members asked were insightful, refreshing, and to the point. And the panelists I shared the stage with each time were well-spoken, intelligent, and informative. The highlight had to be the Game Mastery Panel, with Richard Garfield, Darwin Bromley, Jason Morningstar, Mike Capps, and myself. A packed ballroom, great questions, great answers, and a standing ovation at the end. I was happy to just be there.

I also got to pal around with friends Rob Schwalb and Miranda Horner, which is always a good thing.

After DragonCon was over, I drove up with Mary Robinette Kowal and other fellow writers to the Woodthrush Woods writer's retreat, where I'm spending a week enjoying the woods and hanging out with other great writers. Oh, and eating great food. Great food.

Now let's see if I can just get some writing done!