Like A Chicken With My Head Cut Off Part 2

Yesterday, I decided to keep it low key and stayed at FenCon in Addison. With the weather change, my bones were achin’ me somethin’ fierce! You young’uns will learn soon enough about old age, but anyway. I ended up hanging out with my buddy Tom Branch and chasing artists and authors.

Tom happened to be looking for Charles Vess to sign his hardcover of ‘Stardust' by Neil Gaiman. Me, being a complete noob, knew that I had seen Vess’ work before, but didn’t realize until after I got home that he also did ‘Blueberry Girl’ by Gaiman, which was done for Tori Amos and her yet-to-be-born baby. I have a copy that I got for my daughter shortly after she was born. Oh, well, I’m sure I’ll see him again soon.

The fun part for Tom was chasing Vess around the Crowne Plaza. I watched. It was fun. The first time, he was in a panel, so we lurked outside. He came out of the crowd, Tom dropped in behind, turned the corner. Then, came back to me. He said Vess pulled a Houdini and disappeared the instant he went around the corner. He did that two more times. I asked if there was a Diagon Alley sort of hidden pathway and was rewarded with the answer that yes, there was a service corridor that ran between some of the rooms. Whether he was using these, I’m not sure, but that’s where my money was. Tom eventually found him in the gallery working on a piece to be auctioned off, I think. It was beautiful and a great honor to be able to watch him work. Oh, and who was standing there watching him work? Award-winning Texas artist Vincent Villafranca! He designed the base for the Hugo Award this year and there was even a Hugo on display. Great work! Here's a shot from the Hugo Award site of the trophy.

My chase was with A. Lee Martinez. I needed his new book, HELEN AND TROY’S EPIC ROAD QUEST, so ducked into the vendor’s room while he was signing books. Technology stepped in the way and while I was lined up to check out, something happened to the dealer’s phone while he was running the credit card, and blah, blah, blah, it took so long that by the time I got back out, Martinez was gone. But knowing the elusive Mr. Martinez’s habits, I found him down on the first floor in the Gaming Area. He was nice enough to sign and we talked . . . well, I fawned a little over his works and the day was done.

Sunday I will be at Fan Days and then off to relax before starting the week. Yay.

How’s your weekend going?

Like A Chicken With My Head Cut Off

Yep, that is what I looked like today as I tried to keep up with all that was going on in the world of Geekdom! I got out of the house and on the road about noon and hit FenCon X first. My good friend Gloria Oliver was there, ever vigilant at her table and a welcome face. After saying Hi, I grabbed my badge and headed to Dallas Fan Days with intention of coming back later in the afternoon to catch a few panels.

Fan Days was in full swing with a pretty good Friday crowd and lots of costumes! Taffeta and Lars were part of the Disney Characters Crowd. It was funny to see them enter the main lobby with a group of people in tow, just as if they were giving a guided tour at the Magic Kingdom. Glitzy Geek Girl was there as the Black Widow and I caught Reese on my way out as Tinker Bell. My little girl will love those photos! And there was one Princess Leia that will probably ruin all my future Leia dreams. You’ll know who I’m talking about when you see them.

The vendor’s room was packed with lots of goodies, so I’ll probably hit a bank (yep, that’s the way I meant it) on the way over. I’m looking to get Jon Heder to autograph ‘Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede’ and then take it to FenCon and get the author, Bradley Denton, to autograph it as well. Hopefully, we’ll see the movie in 2014. We hope.

Well. Where are your photos?

You can find my albums on:

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Heading Out to FenCon X and Dallas Fan Days

I’m headed out the door with my tickets. Printed up my bar code for Fan Days and found the receipt from back in February for FenCon. I found it the other day and thought I had put it in a safe place, but seemed it wasn’t safe enough. Oh, well, got it now and I’m out the door! See you there! I’ll be wearing my new “DJ Leia” t-shirt. What will you be wearing?

RetroPalooza Wrap-Up

Got a great chance to meet new people and wade through some memories at RetroPalooza last weekend.

If you didn’t get a chance to go, then you missed out on a ton of great games and collectibles and even some music. With clouds in the sky and thunder in the distance, people gathered at the Bob Duncan Center in Arlington for some retro fun. I didn’t get to stay for too long, but during my time there, I got to check out the free play room, the main vendor floor with music provided by DJ Mr. Smith, and the Taffeta Darling making announcements and streaming live from the stage.

For a few photos that I took, feel free to hit the Facebook Photo Album: RetroPalooza.

FenCon X October 4-6, 2013

If you’ve got time and want to meet some great authors, head over to FenCon X at the Crowne Plaza Dallas at 14315 Midway Rd. The theme this year is “Infinite Possibilities.”

The Guest of Honor this year will be Cory Doctorow, author of LITTLE BROTHER and co-editor of ‘Boing Boing.’ He will be doing an early bird signing and Q&A on Friday before opening ceremonies.

There looks to be a lot of really good panels this year, so many that it’s hard to choose. There are demonstrations by Roll2Play and tabletop gaming throughout the show. Throw in the filk music, the cabaret, the writers’ workshops, the art show, and more and you’ve got a full weekend!

Now to figure out how to work that into Dallas Fan Days . . . . .

What are you most interested in at FenCon?