DragonCon 2013, pt. 1

DragonCon 2013 started as all past DragonCon's have for me ...at 3am on a Thursday morning.  I drive to my group's meeting place, we pack all of our stuff into one van and then begin our trek north from Tampa to Atlanta.

Sunrise comes after a few hours of driving. Like last year, fog covered the road and fields until the sun rose high enough bake it away. We ran into another DragonCon group during breakfast at Ihop.

One of the fun things about the drive is the random costuming props. Here's our first stop for gas. You can tell other cars that were also on their way to DragonCon by the costumes piled in the backseats.

We finally arrived around noon and the line for pre-registration wrapped around the Sheraton. It took us about an hour to get our badges. Last year we walked right in, but 2011 we waited 3 hrs, so not bad middle ground.

A decent number of con-goers have started costuming on Thursday night now. My group just gets settled into our room in the Hilton, relaxes and meets up with our other friends there, but we still walk the atrium level of the Marriott checking out the cosplay.

The Night Vale is growing in recognition. Here's the Mayor and the hooded figures from the dogpark. These are friends, they are awesome.

Walking Dead

Dean Winchester, high school gym coach. I'm getting caught up on the series and just watched that episode an hour ago.

always carry a towel.

Doctor Who is a staple of the cosplay community.

Chess with a Jawa.

The Red Wedding

The 501st brings a large contingent to DragonCon. It is always cool to see them patrolling.

Even before con actually begins there is a wonderful camaraderie between everyone. A charged sense of excitement for the coming days. We'll eat bad Food Court food and sleep far fewer hours than we should, shower less than is hygenically required by the CDC and stand in long lines to be charmed by actors and writers and our fellow geeks.

The first day my schedule is full of panels. I grab breakfast (here's a pic of my reflection from the Hilton lobby coffee bar) and head to my first panel. I planned on going to the 10am Defiance panel, but then I wander across the Fun Run. 

I happened to come across the finish-line of the DragonCon Fun Run, in which my friend participated. It was a sweaty, cheering group of runners, full of smiles and costumes adapted for running. Random happenstance brought me across this happy group and it was a joy to see them cheering each other on, a nice community.

After the Fun Run I continue to make my way up the hill to the Westin Peachtree and as I'm standing at the door I pause, and decide not to go to the panel. I had another in an hour and a half and began to just sort of wander back down. I notice this slightly more petite woman walking next to me. I glance, get a feeling of recognition, look again and she smiles and gets my attention. She needs to pick up her convention badge. I begin to give directions but she says she's going to the Marriott (regular Con-goers get theirs at the Sheraton.) I take a chance and say - Mrs. Espenson? (Jane Espenson)

AND HOLY CRAP IT IS!!!!  She's incredibly nice and smiles a lot and I am very much trying to keep it cool. I'm heading back in that direction anyway, so I offer to show her to the Marriott and she thanks me for the assistance. In the 7-10 minute walk between hotels we chat on and off. I thank her for the wonderful stories and express excitement in her current projects. She thanks me and smiles and seems to be just a wonderfully pleasant person.

And within the first two hours of the con, I've had an amazing experience just by wandering off my path. I don't have any pictures, because she was just getting situated and it was not the place nor the time to ask. I did tweet at her though:

@janeespenson have a great time at #dragoncon, thank you for coming and thank you for so many wonderful stories! #pleasantwalktomarriott

AND THEN SHE RESPONDED! :

Jane Espenson ‏30 Aug @artandrhinos thank you for your guidance!

After that I pretty much floated to the Hyatt, waited a little bit for my next panel and then listened to a personable and knowledgeable Michael Stackpole in a writer's workshop. I was able to get my hardcover of - Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde signed and then got a 25 minute discussion about writing it and the time at Blizzard and the 6 HOUR LORE PRIMER he got from the loremasters. He also was the one who suggested the human hunter character to help complete the journey. I did get a picture, though I had my camera set on Monochrome - so it's a little stylized. The encounter was awesome, and the workshop was both helpful and informative.

I followed the workshop up with a panel about using weaponry and hand to hand combat in writing.

Basic summary - talk to an expert. Get the information you need.

also: you can't click off an external safety on a Glock, because they don't have one.

---

I took lunch, wandered through the artist's alley and comic book artist's area. I met an artist who is dating a zookeeper at the Zoo Atlanta who works with the rhinos - they recently had a black rhino born, and, get this, the mother of that rhino is the same one born at Miami MetroZoo when I worked with the rhinos there back in 2006! It was shaping up to be a day of crazy, awesome coincidences.

Well, that artist's work is cool and unique, here's his webpage - poopbird.com.

I ended up at the back of the Grim panel, but they put the actors up on the screen and you can hear and see them just fine. 

I closed out Friday in my Doctor Who dress, taking pictures of my friends' Day of the Dead costume group.

when you see it....

oh R2...

oh Deadpool...

Eddie Izzard

Final coda of the day- after the Day of the Dead costume group disbanded, my friends and I were famished and treated ourselves to late night food.


My burger was delicious. Here is a picture of it. MMmmm...it's making me hungry right now.

Good night.

---

To be continued...