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| Lisa and Meghan erect the booth scaffolding. |
This past Labor Day weekend, August 30th to September 3rd, was
Dragon*Con,
an event that has become the highlight of my convention year, and a
show that's becoming like a giant family reunion where even the weird
uncles are really cool. For the third year in a row, Pyr has exhibited
at the show. We were back in the same spot in the Marriott Marquis
Ballroom, in booth 709/711 (yes, we have a huge double booth).
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| The booth complete. |
I got up early on Thursday and made the drive to
Atlanta, where I was joined by two of parent-company Prometheus Books'
employees, Meghan Quinn and Lisa Kay Michalski. Both Meghan and Lisa
were embarking on -- not only their first Dragon*Con appearance -- but
their first genre convention of any kind! We met in the morning and
headed over to the Exhibit Hall to assemble the Pyr booth. We broke for
lunch at the
Metro Cafe Diner,
where we were joined by authors Sam Sykes, Clay Griffith, and Susan
Griffith. Then all six of us went back and assembled the booth. That
night saw us eating at (my personal favorite local restaurant, because
it's a brewery)
Max Lager's, and then out to the Marriott Marquis'
High Velocity
bar for a very late night. John Picacio, who was in town for just
Thursday night to Saturday morning, joined us for the evening. We ended
the night around 3am, plenty of time to rest up and still make my 11:30
am panel.
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| Meghan encounters Flying Spaghetti Monster |
The panel in question was "Gimme a
Break--Breaking in and Breaking Out." Like all Dragon*Con panels, it was
well attended. The room had 120 chairs and there were at least another
20 folks standing along the back wall. More I couldn't see to count
accurately were sitting in the aisles. Afterwards, I raced to the
Exhibit Hall for the first day of sales.
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| Improvised Name Signage |
2:30 pm was the Pyr Rising panel. I was up on stage
with Philippa Ballantine, Andrew P. Mayer, Sam Sykes, K.D. McEntire,
E.C. Myers, and (arriving directly from the airport without even
checking into his hotel first) Jon Sprunk. The room had a live feed to
the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, where we were able to
see and interact with James Enge and Brenda Cooper. Thanks to the tech
crew that made that link happen. It was wonderful to be able to speak to
the World Con audience too and to get to see and talk with James and
Brenda.
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| Nom nom nom. |
Then it was back in the Exhibit Hall working the
booth until 7pm. Followed by another dinner at Max Lager's and another
night, this one out until 3:30 am, at High Velocity. Somewhere in there
was a heated and enjoyable discussion of why
The Dark Knight Rises sucks (my position) or was brilliant (the opposing side) with comics artist and creator,
Ted Naifeh.
We found more common ground with discussions of the animated Batman
incarnations, but the whole discussion was fun. It was also good to see
Hugo-nominated Dan Dos Santos briefly that evening.
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| Todd Lockwood and Lisa Kay Michalski |
Saturday I didn't have any panels, so it was a
marathon all-day selling session. We had printed about a thousand Pyr
Sampler books as freebies
(Update: we printed 2,186!!!). They were GONE GONE GONE by noon. So too was
John Picacio, who was in for the morning, then took off to (!) fly to
World Con for the Hugo Awards, but at any time we had four or more
authors in the booth with us. A special shout out to KD McEntire's
husband Jake, who came to the rescue with a portable hotspot when ours
went out! Jake saved our bacon. He also proved to be quite a salesman,
which really was above and beyond the call. Meanwhile, the crowds at
Dragon*Con have to be seen to be believed, and it's incredibly rewarding
to see how many people love our books and look for us each year now.
The fan interaction the con affords our staff and our authors is just
incredible.
For dinner, I went with Sam Sykes, Lisa Kay Michalski, Meghan Quinn, and famous illustrator Todd Lockwood for pizza at
Azio Downtown,
then back to High Velocity again, where we met up with several of
Lockwood's friends, for an evening that we cut short at 2:45 am. Or
maybe it was 3am.
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| Saturday Night. |
And what of our con newbies Lisa and
Meghan? They were old pros by the second day, and both were fell in
immediately with the vibe of the show. I'm so glad they took to it so
well, had such fun working hard, and "got" what Dragon*Con was all about
for us. You two are incredible! I hope you can come back next year!
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| Steam Ensemble |
Meanwhile, Sunday was another incredible day in the
booth, followed by an 8:30 pm panel called "Editors and Agents Tell
All," which was scheduled around the time the Hugo Ceremony in Chicago
was starting up. (Apologies for all those nervous glances at my Twitter
feed). The panel was just as packed as the previous and a lot of fun to
do.
Then it was back to High Velocity, where I had no
cell access, no bandwidth, no ability to IM or check Twitter. It was
nerve racking, but finally my agent was able to get word to me that "You
didn't win. Picacio did." And I was thrilled for my friend John
Picacio, one of the top artists of our field, but now officially a
Hugo-award winning illustrator!
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| Our Last Night |
Sunday night was also the last time the gang was out
together. It was a wonderful evening, and a somewhat emotional one as
well. Dragon*Con is a marvelous show for us because we have a base of
operations in the Pyr booth. We get to interact directly with our
readers, by the hundreds, every day and see the effect of what we do has
on people. It's a great show because of its attendees, who are all ages
and ethnicities and genders, and who are all passionate about science
fiction and fantasy in all its permutations. It's such a high energy
show, where you work hard and play hard for five straight days. No one
ever believes me until they come out--even if they believe me they don't
believe me--and they come away enthralled. But what really makes
this show is the Pyr family. Jon (and now wife Jenny), Sam, Andrew,
Clay, Susan, Eugene, Katie, David, Cooper, Will, Lisa Meghan, Pip,
Gabrielle--you are all wonderful.
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| A Dragon's Eye from Hunter and Fox |
Monday Lisa, Meghan, Eugene, Clay, Susan, copyeditor
Gabrielle Harbowy, and I worked the booth. We managed to sell out Eugene
(EC Myer's) last copy of
Fair Coin
within
a minute of his departure time for the airport. We also sold out books
by Sam Sykes, Andrew P. Mayer, Justina Robson, Jon Sprunk, Dave Freer,
KD McEntire, and others. What a show. Lisa and Meghan stayed right up
until the Exhibit Hall closed, then took off to the airport.
When
it ended, Lisa, Meghan, Clay, Susan, Gabrielle, and friends David
Alaister Hayden, Cooper Chun, and Will Cockrell and I disassembled the
booth and packaged all remaining stock in under an hour - a record! -
and went out (sadly sans Gabrielle, who had other plans) to the
Landmark Diner, which, since we ate there after take-down last year two, is I suppose a new tradition. And then it was time to say goodbye.
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| Stuffed Animal Gown |
Deep thanks to Regina Kirby, Nancy Knight, Susan
Phillips for great programming, and to all the con runners! It was an
amazing con. I loved seeing everyone - old friends and new. Cons are
made up of people and these people made the con! Emotional things were
said, a lot of them late Sunday night, that are simply not for this
blog, but I love these people and always will. Thank you all for making
this weekend, this magical Brigadoon that calls us all together once a
year, one of the best convention experiences ever.
This week the SF Signal Podcast has an interview recorded live at WorldCon with John O'Neill, founder of Black Gate magazine, and two of the brightest feathers in his cap, Howard Andrew Jones and our own James Enge. Both sold stories early in their career to O'Neill and went on to sell novels based on those characters. James' of course, are the novels of Morlock Ambrosius, his sword and sorcery hero (the latest of which, A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows, Book 1),
just came out last month.
Podcast host Patrick Hester talks with the three about Middle Eastern culture and fantasy, Tolkien, European-centric fantasy,
Sinbad, Disney movies, the history of Black Gate magazine, sword and sorcery, being a short story editor, critiquing,
Worldcon and much, much more. It's well worth checking out - funny and informative as the best podcasts are.
