Writer's Grove

San Diego Comic Con, Day One

OK. Most of this day was a boring drive across a featureless desert. Seven hours of blearggh.

BUT THEN IT ABRUPTLY STOPPED SUCKING.

I honestly didn’t see much of the Con today. Not a single panel or event thingie. I just got to my hotel, then the Con, and made my way to the Random House booth and met a whole bunch of folks whose names I’d heard before but had never met in person. Super spiffy people like the publisher and my marketing dude and a couple of editors, as well as some lovely folks from Suvudu. I signed a buttload of bookmarks to hand out, and a few people who had heard of me actually stopped by and I got to meet them too. I got interviewed by a nice lady from a bookstore in Sweden (Yes, Sweden!) and her accent was adorable. I kept hoping she would ask me more questions and was sad that I was supposed to do most of the talking. I also saw a rather gigantic poster of my books, which was a really surreal moment. Wish my dad could have seen this. He would have enjoyed it very much.

I took an extremely brief  (like, a ten-minute) walk out on the floor and snapped a few costume pics. Here are a few:

(I’ll take more tomorrow.) Then the parties began. First, Brilliance Audio, where I finally met the guy who brought you the series on audio, John Grace. In case you haven’t heard, he’s also made sure the series will continue with Luke Daniels narrating, so incredible kudos to him for doing so—Luke has done a fabulous job. I also tried some unusual Scotch there and realized that I really need to stick to the Irish. Also had lovely conversations with a few people from other publishers and enjoyed chatting with them.

Then, the Del Rey party. Ye gods! I had no idea I would be meeting some of my favorite writers ever!

I met George R.R. Martin! Daryl Gregory! Christopher Paolini! And EEEEEE! Patrick Rothfuss!!

Gentle Friends, I love the Kingkiller Chronicles. For me, it is The Good Shit. My opinion (with which no one need agree, but which I suspect many will) is that Patrick Rothfuss and Neil Gaiman are the best storytellers walking the planet right now, and I told him that. He was very kind in dealing with my Effusive Praise. I did not actually squee at him—the squeeing happened afterward. And that is because he took a Crazy Eyes Picture with me. And Patrick’s Crazy Eyes are fabulous. Behold:

And not only does Mr. Rothfuss write epics, he lives them. On top of mechanical bulls. He rides epically. I jest not. PROOF:

Only at Comic Con. I’ve heard it’s infamously difficult to get tickets to this Con, and now I understand why. It’s turbo awesome and I haven’t even seen the stuff I’m supposed to see yet! By the way, Mr. Paolini also rode very well, but I was not quick enough with the camera to catch that. Anyway. I’ll give you another late night/early morning update tomorrow on Day 2. More pics! Promise!

May the Nerds be with you,
Kevin