Sorry I didn’t get to update earlier, but you know. It’s tiring taking in so much awesome. Had to sleep a wee bit!

So, on Friday I got a lot of shopping done and checked out the floor. I got onto the floor early (my badge was special and shiny) and snapped a bunch of pictures without hordes of people in the way. Rather than post a buttload of those here, I’m going to do that in an album on my Facebook page, so please check over there after a wee bit. There were lots of miniatures and mind-blowing mega statues and of course cosplay costumes. But look, for me, there’s one costume that blew the others away—I’ve been wanting to see this ever since the release of The Phantom Menace:

I got to meet David Petersen again, writer/artist of the excellent series Mouseguard, and got him to sign a couple o’ books for me plus a poster. Also scored a Con-only Hordes Trollblood warlock for my friend Alan, and got my daughter a Con-only Monster High doll called Ghoulia Yelps. Had a signing at 11 and met hundreds o’ people. Lots of them were new to the series, so hopefully Atticus and Oberon will snag a few more fans. Late that night, the Del Rey Spectra panel was well attended and the highlight for me was the art reveal of the comic adaptation of Game of Thrones coming out soon. But apparently I said some things there about Eternal Bacon that got people interested in me, so lots of them came by to see me for my signing on Saturday.

Before said signing, there was all kinds of awesome going on at the Suvudu booth. Like George R.R. Martin hanging out:

 

And then I got to meet so many folks. Lou Anders from Pyr Books, J.F. Lewis from The League of Reluctant Adults, and a couple of very nice editors from Ace/Roc. Fellow Leaguer Diana Rowland stopped by to say hello—her latest, My Life as a White Trash Zombie, is my favorite fun read this year—and I also got to meet Tor fantasy author Peter Orullian, whose debut, The Unremembered, came out in April. Here are we three happy nerds:

Peter and I were waiting around to meet Jim Butcher. Yes, Jim Butcher! He surprised me by knowing who I was and chatted awhile with Peter and I about LARPing and adventures in haircutting. He got his cut a while back, in case you didn’t know. I haz proof:

How did I get so fortunate as to meet him? Well, he was engaged in a Battle of 100% Concentrated Spiffy with none other than Patrick Rothfuss at the Suvudu booth.

After my signing, I went into the Gaslamp Quarter and hung out with my alpha reader and his wife and Jessica from The Spinecracker. Then I got to hang out with my editor a bit far from the madding crowd (Did you see that? Two points for alluding to Thomas Hardy!) and we were startled by a huge fireworks show. Since Lucasfilm was having a big shindig at the time, we decided they must have just destroyed the Death Star again.

It was a completely geektastic weekend, so glad I got to go!

Received two bits o’ news while there: I will be attending the Tucson Festival of Books next March, and I’ll be a guest at InConJunction (that’s in Indianapolis) next July 6-8. If you’re in the midwest and you’d like to say howdy, that would be an excellent time and place to do so! They’ll have my info on the site soon…I haven’t sent them a bio yet. :)

Oh! Almost forgot! I also got interviewed by Suvudu! You can laugh at my mannerisms here.

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