Dragon*Con extended version

Still decidedly out of it. Today was an adventure. Being away from my desk for four working days resulted in many fires, of which I was far too zoned to find my fireman’s cap with ease. Even after a very hot, very concentrated dose of caffeine, I was still all “huh?” and “wha?”

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

But, okay, back to Dragon*Con 2003:

First and foremost, we did the Daily Dragon. For our first year as directors, I think Matthew and I did pretty well, although the thing just about kicked our asses. We had a great staff, and the stress was somewhat alleviated by knowing that dire_ephiphany and astralfire were there to help pick up the pieces if something shattered. Fortunately nothing did. But it was good to have a safety net. And word on the street is that both dire_ephiphany and astralfire went to panels and actually got to enjoy a bit of the con! Woo!

Got several compliments on some of the additions/changes to the hardcopy we made this year from other directors at the Dead Dog party. I suspect some of it was people being nice to the new victims, but I’d like to think that our little publication was well received. It’s always nice being appreciated.

Next year, we need to either train or acquire more staff that have layout and web developer expertise. Having dude_the and glenn5 help with the web publishing side of things was essential. My head would’ve exploded without them to help keep the website updated. And I’d want to commandeer dude_the to help with layout, except that he, like me, tends to turn into a pumpkin after the midnight hour, and layout usually happens in the wee hours of the morning. But we got articles! My God did we get articles! Over thirty this year, which more than doubles what we had last year. fahkingnut wrote a fantastic bit of poetry/prose as a wrap-up. It was perfect for the final editions, both hardcopy and online. I’m so proud of all my writers! I was also very pleasantly surprised to discover that glenn5 is a bigger grammar nazi than I am. Excellent discovery to make as by the time Saturday rolled around, I was missing some pretty basic copyedits in my bleary-eyed perusal. My brain was totally fried. We would’ve had a lot more typos and bad grammar snafus if he hadn’t been there to be my second (and sometimes first) line of copyediting defense.

And I seriously hope that next year we get better computers. This year, one of them was thoroughly infected with Klez, so we never even got it hooked up into our network. We did end up cannibalizing it for parts so that some of the other systems would run a little faster. But our computers were still total clunkers even with the extra memory bits. Bona fide antiques. And we had a couple corrupted document scares and network issues. Our network person, Dean, is a god. There was a very bad moment on Friday that would have been hell-in-a-bucket if he hadn’t come riding to the rescue. And he had sugar! Jumbo-size Pixie Stix and Tootsie Roll lollipops, mmm.

We still have additions to make to the Daily Dragon Online. We’re talking about adding a photo gallery, which would be way cool. Dean has a CD full of excellent photos and I’m always bummed that we can’t include more in the hardcopy. Something to do tomorrow. Or next week.

High/lowlights:
James Marsters: Didn’t get to interview OR meet him due to “BUCKET-OF-ICE” Julie Caitlin Brown. @#*$&! (Did she manage to tick off every single convention-goer at Dragon*Con, or what??) But we got quite a few good shots of him from his first panel on Friday. Also watched him do sound checks during Dawn Look-Alike Contest prep backstage. Missed seeing Marster’s ass-crack by two seconds. Heh. Also watched a few Ghost of the Robot numbers backstage but then, err, decided to leave.

Dawn Look-Alike Contest: One of the few events I was able to get to. Got a chance to see all of the Dawns up-close backstage when they did their individual photo-ops with the D*C photo crew beforehand. Zoloft was gorgeous, as usual. Zounds. There were sixty-two contestants this year. Insane.

Cruxshadows: As always, they totally rocked! And their posters and the fliers they were giving out featured the picture Matthew took of them at one of their previous concerts! It turned out so well we sent it them to post on their website. And Matthew also entered it in a photo competition where it won 2nd place. Turns out the Cruxshadows needed a good picture that would reproduce well in black and white and picked his. When we recognized it, Matthew went and asked Rogue if he could get one of the posters to keep when they were done with it. Even better, Rogue and Rachel signed it. Cruxshadowy goodness. They were also at the Dead Dog party and I got to HUG Rogue. Cruxshadow squeezy goodness.

Anne McCaffrey: Through some excellent reporterly activity, Debbie was able to get an interview (our only one this year, unfortunately) with Anne McCaffrey. Go, Debbie! I’m so proud of her. The one downer is that Anne wanted to meet James Marsters but it looks like that didn’t come about because of JCB’s interference. That’s just wrong.

Keith Olexa, James Maxey, Adam Connell: Got to meet face to face my fellow Phobosians. I loved getting a chance to chat with people in the writing biz who I’ve only had the opportunity to email with before. And sitting on the panel with Keith and James was fabu. It’s still a blur and probably will be forever (hysterical amnesia anyone?), but I’ve got pictures. Also, Keith (Phobos’ in-house editor) asked me to send him a story, which I’m going to do ASAP.

Dinner with Ann Crispin and my DC2K writers group: Took a couple hours off on Sunday to have dinner at the Steak and Ale (fortunately they had a vegetarian entrée) with Ann and my writers group. It was my first real meal that wasn’t nachos or donuts from the Con Suite. It was great seeing everyone and hearing ’bout what everyone’s up to. My stomach had shrunken by that time so I couldn’t finish my meal. Had them wrap up what was left to take with me. I was going to give it to Matthew, but a homeless person asked me for food as I was en route back to the Hyatt. Figured he needed it more so I handed him my doggy bag. He seemed very grateful for it. Picked up a few karma points there, I figure. Also, got lost on my way back (no surprise to anyone who knows me. I’m famous for being able to get lost in my own subdivision) and got rescued by Dangerwoman who was able to point the way back to the Hyatt. I’m pathetic. I need to have a GPS installed in my brain.

Mayhem mayhem mayhem: that would be everything else. Didn’t get to go to nearly as many panels and events as I would’ve liked to. Hoping that next year we’ll have more of the snags worked out so we’ll have more time to enjoy the convention. (Must learn to delegate more . . . ) Did manage to sneak a few hours off with Buffy-board friends (Lionsmile, Xandersmom, and Bellwitch), which was a good and much-needed unwinding time.

Overall, a resounding thumbs up. But I feel like I could use a week to recover from it. Heard through the grapevine that Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown has been sighted at numerous Barnes & Nobles across the country. But it hasn’t fully registered. Even my sale to MicroSHOCKS couldn’t shake me out of my daze. I barely have enough brain cells firing to go “woohoo.” Maybe it’s a delayed reaction thing and after I recuperate, I’ll have a jump-up-and-down moment or two. Right now, I just want a naaaap . . . snnnnzzzzz.