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The Cruxshadows Dancers at the band's September 5 Dragon*Con performance (photo by Jean Marie Ward)

I've posted a Thursday Thirteen of pictures for my monthly blog at Beyond the Veil. But be warned, those shots are just the teaser. To see the rest of the photos you'll need to follow the link at the end of the article. Enjoy!


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Back from DragonCon. I had such a fabulous time I'm way to tired to write coherently about it, but I thought I'd post a few (a very few!) of the highlights as a teaser of things to come--as soon as I finish sorting the 570 photos I took. Until then, this will have to do:

- FINALLY getting to see a panel with James Marsters (with green hair, no less) and Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones in Torchwood).

- Running into our very own[info]dustbunnygirl directly afterwards.

- Hanging with friends like artist/writer Marianne Plumridge and her husband, artist Bob Eggleton,[info]cymreiges , Teresa Patterson and my roomie[info]kittysilhouette. Also ran into the old Press Room gang--Star, Leigh, Kelly, Dave & Phyl. (Randi couldn't make it, but I did talk to her and the new bambino.) I even met[info]fledgist

- Dinner with Crissy Brashear (owner and publisher of Samhain Publishing), Jacob Hammer (Samhain's office manager), Alex Ross (Jacob's girlfriend) and writers Ally Blue and Rosemary Laurey/Georgia Evans and her husband George at Nikolai's on the Roof, the extraordinary restaurant on the top of the Hilton. The company was fabulous and the dinner... Well, let me put it this way, the meal started on plates with gilded images of Faberge eggs and ended with the presentation of a single red rose to all the ladies.

- The amazing historical and Steampunk costumes, and dressing up in my own less amazing Steampunk outfit (see Marianne's great picture of her husband, artist Bob Eggleton). At least the hat, the rose from Nikolai's, and all of Marianne's DragonCon pics were splendid. ;-)

- Sitting back-to-back with William Shatner, Kate Mulgrew and Leonard Nimoy at the DragonCon Awards Banquet. (BTW, they're actually serving meat now--the banquet, I mean, not the stars.)

- The Cruxshadows concert. (Duh!)

- Surviving a four-panel Sunday running from 10 a.m. (after the Cruxshadows concert--ow!) to 11 p.m., after the "sex panel": "Sex in SF/Fantasy--Too Much or Not Enough?"

- The Lost Boys concert at the Pirate Ball followed by costume watching at the Marriott Starbucks, which has replaced The Perk as the ultimate people-watching destination since the Hyatt has gotten pissy about photos in the lobby.

- Sitting next to Rogue on my last panel, "Under Raven's Wings: 200 Years of Poe", listening to three of his dramatic readings, including the awesome "Annabel Lee", and having him autograph this year's Cruxshadows single for Bree and me when the panel was done. And day-um, he smelled good. White musk, I think. (Made me wish I'd packed my favorite Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scents, but I've been afraid ever since my hand lotion triggered Barbara Hambly's allergies at World Fantasy Con.)

- Drinking 12-year-old Glenlivet single malt in the Green Room at the Hair of the Dog Party (i.e., the clearing of the Green Room after the Dead Dog Party). I didn't even know they had Glenlivet in the Green Room.

- Getting back home to Greg and the Duz. Gotta recover in time for next year, after all. ;-)


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Jody Lynn Nye (left), Anne McCaffrey (center) and Carole Nelson Douglas
Breakfast of Champions: Jody Lynn Nye (left) and Anne McCaffrey (center) read the newsletter of fellow author Carole Nelson Douglas (right).

For me, every Dragon*Con has a theme. This year’s was set by[info]martianmooncrab when she suggested we get together Wednesday evening, August 27. I thought we’d have tea and jabber.
Well, we had tea.
And jabbered. 
With Anne McCaffrey.

Yes, you read right, the Grand Lady of Dragons herself. Martianmooncrab was helping her at DragonCon, ably assisted by koolness and Anne’s son Todd. 

 

That lovely session set the tone for the entire con. Not a day went by where we didn’t run into each other or shared a meal. At the DragonCon banquet, I shared a table with a guy who claimed to have sprung the cork on the champagne when Anne became the first woman to win a Hugo in 1968. It was his first drink. He was fourteen. (Don't worry, the Statute of Limitations is long past on that one.  And he turned out okay. He's now a surgeon and runs the annual Dragon*Con blood drive.)


martianmooncrab & koolness

 

Even the darling spouse got in the act, FedEx-ing me copies of the Analogs containing Anne’s first Pern stories. He bought them when they were first released and suddenly couldn’t live without having them autographed. Then he wouldn’t let me mail them back or pack them in the luggage. I had to hand-carry them home. LOL

I wasn’t trying to be a fan girl. Honest. I was just trying to hang with martianmooncrab, who has the coolest earrings evah--tiny beaded portraits of Marvin Martian made for her by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough. Nothing beats Marvin Martian earrings. Nothing.


Jana Oliver (right) & me following the 2008 DragonCon Awards Banquet.

 

As for the rest of the best, nothing beats reuniting with friends you never see enough. I had a blast rooming with cymrieges and Carole Nelson Douglas. The Press Room Gang and I toasted missing friends. (Here’s looking at you [info]qnotku.) We dressed as pirates and got into trouble--but not so much I couldn’t make it to my panels.

 

A certain somebody who shall remain nameless scheduled me for a 10 a.m. panel the morning after the Cruxshadows concert. To be fair, we both thought they’d be scheduled for Sunday night, but such was not to be. Fortunately, the other panelists were brilliant and I had prepped enough to (literally) talk in my sleep. I did, however, call Susan Sizemore “Sue”. *headdesk* As somebody who spent her childhood insisting her name had two words instead of one, I’m especially sensitive to getting names right. So I’m going to be gnashing my teeth over this for years. 


(From left to right) Dead Authors C.S. Lewis (hobsonphile) & Mary Shelley (me)

 

Another stand-out panel was the Science Fiction/Fantasy Literature Track’s Attack of the Dead Authors Society, in which Van Allen Plexico tried to ride herd on John W. Campbell (Larry Davis), C.S. Lewis ([info]hobsonphile), Mary Shelley (me) and the one, the only Robert E. Howard (Joe Crowe). As you can see from the photo, Van wasn’t quite prepared to host REH for the third year running. My only regret was they were all behaving so nicely I didn’t get to thrash anyone with my fan. Playing an agnostic vegetarian on a panel with Lewis and Howard, I had such high hopes of it too. Dangnabbit!


Van Plexico (left) reacts to the introduction of Robert E. Howard (Joe Crowe, center) for the third running.  John W. Cambell (Larry Davis) looks so serene, he must've been expecting this.

 

This year, I also sat on a panel with a rock star. Ego Likeness singer/songwriter Donna Lynch penned the horror novel Isabel Burning, which meant she went the writers’ panel route too. Lovely, talented, bright and nice--it’s almost too much in one package. And to make things even more intense, Steven Archer, the band’s other half, is also an artist. His 365 Days of Blasphemous Horrors is currently running on the Weird Tales web site and on the LJ community [info]weirdtales_mag

 
The Ego Likeness Table: Donna Lynch and ?  Sure doesn't look like the Steven Archer you see on stage.

 

I really wish I could’ve seen this year’s Ego Likeness show, but with two concert tracks running every night of the con, even a music-crazy person like me was guaranteed to miss a lot. I made it to the Emerald Rose, Voltaire and CruxShadows shows. Those are a given. It simply isn’t Dragon*Con without them. And for at least the past two years, I have enjoyed a little bit of Ego Likeness at the end of the CruxShadows’ set. I also bought too much music and danced myself to jelly.

Read more... )

From another perspective, however, the most interesting concert was the Mindless Self Indulgence show. With a name like that you’d think they’d be a perfect DragonCon fit. The punk/industrial music worked fine. But security wasn’t prepared for a true mosh pit. I’m not sure if you can see it in this photo, but yes, they are getting ready to throw that guy on the stage. And he wasn’t the only one. Apparently, somebody was nearly crushed against the stage too, necessitating a call to the local EMT service. I can’t help wondering if the experience will affect next year’s concert program. 

Read more... )

 

jmward14: (kick)


All right.  I admit it.  I was a DragonCon Bunny.  



The Press Room Gang: (from the left) Randi, Dorie, Dave (aka Silent Bob), me and Leigh.

You should be glad I didn’t look like this guy.


WTG, everyone involved—especially [personal profile] vampry(SFLit Track), Nancy Knight (Writing Track) and Cathy Bowden (Star Wars Track).  My pictures, as many as there are on my Flickr page, just don’t do you justice.  Can’t wait until next year!

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Jean Marie Ward

May 2022

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