The Novel Strumpet Prepares For San Diego Comic Con 2011 By Looking Back At 2010! SDCC 2011 Baby!
Ahhhh San Diego Comic Con… That annual right or in this case write of passage that takes place every year in San Diego CA. Now, since we are gearing up for Comic Con 2011, I thought it would be interesting to share some stories about San Diego Comic Con 2010!
And to kick things off… Our favorite Strumpet give us the inside scoop on all things book and novel and vampirey from last year!
So my darling take it away!
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A Booklover’s Comic Con:
So I’ve attended Comic Con for the past few years. The first year I went I wanted to see Laurell K. Hamilton author of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, so I went down for one day and vowed I would have to return every year after that. I can’t express what a virtual geek wonderland it was, and one day was simply not enough. The following year I was excited about the panel for the new movie based on the “Twilight Saga” books. I’m sure Mike and Scott would love to regale you with the story of our drive down, but I won’t bore you with that. Shut up Mike!
(Editor’s Note: … Wha? Me? Tell that story? nooooooooooooo)
Then there was the Twilight Saga: New Moon extravaganza and a panel for a TV show about to come out based on the Southern Vampire novels by Charlaine Harris…I believe it might be called “True Blood”…did that ever take off? Needless to say, that amidst the Hollywood takeover with movie trailers, studio booths, TV panels, movie panels, celebrity signings, etc. I have found the Elysian aisles for book lovers. Yeah, I’ve attended some of the other stuff, too.
So, what’s a typical day at Comic Con like for a bookish nerd like me? Here’s a rundown of my Thursday at Comic Con 2010:
7am – Wake up, shower, get hotel breakfast and snag some fruit to take with me to convention center so I don’t have to pay for food inside, drive to my usual parking spot, walk to convention center and figure out how to waste 45 minutes
9am – Comic Con doors open, hit as many publisher booths as possible for early morning freebies, get badge scanned for more give-away opportunities and check author signing lists
9:45am – Rush to other side of San Diego Convention Center to get in line for 10:30am author panel, and pull out days schedule to check on what panel I’ll be attending next.
10:30-11:30 Power of Myth panel about using mythology and shaking it up: Amber Benson (Calliope Reaper-Jones Novels, Tara From Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Esther Friesner (Sphinx’s Princess), Thomas Greanias (The Promised War), Lev Grossman (The Magicians), Les Klinger (Annotated Dracula and Annotated Sherlock Holmes), Seanan McGuire (October Daye Novels), Michael Scott (Nicholas Flamel Series), and Thomas Sniegoski (Where Angels Fear to Tread)
11:35am – back down to floor to hit publisher booths again to see updated schedules for panels, see if any authors popped in out of the blue, maybe see if more freebies are being given out anytime soon
12:30pm – in line for author panel that starts at 1:30pm b/c I will get in damn it!
1:30-2:30 Spotlight on Charlaine Harris – she is one of the best authors to hear speak, so down to earth and funny
1:35pm – emerge from panel and hit the floor again to stand in line for a specific publisher give away (tote with advanced book copy and some bookmarks, posters, etc. which I’ll take back to the bookstore I work for so they can give them out to customers…I keep the tote and book)
2:45pm – stand in line for another panel
3:00-4:00 Kiss Them or Kill Them panel about dating or killing the monsters in their books: J.F. Lewis (ReVamped), Maria Lima (Blood Line Series), Adrian Phoenix (Maker’s Song Series), Kat Richardson (Greywalker Novels), Diana Rowland (Detective and Demon Summoner Series), Samantha Sommersby (Forbidden Series), Anton Strout (Simon Canderous Series), Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (Wolf Moons Series), and Rob Thurman (Cal Leandros and The Trickster Novels)
4pm – stay in room for the following panel
4:00-5:00 Twisting Genres panel about not conforming to just one genre to tell your story: China Mieville (Kraken and many more), Justin Cronin (The Passage), Naomi Novik (Tongues of Serpents), Daryl Gregory (The Devil’s Alphabet), Jeffrey J. Mariotte (Cold Black Hearts), Robert Masello (Blood and Ice), Keith Thompson (The Leviathon Trilogy), and Scott Westerfield (The Leviathon Trilogy)
5:10pm – emerge from room and hit the floor to check out the end where all the Steampunk and similar gear and clothing are being sold. See a few items of interest and commit them to memory (I bought one the next day, a lovely red leather underbust vest)
7pm – leave the Con for the day, get dinner with Scott, go to hotel and dump out my books and other goodies so I can organize them into “mine” and “stuff I’ll give to the bookstore or friends” piles. Most of it is in the “mine” pile 😀
10pmish – Mike gets back and we all go over our day’s adventures and have show and tell
11pm – bed so I can get up and do it all again tomorrow!
What a fantastic day! Below are some pics I took at different times:
Charlaine Harris – Sookie Stackhouse Series, among others
Tanya Huff – Victoria Nelson series, among many others
Kathy Reichs – Temperance Brennan series (you know “Bones”)