DRAGONCON: Selling Like Quark

Happy beyond words to report that as of Sunday night, I am down to one NOCTURNE and two SETTING SUNS.

This convention has succeeded beyond my imagining. My insane schedule has proven manageable with extensive amounts of caffeine. The panels have been well-stocked with intelligent, friendly audiences and terrific panelists. I don't think there really has been a true asshole encounter yet. The booth is doing well - New Babel is selling books like candy.

Today I took a little time to be a fangirl. Just an hour, okay? I shook Nicholas Brendon's hand, and he's just as yummy in person. No, seriously, I wanted to thank him for his work as the spokesman for the Stuttering Foundation, as the mother of a stutterer. If I'd had the time, I'd have told him that my little boy used to suffer from a terrible stutter, and he's an enormous BUFFY fan. I can point to Xander and say, "He used to stutter too," and my son feels better about himself, and knows the future can be bright. But I had only seconds, so I passed on the fangirliness.

Also spied on or chatted with George Romero, Dean Haglund, Richard Hatch, Lee Meriwether, Mickey Rooney, Anthony Daniels, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk, Peter David, Cherie Priest, Michael Stackpole, and shared a panel with Keith DeCandido, who actually recognized me the next day, because he's classy that way. I have a horrible memory for faces AND names, so I regularly make an ass of myself at these things. Next year, I shall make my flunky write down the name of everyone I meet. I have somehow managed to miss Steven Savile, James Callis, Tony Todd and Denise Crosby. I saw George Takei for the fourth or fifth time, but still have never had a chance to tell him my stupid fangirl story. Saved for another time, folks. It's late.

And I just rode up the elevator with Chewbacca. No, not a tall fanboy in a Chewbacca costume. Peter Mayhew. It was an elevator, so I left the poor man alone. But someone of course asked him for a picture, and he politely declined in the best British fashion. Folks, when they're off-duty, leave the celebrities alone. (Peter Mayhew really is ungodly tall.)

Three books left to sell tomorrow. I have a panel in the morning and a signing in the afternoon, after which I make a mad dash to the airport and return to St. Louis, where it will be just as humid as it's been in Atlanta. Eventually I'll finish processing the whirlwind that Dragoncon has been, and a more substantive post may be on its way. Along with the annual rant on how the Hyatt was clearly designed by Hal 2000.

But while I'm thinking about it, a few thank-you's:

• To the directors of the writing, gothic and sci-fi literature tracks, who have managed such wonderful panels;
• To the whole Dragoncon staff, for steering the ship as best they can with 30,000 crazypeople;
• To the celebrities, for putting up with us fawning fanpeople;
• To every single person who bought my book(s) this weekend, unaware how much their dollars and their support mean;
• Particularly to the woman who bought four of my books at once;
• And to the woman standing in a non-line for my first signing, who picked up my book and was eagerly waiting for me to sign it;
• To Elonka Dunin, in advance;
• To Melodee, for making my day with her reaction to "Sisyphus"; and to Melodee, Vernard and Jeff for being fantastic hosts for the third year in a row;
• To the real Anne Freitas and Kelly Parker, for wearing their T-shirts that read, "Freitas and Parker: My Fandom Can SHOOT Your Fandom" throughout the convention, and for telling people about the Nocturnal Urges series when they ask what the hell their shirts mean;
• To Madeleine Oh and the ladies from Samhain Press, for making me crack up nineteen times;
• To the quite-respectable crowd at yesterday's reading, even though they made me read the teddy bear story again;
• To the New Babel Lackeys, for manning the booth so well, selling the books and cracking wise like all lackeys should;
• To the Dragoncon TV folk, for making us all laugh like crazed idiots all weekend;
• As always, to the Dragon Ladies, for being good roommates and good sports and wonderful flunkies;

And most especially to Frank Fradella. For publishing SETTING SUNS, for promoting the hell out of it all weekend, for letting me sell NOCTURNE at his booth just to make my life easier, for buying dinner tonight, and for being a hell of a guy.