Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, is billed as the largest
science fiction/fantasy/gaming/comics convention in the world. I went there for
the first time. Also, believe it or not, I used Uber for the first time. I
never had need of it before, but it’s much cheaper than those airport shuttles.
I had planned out just about every hour of my stay there in
great (but not neurotic) detail on a Word document. But I concentrated so much
on summoning Uber correctly, I walked out the door and left all my schedule and
all my notepaper behind—including my two no. 2 ½ pencils!
But I did make it to the SeaTac Airport. No, this was not
the plane I flew, but a marvelous display of a real plane inside the airport.
I had enough of my schedule memorized, and Dragon Con had
sent me a link to their massive program list, so after some feverish work I
managed to recreate my schedule using a notepad from the hotel store and a
hotel pen.
Sample Page - click to enlarge
The convention was so gigantic, it completely booked three
massive hotels, as well as having events at a couple of other hotels and other
buildings. Here is a beautiful piece of art in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
The lobbies were jammed. You might see people in costume, or
just some lone figure amidst the bustle.
On a similar theme, here’s a stormtrooper and son.
Sometimes a child will have political differences from his
father, but that’s okay.
I saw Harley Quinn there.
A girl needs to get some coffee, right?
Also, Leeloo from The Fifth Element.
They were both dressed for the heat, which was in the upper
80s or 90 degrees, with a good amount of humidity. Because of that, I didn’t
stand around for the Dragon Con Parade. But the police were out in force to
make sure everyone had a safe time.
They seemed highly amused by the all the cosplayers.
Inside, I confess I didn’t expect to see these gentlemen.
You might decipher from my hand-written schedule that one of
the people I wanted to see was John Hemry, who writes by the pen name of Jack
Campbell. He’s my favorite author, and I’ve spoken to him at a number of
Worldcons. Since I haven’t seen him in a couple of years, I didn’t expect him
to recognize me. But though I sat several rows back from where he was speaking
on a panel, he spotted me in the audience and waved to me.
For such an accomplished author, he’s a friendly guy and
very approachable. You might check out his latest series, The Genesis Fleet.
No comments:
Post a Comment