Fantasy Author Sandy Lender Recaps DragonCon 2008

Or...you should have seen the fabulous t-shirts...

I apologize that it's taken me two weeks to get to the "recap" of my little version of DragonCon, but I have a good excuse. After getting home late Tuesday night, I had a chemo treatment Wednesday morning that really knocked me out. Then there were some legal issues to deal with while keeping up the day job...busy busy busy. As luck would have it, I kept track of the camera, though, and can bring you a few of the coo-el

pictures I took. For instance, check out the monster from outer space from Sesame Street! Yyyep yep yep yepyepyepyepyep!

I took the pictures you see here at the masquerade contest Sunday night where the Sesame Street monster took "audience favorite". As well he should have because the audience went nuts when he came out to do his little skit. I was pleased. I don't remember what the other creatures, like the Adult Swim Chicken, won, but they had intricate and fabulous costumes that appeared to take great amounts of time and attention to detail, so I snapped their picture. (I also don't remember scantily clad superheroes clinging to the monster from outer space in the TV show, but we've got a couple in my photos here...)

Saturday night, my sister and I went to a Firefly shindig where we met up with a couple of friends to share the evening. You wouldn't think some small plastic dinosaur toys and oversized plastic jacks on a table would entertain adults as much as they did...What did these party planners know about us that we didn't? None of the cast members were brave enough to attend the shindig (probably wise), but my sister and I got to meet Nathan Fillion (captain Mal) and Alan Trudyk (pilot Wash) earlier that afternoon and got autographs. That was most cool. My sister also got Sean Astin's autograph while I merely shook his hand and told him how thrilled I was to see him at DragonCon this year. All three of them were fantastic celebrities to meet. They were wonderful gentlemen who seemed pleased as punch to be meeting their fans and hanging out with everyone. Very personable and friendly. When I'm famous, I hope I'm that outgoing and charming. :)

Anyway, I've mentioned my sister. She's a huge fan of all things SciFi the way I am so when I asked family members if anyone was interested in coming to DragonCon to help me survive the effort, she pounced on the opportunity. She's a seamstress as well as a fan so she made the costumes we wore for the parade on Saturday. Oh, yes, I put her to work handing out candy with me during the parade. I had wrapped it in a flyer promoting Choices Meant for Gods because I wasn't going to risk passing out from overexertion for nothing. Bwuahahahaha. The good news is all went well and we had a grand time. Most of the con was spent trapped behind my table so I could sell my book and hand out flyers and bookmarks.

That gave us the perfect opportunity to read everyone's t-shirts. One of the remarkable things about a group of SciFi/Fantasy fans is the IQ level. These people read and watch intelligence-building culture. Face it, you have to be smart to follow the plotlines of most SciFi literature and television programs. Thus you have a heightened sense of humor. And at a convention such as DragonCon, you have 30,000 people from a subset of America who understand each other's jokes walking around four hotels in the heart of Atlanta. If someone walks by with a button that says, "Also, I can kill you with my brain," you know that person is a Firefly fan who appreciates River's abilities. (You also laugh because that was a funny moment in the show.) I saw a t-shirt with a mad scientist hugging a nuclear reactor. I saw t-shirts with paradies of superheroes, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. I saw t-shirts with quotes out of Dr. Who, Stargate, the Bible, etc. My favorite was Yoda with the quote, "My finger, pull."

Overall, DragonCon was a great opportunity to promote Choices Meant for Gods and the upcoming Choices Meant for Kings, but it was a great opportunity to have a SciFi/Fantasy vacation, too. It's wonderful to escape from reality once in a while. As a writer, I get to do it daily during my writing time. As a fantasy fanatic, I get to do it at these conventions as often as I'm allowed.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: DragonCon, Choices Meant for Gods, Nathan Fillion, Firefly, Sean Astin