Tag Archives: Who North America

Blog

Gen-Con 2013, Day 4: I’m the Doctor

(Continued from day 3).

After three days of sleep-deprived insanity and fun, Sunday was a welcome relief. I only signed up for one event and the exhibitors’ hall closed early. My last cosplay was a simple one: the 10th Doctor. Mind you, it was only a fancy T-shirt that looked like his costume. I had tried making a real costume using thrift store items, but that didn’t pan out before the con. I’ll save it for Halloween.

Anyway, we enjoyed our last breakfast at the hotel. I walked by Darrin, who was still too humble to brag about his HeroScape title, and said, “This means what you eat is the breakfast of champions.” After eating, I made sure to thank the black man who I’d seen every day at breakfast. I deduced he was the chef, so I thanked him for all his work. With our stomachs full, we packed up and checked out.

Since we were leaving at different times, Eric and Darrin rode together and I drove separately. Our only event that day was the Christian Gamers Guild/Fans for Christ worship service at the Westin. It was huge this year and required a larger room. The music leader was Tom Vasel, the president of the Dice Tower network. He was quite animated while singing, which was a great thing to see. Also, this year we actually had music! Last year the attendees had to sing the worship songs a cappella. We partook of communion using the same wafer/juice packets used last year. Derek White the Geek Preacher returned. This year he cosplayed as his Dungeons and Dragons character, a cleric. His message was entitled “Living a Life Well Played” and preached from Genesis 1:26; 2:4-7. I learned some interesting things during that service, the most mindblowing being that D&D’s co-creator, Gary Gygax, was a Christian!

A couple arrived at 10am thinking that was when the service was and were disappointed they missed it. The woman even cried a little. Derek gave them leftover communion packets, offering a blessing, and several others—including myself—hugged her. I’m sure they felt the love.

On the way to the exhibitors’ hall, I caught a few minutes of a floor show (there were many throughout the weekend, and I wish I’d taken more time to watch them), featuring a Klingon minstrel and his lovely assistant/dancer. His name was Il Troubadour. I’d met him at his table the day before. He played a mandolin while singing in Klingon. Yes, you read that right.

The rest of my day was dominated by Doctor Who. Since the crowd was thinner, I went to see Peter Davison, aka the Fifth Doctor. Meeting him was probably my best story from the convention.

As I always do at a convention, I give the celebrities free copies of my books. But I also had another gift for Mr. Davison. His Doctor was known, among other things, for wearing a celery stick as a lapel, claiming it warded off a gas he was allergic to. So, after taking one photo and giving him the books, I said, “I’m sure thousands of fans have given you this over the last 30 years, but…,” and slid him the bagged celery. “In case your allergies flare up again.”

He laughed. “Actually, no one has ever given me this before.”

“You’re kidding me!”

“No. You’re the first.”

Geeking out, I asked, “Can I get another picture since I’m the first?”

He thought about it a second. “Oh…all right.”

This is that photo:

What you can't see is my hand is shaking being this close to greatness.
What you can’t see is my hand is shaking being this close to greatness.

Riding high on that experience, I left Eric in charge of my table while I explored the hall. I met a fellow writer who had a toy of the First Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, which he introduced saying I was “playing with cosmic forces.” He told me he’d had the thing was over 30 years old and he’d had it for 15 years—and the batteries still worked!

This kid was just hamming it up.
This kid was just hamming it up.

I returned to the Who North America booth to meet the Dalek I’d bantered with last year. The Dalek was having fun posing for photos with other fans, saying things like, “Smile or you will be EXTERMINATED!” But before I could get a picture with it, a kid stole the show. He was maybe 6-8 years old, dressed as the 11th Doctor, and had perfected his British accent. I filmed him as he taunted the Dalek and fell over after the evil alien had zapped him, only to stand up and say he had regenerated as the 12th Doctor and continue to taunt the Dalek.

Then I made things worse. I walked in front of the Dalek and pointed my sonic screwdriver at him. He panicked. “Alert! Alert!” he yelled. “Sonic device detected! Alert! Alert! Eye stock malfunctioning!” Then the light on said eye stock went off.

Yeah, I might be the Doctor…if I was cool enough.

When I returned to my table, I was soon joined by Becky and Kate. The latter wasn’t wearing her costume, so I didn’t recognize her at first, which they didn’t let me live down. As the day progressed, Becky appointed herself my manager, literary agent, editor, and fashion designer, among other things. (Did I mention the little tyrant likes being in charge?) 😛

Four o’clock came too soon. The con ended. My friends left. I packed up. A small sadness crept over me. I missed the convention already.

This wonderful woman gave me a ride back to the parking garage.
This wonderful woman gave me a ride back to the parking garage.

I packed everything up, but despite all the books I’d sold, the boxes were still heavy. I was determined to get to the parking garage, though. Thankfully, I met some people riding on big modified bicycles with seats in the back for hauling. I got a ride from one of them, a woman multicolored hair, and gave her a nice tip (I should’ve given her a book).

Well, there you have it, True Believers. Gen-Con 2013 in a nutshell for me. There are many other stories I could’ve shared, but I did my best to focus on the important ones. I’ll be posting a photo gallery from the convention—including photos of many fans who purchased books—on the website soon. I’m also compiling a “highlight reel” of the videos I filmed while I was there. That’ll be posted on YouTube.

I can’t wait until next year! Only 363 days to go!

News, Appearances

Gen-Con, Day 2

(NOTE: I wanted to have this posted yesterday, but the home computer froze and no libraries were open due to Labor Day. I will do my best to finish writing about Gen-Con this week).

It’s been over a week since my first post about Gen-Con. Now three weeks have passed since the convention. My apologies, True Believers. I was busy with a big writing project for Remedy Live, an internet radio station based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Now, back to Gen-Con.

I neglected to mention that I saw my old college buddy Aaron “Ned” Brosman during the first day. He runs a gaming shop in Huntington, Indiana, and was at Gen-Con conducting Dungeons and Dragons events.

The second day was a bit of a blur. It played out much like the first, except there were more people. My first customer was a cosplayer named Deidra (if I got your name wrong, I’m sorry! Everyone’s names are running together), who was dressed as River Song from Doctor Who. I liked her outfit so much, I took a picture with her:

Yes, the Doctor’s wife now owns copies of my books.

I snapped a few other photos of other cool cosplayers I saw while I was there, most of which you’ll see once I post a full photo gallery. Here’s are a few of my favorites from that morning:

“EXTERMINATE!”
This is the first of not one, not two, but THREE women I saw wearing homemade TARDIS dresses!

The first highlight of Friday was meeting Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played the original Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series. Meeting Wil Wheaton the day before was a big deal, but it was the original Star Trek that not only introduced me to science fiction, it was one of my first inspirations to become a writer, so meeting someone from that show was a HUGE deal to me. What was amazing, though, is I hardly had to wait in line! For whatever reason, the line to see Mr. Wheaton was long, so everyone who wanted to see Ms. Nichols was moved up. I only had to wait five minutes! Just like I did with Wil, I gave Ms. Nichols signed copies of my books. Here’s a picture of me with Nichelle:

Yeah, I am definitely “nerding out” here.

I returned to my booth and continued to sell books.

During that time, Lee, my neighbor across the aisle, introduced me to several members of a local indie band called Five Year Mission. They are a Star Trek tribute band endeavoring to write a song for every episode of the original series over the course of five albums. I talked with Mike Rittenhouse (who also runs a comic shop called Hero House) and Chris Spurgin, who were going throughout the exhibitors’ hall passing out flyers for their show that night. Mike convinced me to skip the free screenwriting seminar I had signed up for to attend their show. I told him I would buy one of their CDs if I liked what I heard.

Later that afternoon, I took a break and attended a writing seminar hosted by Michael A. Stackpole, a prolific sci-fi/fantasy author most famous for writing Star Wars novels. I had attended one of his seminars the day before. The first one was on digital publishing. This one was on plotting. Here’s a photo of the two of us:

This man knows how to write and how to sell it. Learn from him, True Believers!

I returned to my booth to close shop, and while I was leaving, I talked to a couple of the guys from Who North America, a company based in Indianapolis that sells and distributes Doctor Who merchandise. I took a few pictures with the reps there, who were dressed as the Brigadier and the Third Doctor.

I spent some time meeting and photographing cosplayers (which you’ll see in the full gallery) and exploring the Westin Hotel, where Five Year Mission was to perform. There were also anime events and a film festival going on there.

The band’s show started at 8:30. Lee was also in attendance. Their were a few dozen people in the room. I was amazed to learn that these guys are very talented nerds. Only the drummer stays at his post the whole time. The other four members switch instruments between songs (guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals). They also play clips from each of the episodes the songs are for, which was entertaining. I was happy that they played songs for a few of my favorite episodes of the show.

Their finale was hilarious. It was a song for “Arena,” a famous show where Capt. Kirk fights a lizard-like alien called a Gorn. They band asked the audience, “Who here is good at hand-to-hand combat?” There was an awkward pause. “We don’t really good. Just good enough o beat up Mike. But you have to let him win.” I almost held up my hand, but I wasn’t sure what they were going to do. They selected a young guy who was already wearing green and tossed him a Gorn mask. They played the song and once they got to an instrumental part toward the end, Mike jumped down and had a mock fight with him. I took several pictures. Once it was over, they let the “Gorn” have a free T-shirt.

You can bet I bought a CD after the show.

Here’s a picture of me and band:

Here I am posing with Five Year Mission, the best “Star Trek” tribute band in the world! (Actually, they might be the only such band in the world…)

I walked back to the Indiana Convention Center to head back to the parking garage, but was suddenly pulled aside by an energetic girl was trying to put a group together to play a game called “Are You a Werewolf?” If you’ve ever played “Mafia,” it’s the same thing except with werewolves. It was amusing to watch people (over-) psychoanalyze their friends and complete strangers for a while.

After getting lost (again) upon leaving the parking garage, I made it back to Josh’s house well past midnight.

TO BE CONTINUED IN DAY 3!