D*C: Adventures in Hyatting

So far, I have:

1. Waited longer than anyone should ever wait for an elevator. (NEVER bitching about the Indy elevators again.)

2. Walked up eight flights of stairs. Twice.

3. Two guys had a shouting match happen right above my head over why the elevator was broken. The perfect reason to GTFO and take a second go-round with the stairs, plus a stopover at the con suite to scam some weird Red Bull-type thing. (Jadecon suite it wasn’t.)

4. The fire marshall locked me out. Seriously.

5. Got told to look something up on Youtube by random elevator dude. Um, no.

Other improbabilities:

1. I had to buy a lanyard. What?

2. THREE HOTELS. NO CON CENTER. This is so weird.

3. Ran into Fen in the food court. Twice. We’re internet buddies!

And a bonus rant: People who attempt to take their impromptu celebrity photo-op right in front of the down elevator. Dude, you’re lucky there were no stormtroopers on it at the time. What a magnificent dogpile that would have been! Hell, let’s just say all people who decide to take posed pictures in the middle of high traffic areas during the day. DIE NERD SCUM.

Conblogging from D*C

I went to one Star Wars panel today – the first, an intro to the MOTF track and prequel discussion. Not being particularly obsessive when it comes to the prequels, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of prequel EU talk actually, and surprisingly a flame war did not erupt. (Do I spend too much time on TFN or what?)

Alas, I skipped out on Zahn’s showcase for The Venture Brothers. (Four of the three panels I really wanted to see today? Same time slot.) Zahn will be at tomorrow’s ‘Words of the Force’ though, and no doubt someone will ask the relevant question. Twice.

Meanwhile, Fen went to the James Marsters Buffyverse Q&A today, and posted a lengthy recap on her LJ.

Maxi-big, the Dragon*Con!

The Dragon*Con schedule was released last week… (Direct link to 2.4M PDF.) The ‘Matters of the Force’ track is on pages 46 and 47 of the PDF (and separated by what will be, in the actual program book, a pull-out.) You also might want to check out the autograph sessions (20-21,) readings (34-36) and the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Literature track (39-41) for several familiar names.

In the bad news category… Aaron Allston is no longer attending, prompting rampant sadfacing among the attending CJers.

Star Wars Roll Call

Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa, AOTC & ROTS) has signed a development deal with ABC.

Author Kathy Tyers (Truce at Bakura, Balance Point) has rewritten and rereleased one of her early novels – Shivering World. Rambles has a review. Similar to her rewrite of the Firebird novels a few years back, it now features stronger faith themes and has been rereleased under a Christian fiction publisher.

There are several SW authors (Kevin J. Anderson, Terry Brooks, and Greg Keyes) doing signing and appearances within the next few months, according to Locus Online’s Author Event calendar. None of them are promoting Star Wars books, however. We don’t recommend going to KJA signings to heckle him, because from all accounts he’s actually a nice guy and will probably have enough trouble with the Dune fans.

But of course, the big even this month is DragonCon in Atlanta, with more guests that you can possibly meet. Notable SW personalities include Aaron Allston,