...was pretty great. I know I should post a bunch of stuff about it, but I actually feel a bit tired, fatigued. What can I say? I saw a lot of people, costumes, buxom anime vixens, Hollywood folks, video game promotions, authors, oh, and a few comics. All the stuff you'd expect. I realized now that I didn't even take any pictures. Sorry about that. (Mel Odom was kind enough to send the one below.)

Highlights? Umm...

The panel with Bob Salvatore (very friendly), Harry Turtledove (great wry sense of humor), Mel Odom (generous and funny), David Keck (continuous humor machine) and Peter David (who apparently lost enough weight recently to constitute another humor being). Jacqueline Carey didn't show (and when this was announced a troop of readers jumped ship).

(That's Mel in the front, followed by Dave Keck, myself, Bob Salvatore and Harry Turtledove up top.)

My signing-hour giving away Acacia: The War with the Mein samplers. That was fun. The Bantam/Del Rey handlers managed to rope in a continuous line for the entire hour. Sign, smile, sign. Remember humor. Smile again. Sign, sign... At the end of it I felt like my face was frozen in demented greeting ala the Joker. Good stuff, though.

People gazing. Yep. That was good fun. Some folks take the costume thing very seriously.

And there was my Hollywood taster evening. Hooked up with a producer (who I won't name and whom I know for reasons I can't yet divulge) and got into the 300 DVD launch/Blade Runner Director's cut event. Crazy stuff. They booked an entire stadium for the event and showed 300 amidst lots of fan fare. I, luckily, got a little badge that meant I could sojourn in the VIP area. That basically means free drinks, lots of torch-like things, muscle-bound guys in Spartan gear and exotic dancers writhing atop podiums to some sinuous rhythms. Very interesting.

Had an absurdly expensive dinner (by my standards) and shared the table with Sean Young (looking very good and still, well, freakishly young). I do mean "shared the table". We didn't talk or anything because I caught on quick that there was an invisible barrier that separated the two halves of the table. It could've hurt me if I tried to breach it.

Then spent the later hours of the evening at a William Morris (the talent agency) rooftop party. More music and torches. More free drinks. Contingents of shockingly young studio execs (and frighteningly old ones, also, for that matter) amidst small flocks of hot chicks.

I must admit that everyone I met that evening seemed to actually have made a movie or written a screenplay or dated Winona Ryder or something equally distinguished. Overall it seemed pretty strange stuff, punctuated by a lot of standing in lines that are set apart by a rather complicated caste system. I was temporarily one of the chosen, yes, but still I felt the stares of sad folks in the plebeian lines with a certain amount of empathy. (There but for the grace of my producer friend go I - that sort of thing.) Very interesting.

Anyway, I'm home now and working on returning to normal. I'm actually off to buy a bread machine. That should aid the return to domesticity.

Labels: Appearances, Comic-Con

That's me. Off to check out Comic-Con and be checked out a bit too, I hope. If I get a chance I'll post some progress reports. There are some potentially very interesting things to come out of this.

Perhaps I'll see you there? Please do track me down among the throng if you are in attendance. We'll have great fun!

Labels: Appearances, Comic-Con

Yep, I'm going. Got plane tickets and hotel lined up. Even have a daily allowance from Doubleday of... Oh, I forget how much, but surely it'll cover my needs. Michael Chabon once gave me this bit of advice regarding touring/going to events. He said, "Mini-bar". At the time I just smiled and nodded, not even sure what he meant. Never in my upbringing had it occured to me that I'd ever crack the seal on that little fridge and drink from the lovely little overpriced bottles and munch those enormous cashews... But times have changed. I've learned.

But anyway, yes, I'm going to the massive event that is Comic-Con in San Diego, and I am going to be on that panel with some heavyweights. Here's the description...

Friday 11:00-12:00 She/He Who Understands History Gets to Rewrite It - Authors discuss how an appreciation of world history and modern events as well as mythology influences and colors their worlds of fantasy, science fiction, and alternate realities. Panelists Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel's Legacy series), David Anthony Durham (Acacia: Book One: The War with the Mein ), David Keck (In the Eye of Heaven), Harry Turtledove ( Settling Accounts: In at the Death), Peter David (Darkness of the Light), R.A. Salvatore (The Ancient), and Mel Odom (Quest for the Trilogy) adapt and build on world events for their own purposes. Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy moderates. Room 8

Cool. And funny, actually, that even while I was firmly an "historical" novelist trying to follow the facts as best I could I still felt there was an element of fantasy in it. For that matter, though, I think there's an element of fantasy in all fiction. It's all make believe, yes? I sense in this the seed for what I might have to say...

Oh, and I'll be going to Random House dinner that evening. I won't quite believe it until it happens, but I may be sitting at a table with a writer I greatly admire, one that you'll surely recognize by name... Ah, perhaps I should refrain from naming said author. It may not even happen. But if it does I'll let you know.

By the way, if you happen to be there please come by and see me. I'll be at the Bantam/Dell Booth #1230 on Thursday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. I'll be signing copies of a free collector's edition sampler of Acacia: The War with the Mein that Doubleday had made up specially for ReaderCon and Comic-Con; it contains the first third of the book and a wee letter from me. I've never seen the thing, but I've been told it's lovely. (La Gringa, don't I merit a copy?)

Labels: Comic-Con, Cons, Other Authors

Acacia's publication and the world spins on just as it always has. I'm still pleasantly aglow, though. I got quite a few emails yesterday, including one from a bookseller in Houston. He said that they'd put out their six copies of Acacia that morning and that by closing there was only one left. Sweet! I know it's just one store, but if similar things are happening elsewhere this book just might make something of itself.

I mentioned A Dribble of Ink yesterday. Well, today Aidan posted his review of Acacia. He was very kind.

Also, I came across my name on Dave Keck's Journal. The post is about Comic-Con, and apparently he's heard I'm going to be on a panel with him and, hopefully, Jacqueline Carey, Harry Turtledove, Christopher Golden, Peter David, Barbara Hambly, R.A. Salvatore and Mel Odom. Yikes, nobody told me about this! Yeah, I knew I was going, but didn't know I was set to mix with such prominent company. Funny thing is that somebody posted a comment confirming that I was definitely going. Who are these people that know my future in such detail?

Labels: Acacia, Announcements, Comic-Con, Random Ruminations