DragonCon 2018 is in the books

First I would like to thank Pat Henry and his lovely wife Sherry for having us down every year. I would also like to thank Rachel Reeves for getting us down there every year and coordinating various things that need to be in place. Thank you to Regina Kirby who gives me the opportunity to do some really cool panels and the like. Thank you to all the programing directors for having me on your tracks to discuss various topics that I have a working knowledge of. Thank you to the ton of volunteers who make the great ship DragonCon run as close to clockwork as possible and rolling with the punches. And BillBill ya know I love you but I refuse to apologize for handing off the tech director position to you.

Thursday we got our badges and basically relaxed our way into the convention. All around us the convention was starting up. Costumes were being worn. We loaded into the Mart only to find that the artist alley was now on floor 4 of Building 2 of the Mart since the vendors were on the other three floors. There was a lot to look at there but I only saw a little because I didn’t spend much time there the entire weekend.

I was busy and very happy with it even though it was very tiring.

I did succeed in getting the three puppets to the actors I made them for. Each is a good tale in its own right.

I did get to moderate a panel with Bob, Luis, Gordon and Big Bird. Really enjoyed that. Bob McGrath is an excellent storyteller. He was blessed with the gift of the gab. And the tales that they all told were amazing. I have a new phrase “Your leg is sick” that came out of a bad translation in China of “break a leg”.

I did get to see people. For all those that I didn’t see but want to, I do apologizes but I was up to my eyeballs in convention.

I did get to see some of my puppet family. My biggest regret is that we had to come home on Monday thus the “So you want to build a puppet” panel was scotched. I am going to try my damnedest to get it back again next year.

Something else was discussed that I am going to work on making a reality. If I can get it off the ground, I am going to need some help.

I was the head judge for the workmanship contest and it went very well thanks to everyone who works on it. That is such a group effort between Lee Cox and the costuming volunteers, Cat and the tech team and my fellow judges Freddy Clements, Scott Merill, Cheralyn Lambeth, and Rob Allsop.

All the panels I was on were fun. The Harlan panel was bitter sweet but I am glad I did it. And to the individual who brought us the guava paste, thank you so much. It meant more to us than you will ever know. The Musical Genre panel was a lot of fun. Women in fandom was a fascinating panel. Puppet/Costume hybrid was educational and I hope to see the product discussed by the people asking the questions. Doctor Who panels avoided the big landmines but we did explode a few of the smaller ones. I participated in the Puppet Tea Party run by the magnificent Stacy Gordon. I really don’t know who was having more fun the kids or the adults.

It was a marathon not a sprint but it was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow the tales of three puppets and three actors and how Peter ended up chatting with Peter Capaldi about his next novel.

I am grateful I went to DragonCon this year.