Wha' happened.

Meant to write and post this earlier (as in last night), but I seem to have gotten a cold or some other sinus-oriented poppycock and have been trying to sleep it off. Alas, I'm going to try to summarize this past weekend as best as I can.

I already talked about the trip out; no sense bitching about GPS's again.

Day one highlights:

-Met Sterling Clarke and his wife, who were very, very cool. He helped to explain the advantages of plotting before scripting. As far as having someone to share space behind a table with, he was the best you could hope for. Definitely going to see about getting him to come to Columbia to speak.

-I got a picture taken with Edward James Olmos. As soon as my buddy sends me the pic, I'll post it. If I ever get to that point in my career, I hope to be at least half as classy.

-Met Gary Friedrich, creator of Ghost Rider. I hope like hell that he wins his court case. Turns out that when they filmed the Nicholas Cage movie, the rights to the character had reverted back to Gary.

-Met and mistook Sean McKeever for Ted McKeever (Sorry, man! I am horrible with names). Picked up the first three volumes of his "Sentinel" comics; damn good. Never mind that I'm a fan of giant robots, this is a very well-rendered examination of a young-man's coming of age. Hugely entertaining, and poignant.

-Found a copy of "Squadron Supreme" for $8. The collected one, with Mark Gruenwald's ashes mixed into the ink. If you haven't read this, you're missing out.

-Had dinner at Bricco, a block down from the show. The highlight here was just simply eating a good meal at the end of a long day. Good friends, good food, good conversation.

Day two highlights:

-A ton of people walked by our table and I managed to pass out a bunch of fliers. Time will tell if they jump on board and start following this blog, and eventually the book.

-Saluted Mr. Olmos (while he was hanging out with Sam Witwer and Erin Grey). That got a smirk.

-Got on to an elevator with Ray Park. Turns out that he's a hell of a guy. Always good to find out that the fellow who could conceivably punch your spine out is humble and gracious of his fans. He hasn't gotten to see the G.I. Joe movie yet; yeah, of course I asked.

-DJ-ed at a club called The View. The sound system was brutal in a good way. Ended up doing two sets, one before the night actually started (I wanted to try out my buddy's Gemini hybrid turntable/CD players before my actual set). Got kinda drunk.

Day three highlights:

-Played paper football with some guys at the opposite end of the row. I totally suck at paper football.

-Passed out more fliers, but what I was really starting to notice as I explained the plot was that folks really seemed intrigued by the premise. Now, all we gotta do is get this thing made.

-Nursed a hangover. Not complaining, just sayin'.

Now: there's probably a whole bunch of stuff that I'm forgetting. Blame the chest cold or whatever this is. If there is anything that I forgot, I will add it to this list as it comes to me.

All in all, we learned a lot this weekend. Next time we hit a con, we'll have a better idea what to bring and how to promote.

Thanks to Jess Wright for providing the transportation and Kevin Czarnecki for playing the crowd. Additional special thanks to Scott Suchora and Peter for the opportunity to do this thing. Super-duper thanks to Terese Gondel for just being herself.

This is only the beginning, folks.

Stay tuned!

-Sam