CoastCon '16

Last weekend I went to CoastCon, just like I said I would.  I had a blast and I intended to learn a few things about gaming but it didn't really work out for me.  The first two days I was by myself and I didn't see ANYONE there that I knew, much less anyone who could show me anything about gaming.  On Sunday I planned on going to a panel called How To Learn RPGs When You're Alone With Nobody to Show You (pretty sure that's it...) but it happened to be right at noon and that was the day I brought The Bookworm with me and he needed some $4 million lunch to pick at and ultimately throw away.  My kids are rarely allowed soda, so he was definitely too preoccupied to eat.

This is my only clear picture from Sunday for some reason

I brought The Bookworm on Sunday to meet Steve Blum and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn because he's obsessed with Digimon and they do voices for the cartoon and the video game. To help him understand what that even means, I made him watch I Know That Voice, which is a documentary about voice actors that I'd seen a few months ago on Netflix.  He wasn't pleased to have to sit still watching some people do voices, or to have the magic kind of explained away, but it helped in the long run because when we got there and he saw the pictures of Guilmon and I told him the Guilmon guy was THERE... he knew enough to be excited.  

When we walked up to the table, Steve Blum could obviously guess which show this little kid was a fan of.  I say which show because he's a busy, busy guy. He's got 612 credits on IMDB for shows like Star Wars: Rebels, Cowboy Bebop, Regular Show and a zillion incarnations of Batman and X-Men.  PLUS he is in the Guiness Book of World Records for doing more video game voices than anyone else.  He's done God of War, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Call of Duty... know what? Just look it up.  Here's the link.

Anyway, we walk up to the guy and he instantly goes into the voice and my kid grins like a maniac and does that insanely cute little-kid giggle.  It was the greatest!  He signed our video game (my kids and my husband play video games most of the time, so I feel like I can probably hear this dude's voice in my house at any given moment) and he was so charmed by The Bookworm that he very generously signed a couple of extra things for us.

See? Blurry.

In the course of our conversation, my little guy casually dropped the name of another Digimon he likes and the lady sitting next to Steve Blum perked up and cried, "Hey! That's me!" It was Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and she did the voice for him with a big smile.  "Whatever-mon digivolve to... Something-Woman!" Clearly, I have a mind like steel trap. 

So, she does the voice, right?  And my kid FREAKS THE FRICK OUT!!! It was like all those people in the black & white footage fainting when Paul McCartney tipped his hat to them or whatever.  I couldn't even deal.  Best day ever.  Just reliving it makes me exhausted, so I'll end here and leave you with some photos I took from the rest of the Con.  Enjoy, and leave your own stories in the comments section about the time you met your favorite celebrity.

 

Saturday Spotlight: Derek E Dykes

This post may be short since I'm writing it on my cell phone. Yikes. I'm a pro at putting things off, and this is where it's gotten me. So, first of all, I'll have to start out with a little background info on myself. When I read a book, even if the story is amazing, I can't enjoy it unless the author's voice is one I can relate to. Because of that, I hate... I mean DESPISE... buying books directly from the author. At cons, you often meet authors, they're often nice people, and they're usually selling their books (you know, doing their job). When I pick a book in a bookstore, I read passages at random to determine how I think I'd like the book. I'm terribly picky and I most often put the book back. Since I can't even IMAGINE doing that with the person who wrote the book staring me down, I tend to pick one book for con weekends almost at random and just hope for the best. 

Last year I hit the jackpot! An author in a panel for writers mentioned a plot detail and I decided to buy that book. It's called Madness and it's by Derek E Dykes.  Set in the future, it involves mental illness, murder, future tech and pure evil. In the beginning of the book the main character, who's an FBI agent, happens upon a decades-old crime scene.  The victim's DNA shows that she's a positive match for our heroine's maternal grandmother, who died not decades ago but only a year ago.  I don't want to give too much away, but it's really intense and at one point I literally had to put the book down to hyperventilate. 

I actually ran into him at the con today and he very graciously posed for a picture with me.  I was a little disappointed that he didn't have any books with him but not to worry.  He'll have some tomorrow, and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be there to get the next book; I'll get as many books as there are in this series.  (Two.  There are two more books in this series.  I was being dramatic.  But I am buying both of the other two.) 

I think he actually did the cover art as well

Nice work Derek Dykes, you beautiful twisted freak.

CoastCon

There's no spotlight this weekend, folks.  Just some good old nerdy fun!  Two years ago, I attended my first con, CoastCon in Biloxi, MS.  I didn't know what to expect, but when I got there I found MY PEOPLE.  I don't exactly know how to describe the people there, but if you've ever been to a con... that.  It was them.  They were me.  My focus that first year was learning about professional writing and about the sci-fi and fantasy genres.  I sat in panels by authors Kelly Armstrong (you know her from Bitten, which is now a Syfy show) and Derek Dykes, who you'll read more about next Saturday.  I also met John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: TNG) and I had a blast!

Last year, my focus was more on cosplay and learning about techniques and getting ideas.  I'm absolutely not putting any of what I learned to use this year, as my life is becoming very hectic but my husband built me a costume last year that honestly should've won something in my opinion.  It looked just as good as (almost) anything else there, but it was definitely not as technologically advanced or as labor intensive, and that was my downfall.  I realize I'm biased, because my husband is hands-down a genius in my eyes, but still.  It was cool.  Here, look.

See? The coolest.  I even found out later that someone had written about me on her blog.  I was pretty excited.  Even though the guys in the Transformers cosplay legitimately were much cooler than me.  They worked in an auto body shop for a living and used real car body parts. 

  

This year, I'm focusing on Role Playing Games.  I would really like to try them out and see if I like them or not.  I have a friend who recommended I try a few online games but I'd rather start out with people around who can help me in person.  I'm in my mid-thirties, after all.  I'm too old for all this online tech support business!  Just kidding, but for real.  I'm hoping to have a lot of fun this year.  I guess you'll find out in a couple of weeks when I write about it. 

Until then, let me know which games you think I should try, either table top or online. Thanks in advance for the advice.  And don't forget to hit subscribe and check out my other posts.