urbandruid

I had a blast at Star Wars Celebration IV in LA last month, and I have both pictures and stories galore. What I decided I'd do, rather than try to write it all up and post it at once, is to do a bit here and there, as I have time and the mood strikes me. I still don't know where the pictures are going up, but it's time for the first story, anyway. :)

I just sent an email to Star Wars author Karen Traviss, whom I saw twice at the con. The first time she was signing books with her two co-authors for the Legacy of the Force series, Aaron Allston and Troy Denning. All three of them seemed really cool, but because there were three of them and so many fans, they kind of moved us along, assembly-line like. I'd brought one book for each of them to sign, and the Barns & Noble people just dealt out the books to the authors like playing cards. You pretty much got to say hi; the authors asked "You're [x]?" mostly to make sure the right books got back to the right people. But it was cool, I got my books signed, met a nice woman in line whom I chatted with while we were waiting... etc.

The second time I saw Karen was Sunday, the last day Mom and I went to the con. (There wasn't much going on Monday, and we decided to just head home after we checked out of the hotel that day.) Karen's latest book in the Legacy series was due out the Tuesday after the con. We all sort of figured since she was signing at the con, they'd find a way to use it to promote the book, and if we were lucky there would be copies around a bit early for that reason.

A B&N employee told me that they'd had very few copies of the book, Sacrifice, on Friday morning, and they'd sold out fast. They said they might get more Saturday morning, but again, they'd be gone quick. So I hit the dealer's room right when they let us into the con. Which was a bit earlier than they let in most people- handicapped access for the win. They also let in some parents with strollers, I guess so they wouldn't get run over by the crowds either. So. I power-walked to the B&N booth ("Please, for safety reasons (we don't want to get our asses sued) don't run...") and grabbed my book off the huge stack by the registers.

Score!

They still had a rather large (but dwindeling) pile on Sunday afternoon, when I came back to get mine signed. I went to a costuming panel that let out just a little before the signing started, and I knew I wouldn't be in line as early as I wanted to be. I was right. I spent two hours standing in line on a concrete floor, suffling my feet, standing on one leg, then the other, trading off trying to ease the intense pain in my feet and legs. But I met some very nice, funny people in line, and we swapped stories, "Hey, where are you from? What have you done here? Did you guys see-? It was cool, you should go..." and so on.

I was afraid my new pals and I were too far back, that we'd never get our books signed before she had to go, or her hand gave out, or something. But two hours later I was standing on the dealer's room crappy carpet, instead of the concrete in the back of the hall (why they didn't carpet the whole damn thing, I have no clue) and it was almost my turn.

She was still smiling! She was polite and happy, and took the time to exchage a few words with everyone. They were even nice enough to let me stand there for a few seconds and smile over at Mom while she took my picture.

So we wandered on, found a place to set down our backpacks, put the book away, get the camera back to me... then we headed out to grab some food and let me sit for a bit. Came back to the dealer's room to check out a few things. This, mind you, had to be at least an hour later. We wandered past B&N (Lego was around there, and Mom's big on Legos) and she's still there. The line's still halfway to Tatooine, and she's still signing books, still smiling...

Fast forward another hour or two. We've wandered here and there. I had wanted to go back and scope out the books once the crowds cleared, which we figured they must have done ages ago. Head back to Barns & Noble. The line's trickled out, there are just a few people walking right up to get their books signed and say hi... and only when the last of them leaves does she start packing up.

That lady is a class act.

So, I sent her an email. I'd been meaning to do it since we got home. I told her how long I'd been in line, and how much I and everyone else appreciated her sticking around. Because I can name a lot of authors who probably wouldn't have done that in a million years. I really don't have the words for how much I thought this rocked. I've told this story to everyone who's asked me how the con went, even the relatives who have no clue who Karen Traviss is or that she writes books at all. Even Grandma thought this was unusual, and very nice of her to have done.

My hand probably would've fallen off if I'd signed half as many books as she must have done. And I just thought, you know, it was worth sharing.

Snagged from everybody. Procrastination for the win!

Name a character and I'll give you three or more "facts" from my personal fanon about that character.

From fannish5:
What five nitpicky things do you wish writers in your fandom(s) would get right?

I have to say, I don't actually do a lot of reading in my fandoms these days, outside of certain archives, groups, etc. I probably should read more than I do. So... here's some stuff I came up with off the top of my head, that I vaguely remember from, say, the last time I trolled Fanficton.net. (Which has been, you know, a while.)

#1- Alias: Okay, I know the finale did some wonky stuff (some of us, me included, would say it went somewhat beyond wonky, into the realm of "J.J., put down the bong, and never drop acid again, ever.) but please please try to remember all the canon that came before it. Irina, for example. Not always evil, not always simply out for global domination.
(A special no love to J.J. Abrams on that one, for making Irina a Bond villain. Of course, what do I care? My Irina has been AU, one way or another, since the end of season 2.)

#2- Harry Potter. Slytherins are people too. No, really, stick with me on this one. Not all Slytherins are cardboard-cutout evil (are we sensing a theme here, btw?) ...and at the same time, not all of them can be redeemed, or should be. One thing Severus Snape does not need in any way, shape, or form, is your vapid, Mary Sue self-insert OC and her vapid, Mary Sue-ish purple prose. And his hair really is greasy. Please just deal with that.

#3- All fandoms. Okay, this is really nitpicky. I write a lot of AU. Some of it's a little AU, some of it is a lot AU. It's all got one thing in common: I change stuff. This really isn't that hard to understand. But people will insist on believing in the main AU (for example, I had someone review "Never To Be Alone In The Dark", which is an unfinished chapterd Babylon 5 story where Marcus survives. (I'd link it, but it's M/I, and most of my friends are sick to death of that one, and I don't want tomatoes thrown at me.) The reviewer was okay with that part, but told me I'd made it look like Marcus and his brother hand gone through Ranger training together, which they didn't do. Except that in "Never," they did. This isn't in any way really important to the plot, it's just something that comes up in a conversation Ivanova has with a Ranger who had a crush on William, Marcus's brother. And yet every time I go through my folder of saved reviews- and this one was overall nice, and I did save it- that comment drives me fucking crazy.

I guess it bugs me because it's not the only time that's happened. I had people- numerous people- accept the total freaking AUness of "Emerald & Ebony," in which Harry kills Voldemort in 5th year. (Happens 'offscreen', as it were, but still.) And what do they gripe about? I had Snape and Minerva the same age, and this apparently is a serious goof on my part. Except, you know, for the part where I meant to do it that way.

One of these people also told me how old Hagrid was. Hagrid played no major part in the story at all- I think I had him there for about two seconds, talking to the Trio. His age had no relevance. (And, not being a Hagrid fan, I really didn't care.)

It's fanfic, kids. It's all pretty much AU anyway.

#4 - Alias. History, people. If you're going to do something like write about Jack and Sloane running around doing CIA stuff back in the day, or Irina doing KGB stuff, please please try to get at least a faint grasp on what was going on in the area of the world you put them in, at the time you put them there. I know it's complicatd- I have a huge book on the KGB that I still haven't made it all the way through- but I know we can remember the big stuff, like when the Soviet Union collapsed. There should be an obvious difference between AU ("What if the Soviet Union never collapsed, and Irina was running the KGB?" and historical inaccuracies ("It's, say, 1999, and we're still talking about things like the Iron Curtain, West Germany, and Krushchev, not in an alternate history kind of way, but in an "oops, I got a D- in history, sort of way.")

#5 - Star Wars. This, too, is quite bitchy on my part, but, look. I've read the majority of the books, particularly the Zahn novels, about a billion times, with particular attention to the characters I like best. Please spare me the "I think 'x' was standing over there, not there when y event happened." Dude. I re-read that chapter, just to make sure I got it right for the fic. I do know what I'm doing.

Since I don't have to go dash out to meet the bus quite yet... I forgot to post the answers to the favorite characters meme I did a while ago. Sorry about that.

Anyway: (and yes, I know I can't count...)

1. Alias - Jack Bristow, Irina Derevko
2. Harry Potter - Alastor Moody, Penny Clearwater, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall.
3. Babylon 5 - Susan Ivanova, Jeffrey Sinclair, Lyta, Talia.
6. Crusade - Galen
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Buffy & Dawn
8. Star Wars - Prequels: Padme. Original trilogy: Obi-Wan & Leia. EU: Mara Jade. NJO: Jaina Solo, Gilad Pellaeon.
9. Star Trek: TNG - Beverly Crusher, Jean-Luc Picard.
10. Stargate SG-1 - Jack, Hammond of Texas :)
11. Dragonlance - Raistlin Majere
12. seaQuest DSV - Nathan Bridger. Kristin Westphalen. Marilyn Stark.
13. Gundam Wing - Treize Khushrenada, Lady Une.
12. Star Trek: DS9 - Kira Nerys. Odo. (But gods, not together...)
14. The Dark Is Rising - Will Stanton
15. Witchblade (the TV series) - Sara Pezzini, Ian Nottingham
16. X-men movieverse - Rogue, Magneto, Logan
17. Star Trek: Voyager - Kathryn Janeway
18. Andromeda - Tyr
19. Wheel of Time - Elayne Trakand
20. Honor Harrington - Honor Harrington, Hamish Alexander, Emily Alexander... Scotty Tremaine, Horace Harkness, Thomas Thiesman... No one knows who the hell these people are, so I'll stop now. :)

I think it's time to rotate the icons. I need a few more fandom options.

Monday. My least favorite day of the week, without peer.

I'm back to the eye doctor this afternoon. I don't even want to think about it. I was enjoying my eye doc-free life, you know? I hate it, the waiting and the wondering- what are they going to tell me is wrong this time? I feel fine, the eye hasn't really been bugging me at all, but... Yeah. Nervous, I suppose.

Am re-reading the original Star Wars Zahn trilogy, aka the Thrawn trilogy, aka the- what the hell was the other term for it? The Heir to the Empire trilogy? I'm realizing recently that my favorite EU characters are mostly Zahn creations; Mara Jade, Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, Captain Pellaeon, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Oh, and Jaina Solo, though she doesn't get great lines in this one at all. Neither does Jacen, but I've always had a little less fondness for Jacen. (Actually, the twins get no lines, as they're newborns, but anyway...)

When I was in junior high, I had a battered hardcover copy of "The Last Command", book 3 in the trilogy, which I carried in my backpack for luck. Those were the days- when I had room for a hardcover in my backpack. Now I can hardly squeeze in a paperback. Incidentally, that hardcover is a lot more battered now, as a result of 8th grade, but I survived it, so maybe there's something to be said for lucky books. Or not. :)

In the back of my mind I'm plotting my stuff for NaNoWriMo. But up front I'm just obsessing over fic. Part of it's because I'm on a bit of a roll with my main Star Wars undertaking, have just come up with a really strange plot twist for "Five things that never happened to Alfred Bester", and I've been bitten by at least three different Alias bunnies. I'd kind of like to strangle the bunnies. Lately my stories understand that I have homework and medical appointements. Bunnies...do not.

Although perhaps my fics aren't that forgiving either. Right now, when I should be chasing down a pair of socks and collecting my textbooks, I'm adding lines to the damned SW fic.

Okay. My little cast of Imperials has to shut up now. They really do. I mean, I'd just love to explain to my Algebra teacher (not to mention my mother) that I'm late to class because my original character and Grand Admiral Thrawn refused to shut up. I wouldn't believe me, either.

Right. School, eye doc... Wish me luck, gang. I'm off.

Am glad it's Friday. Very, very glad it's Friday.

I got my tests back Wednesday; 95% on the Computers test, and something close to that on the PoliSci. Not that I was worried. I mean, it's a bad sign for your education, good sign for your grade, when you're taking a test and you're bored, isn't it?

I've had my nose in Star Wars books all week- I once swore I'd stop reading the New Jedi Order, but I think it's getting better. They've paired off some people in ways I like (as of halfway through Rebel Stand, anyway), and the bad guys are actually interesting for once.

This has bad side effects, though. I was inspired by something I read, opened a Word file- and what came out was the start of a Gillian Skywalker story. Most of you, with the exception of bohemienne and kittybot haven't known me long enough to remember these, but they're SW stories about an original character who I used to roleplay, and very ocasionally still do.

I swore I'd never write another one, but... well, I'm having fun here, so I thought, you know, why the hell not?

( Old SW gaming rambling )

And now, we're off to school. Yay.