Penguicon Recap: Day 1 - Friday

Friday

Arrived at the hotel without any misadventures, which was a nice change of pace. Sadly, registration for the con was a bit messed up when I got there, so it took some time for me to get my badge and "Panelist" ribbon (which granted me access to the Green Room, la di da).

After checking in I killed some time until my first event of the evening, the Writer's Workshop (with myself , Wanda DeAngelo, William "Doctor" Jones, M. Keaton, Michael "Freon" Andaluz and everyone's favorite copy editor Anne Zanoni). This was the first of many times I had clear up that I was Daniel J. Hogan and not David J. Hogan as the program said. I got really tired of saying that by Sunday afternoon.

Once again, I dropped the ball on reading the submissions ahead of time (I failed to check my email in time) but I was still there to offer advice and tell of my own experiences, which I'm sure those in attendance appreciated. I still feel bad I wasn't able to critique anything, just like at ConClave (which to be fair was my first con and I had no idea what I was in for).

After the workshop I grabbed some food in the ConSuite for dinner and watched some of the Red Wings game until my next panel at 8 PM, How We Learned to Love the Dystopia (with myself, Sarah Monette, William "Doctor" Jones and Elizabeth Bear). This was a fun time, we talked about what each of us liked about Dystopia stories (my reason being that I liked what caused the dystopias in the stories).  This was a good warm up for the rest of my panels for the weekend.

At 10 PM I had my last panel of the night, The Steampunk Aesthetic (with myself, Aaron Diaz, Elizabeth Bear and Cherie Priest). I liked this panel a bunch. Each of us talked about what we liked about the steampunk genre and gave some of our favorite examples of it and why we thought it was gaining popularity.  Lots of great discussion. I'll admit that by this point I was upset with myself not once again not doing my homework about who I was going to be on panels with ahead of time.  I had every intention to, but I the first part of the week just flew by before I knew it and BAM there I was sitting next to authors and artists I knew very little about (but I doubt any of them looked me up either). I also regret not giving everyone my contact info because I'm realizing now that they only info they have about me is incorrect -- the program that has me as DAVID J. Hogan. Grr.

picture time!


This thing was outside the hotel. I dunno what it is, but it is neato looking.


"And I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"
I have no idea what I'm talking about in this photo. This was from the dystopia panel. My Italian genes are kicking in here, as seen by me talking with my hands.


The How We Learned to Love the Dystopia panel. L to R: Me,  Sarah Monette,  Elizabeth Bear and William Jones)


Bonus Picture: Yes, I met the legend himself, The Tron Guy (aka Jay Maynard). Nice dude.

More to come. I don't feel like staying up past midnight blogging so I'll get posts about Saturday and Sunday up tomorrow (hopefully).