Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

Last weekend I was off to Chicago to attend one of the biggest comicons in the country, Wizard World. I went to promote The Magic of Eyri (give out cards, pins, etc) but not to sell copies. I enjoyed selling copies at Motor City Comic Con, but doing the same at Wizard World wasn't really in the cards (this time).

The Girlfriend and I took a bus and a train there...which was an experience. We had to stand on the bus for a bit (we actually had seats, but offered them up to a pair of young kids with their parents) and thankfully had seats from Lansing to the train station to Battle Creek. The same could not be said of a few other individuals. At least three other people had to stand the whole way. This happened the last time I took a bus, way back in college. I don't get it. With computers and such, you'd think they'd be able to keep better control of this. And even though we had seats, the Girlfriend and I didn't get to sit next to each other. The same went for the train -- thankfully no one had to stand, but we didn't get to sit next to each other until the guy next to me got off at a couple stops after Battle Creek.

The problem with the train is that you don't have assigned seats, so you just sit wherever -- and to make things more complicated, everyone wants to sit alone, so you have a bunch of single seats scattered around the car. That's a bit of a pain when you are traveling with someone else.

Seating issues aside (which struck us again on the way home) the train wasn't that bad. Oh wait. I forgot about the delays. Yeah, those sucked. We were two hours late getting in and coming home. Lovely. But we had been warned by friends about that so we were prepared. But the biggest pain about the trip? I caught a cold of some hellish nature Thursday morning and it lasted until we got back Monday night. Best way to ruin a trip? Get a cold.

Fever. Night sweats. Fatigue. Vomiting. These are all great additions to any getaway. And the worst part? It prevented me from meeting Stevie Wonder AND Obama. Yes, you read that correctly. I could have met a music legend and a Presidential candidate. Stupid cold.

Picture time!


We stayed with a friend of the Grrlfriend (who was a great host) and she works for the Obama campaign downtown. We got to meet her at her office and got a tour of Obama HQ. Sorry, I didn't take any other pictures, I didn't think it'd be cricket.


This li'l fella was at Wizard World by the Far East Monsters booth (I think).


They had Rock Band and Guitar Hero III set up for any one to play at Wizard World. One of the guys in my group even sang for a bit. If I wasn't feeling like death I might have as well.


This tee shirt amused me, so I snapped a pic of it to show to Grrlfriend's friend. I thought of buying her one as a thank you gift, but they were sold out on Sunday. Turns out she couldn't really wear it anyway, since it isn't 'official.'


This thing is the reason I couldn't really make phone calls in the lobby: the gadget keeping it inflated was LOUD. They had a booth there to promote the latest Futurama DVD and you could spin a wheel to win a copy or something else. I gave it a try and won a tee shirt! Neat.


I met Max Brooks, author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide. Nice guy--he was a big fan of my shirt.


I also met one of my favorite comic book writers, Warren Ellis. He was the guest of honor at the con this year. I think he's trying to kill me by looking at me here.


I didn't have anything by Warren when I jumped in line (it was nearly empty, so I just went for it--and it was free) so I had him autograph a page from my moleskine book. Probably not the best choice and part of me wonders if he took offense to that (I doubt it though). We exchanged pleasentries and I moved on.


I attended the late night reading/Q&A with Warren Ellis Friday. Rather, I stayed until my cold forced me to leave. Ugh. I enjoyed what I was there for though. It ain't every day you get to listen to a guy while he smokes and drinks whiskey and Red Bull at a podium (the event was dubbed "performance art" so he could get away with it).




I walked by the DC booth and saw that some of the artists there had taken to doodling on the paper top. Don't know who did what, but liked it.

I tell ya, doing a con when you have a hellish cold that sneaks up on you ain't fun. This weekend certainly didn't go the way I'd hoped, but I made due and had fun. I quickly realized that trying to sight see in Chicago and do the con at the same time ain't the way the go. The real champ of the weekend was Chicago's public transit. I could just walk to the train and take that to the con or take it to down town. Easy. It'd be really nice if cities in OUR state would do something similar. Can you imagine how nice it'd be to take a train to and from all the Detroit suburbs?

I did buy some stuff at the con too (my other reason for going). Mostly trades. Got a couple Hellboy trades and a couple by Doug TenNapel (one of them however, Black Cherry, I wasn't that happy with). I also bought a few early Bone back issues and a Hellboy special issue that was an exculsive at another con. I could have got the Complete Bone trade for only $20 (normally $40) but I didn't feel like hauling it around all day (kind of regret not getting it though).

Oh and I bought Grrlfriend a Godzilla figure. She loves that Gojira.

Yes, the Stanley Cup visited the Michigan Capitol Building last week and thankfully I was able to get a picture of us together--without me having to wait hours in line. I first saw the cup during a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame many years ago and then once again during the Stanley Cup parade in 2002.


Stanley's Wrangler--sadly it wasn't the dude you see in all the commercials and such.


Stanley on camera in the secret video room (aka "The Bat Cave") where I work.


Stanley on another monitor. You can really see how bent up the top part of the Cup is--it just doesn't look right.


Stanley on public display in the rotunda of the Capitol.


The end of the line to see The Cup. It snaked around a bunch of times inside too (which made getting around for my daily duties interesting), it was very lengthy--which made me happy. I didn't really expect too many people. Sadly, not everyone got to get their picture taken with it. Stanley is on a tight schedule and they packed him up promptly when the time came. I had a friend in line who was only about ten people away from seeing it and spent easily over an hour in line and didn't get a picture taken with the Cup--but I did hear that they lined everyone up on either side of the hallway and slowly walked the Cup down so everyone could at least see it.

In other news, I went to Wizard World over the weekend in Chicago--and well it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Catching a cold on Day One of a five day trip ain't fun. Details later.

In another attempt to land an agent and to get Magic of Eyri published by a big publisher, I sent out a query letter to yet another agent a couple weeks back. Well, I'm sad to say I met with the same results--a sorry not for us form letter, BUT there was a silver lining.

He hand wrote on the form letter that he didn't think my book was something he could 'pull the trigger on' at the moment (I'm assuming sell) but to please keep him mind for future projects. That's the closest I've ever gotten with an agent, so that was very encouraging. None of the others (I think about six or so) said anything like that, or even hand wrote anything to me (other than one who wrote, "Sorry, not for us"). The more I do this, the more I'm thinking that people don't want to touch a book that's already been published. We'll see tho.

So now I'm trying to think of some other projects I've been kicking around. Perhaps I'll mail him again and say, "Well, then how 'bout this?" I have a couple ideas I haven't done anything with yet. And I'm doing a week long trip to the Upper Peninsula/North Michigan/Bois Blanc Island this summer, I was considering keeping a journal and turning it into some kind of humorous short story collection. I figure as a yuppie "Troll," (slang for someone who lives south of the Mackinac Bridge--under the bridge, get it?) I'm bound to have a few adventures up there.

Not to mention there are my yearly pilgrimages to Sleeper State Park in the thumb and the NASCAR race in Watkins Glen, New York (for the record, I'm not a NASCAR fan. I go to spend time with my dad and for the people watching, and to visit the awesome friends we have out there). So I'll have lots of sources for stories.

EDIT: I am totally going to this place in the UP: http://www.oswaldsbearranch.com/

During my lunch break today, I walked through downtown Lansing's popular Washington Square block to a bookstore. I was considering buying Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union because I finished Night of the Avenging Blowfish and Sin City: Hell and Back, so I needed something new to read. And I loved Chabon's Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, so I am very much looking forward to reading this one.

Sadly, as I finally reached the bookstore I spotted a giant For Lease sign in the window. "Oh no!" I yelled as I ran up to the window and peered inside. Sure enough, it was empty, save for the book racks and cases. I twist of it is that I had been in there barely a month ago and bought the Illustrated Classics edition of Wind in the Willows (which I HIGHLY recommend, the art is amazing).

And on a more personal note, they use to carry copies of The Magic of Eyri. They had at least one I spotted while in there some time ago--which I quickly offered to sign and better still, it was sold.

That's the second bookstore in downtown Lansing to close in the past year. The first was the Waystation, which was a favorite haunt of mine. It was mainly a used bookstore and I found many gems there (including a few Pratchett and Moorcock books).

It bums me out when independent bookstores close. I had asked them during my last visit how business was and they said it had been picking up since the weather got nicer. I guess it just hadn't picked up enough. Sigh. Times are tough in Michigan, and here is yet another causality.

Hard to believe, but June is already upon us and nearly half over. After returning yesterday from what we in Michigan lovingly refer to as Up North (anywhere in the Northern Lower Peninsula, typically) I decided I needed a new pair of sunglasses. Now, the issue for me is that I wear regular glasses already, so I can't just pick up any ol' pair and be good to go. This is a very involved process for me. I had been using a pair of very cheap clip ons, but the nose clip thing was making me go cross-eyed at times (like in The Jerk). I used to have a nice pair of prescription sunglasses, but they are missing in action and haven't been seen in nearly three years and getting a new pair is very expensive.

So my only real option is to find a pair that fit over my normal glasses. This is easier said than done (or I start wearing contacts, but I'm not good at the whole 'touching your eye' thing. And besides I like how I look in my current glasses).

To pull this off, I need sunglasses that:

• fit over my current glasses
• are comfortable to wear
• are reasonably priced
• don't look stupid
• don't give me that 'Bug Eye' look
• compliment or otherwise blend in with my existing glasses. I don't want to look like I'm wearing two pairs if I can swing it.
  
• make me look hip.
  

A couple summers ago I had a pair of Aviators knockoffs that were OK, but you could easily tell i was wearing two sets of glasses because they were wire frames and my regular glasses are black plastic frames. And they broke. So no more wire frames.

Last night I visited my friendly neighborhood Target and spent some time trying on different frames. To make a long story short, I bought a pair of black plastic frame sunglasses. They fit over my glasses and because the sides are thicker, they cover up the sides of my regular glasses, thus hiding them. You really can't tell I'm wearing glasses under them unless I look down or you are close enough to see through the lenses.

However, I had to tweak them a bit. I walked over to Meijer and bought sticky nose pad things to make them sit up a little bit on my nose and were lined up correctly. Problem solved. I have neato sunglasses again.

I bought a Nintendo Wii this weekend. I'm excited about it, I haven't bought a new video game system since my Playstation 2 back in 2001. I do have Game Cube but that was a gift, not the same as me buying it myself. This certainly counts as my first big impulse buy of 2008. And how/why I got one is kind of funny.

See I was planning on getting a Wii anyway with my government fun money check, but I was going to wait until after I got it. But the girlfriend decided she wanted to buy herself one this weekend, I went along figuring we'd spend all afternoon looking for one. Not so much. The first place we went to, a Target, had FIVE Wiis. So, as I looked at the five ivory boxes imprisoned behind their glass case I thought for a moment and decided "Oh, why not?"

My logic was I was going to get one anyway and now I wouldn't have to worry about the BS some people run into with trying to find one. I know people who have spent a lot of time trying to get one, and here were five right in front of me ripe for the picking. So the girlfriend and I each bought a Wii, it was cute. We also each bought Wii Play because it came with a second controller.

I should also mention that the impetus for her buying a Wii was her winning a 37 inch flat screen TV as a door prize the night before at a charity dinner. We had fun getting that in and out of her Escort's backseat. It was a sight. Thankfully it didn't weigh much, so carrying it wasn't a problem.

I also bought a charging station for my Wii controllers so I don't have to go through  batteries like crazy. I gotta say though, I love the design of the Wii. I think it is the best looking design for a system I've ever seen. It is so simple, yet it holds so many features. I like all the little doors that cover up various things like the ports for Game Cube controllers. Even the packaging was very well done and made it simple for anyone to set it up.

Part of me wonders if the 'Wii shortage' is not so much the case anymore. Granted, it is the off season for buying stuff - trying to get one at the end of April is very different than trying to get one in early December. But every place we went to after Target had Wiis (Best Buy, Meijer).

I had fun hooking my Wii up to my wireless network, and I like that I can check the weather and news headlines through it. I'm really eager to do multiplayer stuff with friends, although I haven't heard too many good things about the Wii internet/multiplayer features at least in comparison to Xbox Live. But then, I like that you can only play with people you know. I'm not interested in playing with random strangers over the internet, I want to play with people I actually know.

I called my parents after leaving Target and told them I had just got a Wii, to which my mom said "Oh...can you bring it next time you visit?"