News

Hi all! Darla here! This is my post con rambling. My chance to say thanks to a lot of folks, say sorry to others and reflect on lessons learned.
First I want to thank everyone who stopped by the booth at DragonCon. It was great to see so many of you and finally put a face to a name. It was nice to have a chance to chat with so many friendly folks! You all are great and I really enjoyed that part immensely. Would that I had more time and we could have hit a restaurant or even just found time and space to sit and chat.
Thanks to the Janbar who made the nifty stickers for all of us to wear. That was incredibly sweet and beautifully done!
I saw a lot of really good Anita costumes. And I still love the couple who came by the booth as Anita and Edward. Send me your picture! You were excellent!
If you have photos you don’t mind sharing. Send them to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I will be putting them up on the main web site and MySpace. Please include names if you know them.
I am so sorry I missed so many people on Saturday. I was tucked up in my bed wishing the world would stop spinning quite so vigorously. I won’t say where I ate on Friday night. I wish I could say it was a fluke, but I have now heard from four other people who also got sick after eating there. Stay away from the ranch dressing and cheesecake! Food poisoning just sucks! Worse, I didn’t order ranch dressing, I order French. But it took so long to get our food I wasn’t willing to wait for it. I now know better. See I can so learn.
So that also meant I didn’t get to see as much of the con as I wanted too. My loss. But looking at all the pics everyone is posting makes me think everyone else had fun!
If you want to see some great photos check out the Travel Tales section of the forum or just click here:
http://forum.laurellkhamilton.org/showthread.php?t=31887
Will we be attending again. Sure. Next year? Maybe. It all depends on how things shake out with everything that is happening. It truly is a question of timing and can we fit it in.
For those who were confused about who Pili in the booth with me was, she is Laurell’s gardener. No, seriously. We brought the gardener and her wife; mostly because I couldn’t handle the booth alone. And it was a good thing too because that meant Pili did the booth alone on Saturday for the most part. But she was terrific. It was funny how many folks mistook her for Laurell. I think it is the curly hair. So a big thanks to both Pili and Carri for all their help, including sitting with me Friday night while I was sick. I am not a good sick person. Nope, by no stretch of the imagination do I deal well with it. So you both have my gratitude for not smothering me with a pillow. I am sure you thought about it. Heck, I did.
And for the three young ladies who thought I was Laurell. Well, thank you! That is quite flattering. So sorry that I wasn’t so you could get your books signed. I only fake her signature for deliveries to the house. Everything else is the real deal.
Thank you to Mark Fingerman and the volunteers who ran the International Dealers room we were in. They were terrific getting us get out on Sunday. We had an emergency at home and had to leave Sunday night rather than stay through Monday. They were most excellent at getting us out of there. And thanks to Marriott Security who helped us get the trailer out of the crowd. Your help was invaluable and much appreciated.
Thanks also to the gentlemen at Balls Out Entertainment who were hawking Playing Gods: The Board Game of Divine Domination. Thanks for lending us a hammer, half your banner stand and generally being nice!
Thanks to the guys down the way from us who were selling Laurell books. They were giving a discount to all those who said we sent them. I cannot remember your names and I gave away all the business cards you gave me. Bad me! But I think it was Tales Of Wonder.com.
Thank you to DragonCon for having us! Thank you for trying to make it as fun and relaxing for us as you did. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked hard and gave up their own time to assist everyone. Thanks to all those who were just kind enough to point me in the right direction when I got lost trying to find where I was supposed to be going. The hotels are amazingly beautiful, but confusing when you’re trying to navigate.
Thanks to all the fans, new and old, who came out. Especially those who walked the parade route behind the car. If this was your first convention, I hope you get a chance to attend again. Or even attend a local con near your home. They need your support too!
Thank you Spiderman for having your picture taken with me. The grandkid is still slightly puzzled about why I am in a photo with his hero Spiderman, but he loves the photo.
Thanks Pete Abrams from Sluggy Freelance.com for signing the book for my son. He loves it. You did make me the coolest mom for getting it. Though he slightly miffed that he didn’t get to come himself. I kept the stuffed Bun-Bun. Heck, he got the book and a t-shirt. But Bun-Bun is mine! All mine!
For us this was a learning experience too! This was the first time we have been to DragonCon in a long time, either individually or collectively. On to some of the concerns I have heard and things we learned.
The signings for Laurell were limited to an hour because there were more guests booked in to the Autograph Room. That is really not something any of us or DragonCon could help: though I did hear that Laurell was able to sign for two hours on Monday. Hopefully, you made one of the four signings. For the folks whose books I brought home to be signed. I do have them. I will get them mailed as quick as I can.
Next time we attend DragonCon we may ban photos during the signing and set up an hour for photos only to speed the signings and get more folks through. So sorry to those who were in line and still didn’t get in when it had to be cut off.
Yes, we could have used larger rooms for the panels. Standing Room Only didn’t begin to cover the spillage in to the halls. At least with the microphones those who were outside had a fair chance of hearing. Not sure how many larger rooms there are available for panels, but it is an issue we will discuss with the nice DragonCon folks for next time.
Again, thanks to all who attended the parade to walk behind the car. It was a first for us and next time we do a parade we will try to be better organized. Arrange a meeting spot for everyone beforehand and I will tag someone to be Parade Organizer. That should make it better. And have goodies to toss to the crowd and marchers! Because I didn’t make it down, we were going to have all who wanted to, sign the banner on the back. So that didn’t happen. So sorry. We are still going to auction both banners; the one from the parade and the one from the booth for charity. I just have to figure out which charities. More details on that will be forthcoming.
We do have video of the parade. Carri will edit it and we will have it up when it is done. See we took Carri for a reason. She is an excellent videographer.
We have been asked about doing a float next time. I think a float is out of the question for us. We would have to construct it here in St. Louis and haul it to Atlanta. As it was, it took Carri, Pili and I over 12 hours to get to Atlanta driving. May I just say one major wreck on the highway and you can expect to be stuck there for what seems like forever! Though I do hope all who were involved came out okay.
It just was a long, hot drive though not without it moments of fun. If you have to travel do it with friends who can make you laugh at the silliest things like bouncing vans on a trailer. Yes, we do have video and when Carri gets it edited we will share. It was good for five minutes of laughter or maybe you just had to be there. And when you stop at a gas station, do a head count before pulling out! She may eventually forgive us. Bribery is still an option.
So sorry we couldn’t bring more stuff. There is just no way for us to bring all the merchandise we sell through the fan club without getting a semi-trailer and I don’t know where we would park it! It was hard to find above ground parking for the small trailer we did bring. But maybe next time I will give everyone a chance to vote beforehand on what we bring. I brought the Guilty Pleasures Staff and Security because that is the comic that is out.
Jennifer M! I still have your t-shirt. I will mail it to you. Sorry I didn’t catch you at the con to give it to you.
I think that covers my rambling. If you think of anything we could do better, please let me know! Or if you have an idea for a fun panel or event we can host next time, email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or drop a note at http://www.myspace.com/laurellkhamilton.
Hope to see you next time!
Darla

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