I've spent the last few weeks since the terrorist attack in a stupor, and whenever I thought about this report, it just seemed so trivial compared to the things going on in the world right now. However, life must go on. And the convention was a lot of fun. So here we go ...

How does one report on something as huge and chaotic as Dragon*Con? Only those who have attended a monster science fiction convention have any comprehension of what it's like. This was my first, and I had a great time ... although I must admit to more than once feeling as if I were having a "Galaxy Quest" moment. The biggest impression I got was that no matter how freaky, geeky, or kinky I sometimes think I am, there are plenty of folks in this world who make me feel positively normal.

I'm going to report what I saw and did at the convention more or less chronologically. At times there were three, four, or even five simultaneous events that I was interested in. In some cases I sent my faithful companion Firedog to one event while I checked out another. In other cases I trolled events by spending ten or fifteen minutes at each. I think I am still catching up on sleep, and I didn't even attend a single party!

You can see all the photos from my report plus more in these three photo galleries:  Star Wars Spottings, Star Wars Costume Contest and Matters of the Force, Etc.

Click on a thumbnail to see the larger image.

THURSDAY

Registration Purgatory - I only mention this because it's significant to those of you who plan to go to one of these things ... show up really early or you'll be in line during many of the con events. Even if you pre-register. Especially if you pre-register. We got there Thursday evening as registration was starting to wind down, and the line for pre-registered folks snaked around and around the ballroom to the door. (After waiting in that line we found out the Davemeister hadn't actually managed to pre-register us, but that's another story.) I thought that was bad, until I saw the lines the next day and every day following. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you pre-register for something, shouldn't that mean your wait is shorter than the people who pay at the door? And if a con expects 20,000 people, shouldn't they maybe have more than one person on a computer telling everybody which line to get in? The saving grace was that the volunteers handling everything were friendly despite the long hours and the number of jet-lagged geeks they had to deal with. And I really don't think the wait for most folks was all day or anything. It probably just seemed like it.

Home Sweet Room - I just have to put a plug in here -- the Marriott Marquis is the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen in my life (except maybe that one historic place in Prague I stayed at in 1981...) and the staff, at least in my experience, were top notch. Our room was great, the service was courteous. Now, if only they had a decent place to eat that didn't cost an hour's wage for a bowl of oatmeal, or $4 for a bottle of water!

Hamster Run - The Marriott and the Hyatt (the two hotels that housed all the convention events and exhibits) are right across the street from each other. But between the cop who kept making us walk all the way to the corner and use the crosswalk like good citizens and the perpetual drizzle, we found it easier to use the connecting skywalk tunnels -- one from the Marriott to the Peachtree Center Mall, and another from the mall to the Hyatt. At any given moment, the mall was full of stormtroopers and Klingons rushing between venues or wolfing down fast food, much to the puzzlement of the everyday Atlanta mundanes taking a break from their downtown work week to shop or have a bite at KFC.

FRIDAY

Where's My RPG? - The con didn't officially open until 1:00 PM, so we slept in and wandered over to the attached mall to find some food. There weren't a lot of choices, but Le Peep provided some basic protein to start the day. Then we broke out the maps and started trying to find the Role Playing Game registration. We had stayed up the previous night plotting out which events we simply had to attend, and where in our busy schedules we might fit a four-hour stretch of gaming. We had it narrowed down to about six choices, all of them either AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) or the new d20 Star Wars RPG. Trouble is, the Hyatt is like a labyrinth. By the end of the con we had the whole thing memorized, but on this first foray we got hopelessly lost. I think it was 10:30 before we finally found the place; it was hidden in plain sight, curse them! By the time we got to the front of that line, everything we'd wanted was gone. We signed up for something that looked fairly promising for the end of the day and crossed our fingers for the best. I'll say more about our gaming experience later.

Beam Me Up! - Did I mention how the schedule seemed so jam packed with good stuff that we had a tough time choosing what to see? Well, that was true ... except for the 11:30 AM slot on Friday. See, the con wasn't officially open yet, and there were only two things on the list -- a panel on stop-motion animation, and James "Scotty" Doohan from Star Trek TOS. I didn't attend either event, but Firedog is a fan of the original Trek series, so he went to see Doohan. And here's where I think the con organizers deserve some kudos. The Star Trek room (like the Star War room, the Xena room, the X-Files room, etc.) could only hold about 100 people, but it became apparent quickly that many, many more than that were wanting to get in. The Star Trek organizer (Jack, maybe?) called a halt and arranged for Scotty to be moved to a ballroom on the main floor, where there were plenty of seats for the 400 or so who showed up. Firedog reports: "There are some folks you never expect to see grow old. The cast of Star Trek fall in that category. Seeing Scotty in a wheelchair surprised me, but I found him to be very amusing, even though some of his answers took 15 minutes. I was also surprised to find out he had kids in their 40's, kids in their 20's and an 18-month-old daughter. Somebody asked how he got the nickname 'Craziest Canadian Pilot,' and he told a great story about his war years, how he learned to fly a plane in ten days. He used to fly so low his wheels were brushing the wheat in the fields, and one time when flying in Germany with a rookie pilot, he ended up weaving between 19 telephone poles in a row -- underneath the wires. Another story he told was about his casting call for Star Trek. Doohan demonstrated ten dialects, but he told Roddenberry the engineer should be Scottish. 'And we'll call him Montgomery Scott.' Roddenberry asked, 'What makes you think you've got the part?' Before filming, Doohan got a call to say they'd decided to cut the engineer character out of the series. He called his agent, and less than six hours later, he was back in. He also talked a bit about his other acting parts. Considering I decided to go to this session at the last minute, it was an awesome way to start the con." Rating: A-

Opening Crawl - I decided to skip the official Opening Ceremony of the con and instead attend the "Matters of the Force" (MotF) Welcome to Star Wars Fans. Because I had decided to forego the "Scotty" presentation, I showed up way early, and got a super special treat; Dave "Darth Vader" Prowse made a surprise appearance just to chat a bit with the fans before assuming his official duties. He arrived in a wheelchair, but he managed to get up and walk to the front table with only the help of a cane. He's a good speaker, down to earth and entertaining. He filled us in on what he's been up to lately -- mostly recovering from a nasty, painful infection that had him in and out of the hospital, paralyzed his limbs, and tried its best to kill him. He seems to be on the mend now, and is working on, of all things, a singing gig! I have read on fan sites that Prowse is bitter, and I've seen quotes from him that sounded like sour grapes, but I saw nothing like that at Dragon*Con. I actually ran across him a few more times during the convention, and he was very cordial and at ease around the fans. The actual welcoming ceremony that followed was anticlimactic, not to mention too long. It was mostly Director Cathy Bowden and the other local MotF organizers patting each other on the back. (Not that they didn't deserve the kudos, but ... boring!) Cathy introduced Steve Sansweet of Lucasfilm and presented him with a gift basket. Firedog reports: "My first impression of Sansweet was that he was a neat guy. For someone that high up in Lucasfilm to come to the con -- that shows class." Rating: Prowse - A, MotF - D+

Where's Sallah? - We slid in a bit late to the Indiana Jones 20th Anniversary presentation. They were showing a bunch of clips from the film, each one garnering applause and laughter. John Rhys-Davies (the actor who plays Indy's friend Sallah) was supposed to be there, but he never showed up. Rating: B-

Etheric Rudders et al - At this point Firedog and I split up. He wanted to see the "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" show (discussed below), and I wanted to see the Star Wars Technical Panel. Steve Sansweet (Lucasfilm Marketing), Aaron Allston (X-wing novelist), Dr. Steven D. Howe (a nuclear physicist and space propulsion expert from Los Alamos Lab), Carl Cunningham (of StarWarsFan.org), and Chad McFee (a MotF staffer). This was an interesting and informative Q-A session, ranging on topics from blaster bolts (what exactly are they -- light, plasma, or something else?) to midichlorians (Steve Sansweet indicated "they will not be mentioned again") to the reason by starfighters appear to "bank" when turning in space. Aaron Allston came up with a great explanation for that, saying starfighters are designed to handle the same way in space as they do in atmosphere so pilots won't have to learn two sets of reflexes. Sansweet generated a lot of laughter when he admitted that "George just wants stuff to look cool" and he lets the "people in the back room" such as the artists and writers come up with plausible explanations for why the technology works. Missing was Les Johnson (NASA propulsion expert). Rating: A

Where's Dave? - I felt obligated to show up at the panel discussion which Echo Station's own Web Leader Dave Phillips was supposed to attend before personal life intervened, so I left the Star Wars Technical Panel early. The Fan Web Sites and Domain Name Disputes Panel was led by only one person, and the crowd was sparse, maybe fifteen or twenty souls. When I walked in they were talking about the Fandom.com copyright lawsuit and boycott, so I pointed them to Fox's excellent editorial on the subject. I put in a few plugs for Echo Station, but overall, the panel was pretty lackluster. Perhaps they'd already covered all the interesting stuff before I showed up. I know it would have been a jillion times more interesting with our opinionated and savvy Dave up there on the podium!

Whose @#$&* Is It Anyway? - Firedog is a big fan of the US television show featuring four comedians competing to see who is best at improvisation, so he was really looking forward to taking in several rounds of this show. Unfortunately, the risqué "humor" proved disappointing. Here's Firedog's take: "Crudity, profanity, and sexual innuendo were substituted for wit and humor. I did find about half the skits to be funny, but when humor waned, one of the two women would garner laughter by using the F-word while a man in a kilt would flash us. They took first and second, ahead of a young man that I felt had a good head for humor and timing. Overall it was a big disappointment. " Rating: B-

Where's My RPG Redux - We showed up a little before 6:00 PM for our 4-hour session of "Death of a Tyrant." The Gaming Room was huge! I didn't count the tables, but at a guess I'd say you could have at least 100 games going on at once in there. We sat down, plunked down our dice, and then found out that the adventure was not AD&D as we'd thought, but a system called Iron Claw where everybody plays anthropomorphic animals. My character was a deer-like creature with wings that could fight like a Ninja and cast magical spells all having to do with ice. Firedog ended up as a fox-like thief. We also had a unicorn "wizard," a lion "cleric" and a bear "fighter." These all have specific racial names, but I can't remember the details. It took a little getting used to, since we didn't know any of the rules, but the gamemaster (Diana) was very cool about explaining as we went along. She ran a great game, very animated as she explained everything we were seeing (and smelling!) in our quest to solve a murder mystery. None of the other players were familiar with Iron Claw, either, but we got into the spirit of things pretty quickly, and ended up finishing the scenario successfully with time to spare. I'm not sure I'll be buying any Iron Claw supplements in the future, but I enjoyed it anyway. The only things that marred the experience were the two people (friends of others at the table) who kept wanting to carry on side conversations while we were playing. Firedog adds: "Diana was great. She ran the whole game without notes. All five of us were experiences gamers and mature compared to many there. I liked that all five of us were allowed to contribute to the success of the game. It was highly satisfying to solve the mystery and meet the goals 45 minutes before the time limit." Rating: A

SATURDAY

Joxer and Friends - Firedog decided to attend the "Morningrise with Hercules and Xena guests" panel while I checked out the Star Wars Auction (below). Here's what Firedog had to say: "Ted Raimi was hilarious. They had a panel of seven, including one writer, one producer, and five actors from Xena. It was obvious they liked each other. They talked about their experiences on the show. I enjoyed this one." Rating: A

Make A Wish - I went to the Star Wars Auction not knowing what to expect, and I have to say it was one of the most worthwhile events on the program. It was a silent auction, with everyone milling around looking at stuff and writing their bids on cards. Fans and Star Wars notables donated everything from used action figures to original art to one hour of their time. The biggest item on the agenda was an Episode II cap signed by George Lucas. Steve Sansweet brought that beauty, which sold for $750. I bought a few inexpensive items; I didn't know you had to pay cash so I wasn't prepared, otherwise I would have bid on an hour with Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. The greatest thing about this to me was the chance to go up to the celebrity table and talk with the actors, artists, and writers. We weren't supposed to be asking for autographs, but a few people managed to sneak their requests in. The event raised a total of $??? for the Make a Wish Foundation. Rating: A

Ellisonian Apoplexy - Both of us were interested in the panel called "Beyond 2001: SF in the New Millennium." Panelists included notable authors John Shirley, Robert Asprin, Tim Powers, Harlan Ellison, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rebecca Moesta. The topic under discussion was science fiction and predicting the future: what are the next social and political changes that writers might be exploring? It was a very interesting discussion up until somebody pushed Ellison's hot button. As many of you know, Ellison has been fighting a vicious battle against internet pirates, the worst of whom seems to be AOL, for distributing his writing royalty-free on the net. One of the audience members asked a question about the internet and copyright, and we were off on a rant. Not that a rant by Harlan Ellison is uninteresting; far from it. The audience member was either too clueless or too arrogant to sit down after it became obvious that nobody agreed with his "information must be free" ideas. When the guy spoke up a fourth time, Ellison got so upset he stormed out of the room, but not before putting in a plug for his legal fund. The entertainment value of Harlan Ellison about to pop a vein cannot be underestimated. Rating: B-

Comic Relief - I went by myself to the panel "The Art of Star Wars." I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, after you've bought all the books by that title, what else is there? Luckily the artists had some interesting stories. My favorite was from Walt Simonson, who recounted being told "you can't do that" when he proposed a new Death Star for a Marvel comic he was working on between ESB and ROTJ. He was also told he couldn't use another idea about furry creatures with hang gliders. He said after that he figured the third movie was going to be real interesting. Also on the panel were Joe Corroney, Gregg Keefer, Lisa Stevens (SW supercollector), Aaron Allston, and Doug Barrett. I'm not sure what Aaron was doing there, but he always has something interesting to say. Rating: B+

I Need a Cigarette! - Okay, I have to admit it. The only reason I wanted to come to Dragon*Con was this event led by Steve Sansweet called "Star Wars Connections," a hyped-up marketing presentation for Episode II complete with lots of footage,  trailers, and lots of behind the scenes stuff. There was no actual footage from the movie, but what we did see was stupendous. After the lights came back on, somebody in the packed ballroom (3000-plus people) yelled, "I need a cigarette!" Afterwards there was time for a question-and-answer period. Not many people asked anything noteworthy -- at least, anything that could be answered. Here's Firedog's slightly less rabid take on Connections: "All I can say is, the man [Sansweet] comes across as charming and classy. He is not on my top five list of people I'd like to have dinner with. I just think he's amazing. The material was presented in a first-rate manner, and was fun to watch. Once again, a self-absorbed fan who seemed to love the sound of his own voice didn't know when to shut up and sit down." Luckily Sansweet handled this with more humor and aplomb than Ellison did earlier. Rating: A+

Lord Of The Spoilers - Similar to Connections, this was a presentation with footage and sneak previews from a highly anticipated upcoming film, and it also drew a huge crowd. The real difference was that this presentation was by fans, not official sources, and their footage was not high quality, being mostly bootlegged or downloaded from the net. Firedog says: "This was an infomercial for theonering.com. The two presenters were okay, but wordy, and the pace of their slideshow was way too slow. At least they ended their presentation with two cool previews -- the new trailer and a bootleg from ShoWest." The best thing about this, really, was the laminated game card of Gimli that a very generous fellow fan snagged for us on the way in. Rating: B-

Wookiees and Leias and Sith Lords, Oh My! - Other than being held in a room that was way too small, the Star Wars Costume Contest was a blast. It just floors me how much energy and creativity people put into this. You can see some photos from the event here. All Firedog had to say was: "I was hoping the Ewok wouldn't win." Rating: B

The Thrill of Victory - While I took the kiddo swimming at the hotel pool (did I mention the Marriott is wonderful?), Firedog decided to wander over to the huge gaming room and join one of his favorites, a board game called Robo Rally. Programming geeks love this game. You have a little robot which you "program" by using movement cards (right, left, back 1, forward 3, etc.) and then let loose on a board filled with hazards. The robots can "shoot" each other and shove each other into pits. The first one to get to all the flags wins. It's geek heaven. Here's what Firedog had to say: "It seemed disorganized. The game was set up late -- four boards, four flags. Six of us played, which made it fun. At 10:00, two had to leave (one hadn't even reached flag 1). The judge allowed us to keep going to completion, which was great. Thanks to each of the other three making a small mistake, I won. However, the judge could not find the time to give me my prize, despite my seeing him five times afterwards. I could have used those tokens in the Dealers Room!" Rating: A

The Agony of The Feet - Never, ever wear shoes to Dragon*Con that you are not willing to walk 20 miles in. I have blisters!

SUNDAY

Yes, No, Maybe - After bolting down a truly wretched breakfast, we headed to the "Behind the Scenes" Star Wars panel. I hadn't known what to expect, but this was one of the most entertaining panels I attended. Peter "Chewie" Mayhew, Paul "Greedo" Blake, and Garrick "Biggs" Hagon shared reminiscences of what it was like to be involved in filming, how they reacted to the movie's unexpected success, and more. All three were friendly, articulate, and fielded all questions with good-natured humor. Peter Mayhew's "Yes, No, Maybe" started us out. Those are the answers to his three most-asked questions, "Was the costume hot? Have you seen Harrison Ford lately? and Are you going to be in the new movies?" Firedog says: "It was fun. What I found most amazing was how unoriginal most of the questions were. I liked how they started out with their three most-asked questions to preclude lame questions -- only to have two of those questions asked anyway!"  Rating: A

No Myth-take - Robert Asprin's Mythadventures talk was very well attended and very entertaining. Having been a fan himself before becoming popular as a writer (and editor of Thieves' World, among other things), Asprin has a unique perspective on cons and a lot of fun stories to tell. When you see him, ask him to tell you about how a couple of Klingon Diplomatic Corps security officers faced down the Secret Service in Chicago and won (hint: the key phrase uttered was, "Wrong badge"). I would definitely recommend seeing him talk if you get a chance. Oh, and buy all his books, too. My favorite quote from him was, "The sound of inspiration is a cash register."  Firedog says: For a man who didn't say a word in the "Beyond 2001" panel, it was a pleasant surprise to see how witty he was. I have all the books in all three of his major series, so I enjoyed getting to know his background." Rating: A

Grovel Like An Ewok - Anthony Daniels. The man is a treasure. I had heard that he was entertaining, but that's kind of like calling the sun "hot." He danced down the aisle and up onto the stage, all 100 pounds of him, and within two minutes he had the audience in the palm of his hand -- or should I say, leather glove? I've never seen anybody work an audience that way. He browbeat us, berated us, humiliated us, and made us love him. (I might need some serious therapy now for my codependency issues ...) Here's an example of what I'm talking about: We're having a great time, listening to Star Wars reminiscences, and suddenly Daniels makes a chopping motion. The room falls silent. He puts a hand on his hip, pointing to the back of the room, about 400 yards away: "You there! Yes, you! You're late! Come up here on stage." In a few minutes Daniels has all of us, a ballroom packed with maybe 2500 people,  genuflecting and humming "ooh-ahh" in traditional Ewok fashion. Daniels stops again. Other transgressors are ordered to the stage and made to grovel publicly. Then it's back to the worship, punctuated with echoes of jungle birds and the whooshing of wind in a bizarre "round." But, what's this? Firedog, sitting several rows back, is not bowing! Daniels leaps down from the stage and charges over, dragging Firedog up on the stage to grovel like an Ewok. You can see pictures at this article at official Star Wars site -- Firedog is the redhead on his knees on the far right. I'll let Firedog speak for himself: "Anthony Daniels is like a one-man Vaudeville act. He has perfected his showmanship. What I loved about him was he had no problems shooting down stupid comments. I did enjoy being an Ewok, if for no other reason than to try to throw him off. Of course it couldn't be done." Of Ewoks, Daniels said, "Was it their charmless faces, their dead eyes? Tell me something good about an Ewok ... a live one, that is." Rating: A+

Anime, Shmanime - Firedog decided to go to a presentation by artist Syd Mead. His take: "The presentation started late. Syd's visuals were impressive, and his initial bio was impressive, but once he started talking about his Japanese art, I lost interest. I was hoping to see more of his movie work such as the 2010 and Blade Runner stuff. I left early." Rating: C+

Duels of the Lame - I decided to check out the "Duels of Fate," a showcase of fan "talent" put on by the MotF crew where costumed Star Wars fans could duel with toy lightsabers. The result was so lame it was embarrassing. One or two of the people there had some martial arts talent, but most would probably lose to Wicket the Ewok in the first round. Some groups put on skits ... these people will not be giving George any screenwriting competition. And one unfortunate pair of Jedi females tried to perform a dual "kata" that moved so slowly I thought maybe I was suffering from relativistic time dilation. It want on so long, some of the audience started tittering nervously. Afterwards I heard the two women wondering out loud what was so funny. Here's a hint, gals: you looked like total doofuses. All I can say nice about this was that some of the costumes were good. Oh, yeah, one more thing -- Indiana Jones crashed the party, ran up on stage, pulled out his pistol, and shot Darth Maul. Now that was worth seeing. Rating: D

Crime Pays - We finally found time to visit the Dealer Room and check out all the bootlegs, ripoffs, and crap being peddled. Truly it amazes and disgusts me what the con operators allow to go on. They would do better to weed out the "con artists" and make a little more room in the aisles so people can get by each other without literally squeezing themselves past. I doubt I will ever venture into one of these venues again. Sickening, really. Firedog says: "I found Dungeon #27 -- yee haw! Found two AD&D modules I was looking for, but refused to pay inflated prices for them. I was just glad Toryn had no money to buy action figures, or that Lando would have been hers at three times the going rate." Rating: C

But Will It Melt Doors? - One of the cool things I did see in the Dealers Room was Steve Sansweet perusing some truly awesome lightsaber replicas - ???. Later on, in the "George in Toyland" collector's panel, he discussed how Lucas is looking for a good, high-end replicas to offer as official products, the problem being finding a company that can meet demand. Sansweet, who is arguably the most famous Star Wars collector and who writes a column for SW Insider, among other things, was able to answer collector's questions knowledgeably.   Rating: B

Lost in Space - Firedog spent quite a bit of time trying to see Space Shuttle astronaut Rick Searfoss to no avail. He says: "Rick Searfoss was a no-show twice, with no explanation. I felt sorry for the guy who was running the "Space" programming track because this was his first year. A good crowd showed up both times." Rating: F

Full of Sound and Fury - We finally got to see John Rhys-Davies (Sallah from the Indiana Jones movies and Gimli in LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring) albeit from about 100 rows back. He performed a part in the staged reading of Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!" I personally had not read the story and have always hated being read to. I couldn't make myself focus, and ended up leaving early. Firedog loved it, though. Here's what he had to say: "I thought they did an excellent job bringing the story to life. The two big screens were actually a distraction. I wish I'd been closer. It's a good thing I'd previously read the book, because it made it easier to follow. Rhys-Davies was a pleasure to listen to." Rating: B+

Blind Leading the Blind - Being the Spoiler Queen that I am, I was really looking forward to the Star Wars Prequel Speculation panel. Unfortunately I already knew as much or more than the people running the panel, so it was a waste of time. I suppose if you didn't have internet access or were too clueless to check out TFN, you might have been happy to hear all about Count Whatshisname ... well, I better not mention that here. Rating: C

Oops! - The Star Wars Bloopers presentation was a combination of sublime and stupid. One of the presenters (a female) insisted on doing her half of the banter while wearing a Darth Vader costume, and since she didn't know her lines and was trying to read them off a card in a darkened room, it was, to put it mildly, embarrassingly bad. However, some of the footage they screened made up for the Laurel & Hardy nature of the presentation. They had a few trailers and TV commercials I'd never seen before, and they managed to come up with a few bloopers I didn't already know about. Plus, Firedog, not having seen the films an obscene number of times, really enjoyed seeing the Stormtrooper try to decapitate himself on the DS control room door, etc. Firedog says: "I couldn't believe the guy had actually watched Star Wars once a week for the last 19 years. I also couldn't believe he'd really counted how many times he'd seen it. All the material should have been on a single tape. And Darth Vaderess was lame. I think she probably was included as a presenter only so she could get in free." Rating: B

MONDAY

Hack and Slash - I felt as if I were watching an episode of Xena, but it was Swordplay 101: Crossed Swords, a presentation from Mike Sakuta and Nicole Harsch about choreographing swordplay for the movies and TV. The two of them have their act down pat, and it's very entertaining and enlightening, at least to an ignoramus like me. My only regret was that I didn't get to ask them what they thought of Nick Gillard's choreography of the lightsaber duels in TPM. Firedog says: "I re-lived the Renaissance Festival. The interplay between the two was entertaining. I would have liked more 'good' swordplay and far less demonstration of 'lame' swordplay." Rating: B

Keep Your Day Job - We departed from our usual track to take in a writer's panel, mainly because there wasn't much else going on. I kind of slept through this one, so I'll let Firedog handle it. Firedog says: "The four writers and one editor shared anecdotes that were not only entertaining but also very informative. In a nutshell, they say 1) try to get published in magazines first; 2) network, network, network -- especially at cons; 3) If you get signed for book number one, realize that everything is fair game to changes."  Rating: A-

One Man's Trash ... - The Supercollectors got together to talk about collecting. Steve Sansweet was on hand again (what a guy!) and we got a few insights from Lisa Stevens as well, particularly about how Hasbro is finally realizing that collectors, not kids, are buying most of their products. Some of the collectors showed off their rare items. Very cool. Rating: A

Company Town - This panel featured SF writers talking about writing in shared worlds. Kevin Anderson and Robert Asprin did most of the talking, and it was very informative. Anderson has written in Star Wars, Star Trek, X-Files and a bunch of other shared worlds, so his comments were especially interesting to me. I came away from the hour with greater respect for him. At one point he was asked about people who denigrate him and his work. He said he calls them 'the surly bunch' (and something else I can't repeat here) and they make up about one percent of the people he hears from. They do such things as write nasty comments in the review section of Amazon.com before a book even comes out. He laughed about the people who would write, "I have read every Young Jedi Knight book and they all suck." To them, Anderson says, 'Thank you for your grand total of 55 cents in royalties for all 14 books. Do you want a refund?' " Firedog says: "It was neat to see the two sides  of shared worlds -- Asprin in control, and Anderson at the mercy of the editors and copyright holders. It's sad that some fans expend so much effort bashing a writer they hate rather than encouraging writers they enjoy." Rating: B+

It Only Seems Like Eternity - Firedog weaseled his way into a tightly packed, tiny little room to hear John Rhys-Davies ramble on about life, the universe, and Peter Jackson. Firedog says: "I could listen to the man speak for hours because he has such an amazing theatrical voice and presence. But his views on medical science and living to be 200 just didn't interest me, so I left." Rating: C

Open Season - As avid gamers, Firedog and I were both interested in a panel on the d20 open gaming standard and how to incorporate it into your gameplay. I was, however, horrendously bored by the discussion, and can't remember a thing about it. Firedog felt differently, although he didn't really learn much. Firedog says: "Points I took from this -- 1) quit reading the boxed text; 2) reward good roleplaying with candy which can be redeemed at the end for kickbutt powers; 3) this only works if the game master has great improvisational skills." Rating: C

When Robots Attack - We wandered in and out of the Robot Battles ballroom. It was set up badly, with al the action taking place on a raised stage. People were having to stand in chairs to see what was going on. It looked like a lot of fun, but we were too tired to care. Rating: B

Last Gasp ... - We skipped the Closing Ceremonies so we could catch our flight out. Overall, I had an amazing time, and would definitely recommend Dragon*Con to anybody. If I have any criticism at all, it is that there is just too much to see and do. I didn't manage to see any of the fan films. I didn't get a single autograph. I only got to play one round of RPG. And I didn't even try to attend any parties. I just don't understand how some people do it. But ... it was still wicked fun! Overall rating: A

Hot Links

Again, you can see all the photos from my report plus more in these three photo galleries:  Star Wars Spottings, Star Wars Costume Contest and Matters of the Force, Etc.

Dragon*Con Official Site
Dragon*Con 2001 Roundup (Official Star Wars site) - Star Wars Connections, Anthony Daniels, and The Art of Star Wars panel
Snapshots from Atlanta: Dragon*Con Day One (Official Star Wars site)
Dragon*Con: Classic Reflections (Official Star Wars site) - Anthony Daniels plus the Behind the Scenes panel
Dragon*Con Costume Parade (Official Star Wars site) - Star Wars costume contest
Rebelscum's Collecting News report from Dragon*Con
SciFiDimensions Dragon*Con report
http://www.lightechindustries.com/ - Site that sells very realistic looking lightsabers you can duel with
Shannon Baksa's site (Mara Jade)

(Toryn Farr knew everything about Star Wars back in 1977 thanks to Starlog Magazine. She's been trying to keep her know-it-all reputation ever since. During the few minutes per day her kiddo is in school, Toryn attempts to run an internet design business and write fantasy fiction.)