The first Wizard World convention I’ve attended in years, and I have to say I was impressed by the overall organization. They had tons of volunteers and organizational folks with headsets that actually, y’know, worked. The only downside was that the con was somewhat underattended, mainly (I think) due to Nascar being the same weekend. But even an underattended Wizard con still has respectable crowds. In terms of signings, they only had me scheduled for a couple hours each day, but I wanted to be as accessible to fans as possible. So they managed to find me some table space in Artists Alley…which was fortunate, because I was signing pretty steadily both Friday and Saturday. I hate to think what it would have been like if we’d tried to fit all those fans into the scheduled signings.
Tons of people told me how much they’re enjoying “The Other,” which is very gratifying. I’m always fascinated by the variations in fan expectations. Some people come up to me with three books to sign and say tentatively, “Is this too many?” Others don’t hesitate to bring me my entire run on “Hulk.”
I was very impressed by Sean Astin. I chanced to see him during his signing, and there was this little boy who wanted to meet him, but didn’t want to go near him without mommy…and then was wrapped around mommy’s leg, not even wanting to look at him. And Astin took the time to gain the kid’s confidence and had him doing a thumb war. About as unaffected as a Hollywood star can be.
They had me doing a thing on Saturday called “Wizard School.” The concept is that it’s a teaching programming track, and naturally it’s supposed to be about writing. I chose to hew to the name of the concept, and strode into the class in my Tim the Enchanter outfit. I did a straight-up lecture about story structure for fifty minutes, and then took questions for another forty. I insisted that any question be prefaced with “Oh Mighty Peter,” which they actually did. I very much suspect there will be pictures of it in an upcoming issue.
This weekend, off to United Fan con in Springfield.
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