I might have gotten on better today if I'd gotten more than six hours sleep. [grumble]

Third verse, same as the first: up, around with the dog, pack up lunch, and git. We did stop at the bank for money. James discovered why his debit card got rejected yesterday even though he just got paid: it expired 8/31 and the credit union never sent a replacement.

We both had a couple of panel choices this morning, but somehow James had accidentally put John Barrowman's panel on his schedule. So we said, sure, let's do it. Let's be spontaneous. We ended up way in the back, but we could still see.

John came on stage in a blue TARDIS dress and spike-heeled red pumps.

After that, it got crazy.

He's a one-man dynamo. He loves being on stage and it shows; he bounced from one end of the stage to the other, telling stories (risque and otherwise), wagging his eyebrows, flirting with the ladies as well as the men, told tales on his handsome bodyguard, chatting about Captain Jack and how Jack and the Doctor were really just him and David Tennant, talking about helping with shuttling soldiers back to their bases, and being serious about a group home for LGBT children who have been thrown out of their foster homes. His sister Carole came out, saw him in the dress and pumps, and sent a pic to their mother. She announced amusedly some minutes later, "Mum just saw your picture and said, 'Oh, God, he looks like me!'"

Time to split up: I went off to the "Sherlock vs. Elementary" panel in the Hilton. I was sitting in the room cooling my heels (literally; that's a nice cool room) waiting for things to begin and scrolling through Facebook on my phone when someone touched my hand. It was Louis Robinson saying hi. Really enjoyed this panel a lot—it flew by. Basically Louis and the other two panelists talked about what they liked about each series, how they differed, yet at the same time respected the Holmes canon, sometimes with overt references, some with hidden. Louis described Sherlock as a "firecracker," where Elementary was more like a slow fuse. Much praise for Lucy Liu's interpretation of Watson. It was a much more balanced panel than what was at 221B, where one of the panelists was rather scornful of Elementary. It was more a comparison of both series and what was liked about each, rather than a "versus."

Next, into the madness that is the Marriott to see a tribute to The Twilight Zone and Rod Serling. Most of the presentation was a portion of a documentary that was made for the archive version of the series release (and, dammit, no you can't get it separately). It's called As Timeless as Infinity: The Twilight Zone Legacy. (Preview here.) What we saw was fabulous. They went back to Serling's home town, showed a brief history of his early writing career, interviewed his wife and daughter, and talked to writers who were influenced by him, including Joe Straczynski.

Now, there was another Sleepy Hollow panel two floors up, in the big Marriott Atrium Ballroom. I figured, well, I'll see if I can get in. And I did! I was way, way back, but I was there, and there was a treat: Nicole Beharie couldn't make it and Tom Mison was late, so Corey Castellano came back in with John Noble! I hadn't seen the latter, so it was a nice surprise. He answered a lot of questions about Henry, and about all the fear and anger that must have been bottled up in his abandoned first incarnation of Jeremy Crane. He left when Tom Mison finally arrived, attired in an Indiana Jones hat, ready for more questions about life on the set. He said again that he prefers that there not be a romantic relationship between Ichabod and Abbie—"That's what all your fanfiction is for."—and got a cheer from most of the audience. Not many more hints on what's coming up in the new season.

I was "at large" for the next hour and a half, so I set out to see if I could manage the dealer's room again. I got halfway around the choked first floor and it was too much like Walmart on Black Friday for my taste, so I went up one floor and the crowd was a little less crazy up there. One booth that was cool was something called "Geek Chic," which was gorgeous furniture that would look good in an elegant home, but you could game with it. There was a coffee table, a dining room table, and other attractive items. [I looked it up. The coffee table alone starts at $1,900.00.] The whole back of one of the floors is all leather accessories: pouches, gauntlets, vests, skirts, kilts, etc. The leather scent was marvelous. Lots of jewelry dealers, some books, tons of toys like those big headed things everyone seems to like.

Next up was "Ask the Experts: Everything Doctor Who," which was pretty cool. Robert Lloyd, Robert Allsop, and Rob Levy, plus Alan Siler (now it was Three Robs and an Alan) answered questions about the series, and most of the questions weren't  your run-of-the-mill ones like asking if a certain character was coming back. Folks asked if it was ever said where time travel tech on Gallifrey comes from, or did we know if the Doctor had other family, etc., was the Doctor truly "the last of the Time Lords" because of Romana, the Meddling Monk, Drax, etc.

Oh, and I bought Alan's new book, a compilation of commentary on what he thinks are the best Doctor Who episodes, and got it autographed. Can't wait to read it. Also bought a book of Christmas short stories.

This was the last of my panels, so I went over to meet James at the Hyatt for "So You Want to Be a Monster," with two of his favorite writers, Larry Correia, who does the "Monster Hunter" books, and John Ringo, who is going to do a "Monster Hunter" book, plus their publisher, Toni Weisskopf. James said Toni would be there to "keep the guys in line," and he was right. The two of them were like a couple of kids talking about their books and their characters. I don't read the books, but even I had fun, and Ringo read some passages from his upcoming book, which takes place in the 1980s.

And finally it was the long, sad walk back to the truck and hefting up the power chair, and driving home, and taking Tucker for a walk (after his Dreaded Enemy the German Shepherd had finished his). Today is James' last con day. Tomorrow Twi and I have to go down there on our own. ::sniffle::

Labels: books, conventions, television

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