Balticon50 Part 4: Panels and Convention Highlights

I will start off by saying we did A LOT at Balticon. We took advantage of a lot of the kids activities, we sat in on some gaming panels, Jeremiah attended a podcasting tips panel, and my neighbor Jen and I ditched our Men and the kiddos to attend the Masquerade CosPlay contest. It was a great few days of general geek stuff and I had a blast.

Panels Saturday:
George R.R. Martin Interview-Moderated by Balticon50 Toastmaster and Author, Mark Van Name: I thought this interview was too generic. I don't need the "loaded questions" effect but I would have liked a little more substance. The interview questions  were okay if you knew absolutely nothing about GRRM but my bets were that the audience had been long time fans of George and had heard most of these responses before. It was great to see George but I think the interview questions could have been a lot better.

Special Highlight: While standing on line to get into the Panel room, I heard someone behind me who's voice I distinctly recognized as one of my absolute favorite 'ASOIAF' theorists that I follow on YouTube, Preston Jacobs. We spoke for quite a bit about some of his theories and I told him that while I am not a subscriber to his R+L=D theory (I believe R+L=J), his ideas were still quite compelling. He told me about his experience at the Balticon50 Feast of Ice and Fire dinner with George R.R. Martin (a charity event that cost $1000). We talked for a bit about his conversation with GRRM and how Preston felt a bit disappointed when George told him he might be over-reading his interpretation between Plato's 'The Republic' and GRRM's Tuf Voyaging (a story in the1000 Worlds universe)  I won't pretend I am an expert on 'The Republic' but I can see why Preston made the connection. Interpretation of literature takes on a life of it's own according to each reader and sometimes connections are there whether they were intentional by the author or not. Preston was really great to talk to and it was a unexpected surprise to run into him at Balticon.

Me and Preston Jacobs

Games of GOT: This was a fun panel hosted by folks from one of my favorite podcasts, History of Westeros. Moderators included: Aziz Al-Doory, Ashaya, and Jeff Hartline. They mostly talked about the many GOT games available on PC and tabletop. I even got to pipe in from the audience about how awesome the Game of Thrones Living Card Game is. It can be very competitive but I enjoy it on a casual level and had a lot of insight to offer on why it's not only a great game but also why it's a great time to get into it. After the panel I got to chat with the hosts and tell them how much I enjoyed their podcast.

Other Fun Things: 
Hoola-hooping, learning a couple of Medieval dances, meeting Peter S. Beagle, attending the Masquerade contest, having a delicious Sheppard's Pie for dinner, Mad Hatter Tea Party, and Fairy Gardens.


Panels Sunday:
Liars Panel with authors, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Lyn Nye, Joe Haldeman, Mur Lafferty, and moderated by Mark Van Name: This was a charity panel to raise money for children's literacy. The rules were: Each panelist answers a set of questions. All answers must be the truth—except three. After each answer, anyone in the room can challenge the answerer. After there are no more challengers, the panelist tells whether the answer was the If it was true, each challenger puts $1 in a bucket that runners pass. If it was a lie, the panelist puts $10 in the bucket. The panel was just fantastic and laugh-out-loud hilarious. I cracked up when Mur Lafferty discussed 'impolite promises' and Jodi Lyn Nye demonstrated that she was double-jointed. Some things that are surprisingly true about George R.R. Martin include, he once got a gift certificate for a nipple piercing that has been re-gifted to other sci-fi/fantasy writers, one of his favorite shows was 'My Mother the Car', and he loves the theme song to the old show, 'Petticoat Junction'.

George R.R. Martin Reading:

We were offered three choices and the wild majority of us hooted our assent for a chapter from GRRM's anticipated novel, 'Winds of Winter'. It was an Aeron Damphair POV chapter that hadn't been previously released on George's website nor read out loud before. I won't give too much away but it starts, "It was always midnight in the belly of the beast..." and that set the tone for an incredible and shocking chapter. George received a standing ovation when he finished the chapter and he took time to answer some questions from the audience. When someone asked, "Who are Jon Snow's parents?" George replied to our delight, "Some Kardashian and Justin Bieber." He also talked about Brienne and how she was sort of his improvement to the Fantasy cliche of women fighting in chain-mail bikinis. He said with a chuckle, "She is one of my favorite characters but that doesn't mean she is safe." He also confirmed that Brienne was a descendant of Duncan the Tall from the 'Dunk and Egg' stories. The reading from Winds of Winter was the perfect ending to an awesome convention and I was ready to go home.

George R.R. Martin reading an Aeron Damphair POV chapter from Winds of Winter

Balticon50 Part 3: Meeting George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin limits the amount of autographs he does at conventions and securing a spot during one of Balticon's scheduled sessions was my top priority. It wasn't so much the autograph for me. I had pre-ordered the autographed Balticon50 special edition of GRRM's 'In the House of the Worm' so I was covered there. What I really wanted was simply to meet my favorite author and after years of being a superfan, Jer, Jonas and I were finally set to meet George.

I always thought I would meet George eventually and now it was happening. Naturally, the anticipation of this meeting made me feel a bit anxious. I tried not to have too many expectations but I would be lying if I said I didn't have any. I knew our time with him would be brief but I was excited for it and hoped the short moments would leave a positive impression. It would have been disappointing if he turned out to be disconnected, signing autographs like an automaton on autopilot.

I spent some time prior to the convention thinking of a way to make the experience unique and found the answer in dragon eggs. Jonas had a 'Knights of the Roundtable' themed birthday party and we made Game of Thrones inspired dragon eggs out of thumbtacks to use as decoration. I used them again as decor for our annual Feast of Ice and Fire that we have on the night of the Season Premiere of GOT. Not to brag, but Jonas and I did an amazing job on the dragon eggs.. 

Our awesome dragon eggs made out of 1500 individually lacquered thumbtacks.

So after some deliberation, Jonas and I agreed that when we met George we would give him one of our prized dragon eggs. For those of you who don't know Jonas, he is a pack rat. He doesn't like to get rid of anything, including socks that no longer even function as socks anymore. He loathes the idea of parting with anything so when he semi-happily agreed to the idea, I was pleasantly surprised. The black 'Drogon' inspired egg was out of the question for Jonas but we compromised and agreed on giving GRRM the white-gold 'Viserion' inspired egg.

The morning we were to meet George R.R. Martin began with me forgetting my Balticon badge at the hotel. It was not a long walk to the hotel but we were halfway to the convention and I wanted to be as early as possible to ensure a good spot in line (which turned out to be a non-issue). I prayed that Balticon had a contingency plan for scatterbrains like me and gratefully they did. I got my replacement badge and Jer, Jonas, and I started to mingle in the gathering crowd outside the autograph room. We didn't really have to do that since our tickets (which were first come, first serve) had numbers on them and were being called in groups of 20. Based on your number, you may have had time to walk around the convention before coming back and being called. This was awesome because when you were called in to the room, it felt incredibly intimate and relaxed.

When it was our turn to meet George, Jonas handed him his copy of 'The Ice Dragon' and George signed it jovially, shaking Jonas' hand. Jonas then handed George the dragon egg and George exclaimed, "It's a dragon egg! If I sit on it, will it hatch?" Jonas said he didn't think it would but we both agreed we couldn't be absolutely certain. George laughed warmly and thanked us for the egg. He paused and turned to Jonas and said, "I feel I need to pay you for the egg..." He then went to his pocket and plucked a Faceless Man coin down on the table. Jonas smiled impishly and took the coin. I whispered to Jonas to say 'Valar Morghulis' which George answered, "Valar Dohaeris". We had a few more moments of easy small talk before Jeremiah brought up a copy of GRRM's novel, 'Armageddon Rag', to be signed. It was actually a book that was lent to me by our neighbor Robert, and I thought it would be fun to give it back to him signed by the author.  It was a great book but for some reason didn't sell very well. George joked with Jer saying, "So, you're the one who bought this book!"  Our meeting with George R.R. Martin is an experience my family and I will always treasure.

Meeting George

I didn't get to have any philosophical discussions with George, but truthfully, I liked it better that way. I had already spent so much time connecting to George through his books that I was looking for a personal, human connection. A brief exchange that would give me a real glimpse of the man with a 1000 worlds in his brain. One may think this isn't possible to know in the few minutes we had, but it is. George has given us so much. He gave Jonas 'The Ice Dragon'. He gave Jer 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. And he gave me all that and so much more. I was glad I could finally thank him for it.

Coming Soon: Balticon50 Part 4: Panels and Convention Highlights

Balticon50 Part 2: One Convention to RULE Them ALL!

Getting there
We packed the kids and our stuff in my neighbor Jen's Mazda and began the trek down to Baltimore. The kids were adequately equipped with books, comics, and snacks and my neighbor Josh made an awesome playlist which we sang along to on the long way down. I was buzzing with excitement and looking forward to escaping reality for three days.

Balticon Schedules
I had been stalking the Balticon website for schedules for weeks prior to the convention. For the longest time, only the Anime program schedule was up and while I enjoy Anime, this was a big "who cares" for me. I wasn't going to Balticon to watch Anime all day and wanted a full schedule to plan my experience. A day or two before the convention, the Guest of Honor schedule was finally posted. At least I would know where to find George R.R Martin but a more timely schedule would have been nice. This was the only real gripe I had and it was pretty minor. I don't think I could have enjoyed the convention more.

The Guests
I had the highest expectations for Balticon50. In addition to George R.R. Martin being the Guest of Honor, a slew of incredible authors (and previous GoH themselves) would also be returning.  Some authors I knew, some I didn't. There was a pretty great range of authors on the roster. I even got the opportunity to have a few awkward conversations and shake some hands, including the hand of the great Peter S. Beagle, who was just the best. He was soft spoken, engaging, and friendly. I asked him to recommend one of his books and he suggested his first novel, 'A Fine and Private Place' which was his own mother's favorite. I bought a copy of the book and he graciously signed it and personalized it to both me and my son, Jonas.

Guests of Honor from Balticons past returning for Balticon50

CosPlay
We all planned to engage in some CosPlay because escaping reality seems so much more fun dressed up as someone else. Jer and I settled on our Animal Crossing Mayor costumes for Saturday and Jonas, always ambitious, settled on Marvel's Falcon (Friday) AND his Animal Crossing Mayor costume (Saturday). Our neighbor's daughter was Marvel's Black Widow. The dynamic superhero kids kept the streets of Baltimore safer than ever.  Jonas didn't kick anyone's butt for misidentifying his costume as Batman but it came close...Thankfully Josh and I downplayed this atrocity when reiterating the tale to Jonas and defused the situation a little.  Jonas is not a fan of anyone making a debauchery of his interests so we were grateful for his restraint. At one point Jonas and his friend took it upon themselves to man a Furry Convention table and while I can only imagine what goes on at FurCon, it must have been a funny sight seeing two kids passing out flyers and promoting the event.

The real star costume was hands down my neighbor Jen. She was a Weeping Angel, a Doctor Who series villain, and she looked incredible in her handmade costume. I was hoping she would register for the Masquerade (costume contest) but she was having more fun walking around the convention and sneaking up on me & making me jump out of my skin. Jonas was happy to see a Tardis replica; he finally got his photo-op (he didn't come with us to the (Re)Generation Con in March and was excited to join his dad and me in the exclusive Tardis photo club). Also, my Dalek was there! We bonded when we first met at the Who Con and the rest was history. After a previous Dalek-shaming at the WhoCon, the Dalek's plunger was now in the right place. (See Josh's amazing Blog for the scoop)

The Tone is Set
After registration, I went to pick up my pre-ordered copy of a short story called 'In the House of the Worm' by GRRM. It was one of only 500 copies specifically published for Balticon50 and it was signed by George as well as by the cover artist (and Balticon50 Artist GOH), John Picacio. It set the tone for the convention when the volunteer handed me my copy and said, "Nice, you got the 50th copy at Balticon50." I knew things were destined to just get better from there.

Coming Soon: Part 3: Meeting George R.R. Martin