Insomnia = yuck. However, insomnia also = productivity. Got the rest of the trip pics uploaded but not captioned. Enjoy at your leisure.

SDCC 2010

There’s a weird sadness to life after any great genre con, whether a smaller more pro-oriented con like World Fantasy, or a fancon like Malice Domestic, or even the giantness of Comic-Con. It’s going back to the mundane, returning to a world where not everyone around you is of the tribe. Sad, but necessary in order to function in the “real world”. (I’ll save discussion on which is real for another time when my brain isn’t so fried!)

So without further ado, I present to you the highlights version of Comic-Con as told by my camera:

SDCC 2010

(The sister is posting her own pics to the album, but for now, these are all mine).

Cheerio!

Wow. This week FLEW by!

We spent a lot of time at Comic-Con toodling through the exhibit hall (a.k.a. trade show), either looking for items or just looking at stuff.

More celebrity sightings:
– Malcolm McDowell (scored a great signed Clockwork Orange poster)
– Ron Glass
– Ron Perlman
– Danny Devito
– Guillermo Del Toro
– More Stan Lee

Had a LOVELY convo with Mark Sheppard, plus got 2 autographed pics and a pic of him with me. (on sis’s camera, will need to get it from her).

My panel and signings went great! Today we all spent the day being fannish – staking out our place in Ballroom 20 for Smallville, Supernatural, Glee & Sons of Anarchy. I am happy to report that Jensen & Jared are just as pretty and amazingly funny in RL as on the show.

Misha Collins is absolutely gorgeous! I accidentally stalked followed him down through the convention center on Saturday as I was trying to make it over to the Simon & Schuster booth. Once I realized it was Misha, I just kept going in the same general direction. ::g::

Didn’t see any of the True Blood cast, except from afar (Sam Trammell and Nelsan Ellis only). Nor did I get to see the Merlin panel, BUT…

Tonight, after a lovely dinner at Bencotto in Little Italy, we called a driver who’d taken us around on Friday night. He’d squired around the Merlin folks earlier in the day–had just gotten back from dropping them at LAX. I SAT IN COLIN MORGAN’S BUTT PRINT!!!!

Yes, I am a crazy fangrrl. Indeed!

Anyhow, more real con reports after I get home and get pics transferred. Comic-Con was a blast!! Most especially for getting to meet great folks like my roomie, Rob Thurman and the ever wonderful Tanya Huff. I love meeting fellow writers!

Tomorrow: early day starting with breakfast and then travel home. Please pray to the travel gods on my behalf. Folks today had lots of trouble getting home. I’m already not scheduled to make it until 9:50 p.m., so would rather have an uneventful trip, please!

Comic-Con continues. I’ve had little time to do a post, but have been updating Twitter regularly via my phone.

So far:
– rooming with Rob Thurman (yes, she’s a woman)
– seen/met Felicia Day
– met the great folks from Simon & Schuster (except for Jen, who still remains elusive!)
– gotten my Mysterious Galaxy first fix
– seen Stan Lee, Seth Green, Morgan Spurlock
– Had drinks with Tanya Huff (EEEee!), Les Klinger
– Did a panel & signing with amazing folks, following by a signing. The every wonderful Charlaine Harris made a point to come see us and say hello. I am SOOOO lucky to have such amazing friends.
– Dinner @ Samantha Sommersby’s place (yum!), hanging out with Kat Richardson, SJ Day, Les Klinger, Jeanne Stein, JF Lewis and others.

Today:
– brunch with Texas buddy from WAAY back (like HS/College way back) Lillian Butler
– then it’s a free for all. Sis, BIL and I will probably hit the trade show floor for a bit. I still want to go by the Fox booth to see if they have any cool Glee merchandise. I’ve already scored some fun small items including exclusive Supernatural SDCC tshirt and some great stuff from Little Vampires/Weregeeks.

Yes, I’m having a blast.
Yes, I’m exhausted.
Yes, it’s beyond crowded.
Yes, I am riding a fangrrl high!!!

Evidently, today is when the cool hall costumes start to come out. We’ve already seen some really fabulous Dr. Horribles and a few other great efforts.

I’m totally having the world’s biggest geekgasm – between the amazing writers, the great booths, the fabulous fans…who could ask for more?

I’ll attempt to post later on in the day or tomorrow, depending on signal and such.

In less than 5 days, I’m going to be in San Diego to attend what I consider one of the greatest geek events of all time: Comic-Con International. It’s long been a dream of mine to go and finally, it’s here. My first year attending and my first as an attending professional, w00t! Did I ever dream that part? Actually, yes. I’m not shy about knowing what I want out of my writing career.

A writer friend once marvelled at a statement I made: that one day, I wanted as long a line at our local Borders as Laurell Hamilton has when she visits. She seemed surprised that I’d say that. I was surprised at her surprise. Why not dream big? Why not aim high? If you don’t shoot for the stars, you may just end up at Starbucks instead–not a bad place for a cuppa, but certainly not the NYT bestseller list.

Sure, there’s a heck of a lot of work involved in this dream. I’ve got to write books that people want to read. I’ve got to network and market and get my name out there. But you know, it’s totally doable. I’ve already achieved so many of my dreams–this year alone, several wonderful things fell into my lap. Why not the rest?

It’s not luck, really, it’s a matter of being out there, being a part of the writing community, befriending people and keeping up the quality of your work. It can be done. So if you’re out there, dreaming of seeing your name on a bestseller list, of appearing at Comic-Con or Thrillerfest or any other event, I say go for it! You have nothing to lose. Work hard, write well and target your goals. It can definitely happen!

For those of you going to be at Comic-Con, here’s my official appearance schedule:

Thursday, July 22 | 3:00 PM | Room 25ABC
Kiss Them or Kill Them? Conflict Management for the Creatures Among Us
Urban fantasy and paranormal romance authors discuss when to kill the monster, date the monster…or both and in what order.
Authors include J. F. Lewis (ReVamped), Maria Lima (Blood Lines series), Adrian Phoenix (the Maker’s Song series), Kat Richardson (the Greywalker novels), Diana Rowland (Kara Gillian — Detective and Demon Summoner series), Samantha Sommersby (the Forbidden Series), Anton Strout (the Simon Canderous urban fantasy series), Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (Wolf Moons series), and Rob Thurman (author of the Cal Leandros Novels and The Trickster Novels). Moderated by Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy.

4:00 PM: Signing in AA, table AA2

Saturday, July 24 | Noon
Signing @ Mysterious Galaxy Booth #1119
sponsored by Pocket Books

Other than that, I’ll be geeking out with the rest of the gang plus spending a lot of my down time in the pro room, working. (I’m on deadline!)

For those of you interested in what else I’ll be doing while I’m there, I’ll post my Comic-Con panel viewing list within the next couple of days–which means, I’ve scoured the schedule, consulted with my sis (who is going with me) and we’ve pooled our interests. Don’t know how many of the panels I’ll make it to, but there are definitely some that are *must-see* on my list.

Well, I’ve thought about it for a long time. Changing my identity online from “chickwriter” (who I’ve been for nigh on 8 years now) to a variation of my real name: Maria Lima. My boss, Joanna, preaches consistency of brand all the time–in fact, that’s part of what clients hire our firm to do for them. So why didn’t I listen? Maybe it’s because I’ve been this person chickwriter since I started social networking on LiveJournal. Since that’s the name I was/am known by in fandom circles.

After reading a few recent articles on branding oneself (as opposed to doing so for an organization or company), every single one of them reiterated the same message. BE CONSISTENT. I’m not an idiot. When my editor, beta readers and others point out the same flaws in a manuscript, I sit up and listen.

My new Web site was launched recently, now incorporating my blog, so my old “chickwriter” identity there was subsumed by marialima.com. (Even though I still do have my livejournal account as chickwriter–for now–I’ll probably update that as well).

My Facebook account is MariaLima – so now the final step. Twitter. More than 3000 posts as chickwriter have now magically morphed into @themarialima (a combo of “thelima” a longtime nickname and my original domain name for the past 14 years) and my real and authorly name: Maria Lima. (I did try for MariaLima on Twitter, but the GALL of someone to have that already ::g::)

Will this new person be any different – not in the least. No matter the outside appearance, whether I’m chickwriter or thelima or just plain Maria Lima, I’m still me.

ETA: and now Livejournal has changed to “marialima” – no more “chickwriter”. There’s a sadness about this.

I had this goal once–to do a blog post once a week. Obviously, it totally hasn’t happened. ::g::

Summer’s flying by. July 4th came and went with little fanfare, except for the fireworks I could sort of see on the horizon out my window. I spent the long holiday weekend resting, reading (finished THE WHITE ROAD by Lynn Flewelling, the latest in her most excellent Nightrunner series) and writing.

Final revisions done and turned in on my essay for SmartPop’s fall anthology: FILLED WITH GLEE.
Loads of work done on Blood Lines #5, still title-less.

Prepping clothes and travel toiletries for Comic-Con (woot!). Leaving on July 19 and meeting with my sis & BIL in San Diego that afternoon. We’re doing the San Diego Zoo on Tuesday, then spending Wednesday hanging out at the hotel pool until Pro badge pickup at 3:00. Then, it’s CCI craziness.

It’s our first time there, so I’m glad loads of friends are going to be there for support and information. I know the main key is to not try to schedule too much. Totally good with that. I’ve got a panel on Thursday, followed by a signing, then at some point Friday or Saturday, signing at Mysterious Galaxy‘s booth sponsored by my publisher, Pocket Books.

It’ll be a crazy 10 days, but I know I’ll enjoy every insane moment of it.

Hope all my fellow Americans are enjoying our holiday Monday–or what’s left of it!