Bo's Book Nook: New York Comic Con 2014

I had no trouble getting to sleep last night, but that was only after a long soak in the bath where I just stared at the ceiling flipping my toes through the water. I did have a lot of weird dreams, though. Could be because of all the cosplayers. I haven't really been taking pictures of them for a couple of reasons.

1) They live for this crap, not that I really want to rain on their parade, but most of them are not the humble cosplayer. You know, the person who dresses up in a costume just because they feel like it and don't care whether they are impressing others or not. They are more unassuming and do not seek out the limelight. Most of the cosplayers look like they practice their poses in the mirror for hours to get just the right stance and facial expressions.
2) They block up traffic. A general rule of thumb is that where ever I am trying to go, there is a cosplayer in front of me that is stopped blocking traffic because somebody wants to take his/her picture. The con really should have a big open space where all the costumed characters can go and wait for people to come ask them if they can take their picture. That's how they do it in Tokyo. The only difference there is that people were not allowed to take their pictures without paying for the privilege.

Anyway, on principle, I haven't taken any photos of cosplayers. But I digress.

Hubby came with me today. Doors opened at 10:00. I told him we had to leave early because I had to zip up to the Penguin booth so I could get a ticket for the 11:00 signing with Maureen Johnson and Amber Benson. Out of all the authors signing, Maureen Johnson is the one I really wanted. I wanted to ask her how she ended up in the cast of Welcome to Nightvale right after BEA. We left he house by 9:00 and made good time to the ferry. Didn't have long to wait for it either. We struck up a lovely conversation with a couple displaced Jerseyans now living in Atlanta Georgia. They were not going to the con. We got on the ferry, walked up to the gate with little foot traffic and waltzed in. After checking my luggage, I hightailed it to Penguin where I was informed they were out of tickets for the 11:00 signing. It was then 10:30.

So, I had to make alterations to my schedule since everything hinged on the book signing. Instead, at 11:00, we went to the HarperCollins booth where they were having a scratch and win game. Hubby got a book he wanted. I did not. I then had a signing at the TOR booth at 12:00 and didn't want to miss that one as well. SO hubby and I walked up and down the aisles for about 20 minutes and parted company. But before we did, we went to the Titan booth where I bought a con exclusive 12th Dr vinyl figure, at another booth I bought monster mash-ups of a jawa and a tusken raider and I bought a new Dr Who hoodie at another booth. Fun stuff!

When we parted company, he was going to head to a panel a couple of friends were running and I got on line for my signing. I was 20 minutes early on line, but the author didn't get there until 12:20. Luckily, I had my Kindle. I finally got a signed book and went back to the Penguin booth. They had an ARC of Amber Benson's upcoming book. She was signing it at the 11:00 signing with Maureen Johnson and another author. They also had the other author's book out and Book 2 of the Heart of Dread series by Melissa de la Cruz. I was only allowed two. It was before 1pm and I texted hubby to see where he was, but he was already in hall for the panel and unable to assist me. I grabbed the Amber Benson book and the other one, Half-Resurrection Blues. Since I already bought Maureen Johnson's Name of the Star, I was satisfied at least that I got the books I missed out on. Both Amber Benson and Daniel Jose Older are signing as well tomorrow, but now I won't have to worry about missing a ticket. Their signing is at 3, but I have a feeling the tickets will go fast. Everyone wanted the Amber Benson book. And Daniel Jose Older was still at the booth, so he signed Half-Resurrection Blues anyway.

I went down to the baggage check and dropped stuff off. I thought I'd run by Penguin and check and they still had Frozen: Heart of Dread Book 2. No one was scanning badges any longer, so I was able to pick up a copy after all. At 1pm, there was a Star Wars signing for A New Dawn. There are actually several scheduled sessions for this book and I wanted to get one for a little friend of mine who is a Star Wars freak, but I wanted one as well. I asked and the Random House employee said I could have two copies, which was great because now I don't have to stand on line for it tomorrow.

After the Star Wars signing, I got on the HarperCollins line for the spin and win game. The Red Queen is one of the books on the wheel. Yesterday I got the book I least wanted. Today when I spun the wheel, I got another book I was not keen on. I was close to the front and when I finished, I went back in line and told hubby to come meet me so he could spin as well. There are three chances. One for The Red Queen, one that is a double win of your choice and one that is a jackpot so you win everything. Hubby finally joined me, but when he spun, he won and Arthur Conan Doyle book illustrated by Gris Grimley. Since I was in line as well, I spun again and I got the same darned book I got before. So now I have two copies of a book I don't know if I'll be keen on. I told hubby there was another chance tomorrow to get the book I want and he said he wasn't going to do it again. I know it is really tedious to stand in line. HarperCollins is also strongly promoting Endgame and if you tell a booth attendant "Endgame is here", you get swag. I got a T-shirt, lanyard, cards and sampler.

The last thing I had scheduled was another scratch and win at 3pm, so hubby and I went in search of an empanada to eat for lunch. It took quite a while as we kept stopping to look at things on the way. Finally we got to the cart, ordered and we found an empty booth that I could sit down for a few in while eating. My feet were really starting to hurt from the zombie shuffle. I began to despair of making it to the scratch and win since I didn't want to drag hubby off on a wild book chase, but as it turned out, there was a line for a Welcome to Nightvale signing right by where we were, so he got on line for that and I went back to play the game. I won Kim Harrison's a Hollows Insider. I haven't read any of her books, but I did pick up Into the Woods yesterday.

I went back to find hubby not much further in line than when I left him so we agreed he would stay on line, I would drop stuff off in the suitcase and have a nice sit-down until he was done. By the time he got done, my feet almost didn't hurt anymore...Almost, but it was short lived. From there we went to Artist's Alley where hubby really got his geek on. He talked at length to the created of Marvel's Deathlok. He also spoke at length to the creator of the on-line comic The Abominable Charles Christopher. We were walking down the last aisle and he saw an artist named Gary Gianni who paints in the style of N.C. Wyeth and has illustrated some classic books Cam owns. So that conversation lasted about a half hour.

I would like to point out that the issue wasn't the walking. The issue was the standing still after I had already been walking 65 hours. I was in pain. At one point after that we were walking and my sneaker came untied. I had to bend down to tie it, but I could barely bend far enough to tie it as my back was wrecked, but back to the story.

So we spent a very long time with hubby talking to some of his idols while my feet were just killing me from standing still. We finally left the Artist's Alley and I hope I will not have to go back tomorrow as it is in a separate wing called The Annex. By this time it was probably close to 6:00. Maybe later. We picked up where we left off earlier so we could check out all the booths. I mean, there are about 30 aisles. It's a lot to go through. Anyway, we got to a gaming booth with a Mars Attack game that hubby backed on kickstarter. The owner of the company was there and they just started talking in their own secret gaming language while I stood there with my feet throbbing. Finally unable to take it any further, I walked away, found a wall to pull and sat down. I texted hubby to let him know where I was, but he took over a half hour for this stop. It was important to him and I didn't really mind, but I just lose it when my feet start to hurt and I got the crank on.

Once her finally finished his conversation, I told him I just wanted to go since the floor was closing in about 10 minutes and I was pretty sure I could no longer feel my toes. We grabbed our suitcase and headed out. The suitcase is large and hubby asked why I was bringing such a large suitcase, but it was actually almost filled. Neither of use were really planning on buying much of anything, but that is the beauty and the curse of a con. You find things you can't find anywhere else, but then it is hard to talk yourself out of it.

We ran into a couple of friends and tomorrow we have a friend coming with us, so Cam can have someone to keep him company while I get my book geek on. I want The Red Queen darn it!!! I got a total of 21 books today and an additional two I paid for. I bought Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book Vol 1, graphic novel, because it came with a Neil Gaiman tote bag and a signed print. The from Papercutz I bought book one of The Rabbids, which is a Wii game.

Thursday's Books. Egg doesn't like books. (I forgot to post the picture yesterday.)