jimhines

I got back from ApolloCon yesterday evening, after a fun weekend. I was braced for the heat, but hadn’t mentally prepared for the Houston humidity that went with it. Fortunately, I spent 99% of my time inside air conditioned buildings and vehicles.

One of the things I love about Guest of Honor gigs is that they usually get me to new regions, meaning I get to meet both new readers/fans/writers/etc. and also meet in person folks I’ve known online for a while. It wasn’t a huge convention, but it kept me busy. I was surprised at how much fun we had on the panel to fancast a movie version of Libriomancer (Jeff Goldblum for Gutenberg? Robert Pattinson with a cameo as a sparkling vampire Isaac kills in chapter one?) I also got to run the “I Suck” panel I did at ConFusion, though ApolloCon renamed it to “The Struggle.”

I was about halfway through the con when I got to talking with the folks at the desk and they told me about the fire ants. But hey, I’ve done a convention in Australia. I can handle Texas and their snakes and scorpions and fire ants. (Fortunately, I saw none of these beasties.)

I also got lunch with a NASA scientist and astronaut, helped judge the costume contest, ate way too much food, signed lots of books, met some great people, and came home exhausted.

There was even a bonus trip to the Johnson Space Center, but I haven’t processed those pics yet, so that’s gonna wait for another blog post. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the convention. The full ApolloCon album is over at Flickr.

NASA Rock Star Dr. Paul Abell, me, and Astronaut Dr. Stanley Love

Ninja skills!

Rhonda Eudaly, John DeNardo, and Marshall Ryan Maresca

Artist Guest of Honor Maria William

Steampunk Deadpool won Best in Show in the costume contest.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

I’m the author guest of honor at ApolloCon in Houston this weekend. (Which could be interesting, judging from the Houston weather forecasts.) Here’s the schedule, for anyone who might be in the area wanting to say hi. Or wanting to know how best to avoid me…

Friday

3 p.m., Cottonwood: Meet & Greet Jim Hines
7 p.m., Azalea 5: Opening Ceremonies

Saturday

Noon, Azalea 4: Reading
2 p.m., Azalea 5: The Struggle
3 p.m., Pecan: Libriomancer: The Movie (This is a fancasting panel; I wasn’t just burying the lede on a big movie deal or anything.)

Sunday

11 a.m., Cypress: Blogging — Why and How

It sounds like I’ll also be one of the “celebrity” costume judges on Saturday night, and I’ll be doing two 1-hour sessions at the autographing table, but I haven’t seen the final schedule for autographing yet.

This will be my first time to ApolloCon — heck, this will be my first time in Texas — and I’m very much looking forward to it!

So, who else will I be seeing at the con this weekend?