Hi everyone,

I made it to New York Comic Con last weekend and did a panel on Not Your Mother’s Fairy Tales. It was an amazing time, and now, I’m going to try and give a good recap.

As I have a day job (and a new one at that), I wound up driving Friday evening to get close to Delaware from Virginia and then made my way into New York on Saturday. Bishop O’Connell, author of The Stolen (which I’m happy to say I’ve started and am enjoying), sent me a text before I reached the convention. It was good to have someone expecting me. I got out of my cab which was stuck in rainy New York traffic and tried to figure out where the entrance was to the Javits Center. There was a woman on the sidewalk in front of me in a Black Widow costume. An Avenger had to be going in the right direction, so I followed her and found the entrance.

Words don’t do the place justice. Just heading inside, there were SO many people, dressed in SO many costumes from anime to sci-fi to horror to superheroes. I had Jedi Knights on one side of me, the Doctor and Amy Pond on the other side and lots of Deadpools in front of me. Everywhere I looked, there was a spaceship or a dragon or a poster of something spectacular. I found the whole experience overwhelming. I texted Bishop to find out where I should go, but he replied that he was about to do a radio interview and that I should head to the Harper booth.

So, there I was, surrounded by people who shared my passions, my senses overwhelmed, wearing a guest badge and having utterly no idea where the Harper booth might possibly be. At this point, I thought of my friend Rasheen, and did what I thought he would suggest. I followed Batman. I mean, how can you go wrong if you are with Batman?

Then, Batman stopped to pose for pictures. I continued to blunder onward, trusting that God protects fools, little children and first time comic book convention panelists. Miraculously, it all worked and I managed to walk more or less straight to the Harper booth through no real plan of my own. My thought (to quote the Scarlet Scoundrel) was “Aha!”

I got to meet Jessie, my amazing publicist, and I was escorted to a secret room with bottles of water, candy and Bishop. Nothing like running into a friendly fellow author with a utility kilt and a Star Wars shirt to let you know that everything’s okay. Before I really had a chance to do anything else, the Harper folks arranged an interview for me with Non Productive Radio (@nonpro). Oh, and did I mention the cover for Happily Never After was cycling on their displays? Here’s proof – there I am with a Tardis on my shirt. Thanks to Bishop for the photo.

The whirlwind continued as I met my awesome editor Kelly as well as Lexie Dunne, the author of Superheroes Anonymous, and a plethora of absolutely amazing Harper Collins people. Bishop took me around and showed off New York Comic Con. Again, completely overwhelming experience. I tried to take pictures here and there, but mostly I just smiled and stared. Here’s a selection. Smaug was colossal, and I don’t do him justice. I thought the Skylander was a statue until he started dancing. The Transformer Bumblebee was utterly amazing and HUGE. Hawkgirl was part of my attempt to collect superheroes for my daughter, while I got her, I apparently take bad pictures, so most of my others came out blurry (including Wonder Woman… though I did get a good Elsa, Anna and Kristoff from Frozen which she liked).

Anyway, Bishop was a paragon of Irish hospitality, making sure that I could bask in the glow of NY Comic Con. Of course, then we had the panel.

Jessie and Kelly made sure I got there along with Bishop where we joined Ben Tripp, Nicole Peeler, Naomi Novik, Brian and Wendy Froud (she sculpted Yoda!) and our moderator, Soman Chainani (of the School for Good & Evil fame – soon to be a motion picture). I felt a bit overwhelmed when Soman read through the biographies, especially since everyone’s was real, except for mine which was mostly about Jack Heckel. Once I got settled though, I had a good time answering questions and quite forgot that I was the least accomplished member of the panel. The audience was great, and like everywhere else, we had a number of people in costume.

Afterwards, we went to the autograph session. I strategically placed myself at the front of the line of authors, so everyone had to get past me. I handed out a number of cards with promotional codes for Once Upon a Rhyme. It was fun meeting so many people. A few names that I remember include Allie, Shannon from Fredericksburg VA, and Ariel (who it turns out is a friend of Lexie Dunne). There was a wonderful lady in a Darth Vader costume with her son, a stormtrooper and a great Star Lord as well. I had a number of Whovians talk to me about my t-shirt. Afterward, I only found one of my promotional cards on the floor, and I’ll assume that someone accidentally dropped it.

I hung out in the Harper booth for the rest of my time, meeting people and handing out free Jack Heckel promotional material. I was a helpful retailer when asked as well. As things wound down, Bishop and I met a comic book reporter and found our way to a good restaurant.

In short, I had an amazing time. For a brief shining moment, I was living the dream that I’ve had since I was 12 or so, to be a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author. I also met a lot of people who share that dream, so I’ll try to blog a little more on what advice I can give to help.

Normally, I like to wish everyone the best, but since it was Comic Con…

Excelsior!

Harry