Ubalblog

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
So Sunday PM found me finally in the main room. Actually, I made it there at 11:30 for the tail end of Gareth David-Llyod’s presention. He was in North America to see if Hollywood would want him. Apparently he also tried to visit John Barrowman, who is in Toronto right now taping How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria. He went to the theatre where they tape, to find out that they were taping the next day. Too bad. He could have brought John back to the con.

Also before lunch, I went and got a book signed by the lovely Tanya Huff. I noticed that there is a new Confederation novel and got a little overstimulated.

After lunch I attended Jim Butcher’s talk in the main room. Some of you will understand that Sneey and I could sit in the back of the room and chant "One of us!" during a Jim Butcher talk. Jim is a self-professed geek. He LARPs. He has taught his son to swordfight so he could LARP with him. His first agent was got because Laurel K. Hamilton invited him to lunch with a bunch of agents and authors and they got to talking Buffy, B5 and RPG game systems.

The chat was amazing. I asked Jim if he could reboot or restart the Dresden Files, what would he change. His answer, after much thinking he stated that he would have given Harry more family so he could threaten them. Jim also explained that the Dresden Files is planned to be a 20 book (or so) series with an apocalyptic trilogy planned for the end.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit was the fact that the Codex Alera, Jim’s new series, came out of an on-line debate. Jim was arguing with another person what made stories good, the ideas or the characters. The guy Jim was arguing with challeged Jim to write a good story with a bad idea that would be given to him. Jim respoinded with "I’ll do it with two ideas!"

The ideas: The lost Roman legion and Pokemon

So Jim took these ideas and thought about them and came up with the Codex. The Roman legion dissapeared into a void and ended up in another world. Two thosand years have now passed. How did Pokemon get there? According to Jim (Butcher not the situation comedy) Pokemon is based on the Shinto belief that there are spirits in everything. Jim took this idea and created the furies.

He had, in fact, just finished the latest one at 5:00 am that very morning. Jim figured he didn’t have to be anywhere until noon so he could stay up and finish the book. We all laughed, cause we thought the same thing too. And then the fire alarms went off.

I then stayed around for Jason Dohring. He is most famous for his role as Logan on Veronica Mars. He was also Josef Kostan on Moonlight. Jason is a very introspective, serious young man. He spoke a great deal about the injustices of the world. I emjoyed his talk immensly.

That was it for my Polaris experience this year. I have already bought my membership for next year.

Next time: My thoughts on the drop in attendance.