The time it was SDCC 2013

So. SDCC has always been something we've gone to. This year was year 17 of attending. As always, it's a mixture of awesome and a hot mess.

Thursday

We had a late start on Thursday, getting down to the convention center around 11:30. After battling parking and getting our badges, we were finally on the floor. 

As we walked through autograph alley, I immediately ran into Myra, Lo and Stephanie and was introduced to Alison. After talking to Myra for a bit, she gave me back the gold sharpee marker that I let her borrow at last year's SDCC. She said that she knew she owed me a present and offered me a small notebook, which I declined.  Smooshes were passed around and some flails were had, and then I said my goodbyes and headed into the convention center. 

We first went to find all of the publisher booths. Somehow I sucked into buying a hand made, super cute 10th Doctor.
 

At Harper Collins, if you bought a book, you were able to get a bag. I bought the paperback copy of Don't Look Back so I could get an Allegiant bag for Kassiah. 

At Hachette, we gave the secret password for an arc of Curtsies & Conspiracies and a minion badge holder. From there, we headed over to BBC America to get Doctor Who swag. We got lucky and were able to sneak in to be the end of the line. 

While in line for that, Hubs noticed that David Duchovny was doing an autograph session. He was able to buy a ticket for that and I GOT TO MEET DAVID. 

 

 

They led Hubs and I into a holding area where they offered me a choice of 8x10s to have signed. I picked my photo and was told to walk through a curtain. Inside the curtain was a table where David and Gillian sat. 
 

I handed the woman my photo, she handed it to David and then it was handed back to me. As I was waiting to walk out, he asked who's photo was on the table. I said it was mine and said thank you. He asked what was on my shirt and when I said it was Doctor Who, he smiled.  I melted.

 

And then I proceeded to jump around like a damn lunatic all the way back to the BBC line. Where I spent all of my money. 
 

After that, I went right up to the autograph area to get in line for Chuck Palahnuik  I got Michelle to come up to say hi and I met Tonya who was actually one person away from me in line. 

While in line, they handed out an arc of Chuck's new book. I also chatted with Rob from MG. 

The first person on the panel signing line up was Robin Schneider. We chatted about Doctor Who and then she signed an arc of The Beginning of Everything for me!

 

Next was Chuck.  I was beyond thrilled to see that he was going to be at CC.  I got up to him and was excited to see that he made eye contact with everyone and shook hands.  He took my books and asked how I was.  We made some small talk and I thanked him for coming.  I'm so happy to be adding him to my collection.

  

From there, we went back to the main floor to walk around, people watch and peruse the publisher booths again.   We ended up back by the BBC America booth and saw Moffat signing.  And then by the Lionsgate booth, we saw part of the Divergent cast signing.

 

We left shortly after that and left to grab some food.  We met up with another friend and ate at Fred's [seriously, some of the best Mexican food].  As we were walking out, Moffat was walking up the street.  I asked if he could take a picture.  He shook my hand and apologized, saying he had to get up to somewhere... He was too far away from me to hear where he was going by then.  But, still.  I GOT TO MEET THE MOFF.

All and all, an excellent first day.

Friday

Friday was all about trying to get and be one of the first 20 people in line for Marissa Meyer and Cress. I met up with Michelle and Caitlin first thing in the morning. They were already in line. We talked strategy and at 9am we went running fast walking through the convention hall. 

I got yelled at by the lady at Hasbro for walking through the booth. And a few security people told me that I had to walk. But I got up to Macmillan and BAM! I was first in line.  They even took our picture for being the first people there.

Michelle, Caitlin & I at the Macmillan booth. Photo from Macmillan.

They set us up with a line and we were ready to wait. 

While waiting in line I finally met Katie and Thuy. And then Leigh Bardugo came over to the line and said hi. She chatted for a bit before giving me a hug and braving the main floor. I stayed in line while Caitlin and Michelle wandered around. They passed out little square numbers for the people who were the first 20 and then we were told that we really needed to stay in line. 

Marissa got there right at 11. She was adorably dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. They let us go up to the booth 3 at a time. When I got up to Marissa, she high fived me for being first. 

 

From there, Michelle and Hubs and I just wandered around. We ended up hitting Lionsgate at the perfect time. We were able to go through the line for the new Catching Fire pin. 

We passed by the the Mysterious Galaxy booth and Stephen Blackmoore was signing. I had never gotten around to buying Dead Things, so I stopped to chat with him and get a copy signed. 

 

Hubs and I left Michelle and went to get some food because I was going to die. We ended up at some place called The Palm and I had one of the best burgers ever. 

We wandered around, looking at people and booths and books. We stopped at the booth with the handmade Doctors and talked to the woman who makes them. She's planning on making a set of Rivers and is up for making me a custom, one of a kind outfit. *squeeeeee*

We wandered around some more, just killing time until Ally Condie at 6pm. I got to the Mysterious Galaxy booth around 5:30. I was able to talk to David, one of the booksellers who regularly help me. I asked if there was a line up and be told me there wasn't. Then asked if I wanted to be the first in line. When I said yes, he directed me to a corner of a table and said just in case the line moved, he would make sure I was the first. 

So I waited...and chatted...and waited. 

Once the line started to form, they moved us out into the main aisle.  Ally got there early and ended up spending some time chatting with Colleen.  Right at 6pm, they told me I could go up to the table.

Colleen introduced me to Ally and I thanked her for being here.  I handed Ally my set of arcs and she signed them all, commenting that it was fun to see the arcs since she didn't see them very often.  After she handed them back to me, Ally apologized for not saying anything while signing.  She said that if she talks at the same time, she messes up.

 

After Ally, I briefly chatted with Rob from Mysterious Galaxy about the weekend plans for the signings and then we called it a day.

Saturday

First off for the day was Christina Lauren. [I still feel weird calling them that. They will always be Lo & C to me.]

We got to S&S around 9:25. I asked the guy in the booth if there was already a line. He told me not until 9:30, to come back then. Eventually, we were put in the middle aisle and I got to hold the sign. 

While I waited, Hubs went over to the Harper booth and got a picture of Veronica Roth who was signing. 

 

I got up to Lo & C and Lauren was joking and asked what my name was. While she was signing, Christina hugged me and we chatted. Then when Christina was signing, Lo hugged me. 

  

They gave out Beautiful Bitch at the booth to the first 100 people in line. And then Lo & C had a copy of Bitch for the people in line to sign. 

As I left the line, I saw Stephanie again and had more smooshes and we finally got a picture together. 

Hubs went to look at a booth and I ran to Macmillan. Ann Aguirre was there and I was able to see her. 

When she opened my arc of Horde to sign, she saw my post-it note that had my twitter name. She knew who I was then asked if she could give me a hug. We explained that I was live tweeting while reading Horde and then just stopped because I couldn't go further. 

 

I asked for a photo and Ann came back around the table for a photo. I told her I would see her again since I would be at her signing panel tomorrow. She mentioned she would be signing at Penguin later. And when I told her I was good to stalk her all over, she said, "Yay! I have a stalker!"  

From there, we just wandered around. I bought another of the cute squishy Doctors. The ever so awesome girls at the booth had sold out of the Fez-wearing-11th Doctor.  She had made a prototype of one with a sound button in it and since it wasn't finished, offered to remove the sound box and sell it to me.  You guys really need to check out her store: The Happy Maker.

I also happened upon an artist's booth with fun stuff and ended up getting an amazing print of Edgar Allen Poe. I planned on taking a photo of it, but I left it in the car.  Sooooo.  Go check out the artist's website: Devon Devereaux. He's got a lot of awesome things there.

 

From there, I found the Cyanide & Happiness booth and stood in line to get something signed. 

But their line control was non-existent, so we never moved and we eventually left. 

I happened to be walking by Random House when they were doing a huge arc giveaway and I was able to get these two beauties...

 

We had planned on leaving after Holly Black signed, but Hubs ended up getting a random leftover wristband for a Corey Taylor comic book signing at 4pm at the Dark Horse booth. While I waited for him to buy the things he needed, I ran into Ashley. We chatted for a bit and then Hubs and I went to relax in the car for a bit. 

1:30 had us back out of the car. Hubs headed upstairs to get my copy of The 5th Wave signed and I headed over to Hachette for Holly Black. 

The booth wasn't allowing an early line, so I stood away from the booth, but still in sight of it. I ended up spending some time in the MG booth. As I walked out of the booth, I noticed that they were starting the line in the middle of the aisle. 

This is the best idea ever. All booths need to do this.

After I lined up, Hubs came back from Rick Yancey. From what Hubs said, Rick commented on him not being Stacee. Hubs told Rick about my blog and when he said the name of my blog, Rick said that he knew of it, that he goes there all the time to read the recaps. 

This is where I immediately [and repeatedly] asked if Hubs was making it up. He swears he's not. If it's true, I'm dying.
 

 

Meanwhile, the line for Holly moved quickly. When we got up to Holly, I told the girl at the booth that I had brought my own copies to get signed. I set them on the table and commented on how they were the matte cover instead. Holly and the girl at the booth said, "Ooooh. Fancy."  

 

And back to the car we went...

We went to Dark Horse for the Corey Taylor signing around 3:15. They didn't have a line set up, so we just hovered around. By 3:40 or so, they had us in line with free t-shirts. I asked the booth people if I could go through the line without a wristband, that I wasn't going to get anything signed. They were pretty cool about it and said yes. 

Corey got there right at 4. The Dark Horse people said there was a limit of 2 things per person, but then his publicist started running the line and she said Corey would sign anything. 

Hubs mentioned that I got Corey to sign a frog note pad at NAMM this year to the publicist and she started laughing. And then when Hubs got to Corey, he showed him the picture of us with the frog note pad. 

 

And then Corey looked at me and said, "And you dared to come back?" 

After we were done at Dark Horse, we left for the day. 

Sunday

Sunday was all about authors. I met Michelle and Caitlin around 9:30 and we sort of hovered around the Penguin booth for the Morgan Rhodes line up at 11. 

We decided to stand at the line up for Harper, just to see if people would get in behind us. 

We got moved around a few times and were finally allowed to line up at 10:50. There seemed to be a serious miscommunication between the booth workers. The majority of the girls said we could line up at 10 till. However, when the line formed, one of the girls said that she specifically never said we could line up and was very disappointed in all of us. 

Needless to say, they let us stay and I was number 1 in line. 

We got up to Morgan and I held up my books to show that I already had them. We chatted about our comic-con experience. She said that she wasn't a huge fan of the crowds, but she was enjoying herself. 

  

I headed right upstairs for the YA signing panel. I asked one of the guys from MG if I could start a line and they very awesomely said yes. 

Michelle, Caitlin and Christine joined me shortly afterwards and we just hung out, waiting for it to start. 

Just after 12pm, security came over and said that our line was a fire hazard. They told us to go mill around and come back when they found us a place to line up. The group of us in line decided to give ourselves numbers on the hand to determine who was where. And it worked!!

The authors got there right at 12:30. Tahereh Mafi was first and I just stopped long enough to say hi and that I didn't have anything for her to sign. Same with Veronica Rossi. 

Myra McEntire was the first person that I went up to. I bought 3 copies of Infinityglass and went through the process of flapping them for her. We hugged, we took pictures and I squee'd. A lot.  When the program came out for CC, the Doctor Who panel was scheduled at the same time as Myra signing.  It was like Sophie's Choice.  Obviously, I chose Myra and she was amazing, as always.

 

Rachel Hawkins was next to Myra. I had my arc of Rebel Belle for her to sign. I also had Defy the Dark. I hugged Rachel [whether she liked it or not] and said it was good to see her again. She said my copy of Rebel Belle was the first she had signed. 

 

Rainbow Rowell was next. We talked about the arc of Fangirl that I had and how I got it from Jaime. When I grabbed my copy of Attachments, I told her it was my favorite book. She said thank you, that she doesn't hear that very often, so it meant a lot. 

I took some pins and swag and got a picture with her before leaving. 

 

From the YA panel signing, we did a quit trip to the car so I could switch out the books I needed. We then went back out onto the floor 

Hubs wanted to see Kirk Hammett who was doing a signing at a booth. We had asked before if it was ticketed and all of the booth workers said no. At the time of the event, we got to the booth and were directed to an off site place to buy the ticket. Hubs went to the place, I went to the end of the line. 

At first, we were told that everyone could get in line. Then we started hearing that if we didn't have a ticket, we couldn't get something. As we got up to the front of the line, one of the people from security went back to the booth to see what the policy was. We were quickly waved over. 

We bought one of Kirk's books. And then Hubs threw down a copy of a family photo that he had gotten from Kirk's cousin. And Kirk started laughing. 

 

From Kirk, we just wandered around. We ended up running into Jeff, Adam and Bryce from NOH8 and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading back upstairs. 

We got up to the autograph area around 2:15 and it wasn't even remotely as crazy as the YA panel. They were already allowing people to line up in the corral, so we jumped in. Shannon Messenger and Katie both got into the line, so we chatted for a bit before the line started moving around and we got separated. 

We got up to Kami and started chatting about how she was nervous about starting a new series and writing without a partner. She said it was like being a debut author all over again. 

 

I stopped and said hi to Ann Aguirre again. I had Caitlin's book to get signed so we chatted for a bit about today being the last day of CC. 

And then I moved to Eve Silver. I had my arc of Rush to be signed. I thanked Eve for coming and we were off to wait for the final signing panel. 

 

We were able to immediately get in line for the 4pm panel.

Remember that girl from Penguin who told us she was disappointed in us at the Morgan Rhodes line? Turns out she is YA author Anna Jarzab.  She was at the table signing her arcs and was more than happy to see us....

Gennifer Albin was first for me. We talked about Doctor Who, the Tee Fury shirt of the day [Donna vs Martha] and the fact that her husband isn't a fan of Donna. 

 

Amy Tintera was next. I told her that I was so happy she was there since I wasn't able to go to her signing during Mystery Ink. 

 

Margie was the last person that I had a book for. She signed the arc I had for Icons and then she asked if they had them at the front to give away. 

 

Then, at the very end, they had Melissa De La Cruz signing arcs of Frozen, but I didn't get any pictures.

Annnnnnnd. So. There you go. That concludes my SDCC 2013 experience. I am exhausted and now have the task of finding a place for all of these new books....

If you've actually gotten to the end of this post, I congratulate you. I will reward you with the information that there will be a SDCC related giveaway at some point in the future.