Heather Allen

Dearest readers,

I’ve had a fantastic couple of weeks that I would like to share with you! Part 1 is about Women of Letters, Season 2 that was hosted at Joe’s at The Public on October 7, 2015. Part 2 is about my weekend at New York Comic Con a few days later, October 9-11!

Thanks!

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Waited in the ticket queue for over an hour to get tickets to NYCC this year!! (This was back in May…)

DAY 1

The actual NYCC weekend was exhausting! AND SO MANY PEOPLE! The first day my friend and I were there, we walked past the ABC Family booth and they gave us silly putty to promote their name change. The putty actually was my saving grace while walking around the Javits Center because it felt like a constant battle of pushing through a stampede. It look a lot of energy out of me so early on. I squeezed this little putty jar and it would make me feel calm.

Friday was mostly for walking the floor–turns out you have to get there before 10am when the show floor opens–in order to get in line for the major panels. Friday was also a day to see one of my Twitter crushes, Sam Sykes. He’s a writer and was doing a book signing that afternoon. But that didn’t stop me from circling around to the publishing booths quite a few times…(I work in publishing, it’s a totally legit thing for me to do–networking! haha). Anyway, the time finally arrived and I was nervous, but just kept cool long enough to get this gem of a photograph! 😍

Also, Sam recognized me from being obnoxious on Twitter and favoriting most of his tweets so we’re basically best friends. Does this qualify as “Internet Person I Met in Real Life“? 😝

The rest of the day was more wandering around. We ended up picking up a lot of books. I even stopped by the Random House booth where I spoke the “secret” password to get a sample of the 3rd book in the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.

DAY 2

Even though we got there 30 mins before opening, when we tried to get in the queue for the Marvel/ Daredevil/ Jessica Jones panel it was ALREADY FULL, which was very frustrating. We got in line to see The Last Witch Hunter instead. After we got our wristbands, we did more wandering, picked up more books at publishers, and I got a shark-shaped foam toy that is promoting the upcoming memoir, Everything is Teeth by Evie Wyld. This replaced my silly putty for the day as my stress reliever. Thanks to the exhibitors at ComicCon for providing stress-free swag! Around mid-day, my friend and I went to a panel about women in comics, but were very disappointed to hear that the women in the panel didn’t care about Women of Color in their discussion. It wasn’t a fruitful discussion, so we left during the q&a.

After breaking for lunch outside, we came back for The Last Witch Hunter Panel. Considering I was going to the panel with no information, I had a great time. Vin Diesel is such a D&D nerd! Also, seeing Elijah Wood and Rose Leslie was so great. Yes, Rose did say “You know nothing Jon Snow,” much to the amusement of everyone in the audience. The movie looks questionable at best, but everyone at the panel got a voucher to see the movie for free! YES! (A movie review may be in the near future…)

After the panel we did a final lap around the Javits (saw Sam Sykes again!) before going home.

DAY 3

My friend and I finally figured out how freaking queue lines worked. Our two goals for the day were to go to the Sleepy Hollow Panel on the main stage and to see the We Need Diverse Books panel. Luckily we accomplished both things. Here’s a pic of my face with how I feel about waiting in lines:

The Diverse Books Panel came first, it featured YA authors Daniel José Older, Zoraida Córdova, Dhonielle Clayton, Robin Talley, and Sarah Farizan. This discussion about diversity was much, much better than the Women in Comics panel from Day 2. Even though I knew of most of the issues they spoke about, mirror books, how to change the publishing industry, and the importance of diverse representation, they were able to make the discussion feel fresh and fun. The panel was diverse and they were inclusive of all sorts of diverse issues (i.e. disabilities, POC representation, LGBTQ+ issues). It was invigorating to be at the panel and I hope be one of those people who helps change publishing to be more inclusive.

Later in the day we went to the Sleepy Hollow panel, and may have found a new show! The audience watched an episode that had aired the past week (good as a standalone, even though it was in the beginning of Season 3). We had great seats, too! Though the two main stars were not on the panel, we had a dramatic email reading from Zach Appelman who pretended to be Tom Mison by reading his email in a British accent. I haven’t watched the show before, but it seems really cool and I like the concept. Reminds me a lot of Supernatural.

And that’s a wrap! Such a fun, but exhausting weekend! Glad I was able to nerd-out. And to sum up: