For the second day of NY Comic Con 2016, I began with more of a plan. I wanted to make sure I arrived early for this one because the focus was on that little independent film from about 40 years ago that spawn a global brand, franchise, and set of awesomeness. I, of course, am referring to the Star Wars Writers’ Roundtable which featured Timothy Zahn (You know, creator of Thrawn and author of the Thrawn Trilogy), Chuck Wendig (fellow bearded Northeastern dude and author of the Aftermath trilogy), Charles Soule (writer on the awesome Poe Dameron comic), James Luceno (the guy who has probably written more Star Wars fiction than any other person in the world), E.K. Johnston (author of the forthcoming Ahsoka novel), and surprise guest Kieron Gillan, author of the Darth Vader comic and moderated by the awesome Jennifer Heddle, Senior Editor at Lucasfilm/LucasBooks.
The authors were asked about their influences in the genre and Chuck Wendig and Charles both genuinely pointed at Timothy Zahn as an influence. From there they spoke about their writing habits, most got up early in the morning, some listened to music and Chuck mentioned the murder shed where he murders hobos…er rather, where he writers. Zahn recounted how he was brought back into the Star Wars fold and how everyone’s favorite blue skinned alien Admiral Thrawn was brought back into the fold.
The writers were also asked of the characters they hadn’t written, which character would they like to write. Charles then mentioned a certain clanking character from Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath books might show up in his Poe Dameron comic. A few writers said Leia, James Luceno and Timothy (I think) both mentioned Palpatine and E.K. Johnston said Sabine (from Rebels!)
At the end of the panel, they made some announcements about forthcoming Star Wars Publishing Plans what with Rogue One releasing later in2016 and 2017 being the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars. The plans include a new comic, a novel by Beth Revis, and a lot of books for kids/younger readers, among other things. Between standing on line chatting with fellow Star Wars fans and chatter at the convention, I really think I need to read Alexander Freed’s Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company.
I made my way to one of my favorite booths every year, the Orbit Booth, where Ellen B. Wright (PR Queen ) introduced me to her friend and fellow blogger Sarah (of the http://galaxygirlsladyknights.tumblr.com/ blog) and we lamented the first world problem of having too many books to read.
Back in the Javits Center, I knew I had some time to kill before the next signing I wanted to attend, so as is par for the course, I strolled the aisles. I chatted with metal music pal Caro Perny at the Harper Voyager book and we both agreed that Brom’s new Lost Gods book is utterly gorgeous. (A review copy arrived for me on Thursday). Caro also told me the sequel to Becky Chambers’ awesome Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet will be published in paperback early next year. I walked away from that conversation with Caro thinking very strongly that I really need to dive into the copy of The Queen of Blood I have. I left her because I wanted to make sure I was on line to get V.E. Schwab’s amazing novel Vicious signed. The lined queued up quite early, so luckily, I showed up a little early. She signed the book and nifty little trading card she had made.
From there, I strolled around a bit more checking out the plethora of Funko Pops man vendors were selling and finally picking up a copy of Marjorie Liu’s Monstress at Midtown Comics.
Over at the WordFire / Baen booth, I saw an author I’d hope to see for a while, but scheduling conflicts for the show brought that into question. Luckily, Jonathan Maberry was there and chatting with fans. When he and I spoke, I had to tell him that because of Mr. Church (from Jonathon’s awesome Joe Ledger novels), I am now mildly addicted to Nilla Wafers. Jonathan recounted how readers throw Joe Ledger parties and purchase cases of Nilla Wafers from Nabisco. Very cool. The only books of his at the booth were the Rot and Ruin series, so I bought the first one for him to sign and eventually read.
Next up was the Naomi Novik signing at the Del Rey Booth. A few of us were hovering there because, well, because Naomi Novik is a superstar, an amazing writer, and just won the Nebula Award for Uprooted, a novel I adored when I read it last year. She signed that and Del Rey was giving away copies of His Majesty’s Dragon to be signed. Newcomer Katherine Arden was signing ARCs of her debut (set to publish in January 2017), The Bear and the Nightingale. Comparisons were made between it and Uprooted which pushed the book higher up on Mount Toberead.
Overall, some great conversations, the opportunity to meet writers whose work has truly moved and inspired me, despite the chaos of NYC and NY Comic Con.
Really enjoyed reading these summaries, seems like you had a lot of fun 🙂
I know. I’m jealous. I’m doing cons next year! We need SFFWorld.com t-shirts.