A 2016 Lilac City Comicon Debriefing

Last Saturday was the tenth anniversary of Lilac City Comicon, and I was lucky enough to be there along side my buddy Josh Montreuil. This was my second time at Lilac City and since last year they had expanded into a larger space and quite a few more fans showed up.

As before it was a whirlwind of great people and an overall success for me. I had plenty of books left over from Norwescon [Read the Norwescon 39 Debriefing Here] and I sold a ton at Lilac City. Okay, that’s a bit of an understatement. I sold out of every copy of The Stars Were Right. Which is AMAZING. Thank you to everyone who picked up a book, I left Spokane with a lighter trunk which is always a good thing.

I could ramble on a bit, but let’s get to the highlights. That’s the fun stuff:

• The cosplay. Carl, a friend of both Josh and myself, made an astute observation: at most cons you see like one person cosplaying for every ten people. But something about Lilac City really brings out the cosplayers. They were everywhere. There was probably one person cosplaying in every three, and the quality was incredible. (As you can see from the pictures.) Like last year, it was really difficult to choose which to feature. I took a ton of photos.
• Obviously selling out of every copy of The Stars Were Right was a huge highlight. Spokane really loves my books, and I am both touched and grateful. There were a few people who came back later in the day wanting to buy a copy and unfortunately they had to go without. I’m in the process of replenishing my stock from my store, but there are plenty of places you can still pick it up. Hit the official site for The Stars Were Right where I link to a bunch of locations where it and other books in the Cycle are available.
• Seeing my mom, dad, and little sister. Since this is a business trip, I don’t have much time to hang out with family. But it was good to see them even for a brief moment.
• Spending time at the table with Josh Montreuil and watching him work. Josh is a fantastic comic book artist, and you should be following him on Tumblr. Seriously. Do it now; I’ll wait.
• My adorable selfie with the Lich. What a guy.
• Seeing some old friends. It’s been eight years since I moved westward, so it’s nice to catch up with folks and see how things are going.
• Watching Josh work on his various sketch commissions. I saw the Grinch and his dog, Ben Grimm, and the always abriffic Doc Savage. (Who is due for his own reboot, let’s be honest.)
• Ain’t going to lie, my table looked great.
• I had several people who sought me out specifically after picking up and reading The Stars Were Right last year. Everyone was excited to experience more of ol’ Waldo Bell’s adventures, and I was happy to learn how much they loved the first book.
• Big thanks to the guy who not only picked up Red Litten World but also bought the current set of The Bell Forging Cycle for his friend as well. As I said on Twitter, that means the world to us authors. Telling your friends about a writer’s work helps keep us writing.
• My table was right next to fellow Seattle author Matt Youngmark, and it was great chatting with him throughout the day. Not only is Matt is good people, he’s also the creator of Chooseomatic Books, which is are choose-your-own-adventure novels for adults. They’re great fun and worth checking out.
• The Steven Universe cosplayers (see above right) who sang a stirring rendition of the Steven Universe theme song at Matt’s request.
• The Sprocket the Cat cosplay! (See below left.) If you don’t know Sprocket, he’s the mascot for Lilac City Comicon. It’s cool to see he’s got some fans.
• The Post-Con Decompression Dinner—It’s nice to relax and have a few beers with fellow creatives after a convention. Thanks as always to Matt, Kevin, Peter, Jen, Lars, and Josh for letting me hang with them and eat Irish food, wax poetic about running a table, and crack stupid jokes.

I was really happy with my experience at Lilac City Comicon, and I am already planning and looking forward to attending next year. It’s a really welcoming crowd and it’s nice to see something like that in Spokane. Right now I don’t have any future appearances scheduled, but that could always change. You can keep track of where I’ll be and check out my previous conventions over on my Upcoming Appearances page.

Thanks for a great convention, Spokane!

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