I've already taken calling this year at Dragoncon, my "Jim Butcher" con, because he was the highlight for me, as far as panels and guests go.  I think I wound up going to every panel he sat on, and every one of them were different flavors of awesome.   Dragoncon obviously had no clue how popular he was going to be, I can tell you that.

I know Jim calls Harry the "everygeek" but really, I had to resist the urge to chant "One of Us" several times.  He really is a geek at heart, and one of the nicest guys you could run into.  Not only that, but I give huge props to all the fans I talked to..everybody was great, and when we all crammed into panels that had other people besides Jim in them, we resisted the urge to just ask about Dresden...well, mostly.  

I knew I was going to see several Dresden's in the crowd (I was one, after all) but seeing a Michael, a Murphy, the Pizza Spress lady, the Toot Too and crew, and even a Warden..that was made of win.  I joked with my fiancee that I should dress as one of the giant winged flaming poo flinging Kongs next year.

Hopefully Jim got to at least see some of the con himself because people wised up to the new haircut.

We only went last year for the first time... Does anyone know if this is one of those events where you'd best start lining up at 8:00am?  Or will there be plenty of room?  (How big is the room?)

As I recall, Centennial I is one of the bigger rooms, probably won't fill up...probably being the key word..  I'd advice swinging by a couple of hours beforehand and seeing how things are going.  Generally speaking authors don't get quite the crowd that the actor guests do.

Usually they have assigned time to do autographs and what not.  I don't think he'll have a vendor booth where he's signing the rest of the time, but anything's possible.

The actual schedule should be coming up very soon this week, that'll shed a lot of light on things when it comes to making plans..that will promptly be forgotten once the chaos begins.

Stupid question time...

The book lays out pretty well how thresholds work against magic and spirits, but I'm working up notes for a game tomorrow, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how it effects physical critters (scions for example) with toughness, speed, strength powers?  Not at all..reduces effectiveness (and if so, how?)...etc etc?

If you haven't been to Dragon*Con before, I would highly recommend it, at least once.  The only event that I know of that rivals it that I've been to is Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  The official numbers report around 40,000 people, and I think they've started having to move some of the tracks to the Westin, making it take up something like 5 hotels.  (The actual numbers are probably more like 60 or 70 thousand, but that's another story...)

Do yourself a favor, and google 'Guide to Dragoncon', and take notes.  The programming guide won't come out until about a week before D*C, so be prepared to break out your highlighter and/or Excel to try and figure out how much you can cram into the weekend. 

I find myself scrabbling to make a Dresden costume here at the semi-last minute, and I'm already dreading the southern heat in September wearing a duster.  Ah well, it's for a good cause, right?