DragonTrain!

Posted on by scott

We (being me, Justine, Maureen Johnson, Cassandra Clare, and Theo & Holly Black) just got back from Atlanta. We all took the train down there to DragonCon, a four-day sprawl of costumed mayhem and unashamed geekery.

Rather than issue separate reports, Maureen and I have pooled our video and stills of the event. On the train back, she swiftly and skillfully edited this embarrassment of riches (of embarrassment) down to Six Minutes that Will Change Your Brain:

Note the necessary greetings to absent writing partner John Green and his brother Hank.

There are a few more photos and scraps of video that I’ll be posting later, but quite frankly this is the definitive document. It was a fabulous four days (almost a week, including a day of the Cresent Line on either side). So thanks to my pals for letting me convince them to come.

And special thanks to the folk of the Con who make such fantastic and creative costumes, and to all the staff of the YA thread (Bev, Suzanne, Lydia, Karen, Heather, Tara, and Mary!) who invited us, squeed us, and showed us a great time.

And one more round of applause for Maureen for making the video happen . . . and for dressing up like Wonder Woman.

88 thoughts on “DragonTrain!”

  1. Oh man, I really wish I could have been there! Hope you had tons of fun! (meaning, of course, enough for the both of us) 😛

  8. ha! i like how scott has on a wearable extras mindcaster tee in one of the pictures. funny video. and finally, new post. we’d beyond run out of things to talk about on the last one

  9. that is incredible beyond all reason, and i think that maureen is quite possibly the most awesome wonder woman in the entire world!!!! love you maureen!!!! and i love the wearing of the midnighters shirt in the pics, yay for you scott. and yeah, this is made of awesome!

  11. to say im disturbed would be an understatement. but it looks like you had lots of fun! so good for you!! 😀 and tell maureen i LUV the boots. totally fawsome. i hope no one got hurt from that flying sword…. o ya and scott, were u SINGING on the train?!?!? uh id say stick to writing buddy. and no more dancing either. but then again u all seem pretty fearless. like ur totally imune to embarrassment. i’ll stop insulting you now. but very funny :D!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  12. o ya and i just finished reading So Yesterday and i was wondering How did Mandy end up with 2 last names??!!?? plz explain.

  13. Ha ha awesome video. I loved the sword trick, although I was scared that someone got hit at the end. I wish I had been there. It looks like so much fun.

  14. and im glad ur back, i was getting really bored with no new posts. yes that is how incredibly lame my life is.

  19. haha That’s pretty funny. But I think it’s so awesome you know Holly Black. I love her books. They’re so dark and gothish… Sad and at the same time reflective.

  22. I love that Theo lost the sword! I love the 5xl shirt! I love that Holly is so PRETTY! And I love how Justine just sidled out of that video and never appeared again! I love that ALIEN!

  24. I love that video. It’s hilarious!

    I just noticed the use of “squeed” in your blog…Do you like PotterCast (I know you like HP, so..?), or has that word just gotten out to the non-PotterCast public?

    Any way it looks really fun, and I hope I can go next time!

  25. speaking of holly black, off i go to reread my newly purchased copy of Ironside, also known as the sum of the awesomeness of Tithe and Valiant is equal to double the awesomness of the parts.

  28. great video, it got pretty intense when the old guy on the motor chair went by, but then the sword went the other way(phew). Funny too!

  29. Oh. My. God.

    The Pacman.

    The pacman is win.

    Reminds me of the time I spent my last $5 on a pacman machine at the Ballarat Train Station wating for the bus back to Melbourne after some really crappy school camp…it was the highlight of the whole thing, really.

    Yeah. Pacman. I love pacman.

  33. Ahhh! what happened to the rest of my comment up there? there was more! *panicks* guess i’ll have to write it again. *sigh*
    ~*~
    lol Wonderwoman! ^_^ i have the first season of that, lol. XD
    looks like u guys had fun!!!

  34. lololol. That is just about all the highlights of dragoncon. The only thing missing is where you said “parents exist so that their kids don’t end up in a YA novel”

  36. ohh Fawsome. you do have the most ahhh-mazing dance moves out there, along with maureen’s beastly skills with theo’s sword. love you all. by the way, why dont you post anything about the making of that film for John Green? even if you didnt show up till the end. e. lockhart did, and you know you want to. anyway..27 days till Extras!! WOOHOO !

  37. Thank you a million times for coming Scott! It was so great to meet you, Maureen and Justine and to see Holly and Cassie again. We had such a great time and were so glad to have y’all on panels!

    Can’t wait for Extras! Just saw the t-shirts and that is awesome!

    Hope you guys will think about coming again next year!

  38. HAHAHA! If only you had lost the bet….. I wish I could have gone. THough my being in NH and DragonCon being in Atlanta it really couldnt of happened, exspecially with school and all. Can’t wait for the extra clips.

  41. this makes me really mad. I WAS IN ATLANTA THE SAME TIME AS SCOTT AND FORGOT ABOUT THE WHOLE THING!

  45. “There but for the grace of God” indeed…(though did you see the duct-tape lingerie lady? That’s what I get for walking back from the HP read-along through the Marriot at 1:00 AM…)

    Next time someone loses a bet, the conditions should include anime cosplay. It’s a surefire way to get glomped. (Trust me.)

    Thank you so much for coming, Scott! It was fantastic to meet you, if only for an hour. Hope we haven’t scared you off too terribly. 🙂

  47. Anyone know what the bet was??? And what would Scott have to do if he lost it??? Hmmmm

    Maggie: I think that they are going to start shooting for the cast in winter of 2007. That’s why it doesn’t say cast or anything like that. And then, the movie would MAYBE come out in 2009 because all of the special effects they have to do. Believe me with the special effects, it takes for EVER!! (Plus when they are shooting the movie it takes about three months)

    Kadie-Wa

  49. Okay, I wanna ask this with out getting made fun of…

    Who is Maureen? I see her in alot of thing sthat Scott posts, but I don’t really know who she really is?? Help?

    Kadie-Wa

  50. I was wondering the same thing. never heard of her.
    LOVE the pacman!!!!!!!!:P
    LOVE wonderwoman!!!!!
    LOVE the Midnighters shirt Scott-la!!!!!!
    (and was that a real sword?!?!?!?! because i wouldn’t wan’t to be within a mile of them!

  51. Girl at sea, Devilish, 13 lttle blue envolpes,and The Bermudez Triangle,all are books she wrote. If you click on her name in the post it tells you more though.

  56. UGGHHH!! I can’t stand my math teacher!! He gave us those stupid (no offence) suduko things to do, with out even explaining how to do them. I’ve been doing it for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT. And I can’t get it. I’ve asked my parents, friends, and other teachers, and NO ONE can get it!! I’m SO MAD!! So, now I’m probably going to loose points on an assinment he didn’t even explain. UHHHH!!! Does anyone else think that’s SOOOOO unfair?!?!

  60. Oh, and Scott. Congrats on Peeps for winning one of Texas’ many literary awards. I have no idea which one, but I saw it in one of the book lists.. Right next to ‘Burned’ by Ellen Hopkins (VERY good book also)! And my library has nice hardcover copies of the Uglies Trilogy. Also, I was still kinda freaked when, on the back of ‘The Last Days’ where your bio was… It said Midnighters was a sequence, not a trilogy. Yeeha.

    Love,
    Lena

  61. REALLY?!?!?!?!? MIDNIGHTERS IS A SEQUENCE!?!?!?! THAT MEANS HES WRITING MORE RIGHT?!?!?!?!?! YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!
    Oh, and Kadie-wa…whats with the whole

    Kadie-wa

    Thing? Explain. but even though i have no idea what it means…im gonna start doin it to!!!

    Liz-la

  62. Oh, and Sudoku ROCKS BY THE WAY!!!
    today we had to like talk about one of the things we dislike the most in language(practice for public speaking). so i talked about my frizzy hair. and now all the guys in my class are calling me Frizzy Lizzy. and its only the second day. they are stupid!

  66. Yes, Bri-La, it really DOES SUCK!! But he was like, since none of you completed it…I can’t count it on your grade, now can I? And he was all mad and his eye was all twichy…blech. Scary.

    Lizzy-Wa…it’s my signature! 😉

    Kadie-Wa

  68. spooky-making. my uncle has a twitchy eye. and his name is Nelson. kind of wierd. i hate teachers who dont explain stuffs.

    Lizzy-wa

  69. hey ppl. does anyone hav meebo?? if u do u should check out my chatroom i made. its called “Uglies Only”. u can chat about scott and his books (behind his back hehehe…) jk. i would never say anything bad about u scott.

  71. OHMIGOSH! i started school yesterday and i haven’t even been on the computer at all since then!

    well, in reference to the video:
    ~LOVE the boots!
    ~Theo is the new Anakin
    ~Scott needs a record deal after that performance!
    ~and he should be on dancing with the stars. if he was on it, i’d actually watch the show!
    ~random character texting on their cell…hmmm…
    ~good thing i don’t eat at mcdonald’s!
    ***and last but not least***
    ~HUZZAH FOR PIRATE NERDFIGHTERS!

    i once spent 45 minutes on a “medium” (level of difficulty) sudoku…and still didn’t finish. give me a word search and i’ll finish in 10 or 15, but sudoku? you lost me.

  72. things i forgot about school:

    i have to sit next to a complete idiot in global studies…he’s funny, but he talks a lot and i don’t want my grade going down because of him!

    my math teacher is duller than a rock. he laughs at his own jokes, but they aren’t funny, so no one else does, and he seems to have been a philosophy minor in college because he asks the oddest questions!

    i have to go from intensive biology, on the 1st floor of my school, all the way to studio art, on the 4th floor, in 3 minutes! yes, that’s how long we have between classes, THREE MINUTES!

  73. The twichy eye bugs me too. But the WORST part is that I have this seventh grade guy taht sits behind me, and he talks to himself. No kidding. Yesterday, he started talking to his calculater, and then today he got mad at his ERASOR. I mean, he is so weird.

    Kadie-Wa

  74. taylor: We only have 4 minutes, and i have to walk back and forth between the 6th grade wing, 7 grade wing, and 8th grade wing. and, if I gotta go to the bathroom or somthing, I can’t!! Any one else have that???

    Kadie-Wa

  76. We have a minute and a half to get to our next class. its all on one floor. i go from one end of the school, all the way to the other side, then all the way back to the front portables without air conditioning, and then back the the opposite side of the school. all in a minute and a half.
    Life stinks.
    Sudoku is a snap for me! i can do like those highest level ones in like under seven minutes!
    Dess i’m tellin ya.

    Lizzy-wa 😛

  77. Oh, so today i found out that like every girl in my class (no boys. stupid people) was either just starting Specials, or reading Peeps because they were done with Specials. So then i was like: “oh isnt Scott Westerfeld like THE best author in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!??!?!?” and they were like: “yeah, i REALLY like his books!!!” so then i was like: there are only 2207913 seconds left until EXTRAS comes out!!!!!!” and then they were like:”And that is…” and i was like: “only the 4th UGLIES BOOK!!!!!!” and they were like “oooooohhhhhhh.” and i was like:”you guys are hopeless”
    So that was pretty much my day.

    Lizzy-wa 😛

  80. Hahaha, my friends and i are going to a scifi convention in October.
    It isn’t gonna be HALF as cool as this, but still is gonna be kickass, hopefully.

    This is freaking awesome.
    You guys are my hereos.

  81. Thank you so much for being at Dragon*Con. I really enjoyed the “Blood & Fur” panel and other YA Lit events. Having authors come down really helps to balance the con experience (adds a little cerebral squee to the general fan hysteria). Thanks again!

  83. see?! VERY different. theres the little – thingy at the beginning. and then im like OUT! and then im like 😛

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

  87. Scott and Gang,

    We were there with you! (Shy Julia in the front row and her mom) Your talk was wonderful and very inspiring listening to all of your stories. My daughter and I enjoyed it enormously although at 14 she was far too cool to express it. I want to thank you for the autograph you gave her at the talk and for making and posting the movie on your site. I forgot my camera and was very disappointed at not being able to take photos of all the wonderful costumes. Julia told me the whole story about the Princess Leia outfit and after seeing a few at the convention I can understand why Maureen made the change. It was the most fun I’ve had in years and I thank you again for being the reason we made the long trip.
    Sincerely,
    Barbara

  88. Alas poor Hellaware. Unfortunately enough I live there. That’s okay I agree. A reader from Hellaware who agrees! HAHA Hooray!

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