Fanfest 2007: Day One

Got to Iceland in the early hours of the morning to a hotel room that wasn’t ready, so I sat around in the restaurant at the Grand writing the next installments of Nature Vraie. Once that was all set (upgraded room too, wheee), I crashed for a couple of hours and set my Nintendo DS’s alarm to wake me up at 1330h so I could sneak in some lunch before going to the FF Venue.

Finally made my way to the Venue (can never get the name right so I’m not even going to try) after a quick bite to eat, got myself signed in and met up with my fellow MC pilots after running into a few CCP folks. The new venue’s a bit more spaced out, with areas on different floors. It’s a bit tougher than last year to “take it all in” at once, but the organization makes a lot of sense given the increase in people.

Lots of socializing ensued, but I managed to get in on Valerie Massey’s Creating a Fansite lecture, and Tony Gonzales’ lecture about the upcoming EVE novel. The Fansite lecture was pretty basic, but covered some initial points that are pretty important for folks who might be considering starting a fansite and getting that fansite integrated into EVE Online’s official list. It was a bit quick, but then the audience for it would be limited of course.

Tony Gonzales has been involved in the EVE prime fiction since forever, and is responsible for so much backstory it’s not even funny. The man is, in a word, awesome. I met him last year and was totally take aback by his candor and intelligence, and his approach to his work. He’s someone that I try to aspire to be as I write Nature Vraie. To see him read a chapter from the upcoming novel (due to be released June 19th, if I remember what he said correctly) was chilling and amazing. This is going to be a must buy for anyone interested in EVE’s fiction, whether they play the game or not.

The weather’s been interesting. It started out cool but relatively calm, then later ended up bleak and windy as hell, including some freezing rain. Pretty Canada-like all around, except for the insane wind. The five minute walk between the hotels and the Venue feels a lot longer because of that. Good thing I brought lots of layers.

Day 1’s usually the meet and greet day, and it served its purpose wonderfully. The main meat of things comes in the next couple of days, since some people were still flying in late in the day. Stay tuned for more information, and as always check my Flickr site for my ongoing pictures from the event.

Side note: I’ve also opened up the comments somewhat on this site, you don’t have to register fully in order to post just provide a name and valid email along with a comment.