Leanna Renee Hieber: Gothic Victorian Fantasy for old souls in a modern world: DragonCon 2012

Casting a spell on my dear Alethea Kontis

Ahhh, DragonCon. It has been a tradition every year, it will be a tradition every year. I know it's a convention I'm guaranteed at least a little quality time with my beloved Alethea Kontis, and my former goth-in-NYC buddy Mari Mancusi too, who I still haven't quite forgiven for moving to Texas. Oh, yeah, and 54,000 other people. One of the most packed sci-fi/fantasy conventions in the country, DragonCon has to be seen to be believed. But here are some pictures anyway. If you saw my schedule I posted, you know I was busy. Author readings, panels, signings, giving out Auror's Tale swag, I was kept busy. But not too busy to represent the House of Malfoy amidst my author activities. My Family in cosplay crime, the LePages, weren't around to accompany my Narcissa Malfoy so I had to send updates home... Like this one:

It's always a bit of a rush to get from one panel to the next, so I was delayed to my Frightening Folklore panel on Friday. As I was dressed as Narcissa Malfoy, Alethea, who was on the panel with me, prepped the crowd in my absence. As I entered, she announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Narcissa Malfoy!" And the crowd hissed and booed. I took a moment at the door, and then I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes in a most distinctive Narcissa look of indignance. I then stared the audience down as I approached the dias to take my seat with the other panelists. This is what resulted. If you don't know what happened in the last book or film of Harry Potter, well, then, what I say to the crowd won't make much sense. But thankfully this is a crowd I didn't have to worry about. We all speak the same language. Geek. Suffice to say, I think Narcissa kicks ass, she's one of my favourite characters in literature and I really love taking her on for moments like this:

Fellow author Delilah S. Dawson was dressed as a Ravenclaw
so of course after the panel we had to duel...

Rachel shows off her tattoo, mine and
Laurel K. Hamilton's author signatures

There were so many highlights, one of them being a dear reader, Rachel, who I see every year at DragonCon, showed me her new tattoo, the signatures of her favourite authors, taken from our book signatures. Mine is on top, followed by Laurel K. Hamilton. That's dedication. I said in a Facebook post that now I've a few folks who have tattoos inspired by some part of my work. Like Voldemort summons his Death Eaters by touching his wand to his Dark Mark, I wish I could press a wand to my tattoos and it would summon my tribe to do something beautifully inspiring and creative.

I had some really great panels this year, one on Victorian Gothic Literature (which is both my great passion and my entire novelistic career), another on Victorian Mysticism, Spiritualism and the Occult. I had an amazing time reconnecting with friends I see here every year and making new ones. I love the chance to speak passionately about the subject matter of my books to like-hearted fans of the genre, there's really nothing better. AND, I GOT INTERVIEWED BY THE DAILY DRAGON! This was a big deal. Enjoy the photos, especially the really convincing Ron Weasley and Loki!