Where else would it be natural for one lingerie-clad redhead to hold her sword up as an impromptu mirror for another winged beauty to check her make-up? Why the Dawn Look-Alike Contest, of course!

Backstage was a wondrous array of beauty, grace, and camaraderie.  Rose red, leaf green, deep purple, shiny black, and shimmering silver cloth adorned the back room; wings a-flutter, roses a-bloom, fiery red …

Edward Scissorhands resembled a statue as he prepared for his walk across the stage. Optimus Prime climbed into his multi-piece 9-foot costume. Pan danced around in merriment.

The audience was riveted as Daffy proclaimed “I am Duck Dodgers in the Twenty-Fourth-and-a-Half-Century!” But the Masquerade was not fully launched until a brigade of imperial storm troopers and a battalion of rebels marched through the ballroom. C3PO threw off his Jedi cloak in a tantalizing strip tease, and voila, …

Only writers would start a panel with a vocabulary lesson.  Attendees of the panel “Horror in the new Millenium” learned that in modeling, “fessoning” is the art of flipping hair; “apocapee” is when the ‘g’ in song lyrics is dropped (Goin’ to California . . . ); “animorphisis” is the hidden images within a painting that can only be see through rearranging the layout or looking at the picture in the mirror; “crytophasia” is putting together a picture out of …

Winners of the Dawn Look-alike Contest:

From Left: Trisha Buchwald, 3rd place; Milicent Olvey, 1st place; Joseph Michael Linsner; Dawn Emannuelle, honorable mention; Amanda Wolf, 2nd place.

Backstage:

Surrounded by a bevy of flame-tressed Dawn look-alikes, we were impressed by the variety of interpretations of the popular Joseph Michael Linsner character. Dawn, the goddess, the woman, is resplendent in her myriad incarnations in Linsner’s comic series, but in 3-D life, …

The esteemed author Anne McCaffrey made a rare U.S. appearance here at Dragon*Con this year. The prolific writer is the author of the extremely popular Pern books, as well as many other series, including The Ship Who Sang, The Rowan series, the Crystal Singer series, and several other stand alone books for adults and children.

We asked Ms. McCaffrey:

What authors influenced you as a child?

Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Will James. Austin Tappan Wright’s Islandia was very influential when …