I felt like Bill Murray in the beginning of Lost in Translation only instead of being the tallest person in the crowded hotel elevator, I was the only one not donning wings, latex or a Storm Trooper uniform.

I had just checked in at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency where I’d come to attend Dragon*Con, America’s largest annual popular arts convention for Gamers, Trekkies, and die-hard aficionados of all things sci-fi, horror, and/or fantasy. Admittedly, I …

At Tracy and Laura Hickman’s myth workshop Friday, Tracy began to describe the benefit of outlines to writers by analogy: “If you hold a handful of marbles too tightly, the marbles start popping out.”

The immediate question from one witty fan: “So, the more you tighten your grip, the more marbles will slip through your fingers?”

As if this wasn’t enough to flummox Tracy, at Saturday’s “Waiting to Exhale” panel in the Writer’s Track, Tracy humorously questioned, “Has …

Dragon*Con is a haven for science fiction fans whose favorite genre is television media. According to Marc Berman, a TV analyst for www.mediaweek.com (as reported in Thursday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), “the end of the X-Files [in 2002] signaled the end of a golden era …

While MSNBC reported today that Hurricane Frances is weakening, Dragon*Con is still feeling its effects. The Daily Dragon received random calls all Friday morning asking whether Dragon*Con was being cancelled. 2.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate as meteorologists tried to forecast Frances’s landfall, but, in the tradition of the circus, the Dragon*Con “show” will go on.

Not to say that Dragon*Con will be free entirely from side-effects …

The first six entries in 2004’s Independent Short Film Festival screened Friday in the Hyatt’s Learning Center to a nearly full house:

First up was “Repossessed,” directed by John Coven and starring JoBeth Williams and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer villainess, Juliet Landau. In homage to many old ghost stories, a real estate agent (Williams) shows a young woman (Landau) a house, rumored to be haunted, offered at a suspiciously low price.

Don’t miss artist Bryan Jones’s panel on the art of making chain mail in the art track Friday at 7:00 p.m.  This is the third year Jones has presented this panel.  For the last two years, “it’s been standing room only,” Jones said, recommending that hopeful mail smiths come early.

Some convention humor:

Bill Moseley, best known for his movie/acting careers, made an appearance at Dragon*Con.  He said, “I was in a brutal fight scene, and I got distracted because I realized that I had a hole in my pants, and was worried about things being seen on film.”

He was in many …

In this panel we were to have two guest speakers: Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion.  Sadly, Adam couldn’t make it, and sent his regrets.  Nathan played “Caleb,” “the creepy priest” who put out Xander’s eye, and fought Buffy; he had a short-lived roll in …

So, it’s my first day on the job at the Daily Dragon. My director tells me to go out and interview various attendees and see how they’re enjoying the nighttime scene at D*C. As it’s my first time really getting to experience such things, I’ve tried to have a little fun and …