Have you ever had too much of a good thing? I never used to believe I could because things always somehow managed to stay fresh.  But, in the last couple of years, it felt a bit of a stretch to attend conventions without a slight “been there/seen that” feeling. It got to the point where I nearly reconsidered attending DragonCon this year after a lackluster Motor City Comicon back in May. Kinda just felt like I’d been there and seen that. This trip, however, was exactly what I needed. My honorable adopted little brother and his husband joined me and I introduced them to the magic I’d started to take for granted. I’m grinning right now because we had an absolute blast!

Now, as I recall in Part 1, I left you with a short list of things I promised to cover. I thought about admitting to you it was all a lie, then realized it would only be to annoy one person. I have more than one reader. That second reader might be annoyed and then I’d have lost my entire audience, so let me get to it!

I spent Saturday at the Walk of Fame gathering a few signatures, the first of which was from Anthony Michael Hall. Remember him from 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club? I actually apologized to him for making him sign my Breakfast Club poster because I knew he was handed quite a bit of Breakfast Club memorabilia to sign. The man has done a huge body of work since his was a kid, so I felt a little bad about it. Fortunately, Anthony Michael Hall was incredibly gracious. He also noticed I was an author. How? Because I had a t-shirt on with the Superman insignia on it, only it read “AUTHOR” instead of the “S.” He asked what I wrote and I told him. He then mentioned that he has a production company and did I have a card? “For you, Anthony Michael Hall, I have a card.” So I slipped it to him. And yes, he enjoyed it. Hell, he loved and raved about it.

It’s a very professional looking card.

Gillian Anderson and Kage Alan.

Moving along, Gillian Anderson was a unique addition to the convention and I was really, really looking forward to meeting her! Getting a signature was a bit deceptive, though. She’d sign something of yours for $60 (pre-paid), but if you wanted it personalized, you paid her an additional $20 when you finally got up to her table. Alrighty then. I love it when someone seems to forget we’re kinda still climbing out of a recession. Personally–and correct me if I’m wrong–if you’re already paying for a photo, you ought to get a discount on the signature. Am just sayin’.

I also attended a panel Gillian Anderson was on. Allow me to say that she is a terrific actress, phenomenal even. As a public speaker? Not so impressive and that’s being polite. The ballroom was about half full and after ten minutes, people started leaving. Why? Let’s just say that I used to torment my friend James Taylor Jr. by keeping count of how many times he said the word “uh” on the air during his radio show. I lost count with Ms. Anderson after the first 5 minutes. She started seriously hemorrhaging fans after fifteen minutes and that’s really a shame because the best part of the panel happened during the very last couple of minutes when asked to tell us about the strangest thing a fan has said to her. The answer was priceless!

What else? Oh, yes. Stephen Yeun from The Walking Dead. I maintain I was better and that’s all I’m saying.

Now, Bruce Boxleitner. For a wonderful actor who I grew up watching in Tron and then totally appreciating in Babylon 5, the man has a major limp handshake. Not the warmest person in the world either. It may have just been an off day for him, but I’ll say I was a bit underwhelmed. And it’s not because I think people are going to be larger than life. Celebrities who I’ve met are a bunch that seem to come in three types; uncomfortable and standoffish, stiff and professional, and warm and gracious. He just happened to be stiff and professional, exceedingly so for someone so seasoned.

Finally, I took part in my third and final panel discussion Saturday night, a continuation from the previous night’s GLBT Lit discussion. The lovely Kiernan Kelly put this one together and the immortal T.C. Blue agreed to sit next to me. She always blesses me like that…or says “gesundheit.” Most memorable moment of the evening for me? There was a young lady in the panel audience who expressed her displeasure with Japanese Yaoi because one of the men was always feminine acting when it came to sex. This actually turned into a protracted discussion topic and I finally piped up with my take on it. “I’ll simplify this. It’s watching two hot Asian men having sex. Where exactly can you go wrong with that?” You really can’t. End of conversation.

Me and my honorable adopted little brother.

So there you have it. That’s all the gossip unfit to print about the celebrities. And the rest? Well, I spent the best parts of those days with my honorable adopted little brother and his husband. Both were tremendous fun and my thanx to them for all the dinner invites and for dragging me out when I’d otherwise have stayed in my room writing the next book…or looking at internet porn. Oh, and little brother and I had custom fangs made! He got the classic look and I chose the True Blood ones. Naturally, this means I now have to watch the damn show. Ah, gay vampires. We really suck!

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Kage Alan is  the Johnny Carson watching, Tiffany listening author of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Sexual Orientation,” “Andy Stevenson Vs. the Lord of the Loins” and the first book in a separate series, “Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell.” He is ecstatic that his husband his home for a couple of days, but shaking his fist at fate since his mother-in-law arrives in the afternoon. This means she once again suspects he may try to have sex with her son and she must somehow block this from happening. Well, she didn’t.