Singapore At Large: Sweet, Sweet Candy

Behold.  Behold a jar.  Behold a jar of candy.  Behold a jar of candy from STGCC.  Behold a jar of candy from STGCC that tastes like apple.

That is all.

Singapore at Large: Miss Piggy

We've spent the morning in a programming pow wow. Panels, screenings, cosplay, etc. It's lunch time now, and we've got food from Bergs: Gourmet Burgers.

Their burgers include the Miss Piggy, Kiwi Stud, Budgie Smuggler, Good Falla, Alamack, Crikey Too, Mumbo Jumbo, and the Brekky Berg.

Learn more at bergsburgers.com.

Singapore At Large: Spend Thursday Night With Us

One of the things we aim to do when traveling is meeting up with local fans.  Much of our time in Singapore is being spent meeting with artists, partners, and exhibitors, but Mike and I very much wanted to be sure we took a night and reserved it for you.  He, I, and the STGCC team here in Singapore will be out at Loof (331 North Bridge Road, #03-07 Odeon Towers) from 8:30 to 10 PM on Thursday.

This is one of Mike's last nights here, and I believe it's also when X-Men: First Class comes out -- so you may already be planning on not being at home come Thursday night.  So, if you're seeing First Class or are generally out and about, make Loof part of your Thursday night.

We're happy to talk about STGCC thus far, very much want to hear what you're watching and reading, and we'll also be taking questions about Star Wars Celebration VI.

Oh, and I brought a backpack of C2E2 comics and pins from the USA that I really don't want to haul on the flight back.  Come by on Thursday, talk to me about Doctor Who or mention January Jones to Mike, and get a comic until my backpack needs a new reason for living (being stuffed full of TWG Tea).
See you Thursday!

Singapore At Large: Once Upon A Milkshake

It's late.  I should be asleep.  Instead, I'm still knocking out some work.  But, taking a breather, here are a few more pictures from today.  Here are some of the signs, stores, and things that caught my eye.  It's mainly moderately funny names, with some toys mixed in, plus a dinosaur and a kitty cat.

Check out my Monday in pictures...

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Singapore At Large: Our Home Away From Home

Do you work for Reed Exhibitons in the US? Maybe this post will interest you. But if you're not Greg, Lance, Kim, Liz, Heels, Heise, Larry, Pete, Fitch, Brian, Jackie, Ed, Butler, or Gallo, you can move along. He's an inside look at our Singapore office's -- umm -- office. You'll get a glimpse at Mike and my set up down here as well as the general tone of the place. Here's a spoiler: there are desks. 

Check out the Reed Singapore office...

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Singapore At Large: Narita Vending Machines

We spent the briefest time in Narita Airport before landing in Singapore. Here are a few stupid pictures of the vending machines and local sights.  Up first is Immigration Dog.  If I'm reading the sign correctly, he's Japan's adorable fuzzy, four-legged mascot who meets travelers as soon as their feet tough Nippon.  In a chipper, genki voice, he advises folks to fill out their immigration forms or else he'll fuck them up.  He may be cute, but he'll maul you to death at the customs desk if your form isn't correct, organized, and in blue or black ink. Want to see the full gallery?  Click here!

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Singapore At Large: Gong Cha

Gong Cha is to bubble tea what Shake Shack is to burgers. People line up stupid long for a Gong Cha drink, or so I'm told. I'm getting the roasted melon milk tea. Mike's not man enough for bubble tea.

Gong Cha's outside Scape, a mall that's like NYC's Elizabeth Street Center injected with a fatal strain of kawaii. Play Imaginative and AKB48 both have shops here, AKB48 performs monthly, and there are lolita, toy, and rad skater shops aplenty. Also an obscene count of ice cream and crepe joints.

And a Long John Silver's.

We walked about, did a meeting with PI over milkshakes, chatted with the AKB girls about their time in NYC (those clever cats even published a book), and then we wandered about for a bit more, checking out Harris Plannerds - quite possibly the best geek shop on the planet.

We're sleepy, but the day's not over yet. Next, we're doing dinner with Paul. We're going to Botak Jones, an "authentic American" restaurant. We're not expecting it to be good.

PS: Mike just fell asleep.

Singapore At Large: Mike Will Eat It

Lunch with Team Singapore. Mel's taking considerable joy ordering for Mike at a dim sum place. All kinds of dumplings and things. She's feeding him coffee beef right now.

Me? I'm a vegetarian. I've got an out. I'm enjoying some gluten, mushrooms, and noodles.

Mike, be a man and eat the fish roe.

Singapore At Large: Rubicon

We're here! Mike and I now stand just beyond Reed Singapore's office door. We're earlier than HL, but we'll soon be inside. And, once we're in, we'll be eating all their sweets, drinking all their tea, and taking wonky pictures for the blog.

Expect a gallery of boring office photos later today!

Singapore At Large: 2 AM

This is Singapore at 2 AM. Quite fetching, no? @armstrongmike and I've arrived, and we're on our way to our hotel - to try to catch some Zs before we wow the Reed Singapore office at 8 AM with our stubble and American accents.

Mike did The Company Man on the flight, while I did Green Hornet.

Of course, while it's black outside and any sensible person should be tucked into their bed, I've been tweeting with Singaporean bloggers @herebegeeks and @syzzlyn since I stepped foot of the plane. (1) You should be asleep. (2) You weren't kidding about the heat.

It's as hot as Travis Allen down here.

Singapore At Large: Geronimo, Part 2

Here we go again. After, I don't know, 15 hours in the air, we've landed in Narita. We had just enough time to run through a duty free shop before we had to get in line for our flight to Singapore. The shop had green tea kitkats, JFA jerseys, and magazines with girls with strawberries on their undies.

It's hot here. Don't know if it's to conserve power in the wake of the earthquake or generally because of "cool biz", but it's yucky, sweaty, and damp.

That's what they call a good day in Singapore. Seriously. @armstrongmike checked the temperature in Singapore right now. 97 degrees.

Looking at the flight here, Mike burned through most of his podcasts, while I learned I don't like USA's Fairly Legal. Mike had some red wine with his dinner, and I had a seaweed patty for breakfast. Neither were all too enjoyable. Also, as we were flying through the tail end of a typhoon, my glasses were knocked off my head and I spent the next three hours trying to find them. They ended up three rows ahead.

Finally, this probably won't post until we touch down in Singapore. Our Blackberries are having trouble connecting to NTT Docomo here in Tokyo. This is also why @armstrongmike and I haven't tweeted. I had my inaugural tweet of Japan all prepared, too.

Cannot wait to be back in Starhub's loving embrace.

Singapore At Large: Geronimo

It's a little after 1 PM. We're boarding at JFK. Come 1 AM on Monday, we'll be touching down in Changi Airport in Singapore. What's going to power us these next 307 hours in the air?

@armstrongmike's iPod has four WTFs, five Planet Moneys, four This American Lifes, and one Nerdist. He's also got two books.

I've got 30 episodes of WTF and Le Show along with a DS loaded with Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth and a manuscript that needs revising.

We'll both go insane an hour and a half into the trip.

HL, Mel, Rita, Robin, and everyone in Singapore, can't wait to see ya!

Caturday

Are you the cutest kitten ever?

I think you are.

I'm Hungry Now

Just got an updated headshot -- image, rather -- of our pal C.B. Cebulski.  Dig it...

Congratulations! You're Not Illiterate!

@armstrongmike and I are heading out to Singapore tomorrow.  Yup, we're leaving at noon on Saturday and rolling into that little island of love at about 1 AM on Monday.  What'll we be up to all those hours in the air?  Mike's got a stack of New York Times that he'll be plowing through, while I printed out a draft of my Great American (Vampire) Novel, which I'll be revising on the flight.  Fun stuff.

But, this post isn't about our flight.  No, that'll come later.  Now, as we're packing for Singapore, I need your help.  See, Mike and I want to land with an assortment of confusing T-Shirts to baffle the locals.  As tshirthell.com is blocked from the office, I'm checking out snorgtees.com.  Here are some of the contenders.  Which do you think will make Reed's Singapore office scratch their heads the most?

Any winners?

BEA At Large: Best Booth Ever

This is the Baker & Taylor booth. Notice anything suspect? Notice anything odd? Notice anything awesome?

It's a giant cat! The Baker & Taylor booth is crawling with oversized felines.

Fun fact: If house cats were really this size, they'd tear out our jugulars and eat our faces off.

BEA At Large: N.D. Wilson Will Steal Your TV

Beatrice.com's Ron Hogan interviews Lisa McMann (author of The Unwanteds), N.D. Wilson (The Ashtown Burials), and Matthew Kirby (Icefall) on BEA's Middle-Grade Buzz Fantasy Authors roundtable.

Some very cool conversation on male vs. female readers. Changing cover designs to appeal to boys vs. girls? Using initials vs. an author's name to leave their gender ambiguous? Would you ever steal a TV from a movie star's house?

"Middle-Grade" I presumed meant "Not-Good, But Not-Too-Bad". That's not the case. It's what's after Young Adult. Right? Unrelevant to the conversation, I thought "Off-License" liquor shops in London were unlicensed. Also not the case.

Back to the panel. Icefall may be my BEA Book of The Show. Really? Yes, really. Not Loving Sex: The Book of Joy and Passion. Not I Love You, Santa Bear. Not Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.

Icefall.

Debut author Matthew Kirby's Icefall will be out this October. The cover's simple streaks of white and blue -- ice -- with a kid near the bottom, cracking through this wall with a rather large hammer. Typographically, the title's rendered in a square-ish, serif-y font that looks like Copperplate's expensive callgirl friend. The "f" in "Icefall" is cleverly placed beneath the rest of the script.

Is it my Book of The Show because of its cover alone? Not. If I based this award on the cover, Loving Sex would probably win. So, what's it about -- and why do I deem it my BOS?

Steampunk Vikings.

BEA At Large: Here's Jane!

Jane Lynch's book - Happy Accidents - is coming this fall. We've got standing room only for her at BEA's Uptown Stage. Wish she was in Glee's season finale, as her absence was sorely felt.

While I'm normally all for shows that do a New York episode, Glee's finale was an hour of plotless NYC porn. Bubbly, neon, and without much substance, I was waiting and waiting for Jane Lynch's vitriol to cut through the fluff. Alas.

BEA At Large: Bubbling Rage

While I'm on the Midtown Stage with YA authors and gardeners, Kim's up at the Uptown Stage with a different kind of speaker. Right now, she's prepping for Jane Lynch. Yeah, Glee's Jane Lynch.

Kim's got to introduce Jane in a bit, and here's her script. It begins...

"Brian Stephenson doesn't like Glee. He also hates brunch, puppies, and - we fear - is a Communist."

Watch This Trailer

Cool, no?

You know what this is, right?

It's Torchwood.  A spin-off of Doctor Who.  That's right, non-nerds, you just watched some Doctor Who and liked it.  See, once upon a time, Russell T Davies was the show runner for the good Doctor.  During this time, he launched a spin-off, a darker, sexier show set in the same universe.  He called it Torchwood.  An anagram for "Doctor Who", it was like X-Files meets... I dunno.  Anyway, Torchwood got popular, and RTD killed off some of the characters.  Torchwood then got more popular, and RTD killed off more of the characters. And, when it hit prime time, he axed almost all the characters.  And, now, here we are.  Russell T Davies has moved to the US of A, and Torchwood is a go for Season Four.  We've got two central characters left, and American TV network Starz pumping in the dough.

Torchwood.  Watch it.  You'll like it.

BEA At Large: #EggplantParmDay

100 years of L. Ron Hubbard. It's gone by so fast. So has today's schedule. My stage has wrapped. Liz's stage has wrapped. I'm over at Kim's stage now, which is still going on -- Steve Perry and Joel Klein.

Tomorrow's BEA's last day and, I presume, busiest day. At least for us. Or, really, for Kim. She's got Jane Lynch speaking and signing tomorrow morning. I believe folks are lining up now.

PS: After crowdsourcing dinner, I'm doing eggplant parm.

PPS: I know I already mentioned the eggplant parm thing, but I'm really looking forward to it. You know, if we tried really hard, we could make today Eggplant Parm Day. Join me in some breaded eggplant for dinner and tell the world with hashtags #eggplantparmday and #crowdsourcingdinner!

PPPS: Yeah, I know, there'll be two tweets.

BEA At Large: The Green Fairy

Look! The Green, Red, and Blue Fairies! This is a little BEA exclusive at the Zenescope booth. The last post kinda didn't really end as Mr. Fitch stopped by to show off the comic and chat about Oprah. Really, there's some Oprah champagne toast going on soon. Will he be there? Absolutely. Will I be there? Probably not.

But in equally exciting news, after crowd-sourcing dinner, I'm having eggplant parm.

PS: Nothing in this post is a clue about Celebration VI.

BEA At Large: YArrrrr!

Every YA panel at BEA's been packed. Melissa de la Cruz, Ellen Hopkins, and Melissa Marr are chatting now about the process of writing YA fiction. Some pearl-shaped wisdom...

"When I was in school, I read very inappropriate books."

"I've you've got extra money, I'd love some."

"Teens don't go through midlife crises. Thankfully."

"I always want to lie and say I have a social media plan."

"What if science is dying and magic is coming back?"

"There's a whole YA for adults market."

"There are several Houston bloggers in the audience today."

Moar NYCC Guests!

See that? Those are folks standing around BEA's Midtown Stage. These crowds, though? They're teeny next to NYCC's. NYCC's... Oh, they're scary.

Robert Kirkman, Adam Hughes, and Mike Mignola will be behind some of our crowds, and today we're proud to reveal Tim Sale, Michael Golden, Mark Texeira, Renee Witterstaetter, Steve Scott, Rodney Ramos, Reilly Brown, Paolo Rivera, and Fred Van Lente will also adding to the congestion.

What's next in our bag of tricks? Oh boy. Kim dun good.

BEA At Large: Swoon

Ron Hogan - Shelf Awareness's SF reviewer - on stage with Carrie Vaughn, John Scalzi, and Vernor Vinge.

Scalzi's talking about Paul and Storm.

I'm going to get a lemonade.

I've got to remember to send out that Japanese proposal tonight and remember to pay my rent, phone, and internet bills before I leave for Singapore. I had a falafel yesterday for dinner. It would be bad to have a falafel again tonight, right?

BEA At Large: Roz Hates Hammerheads

That's cartoonist Roz Chast on stage talking about how she hates the shape of a hammerhead shark's head. She's at BEA speaking about her new book, What I Hate: From A To Z.

The other head in the photo is Shannon Wheeler's, author of Grandpa Won't Wake Up.

This far on the Midtown Stage? Kristi Diehm, Michelle Hodkin, Heidi MacDonald, Bill Willingham, Scott Stossel, Mark Bowden, Francine Prose...

Thus far on my BlackBerry? Celebration logo emails, Singapore guest photos, Singapore agenda points, Anime guest agreements, and the Bologna Fest P&L.

BEA At Large: A Busy Green Beahive

Day 2 begins with an Authors Breakfast. Of course, before breakfast can be served, books have got to be placed. And that's where us leprechauns come in. We're unpacking books, stacking books, and - when the Javits isn't looking - pushing heavy carts of books. On the menu we've got Mindy Kaling, Diane Keaton, and Charlaine Harris. Yum.

"Beahive". See what I did there?

VI

The Mrs. is having a bit of emergency dental surgery right now. Yup, she's been in a lot of pain as of late, and after meeting with her dentist today, they scheduled her to come in tonight. Which is right now.

They've got to do something with her gums. Not all too clear on the specifics other than it's expensive. She's undergoing the operation right now, and I'm in the waiting room. How I Met Your Mother is on TV. It's the one where...

Hey...

What...

Wait...

StarWarsCelebration.com's been updated! It's a giant "VI"! Great Anakin's Ghost, this has something to do with Celebration VI! Something's coming... Something's coming soon... But what? Dunno. Or I can't say. Either way, while emergency dental surgery is no fun, it's given me something more to write than "Star Wars Celebration VI news is coming soon".

I wish I could say more, but all I can reveal is Celebration VI will not be coming to Albany, NY -- despite my incessant pleas.

BEA At Large: The Phantom Windowsill of Tuesday

Well, that was fun. Just got out of BEA Day 1. Did you enjoy our posts? Updates around Batman cutouts, dinosaur books, and pirates at the L. Ron Hubbard booth? Hey, wait, those things weren't posted...

Yup, that's right. A combination of Javits's cinder blocks and super active bloggers killed any kind of connection for me. There's always Day 2.

Which, I imagine, will be worse than Day 1.

PS: Big thanks to Mighty Mike Negin for stopping by and pointing me to battlepug.com.

PPS: Since there wasn't much in the way of BEA blogging, here's a never-before-seen C2E2 picture. A fan brought it for Garth Ennis. Garth thanked him but, suspect of the brews, gave em to the staff. We drank them without so much as raising an eyebrow.

BEA At Large: From Above

The Halo Encyclopeia maybe doesn't capture BookExpo America as a whole. He's a little different picture.

BEA At Large: Setting The Scene

BookExpo America. The largest publishing tradeshow in the US. Home to Penguin, DK, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and L. Ron Hubbard's Galaxy Press. The ReedPOP team are out at BEA to help with info booths, sales, conference, and marketing.

The info booth by the main entrance? Khahil. The show floor stages? Liz, Kim, and me. The girl snapping photos? Heise. The dude rushing about in a suit he's never worn before? Fitch.

Lance? Dunno. Probably drinking momosas with Dan Brown. I kid, I kid. He's with R.L. Stine.

Expect a few posts a day from out here at BEA. And, whether you're at BookExpo or not, come by the Village Pourhouse tonight for the CBLDF's Welcome Party.

CBLDF BEA Party on Tuesday Night!

BookExpo America is in town this week.  Expect posts live from the show floor.  And whether you're going to BEA or not, we want to invite you out to a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership party on Tuesday night! Sponsored by IDW, the CBLDF BookExpo Welcome Mixer kicks off Tuesday, May 24 at 7 PM at the Village Pourhouse (366 West 46th Street).

The party is free for all BEA attendees and NYC comics and book professionals and retailers, and the CBLDF will be soliciting memberships and donations to support its current work protecting comics and graphic novels.

Guests appearing at the party include:

Paul Pope (Batman Year 100, Heavy Liquid)
Jessica Abel (Writing Words and Drawing Pictures, La Perdida)
Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy, Agnes Quill)
Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Babysitters Club)
Paul Levitz (75 Years of DC Comics, Legion of Superheroes)
Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle, The Escapist)
Denis Kitchen (Kitchen Sink Press)
Michael Buckley (N.E.R.D.S., The Sisters Grimm)

So, after you get off of work or out of BEA, head to the Village Pourhouse at 366 West 46th.  The CBLDF will be taking over from 7 until 10 PM!

Chicago At Large: The Legend Continues

And here we are. Back at O'Hare. Back at Tortas Frontera. We've got our flight in a little under an hour, but we're risking it. Missing our flight to stand in line for a pepito torta?

Worth it.

Chicago At Large: Sunbaked Dreams

Ah, Day Three of ACEN. Costumes look a little ratty. Attendees look a little sad. The air's spiked with cheetos and bad decisions.

The magic's almost over. Tomorrow, fans return to the real world. @henchling is saying bye to come volunteers. @armstrongmike is haggling over the price of a body pillow. I'm buying some "Maid Cafe" scented candles.

PS: For all the Doctor Who cosplay, there's a surprisingly sparse selection of Doctor Who art (yaoi or not) in Artist Alley.

Chicago At Large: Meet Up At World's End

A big huzzah and kudos to the friends and fans who came out to C2E2's meet up last night at Rock Bottom.  We braved the Apocalypse. We survived.  And, now, oddly, we're all walking around a bit like zombies.

Here's a blurry pic from Peter Norbot of the last brave souls who dined on nachos while the world burned down.

- Why we love LA
- Why we hate LA
- Bull riding
- Dentistry
- C2E2 3.0's secret dates
- Image's secret HQ above a Mexican restaurant
- Pedicabs
- Tiki drinks
- Fancy hats
- Raising a kid to grow up geek
- Cheddar onion butter
- Going to ACEN's rave
- Not going to ACEN's rave

Thanks again!  We don't get out to Chicago enough!

Chicago At Large: Chicago Gold

@armstrongmike, @henchling, and @petertatara are at Rock Bottom. We're in the back. Way in the back.

See the pool table? Go back further. We're all the way at the tables in the rear under the giant screen.

I've been promising nachos all week, and the order's just been places.

Come by. Say hi. We'll be here until Peter gets sleepy.

Chicago At Large: I Scream

There are a lot of lines at ACEN. For the Masquerade. For signings. For registration. And for ice cream.

Here's the line for a little ice cream stand next to the Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds both.

Cosplayers gotta eat.

C2E2 Meet Up Today!

A reminder that Team C2E2 is out at Rock Bottom Brewery (One West Grand Ave) at 8:30 PM tonight! We'll be buying a few pitchers of beer and mountains of nachos!  We'll be the ones in the C2E2 shirts gabbing about kitties, comics, and the Glee season finale!

Hope to see you!

Chicago At Large: ACEN Day Two

Saturday is here. @henchling, @armstrongmike, and I have yet to be Raptured. Instead, we're off seeing the show. Mike's on the show floor and Heise and I are touring the panel rooms, video gaming, and other events spaces. We're catching up with C2E2 staff volunteering at ACEN, too. We're speaking with friends staffing the medical room right now - and here's a blurry photo of a cosplay white board they've got set up. So many Doctors.

Caturday! Gene Kittens!

When Larry's out of the office, the cats will play.

I fully realize my own desk will be covered in yaoi when I return.

Chicago At Large: Island Oasis

Aloha! We're waiting for our friends at FUNimation at Hala Kahiki. What's Hala Kahiki? Besides Khahil's new nickname, it's a tiki bar in rural River Grove, IL.

Not to oversell it, but it's magical in here. It took me a week in Singaporean heat to unwind this much, but a few minutes in this place, and all my stress has melted away.

The picture? This is Hettie. He's the Hawaiian god of salted pretzels and crusty breads. He's watching over us tonight, and you can see @henchling offering him a sacrifice in the photo.

Oh, hey, FUNimation!

Chicago At Large: Cosplayers Crossing The Street

We're in a cab. There are cosplayers. Lots of em. We're taking a break from ACEN for some Gino's East and then some tiki drinks. Then we're coming back for the late night panels...

Hentai-mageddon
Final Fantasy Fornication
Mystery Hentai Theater 3000
Hellsing Hentai After Dark
GunDAM You Is Fine
How Not To Write A Lemon
Hetalia

Chicago At Large: A Moment Of Zen

Green. So, so green. We're at ACEN. Cell service ain't really working, so a good score of images from the con didn't post. Now, though, we're up and in the Hyatt. Just had a call around a cool summer event, I've got a few big emails to reply to, and a tiki bar that's got my name on it.

Or it will.

I've got a Sharpie.

Eh, enjoy the green, and we'll get some cosplay photos for you as soon as we can. @henchling is totally rocking some Totoro jammies, and @armstrongmike makes an amazing Nabeshin.