Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

  • Novels
    • Memory of Dragons
    • Zeus Is Dead
      • Praise for Zeus Is Dead
    • Zeus Is Undead
    • The New Aeneid Cycle
      • A SHADOW IN THE FLAMES
      • A MEMORY IN THE BLACK
      • A DRAGON AT THE GATE
    • MYTHED CONNECTIONS
    • Four Fantastical Ways to Lose Your Fingers
      • Get it FREE!
  • Geek Notes Blog
    • Blog Archive
    • Farscape Re-Watch
    • Michael Reads Percy Jackson
  • Bio
  • Contact
  • Press

Scenes From a Norwescon

April 17, 2017 By Michael G. Munz 3 Comments

It’s been almost a week since I got a Twin Peaks re-watch post up here. They’ll resume shortly. It’s just that since last Thursday I was busy selling books and communing with other geeks at the 40th annual Seattle sci-fi & fantasy con known as Norwescon! I had a great time, sold some books, hung out with fellow authors Tiffany Pitts, Camela Thompson, and Janine Southard, went to a few panels, and almost made it to the final round in a gigantic Cards Against Humanity tournament.

I also took a lot of pictures! While you wait for the next Twin Peaks post, please enjoy a slice of my experience, captured through my less-than-perfect phone camera!

See? My MINI Cooper has as much cargo room as a Lincoln Navigator!#NotReally#WholeCarCouldFitInNavigator pic.twitter.com/7zRmt22nak

— Michael G. Munz (@TheWriteMunz) April 13, 2017

Tiffany Pitts and Camela Thompson after we’d just gotten our Thursday table set up in Writer’s Row

Me on my end of the table. Not visible, my “Porkins wasn’t ‘alright'” t-shirt.

Cosplayers everywhere!

Also everywhere, dogs in carts! (Seriously, I hadn’t realized how many dogs would be there.)

Some were even in costume. It’s R2-D-dog!

Fantastic attention to detail. “How can you have a yellow alert in spacedock?”

Starting on Friday, we were lucky enough to be moved into the Dealer Room, since there was a booth opening and we had three people at our smaller, isolated, un-powered hallway table.

One of the biggest attractions at our table was this little guy that Tiffany brought. He held free Starburst for passersby. Those X-Wings are crayons (also made by Tiffany).

This vendor (Firefox Fashions) was directly across from us. Everything there looked amazing.

Friday I also came as Walter White/Heisenberg. (The milkshake isn’t part of the cosplay. I just wanted a milkshake.)

Steampunk Han & Leia!

Ran into this guy at the Jack-in-the-Box across the street (where I was still dressed as Walter White). Sorry for the blurry pic.

Lana from Archer

King Triton and Ursula from The Little Mermaid. These two had a different costume for each day.

Poor Daleks. Can’t go upstairs to the Evergreen Rooms. (Note the “peacebonding” on the red one.)

Day 3 (Saturday): Dressed in my Imperial Naval Officer cosplay. Much more comfortable boots this time.

He’d apparently had a late night of bad decisions.

Fairy godmothers, with coffee. So many people wanted a picture of these three that they didn’t know where to look.

Still more great attention to detail.

He checked out. Not a ghost. (Damn, I look tired, huh? All that extroversion is exhausting!)

An excellent Klingon.

Dude! You need to put a leash on that thing!

Pyramid Head!
She accidentally bumped into someone a few moments later. Not great visibility in that thing, but it looked great!

Zeus Is Dead did amazing sales. People kept telling me the title and the cover pulled them in. (That’s a chocolate Serenity in front there. Also made by Tiffany, we were giving them away with a book purchase.)

I had a great time, but after 4 straight days of stepping out of my comfort zone and interacting with so many people, I came home Sunday evening and pretty much collapsed! 😀

Note that I’ve still got a few paperback copies of Zeus Is Dead and The New Aeneid Cycle. Want to buy an autographed copy? Let me know via the contact page!

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Books, Featured, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Camela Thompson, convention, cosplay, Fantasy, Geek Interest, Norwescon, Science Fiction, Tiffany Pitts

My First Cosplay: Part 3 – At the Con

March 29, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

The third and final part of a series of posts about my first cosplay experience. Follow the links if you missed part one or part two…​

So I had my Imperial Naval Officer costume assembled. With Emerald City Comic Con fast approaching, I had a place to wear it. Yet before I could get there in all my newfound glory, I had to figure out how to deal with the one thing I’d more or less forgotten about when starting this whole endeavor:

Storage.

As a guy who regularly wears pants (and in cooler months, a coat) with all of the pockets I need, it was something I never had to think about before. But as I mentioned in part 2, the pants for this cosplay had no pockets. Wearing my usual coat around would defeat the purpose of cosplay. So where was I going to put my wallet? My keys? A snack that I’ll surely want at some point while wandering through a convention hall filled with people?

I suddenly realized what those little toaster droids running around Imperial facilities are. Mobile pocket droids! (I mean, sure, they also deliver fresh Pop Tarts to the loyal servants of the Empire, but I’m sure officers must have a few of those suckers follow them around holding their stuff, right?) Not being blessed with such a droid, I went with a less high-tech solution.

Star Wars Imperial Toaster Droid

I bet the admirals get TWO of these!

First, for things like cash, driver’s license, ATM card, etc, I turned to a solution that I’d already had in my closet from days of international travel. I took a flat pouch designed to be worn around the neck, beneath clothing, and slid it in between the flaps of the jacket. The high collar hid the neck strap, and I used some velcro inside to affix it right at the center of my chest. Now if I needed cash (or my driver’s license, God forbid, got pulled over while driving to the con in costume), I just undid one snap and slipped my hand inside. Plus it was flat enough to where it didn’t show on the outside of the jacket.

Originally designed for defeating wallet thieves during travel.

As for the keys and a snack, the hat turned out to be a treasure trove of discreet storage space. Those flaps? The one in the back was the perfect spot to hide a key fob. After securing the flap with velcro to keep it closed over the key, it wasn’t noticeable. Those hats also have some extra space in the top, especially if you don’t have any hair taking up space. You know what fits there perfectly? A CLIF bar, secured with tape, of course!

I like to think I’m not usually quite this pale when a camera flash isn’t going off right next to my skin.

Finally, since I didn’t want to have to always be carrying my phone in my hand, I snagged a little black belt pouch it could fit it. (The realization that such a thing could be useful came only two nights before the con. Fortunately it was cheap, and I was able to get Amazon to send it my way fast and free of shipping charges.)

It has a magnetic seal (so blasters are no good), but I added a tiny bit of velcro just for an audible alert if anyone did try to pull my phone out when I wasn’t looking.

But finally, the day came! I got everything on, got into the car, and drove to downtown Seattle, wondering at each stop light in my own neighborhood if anyone was looking closely at what drivers were wearing (and secretly hoping they were). Once I’d parked, got out of the car to get my hat, belt, phone pouch, and lightsaber properly attached, I headed through the convention parking garage, feeling honestly quite proud of how I looked. Before I even got out of the garage and into the con itself, I’d started getting compliments.

I met up with two friends there, Trisha and Ethan. While I spent a lot of time hanging out with them, I also spent a lot of time by myself, either attending a panel or two, or just, frankly, wandering looking at merchandise and gear while letting my cosplay be seen.

That’d be my friend Trisha going as Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. (Photo by Ethan, who came dressed as Ethan from the real life series.)

I’m not the best with crowds. While I can be outgoing when I have to be, I’m certainly on the introverted side of the spectrum. In the past, I never interacted much with strangers at cons, and always felt a little out of place. This time, things felt very different. People were coming up to me, complimenting my costume, talking to me about it, and asking to take pictures. The fact that I was effectively wearing my geekiness on the outside made it somehow much easier to be comfortable around others who were doing the same.

Stopping to pose in the Starbucks Death Star location…

Essentially, it was the best con experience I’ve ever had, and I can’t imagine NOT going to a con without a costume in the future.

“I can’t abide those Jawas. Disgusting creatures.”

You’ll notice the little red ribbon tied around the lightsaber to mark it as safe. This puzzled me. It wasn’t a working lightsaber, after all.
Oh, also look! Lego Seahawks Batman!

This photo was taken by Vader’s girlfriend, who was cosplaying Hera from Rebels. I really wish this hadn’t come out blurry, but it was still fun.

The storage worked well. My keys didn’t fall out, and the CLIF bar was put to good use. It was a little hard to use my phone to take pictures with those black gloves on, but it wasn’t a huge issue. The only downside was that after walking around for almost nine hours in those boots, my feet hated me. Even with the arch support insoles I put in there, the fit was less than ideal. Blisters and aches. I was very happy to get them off, and vowed to find a better pair. Foot comfort is not something to take lightly!

I also spotted this excellent Obi-Wan cosplay in the convention center parking garage!

I’m happy to say that I’ll be doing it all again at Norwescon in just a couple of weeks, this time with some correct Imperial code cylinders that I got my hands on, and (hopefully) new boots. Come by and say hi!
And maybe you’ll even get to see me in my Walter White/Breaking Bad getup. With no hair and a goatee, it’s a natural choice…

My regular glasses don’t quite work, and I need to get a better shirt, but the pork pie hat was cheap!

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous, Movies and TV Tagged With: cosplay, Emerald City Comic Con, Geek Interest, Imperial Naval Officer, Norwescon, Star Wars

My First Norwescon (Panelist!) Experience

July 1, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Rather than having a Guest Geek post up this week, I figured I’d do something weird and be my own guest! (It’s complicated. There are lots of forms, and I needed to apply to USCIS for a visa… You wouldn’t believe the paperwork.) I know, it’s terribly unusual. Just bare with me. This is something I’d written with the idea to submit to another blog, but I decided I’d just put it up here and cut out the middleman!

As you may know, I’m a lifetime geek who’s lived in Seattle since autumn 1992. Between then and last January, there were twenty-two occurrences of Norwescon, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere sci-fi/fantasy convention, and I’m ashamed to say that I missed every single one of them. Either I hadn’t heard of it, or each year I was reminded of its existence either as it was happening or a few days afterward. It was like the final episode of Farscape: “Bad Timing.” [Read more…]

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Geek Interest, George R.R. Martin, Norwescon

Good news! I’ve been invited to a wedding!

April 4, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

 

Iron ThroneSorry the blog’s been a bit quiet this week, everyone. I’ve been busy at Norwescon reading from Zeus Is Dead and appearing on panels. (Sometimes I actually speak while I’m on them, even!) Also, I passed George R. R. Martin in the hallway and survived.

I hope to have something more interesting for you here soon, including the next installment of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse…

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Movies and TV Tagged With: Game of Thrones, Iron Throne, Norwescon

My Norwescon 2015 Schedule

March 15, 2015 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Norwescon 2015

It’s entirely possible I may freak out on stage, and you don’t want to miss THAT, do you?

As I mentioned here back in January, this year’s Norwescon will by my first time ever attending a sci-fi convention as an invited professional. (I know; I’m as shocked as you are!) In January I didn’t know any more beyond that I’d be on a few panels and would also be reading from Zeus Is Dead and signing autographs at some point in the conference.

Well, I’ve received my final schedule, and now I’m sharing it with you. If you’ll be in the Seattle area between April 2nd and 5th and are up for hanging out with a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy folk, head on down to the Doubletree by Hilton Seattle Airport and say hi! (Note that pre-registration closes March 28th.) [Read more…]

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: autographs, conventions, Fantasy, Geek Interest, Norwescon, schedule, Science Fiction

Norwescon 38: The Sci-Fi, The Fantasy, and Me!

January 27, 2015 By Michael G. Munz 5 Comments

That sounds like a parody of “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie, doesn’t it?

Come see me being all professional and junk.

Come see me being all professional an’ junk.

Norwescon 38 is coming this April! For those of you who don’t know, it’s the Pacific Northwest’s premier science fiction and fantasy convention. What’s more, I’m going to be there as a professional-type-person! I’ll be reading from Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure, signing autographs, and serving on some of the conference panels.

I’m not entirely sure exactly which panels I’ll be on. That’s still being decided. What I can tell you is the reading will be at 1pm on Friday, April 3rd.

Oh, and George R.R. Martin will also be there, along with a bunch of exhibitors, awesome panels, and other professional weirdos just like me! That is, unless Martin slaughters us all. It could happen. The organizers have offered insurance.

It’s April 2nd through the 5th at the SeaTac Doubletree Hotel. Check out the Norwescon site for more conference information, grab some tickets, and come hang out with me and George R.R. Martin!

George R. R. Martin

He has no idea who I am!

Norwescon registration closes March 28th!

 

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Fantasy, Geek Interest, George R.R. Martin, Norwescon, Reading, Science Fiction, Seattle

Subscribe to my Newsletter!

Read My Books:


B089LY6VFP cover

Memory of Dragons: A Contemporary Fantasy Adventure

Price:
$4.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B01GF5QWGE cover

Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure

Price: $3.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B01GF5QWGE cover

Zeus Is Undead: This One Has Zombies

Price: $5.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B01GF1CT1A cover

A Shadow in the Flames (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 1)

SALE! $0.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B01G9P1JN6 cover

A Memory in the Black (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 2)

Price: $2.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B01JKJLD98 cover

A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3)

SALE! $2.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B00EUU0588 cover

Mythed Connections (short story collection)

Price: $0.99

Purchase at amazon.com


B072XXDTV7 cover

Four Fantastical Ways to Lose Your Fingers

Price: $0.99

Purchase at amazon.com

My Tweets

Recent Blog Posts

  • The Characters of Memory of Dragons
  • Preorder Memory of Dragons for a Discount
  • Cover Reveal: Memory of Dragons

Search: