Once again New York Comic Con has come and gone, and once again all the big publishers in New York came out to play. As usual, I took home entirely too many books – both free and purchased – and now sit in a paper mausoleum that is close to sealing me off from the rest of the world. This year, one of my lovely editors, Sean, accompanied me to the event. We had a ton of events we both wanted to go to, but there was one in particular that Sean was keen on: a Star Wars writer’s round table. See, Sean is the one who wrote the guest post about Star Wars novels a short while back (found here), so he was unsurprisingly very excited about this panel which consisted of a variety of Star Wars writers talking about the future of the book universe. As I do not read Star Wars myself, I was not very interested, but I decided to tag along in the name of camaraderie because what else are friends for? But while we were in that panel of writers I found myself overcome with a strange, previously unknown feeling, I wanted to pick up Star Wars book.
See the round table was actually filled with a variety of authors new and old, and they were extremely passionate about their work. There was everyone from an industry legend, Timothy Zahn, to one of the up and coming Star Wars writers, E. K. Johnston. At this panel each and every writer talked about what happened in their lives that got them into the Star Wars books and why they wrote the stories they did. The thing about authors is, not many of them write their books out of some sort of twisted feeling of obligation. Most of them are extremely passionate about what they do, and when they talk about their books that passion tends to power through. The thing about passion is, its infectious. There are few things I like more than seeing people talk about their passions. Everyone has at least one, but many people hide them for fear of ridicule or embarrassment. This is a shame because passion is amazing, and it can change the lives of the people around you. Someone else’s passion is how I went from feeling completely ambivalent about Star Wars books to nervously clutching a copy of Heir to the Empire as I approached Timothy Zahn to get my book signed. Passion is what got me to finally start this site and keeps me up late every night before work writing these posts.
I just wish we lived in a world that everyone embraced what makes them happy (unless it’s like murder, then you need to keep that under wraps). Which is why NYCC continues to be a source of more and more joy to me every year I go. In addition to the previously mentioned panel, every inch of comic con is filled with either passionate fans displaying their love, or people cautiously curious about what brings so many others out to such a large convention. Every year I see new and creative displays of love for media and nerdom that I spend an entire year getting more pumped to come back. On top of this, every year I see more and more people take a chance, go to the show, and come away more excited and enthralled than they believed they would be. It’s a great time for all and I highly recommend you check it out.
So, in summation, never stifle your passions – for it is a part of what makes you great. Come check out comic con, where your friends and other fans can somehow convince you it’s an amazing idea to start reading an eight bazillion book universe.
