Category: 2017

Lynn and Kim do PittCon – Part 1, Friday and Saturday

Lynn and Kim do PittCon – Part 1, Friday and Saturday

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Lynn didn’t make it to the Supernatural con in Pittsburgh until Saturday, thanks to having to work all day on Friday (boo!!), so this first part about Friday is all Kim.

Kim:

Conventions are always super busy, jam-packed weekends. Panels. Photo ops. Autographs. Sometimes I do meet & greets. Hanging out with old friends. Meeting new friends. It is a full schedule, to say the least. For the convention in Pittsburgh, I added another thing… I helped Lynn with her book sales (Family Don’t End With Blood) at her table in the vendor area. How many ways can I spell exhausted? I have newly found respect for vendors, for Lynn. Working in the vendor area and trying to do all the convention things is beyond exhausting. And for the record – I would totally do it all again. And again.

Lynn: I have that in writing now. Excellent… *evil cackle*

Kim: Thank Chuck for my dear friends Kim and Stacy, for helping me set up Thursday night, for sitting with me at the table all weekend, for giving me the time I needed for photo ops and autographs (and a meet & greet with Kim & Briana). Thank Chuck they were there to make sure I had water and food, and a few stolen moments to breathe and pull myself together for photo ops.

That said, entering the airplane hangar – at least that’s what the theater feels like – to sit down for a panel was a like entering my zone… sitting down, taking out the camera, watching the panels through the comfort of my lens… yes, this is where I belong.

Rob could not be there on Friday, so we had just Richa…

No.

That is one million percent Inaccurate. Wrong.

When did the word ‘just’ become an adjective? When did it begin to carry that negativity? Every day of my life, I have to tell people that, no, I don’t have a job, that I’m ‘just’ a mom… as if being ‘just’ a mom is somehow less, somehow unworthy. Sure, the popular phrase “Just Do it” implies a positive message of strength and endurance, but usually adding the word ‘just’ to describe anything is somehow, less. So can we stop saying that? I’ll stop using the word to describe myself, and ya’ll stop using the word to describe yourselves, and let’s just simply stop using the word as an adjective of negativity, ok?

So starting over…

Rob could not be there on Friday because he was attending a film festival. As a result, we were treated to the impeccable hosts of the utter effervescence that is Richard Speight, Jr, along with the always delightful Jason Manns, and the incredibly talented Louden Swain band members Billy Moran, Michael Borja, and Stephen Norton. We were given witty banter, and fabulous music, and as Richard put it, we were in the “warehouse of fun” and it was awesome.

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Behind the Scenes of Supernatural with Robbie Thompson

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One of the absolute highlights of this year’s Comic Con for me was sitting down to chat with Robbie Thompson, gifted comic writer and screenwriter who wrote some of my very favorite episodes of my very favorite show. That would be Supernatural, in case you didn’t know. Which is pretty much impossible unless you’ve just stumbled over this blog for the first time.

I attended Robbie’s panel on Intersectional Feminism in Comics, which was awesome and entirely inspiring, so we were all in a good mood afterwards. We decided to try to find a room where there weren’t a million people around, and took a bunch of friends with us – Laurena, Candice, Anne and Kamila – who were down with listening in to our epic interview. They will henceforth be referred to as the Peanut Gallery (‘PG’). For the most part, they were PG. The most part. Just sayin.

After several false starts traversing the ginormous convention center, including being barred from using the press room for our interview, we found an empty room with lots of empty round tables. Robbie, ever the intrepid one, shrugged and said, ‘how about this one?’

Occasionally a Comic Con staffer would come in, take a look at our oh-so-professional interview in progress, and quietly back out. Score!

I start the interview by tossing my handwritten notes about what I’m dying to ask and my little vintage audio recorder on the table.

R: (points to Lois Lane like tape recorder) Look at this, so professional..

L: Hey, it’s ancient, it’s done a million Supernatural interviews.

R: Uh oh, look at this, guys…(points to what appears to be a big stack of questions, a la Inside the Actor’s Studio)  There’s going to be some Bernard Pivot in there. There may be some things I say off the record…

L: Of course, you know I’m good with that. (but honestly? There weren’t many!)

R: Okay let’s do this!

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Sunday with Jared and Jensen at Minncon 2017

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Sunday is J2 Day at Creation Supernatural cons, this time joined by another Winchester (Mary, aka Samantha Smith) with the day introduced by Rich and Rob and closed out by Ruth Connell and Louden Swain.

The Sunday morning gold panel saw a rather sleepy looking Jared and Jensen joining us – and of course the very first question asked was about that “this is a bad idea” Instagram video Jensen posted of him and Jared on Friday night.

J2: nope.

As in, they declined to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate them. Or, you know, get them incarcerated.

All kidding aside, Jensen and Jared were worried about their families in Austin as Hurricane Harvey began to takes its incredible toll on Texas. Jensen took a call from Danneel while they were onstage, Jared hovering over his shoulder.

This eventually resulted in shenanigans as Jared tried to grab Jensen’s phone (or something) and Jensen spun around and around to avoid him, then backed up like ‘here ya go’. #boys

 

Glad to report that Danneel and Gen and the kids are fine, and were all having a ‘sleepover’. In the wine cellar.

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Supernatural Minncon Friday and Saturday – Misha, SNS and More!

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The Supernatural convention in Minneapolis is notable for a couple of things. First, it’s in the grandest theater on the whole tour – an actual slanted floor tilted and cushioned seated amphitheater style theater with two clamshell balconies that open up like magic on Sunday for J2 Day. The stage is so big that some of the guests aren’t quite sure what to do with it and it makes the Saturday Night Special seem like a rock show in a bona fide concert hall – and Louden Swain and guests know exactly what to do with that!

The convention center, and the city itself actually, is also notable for being connected by a series of hamster trail elevated tunnels that allow you to make your way from the hotels to the convention center without being pelted by the inevitable wind and rain. My hotel was also playing host to a furry convention, so we had furries and Supernatural tee-shirted fans sharing space and high fiving in the hallways. I was struggling to transport my hundreds of copies of Family Don’t End With Blood the mile and a half (okay okay, exaggeration, but it felt like that…) of hamster trails to the convention center when a very nice young man at the furry convention offered to help. He pushed the overloaded handcart the entire way to the convention center, while we chatted about what our two fandoms had in common and why nobody should be ashamed of what they’re passionate about.

I was in the vendor room throughout the con, and was so honored to meet many people who had read Family Don’t End With Blood and been inspired by what the actors and the fans shared in their personal essays. I also was thrilled to collaborate with Jodi from Eldwenne’s Fantasy – she created an original Women of SPN – FDEWB necklace that I adore, and was kind enough to give one to me. The necklace symbolizes that for the women of Supernatural, family means more than just blood – there’s a blue backdrop that matches the cover of the book, hugged tight by silver to symbolize the found family that surrounds the Winchesters, and black for Baby. And of course the drop of blood red. Gorgeous. Jodi is giving $5 off the necklace to anyone who purchases the book, or $10 at a con!

The con kicked off on Friday with Rob and Rich a bit overwhelmed by the amount of greenery onstage – not just the usual couple of dead trees, but a whole forest of them, along with some equally-dead potted plants.

Rob and Rich rearranged them, made a makeshift Supernatural Christmas tree, and generally had way too much fun with inanimate things. They even had a Christmas story, with Richard sitting crosslegged on the stage.

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Family Don’t End With Blood at #SPNMinn!

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If you’re coming to the Supernatural con in Minneapolis tomorrow, come see me in the vendor’s room if you’d like to grab a copy of Family Don’t End With Blood. The book is unique for being written by the Supernatural actors themselves – Jared, Jensen, Misha, Mark, Kim, Briana, Ruth, Rachel, Rob, Matt, Jim, Gil and Osric all tell their very personal stories of how the fandom and the show have impacted their lives. In their own words. As Gil joked recently, they can now all add “author” to their bios! Most of the actors who wrote chapters will be at the con, and they are always thrilled to sign their chapters – it’s one item almost all of them love to sign since they’re (very justifiably) proud of their chapters. I’d be honored to sign it for you too at the vendor’s table – I’d love to meet you and hear your Supernatural story, to add to the powerful chapters in the book written by fans.

I’m extra excited about this con because the super talented Jodi from Eldwenne’s Fantasy has designed a special necklace inspired by the stories in Family Don’t End With Blood. This piece was commissioned to honor the powerful, courageous, inspiring chapters written by some of the women of Supernatural – Briana Buckmaster, Ruth Connell, Rachel Miner and Kim Rhodes. The blue is from the book’s iconic cover art of the Winchesters, with silver and black wrapped around to symbolize their supportive found family (including black for Baby, of course – she’s family!). And that drop of red? Just the beginning of what family means in Supernatural – and in the entire SPNFamily.

I love the little drop of blood and I love the whole wrap around family feel of the blue with the black and silver hugging it. I love that the necklace stands for the way the characters have each other’s backs, and also for the way the fandom and the cast support each other too. That’s the inspiring message you’ll take away from reading the book.

Jodi is offering $5.00 off at the con to anyone who buys a copy of the book that inspired the necklace, and I’m offering $2.00 off the book at the con if you happen to be wearing the necklace.

Here’s what Gil and Osric had to say about writing their chapters in Family Don’t End With Blood, and what Jared and Matt had to say about writing theirs.

Gil and Osric at Chicon

Jared and Matt JIBCon

Hope to see you tomorrow in Minneapolis or at an upcoming con!

–Lynn
Not coming to the con? You can grab a copy of
Family Don’t End With Blood at the links on this page.
And check out eldwennesfantasy.com for all the
gorgeous custom jewelry!

Supernatural Vancouver Part Two – More SNS, Jared, Jensen, Ruth and Rachel!

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So, where was I? Oh right, the Saturday Night Special…The thing is, it’s not just the way they sing that makes them all such rockstars. It’s the emotion they put into everything they sing – I don’t know if it’s because they’re also actors, or just people who feel things deeply and allow themselves to be emotionally vulnerable, but so many of them reduce me to tears during the SNS. It’s an entirely emotional experience, not just a musical one.

And speaking of…. I knew Jensen Ackles was going to sing, but it seems I’m never entirely prepared for it anyway. He’s performed ‘Whipping Post’ several times, but I swear every time he pours his heart into it even more and it gets to me even more. I was so enthralled with his performance, I completely missed the fact that he was wearing a tee shirt (single layer single layer single layer) that said ‘Skyrockets In Flight’ – once the SNS was over we were all humming ‘Afternoon Delight’. Jensen and Jared are huge Anchorman fans, so it made sense, but….yeah.

In my defense, I may have been a little distracted by all the biceps action too. Hey, it was just right there, what can I say?

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Return to Mecca – Supernatural Vancouver Con (Part One)

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I’ve been too busy to post con reports this year for the most part, but I’m trying to change that – at least for one con! Vancon, as it was called for almost a decade and will still always be called in my head, is a special con. It takes place in mecca for Supernatural fans, where the show is filmed, and that means that lots of other Vancouver-based Supernatural alums and crew members often come by to say hi to the fans. It’s also the place where some of the best days of my life have taken place, and where many of my SPNFamily friends come to congregate, so that makes it a special con for me. This year was no exception.

I didn’t have any extra time to take in location filming or revisit some of my favorite Vancouver restaurants and sights, and I’m still grieving that the con is no longer at the beautiful Sheraton Wall Centre, but the Westin Bayshore is also quite nice. It’s also way above my budget at the non-con rate, and thanks to my aforementioned busy, I neglected to book it early enough to get that. So my friend Alicia and I spent the first two nights up the hill at the Coast, a European flavored hotel with an international bunch of patrons and a portable AC machine that served as possibly the best white noise I’ve ever experienced. I totally wanted to bring the giant thing with me! I then cashed in every single Starwood point I’ve ever accumulated to move over to the Westin, which rewarded us with an amazing view of this amazing city. I love you, Vancouver!

I mean, look at it! That’s the view from my window once I finally got to the Westin Bayshore.

I had a lovely seafood dinner out on the water on Friday night and a few good meals at the hotel restaurant too – I wasn’t in the vendor room, so I had a lot more time to hang out and have some good conversation. I was also very honored to sign copies of Family Don’t End With Blood for lots of people who had read it and been inspired by it, which totally made my weekend. If you came up to me and asked for my ‘autograph’, I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the book and that I got to meet you. And I hope you all told the actors what a fantastic job they did writing their chapters!

I had very little internet reception on Friday and especially Saturday, so I tried to make up for the lack of tweets by taking pictures. Thus this is Part One of my Vancon post, since wordpress was a wee bit upset with how many photos I was trying to cram into a single post. Part Two (SNS continued and Sunday) up shortly!

There were lots of SPN alums on hand for karaoke and during the con, most of which I forgot to take photos of, but I had to have a picture of the lovely Kuma, star of television commercials, and his owners Kevin and Jill Parks. Kevin has been with Supernatural as a First Assistant Director ever since I can remember, and is instrumental in making the show the high quality tv that it is. In fact, he’s joking referred to as “Parkasapedia” for his encyclopedic knowledge of SPN canon! Kuma has appeared on the show too, as well as in that Flonase commercial you see all the time.

Adam Williams, who supervises all that amazing VFX wizardry on Supernatural, was also on hand – along with the always awesome Lucy. Together, Adam and Lucy wrote a chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood about how the show changed their lives completely – by bringing them together! Talk about life changing.

Friday kicked off with Alaina Huffman (filling in for the busy-filming-Supernatural Kim Rhodes) and Gil McKinney.

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The Magicians’ Sera Gamble on What She Learned from Supernatural and What’s Next!

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Once you’re part of the SPNFamily, you’re always part of the SPNFamily – so my recent trip to Comic Con included lots of catching up with some of the people who have shaped the show in important ways. Sera Gamble started as a writer on Supernatural, working closely with Eric Kripke, and later took over as showrunner when Eric left after Season 5. I first met Sera when I was writing Fandom At The Crossroads and Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls – in fact, she was one of the very first people to grant us an interview, and her insights were instrumental in encouraging us to keep writing. There’s an amusing scene in Fangasm (okay, there are LOTS of amusing scenes in Fangasm, whatever…) – anyway, there’s an amusing scene in Fangasm where Kathy and I arrive at the WB booth at Comic Con to interview Eric Kripke and find that he’s brought Sera with him.

Eric: Oh! These are the two who sent me the porn!

Sera: (cocks eyebrow)

It’s a long story, but let’s just say that was an interesting interview.

Sera is now writer and showrunner on The Magicians, which just began filming its third season on SyFy. For those who aren’t familiar, The Magicians is based on the books of the same name by Lev Grossman, and airs on SyFy in the US. The magical Brakebills University in the series is a mash up of “Hogwarts and Harry Potter for adults” and Narnia with a little Supernatural mixed in, darker and more adult oriented than the first two and more consistently magical than the last. The main characters include Quentin, who discovers that the books he has always loved are in fact not fantasy or fiction after all; Julia, his childhood friend who isn’t allowed into the magical world and whose life is marked by significant trauma; Alice, who is overcome by too much magic in Season 2 with dire consequences; Eliot, the reluctant king and Margo, the queen trying to find her way and her identity. The cast also includes Penny, the traveler, a villainous character known as The Beast, and the Dean of Brakebills, played by Rick Worthy (known to Supernatural fans as the Alpha Vamp).

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Genevieve Padalecki Joins Some Real Life Superheroes at Comic Con

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The Winchesters and Cas are most definitely Superheroes onscreen – those characters have inspired countless Supernatural fans to keep on fighting even against odds that sometimes seem insurmountable. But in the real world, it’s the actors who bring those characters to life who are the real world superheroes – through the Represent tee shirt campaigns, the messages that You Are Not Alone and Always Keep Fighting, the Crisis Support Network, and Random Acts global change initiatives. One of the most exciting new projects is a partnership between Random Acts and the Pop Culture Hero Coalition to combat bullying. Supernatural’s Genevieve Padalecki is one of the contributors to the partnership, and joined some other crusaders for change on a Comic Con panel to talk about their important work.

The Superheroes In Real Life panel takes the prize for being my most inspiring hour of Comic Con this year – and that’s saying a lot considering all the incredible panels! Of course Comic Con is all about the fantastical and the imaginative and the fictional and how all of those things are healthy and positive and beneficial – something for us to celebrate! But Comic Con has a history of also hosting panels that are anchored in real life challenges and problems, and bringing to light social change that’s needed. This year was no exception, and I attended several panels that inspired everyone in attendance to be a part of that change.

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Supernatural Meme Star Michael Adamthwaite Talks War for the Planet of the Apes

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20th Century Fox

I’m rather fond of saying that everything leads back to Supernatural, but honestly, it’s just true! I had the pleasure of chatting with Michael Adamthwaite, who is currently playing Caesar’s lieutenant Luca in the new film War For the Planet of the Apes. The film had a presence at Comic Con with a panel showing off the artistic and visual effects of the film. As a long time fan of the entire Planet of the Apes series of films (I even read the book by Pierre Boule and loved it), I was excited about the last in the sequel trilogy. The film focuses on Caesar and the war between his quest for revenge and his innate empathy, as well as on the actual fight between humans and apes. It also introduces the de-evolved young human girl Nova, a familiar name from the original series of films and first group of sequels. The movie tackles deeper themes than might be expected, which makes it even more intriguing to me. So having an opportunity to chat with Michael Adamthwaite, who played Caesar’s lieutenant, Luca, was a real treat.

As soon as I did a little IMDb research on the film, I realized its Supernatural connection – Michael, as well as Ty Olsson and Aleks Paunovic, had all been on SPN too! Here’s my chat with Michael, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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