Supernatural New Jersey 2025!

The Supernatural Creation convention in NJ is one of the few that I can drive to. With the constant cancellations and delays and pieces of planes falling off and near collisions recently, that made me very happy indeed. The drive wasn’t too bad in terms of traffic, and though I managed to get slightly lost when I was almost there (as has happened every single damn time at this venue), I made it not too horribly late. It’s not my favorite venue (bathroom line ten miles long, anyone?) so I’m glad next year’s NJ con is at a hotel, but it is one of my favorite cons anyway since some of my closest fandom friends are often able to come.

I mostly stayed at my vendor table (with very welcome food breaks from friends – thank you!) – but I didn’t miss Misha’s panel!

Misha Collins did his It Seemed Like A Good Idea one man show in the Big Apple the night before.

Billy Moran: It was good!

He got some questions about Castiel and Supernatural.

Misha: I think Castiel would do well in Star Wars because he has wings to teleport. But Sesame Street would also be great for him, he’d be learning right along with the kids.

Also Misha: But he’d probably have a rivalry with Big Bird, both are tall and feathered.

Lol

Misha was reminiscing about New Jersey being his very first convention fifteen years ago. You can actually read all about that con in ‘Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls’, since Kathy and I were there too, and tried to help a slightly overwhelmed Misha through it.

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Supernatural Conventions 2024: New Jersey and Jensen’s Real SPN Baby!

The New Jersey Supernatural convention is my “home con” – at least until next year when we’ll finally have one in my actual hometown of Philly. That means I get to drive there! (I hate driving but it’s better than flying…) My friend Rita joined me on a lovely spring day, and together we managed to navigate our way there with only a few wrong turns!

Leading up to the con there was a lot of excitement, for several reasons. One, unlike the con in Burbank a few months ago, Jared Padalecki was at this con – so yay!! Two, everyone was charmed and just plain thrilled at the news of Supernatural actors DJ Qualls (Garth) and Ty Olsson (Benny) being engaged, and couldn’t wait to see DJ to congratulate him. And three, Jensen Ackles was bringing his Impala to the con – the actual screen-used Hero #1 Baby. There was as much anticipation for that as for any other guest!

I was on my own in the vendor room with the books, so I didn’t get to attend as many panels as I wish I did, but every panel I did manage to get to was entirely happy making. The con is in a giant convention center (not my favorite type of venue) but it does make for a cavernous vendor room, as you can see. (‘The books’ are the two with chapters from the Supernatural actors, Family Don’t End With Blood and There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done, plus a few other behind the scenes books about the show, and the new book that’s a deep dive into The Boys, Supes Ain’t Always Heroes. Links on the home page here fyi).

I caught a little bit of Richard Speight, Jr., Matt Cohen and Rob Benedict’s panel, which invariably includes a lot of hilarious stories. Rob told the story of someone writing a part for him – and then he actually didn’t get the part! Only Rob.

The three were asked who would play them in a movie.

Matt: Drake Rodger!

(Makes sense to me)

Richard: The animated corpse of Don Knotts…

(If you don’t know who that is, look it up lol)

Matt reminisced about his time on General Hospital – and how his character was a neurosurgeon priest – and a stripper!

(Hey, he was versatile…)

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Supernatural New Jersey 2022!

I definitely could not have anticipated how eventful the NJ Supernatural convention a few weeks ago would be! It’s my “home con”, which means I can drive to it. I hate driving by myself so I was happy to be able to drive with a friend, and we headed out early, full of gleeful anticipation. All went well until we got there and drove around the parking garage – and could not find a single spot. I am not a fabulous driver on my best day, and an unfamiliar garage that was nearly impossible to navigate was not helping. My friend was equally nervous, so I couldn’t convince her to take the wheel either – so we gave up and parked at the hotel entrance. She stayed with the car while I went inside and asked what I should do if there were no spots.

Lovely security guy standing nearby: Ma’am, that’s not possible.

Me: I can’t swear that I didn’t just miss them in my panic, but I did not see any.

Lovely security guy (sighing): Okay, come on.

He rode in the back seat as we drove back into the garage, and patiently navigated our way to the entire wing of the garage that was hidden in the back. Oops.

Anyway, I’m a fan of the con hotel for life thanks to that lovely security guy.

In between being in the vendor room, which still feels like a family reunion after we all missed cons for so long. I caught a little of Kim and Briana’s first panel.

They’ve talked before about how much they loved doing some of their own stunts (and would have done more if Wayward Sisters went to series), but Briana also said that she didn’t really know how to move for some stunts. She did an imitation, laughing at herself the whole time.

Kim said she was inspired by the film Wonder Woman, especially how she looked out for her little sister, which was a very Supernatural thing to say. Similarly, they talked about how important it is to “get back on the horse” when you’re had a setback.

Briana: Just make sure you have your people around you. Fandom is a great example.

Kim and Briana together are always magic. There are so many lifelong friendships that were forged from this show and this fandom. They gave us some examples by reading their most recent text conversation aloud. Complete with emojis.

Kim talked a bit about shooting the scene of vamp Dean biting her, which she didn’t mind one bit – except that Jared and Jensen were busy making all kinds of jokes, including yelling for condiments!

I personally would not have wanted the Supernatural finale to end any other way, but I know some people found it really hard to have Dean die so young. Kim had an alternate ending: Sam and Dean turn out to actually be little kids playing, with a little toy Jody and Donna… then we pan up a tree to Cas… and Lucifer… in real life. Waiting.

Dark, Kim! But adorable too.

They gave us the good news that they’re about to record more of the Wayward Podcast, which I really enjoy. Yay!

If you’d like to hear more from Kim and Briana, they wrote very powerful and frank chapters in Family Don’t End With Blood – which are also very inspiring.

Adam Fergus and David Haydn-Jones also had a panel on Friday.

Adam said that David is more like Sam and he’s more like Dean in real life, though I can’t imagine either Sam or Dean in that velour track suit even if they were in New Jersey!

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Supernatural New Jersey 2019!

 

New Jersey is my “home con”. That means I can load a bunch of boxes of books into my car and drive there – and then hope I can find someone to help me get them all up the long long ramp and into the convention center!

I didn’t really need to worry, because as always, fandom comes through. I was on my own in the vendor room officially, but dozens of people came by on a regular basis to check on me and see if I needed a bathroom break (to the ONE bathroom for the entire convention center….don’t get me started about how much I hate this venue…) or a hot dog or another bottle of water. Two of the nicest women ever helped me wrangle a luggage cart from my nearby hotel and load and unload the boxes of books to and from my car. Another lovely woman delivered my photo ops right to my vendor table so I wouldn’t have to go grab them at the end of the con. The entire weekend was full of the best of SPNFamily, honestly. I met so many people who have read Family Don’t End With Blood and been inspired by it. I got to have dinner with my friend Trish from Attitudes in Reverse (one of the charities that the book benefits) and with a fellow acafan who’s teaching a course on leadership and Supernatural and her inspiring student.

As we got ready for the final season of Supernatural to kick off, everyone seemed to want to just relish our time together while we have it.

Friday kicked off with Rachel Miner, who always starts the con off with smiles and sparkles and words that inevitably make me feel better about people and life in general. I love the chapter that Rachel wrote in Family Don’t End With Blood, and the way she looks at the world.

Rachel on what it’s meant to be part of the SPNFamily: Everyone in this group are abnormally good humans.

Rachel advises to keep reminders of whatever it is that inspires you. She keeps pictures on her computer, some of them from fans.

She also talked about the importance of finding community and being able to help each other, something that Random Acts has done for many fans.

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