Jonathan Maberry is one hoopy frood.

Context is pretty cool too.

OMG, you guys.

I got to meet Jonathan Maberry and I am still squee-ing all over the damn place.

Jonathan fucking Maberry!

I had drinks with Jonathan Maberry and he favorited my tweets about him on the Twitters {}.

Jonathan zombie-writing Maberry!

Okay. Deep breath. Hukana my tatas. Back the truck up. Take a seat.

I’m clearly not ready to discuss him with any semblance of maturity, so we’ll get back to Jonathan Maberry momentarily.

For now just hold this thought in the back of your mind:

Jonathan Maberry is a really groovy dude.

Srsly and all for realz.

So WTF is Context?

Context is all following:

1. A super small but intimate gathering of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers,
2. Taking place in Columbus, Ohio,
3. That is kickass.
4. And you missed it because WHY?
5. Don’t tell me, “For reasons.” That’s simply not good enough.

From the official Context website:

Context is a friendly convention focused on speculative fiction literature and related games, comics and films.

If you enjoy science fiction, fantasy, or horror, you’ll find plenty to entertain you at this convention.

An unsavory introduction:

Upon arriving at the hotel hosting the con, Rachel {my BFF and writing partner; on the Twitters} and I wandered the halls.

The layout of the place was somewhat confusing and we were early and had no idea what to expect.

We passed a room labeled “Con Suite” which sounded promising.

A guy carrying some chainmail noticed our sad little faces and asked if we were lost. Grateful, we admitted that we were looking for the con’s sign-in desk. He pointed us in the right direction.

And then shit got real.

He lifted his arms to better display his chainmail and we realized he was an artist looking to sell his wares.

I said, “That’s cool.”

And it really was pretty.

Worthless in battle, obviously made for a thin, scantily-clad woman, and clearly something for cosplay.

But very pretty nonetheless.

“I’d wear that,” I added.

That balding, pony-tailed dude didn’t miss a beat as he pointed at Rachel and said,

“Yeah, but it would look better on her.”

Ouch, man.

Just because it’s true didn’t mean you had to say it.

Rachel and I were both so flabbergasted at the man’s cluelessness that we just fumbled goodbyes and moved along down the hallway.

In one smooth move, he had insulted me and objectified Rachel.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh.

The rest of the con went swimmingly.

I have never been to a convention.

Wait – that’s a lie.

I have actually been to a comic con here in Dayton, but I was more transportation and chaperone for teenagers than actual consumer of that fine art.

Another lie.

I totes love me some comics. I was there to shop, and the teens were incidentals. I found some spectacular Batman back issues.

No regrets / Not ashamed.

Okay, yes. I’ve been to exactly one other convention.

But a comic con isn’t the same as a writing con.

Or maybe they ARE of similar ilk. I don’t know. I attended one for entirely different reasons than why I attended the other.

I was prepared to learn some craft.

And I did.

Boy, how.

I walked away with so many notes, a day later my hand is still cramping up.

One of my pens ran out of ink.

Plus there were worksheets and graph-o-gram pages and examples of how to do ALL THE THINGS and typed pages to read and… and… and…

It will take me all week to sort through this stuff and put it into CONTEXT.

{Ha. I see what I did there.}

I did the networking.

By which I mean, I met people in the industry and asked questions, gathered contact info, and mostly enjoyed the hell out of them.

I don’t dig the term “networking” because it sounds so cold and one-sided. It’s a computer term, and while I do lurve science and logic and techno-gadgets and whatnot and what-have-you, I am a human being, not a silicone-and-plastic piece of equipment.

Obvs.

I will use the term “network” because it’s what we’re expected to do if we are acting professional-ish.

But honestly?

What I really did was hang out with some really cool peeps.

Like Jonathan Maberry. OMG.

Let’s just talk about Jonathan Maberry then.

I’m clearly not going to grow up sometime within the next half-hour it takes me to write this piece, so I might as well just dive in.

He’s written about a krillion things, where “krillion” means “fuck-ton” and where “things” means “stories and books“.

He is best known for his Rot & Ruin series, a post-apocalyptic, coming-of-age, zombie tale which is simply fantastic. There are four books in the series, with a fifth coming out soon, and some short stories. Plus there’s a comic.

A note about audio books:

They are wonderful and do not take away from written pieces in any way whatsoever. If anything, a good reader can add inflection and tone to an already well-fleshed story.

Not to mention pronunciation – while I’m fairly adept with phonics, even I don’t always get it right.

I had to add this note because I took some guff about listening to books rather than reading them:

It was suggested that listening to books is not the same as physically reading them – where “not the same” actually meant “not as good as”.

Funk dat.

You do you, and I’ll do me, and merrily shall we go our separate ways.

I listened to Rot & Ruin.

I sailed through the first two books in the series and enjoyed them so much I stopped.

Because I knew my hubz would need to hear them, too. We force good books on each other all the time. It’s pretty much how our marriage functions.

I don’t want to start the third book till my hubz catches up with me.

The books are really that good. I will force myself to wait.

In the interim, Jonathan Maberry has plenty of other books I plan to sniff out.

I knew I liked his work, but after hanging with him this past weekend, he has moved to the top of my Blind Faith list:

I will read anything by this author.

Now, about that Skylander:

You may have noticed a running theme throughout the pics in this post.

It’s a story.

Of course it’s a story.

We have recently moved, and some of our belongings are still located at the old house.

Including bags, totes, backpacks, etc.

Which left me desperate the night before our departure for Context.

At the last minute I spotted my 9-yr-old daughter’s Skylander backpack, a gift from Santa to store her many Skylander guys. I asked Abbie if I could borrow it, and you’d have thought I asked for her kidneys.

She hugged it to her chest and said, “Not my precious!” in her best Gollum impersonation.

“Lemme rephrase that, Sweetest. Mommy is borrowing your backpack.”

She actually hissed at me.

But then she relented… with the caveat that I would have to bring her favorite Skylander with me.

Thus was a THING born.

The coolest part of the story:

Remember when I said there is a Rot & Ruin comic?

Get this:

The editor of the Rot & Ruin comics, , also edits another title for the award-winning comic company IDW… one of my daughter’s favorite video game series, Skylanders!

Figure the effing odds!

Mr. Maberry was so amused he asked me to tag him in the pic of him biting into the Skylander so he could forward it on to Mr. Hedgecock, who would be likely to get a kick out of the unexpected crossover.

And then a shocking thing happened.

Jonathan Maberry said he would have his editor send Abbie a copy! I mean, does it get more cool than that?

He gets my vote for most awesome celebrity EVER.

And then we came home.

• Have you read Rot & Ruin? Or anything else by Jonathan Maberry?
• Do you read comics or play Skylanders?
• Would you look good in chainmail?