Mercedes Lackey - "The Dragoncon Report"
Matt Roberds
Hello again!
The following was written by Mercedes Lackey. I am posting it for her
because she does not have direct Internet access. Yes, I am the same
person who posted "The Last Straw" for her, and also the same person who
posted the "Events at Dragoncon from a primary source" post written by
Pony White, a member of the team here at High Flight. Some of you may
have seen me at DragonCon, as I was often with Pony, Mercedes, Larry,
and their professional bodyguards, or Mark Shepherd. If you have
questions about this post you can get in touch with Mercedes or Larry
Dixon via snail mail at:
PO Box 8309
Tulsa, OK 74101 USA
Thank you.
End of message from Matt Roberds
Start of report from Mercedes Lackey
THE DRAGONCON REPORT
Mercedes Lackey
As some of you may know, Larry and I have been the subjects of---well,
there's no better way to put this---a death threat.
This has been ongoing from January, when we first learned of this and
the stated target date of this threat corresponded very closely with the
date of DragonCon, which we were scheduled to attend. When the threat
became even more serious, I tried to cancel our appearance at that time,
and later attempted to do so again, but was talked out of canceling
both times.
At the time we scheduled our appearance at the extreme urging of Ed
Kramer, we were promised the following: first class air (my back can't
take coach seats anymore), a room for Larry and myself, a second room
(adjoining and with a connecting door) for our own nonprofessional
bodyguard and Mark Shepherd to share---the rooms to be on a limited-access
floor, and a speaking fee to cover the expenses of a bird-sitter and
the airfare and meals of the bodyguard. This was witnessed by Marilyn
Morey, head of the Queen's Own track, and later verified in writing from
Ed Kramer.
At the time I attempted to cancel, I was assured that not only would all
these things be taken care of, but that we would always be traveling by
service passages and freight elevators between panels and would not have
to walk out in the open on the street, and that further, a professional
protection service would be hired for us. Ed Kramer was also putting a
great deal of pressure on Marilyn Morey (at a time when her mother was
dying in intensive care) to get us to agree not to cancel. Both because
of those assurances and to relieve Marilyn of this pressure, I agreed.
I was assured that the room arrangements would definitely be as promised,
two adjoining rooms sharing a door on a limited access floor.
When we arrived at DragonCon on Wednesday night, with Mark, Pony White
our own guard, and Matt Roberds our gopher, we discovered we had been
assigned to two rooms separated by a third room, on a completely open
floor at the Westin. Further, the service elevator opened directly across
from our room. If anyone wanted to sneak in via the service elevator
and get into the room, he could do so virtually without being seen by
anyone, and get away without being caught! We didn't appreciate this,
but Ed Kramer was not available, so we decided to make do until Thursday.
On Thursday, the professional bodyguard met with us and just about had
a litter of kittens when he saw the room arrangement. We had a panel
to attend---and had to walk openly through the city streets to get to it,
another touch the professional was not pleased with. Once at the Inforum,
we had to parade openly through that building rather than taking service
corridors as had been promised, and he was even more annoyed. He set
us up at our panel, while Ops was informed that the room arrangement was
unacceptable from a security standpoint. Meanwhile, the pro ordered us to
send Matt Roberds out on any errands we had---we were NOT to go parading
out through the convention except when we had to go to panels, arrive,
or leave. We were also not to linger after any panels to talk to people
or sign things, as this would make a good place for someone to target us.
The panel ended at 2, and we went to Ops to see if anything had been done.
Nothing had been. The professional explained why this was unacceptable
about a dozen times. A staff member attempted to fix things, and at
around 4 pm finally came up with a solution---or so she said. We were to
check out of our rooms at the Westin immediately, take our things to the
Hyatt, and there would be someone waiting to check us into exactly the
kind of rooms we were promised. Larry and I both had panels, so Mark
Shepherd and Matt Roberds agreed to run back to the Westin, check out
all of us and get things taken care of. We went to our panels. We came
back to Ops after our panels to discover that when Mark had gone to the
Hyatt, no one there knew what he was talking about. Now not only did
we not have the rooms we had been promised, we didn't have ANY rooms.
The professional guard nearly had cardiac arrest.
We then went through three hours of nightmare, as he explained the kind
of setup we HAD TO HAVE for the sake of safety, and the staff tried
to arrange it, only to be thwarted time after time because Ed Kramer
wasn't around to approve it. Now, we had all been in body armor since 10
that morning; we were tired, overheated, and had nowhere to go to even
take the stuff off, and our last meal had been at 11 am. By seven we
were miserable. Wearing body-armor is a lot like wearing six girdles,
a corset, and some football plates; it pinches and bruises, even if it is
perfectly fitted, and it is horribly hot. That's the state we were in,
as the clock headed towards 8 pm and our last event of Thursday.
The professional came up (after fifteen minutes of checking his sources)
with exactly what we needed at the Four Seasons---but Ed Kramer wouldn't
approve it. We were finally offered the following at the Hyatt: either
two rooms on separate unsecured floors, or a "suite" of two rooms with
a single pull-down Murphy bed with no rollaways available. I don't
know where they expected Pony, Mark and Matt to sleep, but WE certainly
weren't going to make them sleep on the floor. At this point Larry took
the phone and told Ed Kramer that his so-called offer was far too little,
too late; that he was in breach of contract, and that we were no longer
affiliated with DragonCon. We turned in all DragonCon materials and
went to our last Queen's Own function of the day.
Following this, we spent five minutes on the phone and got exactly
what we needed---but out of our own pockets, which we frankly couldn't
really afford. We've had devastating losses from a fire that destroyed
Larry's studio, and our spare money goes into bird-rehab and supporting
an underfunded volunteer fire department. We moved into our new
arrangements, and returned for the QO midnight reading.
From then on, we attended QO functions only----functions coordinated
and arranged by Marilyn Morey, who made everything run with perfect
smoothness. These functions were open to all members of DragonCon, but
QO attendees were given preference when---as happened at every one of our
panels----there were too many people for the room. The only functions
restricted were the midnight readings----they were restricted to 25
people, chosen by random drawing, because that was all the room would
hold---and the dinner, which had been by reservation only. Everything
else was always open to non-QO attendees.
The professional bodyguards were wonderful, cool and resourceful and a
lot of fun to be around. They gave us the accolade of telling us that
we were a couple of their best clients, since we always did what they
told us to without an argument. Poor Matt deserves another accolade,
as he ran back and forth with drinks, food, and packages all three
remaining days without a complaint. Pony also deserves high points,
fitting seamlessly in with the professionals. The additional security
provided by the QO volunteers (we never saw a a single moment of coverage
from DragonCon security personel) is also greatly appreciated.
Everything went smoothly until the last signing on Saturday night.
We had just about finished the signing when we had---as the pros so
gracefully put it---an "incident." A half-dozen suspicious characters had
been in and out of the room during the signing----watching the security,
and NOT waiting to get anything signed. As the last couple of people
got autographs, a couple QO staff were breaking things down, and with
no one anywhere near the light switches---the lights suddenly went out
in the room. It was a very tense moment until the QO staff got the
lights back on, most of which, for Larry and me, was spent under a pile
of sheltering bodies! Once the lights were on, the pros were taking no
chances, they hustled us out and to a safe room. We still do not know
who caused the lights to go out, or why they did so.
After we relaxed a little, the two pros, Larry, Pony, a QO volunteer,
and myself all went to a sports-bar to watch the Tyson fight---and I
finally got the pros to EAT something! They'd spent most of the day
being so "on the job" that I don't think they'd gotten more than a bite
or two between them, even in restaurants. At last (after three days
in body-armor and one near-cardiac-arrest) we finished all the panels
on Sunday and took the pros off for a pizza-party with the QO staff.
Everybody thought the pros were great, and they had a fabulous time.
Both of them came with us as far as our hotel; the first went on home,
while the second accompanied us all the way to the jetway to the plane
at the airport. He, I am told, returned to the party for a last couple
of slices of pizza and a very-well-earned drink.
But it seems that our drama wasn't over yet, because as Pony left the
party at about 12:30 pm, he was approached in the Hyatt lobby by two
men dressed in black convention-costumes. One asked if he was "Pony",
and when he acknowledged that he was, the second man grabbed and held him
while the first took a walking-stick and tried to beat him up with it.
This was, by the way, in full sight of several witnesses. Fortunately,
Pony was still in his body-armor, and he is highly skilled at martial
arts. He only took one blow before getting free and damaging both
of his attackers; the man who was holding him fled, but he managed to
down the one with the stick and handcuffed him to the railing until the
police came. His attacker was taken to jail---this is also a matter of
public record that can be verified---on assualt charges.
Pony got two cracked ribs, a bruised area about the size of a basketball,
but no further damage as the body-armor absorbed most of the blow.
We have no further information about his assailant at this time, but
it would certainly appear that Pony took the hit that was meant for us,
which only the presence of Pony, two professionals and several volunteers
saved us from. So much for our being paranoid, and I think we were
very lucky to have been in the hands of real pros instead of DragonCon.
If it had been left up to Ed Kramer and DragonCon, odds are we'd have
been hurt or dead before Sunday.
Izzie
Matt, this is not an attempt to discredit your statements. It is
just a request for confirmation.
I am unfamiliar with your connection to Mercedes Lackey, but I am
familiar with Tal's connection. Could you get him to verify this
report? Just a short post saying "Yup, Misty says she wrote
this."
Izzie.
Alessan
Chaos scribbled upon the walls of alt.books.m-lackey thusly:
>I am unfamiliar with your connection to Mercedes Lackey, but I am
>familiar with Tal's connection. Could you get him to verify this
>report? Just a short post saying "Yup, Misty says she wrote
>this."
IIRC, Tal confirmed this last time round, when Matt posted the initial
'Last Straw' posting.
---
"Smile", they said, "it could be worse."
So I did. And it was.
Izzie
Alessan <ale...@spambarrier.actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
:Chaos scribbled upon the walls of alt.books.m-lackey thusly:
:>I am unfamiliar with your connection to Mercedes Lackey, but I am
:>familiar with Tal's connection. Could you get him to verify this
:>report? Just a short post saying "Yup, Misty says she wrote
:>this."
:
:IIRC, Tal confirmed this last time round, when Matt posted the initial
:'Last Straw' posting.
I must of missed that one.
[sig snip]
Izzie.
Tal Greywolf
Alessan (ale...@spambarrier.actrix.gen.nz) wrote:
: Chaos scribbled upon the walls of alt.books.m-lackey thusly:
: >I am unfamiliar with your connection to Mercedes Lackey, but I am
: >familiar with Tal's connection. Could you get him to verify this
: >report? Just a short post saying "Yup, Misty says she wrote
: >this."
: IIRC, Tal confirmed this last time round, when Matt posted the initial
: 'Last Straw' posting.
And I vouch for this latest posting. Folks, Matt is reliable, and if he
posts things like that, I'd suggest listening very, very hard.
I don't like the news of what went down, and frankly, if I were in Misty's
shoes, I wouldn't want to attend another con until and unless certified
security could be guaranteed.
-Tal Greywolf
"Not a happy camper."