Posted on

So! Last week!

1. Kristin finished her paaaaaaaainting, and it’s awesome! Clickyclicky! Bask in the pretteh!

2. Jimmy’s friend canceled on him at the last minute and I got to go to see Save the World with him, which was cute and inventive! Lots of great dialogue. They managed to do a lot with a very low budget. (And no, contrary to what the article says, Jossverse hat-trick Jonathan Woodward was alas not a part of the cast. His replacement was quite good, though.) Thank you, Jimmy!

3. Last night, who would come to my roommate’s dinner but IANA. Iana was an exchange student from Bulgaria who was in several of my classes, participated in JETS, and ended up staying with my family over the first half of Christmas break. I knew she went to Amherst undergrad, but we never really kept in touch after she went home. Turns out it was my roommate’s family that she spent the second half of Christmas break with, and they did keep in touch! Now she’s working here in Manhattan at an investment banking firm. Man, what is it about New York that calls forth all the Hockadaisies?

4. Friday, I finally brought my TV!Bob drawing off the back burner and up to the forefront of my list of priorities! I started it waaaaay back in July as a prize for the Save Harry campaign, but what with the move and the overtime and the new computer, I got a bit derailed. Upon looking at it again on Friday, I was promptly horrified with the quality of the line art, and I spent much of the weekend shifting around proportions in Photoshop or re-drawing the portions that needed it. Today, I’m SO EXCITED about it. This is definitely a piece I’m going to be proud of! I can’t wait to (re)start coloring.

5. Who is Your Ideal TV Boyfriend?

Posted on

Gah, I didn’t realize you had to have an account on the forum to view stuff there. Lame. Check out the Dresden graphic novel page here!

Posted on

A page of art from from the Dresden Files graphic novel has been leaked! And it’s preeeeeeeeety. Check it out here!

(Edited to fix link!)

Meanwhile, I somehow failed to mention here that the Dresden Files novelette “Backup,” told from Thomas’ POV, is going to be illustrated by MIKE MIGNOLA. EEE! Preorder here, but be aware that the blurb contains HUGE spoilers for Blood Rites. Wow, I spend all my time pimping this news in other places that I forget my own blog. :D

Posted on

My Canadian Bretheren! My Neighbors to the North!

Space is airing the full two-hour unaired Dresden Files pilot this Saturday at 8 pm. I’m not sure how likely it is that the episode will make it to the US any time soon, so would any of you be able to record it for me? DVD, avi, VHS… all are good! I’d happily reimburse shipping. Email me or comment if you can help. The fandom will thank you!

Posted on

GLEE! James Marsters’ site just announced that he’ll be doing the audio book of Small Favor, tenth book of The Dresden Files! Details here.

And FREAKING SQUEE! I just got THE LAST TICKET to see Tim Burton at the Lincoln Center next week! …At least, the last Mezz seat. Which… drat. Probably means it’s the worse in the Mezz section. I should have gone with Balcony. But I just bought my ticket, so oh well. I’m sure every seat will be a good one! Stupid confusing thing saying “1 ticket left,” misleading me and making me rush my decision. But it will be awesome, and EEE TIM BURTON.

Posted on

Ah, finally, time for a sane post! Life continues to go swimmingly in La Vida Cellie. Here, have a recap:

Last Thursday (as in a week from yesterday), I saw Tori Amos in concert for the first time, and she was excellent. She’s such a strong performer! Playing two pianos at once = pretty awesome. I can’t even play one piano.

As I alluded to before, work has been somewhat mad lately, but madness breeds humor and silliness, so all is good. In addition to my usual duties assembling characters, I did some work painting body textures, drawing heavily on the anatomy lessons from my figure modeling class. Mmm, anatomy! I need to find time to do some drawing soon. I need to experience Dr. Sketchy’s.

Speaking of art, I mentioned the other day that Dabel Brothers Publishing is making the Dresden Files into graphic novels. Well, the news gets COOLER! I can now reveal that I’ve been brought in as a Thematic Consultant, meaning that I, along with Jim and the other two Consultants, will be the first to see the artwork as it comes out. We give our thoughts on the artwork and help keep everything canon-friendly. We got to suggest the scenes depicted for the promotional posters, and the art we’ve seen so far is EXTRAORDINARY. I can’t wait until it’s revealed to the public! Also, our names will be credited. Yes, we are awesome. :D

This weekend, I’m going to York, Pennsylvania, to attend a Halloween bash at the home of Courtney and Ryan, the coolest couple EVER, whom I met at the PA Shindigs. Kristin, hostess of the Shindigs, is giving me a ride. Many of the attendees are part of the Star Wars 501st, so I’ll be among fellow costuming enthusiasts! A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Also, I just found out that Ko, roommate extraordinaire, will be in New York next week, so it’ll be all kinds of fun to catch up with her life. Also, it’s likely we’ll meet up with Veronica, who was my favourite professor at Penn. She taught the Feminist Fairy Tales course, which changed the way I view storytelling and revision.

In other news, I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. My daily commute allots me about an hour of reading time per day, which I didn’t realize I so desperately craved until it was imposed upon me. I’m currently reading Robin McKinley’s Sunshine, which is excellent. I read her Deerskin in said much-beloved Fairy Tales class last year, and it became my favourite book of the course. This summer, I read Beauty, which was also wonderful, and The Blue Sword is now on my shelf, jockeying for a position on my To-Read list. Mmm, such a great author!

Recently, I have read:

  • Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series. It’s a lot more lightweight than my usual fare, but it’s cute and fun and the literary equivalent of popcorn. Good stuff.
  • The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud. Delightfully complex and dark for something billed as a children’s book. I’ll be returning to this series before too long.
  • Unshapely Things, Mark del Franco. Solid urban fantasy.
  • Something From the Nightside, Simon R Green. Mmm, more urban fantasy. While the characters could be tedious at times, I love the inventiveness and atmosphere.
  • Zorro, Isabel Allende. My mom has been harping at me to read this book for months, and now I know why! This book is extraordinary. Vivid, compelling characters and lush descriptions bring to life the early years of the man who would become Zorro.
  • “Rats,” Veronica Schanoes. A darkly powerful short story published in Interfictions that makes some excellent comments on the nature of fairy tales and storytelling.
  • The First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde. Oh my good lord, I’d forgotten how much I adore this series! These books are so smart and witty, my brain does a little dance of appreciation. I need to go back and read all the Thursday Next books RIGHT NOW. And I need to give Fforde’s nursery crime series a second chance. The fact that they are not Thursday books is not a valid criticism.
  • His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik. First in the Temeraire series, which has been pitched as “Master and Commander, with Dragons.” It’s refreshingly novel, written in a style very different from the sci-fi/fantasy I’ve been reading lately. I wasn’t compelled to immediately pick up the next books in the series and devour the lot in one gulp, but I’ll probably return to it before too long.
  • Making Money, Terry Pratchett. While not as spectacular as Going Postal, it was still nevertheless crazy, crazy fun, and I adored sharing head space with Moist again.

I love you, New York Public Library.

And now, gotta pack!

Posted on

I’m back from PhauxCon! I had such an amazing time, and I’m already teasing out ideas for a panel next year. I was lucky enough to meet Jim Butcher (author of The Dresden Files) at NY Comic Con last year and found him to be all the things you’d hope a favourite author would be in real life: affable and funny and down-to-earth. But getting to hang out with him and his wife Shannon (also a published author) in such a relaxed atmosphere was an entirely different dynamic! The Butchers are such great people, and they’re even more fun when they’re not exhausted and stressed out by the grind of a huge convention or a signing tour!

Friday night, we watched the unaired, 67-minute Dresden pilot, and Jim merrily heckled the entire thing. It was HILARIOUS. Heckling bad Sci-Fi channel movies is a tradition in the Butcher household, and the incomplete special effects and temporary voice overs in the pilot made for a lot of easy jokes. One of Jim’s running comments was to repeat the text of the cards on the temporary effects in an excited tone with “Trust Us!” added, like “Bianca’s face is burned! Trust us!” He also shared a bunch of cool behind-the-scenes facts about the series, such as “This is where the stunt guy broke both his legs.” Poor stunt guy.

Saturday, Jim and Shannon each did a Q&A session, and as many of the attendees are writers, they were able to share their experience dealing with the writing process with us. Shannon wore my Maeve tiara during hers, as she is Queen of Estonia. Jim also talked about his experience with the various Dresden media spinoffs–the TV show, the comic, and a few potential projects on the horizon. Coooooool!

The other panels were excellent. Steph continued her “Flashcard Fandom” tradition with Torchwood, Deb made an extraordinary presentation I wish I’d recorded on public perception of fandom, Nikki talked about anti-heroes (and why we love them), Steph and Eurydice talked about the transition from fan fic to pro fic, and another woman whose name begins with an L but completely escapes me talked about the significance of alleys in Buffy and Angel. It was fascinating stuff, and it generated some great discussions!

At the three dining events, the Butchers joined us in geeking out over various nerdy pursuits and regaled us with stories about their son, J.J., who is quite clearly the coolest kid in the history of the universe (and is also goin’ to Utah!). At the signing, Xionin gave Jim a set of the Serenity Alliance Currency Money Pack that hadn’t sold in the silent auction, and he joked about “Gettin’ paid in cashy money,” quoting Mal, then amended this statement to “Gettin’ paid in cash and coke,” referring to the seemingly bottomless supply of Coca-Cola Xionin provided for him. I took home the other money pack and the Tenth Doctor and K9 action figure set. Now Ten and Illyria and the cast of Mirrormask can have wacky escapades on my desk at work!

The Shindig was all kinds of fun. As readers of my blog know, I came as Maeve, and I was delighted at how well it turned out! I got all kinds of praise from both Jim and the other con-goers. Most of the group didn’t come in costume, but we did get a wonderful Michael, a Charity, a hybrid book cover/TV Harry, a vampire, a 70’s dude, and a pair of ladies in Ren Fest attire. Jim joked that was dressed as Dr. Chao, the cameo character he played on the TV show. He showed us concept art from the upcoming comic (including some images I hadn’t seen yet!) and read from one of the Dresden books, doing so in the most energetic, geeky, delighted voice imaginable. He was having SO MUCH FUN as he read to us, and we laughed and cheered and winced right along with him. It was like reading it again for the first time! Crazy fun. A splendid time was had by all!

I’m mostly relying on Xionin and Rob for photos, but here are a few that were taken with my camera:
Me and Jim
Me, Jim, and Rob
A very blurry shot of our Carpenter couple
And here’s the wig alone again, as I am so freaking proud of how it turned out!

I’ll post more pictures (and a link to the video of Jim’s Q&A session) as soon as they’re available. Hopefully Xio and Rob will upload them sometime this week, after they recover from the con and perhaps take a three-day nap. :D And note that Jim and Rob are not short, I’m just wearing six inch platforms, making me 6’3″! And I didn’t break an ankle! Win!

I have no hat, so I will say that my wig is off to Xionin for putting together an absolutely extraordinary con experience. I’m in awe of all the work she does for PhauxCon, and I’m so grateful. I had such a blast! Love to all the returning members, and I hope I can hang out with some of you again before PhauxCon 6!