Today on YA Rewind, author Gail Carriger joins me for a chat about her new young adult novel, Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School Book One). We talk about her literary influences, what appealed to her about a teenage protagonist, and why Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality floats above the moors. Continue reading
Last week I road-tripped with a couple of friends from Los Angeles to Seattle, cramming the trip into a couple of days so we’d make it in time for the second annual GeekGirlCon. I have to say, it was a different beast than last year’s convention. The organization went up about five levels, the location was more centralized and in the actual downtown part of the city, and the scope in general was beyond what you might expect from a con only in its second year.
But it was a completely different experience for me, since this year I decided to go as an exhibitor. Continue reading
In Geekomancy, forthcoming from Pocket Books, author Michael Underwood introduces us to Rhiannon “Ree” Reyes, a barista-slash-screenwriter-slash-geek who discovers the ability to turn science fiction and fantasy props into actual power and pick up super skills from watching TV. With barely a glance over her shoulder, Ree jumps into a world where Magic cards are actually magic, strangers from Faerie hang out in bars, and Aberrant Muses encourage suicides so the Duke of Pwn can get their souls. Continue reading
My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing yesterday after Felicia Day (Buffy, The Guild, Dollhouse, Eureka) retweeted my exclamatory blurb for her newest project: the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel. Specifically, I urged people to “watch @feliciaday make a fireplace poker with a real live blacksmith!” which spawned several good-natured jokes about undead blacksmiths or pokers made from blacksmith bits, and a surprising stream of retweets.
But 140 characters is barely a sentence, so I thought I’d go ahead and share a slightly more detailed reaction to all the nerdy programming that debuted. Continue reading
Once upon a time, Sarah Kuhn belonged to a “nerd collective” that put out a .pdf zine with a geek focus: Grok. For each issue, the collective came up with a theme, and everyone wrote a piece around that topic. And from the theme of Pon Farr Kuhn’s geeky romance novella, One Con Glory, sprang into existence. Continue reading
This was the genesis for artist and graphic designer Adam Levermore’s original ‘Life in Roburbia’ series, the first print of which (‘At the Roburbia Cafe’) becomes available today. Levermore has become well known in the pop-culture community for his Serenity travel posters and Battlestar Galactica propaganda poster set from Quantum Mechanix, as well as other officially licensed tie-in art. For the first time, he has decided to play in his own universe. Continue reading
The First Annual Geek Girl Con was a lovely sight to behold, both figuratively and literally (some awesome cosplay!). Totally low-key and mellow, with a wonderful sense of camaraderie and community. Everyone seemed very comfortable with themselves and each other. There was a definite sense of intelligence in the air; great, detailed discussions about representation in television, novels, and comics took place in every room. Continue reading
Sometimes, the convention scene is stressful. There’s not enough time to do everything, or see everything, or hear everything. As I was considering some of my favorite things about con, the one that went to the top of the list is the opportunity to interact with other people who feel the way I do about geeky things. That got me thinking about ways to make that happen, and I came up with a little scavenger hunt, guaranteed to allow the so-inclined to geek it up. Continue reading
I’ve got some events and deadlines coming up in the next couple of months, so it’s crunch time. First, at the start of October I’ll be headed to Seattle for Geek Girl Con with my friend Clare. I’m pretty excited about this, especially since I had a rather disappointing time at Comic-Con this year. It’s also my last big ticketed event until I get a new job. Continue reading
Writer-producer and fellow geek Amy Berg got her start writing for SNICK’s Kenan & Kel, and went on to write for such shows as Boomtown, Threshold, and The 4400. Currently she is a writer and co-executive producer for SyFy’s Eureka, the show about Jack Carter, the sheriff of “a little town with a big secret.” Ms. Berg graciously took time out of her schedule to answer a few questions I had about writing genre, shipping, and the alternate timeline that turned the town of Eureka upside-down. Continue reading
