Returned From the Great Beyond

Yes, once again, I disappeared.  I’m sorry.  There’s been a lot going on lately.  Here’s a quick recap:

1.  My boy-nugget and I wrote a novel.  An actual novel.  A really, really long novel.  So, now we’re editing it and we’ll see where it goes from here.  But, it was a great experience to write with him and to finish something, which I’ve always had a hard time doing (I’m sure you guys haven’t noticed that).

2. DragonCon.  Costumes!  Craziness!  No sleep!  Jonathan Maberry!  I won’t do a whole DragonCon recap here, but it was a wacky fun time.  Here is my flickr set for all the photos I took.  The two major highlights for me were the GI Joe photo shoot with The Finest, which is a GI Joe costume club along the lines of the 501st Legion, and the SparkFun workshop where I got to play with conductive thread.

3.  The Mary Robinette Kowal book signing at Little Professor.  That was amazing.  I’d show you pictures, but I was so busy being excited and making sure everyone had tea that I forgot to take any.  Oops.  Mary was charming and wonderful and looked much better in her gown than John Scalzi did.  She read to us from Valour and Vanity which will be out from Tor in April of 2014.  She also gave us a shadow puppet show!  It was lovely.  And then I got to go to dinner with her and a few other people.  We talked about books, writing, movies, and (most importantly) my Glamourist Histories cosplay for next year.
I will, by hook or by crook, do a Jane Elsworth cosplay next year.  Mary and I spent a bit of time over dinner discussing how to best simulate glamour in my costume.  I think we’ve come up (and by we I mean Mary) with an ingenious device involving magnets, a satin tube, gloves, cheese cloth and wires.  I may have to add LEDs now that I know how to sew them onto fabric.  Also, I have agreed to play a Shades of Milk and Honey LARP once Mary comes up with the rules.  I’ll be looking for like minded people to dress up and play with me when the time comes.  Cravats, will be flounced about necks, to misquote the Scarlet Pimpernel musical.

So, that is why I have been away.  But, think how much fun I had!  I’ll be back soon with another book review!