Beckett draws

Woohoo, Beckett has made her first post in Curiosity: A Graphic Novel Project by Beckett Gladney and Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

From Beckett: "We’re in the ongoing process of developing the look and feel of this graphic novel, so I thought a description of our working methods might be of interest."

I'm SO enjoying working with Beckett, by the way.

We have a good chemistry and most importantly, we're able to be upfront with each other about what we like and don't like. Both Beckett and I tend to be introvert/empathic types, but I think we both realize how important it is for both of us keep an open communication. Our working relationship reminds me a great deal of my working relationship within Urban Tapestry in that we offer critique when asked but know how to do so in a supportive and constructive context.

We also know when to back off and trust that the other person knows what she's doing, even if we may not necessarily agree completely. There's a very fine line between giving an honest critique and being too aggressive, but there's also a danger of being too afraid of hurting the other person's feelings and not being aggressive enough.

I feel pretty lucky to have found Beckett. :-)

Anyway, do check out Beckett's post.

The Squirrels Are Taking Over

A power transformer blew in our neighbourhood yesterday (a squirrel was responsible, I know it) and we lost power for much of the day. I ended up having to research, write and upload my daily Writersmarket.com column on my iPhone, which wasn't fun. But still...better than not being able to do the column at all.

The squirrels are taking over.

I've added a Google Custom Search Engine to Electricpenguin.com which searches all our online projects. In theory, therefore, you should be able to enter one search term and get results from Inkygirl, Blatherings, etc. Feel free to try it out!

Fan Expo 2008 (part 2)

I've heard people complain about the commercial-run sf conventions like Fan Expo, and I can sympathize. The first thing you see when you arrive is a huge room of things to buy; the room is strategically arranged so that in order to get to any of the programming areas, you have to make your way past aisles and aisles of vendors hawking their goods.



Yes, the emphasis is on making money rather than community, but the money they make at these events helps pay for big media names like Sean Astin and Brent Spiner (pictured above). And many other well-known names in sf, comics, gaming, horror and anime.

Fan Expo is really a bunch of conventions in one, with separate programming for each theme (comics, sf, etc.). And costumes...TONS of costumes. Sometimes it seemed as if more people had costumes than not.



At first I felt nervous asking costumed people if I could take photos of them, but quickly found that no one minded.



In fact, it was clear that they WANTED to be photographed. Some of the groups were already used to being asked by the time I got to them, and immediately fell into their "official" poses:



Fan Expo was a photographer's dream. :-)

I loved all the colours, the wild hair, the different looks. In terms of people-watching, it was ideal as well as tons of fun.



There were times that I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the crowds and the "BUY BUY BUY" message, but all I had to do was focus on a smaller community or make my own within the weekend, and I started having fun again.

Like playing some games in the boardgaming area, for example:



I played three games on Friday: Men and Martinis (wasn't crazy about this game), Cover Up (pictured above, really enjoyed this game) and Star Wars Miniatures (was too much of a straight 'kill the other guys' game for me). Also got to know some people from the Toronto boardgaming society as well as Polymancer Studios (the latter told me they sometimes need artists, so who knows?).



Enjoyed chatting with some of the creators in Artists' Alley, like BenjaminRivers.com. I bought and enjoyed his graphic novel, Snow.



I also had fun talking with other people in line-ups. I took the photo above on my iPhone (we were lining up for Brent Spiner's Q&A) and e-mailed it to Jeff with a "happy anniversary" message from everyone in the picture. :-D



And I enjoyed chatting with Kristen, one of my line mates while waiting for Sean Astin's Q&A.



By the way, I was only kidding when I said people mistook me for John Kalisz when I watched his table at the convention. :-)



My Fan Expo highlights:

- Dinner with John at Fresh (Spadina & Queen location). The more I get to know John, the more I like him. I also learned more about the comics industry and comic-making process from John during the weekend.

- Q&A session with Sean Astin. Seems like a really nice guy, very down-to-earth and a tad shy. I posted a bit more about his Q&A at Waiting For Bilbo.

- Q&A session with with Brent Spiner. Excellent speaker. He would be a great stand-up comedian! Hugely entertaining, and he does a great impression of Patrick Stewart. :-)



I mentioned yesterday that some of the guests were charging $60 an autograph. It seems that most of the guests charged $25-30, not $60. Buzz Aldrin charged $239 for an autograph and a seat at a special presentation.

A comment from Tanya Huff on charging money for autographs:

"About charging money for autographs; the thing is though, authors sort of do. If you're asking me to sign a hardcover, you've already paid the $30. Now you might have only paid $1 for a used copy of a paperback or you might just be asking me to sign a program book but in the end, I suspect it evens out. When I do a signing, I am, among other things, honouring the money that's already been spent on me that I've used, in turn, to pay my bills.

As actors only really have their image to sell and their image is how they make their living... Not that some of them need the extra money but I suspect it's more retaining control of product for the more successful than about the actual cash."


A table of free comics!



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Fan Expo 2008 (part 1)

Jeff and I were married exactly 17 years ago today! We're going out for a nice dinner tonight. :-)



Fun and busy weekend. I've been spending most of my time at Fan Expo 2008 at the Metro Convention Centre.

Our friend John Kalisz (pictured above, with Jeff) stayed at our place last night; he's one of the featured artists this year. I briefly manned his table for him yesterday; many passersby mistook me for John and I had to gently correct them.



Fan Expo is very different from the much smaller fun-run conventions I usually attend. For one thing, the guests don't tend to charge $30-60 an autograph or for a photo op at fan-run conventions.

I'll talk more about my first experience at Fan Expo soon (positive and negative), but I'm taking off in a few minutes to go back to the convention.



Looking forward to hearing Q&A sessions with Brent Spiner as well as Sean Astin this afternoon. You can see some of the photos I've been taking in my Flickr set.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!




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My cards make it to the Henries finals!

Jeff has pointed out that the titles of my Blatherposts are sometimes misleading, so I've resolved to try being better about that. I'm sure I confuse search engines as well.

As promised in today's Blathertitle, therefore, I'm going to talk first about the Henries. I had never heard of them until the small letterpress company (Blush is run by a couple in North Wales) that publishes my cards let me know that my cards have made it to the finals.




Apparently the Henries are the equivalent of the Oscars of the UK greeting card business. Only five companies are in the finals, and Blush Publishing is pretty small compared to the others, who are large and well-known companies. Over 15,000 cards were entered this year.

The winners will be announced at a black tie event at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on October 9th. Fingers crossed!




I have the first four cards on sale in my Etsy store. I keep getting inquiries from retailers who want to buy my cards wholesale (so I direct them to Blush), which is encouraging. I'm hoping to get samples of the last eight designs soon, so I can post them as well.

The Blush people tell me that my cards are selling well in the UK, and that Australian and Japanese distributors recently put in a large order as soon as they saw my new designs. Very cool.






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