Supanova, day 2

Day 2:

• Got my Lorne tribute comic signed my Mark Lutz, had a bit of a chat to him about how Perth is to the rest of Australia kind of like Canada is to America (and Tassie is Alaska, haha).
• Picked up The Example from the Gestalt booth, chatted to Justin Randall while I was there.
• Read The Example while waiting for the Marianne de Pierres writing session. LOVED it, and have added it to the "must review" list.
• Went to the Dichen Lachman session. She was sweet, funny and wonderfully geeky.

I had a bit of disappointment today: because the SupaStar sessions were running late, I had to choose between sitting in on Eliza Dushku's freaking packed session or going along to Marianne's talk about writing. The boyfriend said I would have loved Eliza's session, she talked a lot about feminism and the entertainment industry which I am really interested in, but I don't regret my choice - Marianne has a lot of experience and she's really approachable. I got a lot out of her talk and got to ask her some questions afterwards. Eliza's session was so full, I don't think I would have been able to get out in time to see Marianne! I got most of the highlights from the boyfriend, who stood in line for about an hour so he could get a seat in Eliza's thing. Hopefully she'll return in the not-too-distant future and I'll be able to actually see her.

I really enjoyed Dichen and Mark's sessions, which weren't packed - they should have been, but it was a nicer atmosphere for us anyway. I think a lot of people were deterred by the time. Mark's session was at 10.40am on Saturday, when I think nearly 3/4 of the convention attendees were still in line outside. Dichen's was at 4.10pm on Sunday, when a lot of people had gotten worn out and were going home, or were getting last-minute photographs and autographs (those lines were IN-SANE, especially for Charisma, Summer and Eliza). Hopefully next year the Supanova organisers will plan the space a bit better. They had the wrestling arena next to the food area. Not only did they NOT have enough food vendors, but the lines were totally confused and congested with all the people standing around watching the wrestling. They kept changing which exits we were and weren't allowed to use for the seminars, the space was waaaaay too small (people hand to stand, and some were even turned away during several sessions). The theatre where all the anime/manga, comic and book stuff was happening was ridiculously cold, as well as being far too big for the turnout those had. Hopefully they'll sort out all those kinks next year, now that they know what kind of numbers to expect!

Honestly, I'd love to go to WorldCon in September, but it's just not an option for me at the moment. It's going to be a pretty long time before it's back in Australia, which is sad - the last AussieCon was in 1999, so I'm looking at about a ten-year wait. Sigh. Hopefully I'll win the lotto and be able to take myself and the boyfriend to WorldCon in another country :P

I have my blurb and my title for JulNoWriMo now, I'm pretty darn excited. I'm hoping to be able to get some serious reading done in my last four days of leisure, then it'll be all write, all the time until the end of July!

Hope your weekend was as good as mine ;)
Jade

Supanova, day 1

Um, wow.

I had been tossing up whether or not to post anything about my Supanova experience, but I have had the BEST day today. Firstly, I got books signed by Marianne de Pierres (who recognised me from Supanova '08!), Christian Tamblyn, and Rob Kaay (who gave me a free poster). This was my goal for Supanova, really. Forget the big TV stars, writing is my passion, and these three are Australians who have been published, who are inspiring, and who are good at what they do! Marianne went to a university not far from me, a fact I cling to when I hear snide remarks about my arts degree. Christian and Rob both released their books only recently. I will be posting reviews of Rob and Chris' books when I get a chance to enjoy them properly. I grabbed them just in time to read all of Rob'sand most of Christian's, before I got them signed.

I stopped by the Borders booth to 'get my sign on', and I was absolutely privelaged to have a chat with each of my Aussie wricons. Marianne and I talked about the importance of writing regularly, the insanity of Karen Mill's writing pace, Kylie Chan's in-depth knowledge of Japanese mythology, and her awesome new hair. She is such a lovely lady and a regular con-goer. She said I must ask lots of questions in her panel tomorrow :)

Christian, oh wow! I told him I was a bit bummed I hadn't been able to finish his book yet, as I wanted to discuss the whole thing with him. He told me to drop him an email when I finished it, and let him know what I thought! I was stunned! He is currently working on a sequel to Dragon of the Second Moon, which I was very glad to hear. As a very newly-published author, he still has a 'day job' (engineering planes!) so a few people asked him in the panel how he goes about balancing that. I was really happy to hear he liked the cover they'd put on DOTSM, as I have heard horror stories about covers (Jenny Fallon has some funny ones). He was really friendly and chatty, and I enjoyed talking to him.

Rob is... well, he's definitely embraced a trans-media perspective. His book is available as hardcover, paperback and PDF on his website. He is in the middle of releasing a podcast version of his book. He is doing it slowly, bit by bit, because he's taking almost an old-school radio approach to it. Firstly it's HIM reading, not a random actor, and because of his musical background Rob writes music and sound pieces which are underlaid with the book being spoken. The whole effect is really different and it took me a bit of time to get used to it, especially since the music was a bit too loud in the live reading. Rob and I had an awesome chat about what might happen in a sequel, whether or not the book would translate to a movie well (he is actually working on a screenplay version!) and I suggested he look into the idea of making a webseries version. He was really keen to know more, but obviously he was busy doing signings and stuff, so he gave me a poster and said, "I'm really interested, could you shoot me an email?" I friended him on Facebook and basically told him to look into A Very Potter Musical, The Guild and Dr. Horrible. Again, love how open these guys are to feedback, and general conversation from fans!

Being able to talk to these amazing, talented people, not only as people but as artists who are genuinely interested in your perspective on their work was an amazing experience. I came away from that booth in an absolute daze. As an Australian who has a passion for the entertainment industry, it's so comforting to know that national and international attitudes are changing, that I won't have to move away to the US to prosper creatively.

I stopped at a little both labelled "Gestalt Publishing" during one of our non-panel times, and caught the eye of one of the guys there. I said, "Ok, I'm seeing some great artwork here, but I know nothing!" so he told me about Gestalt and their product. Turns out, they're a Perth-based comics and graphic novel publishing company, which I was really excited to hear. They had work from their more prominent artists there, including an anthology showcase called Flinch, containing short comics by twenty different Gestalt artists. I grabbed that right away, and there was this gorgeous, eye-catching volume sitting on the table:

image taken from Gestalt's website.

My boyfriend saw me eyeing it off and before I knew it, he'd grabbed that AND Flinch out of my hands and bought them for me. I even scored the last signed copy of Changing Ways! Justin Randall wrote and drew this beautiful, creepy volume. He lectures at Curtin. I'm seeing a trend here (do I need to transfer?!). I will be reviewing this graphic novel once I can figure out how to describe it. I haven't finished it and already I want everyone I know to read it. It's simply stunning. There was another comic there called The Example which sounded really interesting. I may have to go back for it tomorrow (since I technically didn't spend any money today, haha) and so I can gush over Justin in person. If you think that cover is beautiful, you won't be disappointed by the art inside. The writing absolutely does it justice, too. If this guy isn't an international star in five years, I will be very surprised and disappointed. He's seriously THAT good. The story's like... ah, I'm too tired to describe it. It can wait for a proper review.

We managed to get some pretty impressive celebrity guests in this year, including Mark Lutz, Charisma Carpenter, Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku, and Dichen Lachman. A nice big Whedon-y string. Today was the first three names on my list, and it was pretty good. Mark's turnout was small, which was really sad because he was the most engaging of the lot! He is a very, very funny man! He talked about squirrels, women's deodorant and his love of April Fools. I will be paying for an autograph from him tomorrow, on my Lorne tribute comic. Someone asked him about Andy in the session. Someone who obviously hadn't done their homework, and put it the worst way possible, ugh. Mark retained his composure, very professionally, and continued to be funny after that but I was pretty annoyed on his behalf. Having someone ask you if you were 'close' to your best friend who died a year ago doesn't really make for a fun convention experience.

Summer Glau was so adorable. I think she was a bit overwhelmed at how many people we packed into the too-small panel area. Charisma had already mentioned being 'warned' about how small Perth is and not to 'expect too much'. It was great being able to see/hear the two beautiful "Joss girls" in person, but to be perfectly honest, I enoyed Mark's session more. Because it was a lot smaller I got to ask a few questions, and because I know about his background on and off Angel, at one point he asked me if I'd been talking to his mother! I had to laugh at that. It was mostly because I was asking about his movie Victor, which wasn't aired in Australian cinemas.


There was a lunar eclipse tonight, on top of all that awesomeness. I tried to get a photo but it's freezing outside, and my camera was not behaving. I didn't get any good photos of con stuff today either! Ah, well.

Here's to day 2!
Jade.

Fantasy authors: support local!

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GENERAL BLOG NOTE: I've made a small but important change to my blog, in that I have moved the post labels (tags) to under the post title, instead of at the bottom near the comments link. That way, those who are more interested in comic/movie reviews won't get halfway into a make-up related post and want to cry. And vice versa ;)

Onto the actual post:
Have you ever been surprised to know that an author, musician or artist used to live in your area? Because of the huge amount of American and English media that Australia gets, I'm always excited when I find something Australian. It's just nice to know that we can get our toes into the global talent pool as well. I especially like finding authors who still live in Australia. It gives me hope that, should I decide to pursue novel writing, I wouldn't have to move countries to succeed professionally. This is almost definitely the case in areas like film and music.

Getting to know (and like) the work of local creative types means you have better chances of meeting your icons in person. Two Australian authors I can always count to be at Perth Supanova are Marianne de Pierres and Jennifer Fallon. I'm a little bit embarassed to say I haven't read Jennifer's work. I have read Marianne's Parrish Plessiss series and was bowled over by the pacing, and the gritty, violent and complex  post-apocalyptic universe she's created. Marianne went to a university in my area, something that always cheers me up when I hear derogatory comments about arts degrees (since I'm doing one alongside my major in media studies, and my minor in journalism). I am still eyeing off her more recent series whenever I pass a bookstore.

After news of another Supanova cancellation reached my ears (rather, eyes, as it was on Facebook) I decided to have a look at the current activity and guest information for Perth. I clicked into the author section and saw two unfamiliar names - Rob Kaay and Christian Tamblyn. These two Aussie guys have very recently published their first novels, and both are science fiction/fantasy, which is pretty much my favourite genre. I went into my local Borders, but they didn't have either in stock, so I'm just going to order them off the authors' websites (linked above). Rob Kaay's book is actually avaible in audio and soft-copy format off his website, but I'm a traditionalist, and I like paper books :)

I'll write up a review of both of these books for the blog, but if I like them (which I'm fairly sure I will) what will be most exciting is meeting these guys in person and (fingers crossed!) getting my book signed. I also hope to attend Jennifer Fallon's World Building class, which I've sadly missed in the last two years of Supanova.

There are a few other Aussie authors I love and would reccommend (I have linked to their offiicial websites so you can check them out):

• Kylie Chan, author of the incredible Dark Heavens Trilogy and in-the-works Wudang series. These series are rich in Chinese mythology - I shudder to think of the amount of research Kylie had to do, but it certainly adds a wonderful depth and mystery to the books. They may be fantasy, but all the human characters are wonderfully, well, human.

• K.E. Mills, author of the Rogue Agent series (both of these wonderful women are avid convention attendees, unfortunately neither of them have been to Perth yet). K.E. Mills is actually a pseudonym for Karen Miller, who has written several other successful series under that name. The Rogue Agent series basically takes all the tropes and elements of 'magic'-based fiction and straight crime/detective fiction and turns it on its head. I am re-reading all of the three current books and writing a review which will go up as soon as I finish it.

• Sophie Masson, author of Cold Iron, an absolutely spellbinding novella inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I found this in my local library years ago, and borrowed it about twelve times, reading and re-reading constantly until I found it in a secondhand bookstore. It now sits happily on my shelf. I didn't realise until this post that she continued writing and amassed quite a long list of both YA and adult fiction! I will have to hit the library and eBay to play catch-up.

• Ian Irvine, author of The View From the Mirror series (I'm having a bit of trouble tracking down book 4, which is a pain, because I neeeeeed to know what happens!) it's an adventure story spanning two worlds. Like most epic fantasy, it has a vast amount of characters and locations, but everything is wonderfully lush and 3-D. No 'description swamps', though!

• Sara Douglass, author of the Axis trilogy, a dark and twisted web of mythology, love, betrayal and politics. Beautiful in parts, disturbing in others. As I said to my boyfriend, "she is certainly not afraid to make a character SUFFER! A LOT!"

These are just what I've read so far! I have many other authors on my Aussie reading list: Jennifer Fallon (of course), Trudi Canavan, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Fiona McIntosh, and Garth Nix are at the top. I have a few other miscellanious bits of fiction knocking around, now that I've finished uni for the semester (yay!). I'm seeking to expand my literary horizons so I'm not just reading fantasy all the time. I'm starting with A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, and the collected works and letters of Emily Dickinson. I'll probably review most of what I read, hoping it will help me not tear through them as fast as I normally do, and keep my brain from turning into slush over the uni break. I haven't got an awful lot of shifts, even with two jobs (I got the one at that upmarket handbag place, by the way! Total freak-out fluke, and now I'm learning to sell brands I've never heard of and could only afford if I saved for a month).
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Many more posts coming up! I have 4 drafts at the moment, including the long-ago promised banana bread recipe and the Concrete Minerals primer review. And there will of course be occasional spontaneous discuss-y posts, like my Foundation Day one and this one.

Happy reading!
Jade.

P.S. if you've met one of your favourite artists or writers, tell me in the comments! Or tell me about someone you found out used to live, work or go to school near you. I'm also very, very open to book reccommendations.

Felicia-ah!

I am so very stoked right now!

Fact: I live in Perth, Australia. The big smoke of WA, we are really not a tourist capital. There's not an awful lot to see, or do. You either live here, or you're... not here. Holiday location, it ain't.

That is why firstly I was excited 2 years ago when Supanova, Australia's biggest science fiction and pop culture convention, annouced that they were coming to Perth! Previously you'd have had to truck all the way over to Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney to attend, which can cost a surprising amount. The first Perth Supanova was flooded with eager participants, and they didn't disappoint us with guests, either. Jewel Staite (best known from Firefly, Serenity and Stargate Atlantis! I got my Serenity comic signed) came! To everyone's great joy, Supanova announced that because of the great fan reception, they'd be returning every year. Last year I was away and much to my chagrin, didn't get to go. This year I was greatly saddened to hear that James Marsters (Buffy, Angel, Torchwood, Ghost of the Robot and solo artist) was only making an appearance at Brisbane and Melborne AND was holding a concert there as well! I'd just started complaining (on Facebook) that Perth never gets anything good, when I clicked on the Perth/Sydney guest list, and there she was.

FELICIA DAY!

If you don't know Felicia... well, I suppose that's understandable. She hasn't made too much of a splash on TV or in the movies. She guest-starred on Buffy, House, and Lie to Me and according to online rumours, she's just finished shooting a movie, Red (I say 'online rumours' because she's been posting about it on Facebook, but there isn't any info on IMDB right now). How I know of Felicia is from her internet-based creative endeavors.

Felicia not only wrote the supremely popular and critically acclaimed webseries The Guild, but she directs and stars in it as well! The initially very low-budget series gained attention rapidly, eventually partnering with Microsoft, and spawned t-shirts, DVD versions and a recent comic series, written of course by Felicia. I hope to get my hands on it soon, but I'm not sure if it's come over to Aus yet.

Fans of cult-hit director Joss Whedon will know Felicia from another internet hit: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, in which she play's the main character's love interest. Dr. Horrible also has a DVD version, a stand-alone comic, and a promised sequel (which is taking SO LONG to do... all of the main characters are busy with other shows, but C'MON Joss!)

I just think Felicia is amazing: brilliant writer, fantastic actress, great singing voice. All-around creative genius! She absolutely inspires me with the staggering range she has, the fact that what was basically a side-hobby spawned an entire career, and she's still so down-to-earth and likes normal things, like gaming and coffee and animals.

She's proof that talent and determination can still get you places in life, despite this "it's not what you know, but who you know" mantra that the media industry (and society, really) has going at the moment. I mean, yes, her connections with the guys in The Guild and with Joss Whedon from Buffy have helped her in the industry, but they are also really cool, professional people. Skills, work ethics and a desire to reach people still have meaning, and I find that really encouraging.

Off to figure out how to make a Captain Hammer-type groupie shirt with Felicia's face on it.
Until next we meet,
Jade.