Rose City Comic Con!

Okay, here it is. THE BIG POST. Yes, it’s probably going to be a little on the longer side, but it’s been a month and I’m still so flippin’ excited I can’t hardly stand it. I’m already planning for next year.

So as I mentioned before, this was my first ever comic con. I had always wanted to attend one and just never had before. Well, my very sweet friend Tracy decided to treat me to this particular con, because she wanted to me to experience the greatness firsthand. It was a wonderful and amazing gift, let me tell you. I decided to go as Black Widow from The Avengers, and I think it’s safe to say that I made a few fanboys pretty happy. 😉 (Total side note, but I absolutely LOVED how my costume turned out. Buying from Amazon is never a guarantee, but in this case it was very well-made.)

Not the best picture, but meh lighting will do that.

 

The only thing my grandma and I had to adjust was the shoulders of the costume, but I blame that entirely on my inability to measure correctly. I’m no seamstress, so I’m sure that I just sent in the wrong measurements. Everything else fit perfectly, and the accessories were just as good.

 

 

Tracy and I attended both days, and while I didn’t get a chance to listen to any of the panels, it was still a worthwhile experience in my opinion. It was a flurry of costumes and people, even a few service dogs. I glomped on right away to some of my favorite characters.

 

 

And naturally, I had to pose with just about any character from the Marvel universe. Because Marvel. (And yes, I realize that Black Widow wouldn’t be grinning from ear to ear for all these photos, but I was excited and couldn’t help myself. Pretty much anyone who came and asked to have their picture with me got a huge smile because that was totally flattering.)

 

This guy’s costume was INSANELY realistic. His voice sounded all electronic and everything. It was probably one of the most impressive costumes there, in my opinion. (And yes, it was even better than naked fish guy in the background.)

 

My personal favorite picture was when I found Captain America, Bucky AND the Black Panther altogether. I had seen the Captain and Bucky from a distance, and their costumes were probably the most detailed of all of the different Marvel characters I saw there. I had hoped that I would get a chance to take a picture with them and, low and behold, as we descended down the escalator, I spotted them with Black Panther and posing for a few people. I immediately dashed over and said, “I have GOT to take a picture with you guys.”

 

The second they saw my costume, they got all excited and motioned me over. Tracy was the primary one taking pictures for the weekend, so she snapped a couple of photos. Unbeknownst to her, a group of people immediately crowded behind her with their cell phones, getting shots of the four of us together. I tell ya, I felt a little like a celebrity for a few seconds. It was kinda cool.

 

Not a bad looking bunch, eh? Team Captain FTW, baby. (And is that a handsome Captain America or what?) 😉

 

I even managed to find some Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

 

Of course, then I found out they were actually working for HYDRA.

 

 

So that was the majority of Saturday. Oohing and aahing over costumes, checking out all of the vendors (I got a GORGEOUS Doctor Who print that I love) and getting some autographs from pretty famous celebrities. Sunday was reserved more for photo ops and more perusing of the vendors.

 

Which brings me to perhaps my favorite moments and my celebrity reveal: I GOT TO MEET BILLY BOYD!!!

 

Okay, this man is one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet. Seriously. He has such a sweet, gentle spirit about him, and he made every single person who came up to him feel special. I got majorly tongue-tied around him, but he was still nice despite my stuttering.

 

I got Billy’s autograph on one of my Lord of the Rings movie guides, which is officially the crowning achievement to my collection. (Yes, I have an LotR collection. It’s pretty awesome, though I have yet to be able to properly display it. I’m hoping to fix that one day.)

 

We also got to meet Dante Basco, who played Rufio from the iconic Hook. That movie is one of my absolute favorites of all time. Talk about a piece of my childhood. (And tell me, what girl growing up didn’t have a crush on Rufio when this movie came out? I’m guilty as charged on that one.)

 

Dante was super cool in a more casual way. He was laid-back and easygoing but still very nice. He even told me I looked sexy in my Black Widow costume. That gives him major bonus points in my book. (This was taken with Tracy, the friend who invited me. She made her own costume and based it on a character of her own creation. Pretty darn cool.)

 

As we were standing in line to get pictures with Dante, there was this absolutely adorable little girl in front of us with her dad. She was maybe three or four, and she kept showing me her toys that she’d found at the conference. How was I supposed to resist such a cutie-pie wanting to play airplanes with me? The best part was when they went up for their photo with Dante, however. The dad had cut out a picture of his wife’s face and put it on a stick, so that she could be in the picture too. It cracked me up to no end. He looked rather sheepish when I asked him about it.

 

“She doesn’t actually know that I did that yet,” he said. “And she hasn’t seen the pictures.”

 

That made me laugh all the more, just picturing her reaction when she saw her smiling face in the photos as well.

 

I also got to (briefly) meet Stan Lee, Marvel creator and super-writer. There were so many people in line for the photo ops that our encounter was very short, but it was pretty overwhelming to be standing right next to a living legend.

 

Naturally I had to wear my costume for part of Sunday, just long enough to get a shot with Stan Lee.

 

So yeah, I think that’s about it. It was an amazing time and really fun. I was very impressed with how respectful and considerate everyone was. All of us were there for the same reason, which was to have a good time and meet cool people. No one shoved in line to meet celebrities or got impatient. They were all willing to wait their turn and were super nice whenever someone asked to get a picture with them.

I highly recommend attending a smaller Comic Con like this one to anyone who wants to meet other geeks and have a great time. As I said, I’m already planning for next year!

Dark Energy

Dark Energy by Robison Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Parental guide: Minor swearing, some violence, nothing explicit.

Holy moly, this book was SO GOOD. It’s a fairly quickly read, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Alice is one of the best protagonists that I’ve read about in a loooong time, and I felt that the author did a fantastic job of writing from a female perspective. Also? I loved the fact that she had such a great relationship with her father. I feel like too many times in YA literature, the parents are either absent for one reason or another, or they’re portrayed as idiots. All parents were teenagers at one point in time or another, so it’s not entirely unreasonable to assume that some of them remember what it’s like. Alice’s father was a good mixture of protective and supportive, which made their interactions that much more fun.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a quick sci-fi, give this one a chance. I’m off to go check out some of the author’s other books now, don’t mind me.

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cannot adequately put into words how much I enjoyed this book. Such an epic read deserves a truly epic review, but I doubt that my writing will live up to such greatness. Seriously, I need more than five stars to describe the awesomeness of this story.

I originally bought it as a Kindle Daily Deal because I had enjoyed Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart so much. It sat on my Kindle for quite some time, as I knew it would be a commitment once I started it. I was finally prodded by my brother, who is not quite the voracious reader that I am, that it was the best book he’d read in a long time. That’s saying something.

Well, I was finally ready to start a new journey, so I took the plunge. I am extremely happy that I did, because this book has become one of my all-time favorites. Sanderson’s worldbuilding is incredible, noting the details of each creature, culture and region. It was a world familiar enough to our own to make it easily believable, yet it was entirely from Sanderson’s imagination. I loved watching how each character’s storyline was somehow woven with the rest, though I think Kaladin’s and Dalinar’s stories were my favorites overall. There were twists that even I didn’t see coming, and I’m usually pretty good at that sort of thing.

The world that Sanderson has created is borderline Tolkien in its greatness, not because it mimics Middle Earth, but simply because of its grand scale and detail. It’s the kind of book that I was almost anxious to finish just so I could start reading it again from the beginning.

All in all, it is an epic fantasy of amazing proportion, and I cannot wait to plow through the sequel. Sanderson, you are incredible. Anyone who enjoys fantasy, read this book. Heck, even if you don’t like fantasy, read it anyway. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Random Thoughts

Random thoughts for today, May 28, 2013:

– Benedict Cumberbatch is quite possibly the best British name in the history of British names. Seriously. You cannot say it without a British accent; it would be sacrilege.
– I can’t wait to see Star Trek, a large part because of Benedict Cumberbatch.
– I received some really sound advice today from a little old lady who used to work on the phone for credit card companies, “Keep a smile on your face as you talk to your customer, no matter what. When you hang up the phone, then you can tell them what an idiot they are.”
– I like to think that I have a fairly witty comeback when people ask me if I have kids. I usually smile and say, “Just the furry kind.” The same little old lady mentioned above had the best response ever to that. She just laughed and said, “I take it you haven’t taught your daughter how to shave her legs yet?” Made my day.
– Downton Abbey is uh-MAY-zing. Enough said.
– I’m running out of random thoughts. That didn’t take long.

Hmm. I guess that’s it for now. I’ll be sure to keep you all informed of the next random thoughts that run through my head.

EDIT TO ADD: Wait a minute, why is it telling me that my post is dated the 29th? What time zone is my blog in? I know for a fact that it’s the 28th…maybe. *Twilight Zone music here*

Insignia

Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. LOVED it. Set in the not-so-distant future, World War III has finally arrived, and instead of destroying planet Earth, the human race has found a way to make war without human sacrifice.

Or so they think.

The planet has been separated into different governmental factions that control the earth’s remaining natural resources, and they’re at odds against one other. The whole world is literally fighting, but the battles now take place in space or on other planets. War is still war, however. Tom, a fourteen-year-old gamer genius, is stuck finding money and random hotel rooms wherever he can with his gambler father until the day that the government notices his incredible reflexes and quick thinking. Now that wars are fought with machinery light-years away, they need the best of the best to control those androids and ships. And that’s just the first couple of chapters.

I couldn’t put this book down, it was such a thrill ride. It reminded me a little of a cross between Ready Player One and the Artemis Fowl series, probably more for the teen crowd than tween. Loved the protagonist, loved the premise of the story. It was fun to watch as Tom learned how to be in the military, futuristic-style, and discovered what it was like to make real friends, complete with typical embarrassing teenage moments.

An excellent read and a major page-turner. In fact, I may have a new favorite YA author to add to my Rick Riordan and Eoin Colfer list. Looking forward to reading the rest of this series!

May the 4th be with you!

Another Happy Star Wars Day to you all! I can’t believe it’s come around yet again. By far the best part about this year’s Star Wars Day is that BROTHER IS COMING HOME FROM COLLEGE. *squee!* Yes, this is the same brother who plays video games for me. He’s my favorite sibling! Okay, so he’s my only sibling. But he’s still my favorite.

I don’t know about you fellow geeks, but I am positively quivering with excitement over the movies coming out this summer. We’ll have Iron Man 3, the new Star Trek, and (my personal favorite) THOR 2! What’s a fangirl to do? (The correct answer to that is watch them all.) Seriously. Amazing. Have you seen the trailer to Thor 2? Have you? HAVE YOU? My favorite part is knowing that Loki will be in it, however small the part. I heart Loki. Yes, I have a bit of a villain fetish. They’re usually such wicked cool characters. Literally.

I have no idea who drew this awesome picture, but I love it. Love, love, love!

Anyway, I know what I’ll be saving my pennies for this summer. Sure, we might be poor, but dang it, these movies were made for the big screen. It would be an insult to the special effects crew to watch them anywhere else first. So says me. I’m even thinking ahead to next year’s calendar. I have an awesome Legend of Zelda one at work right now, but perhaps a Thor one will be there next year. Must ponder that.

These are the kinds of movies that make me wish that someone would snatch up Prince of Light. I can picture the special effects in my head already, and I just know that if it was in the right hands, it would be incredible. The biggest challenge that I’ve had in writing book two is making sure that the action level is just a great if not better than book one. I almost outdid myself with the first book’s action sequences, and now I find myself staring at my Word document and thinking, “How am I going to top that? It was epic.” I’ll manage, I’m sure. (If not, the readers will let me know.)

I’m still too giddy from all the fantasmic movies coming out this year. I think I’ll go re-watch The Avengers to satisfy my palette a little until then.

Obviously I do not own Star Wars, Thor, or any of the images. I only wish that I had thought up ideas that cool. I know you know that, but I still have to cover my behind. 😀

Animals do the darndest things.

Alrighty, then. *dusts off blog* I guess it’s been a while. I’d like to say that I’ve been oh-so busy with writerly-related things…but I haven’t really. I’ve just been busy. Though I am now on about chapter 12 of the sequel to Prince of Light, so it hasn’t been a total waste. I think.

I’m not entirely sure how much writing I’ll get done this weekend, either. I get to dog-sit for some friends of ours, which is great, but time-consuming. Hunter’s a good dog, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll have THREE dogs to handle all by myself for three days, which makes me inadvertently twitch just a little. That’s right, Husband will be out of town, so it’s just me. All. By. Myself. *twitch*

She looks so innocent, right? Queen of the Puppy Eyes, that’s what she is. Until she turns into barking, spinning, furry pile of evil.

Last week, I had the brilliant idea to start training my dog, Samus, to be a licensed therapy dog after watching a really cool video of therapy dogs that visit our local hospitals. Samus absolutely loves people and gets along well with other animals. She has an alpha personality, so she’s not afraid of new places or situations, and she’s pretty obedient. In my confidence, I proudly posted the idea on Facebook, relishing in the fact that it garnished some “likes” and supportive comments.

Which is precisely why Samus decided to act like she was on speed when our friends came over to introduce their dog to ours. Spastic doesn’t even begin to cover it. I tried to nervously laugh it off while they were there. You know how it is. There I am, “Heh heh, she’s usually so obedient! Samus come here. No, really. She almost never barks…“ – cue deranged barking for no reason whatsoever – “…and she’s usually so laid back…” – this is where she starts spinning in circles over and over without stopping – “…She’s just a gem! Ha ha, Samus come here. Uh, yeah this was the one that I was thinking of training to be a therapy dog. SAMUS. COME. HERE.”

Aaaaaand that’s pretty much how it went the whole time. She couldn’t stop dancing around when Hunter came close to her, like “I HAVE A NEW FRIEND I HAVE A NEW FRIEND I HAVE A NEW FRIEND…OMG OMG OMG!” (Gretchen, Husband’s German wire-hair, just did her own thing like usual. She doesn’t really care one way or the other about other dogs. She might sniff a friendly “hello,” but then she’s off to explore wherever she feels like.)

Seriously, it’s not like Samus hasn’t ever seen any other dogs. We’ve had so many random dogs dumped on given to us by other people, well, I’d say it wasn’t even funny anymore, but all I can do is laugh at this point. We’ve found homes for all of them, thankfully, but it does mean that my dog has, in fact, interacted with other animals before. So why she decided to prance around like a freak is something I’ll never quite understand. Other than to embarrass me, of course.

We might give her a couple more years before we try the therapy dog thing. A couple years and a lot more training. And she will like it. Or else. *glare*

In the meanwhile, I’m going to prepare for this upcoming weekend. Which, of course, means lots of cupcakes. (Chocolate or candy bars just don’t cut it for me. It has to be cake of some kind, and cupcakes are THE BEST.) Wish me luck, and while you’re at it, check out the awesomesauce review that the lovely Nayu posted on Prince of Light. It made my day! I still go back to read it every so often, especially when I need a little encouragement.

And if you like anime (probably more along the shojo lines of things) and book reviews, start following her blog. She has some great info and her posts are always entertaining!

It’s Official!

Sorry to everyone who might have this cross-posted, but I’m so excited I can barely contain it! My book is officially available through Amazon. (As you can see by my lovely banner and sidebar. Overkill? Maybe.)

Woohoo!

It’s thrilling to finally start living the dream. I’ve wanted to be a published author for years now. I’m roughly ten chapters into book two, which is a good start. My goal is to have that out sometime this year (2013).

What I’d like to do over the next few weeks or even months is do a profile for some of the main characters of the book. I guess it will partially depend on whether or not it garners any interest, but it would be fun for me! (And that’s all that really counts, right? Right?)

We had a great time down in California, as I mentioned in my earlier post. It’s really beautiful down there.

Bye, Mt. Shasta! It’s been real.

I think driving by Mt. Shasta was one of the highlights for me. I had no idea it was so HUGE. But so pretty. I have a weakness for mountain ranges. I grew up just a matter of hours from the Cascades, so I always got to have them for a backdrop for road trips. I love them.

We even got to go to the coast!

Half Moon Bay lit up by the sunrise.

We stayed at Half Moon Bay overnight, and it was simply gorgeous. I would love to go back. I sort of have a weakness for the beach, too. We often vacationed on the Oregon coastline as a family, so I was spoiled by that, too. This is only the third time I’ve been to the CA coast, though. I have yet to see a beach that I haven’t liked!

The coolest thing about my time off was being able to get my book online, by far. Yes, I enjoyed seeing family and meeting Husband’s friends, yes I enjoyed the beautiful drive and all the scenery, but having the chance to fulfill my dream was the best part. So what are you waiting for? If you like young adult medieval fantasies, go check it out! Heck, if you just like fantasy in general, go check it out. (I’m shameless, really. Shameless!)

When Nightwish Rocks the House

Boy, does it really rock it!

Yeah, kinda crappy quality, I know. I only had my phone and it’s not the best at indoor lighting, sadly.

It had been years since I’d been to a real, honest-to-goodness, hard rock concert, and I’d really missed it. The last few rockin’ concerts I’d been to were even smaller than this, and no one really did anything but stand there. And they were comprised of mostly teenagers, too. Seriously, people? IT’S A ROCK CONCERT. Your parents probably rocked it harder back in the seventies than you are right now.

But thankfully, none of those people showed up last night. Everyone that attended was there to just have fun and enjoy the bands. I know it was a much smaller venue than Nightwish would normally do, but they really did put on one of the best concerts I’ve yet seen. I was ever so slightly disappointed that they didn’t stick around longer, but I know they have multiple other places to go to. I’m sure they had another show in another town the very next day, but still. I hope they come back, because I would gladly go again.

We started the night off with Kamelot, who I always enjoy.

Stood a little further away for these guys. I don’t have a fangirl crush on any of them, sorry.

I didn’t care for their casual tossing around of the f-bomb, but that’s just my personal opinion. Honestly, I knew that if that was the worst it got, it was probably considered a mild rock concert, ha! 😉 Kamelot did several good songs, including my all-time favorite of theirs, “March of Mephisto.” They also did “Ghost Opera,” which was pretty sweet.

Then it was time for the good stuff. I had read a press release prior to the concert that Anette would not be finishing the tour due to conflicts that they couldn’t resolve. I enjoyed her voice and felt that she did well enough considering the shoes she had to fill, but I wasn’t necessarily heartbroken that she wasn’t there. (No one can really replace Tarja, so why bother trying?) They ended pulling in another gal named Floor Jansen, who apparently used to sing in After Forever and ReVamp. Actually, I’d never heard of either of those bands, but I felt she did a really great job, especially since she’d probably only been practicing the songs for a few days.

I seriously wanted her shirt. It was amazing. Of course you can’t see it here, but you can trust me that it was gorgeous.

I was especially glad that they put together a variety of songs, including some older ones. They played two of my absolute favorites from when Tarja was with them, “Dark Chest of Wonders” and “Nemo.” Plus they did “Amaranth” and several of my favorites from their new album.

Yay for being on the side of the stage closest to Tuomas! The man’s talent is seemingly endless. Three different keyboards, and he bounced back and forth between them all with little to no effort.

OMG look at his hat! Love, love, love!

I think what surprised me the most was the band’s humility despite their enormous success. Their bassist, Marco, had a great personality and was so much fun. And every time Tuomas happened to look up and see a camera phone pointed in his direction, he just smiled and shook his head, nodding over to one of the other bandmates or the lead singer. Like, “Nah, you don’t really want to take a picture of me.” (Dude, why do you think I really came here??)

Bro and I eventually managed to get about two or three rows back, so I got an awesome view of all the band. (Of course that was only after staring at a guy’s shoulder blades for the first part. Stupid tall people. The upside of being only 5’2″ and fairly small is that I can usually squeeze into the front and no one minds because they can still totally see over me. The downside is that I’m at armpit height. Not so bad unless you’re in a crowd of teenagers. We’re lucky I survived the night.)

But, all in all, it was an awesome concert and I hope they come back to Oregon again in the near future.

The Last Princess

The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what a satisfying read! I was routing for Eliza the whole way through and couldn’t wait to see how her story turned out. I loved having the viewpoint of the royal family, how Eliza held onto hope for so long. She was a very strong female character, but she was still very real.

Yes, I am anxiously awaiting the sequel. Highly recommended.

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