Felicia is no April Fool - get your Geek on Tomorrow!

Geek and Sundry Logo from geekandsundry.com

Earlier this week Felicia Day announced that she would be hosting a TEN HOUR GOOGLE+ HANGOUT MARATHON to promote her new programmes on her new YouTube 'Geek and Sundry' channel. With a whole new stable of shows in the pipeline there is bound to be something for everyone. AND it's a fundraiser for charity, too.

Today the schedule has been published for tomorrow's event so you can plan your day accordingly:

10:00am – Welcome to the Hangout!

10:30am – Yoga with Alicia Marie

11:00am – Introducing our charity: Best Friends Animal Society

11:20am – Sword & Laser Show interview with co-host Tom Merritt

11:40am – J!NX Tee-shirt Giveaway with the owners and creators

12:00pm – The Art of Web Series Panel: Featuring Kim Evey (The Guild), Tony V (Black Box TV), Wilson Cleveland (Leap Year), and Tina Cesa Ward (Anyone But Me)

1:00pm – LIVE Fan Art Contest! We want submissions from YOU – draw and win prizes based on chat votes!

1:40pm – Chat with Steve Dengler of MegaCynics (CHARITY SPONSOR)

2:00pm – Novel Writer’s Panel: “Creating Great Characters” with Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind), John Scalzi (Old Man’s War), Amber Benson (Death’s Daughter)

3:00pm – YOMYOMF Chat with Kev Jumba

3:30pm – Dark Horse Motion Comics Chat with Erik Bruhwiler, Animator and Producer

4:00pm – Cryptozoic Trading Cards Opening (CHARITY SPONSOR)

4:30pm – LIVE DANCE BREAK and Fan Dance competition to Public domain songs!

5:00pm – “Romance in Video Games” chat with Dragon Age creator David Gaider

5:30pm – “Indie Video Games: How To” with Bastion creator Greg Kasavin

6:00pm - “Casual Games: Designing Good Ones” with PopCap producer Matthew Johnson (Bejeweled, Peggle)

6:30pm – E-Sports! Chat with Day[9]TV’s Sean Plott

7:00pm – Chris Hardwick talks Nerdist YouTube Channel

7:30pm – NASA Astronomers Chat with Carolyn Brinkworth and Robert Hurt

8:00pm – LIVE Crowd Source writing “Geek and Sundry”, the one hour buddy drama.

9:00pm – WORLD PREMIERE: The Guild cast members Sandeep Parikh & Robin Thorsen and more perform to the fan-written “Geek and Sundry”

9:30pm – FIRE SALE; Give away remaining Prizes

9:50pm – GRAND PRIZE Giveaway!!!

10:00pm – ANNOUNCE CHARITY FUNDRAISER TOTAL – GOODBYE!

Yes, it is April Fool's Day tomorrow but no, this isn't a joke. I mean, you can trust Felicia, can't you? She would never try and trick people*. With lots of audience participation built in, so many prizes to be won and a great line up I am curious to see how the Google servers hold up!

It all kicks off tomorrow at 10:00 AM PT on Google + here: www.gplus.to/geekandsundry

See you there!

* You know, I don't keep score or bear a grudge. But Rick Roll. That's all I'm going to say.

Geek And Sundry Horrible Husbands

Hopefully the companion book to Horrible 2 is being prepped even now!

Yes, that headline wrote itself
Wow, it's finally 2012 on this blog - the first post this year?? How does that even happen? It's fitting that this is a summary post designed to bring you up to date on some special projects.

Dr Horrible 2 - out soon?
Wired.com and many other outlets have reported that Joss has hinted that it is possible that the sequel to Dr Horrible might be filming soon. Hopefully. If scheduling can be worked out. That's great news and certainly something to look out for.

Geek and whatnow?
Kim and Felicia revealed all at Wondercon this weekend. Even more than their smooch at the IAWTV Awards this has fired people up into a frenzy of anticipation - revel in the geekiness:



The Flog! Just like the old days! Except in video form! Yay! :)

Husbands 2 Kickstarter off to a great start!
Did I mention I was on a panel with Jane Espenson last year....? Anyway, the hugely successful (and very funny) webseries has just started a funding round on Kickstarter for Season 2 and they are already well on the way to raising the needed $50,000. Good luck to Jane, Cheeks and the team - I'm sure they will raise way beyond the goal in no time at all. But don't leave it to chance. Help fund them now if you can!

The Guild Season 5 DVD out tomorrow!

 The Guild Season 5 DVD

Will Felicia Day be in your stocking this Christmas?
The answer is  - with any luck! The Guild Season 5 DVD is out tomorrow, December 13th 2011, and you can order it from Amazon.com right now* It looks like it won't be available from Amazon.ca until March 13th 2012, so this will be the only way to get the DVD for now.

 Try Before You Buy
If you haven't seen Season 5 yet, then why not take a look? Then go and order the DVD and make sure you have a very Guildie Christmas!



*This link takes you to Amazon using a referral code. That means that if you order via this link I get a little something back from Amazon. Thank you!

New trailer, new book for Joss Whedon's 'The Cabin in the Woods'

(image from http://discoverthecabininthewoods.com/)

Something to blog about!

It's been a while since I posted but I couldn't not talk about the new trailer from 'The Cabin In The Woods'. Actually, I'm not even going to talk about it, because you should just watch it and then start speculating on your own. Because you don't need me to tell you that April 13th next year is going to feature a whole new level of cinematic fervour.

Spoiled for choice?
Titan Books have also announced details of the Visual Guide, which holds the secret to The Cabin...

"The details of the plot are a closely guarded secret, though Joss himself has described it as “a straight-up, balls-out, really terrifying horror movie,” adding,"it is not just a slasher in the woods. It's a little more complicated than that..."

All will be revealed in the Official Visual Companion, featuring in-depth interviews, the full screenplay by Whedon and Goddard, stunning production art, and hundreds of color photos!..." 

 From TitanBooks.com

The book is print on demand with an estimated delivery time of 21 days. That's an interesting way to do it but I'm not sure too many people are going to want the book before they've seen the film. I haven't tried to order it, so I can't be sure if it really is available now - is anyone going to order it so we can find out? And if it is truly out now (or in 21 days), how will we all avoid spoilers between now and then?

Questions? Comments?

Time flies

A web, taken on my iPhone last week. It's all connected.

It used to be just you and me...

...hanging out over here, me writing something terribly earnest about Joss, or The Guild, or Firefly, or something geeky, and you reading it and moving on. I've been a terrible host recently. I never write. I never call. I never send flowers...

In good company

Louis Gray (I value his opinion on most matters) wrote a post this week about how he hasn't blogged much recently. Louis now works for Google+ and is doing a fantastic job for them. It tweaked my conscience, and then today I had to look up when the IAWTV elections were, so I headed over here and realised how long it's been.

Gone, but not forgotten

Blogging here started me on a path that has taken me to many, many places I never thought I would go. Just over a week ago I sat next JANE ESPENSON on a panel about webseries at Geek Girl Con, after she accepted my invitation to share her experiences on her new series, HUSBANDS. On the panel were amazingly talented and passionate creators. If you had told me that would happen four years ago I would have made you a nice cup of tea to soothe your obviously over-worked imagination. I've written about Jane here because she has had such a huge impact on my life and writing. I didn't get to tell her that at the panel, but one day...

One day...

Dudes, I'm sorry for neglecting you. Seriously. This blog will never go away, even if I have to abandon it from time to time while life gets in the way. Don't forget I am all over the place and I love to hear from people. I usually respond pretty quickly and if I don't, give me a nudge. So come and find me if you ever want a natter:

http://twitter.com/#!/worldofhiglet

http://mindmybrains.com/

http://higletfilms.com

http://maryhigginsconsultancy.com

http://maryhigginswriter.com

https://plus.google.com/u/0/113137518938994935016 (which is my unweildy Google+ profile URL)

The 'Women in Webseries' panel, parts 1 & 2 from @Ackernon

Getting back on track

It's...been a while
Blogging here has not been my priority as family matters overtook everything this summer. Paul's dad became very ill and Paul flew over to England to help care for him. Jim, his dad, died at home and we all flew over for the funeral. It has been a tough summer in many ways.

Reasons to be thankful
Family is important, always, but never as important as during difficulties and heartbreak. We are very blessed with our family. Grief is lessened when shared and interwoven with love, remembered good times and sheer practical help. Our friends, too, have been wonderful and the many messages we received from all over the internet have helped us through. Thank you all very much. I am also very grateful for the support and understanding of my consultancy clients, especially Paul Best from the fantasy webseries, 'Border Guardians of Ackernon'. Check out their website and their Koldcast site - Season 1 is well under way and very exciting.

Getting back to the new normal
Losing someone means that life will never the same. It's a time to reflect and look at priorities and plans. One thing we are both determined to do is to finish 'Mind My Brains, Darling!' Season 1 and so we are now back in production to get the last two episodes out. I have a lot to catch up on. I have not even watched one episode of The Guild Season 5 yet. I'm waiting until I can really sit down and enjoy it.

Upcoming events
We will also be at two Cons in the coming weeks  - VCON in Vancouver and Geek Girl Con in Seattle. More about those very soon.

Waiting for Dragon Age and Elf Quest? Why not try Ackernon and Standard Action now?

Felicia Day in Dragon Age (picture from feliciaday.com)

I spent my youth reading epic fantasy and sci-fi series and they will always have a special place in my heart. You've probably already heard about the upcoming webseries, Dragon Age: Redemption and Elf Quest. They are due out later in the year and are based on works (a massive role playing game and cult comic book respectively) that already have an established fanbase.

The Dragon Age panel at San Diego Comic Con was packed. Felicia Day and team clearly had a blast creating this new series (video of the panel from BuffyFest here). Similarly, the Elfquest panel united the original creators Wendy and Richard Pini with the webseries' creators Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes (coverage here).

Border Guardians of Ackernon poster from Ackernon.com

Try something new today!
Standard Action and Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University are new, independently-produced webseries that explore fantasy worlds. You don't have to wait until Elf Quest or Dragon Age are released to enjoy some quality fantasy story-telling because both of these webseries are currently releasing their Season 1 episodes now!

Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University
I've written about Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University before. We met the creator and director Paul Best at VCON in Vancouver last year. We were hugely impressed with the TV pilot he took to VCON and he was intrigued by Mind My Brains, Darling!, as webseries were a new concept to him. Since then we kept in contact and Paul is now one of my consultancy clients.

Galiene - Fighter from Ackernon.com

This epic story is set in Ackernon, where the ancient wards on the city walls are failing. Galiene and the students from the University must fight to protect Ackernon from their enemy, the Pert - and from other dangers inside the city itself.

The story-telling is paced and exciting, the acting is solid and the production is sumptuous. Paul's years of experience in theatre and film show in every scene. The music and costuming are pitch-perfect and Laura Olsen from Blue Steer Studios has done an amazing job.

Episode 1 is below and you can view them all on http://blip.tv/ackernon



Standard Action
Joanna Gaskell created and stars in the comedy/fantasy webseries, Standard Action, which is original and fun even if you have never thrown a multi-sided die.

The story follows an unlikely band of travellers as they trek across their magical land in search of lost friends. With plenty of laughs, heroic action and intrigue you'll be glad there are already 11 episodes up to watch. Episode 1 is below and you can view them all on http://www.youtube.com/user/Phasefirefilms.



I met up with Joanna and Vanessa Driveness (Associate Producer, PR Manager) at Can't Stop The Serenity in Vancouver a few weeks ago and we will all be on a panel together at this year's VCON and Geek Girl Con.