Browncoats: Redemption, Dragon*Con, Knights of the Guild and writerly news - too much awesome!

(Browncoats: Redemption movie postcard for Dragon*Con)

Are you going to Dragon*Con?

If you are you are in for a treat. There's a huge line-up of goodies in store for you but I'd like to direct your attention to two things:

1) The WORLD PREMIERE of the Browncoats: Redemption trailer

Michael Dougherty, co-creator of the new fanmade film set in the Serenity/Firefly universe gave me an interview for Whedonage which went up today. They have finished principle photography and are racing towards the deadline for the film to be ready Dragon*Con 2010, but on Sunday they will be unveiling the trailer. The photos and videos from the set look stunning and I wish I could be there to see it! Full details are at the end of the article and you can also follow them on Facebook for all the current news.

2) The Guild will be there! EDIT: Felicia Day will be at Dragon*Con

Yes, not content with wowing the audiences at SD Comic Con and BlizzCon, Felcia Day will also be at Dragon*Con. I'm not sure of the details yet but as soon as I know I will tell you. And many others of The Guild cast and crew will be in Seattle for Pax 09. Here's a full run down of what the Uber Guildies will be up to at Pax:

"Friday, 9:00pm - 10:30pm, Unicorn Theatre

The Guild Season 2 Screening

Watch all 12 episodes of The Guild Season 2 back to back, followed by a Q & A with cast members Jeff Lewis (Vork) and Sandep Parikh (Zaboo), moderated by producer Kim Evey.Panelists Include: Jeff Lewis (Actor, The Guild), Sandeep Parikh (Actor, The Guild), Kim Evey (Producer, The Guild), Wil Wheaton (Actor, The Guild)

Saturday, 5:30pm - 6:30pm, Raven Theatre

The Making of a Hit Web Series

Join Kim Evey, Sandeep Parikh and Greg Benson, the creator/producer/directors of three of the web's biggest sensations, "The Guild," "The Legend of Neil," and "Retarded Policeman." They'll tell you how they got their start in online video and then answer your questions about everything from content to distribution to funding. If you're thinking about getting into online video and want to talk to the experts, this panel is for you! Panelists Include: Kim Evey (Producer, Knights of Good Productions, Inc), Sandeep Parikh (Owner, Effin Funny), Greg Benson (Owner, Mediocre Films)

Saturday, 9:00pm - 10:30pm, Unicorn Theatre

The Legend of Neil Season 2 Screening and PanelThe Legend of Neil, the story of a regular dude who gets sucked into Zelda and has to fight his way out, returns with an action-and-nostalgia packed second season. Neil stars Tony Janning, Mike Rose and Felicia Day (of Guild and Dr. Horrible fame) and is created by Sandeep Parikh (of The Guild)

Panelists Include: Sandeep Parikh (Creator / Co-Writer and Director, The Legend of Neil), Tony Janning (Star (Neil) and Co-Writer, The Legend of Neil)"

(From the Pax schedule)

Why did it have to be the Unicorn Theatre? Haven't they suffered enough?!? If you don't know what I'm talking about then you need to head over to The Guild Forums and join the Axis of Unicorns and help the Unicorn Defense League protect these noble creatures from the jaws of unscrupulous Guildies!

Knights of The Guild NEW maxi-microcast #6 is up

"Quest for the Music Video" shows how hard that Kenny and Jenni work to bring us all the news and behind-the-scenes information we crave about The Guild. In this latest installment there is a great interview with Greg Aronowitz who created the wonderful weapons the cast sport in the "Do you wanna date my Avatar" video AND the reveal what the filming at the video was like. Kenny and Jenni don't just host the podcast, Kenny is the official behind-the-scenes photographer who has shot all the amazing BTS video and pictures used on The Guild DVDs and Jenni has a myriad of jobs - from Felicia's PA to Head Production Assistant to gold coin counter - and everything in between. There are also lots of feedback comments from listeners (both written and audio), which is really great to hear. It's very rewarding when people take the time to leave a comment.

Kenny and Jenni are also guests on Joss'd Episode #040! It is so worth a listen (if you're not already listening to Joss'd. And if you're not - @Tabz will know and hunt you down!). We hear all about how KOTG started off and the inside scoop on why Jenni might take her top off in the next episode...

Writerly News

And in all the excitement I had some pretty exciting news myself today. I've been podcasting "Turning Left at Albuquerque" for a few weeks now on turningleft.podbean.com. We're up to chapter 50 now, so if you haven't caught up yet please check it out. This week we posted a new promo instead of a new omnibus and we also had a request of listeners asking for some feedback. It doesn't take much to write a comment and you could hear it read out by Lord Poncenby! Or you could send an audio comment to turningleftpodcast at gmail dot com.

And then, today, I had an email from an agent who is interested in my new super-secret project asking me for a partial submission. This is a big deal you guys! I only queried a few agents for this new (non-fiction) project and I am very excited that this agency wants to hear more because I think they will really 'get' it. It doesn't mean it's in the bag, and it might all come to nothing, but it a great first step. So YAY!

'Browncoats: Redemption' Interview with Michael Dougherty on Pink Raygun

The new fan-made film is taking shape

When I first heard about the new film set in the Firefly/Serenity 'Verse it seemed too good to be true - the sort of brilliant idea that would never happen. But now filming is coming to an end and that brilliant idea is coming to life more spectacularly than I could ever have imagined. One of the creators, Michael Dougherty, was kind enough to take time out of his incredibly busy schedule to do an interview with me which is published today over at Pink Raygun. He talks about the inspiration to make the film, the challenges and how all the profits will go to charity. There should be more to come soon...

Exciting news!

This is my first article in Pink Raygun and working with Lisa Fary and John Dallaire is a real buzz. They have built up PRG into a fantastic resource for all fangirls (and yes, fanboys) with news, articles and reviews about all the shows, films and comics that matter. This is their new venture:

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Local comic creators, Lisa Fary and John Dallaire, will be at Geno’s Steaks in South Philadelphia fundraising for the Fraternal Order of Police survivors fund.

The pair’s latest comic effort, Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad is on Zuda, DC Comics’ online competition, through April 30th. The winner is selected via reader votes over the course of the competition. For every vote and comment that Grey Squad earns, Fary and Dallaire are donating twenty-five cents to the Philadelphia police survivors fund, with a goal of $1000. 

(from the 'Grey Squad' website)

If you want to show your support:

• Go and read Grey Squad on Zuda
  
• Click the “Vote” button to the right of the comic. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted. Click a star rating right under the “Vote” button. Click “Add to Favorites” at the bottom of the voting block.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and leave a comment. Say you voted for Grey Squad.

More exciting news!

It's been a week and a half in the fandom with double-Joss at the Paley on the Dr Horrible and Dollhouse panels, and as the reports come in I'll post about them. In the meantime @Tabz has posted her report over at Joss'd and it's full of lovely details and brilliant pictures from @danregal. And - did you know Felicia Day persuaded Nathan Fillion to join Twitter after the Dr Horrible panel? Yes, it's really him!

And not least...

I'm still working on finding an agent and publisher for my novel. This is a lengthy process. To keep me going I've been working on alternative ways to promote the book and I'll be making an announcement about that over the weekend. I think you'll like it. I hope you do!

The 1st Annual Streamy Awards - Web Series’ Coming Out Party

"Saturday night, Hollywood and online collided and created a beautiful child in the 1st Annual Streamy Awards. Held at the historic Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, the awards celebrated some of the top talents in the web series industry (which, I think we can now call it an ‘industry’).." Tabitha Smith tells us why it was such an important event.

read more | digg story

Thank you for voting - I won two Horrible Awards!

What a weekend!

In the fury of the last few days I sought solace on Twitter a moment ago and saw @Tabz had tweeted the link to the Horrible Awards. It had completely slipped my mind that the results were out today! 

And the winner is....

Everyone in the fandom, because this was a great chance to catch up on  work that we might otherwise have missed. And also - I won two Awards! 

Fanvids/Music: The Everyone's a Hero Award - Best Non-ELE Vid

The judges were very kind:

"This is very difficult to judge in conventional vid terms because it's very nearly static apart from the moving hands, which almost become characters. There are no special effects or transitions but the script is absolutely hilarious, delivered in a Northern British accent which perfectly lends itself to the dry, snarky humour. 

Despite the lack of action, the script delivers on every level and ensures that the audience becomes involved in the narrative and, crucially, is not patronised but invited into the world of the ELE Applications Processing Office."

The other winner in this category was 'Armaniac: tailor to the evil' by Niklas Ringdahl and the runner-up was 'Womanizer' by winterevanesce. There are many other categories, so please go and check out all the winners. And if you want to see all the videos and also download the scripts for the ELE Applications Processing Office you can do that on my new writer's blog.

General/Judge's Choice: The Caring Hands Award – Best Fandom Supporter
As is very fitting, Snowpuppies made a great decision concerning the results:

"This was a special category, in that every nominee is a winner. I decided that if someone thinks you've done something special to promote/support the growth of Dr. Horrible fandom, you deserve an award, so everyone wins!"

Other winners in this category were Tabz, Dr Blog bot, Beth Nelson, Snowpuppies, The One True b!X, Jackwabbit, Donteatacowman.

THANK YOU!

To everyone who voted - whoever you voted for, because this was a brilliant idea of Snowpuppies and I am humbled to have won an award for my writing (and possibly my fancy arm work ;)). Squeeeeeeee!

Contagious: Scott Sigler does it again!

Do you like Sci-fi? How about horror? 

If you like either then you will almost certainly love 'Contagious'. And if you like both then you will want to add Contagious to your collection. I first heard of Scott Sigler last year via Buffy: Between the Lines and Tabz. B:BtL had information on their website about this author who was giving away free downloads of their book before the print release and, on a whim, I downloaded the PDF of 'Infected'.  After I had read a couple of chapters I ordered the book - I wanted to see it in print and have the pleasure of dreading to turn the next page!

Follow up to Infected

Contagious carries on where Infected ends, and we find out more about the deadly triangles and where they have come from, and what they are capable of. One of the effective and joyous aspects of Scott's writing is the way he uses scientific principles to underscore the story. For me there was a real thrill in reading and imagining the terrible twists in function that the infection undergoes. The vivid descriptions put you right in the action and no splatter or gout is wasted. As with 'Infected', the pace is breath-taking and I read 'Contagious' in little over a day. You'll want to know how it all turns out! And it was a great reward for finishing the first draft of my novel - thank you Scott!

Try before you buy

Maybe I haven't convinced you that you should buy Contagious. Fair enough. How about if you sampled it for yourself? Because not only is Mr Sigler a formidable writer he is also a highly successful podcaster, and you can listen to the first chapters for free, read by the Future Dark Overlord (tm) himself. You can download that and more of his work from his website. Scott is also on Twitter and writes a regular column for AMC, delving into the underbelly of horror in all it's gory.

Felicia Day to Appear at the Future of Television West

"Felicia Day, our beloved Penny from Dr. Horrible and Writer/Creator/Actress from the Guild is set to speak at the Future of Television West, which will be held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, March 24 and Wednesday, March 25, 2009. This year’s theme is “Transforming Television for a Connected World”......"

Tabz has all the details on the 'Joss'd' website so why not pop over? And then maybe you'd like to spare a Digg....?

read more | digg story

Open voice-casting call for Angel Between the Lines!

The people who have done the wonderful and brilliant 'Buffy Between the Lines' are now holding open auditions for people who want to join their new venture: 'Angel Between the Lines'. There is a full listing of cast needed, how to apply, what is involved...if you have any interest then apply now!

read more | digg story

Dr Horrible Awards, Castle etc....Another post of last resort *sigh*

I really haven't abandoned blogging

Everyday I think about my lovely little blog here and resolve to blog. But, gosh darn it, I am trying so hard to finish my book (116,500 words and counting) that I don't have the time to sit and blog. Normal service will be resumed very shortly.

In the meantime here's some things you might have missed:

The voting for the Horrible Awards is now open!

With lots of great people to vote for make sure you look through all the entries. If you wanted to vote for Evil WorldofHiglet (and who wouldn't!) scroll down to the 'Best Non-ELE' award. It's the first time I (I mean, my Evil twin) has ever been nominated for an award, so it would be great if I got more than one vote. No pressure. But if you wanted to spread the word then that would be cool, too. And Tabz is up for 'Best Non-Musical Vid' with 'The Destroyer - MyboyfriendCat'.

Felicia Day explains Twitter

Felicia and Tabz are the two people who got me into Twitter in the first place. 2600+ Tweets later and I love using it in conjunction with FriendFeed. Lots of people are confused by it, though, and Felicia has written a very good introduction to get you started.

Nathan Fillion talks Castle

The great Castle fan site http://castletv.net/ have a wonderful interview with Nathan Fillion today. Ahh, Nathan....er, anyway, it's well worth a look!

I'm hoping the first draft of my book will be finished by next week, and then we can get back to some sense of normalcy. Anyone know any literary agents.....?

Horrible Awards - Nominate your fav Dr Horrible fan creation

Exciting news!

Do you love the fantastic Internet (and now DVD) sensation Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? Do you love all the wonderful, imaginative fan creations that have poured onto the Internet as a result of this ground-breaking production? If so, here's your chance to nominate and vote for all your favourite fan activity. Lots of categories to get nominating! This is the wonderful idea of snowpuppies and id bound to be very popular with fans.

You might recognise some of the Nominees...

I've put a badge on the left that says 'nominee' because, yes, I've been lucky enough to be nominated in two categories already - 

•  The Everyone's a Hero Award - Best Non-ELE Vid
• The Caring Hands Award - Best Fandom Supporter

It's a real honour and I am very grateful to the nominator (you know who you are!). Take a look at the other people who have been nominated and you ahould recognise some names: Tabz, Dr Blog Bot, Irrel, Beth Nelson and The One True b!X (creator of  http://www.evilleagueofevil.com website) have been nominated along with many other very deserving people. Nominations are still open so if you have a favourite Fan Fic, Video or Picture relating to Dr Horrible get nominating the creator. I'll keep you posted and let you know when the voting begins.

read more | digg story

My day? Got soaked, wrote a webseries, joined a cult - you?

Yeah, just a typical day, really. Nuttin' special.

Wow, the weather has been so hot here these last few weeks. As a rule I don't blog about the weather because, as someone who lived most of her life in England, I'm sensitive about the fact that most of the world thinks that's all we talk about. In fact, it's clearly only about 70-80% of the time. Dur! But it's been wall-to-wall sunshine, weather like I have never experienced before! So planning a 1 night camping trip seemed to be reasonable, I mean - how could it fail with such great weather? Anyone who's ever been forced to go camping as a kid, only to endure freezing temperatures, gales and monsoon-type rain (i.e. the Great British Summer) will understand that it took a lot for me to agree to the trip, which also celebrated our 1st anniversary in Canada. Maybe it was fitting, therefore, that it rained almost non-stop and the 30C-plus temperatures fell to nearer 12C. Made me almost homesick!

But the good news is - I wrote the rest of my webseries!

Yes, the sound of the rain on canvas, plus the nearby highway and goods trains, meant that sleep was in short supply. Factor in some epic snoring from other members of the trip and I could actually be hallucinating writing this blog now for all I know (I hope not - if I was going to hallucinate I'd like it to be something a bit cooler, like meeting Joss Whedon or being a Production Assistant on The Guild!). Miles away from civilisation, with nothing to do except listen to the cacophony all around, gave me the chance to sort out the last 3 episodes of my 'Evil League of Evil' webseries. Of course, I couldn't actually write it then, what will the rain and the canvas and the not having my Macbook, but fear not. It's all locked in my noggin just waiting to be realised. 

Coming soon - Act IV!

So now I'm trying to work out if I can do a weekly release, and once I can start to think straight again I should have the answer to that pretty quickly. And maybe I have been hallucinating because a fellow webseries writer (ha! I just couldn't resist that!) Felicia Day Tweeted that she is looking for volunteer production assistants for The Guild Season 2- full details on WatchTheGuild. The bad news (for Felicia, obviously) is that you have to live in the LA area. I would contemplate the commute but with Season 1 of 'Evil League of Evil - The Office or Whatever I'm going to call it' in production at the moment I have no spare capacity. Which brings me to the next bit....

Any ideas for a name for the webseries?

Come on - you are all intelligent, internet-savvy people! Surely you can think of a suitable title. As an incentive, if your suggestion is taken up you will get your name on the 'Evil WorldofHiglet' YouTube channel. What a prize! And thanks for the positive feedback so far. If you want you can rate, comment and subscribe on YouTube. It's free, easy and lots of fun :)

You may address me as 'Sister Awesome'

Which brings me to the last segment of today's madness. Yes, I joined a cult. Yes, I have a cool title (see above). Yes, there may be chanting. Someone compared Tabz (Tabitha Grace Smith - from the glorious Buffy: Between the Lines, Joss'd etc) to a cult leader and, being the sort of person she is, she started a cult. Easy, isn't it? What's that? You want to join too? Well don't ask me, Tweet Tabz and see if you're worthy...

'Fessing up to Plurk!

Tabz made me do it!
Yes, I've become a Social Media Junkie, it's official. I think it's correlated to the amount of work I have to do and the fact that I'll soon be sort of unemployed as my 'big project' (the one I actually get paid to do) is coming to an end forcing me to face up to the fact that I must get my freelancing butt in gear, and soon. So Plurk was a godsend, really. Tabz (or to give her her full title 'Ms Tabitha Grace Smith: Ruler of the Buffy podcasting airwaves and Social Media Guru') mentioned it on a Twitter recently (o yes, me being on Twitter is also because of Tabz and Felicia Day - another one of those people I can't seem to resist). Where was I? Oh yes, so Tabz mentioned Plurk and wrote an article about it, so I naturally had to check it out (yes, I'm weak).


Confusing much?
At first I was perplexed and bemused. Plurk is a micro-blogging service, so in that way it is like Twitter. But the interface is very different to Twitter and it's quite disorientating at first. It looks a bit messy, but the colour scheme is quite groovy and...well, it kind of grows on you. I know I've following a few people but to be honest, I'm not sure where I check on this (a work in progress!). I also have 4 'friends' I've found since joining. Somehow, it seems more immediate than Twitter. This could be due to the fact you don't have to keep hitting 'refresh' all the time - new posts and responses pop up automatically. I can imagine that with lots of friends it might get a bit cluttered, but for now I'm finding it easy to manage.


So Twitter's out then?
Not exactly. I'm still Tweeting, but I'm finding that I'm Plurking more, and checking my Plurks more. How long it'll last I don't know, but if you want to join in the experiment you can sign up at Plurk.com or try my Plurk homepage. And I've put a link to the RSS feed under my Twitter updates over on the right, there. Enjoy!

Orbis and Battlestar Galactica: in space...

No-one can hear you shout at the screen! (still no spoilers)
Well, the next installment of BSG: the final season went out last night. Being able to watch it as it airs has compensated for the lack of Doctor Who over here, but last night was definitely one of those episodes where I was raging against the machine! The DVD player, that is. And the TV. Yes, while I loved the episode, it didn't make me happy. Not one bit. Remember when Joss used to tear out your heart and make you watch while he danced all over it? In army boots? (I was going to put 'stilettos' but that was a way too disturbing image!) Well it was like the good old days, but worse because now we have to wait another week. Maybe I won't watch, in protest. Even as I typed that I knew it was futile. Of course I'm going to watch. If only they didn't make you care so much! But I suppose that's the whole point. Yep, life's a beach....

And now the good news - I've been Softwired!
When I started the first of the Softwire books by PJ Haarsma, The Softwire Book 1: Virus On Orbis 1, I had to make myself stop because I had lots of real work to do, and that was definitely under the title 'Pleasure'. But as an incentive to myself I had planned to read it yesterday if I got everything done. Now, as anyone with kids on a Pro-D day (where the school is out for teacher training etc) will know, it's not easy to sit, undisturbed. So I read in blocks yesterday, and what a great story! It had me totally transported to Orbis.

It gets into your brain...
After watching Battlestar Galactica it was late but I had to finish the last part of the book - I just couldn't leave it. Now, I don't want to give anything away about the plot. But I can tell you that Mr Haarsma has created fantastically detailed and totally believable technology, time and space for his characters. This isn't gimmicky Sci-fi. Sci-fi is part of the book, but it is driven by the characters and the story, and will have you guessing until the end. And I loved the ending to this. It was moving, unexpected and made me want to read more. The action is very well paced, you care about what is happening to the characters and to their world, and it actually makes you think. For me, that adds up to a Good Read. I couldn't help but imagine it as a film, possibly animated, with the voices of...well, I won't go on because you should really read it for yourself first. And then we can argue about who should play what in the film! Now I have to negotiate with myself for when I can read the next one...

Tweaked and Tweeted
After my perhaps ill-advised blog yesterday, Tabz, the producer and writer (among other things) of Buffy: Between the Lines left a comment about why I should give Twitter a reasonable chance before deciding it's not for me. Well, I have a growing respect for Tabitha the more I find out about her multitudinous work, and so I'm going to take her advice. I'm not sure where this will take me, but that's really the whole point. I'll keep you posted. Or is that Tweeted?!