It's Triple Felicia Day...Day!

Felicia Day in S6, Ep 2 of The Guild

It's a red-letter Tuesday!

Not only is Episode 2 of The Guild Season 6 released today, but Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog is airing on TV tonight for the very first time on The CW at 9:00 PM. AND a new interview with Felicia is now out on The Hollywood Reporter.

It's been over four years since Dr Horrible first took the interwebs by storm, and Felicia puts this into perspective in terms of the advances webseries have made in that time:

..."It's a big victory as far as mainstream Hollywood acknowledgement of web series as a legitimate format," web series creator/producer/star Day tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I really hope that it's not just a singular thing anymore, that it becomes a trend. That's my biggest hope." And Day should know: she not only starred in the series but it was her work on The Guild that inspired Joss Whedon to explore opportunities that existed outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system, where creators could have complete control over their content from budget to casting and everything in between...

From http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/felicia-day-dr-horrible-joss-whedon-neil-patrick-harris-nathan-fillion-376972

Start your Felicia Day with a brand new episode of The Guild:


Who knows? Now Dr Horrible has been on TV, I might be able to write Part 3 of Future Entertainment!

Behind The Scenes on Standard Action Webseries

Joanna Gaskell as Edda, in Standard Action

Standard Action BTS, a set on Flickr.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of being background actors for Season 2 of the webseries 'Standard Action'.

Many thanks to Joanna, Ron, Vanessa and all the cast and crew for a great day out :)

Go and watch Standard Action Season 1 now at http://watchstandardaction.com/

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.

Announcing the ‘Women in Webseries Panel’ at Geek Girl Con

When I first heard about Geek Girl Con, which is being held in Seattle Oct 8 and 9, I had two thoughts:

• What a fantastic idea – OMGWTFBBQ it’s going to ROCK!!
• Why has no one thought of it before??

As a sometime born-again geek, brought back into the fold after years of denial (yes, because working in IT is completely not geeky, is it? I was even in denial about that!), the idea of a Con ALL ABOUT ME was fantastic. We really are living in a golden age (/The Master).

After I got over the initial excitement I started to think about what I would love to see there: Geeky women passionate about their geekiness, bringing other people into their sense of wonder.
What is my passion? That would be writing and webseries. I started to hope that there would be programming about webseries, waiting to hear if some of my favourite creators would be there.

And something struck me. If I wanted to meet and share stories, ideas and experience about working on web TV, maybe I should propose a panel.  Our latest webseries, ‘Mind My Brains, Darling!’ premieres next week and we have lots to talk about…

So on May the 4^th (an auspicious day, always) I asked people on the weekly Twitter #webserieschat hosted by @slebisodes and @minglemediaTV whether anyone was interested in taking part in a panel. The response was immediate. I quickly had a list of women webseries creators who wanted to be involved. I had ideas about what I wanted to do so I sent out a proposal to those interested and within a couple of days we were set. The enthusiasm was amazing from this list of talented women:

Josephine Hoy (Mind My Brains, Darling!)
Vanessa Driveness (Standard Action)
Joannna Gaskell (Standard Action)
Glynis Mitchell (Causality)
Susan Bernhardt (Miss Behave)
Jillian Clare (Miss Behave)
April Grant (Destini) (Indie Intertube)
Amanda Shockley (Shadhavare) (Indie Intertube)
Trin Miller (The Dirty Do Gooders)

I sent off the proposal and then we waited…

On Monday this week I receieved the email saying our Panel “Women in Webseries: Indie TV and Getting Out There” had been accepted – fantastic news! Except for one thing. The maximum number of people allowed on stage was 9, and we had 10 people who wanted to participate. Everyone wanted to be part of the panel and everyone had unique perspectives and experiences to bring. What could be done?

Now, in traditional TVsoapland this would be the cue for infighting, backstabbing and hair pulling, because isn’t that what women do?

No. They don’t. Passionate and professional women set out the options, discuss them and come to a consensus. Trin Miller very graciously came forward first and said she would sit out in the audience instead. This set the ball rolling and the discussion that followed was illuminating. Josephine Hoy, Susan Bernhardt and Jillian Clare also offered to drop out. The truth is no one wanted to miss being on the panel, but everyone wanted it to be fair.

In the end a compromise was reached. Trin Miller will not be officially on the panel (only because we need to fulfill the GGC requirements) but she would be acknowledged by the panel and will conduct the audience participation parts. Because when you come to our panel, you’re going to have fun. And lots of it. Are you excited yet?

I had confirmation today that our panel will be on SATURDAY OCT 8, and will be a 90 minute panel. Better book your tickets for Geek Girl Con soon because it's going to be legendary!

Joss Whedon to speak at the LA Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS) event!

I'm already counting down the days until I attend the 6th Annual Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity day at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, on June 25th (11 am until 6 pm). It will my fourth year and I look forward to it for weeks in advance! CSTS is a global sci-fi charity event all about raising money and awareness for Equality Now and other charities.

Last year we had a great time and we made these videos:





We had a wonderful time, met friends old and new, and more importantly the BC Browncoats raised lots of money for Equality Now and the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre Foundation. Because that is what CSTS is all about - communities coming together to raise money causes we believe in - all while enjoying some high class entertainment with friends.

From the CSTS Press Release:
"Whedon has been outspoken in his support of the organization and gender equality. In 2006, Whedon was honored with a special recognition award from Equality Now. In his acceptance speech, he told a story of how he’s often questioned as to why he writes strong women characters such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His response:

“Because equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.
We need equality. Kinda now.”

A very special announcement for the 2011 season is that Joss Whedon himself will be attending and speaking at one of the events: Can’t Stop The Serenity in Los Angeles on June 25th, hosted by the California Browncoats. Taking the excitement one step further, the event will be broadcast live via the web so people can enjoy the night from around the world. Using multiple cameras, the feed will show the live events from the stage, interviews with attendees and general footage to capture every moment from this unprecedented event. 

Now in its 6th year, Can’t Stop the Serenity has become a worldwide benefit movement in the name of Whedon’s beloved works. Browncoats are part of a global family that believes doing the impossible makes one mighty. The fight for basic human decency will continue for as long as there are people in need and those willing to answer that call. In trying to raise awareness for that call, Mr. Universe said it best, ”Can’t stop the signal.”

The last time I saw Joss speaking live over the Internet - at the 2009 Streamys

LA is about to be star-struck
Yes, you fall over stars and starlets on every corner in LA, but this year Joss Whedon himself will attend the LA CSTS. This is wonderful news and should mean even more money can be raised. I predict that tickets for the LA CSTS will be selling out right about now....[Edit: they are sold out in LA but check out all the CSTS events on the CSTS website] But that's ok, because we'll all be able to join in, live!

Not quite Joss...
We might not have Joss Whedon, but I know the Gayle and all the team have worked out a magnificent day for us all in Vancouver and will be putting on another brilliant day. We'll be there - and we have a very special announcement to make about what we will be doing there soon. But it might have something to do with our new webseries "Mind My Brains, Darling!"....More soon!

Webseries updates: The Guild, Brains and Ackernon

Galiene in Action in 'Border Guardians of Ackernon'

Border Guardians of Ackernon - live Ustream Q and A today!
This week I announced the launch of a new consultancy that combines writing, video and social media and a new client. I've known Paul Best since we met at VCON last year, and I will be helping him to promote the brilliant new fantasy webseries, 'Border Guardians of Ackernon: The University'. Today there is a live Question and Answer with the cast on the Ackernon Ustream channel which will be lots of fun. Tune in at 2:30 PST and I'll see you in the chat room:


Webcam chat at Ustream

What a packed weekend!
It's hectic central here as we push to finish filming 'Mind My Brains, Darling!'. We had planned this weekend for our final shoots for some time, arranging for our two guest stars, Alan Douglas and Josephine Hoy to come up and making sure all the props were finished. We had a fantastic Saturday, are all set for today's scenes, and we're completely on schedule.

The Guild steals the limelight
On Friday I saw a tweet from Sean Becker to say that they were going to be finishing shooting this weekend, too. It's hard not to interpret this as a direct challenge to see who wraps first and WE ACCEPT THAT CHALLENGE! So, Sean, see you in the bar because we'll be finished first. Felicia Day also released a video of Behind The Scenes footage:

You might wonder why we haven't released any BTS videos fom the 'Mind My Brains, Darling!' set. There's a simple reason.

Season 5 of The Guild: Shooting starts next week!

Erstwhile Director Sean Becker - back on form?
Today on Twitter, Sean Becker, sometime director of The Guild and other webseries comedy gold like 'The Jeff Lewis Comedy 5 Minutes Hour of Happy Endings', broke the news we were all waiting for today. THE GUILD SEASON 5 STARTS SHOOTING NEXT WEEK!

However, the happy news was quickly under threat by the very same Mr Becker, who literally threatened Agent Ruiz and The Guild itself something almost-certainly unpleasant:

Considering Mr Becker's chequered history on and off the set of The Guild, this is a chilling threat indeed. No one who has been to his totally official personal website can be in any doubt that Sean is a troubled man.

Won't somebody think of the children?

Felicia Day's Keynote Speech at SXSW 20011

Liz Shannon Miller talks to The Guild Creator, Felicia Day talking about The Guild, DragonAge: Redemption, webseries and New Media (Note: there was a 'share' button under the live feed during the session which I hope might turn into a permalink....we'll see! If the video is available after I will embed)

Some Screengrabs from Flikr:

Celebrate the Web 4: Vote for your favourite episode now!

Thirteen Pilots - lucky for some!
After seven days of hard work thirteen teams manage to submit their webseries pilot episodes in time for the Thursday deadline. These pilots are now up on CelebrateTheWeb.com where you can view them all on one page. Voting is also on the same page, which simpifies the process enormously. Congratulations to all the teams who took part - all that hard work has paid off! I was really impressed with the quality and of the submissions. I was also pleasantly surprised with the variety of ideas. Although all the pilots use the three required elements, some teams took them to places I didn't expect.

Vote once per day
Voting is once every 24 hours and ends on March 26th, so make sure you vote for your favourites. Here's the latest twitter buzz for #CTW4:

IAWTV: Election Update - Letter from the Board of Directors

Update: Jenni Powell has posted her thoughts on the matter.
More: Tom Konkle posted about this and there is another discussion over on webseriestoday.com. There is also lots of comments and thoughts on twitter.

As I posted last week, there have recently been elections to the IAWTV Board of Directors. The closing date for the final votes was last Friday and was looking forward to seeing who would be elected. This morning members have received an email to say that the elections will now start again. Once I had read the email and looked at the Forum I can say that I think this was 100% the right decision.

Here is the official IAWTV communication about the issue, sent today*:

Dear Academy Members:

This weekend, the Board of Directors had a conference call to discuss our latest Board election process and the online platform used to collect votes. While it does not appear the election process was compromised, we concluded it is best to nullify the election and start the process over from the beginning. The main concern surrounding our latest elections is the potential for a member to vote more than once. We use an online survey platform that places a cookie on receiving members’ computers. It is possible for a member to erase the cookie and vote multiple times. Also, each member was not issued a unique password.

Our Executive Director, Elisabeth Flack, gives a more detailed recap of the issues surrounding our latest election below:

Up to this point, we have been using an online survey service to collect votes. Members of the Academy uncovered that by deleting cookies placed on their computers by the site they could vote a second time, thus revealing a potential way to skew voting in favor of one candidate over another. These members alerted the Academy about the potential problem and any duplicate votes found were deleted, leaving only the original first ballot cast according to the timestamp of when the ballot was submitted. 

Separately, the online survey service doesn’t issue unique passwords that can only be used once. In the prior election, I’ve verified votes by reconciling the IP information from each vote against the IP information on file for member accounts. 

This election not only has the problem of the potential for duplicate voting, but there are a few IP addresses that could be not determined as belonging to members. While I don’t believe anyone in the membership tried to skew the vote or shared the voting information outside of the Academy, these do not make for the fairest election possible.
This differs from the previous board election because IP addresses and ballots were verified as corresponding to members and no duplicate voting occurred. In addition, the ballots and vote count were reviewed and verified by 3 members of the Academy in good standing, each of whom was not running for office at the time and had no conflict of interest with any of the candidates running for office. These verifications was done before the new board members were announced. 

In the interests of the membership and ensuring the fairest vote possible, here is what the Board has decided as best next steps. The Board, working with committee chairs, will identify a superior voting platform that will ensure our Board election process and results cannot be compromised. Our goal is to identify a solution by the end of this coming week. If anyone has suggestions for a platform we should evaluate, please email Elisabeth. After the new platform is selected, we will start the board election process over from the beginning. We plan to begin the call for nominations the week of January 31st.

Unfortunately, our new Board will not be in place by February 1st as originally planned, so the present Board will continue to serve until new Board members are elected. We are expecting the new election to conclude by the end of March. 

We deeply apologize to all of the candidates and to the membership at large for this inconvenience. And we thank you for your understanding and patience as we work through upgrading our election capabilities.

If you have any questions about the board’s decision regarding redoing the Board elections, please email any Board member or Elisabeth directly. 

Sincerely,

The IAWTV Board of Directors

Michael Wayne, Chair
Dina Kaplan, Vice-Chair
George Ruiz, Secretary
Drew Baldwin, Treasurer
Miles Beckett
Felicia Day
Zadi Diaz
Jim Louderback
Chris McCaleb
John McCarus
Tim Shey
Joshua Cohen, Emeritus Director

Speaking as a member of the IAWTV, I think that the fact the IAWTV has moved so quickly to correct the potential problem indicates that they are committed to fairness and openness - and not afraid to take tough decisions. This bodes well for the future.

The fact that we are now back to nominations means it will be some weeks before the new Board is in place. This is unfortunate but it is better to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to vote and that the results are fair, and are seen to be fair.

A New Look IAWTV Website
There was further evidence of the work that is going on in the IAWTV today. The IAWTV.com website has been updated and more functionality is planned. It still looks clean, but there are now links to become a member and to access the Forums straight from the Home page:

*I asked permission to repost the whole document.

The Guild Season 4 DVD now on Amazon for Pre-Order!

The spanky new DVD cover for The Guild Season 4!

UPDATE!
I have word that there the DVD might be available for Christmas - look out for more news soon!! (You might want to wait for the announcement before ordering).

The good news is you can pre-order now!
The not-so-good news is that it's not available until February 2011 (according to Amazon.ca). The best news is that there is 30% off the price on Amazon.ca now - only $10.49 (regular price is $15.08).

Here's the description:

"Hot off the cliffhanger to Season 3, Codex (Felicia Day) scrambles to justify her impetuous encounter with Rival Guild Leader Fawkes (Wil Wheaton) to herself and her Guild. In-game, it's Guildie vs. Guildie when Vork announces a fundraising competition for design rights to the new in-game Guild Hall. Meanwhile, Zaboo and Vork deal with a real-world house guest, Tink and Clara pair up to make some quick cash and Codex's computer problems force her to work at a real job (OMG) with Bladezz (OMFG!).

This unrated DVD includes all 12 episodes from Season 4, the hit music video "Game On!" and exclusive bonus material not available on the Internet.

Exclusive Bonus Material Includes: Cast Interviews, "Game On" Music Video, The Making of "Game On," Cheesybeard's Commercial, Audio Commentary with the Cast, Audio Commentary with the Creator, Director and Producer, Gag Reel, Table Read, Seasons 1-3 Recaps, Script PDF File, Play All Feature, English Subtitles."

Sounds like another packed DVD! Even though I've seen all the episodes many times (and reviewed them all on PinkRaygun.com) I'm still buying the DVD for the extras. In fact - I've pre-ordered already!

It's not yet available on Amazon.co.uk - is it out where you are?

Hmm, I'm an Amazon Associate, so if you click on links like the one below and purchase I get a teeny % back. When I started writing this article the price was $14.99 but looks like the US site has now applied a 26% discount BUT see UPDATE (above) it might be better to hold off ordering until the upcoming announcement.

The Guild, Sean Becker and Mind My Brains, Darling! updates...

The Guild Season 4 over already?! Say it ain't so!
Episode 12, "Guild Hall" is out and..well, watch it and see for yourself:



It was a great ending to a fantastic season, and congratulations to the whole team! Because of my VCON duties with "Mind My Brains, Darling!" I didn't get chance to post the Episode 11 review before the finale came out, so there is a bumper review on PinkRaygun.com this week covering Episodes 11 and 12.

Jeff Lewis and Sean Becker - back next week!
Although The Guild has finished you can still see new Jeff Lewis next week as his new show "The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour" starts then. Here's the new promo (NSFW):



Sean Becker is the Director/Editor and we'll be seeing a whole new side to Jeff, so make sure to tune in Next Tuesday (Oct 12th) for the first episode.

HigletFilms at VCON 35!
We attended VCON 35 in Vancouver last weekend to promote our new webseries, "Mind My Brains, Darling!" and had a wonderful time. I've written about it on HigletFilms.com. Our fundraising on Indiegogo is going well. and a huge thank you to everyone who has donated and spread the word. We haven't quite reached our total yet but there is still time. We released the second teaser last week, and here it is:



Let us know what you think!

Project X Exposed: Mind My Brains, Darling!

Papers, please!

What's all this about, then?
After what seems like a LONG time, we're finally revealing ourselves on the Internet! Keen observers will note that I've been posting less on this blog, but it's not because I've been being lazy. Quite the reverse. It's been a whirlwind few weeks but we've finally launched our brand new Indiegogo campaign for Project X.

Look for us in the webseries aisle...

Good News, Everyone!
"Mind My Brains, Darling!" is our brand new webseries. I've eluded to it under the codename Project X. The first Teaser is up now and I hope you enjoy it. It's set in Britain in 1979 and it's a Brave New World. You can explore the whole world over at mindmybrains.com, and there are some interesting production insights into the teaser at higletfilms.com.

It's 1979. Do you know where your Affected is?

Penny for your thoughts?
We're fundraising so we can get production under way quickly. This has necessitated the ultimate sacrifice - appearing in a video as ourselves! Quelle horreur!! There is nothing like watching yourself in HD to convince you that using a stuffie as your avatar was a wise move. But we forebear because we want to make this webseries! It's going to be awesome, and we'd love you to help. That doesn't just mean money, though. If you can share the link, Tweet, Facebook or blog it then you are helping us. A lot.

So - THANK YOU! 

Without all your help, support and love over the last two and a half years this couldn't have been possible. We are going to make a brave new webseries - you and us together (grammar ftw). It's going to be an incredible journey!!!

Goodnight Princess Act 2: Middle Eight

Hubby shows his skills in Goodnight Princess

Act 2 is now up!
We continue this experiment in short form drama, or Internet Play, with the second installment of Goodnight Princess. Thank you for everyone who watched and commented last week - it's always amazing to get feedback from people. If you'd like to know more about it you can read more in this post and the one I did on my writer's blog. Please let us know what you think of this week's installment. Last episode will be out next Monday.



So many videos, so little time
We've been discussing webseries for some time and there are many questions to be answered. Are there actually many more comedy webseries than drama ones, or does it just seem that way? With high-end dramas such as Compulsions, After Judgement and The Bannen Way, is there room for small, independent and/or amateur productions? Is drama simply harder to do 'right'? Is the market for drama webseries necessarily smaller than that for comedies?

New Poll - take it today!
With that in mind I've launched a new poll seeing what kind of webseries people generally watch. I'm trying the Blogger Poll which only allows one question so we'll see how it goes. And yes, I realise that there are many more ways to classify webseries than drama/comedy, and that some are both, but for simpilicity I'm forcing you to choose between only these two. Please take a moment to vote and we'll see how it goes.

Goodnight Princess: Act 1 - The Beginning of the End

Higlet Films Logo

So then, what's it all about?
You don't really expect me to tell you the plot, so I won't. But you might well be wondering what the heck it's all about. I mean - where are the funnies?!? Apart from hubby's brilliant voices, of course, which are still making me smile even after hearing them many, many times. It's true, when hubby originally had the idea for this latest webseries (not even two weeks ago) it was going to be hilarious. And then something happened. The story was turned around and now it's...something else.



Holy cow - what's that supposed to mean?
It's an Internet Play in three acts which explores love, loss and silly voices. You need to see all three acts to understand the whole thing. In total they add up to less than 10 minutes. Act 2 will be out next Monday (10th May 2010) and Act 3 on Monday after that (17th May 2010). This is something different. Of course you might not like it and that's fine. I'm very eager to hear to hear what you think, good, bad or indifferent.

A writer, writes...
If I've learned anything over the last couple of years (and hopefully I have), it's that the only way to really know if something is going to work is to try it and see. I'm really pleased the way this has turned out. Yes, I wish we had a better camera, sound recording, editing suite etc- but we wrote and shot it tailored to the circumstances and kit we have. I think it works well but it's hard to know until you put it out there. We shall see...

EDIT:
Thank you for all the RTs and comments! Your support means A LOT :) And thanks to @egspoony who even Tumblr'd it (I'm trying to get the hang of Tumblr but it's not easy...or too easy...or something!).

Coming soon - Dollhouse update, YouTube info and a competition...

Everyone's doing it...

...trying to get back into regular blogging, that is. Yes, I've been hanging around FriendFeed and now it's time to get back to some real work! Coming later today:

• Why I'm not panicking about Dollhouse (even though others are)
• Why Friend Feed is not a waste of time
• Why I'm taking a chance and launching a competition on my blog, with a real (virtual) prize!

I can tell that I've have piqued your interest....

A little teaser

You might want to do some prep work for the competition and if so, your homework is to watch the latest installment of my webseries -

Act V - Evil League of Evil Applications Processing Office

Badger's return, Dr Horrible's Pony and more...

Beginnings and endings - always tricky... 

I used to love reading "Farmer Duck" with my kids. The repeated line in it is "How goes the work?". I really must see if it's in one of those boxes in the garage one of these days. But on the whole work is going well at the moment. My paying job has now finished and I've been looking around for more home-based work that didn't involve stuffing envelopes, pyramid selling or dubious 'chat' lines. It's not as if I haven't got lots to fill my days (boredom? That's not been on my radar for years), but some sort of income is a necessity. Hence the job search. And it takes up a significant amount of time, I can tell you. But new opportunities are on the horizon, so I'll fill you in on that soon.

Mark Shepard

I loved him as 'Badger' in Firefly (and his accent was pretty good) and he was an excellent addition to the cast as Romo Lampkin in Battlestar Galactica. His scenes with Adama Jr were a real high-point. And now the news from Dollverse that he is going to have a role in Dollhouse. They got the information from Mark's Facebook pages. If you have a Facebook account (and know how to work is better than me...I'm really not a fan of Facebook) why not friend him? Or try MySpace - he updated his blog yesterday and confirmed the Dollhouse shooting, and it has a great picture of him.

My Little Dr Horrible Pony

There are so many talented people creating wonderful items and showcasing them on the Internet. A little while ago Whedonage had a link to some imaginatively made-over 'My Little Ponies' - Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer:

There are several photos on the website - I particularly love the superior expression of the Captain Hammer pony. I don't know who created them as there doesn't seem to any information, but I know that I love them!

Webseries news

The scripts are nearly complete and filing such commence soon. We've had lots of views (nearly 1000 in total) and some very encouraging comments, too. As soon as I post Act IV I'll let you know.

Writerly news

And I've just read Zoe Winter's novella 'Kept' and I'm telling you, when she starts her podcasts of 'Save My Soul' later in the year, you are going to love them. This is the one. Tell your friends.

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...