Book Review - Shadow Chase by Seressia Glass

(Yes, this is taken from Amazon. How could you tell?)

Fans of the urban fantasy genre have a lot to choose from. Devon Monk is a good one, but there are so many others as well.

One new entry (or relatively new, since this is now her second book and I have just finished reading her third) is Seressia Glass. A former romance author, she has decided to delve into the already packed genre. The second book in the Kira Solomon series is called Shadow Chase, and it doesn't quite live up to the first book. That doesn't mean it's bad, because it's not. It's just that the pacing is off and the climax is really lackluster.

My review of it has now posted on Curled Up With a Good Book.

From the review:

Kira is a Shadowchaser, a woman trained to serve the Light and fight off the forces of Shadow that are trying to take over the world. She has been tainted by it, however, and spilled innocent blood. As part of her atonement, she has been recruited as the Hand of Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of Truth and Order, to fight for her as well. While in London settling the affairs of her murdered mentor, Bernie, Kira becomes embroiled in other business by the Gilead Order. A fellow Shadowchaser has disappeared, as has the Vessel of Nun—an artifact that will cause immense destruction if it's not returned. Kira and her friends, including an immortal Nubian named Khefar who is the only person who can touch Kira without being affected by her powers, will have to recover it before it's too late.

One thing that really impresses me with Glass' work is that she avoids some of the stereotypes of the genre. Sure, there's a hunky guy and an incredibly sexy and athletic woman who are the main characters. Yeah, there's romance in there. The thing about Glass' work is that she doesn't delve into the sex. It's all "fade to black," which is a refreshing change Not that I mind it in the other books, of course. It's just nice when not all of them are like that.

I have read the third book, Shadow Fall, and it's much better than this one. This one's important in the series, though. It's a very quick read and it's worth it. It's just not as good as it could be.

Check out the review and let me know what you think.

Doctor Horrible Leads into the Guild - My Intro to Webseries

One of the first things I did when I went to V-Con 36 this year was agree to be interviewed for a documentary on web video series and their audience. Web video series used to be niche products, watched by very few people, but they're becoming more and more popular as a way to get around the usual bureaucracy of dealing with television networks. Even big name stars are doing them sometimes. The added attraction for the viewer is that each episode is generally 5-10 minutes long, so there's not a lot of time invested. Yet the story quality can be quite good.

I spent some time talking to the couple behind the "Mind My Brains, Darling" webseries, Mary and Paul Higgins, and Mary interviewed me for the documentary. She asked me if I was familiar with webseries and whether I watched them. I had to answer that while I knew they existed, I never watched them. One of the prominent webseries people, whose name pops up whenever webseries are discussed, is Felicia Day, and Mary asked me if I had ever seen "The Guild."

I was familiar with Day from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, but I hadn't heard of The Guild.

Now, it's three weeks later, and I thought back to that meeting, that interview, and that comment. I went looking for The Guild, not realizing that it was a webseries (I'm not sure why that took so long to sink in, considering the setting of where I found out about it). When I discovered that it was on Youtube, I decided to watch the first season and see whether I'd like it or not.

All I can say is, wow. My inner nerd is on fire.

The Guild is about a woman named Cyd (Codex), who is immersed in an online gaming world. So immersed, in fact, that her therapist "fires" her because she won't work on breaking her addiction to the game. She's a member of a guild of six characters who go adventuring in the game world together, and who all know each other through the game but have never met in person. Until Zaboo shows up at Cyd's door, that is. And he's in love.

The series is completely written by Day, and she's gathered a great set of actors to play the other characters in the guild. They have wonderful comic timing, and it's simply a hilarious series. Day is a big-time gamer, and the love for gaming really shows through.

Here's the first episode of the first season, introducing the whole thing.



The first season is great, and there are three more on Youtube, with a fifth that hasn't made it to Youtube yet but is available on Zune and Xbox, as well as The Guild's home page. It's well worth checking out.

In fact, Day is quite prominent in the webseries world, as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Web Television.

She's also makes a hot elf.

Day is starring in a webseries that's based on the Dragon Age 2 game, called "Dragon Age: Redemption," as the Elf assassin Tallis. The first two episodes are out and I've watched them too. Really good stuff.

I will be catching up with the Guild over the next little while, and I know I'll enjoy every minute of it. If you're a gamer, you will love this series, and possibly recognize people that you know.

If you're not a gamer, you will probably still get a laugh. Check out the first couple of episodes.

Hell, it's only seven minutes out of your day to do that. And even if you decide to watch the full season, that's only an hour.

That's one of the great things about webseries.

Consider me a new devotee.

Podcast stuff - Episode 21 of Down the Hall (Radio EPLT)

Creativity is very important in our lives, but for some reason, this isn't emphasized very often in formal education. In fact, the ability to "play" and just imagine seems to get run over by the need for facts and figures.

In this week's episode, Jenny's back and we discuss creativity, how to foster it, how it can improve both the workplace and our general lives. We also give you a little behind the scenes lowdown on the podcast itself. I think it was a great discussion, and I know I enjoyed doing it. I hope you enjoy listening to it.

The interview segment is a soon-to-be graduate of EPLT's Teaching Games for Understanding MED cohort, which is for Physical Education teachers. He tells me about the cohort, the method, and how it's helped him in his teaching practices.

All this, and some general laughter as well. This week was really fun to do.

And don't forget to head on over to Facebook and "like" us over there!

Catching Up

Looking back at the last couple of weeks.

Lately I've become a weekend blogger, and I'm not sure I'm happy with that. The week just seems so filled with other stuff going on, with no topics jumping to mind and not wanting to really sit down and think of anything to begin with. There were three hockey games this week (all on the road, so only on TV) and when that wasn't on, I was playing games or just reading. Stress-filled days at work that will hopefully end after next week have resulted in me not wanting to think too much when I haven't had to.

The weekend is my writing time, though, and I like to get at least something written each day. Whether it's a blog post here, a blog post over at Game Informer, or a book review, I want to produce something. In fact, I've been trying to make sure I get two or three things done. For example, I'm behind on book reviews, though I am caught up with books that I've just finished (or books that I want/have to review, anyway). I wrote a review today of a book that has been sitting here for much too long, and I have three other books that are the same way. I finished them when I was in my writing funk a few months ago and never got to the reviews. I feel bad, though, because they were books from Curled Up that I promised to review. I have vowed that I will get these reviews done, even if it takes one review a weekend.

Better late than never.

I'm also in my periodic "Klout" panic. Ok, that's a bit of hyperbole, because I'm not panicked about it. But again, as I said in the post I just linked to, it's an indication that I'm not doing what I enjoy doing, which is interacting with all of you people out there. (Incidentally, those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I changed my username to "whovian223" to match my Gmail address. Don't look for me as "histerin" any more if you are looking me up).

So I'm trying to do that this weekend as well. Lots of "Occupy Wall Street" tweets to make or re-tweet! Not to mention "Occupy Vancouver," which is going on today (What, only one day? Are you lazy or something?)

I'm also reading a lot, which is a really nice outlet. I have so many books from Curled Up that I want to get through some of them and get them reviewed. For that reason, I'm reading the "easy" ones first, the paperback novels that are quick reads. I'm saving the History books for last, because they usually slow me down drastically. I have one book that's sitting on my desk at work staring at me and intimidating me: Richard Miles' Carthage Must be Destroyed, a 544 page monstrosity that will probably take me a month, at the rate I've been reading.

Speaking of books and reviewing, I completely forgot to blog and mention that The Gatekeeper's Post did an interview with me about my Amazon reviews! It's not very long, but you'll get a bit of an insight into my book attitudes. I enjoyed doing it.

I am going to try and post here more often, though I don't know if I would expect that to change this coming week. For those of you who are following me, my apologies for that. You will be rewarded soon.

(Note: Dawn, since I know you'll eventually be reading this, I thought I would tell you that everybody on social media actually has a Klout score of some kind, even if they never join up. It's just that you can't do anything with it or about it without signing up. You've dipped below me a couple of times, but are just above me most of the time)

Is eating a popsicle at work sexual harassment?

Women eating a banana (or a popsicle) very slowly and seductively has been a staple of "guy" comedy movies for years. Usually, the scene is set to some suggestive music and the guy's eyes are almost popping out of their sockets.

But does that mean that women can't eat these kinds of food at work?

Depends on whether you're part of the Association of Finnish Lawyers, I guess.

They've recently put out a video that basically says that yes, it can be sexual harassment of the men in the office if a woman is eating a popsicle at work.

The video is a bit...exaggerated to make their point, though.



According to the Daily Mail (whenever I'm citing the Daily Mail, you know the story's going to be strange), the Association is "calling for new sexual harassment laws to include women who eat ‘too provocatively’ in public."


Looking at the video, I have to ask: who eats a popsicle that way? Ladies, do you moan at the taste of grape flavour, or does it take strawberry to really get your motor running? If you're at work and enjoying your food that much, then I think there's something else wrong with you. Unless, of course, you're staring into your co-worker's eyes as you do it, in which case you might just be cast in "The Office: Porn Version."

Then again...(thanks to IGN)

The same goes for eating a banana, I would think. Most of the women I know, if they aren't cutting it into slices, just pop it in, chomp, and release.

(Pause for a quick Bobbit-like image and subsequent cringing)

But if you do eat a banana a bit more slowly, why should you be penalized for eating it the way that works for you?

Unless you go up to a male co-worker's desk and do it right in his face or something.

(Note to my female readers: I'd love to know how you eat food like this, and whether you even think about how it looks or if you just do it the way you want to do it and images be damned)

I guess the Finnish Lawyers Association is just trying to drive home the point that men can be sexually harassed too. Yes, I agree that sexual harassment of all varieties is wrong and must be stamped out.

However, I also agree that many claims of it are so far out there that true sexual harassment is getting watered down and obscured by spurious cases that don't stand up to any close inspection.

Does using a woman suggestively eating a popsicle really further your cause much? It's so exaggerated and outlandish that it reduces any serious point you might be making.

Besides, maybe she just really likes fruit-flavoured frozen treats?

Sometimes a popsicle is just a popsicle (I think Freud was just hungry when he said that, though).

Podcast stuff - Episode 20 of Down the Hall (Radio EPLT)

It's an unusual week down the hall, but we manage to persevere and get out what I think is a pretty good episode.

Jenny's away, but ably filling in for her is EPLT's own Heather McGregor. I think she did a great job, and she seems to have enjoyed it. So much so, in fact, that we may have to keep her from muscling in on us and taking over.

Ok, there are no worries about that, but it's nice to know that we have a capable replacement in case either of us is indisposed, as happened this week.

No discussion, but you do get to hear Jenny's voice, as she interviews Vanessa Lapointe, from the Wishing Star, part of the Lapointe Psychology Services here in BC. She's an expert in Early Childhood Education. It's a great interview.

Heather and I also give a huge amount of information about what's coming up in EPLT, and there was no way I was going to not talk about V-Con, Vancouver's Science Fiction convention, that I attended last weekend. Of course, if you want a more complete wrap-up, you can always hop over to my post about it. Complete with pictures!

So take a listen. You can find it here. And don't forget to head on over to Facebook and "like" us over there!

V-Con 36 Recap

A number of alien beings and fantastical creatures invaded the Lower Mainland last weekend. I walked among them. This is my story.

The sign that awaited us at the door (click all photos to enlarge)

V-Con is Vancouver's annual Science Fiction and Fantasy (henceforth called SF) convention, having been run since 1971 (yes, 40 years, but it was called something else its first four years). I've been to it once, but I didn't have a smartphone at the time, one that I could access the Net with and take pictures. I also wasn't the same kind of person as I am now.

This year's author guest of honour was Larry Niven. I greatly respect his work, though Hard Science Fiction is not my forte, so I'm not as big on his work as others were.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or are Facebook friends already know some of this, but I thought I'd give you a run-down of how my weekend was.

To put it briefly, it was fantastic.

In addition to being a wonderful weekend because I was surrounded by fellow SF geeks like me, it was also the first step in my personal development plan. I was determined that, in addition to just enjoying the atmosphere, I would also interact with people. Chat with them. Share common experiences. Things that I've always been a bit fearful of.

That happened in spades, and don't worry. I won't go on about that.

The first thing you'll notice at any SF convention, and probably any media-related convention anywhere (Star Trek, Gaming, etc), is the costumes. There were some great ones at this convention, very creative people with a lot of time and effort put into making their costumes as authentic as possible.

Hell, we even had the Ghostbusters in town!

Who you gonna call?

You can tell they were the real ones, too.

We're ready to believe you.

The doors opened at Noon on Friday, but the Opening Ceremonies weren't until 5:00 pm and there was nothing scheduled until then. I didn't realize that until Thursday, and had already asked for the entire day off. I headed to Richmond (it was being held at the Sheraton Hotel in Richmond, a great-looking venue where the staff is very helpful) and got there in time for the Noon check-in. I then had an entire afternoon to kill, so I headed to the Game Room. Some of the players had already started, and they're very welcoming of spectators.

I also went to the vendor room, which had already opened. Another mainstay of any convention is that there are a lot of vendors there, selling their wares. I stumbled upon a guy who was selling a bunch of steampunk-inspired crafts, as well as laser-etched woodwork.

Due to trademark, these can't be called "Yo-Yos," but that's what they are

The vendor was a guy named Professor Whovianart (a guy after my own heart, being a Dr. Who fan and all), and it was the first of many interesting costumes that I saw there.

Nice hair!!!

Then, the inevitable happened. It's impossible to keep evil down for good. Yes, the bad guys showed up.

Where are those Death Star plans?

It was amazing how many Star Wars characters there were there, and I don't know if they were all part of the 501st Legion (a Star Wars costuming group with a rather large membership. Check out the web site for some really cool photos), though I think they all were. The armor is quite elaborate, and the Jedi robes of some of the other ones look very cool too.

One way I occupied my time on Friday afternoon was being interviewed! There were signs posted all over the place about a documentary shooting footage at the convention, and by attending the convention, you were giving permission to be filmed as the camera went around the hotel. They were also doing interviews, and we could contact them if we wanted to be. After a bit of deliberation, and thinking about how I was trying to break out of my shell, I emailed Mary Higgins, who was doing the documentary. I found Mary and her husband Paul in the vendor room, and we had a long chat about web video series and whether I watched them or not (that's what the documentary is about). We then ended up doing the interview right then in there.

I did feel sorry for their cameraman, though.

I don't envy you at all, Sir.

That looked like a heavy rig he was carrying, but he held up throughout the three days!

The documentary will be out next year, on the web. Mary said she would tell me when it was up, and maybe I'll post a link here (after I determine whether I want you to see it or not).

Another cool thing about conventions are the panels of authors and experts on a variety of topics. Not all of them are writers, but many of them are, and they share their writing insights and advice with eager fans. When I came to V-Con four years ago, I went to a large number of panels, because I thought that's what you did at conventions: attend panels. Plus, I wasn't really that sociable of a person back then. This year, I didn't go to as many, but there were still a lot of really cool ones.

One of the ones I went to on Friday night was called "First Page Idol," where people would bring the first page of their work and the panel would read it and give suggestions on it. Sadly, since the schedule was posted so late (I didn't choose my panels until Friday morning), only one person had a page ready. Thus, it became "First Line" Idol, after a discussion among the panelists on what editors are looking for at the beginning of works submitted to them. We then had to come up with a first line and be brave enough to say it out loud and get a reaction from the panel.

The First Page Idol panel, (l-r: Marcie Tentchoff, Phoebe Kitanidis, Brian Hades, Ian Alexander Martin, Stephanie Johanson)

Since I was challenging myself to speak up at this convention, I came up with one that I thought might be pretty good. "Sometimes being a god made for a long day, especially on Thursdays." This garnered a "I'd keep reading!" response from Marcie, which made my night. Now I have to come up with a story to use that line. Challenge!

The excellent box art to this 1988 game

Saturday had a couple more panels, including a very valuable one on critique groups and whether they are helpful. I also spent a lot of time in the Gaming Room, including finishing up a game of Merchant of Venus for somebody who had to go to a panel. And I won! This took me past a panel I had planned to attend, but I was having fun, and I was also getting to know a couple of really cool guys, long-time gamers who welcomed me as a new player and were very talkative. I had met them the night before, chatting with them for about 30 minutes before it was time to head home. It was nice to have made a bit of a connection.

These guys were quite interesting, and I was talking more to one of them on Sunday, and I'm now going to be invited to their next gaming session. That's going to be really cool, I think, and it's opened some other doors for me as well. There are Gaming groups all over Vancouver that I might try out, a lot of them having been represented at V-Con.

The main event of Saturday, though, was the Masquerade, a contest where a bunch of the people who had made costumes entered to win prizes. I couldn't take any pictures there, because my iPhone wouldn't do them justice from that distance. However, I did get a couple of pictures of contestants before the show.

I had met her on Friday and while I knew she looked familiar, didn't realize who she was until after I took this picture.

And then there was this lovely couple.

They spent most of Saturday in the Gaming Room, until the Masquerade

After the Masquerade, there was a Dance/Party where I had a great time. While I didn't dance at all, I did chat with a few people (including a very long chat with one of the authors, something I would never have done four years ago), as well as admiring the courage of those who were dancing.

Actually, it got a bit surreal.

I'm just burning, doing the Death Star dance

It was a great time, though. The music was awesome (how can you not love a song called "Eat Your Brains" by Jonathan Caulton?)


(A must-listen song, you will laugh)

There were some great panels on Sunday, though I was very disappointed at the cancellation of the Podcasting panel. That's the one I was greatly looking forward to. Still, there were panels on creating your own world for your fiction, the immortal "Are Video Games Art?" question, and creating good fight scenes for your story.

However, the highlight of the day was the Turkey Readings. Basically, the four panelists take a passage from some of the worst SF books of yesteryear. They request volunteers to come up and act out the scene as it's being read. When the pain gets too much, audience members can bid to stop the reading. However, you can also bid higher to have it continue. The bidding escalates until finally people relent and let the reading come to a merciful conclusion. All money goes to charity.

Red Sonja and some kind of manifestation

We all about died laughing, as many of the passages were horribly bad. Not just the writing, though. The people who got up there and acted had a lot of guts, and were wonderfully silly about the whole thing.

I can't end this recap without talking about the Hospitality Suite. It's all run by convention volunteers, and there were two rooms: a room with pop and snacks, and a room with alcohol. You couldn't leave the room with your food and drink, but why would you want to? Some of my best conversations of the weekend came sitting in the alcohol room, chatting with other convention attendees. I got to know a couple of them, and had a great time talking with them. I would often go up there when there was nothing else really going on, and there was always somebody up there. It's run by donations, so while you don't *have* to pay anything, it's good if you do. I did my fair share.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures up there. I should have. Friday night, there were a lot of incredibly drunk people up there, but not in a bad way. The laughter was infectious, and there was no belligerence. It was just people having a lot of fun.

That's what this convention was about. Fun. Meeting new people. Exploring your shared love of all things SF. That's the common bond we all had. Young and old, There were kids there, and there were people in their 70s (not counting Niven himself, who was writing back in the 60s and still is going strong today). People from all walks of life.

All sharing a singular passion, and sharing it with each other.

Ok, maybe not sharing it with the Marshmallow Man)

Many thanks to the committee members and all the volunteers who made it such a great time.

If you want to explore what it was this year, to give you an idea, here's this year's web site. We'd love to have you come to Vancouver for next year's convention and see the sights as well as have a lot of fun.

And look me up! Because I'm definitely going back.