Ottawa Comiccon!

May 14th, 2013 | by Tara
Posted In: Blog

Dalek Invasion at the Ottawa Comiccon!

Sorry about the somewhat blurry image of my table in the background. But, you know, we were all running from the Daleks.

Seriously, the Ottawa Comiccon was a great event. I sold out of my entire box full of Galaxion books by early Saturday evening. And here I thought I’d overpacked! So many people came by who’d never seen Galaxion before, but were delighted to have the chance to give it a try. If I met you at the show for the first time, welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy watching the story unfold.

Being so close to Quebec, there were a lot a folks there who spoke French, more than I typically encounter at a con. I got a kick out of listening to them pronounce “Galaxion” as though it were a French word. I got the feeling some of them were disappointed when they picked up a copy of one of the books, only to discover it was in English…  ;-)

As I mentioned in the comic’s commentary last week, I was indeed perilously close to the Dalek base at the Ottawa Comiccon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place! In fact, they were one of the fun experiences of the show, and hats off to the fellows behind this group. They would, several times in the day, emerge from their lair and swarm around the con floor, instructing humans in perfectly-synthesized voices to make way for the Daleks, and occasionally complimenting those attendees in electric wheelchairs for their fine taste in transportation. They always got a laugh and a smile, and were constantly followed around by cosplaying Doctors. It must have been a lot of work, and I applaud them.

Note the giant-sized Dalek on the left.

There were even more fun things to see, such as the parade of Star Wars themed Lego Minifig cosplayers, but sadly I missed most of them due to being busy selling books and buttons and things.

It was raining somewhat when it was time to pack up and go, but as a lovely endcap to our day Mother Nature treated us to several lovely rainbows to send us on our way back home.

Well done Ottawa Comiccon! I have already signed up for next year’s show.

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Supurpleous

March 6th, 2013 | by Tara
Posted In: Blog

or possibly Supurplous.

My 9-year-old daughter came up with this fabulous new word for me today. I’d just begun an explanation of what was a new word to her– superfluous– when she repeated back in a confused tone, “Su-purple-ous?” I corrected her pronunciation, but then stopped to contemplate the deliciousness of her version. Mm, yesssss. Supurpleous. That’s me all over.

I can trace back by obsession with the colour purple to a character in a book I read as a young impressionable child: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs. This happens to be the third book in his Lewis Barnavelt series but it was the one I read first. (And I was disappointed to learn that the main character, Rose Rita, took a back seat to Lewis in the first two books.) In this book I was introduced to Mrs Zimmerman. Mrs Zimmerman is a witch. She’s old and clever. And she always dresses in purple, because that’s what she likes. I felt an instant kinship with Mrs Zimmerman, and from that day onward I vowed to fill my wardrobe and house with purple things.

I can’t say that I’ve ever achieved a Mrs Zimmerman level of purpleness. As much as I may wish to buy a dressy purple blouse, sometimes they’re just not available, or not in a style I’m willing to wear. I’ve had to accept that some shades of purple, particularly the lavender tones, just aren’t flattering on me. In the years when purple isn’t on the fashion designers’ radar as the new hot colour, I’ve had to make do with other bits of the rainbow. And for years I complained that although there are so many new colourful accessories for the kitchen, none of them were ever in purple (though I know there is a line of Kitchenaid products now in purple. If I didn’t already own a green stand mixer…). You know how long I’ve spent looking for purple kitchen dish towels? They only ever seen to come in green, blue, or red.

Not everything in my house is purple. My husband likes the colour, too, but I think even he’d get sick of it if I tried to paint all the walls in shades of grape. My bedding is purple. My bathroom towels are purple. Actually, I don’t normally dress all-out purple: usually I’ll pair a purple shirt with black pants or jeans. But, I admit, sometimes things can get particularly supurpleous. Not everything in my wardrobe is purple, but it continues to slowly move in that direction. Maybe by the time I’m as old as Mrs Zimmerman the transformation will be complete.

Supurpleous. Seriously, can you ever really have too much purple?

I do have to get some purple shoes.

(Actually, I have a nice pair of purple runners, but they’re no good in the snow.)

Final note: my husband and I had a debate about whether it should be “supurpleous” or “supurplous.” He argued the first looked like it ought to be pronounced “su-PER-plee-us”, and I said the second looked like it would be pronounced “su-PER-plus”. Neither was really what I wanted it to sound like– “su-PURPLE-ous”– so given that both were flawed I just went with the one that had “purple” in it.

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The Aurora Awards

February 5th, 2013 | by Tara
Posted In: Blog

Have you heard of the Auroras? The Aurora Awards, sponsored by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, recognizes the best in Canadian SF&F literature, art, and fan works of the previous year. Kinda like the Hugo Awards (which you probably have heard of), but specializing in us folks up north.

If you’re like me, you don’t typically choose your novels based on the author’s nationality, so you may not be sure which, if any, SF&F authors you read may in fact be Canadian. Probably more than you think! Wikipedia has a list.

The categories include Best Novel, Best YA Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Graphic Novel, Best Related Work, Best Artist, and several Fan-related categories. You can find a list of eligible works (not a complete list, but it’s a great place to start) for stuff published in 2012 maintained at the CanSpec Fic List. You may notice that Galaxion appears in the Graphic Novel category, which encompasses online comics. ;-)

What I think is most interesting is the hardest choice for me, this year, will be in the YA Novel category, rather than the straight-up Novel. Possible choices for nomination include Cory Doctorow’s Pirate Cinema, Leah Bobet’s Above, Adrienne Kress’s Friday Society, and– oooh– Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina. (Actually, I think the separation between adult novels and young adult novels may be new for 2012.) Isn’t it amazing how many great books are being published for the youth market now! I suspect this is a publisher thing—in decades past, many of these would have just been marketed as adult fiction, but with the success of such series as Harry Potter and Hunger Games, which draw as many grown-up readers as they do kids, publishers are ready to push this section of the bookstore. Well, I’ve never been ashamed to admit I read YA books.

For a yearly membership fee of $10 to join CSFFA, any Canadian citizen or permanent resident can nominate and vote on the Auroras. For an award representing such a large country (in square metres, anyway) the number of ballots cast is actually pretty small. So in this case, every vote really can make a big difference!

The nomination period lasts from January 1st through April 15th, and the voting begins in early May. The 2013 awards will be presented in October in Ottawa at Can-Con. So if you’re Canadian, please consider showing your support for the great science fiction and fantasy creators in our country!

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