All Change

 

Autumn always feel to me as the biggest change of season. The nights get longer so much quicker than they seemed to shorten. The trees shed their leaves, and this year my chooks lost their old feathers at a more sensible temperature, making the run floor look like a pillow fight apocalypse. 

But this year more so. Because today I handed in my notice and will be moving to work at a new school closer to home. It'll shorten my daily commute at a time of year when I'm having to leave before it's fully light, and would soon be coming back in the dark too. It gives me a slightly better work-life balance.

Will this finally mean I get back to writing, or the horribly long overdue edits on Keir's Shadow? I'd like to say yes. But the stresses of the past few weeks have left me exhausted, busy weekends have left me little free time, and I have a cosplay commission to work on. I can only hope a less stressful work situation and the coming winter will finally give me time to commit to my long neglected muse.

NorCon 2021

One sign of normality for us this year was the return to conventions, namely our most local con. I donned my old Han Solo costume for the first day only as making costumes just didn't happen this year. The con had a small but quite exciting guest list.

And of course, exciting swag, including a nifty Death Star handbag. I may have committed myself to making someone a Starlord cosplay...

And we stayed near an interesting feature that looked rather suspicious...

No more photos from the con as we were more interested in the guest talks and photoshoots this year, but next year I really AM going to do my extra special cosplay. No really...

NorCon Revisited #scifi #fantasy

Despite a super hectic year, we did get time to make our annual visit to NorCon, although only for the one day. Neither hubs or I got to make new cosplays this year, and youngest decided to revisit his Plague Knight costume, so it was only eldest and middle child in new ones. 

But first, some real nostalgia for me. Some 30 years ago I got my photo taken with the then 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy (also of Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit). And I got the chance to relive that excitement at NorCon. 

Amidala, the level of cosplaying my skills and budget would love to aspire to...

Youngest revisiting his Plague Knight cosplay

My older two cosplaying brother and sister mutants Quicksilver (Avengers version) and Scarlet Witch.

The hair-raising effect of prolonged wig wearing!

Hell, yeah, I'm shooting first!

And of course, I couldn't resist some merch...

Going Solo at #NorCon #scifi #convention #StarWars #HarryPotter #RedDwarf

Hello! Long time, no see - sorry. It's been a mad, mad world in reality and I've had neither time nor, if I'm honest, inclination to blog as I didn't feel I had anything exciting or new to talk about. But this weekend I had a thorough geek out at NorCon and wanted to share the photos and videos I took over this two day TV and Film convention in the heart of beautiful Norfolk. Despite everything (including a truly series of unfortunate events on Thursday that left my eldest's Scarlet Witch cosplay sadly unfinished), this year I managed to wear my first new outfit since we started taking this whole cosplaying at cons as a regular pastime. Since I don't really look like anyone in fiction, at least no one I'm interested in or find possible to cosplay, I tend to go for outfits I personally like the look of in my top fandoms. After two years in my black Anakin, this year I went for my own twist on Han Solo's Bespin costume from The Empire Strikes Back. I did play with the idea of doing a Han/Leia crossover but wussed out on attempting the hair. I'd treated myself to Star Wars Costumes - The Original Trilogy so I could get some really detailed information and images of the costume before doing my own take on it. Did you know that Han's jacket is actually grey and only appears navy blue in the film?

Ironically, the jacket I have here was a cheap charity shop buy that was originally grey and that I dyed to navy blue. The top is a long sleeved white t-shirt - I did intend to make my shirt, then bought a cheap white collared shirt, but settled for the tee in the end because it was more comfortable. Cosplaying can be a truly uncomfortable experience so easy options are good! The leggings are also cheap bought ones - I did try making some leggings for my youngest's cosplay, but honestly the fabric costs more than just buying basic ones. At first I went for painting on the yellow bars down the side, but this ended up going disastrously wrong. Iron on vinyl turned out to be a time consuming but infinitely more satisfactory option (they took five hours including cutting out the bars and ironing the little buggers on. Thank goodness I only had to do as far as the knees!).

The belt is from Jedi Robe - I absolutely cannot fault this company for their Star Wars accessories and attention to detail, especially since I have yet to learn any leatherwork skills myself. My Anakin belt came from them as well, and they are beautiful, quality items that won't let you down. The boots were a birthday present from hubs. Sadly my wide calves make buying riding or full length boots a challenge and these weren't cheap, but will hopefully last me for years. My gun is the Han Solo The Force Awakens NERF blaster painted up - this just about fits in the belt holster but you can't do the safety strap up over it (you have to go through the trigger bit) which means a bit of a wobble when walking around, but since I found it more comfy to rest my hand on the gun anyway, it wasn't a big issue for me. Finally I had a Millenium Falcon keyring as a necklace, and a pair of golden dice hanging from the belt, as well as a couple of Sabacc cards that the Odeon cinema were giving away when the film released. Overall I'm pleased with the general look.

courtesy of Invasion Colchester

Having tested the cosplays out at Invasion Colchester, our local geek event on the streets of our home town, adjustments were made ready for NorCon just four weeks later!

Left to right: Hana Solo, Plague Knight (ShovelKnight), Quicksilver (X-Men), and the Tenth Doctor.

Last year I focused on Star Wars cosplays, but this year I tried to pick out the more unusual ones. There were an awful lot of computer game orientated cosplays, which I don't know and can't claim to be interested in, but I did find a few interesting and original oddities.

Gambit, X-Men - one of my favourite characters

Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, Hellboy

The Rocketeer

And we couldn't resist a few selfies with some of the guests and other cosplayers.

Ryan Gage - Alfred from The Hobbit, a rehabilitated Hitler in Red Dwarf, and star of The Three Musketeers. Also thoroughly adorable.

The very lovely Hugo Myatt who played Treguard, the dungeon master in 80's adventure series Knightmare (a big fave of mine as a kid)

The completely charming Guy Henry, who provided the voice behind the computer generated face of Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One, as well as Voldemort's Minister of Magic in Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows, and star of Holby City.

No Solo is complete without his co-pilot!

And two Hans are always better than one...

This was NorCon's second year as a two day event, and our first as weekenders. This allowed our two boys to cosplay on the first day and opt for normal attire on the second. Despite missing out on her Scarlet Witch cosplay, eldest was able to double tag with her Tennant Who on Saturday, and a re-run of her Rey on the Sunday (though sadly she no longer has the long hair for it). Sunday also featured a bonus event at the con in the form of the Norwich POP Orchestra performing two sets of film themes including ET, Thunderbirds, Superman, Dark Knight, Back to the Future, and concluding on a medley of Star Wars themes...including a heart rending performance of Leia's Theme, a piece that has always made me cry but now even more so with the passing of Carrie Fisher. Add to that a montage of on and off screen video clips featuring the princess, and I think a lot of tears were shed. I'm going to finish with some videos taken at the convention, including a short clip of Jurassic Park with a baby Blue visiting the audience, and Captain Picard taking a bow for Star Trek.

The #BristolCon Countdown...again!

I'm going to admit I'm both excited and nervous about going. Excited because BristolCon is a fab, friendly place to go and my favourite author is there, as well as fellow Brigader Misa Buckley. I'm nervous because...people! I'll be trying to sell my books, and I'm terrified! But more than that. Last year, after two months of prep, our car broke down halfway there and we missed the whole thing. I cried for a week! The only bonus is that at least I had a ton of stuff already prepped and stowed away so this year has been a lot less stress preparing for it. Well, other than a mild panic over whether the print editions of Gethyon would arrive in time after having to priority ship two sets of proofs before I was satisfied with the product.

But just yesterday the last couple of things I was waiting on arrived: carrier bags for any books I sell, and a couple of menu card holders to put my special offers on. The tub of chocolates I plan to use as bribery will have to wait to closer to the time otherwise they'll never survive to the convention.

My costume is almost complete. Yeah, I've gone for an Anakin cosplay. I'm not really much of a princess and definitely lean more to the Dark Side. :P

While my eldest just needs her Rey blaster painted up (and maybe a little BB-8 toy to carry.

I've had a practice set up for my half a table, though it still needs some tweaks. Boy, I've accumulated a lot of my titles in print since last year. I'd planned to showcase a few Brigade titles to represent our group, but I'm literally not going to have space (other than Laurie's Inherit the Stars that she sent me last year, and Sharon Lynn Fisher's Ghost Planet with the old cover). The Brigade merch I made up will be going into the free goodie bags I'll be handing out with any book purchase.

And just last week my print editions of Gethyon arrived. ^-^

I'll be doing the last few bits of prep after this week because...

While BristolCon is still almost four weeks away, I've got a nice geek orientated distraction this coming weekend - Nor-Con! Aside from ComicCon in London, this is my nearest convention, but it'll be my first time visiting. Partly for fun but partly to see if it's worth considering as a dealer with my books. I'll be testing out my Anakin cosplay while eldest is wearing a Connor Temple cosplay (and she has a joint photo shoot booked with Hannah Spearitt (Abby Maitland, Primeval) and Andrew Lee Potts (Connor Temple, Primeval). She's so excited! I already got my photo with Andrew back in May at ComicCon.

The car has been serviced, fully checked over, and goes in for a minor repair this week. Fingers and toes crossed that car failure doesn't stop us from either convention this month. >.<

Status Update
Gethyon is finally back out, in ebook and this time also in print. This now means I am a fully indie author with eighteen titles listed on Goodreads. That's not bad in five and a half years.

Gethyon

A Scifi Adventure Novel

Goodreads | Webpage

Amazon | Omnilit

B&N | Kobo | iBooks

Smashwords

Print:
CreateSpace
Amazon | B&N

Currently I'm not writing, haven't written in weeks, and don't seem to care. With two conventions this month, I figure it's time to take a break, focus on other stuff and see how I feel after the end of this year. I'm job hunting, picking at book three for Keir, and I have three sets of edits I could be working on but ain't. Real life stuff is taking priority, and since I have no deadlines except those I set myself, I'm letting myself take a step back.

And finally...

Chook Update

With the sudden nip in the air and the nights drawing in now we're past the autumn equinox, my girls are spending less time in the garden and they've stopped laying. They've also moulted so abruptly their run looks like the floor of a real feather pillow making factory! It's now too wet or too cold for me to sit out with them, but they spent last Friday mostly sunbathing when I let them out.

And I finish with one last photo from the garden, a frog onna log by our pond. Have a good week!