SpoCon 2011

There is so much that I could say about SpoCon this year. It was a total blast. So this will be a weekend recap of sorts and I know I will still forget something.

Friday morning, I had the honor of attending the Guest/Pro Breakfast where I was privileged to sit with several of the other League of Extraordinary Writers 2011 Writing Contest finalists (Kaye, Greg, Scott, and Esther), a member of the ConCom, and several members of the Dead Gentlemen (Brian Lewis, Scott Brown, Christian Doyle, and a gal whose name momentarily escapes me). The breakfast was highly entertaining. All of the Dead Gentlemen are a lively group and rather outgoing.

After breakfast finished, I joined Kaye, her mother, Kathy, and Kaye's friend, Jordan. I chatted with them as I did some hand stitching on my costume. About 2.5 hours later, registration opened and I stood in line for an hour to get my badge. I got my badge just in time to rush off and meet with C. J. Cherryh, who spent a half-hour critiquing my writing contest submission and gave me many helpful tips and encouraged me in my writing. This was the perfect way to start a con!

I ended up going to several other writing panels over the course of the weekend and received tips from authors: Patricia Briggs, John Dalmas, C. J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher, Tanglwyst de Holloway, Alma Alexander, Mark Ferrari, Deby Fredericks, and owner of Blue Falcon Editing, Andrea Howe. There are so many things I am very excited to work on in my writing thanks to these wonderful people. I also met several wonderful aspiring authors at these panels and look forward to some day reading their work.

Friday night couldn't arrive soon enough for me. I've been looking forward to Opening Ceremonies for months, because that is when the L.E.W. contest winners would be announced.

Photo by Cheeser.

I waited on pins and needles. Eager to hear my name when the announcements finally arrived.

"Second place winner for Flash Fiction is..." My brain went into shock as I realized that they had not read my name. There were only two finalists in each category. They didn't say my name! That means... Shock gripped my brain and I found that I couldn't voice the conclusion my brain had arrived at. Then I heard my name read as the General Writing Contest Flash Fiction winner. I don't even think the announcer had finished reading my name when my husband's cheers deafened me. He was just as excited as I was - only his vocal cords were functioning.

Photo by Cheeser.

So this is me, with my medal. It has the awesome SpoCon logo on the front and the back is engraved. The other half of my prize is a gift certificate to Blue Falcon Editing for the editing of my flash fiction entry. Words cannot even express my excitement.

Photo by Cheeser.

My husband and I celebrated by going out to eat with a friend and then rushing home to sew more on our costumes. We finished them around 12:30 p.m. and headed for the con.

We signed up for the Masquerade. It was so much fun performing my flag routine (even if I dropped one of my flags). There were several really awesome costumes present. One of my favorites was a gal dressed up as a white wolf. The costume had beautiful detail.

Photo by the Spokantina member I handed my camera to...

Masquerade results:
Firebender [Avatar - The Last Airbender] {Me} - Best Performance - Journeyman Class
Roxas [Kingdom Hearts II] {My Hubby} - Best Workmanship - Journeyman Class
Brother Silence, Cass [Gamers II - Dorkness Rising] {Our friend, Cheeser} - Best of Show

Photo by the Spokantina member I handed my camera to...

And a shot with Cheeser in his Snowtrooper armor and me with flags to show you how they looked moving.

Other con highlights:

Filking (click here for what filking is) - this was so much fun! I only regret that I wasn't able to stay the whole time and missed the first night of it. The filking circle was so friendly! I really need to figure out how to get my hands on a song book.

Meeting Dragon Dronet - this man is a masterful prop builder and armorer. He does beautiful work. He brought several pieces to pass around.

Photo by the Spokantina member I handed my camera to...

He even let me put on the Samurai helmet used in the t.v. series Heroes.

Photo by the Spokantina member I handed my camera to...

Teaching others how to twirl flags - during the dance I taught several other con goers how to flag. It was highly entertaining, especially when Alfredo decided to give one a whirl.

Getting asked for my autograph six times since they put all the contest entries in an anthology (if you granted permission). I love my copy of the book and was super excited when I discovered that my flash fiction story, Fate, was the first one. I tracked down two of the other writers in the book to have them sign it as well {I wanted to get everyone, but was unable to locate them all}.

And my overall favorite con memories are every one of them spent with friends (new and old alike). I had a blast hanging out with all my geeky buddies and can't wait to do it all again next year.

EDIT: I will be adding more pictures (and hopefully video) when I find them.

Photo by Lady Mischief


Video by Nathan Smith

I fire bend at 13:26, but you should watch the whole thing. Brother Silence (Cheeser) does a fabulous job! And my hubby dons the completed Org. XIII cloak and the key that he has spent much time on. Plus, there were many other wonderful costumes!

Pai Sho Project

Project Name: Pai Sho
Status: In Progress
Source: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Anime
Project Type: Wood game pieces, travel board-map, and Pai Sho table.


The first picture above shows the size of the pieces I am using. The second picture shows the canon White Lotus piece as well as an altered version of the canon Rose piece.

As I sat down to work on this project, my friend, Joe, offered to help with some redesigns of the pieces. The White Lotus piece was really the only canon design I liked. So Joe reworked all of the other pieces for me. He altered the canon Rose to fit with the design and I tried my hand at altering the canon White Jade to fit in with his designs. All other pieces in my set are of Joe's design and I am very happy with them. So I am working on my set (and will be doing a second set of tiles when I am finished with mine, for Joe, as payment for his design work).

So I ordered all 108 wood discs needed to make my set and have started wood burning in the designs. I've gotten a few tiles completely wood burned and several others in progress, but I have bent my straight tip beyond use for the detail I need now (though it works great for small curved segments). I'm not sure if it is a cheaply made tip or if I just don't know my own strength. Regardless, I need to order a new tip before this project can proceed.

Woodburning and Pai Sho

Last Sunday I bought a new toy. I've been having a bit of fun with my new wood burner. I've only done a bit of practicing so far to figure out how a few of the 11 tips work. I'm loving it. I've already ordered the 108 blank round wood discs I will need to make Pai Sho pieces. For those of you who don't know, Pai Sho is a fictional game played by the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender (an American animated T.V. series). From the various screen shots and in series use of the game several fans have worked out some playable rules for Pai Sho. I've been following the progress on creating the (unofficial) variations of the game and really want to play it for myself. So the plan is to make a set of the tiles and a travel board (either laminated paper or maybe an imprinted/burned/embossed animal hide) at first. Eventually I plan on making an actual Pai Sho table - I figure it would function as a pretty coffee table when not in use for games.

I've also been looking at making a piecepack (follow the link to learn more). A piecepack is the following set of game pieces:
24 tiles (square):
one tile per suit/value pair
suits are Suns, Moons, Crowns, Arms (but I've seen different suits and plan on making a themed piecepack)
values are null, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5
faces are marked with value at center and a small suit symbol at top-left, both in color to match suit
backs are marked with small black crosses to suggest a division into four square quarters

24 coins (round):
one tile per suit/value pair
suits are Suns, Moons, Crowns, Arms (again, I'm planning on using a theme set of suits)
values are null, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5
faces are marked with value in black (aces are spiral symbols)
backs are marked with suit in appropriate color
both fronts and backs are marked with a small mark near the edge to indicate direction

4 dice (cubic):
one die per suit
suits are Suns, Moons, Crowns, Arms (I'll be changing the suits to fit my theme)
values on each die are null, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5
die sides are marked with value in color to match suit

4 pawns (non-specific shape):
one pawn per color (I'm thinking 2 male and 2 female pawn people)

So I need to figure out what theme to use.
Theme: Possible Suits
Star Wars: Imperial Cog, Rebel Alliance Symbol, Mythosaur skull (symbol of the Mand'alor), Sith Symbol, Jedi Symbol - I think the only issue with this one would be picking which four symbols to use
Avatar - The Last Airbender: Earth, Water, Air, Fire - this one was easy
Harry Potter: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw (might have to save this for a House Cup project)
Firefly: Hands of Blue (blue), Brown Coat(brown), Wash's Dinos (orange), Vera (silver), cupcake dress (pink)
The fandom list goes on...

Also I am currently reading The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny - which includes all 10 books in the Amber Chronicles, because a friend of mine recommended it. I've already finished book one and am definitely enjoying it.