Hey guys! Are any of you going to Emerald City Comic Con here in Seattle? I sure hope so, because it’s going to be AN EXCELLENT WEEKEND! I figured I would post this a bit early, in case you want to know what I’ll be up to and where to find me this weekend.

First off – I will of course be cosplaying. I have been working my face off, which has been exceptionally challenging in tandem with my new full-time job. Needless to say, after many nearly sleepless nights, I am so, so, so excited to finally show these bad boys off.

 

Also, I’m going to be on a super-fun panel on Friday that you won’t want to miss!

The Couple That Games Together
Room: Hall J (WSCC 3B)
Date: Friday, March 27th
Time: 2:00PM – 2:50PM

This will be my and Joe’s second time getting to be a part of this panel, and I can’t wait. We’ll be discussing the benefits and challenges of being a couple that games together – be that board games, card games, video games, etc! it’s such a fun and interesting topic to delve into, and people always have so many great questions! We had a great turnout last year and I’m hoping this year is even bigger!

Other than that, I’ll mostly be hanging out in the various “cosplay” areas of the convention (including the main entrance room by the windows) and trying not to spend all my money in the expo hall/vendor area. I am so pumped for ECCC, and glad it’s always my exciting start to convention season. Imagining walking around with my army of Disney Princesses on Saturday is making me giddy with anticipation.

If you’re planning on going to Emerald City Comic Con, let me know what you’re most looking forward to seeing! And of course – I hope to see you there.

Okay, I wasn’t going to do this reading challenge, but hearing other people talk about things is the biggest catalyst in making me want to do those things. So here I am. Doing the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge. I’ll be updating this list all year long as I tackle the challenges, so check back if you want to see how I am doing.

Challenges Completed: (46/50)

A book with more than 500 pages: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A classic romance (Persuasion)
A book that became a movie: Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
A book published this year: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book with a number in the title: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A book written by someone under 30: The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich
A book with nonhuman characters: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
A funny book: Sex Criminals Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky 
A book by a female author: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
A mystery or thriller: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
A book with a one word title: Hazed by Mark Sable
A book with short stories: The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
A book set in a different country: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
A non-fiction book: The Opposite of Loneliness 
A popular author’s first book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
A book a friend recommended: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A Pulitzer Prize winning novel: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A book based on a true story: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
A book at the bottom of your TBR list: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
A book your mom loves: Old North Dakota German Cookbook
A book that scares you: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
A book more than a 100 years old: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
A book based entirely on its cover: In Real Life by Corey Doctorow and Jen Wang
A book you were supposed to read in school and didn’t: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A memoir: Bossypants by Tina Fey
A book with antonyms in the title: Glory O’brien’s History of the Future by AS King
A book you can finish in a day: The Woods: Vol 1 by James Tynion IV
A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to go: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book published the year you were born (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
A book with bad reviews: Doll Bones by Holly Black
A Trilogy (Magic 2.0)
A book from your childhood: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
A book with a love triangle: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book set in the future: Cress by Marissa Meyer
A book set in high school: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
A book with a color in the title: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A book that made you cry: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski
A book with magic: Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
A graphic novel: A Wrinkle in Time the Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle/Hope Larson
A book by an author you’ve never read before: This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
A book you own but never read: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A book that takes place in your hometown: Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer
A book that was originally written in another language: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book set during Christmas: PS. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
A book by an author who has your same initials: The Kite Runner Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini
A play (from joe!)
A banned book: On The Bright Side I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison
A book based on or turned into a tv show: The 100 by Kass Morgan
A book you started but never finished: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

I wanted a place to document which books I read this year, in what order, and what I rated them. Because I like when things are organized into lists, and because apparently Goodreads alone isn’t enough. So here it is! My 2015 Reading List:

January:
1. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (4.5)
2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (4.5)
3. Hazed by Mark Sable (1.5)
4. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (4)

February:
5. Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison (4)
6. Cinder by Melissa Meyer (3.5)
7. On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison (4.5)
8. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson (4)
9. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (2)
10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (5)
11. In Real Life by Corey Doctorow and Jen Wang (4.5)
12. Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer (5)
13. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (4)

March:
14. The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski (5)
15. Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn (3.5)
16. Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer (4.5)
17. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (4)
18. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (4)
19. Cress by Marissa Meyer (2.5)
20. The Woods: Vol 1 by James Tynion IV (4)
21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (4)

April:
22. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (5)
23. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson (3.5)
24. Saga Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (5)
25. The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson (4.5)
26. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson (3.5)
27. Saga Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (5)
28. Sex Criminals Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (5)
29. Doll Bones by Holly Black (3.5)
30. Bossypants by Tina Fey (5)

May:
31. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (5)
32. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen (3.5)
33. The Heir by Kiera Cass (3)
34. Talon by Julie Kagawa (1)
35. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (4.5)
36. The 100 by Kass Morgan (3)
37. The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes (3)
38. The Woods: Vol 2 by James Tynion IV (4)
39. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (3.5)

June:
40. I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson (5)
41. The Martian by Andy Weir (5)
42. An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer (3)
43. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley (3)

July:
44. Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson (5)
45. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey (4)
46. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison (3.5)
47. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (5)
48. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants by Louise Rennison (4)
49. Armada by Ernest Cline (3)

August:
50. I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest (4)
51. Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman (4.5)
52. The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich (4.5)
53. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (3)
54. Survive The Night by Danielle Vega (1)
55. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (5)
56. If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut (4)
57. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (4)
58. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (2.5)
59. Amber House by Kelly Moore, Larkin Reed and Tucker Reed (3.0)

September:
60. Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle (3.0)
61. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (5.0)
62. Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis (4.5)

October:
63. In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (3.5)
64. Revival Vol. 1 by Tim Seeley, Mike Norton and Mark Englert (4.5)
65. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (4.5)

November:
66. The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates (3.0)
67. Under Different Stars by Amy A. Bartol (2.5)
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.

*feel free to bookmark this page and check back over the course of the year to see what I’m reading.

Okay I am a little late on actually making a blog post about this, but better late than never, right?

I am participating in Bout Of Books! It’s a readathon that’s happening right now, as we speak – it started on Jan 5th and it goes all the way until Jan 11th. I thought this was the perfect way to kick off the new year and get a few books under my belt early since I am attempting to read 50 books this year.

Here are the books I set out to read:

These were/are my goals:

• Read all three of these books
• Don’t watch any Netflix

Pretty simple, right? Here’s how I did:

I read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks on Monday and Tuesday, finishing Tuesday night. I also started Ready Player One on Tuesday night, which made me think this readathon was going to be a breeze. However! Wednesday and Thursday were bad reading nights for me… though I still managed to squeeze in a few pages on each of those nights. Not much. About 40 pages total across the two evenings.

Friday I powered about 100 pages through, then I read 150 pages on Saturday and I finished up Ready Player One today (Sunday morning).

That book was amazing, but intense. I ended up needing to take a little break (which turned into going for a 3 mile walk with Joe that included stopping for margaritas) and starting to play a game called Hatoful Boyfriend (which is a dating sim for pigeons and yes, it will be on Team Hypercube). After that I finally cracked open The Night Circus, but after the trip Ready Player One took me on, I just wasn’t totally ready to dive into another book.

So, I’m about 30 pages into The Night Circus, nearly a book short of my goal – but happy. Because I also listened to about eight hours of All The Light We Cannot See over the course of the week, in my car. So really, I’m still leagues ahead on my reading challenge for the year, which is the important part.

I’m excited for this year. I’m excited for all my new books, and how I finally feel like I’ve carved reading back into my life in a big way, and I don’t even feel like I’m “making time” anymore. I just have reading time, even if it means other things are back-burnered or put on hold.

Oh – that reminds me. I also stuck to my goal of not watching any TV this week. It’s been 7 days since I watched anything on my television, on Netflix, etc. I’ve only watched a very small handful of YouTube videos, as well. I’m proud of myself.

But now… I think I am going to reward myself with an episode of Gilmore Girls. Shhh.

 

Hello, lovely blog readers! I know we’re well into November by now, but I still wanted to share with you a few photos of our Halloween party. Halloween is a big event around here for my housemates and I – we’ve thrown a party each Halloween since 2008; it’s automatic now. Halloween rolls around, we throw a party. It’s always big, loud and tons of fun.

This year’s didn’t disappoint! We turned on those black-lights, cranked up the tunes and opened our doors!

This is the one day of the year we actually put our built in bar to use! This is where we stuck chips and all the various bottles of booze, mixers and beer.

 

This was the ‘fancy drinks’ table. We reused our Unicorn’s Blood recipe from last year’s Harry Potter party (Blue Hawaiian Punch and whatever vodka you have lying around) in our punch fountain, vodka gummy worms (dear lord these were strong) and radioactive green test tube shots (pineapple juice, sour apple shnapps, dragonberry rum and a few drops of green food coloring).

This was our food table! This year we had the Mummy-Rollups (weenies wrapped in crescent rolls), graveyard dip (standard 5 layer dip with tombstone shaped “headstone” crackers) and orange pumpkin-shaped rice krispies treats.

 Finally, it wouldn’t be a party without good ‘ol Aragog. It felt like old times, having our little spider friend watching over the festivities.

 

How was your Halloween? What did you do? What’s your favorite Halloween snacks or drink? let me know in the comments, and I hope your Novembers are off to a great start!

 

Hello lovely blog readers!

Did I just hear a – a chorus of groans? You know it’s coming, don’t you. NaNoWriMo is upon us, and we have just over a week left to prepare. What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? Well, luckily for you, I’ve just posted my annual NaNoWriMo video – explaining the event and giving tips/advice to anyone out there who might be interested in participating.

Also, if you’ve been watching my videos for at least a year, there’s a chance I may call you out by name. Why? Well… you’ll see. *evil laughter* *more evil laughter* *even more evil – wait I have to write a novel too, I don’t have time for three rounds of evil laughter, I’m off to brainstorm whatever the heck I’m writing this year*

If you’re attempting NaNoWriMo this year, good luck! Add me as a writing buddy, and let me know in the comments of this blog post if you do!

 

Okay. We’re officially halfway through Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon and I’ve officially done a terrible job thus far. I’ve only read about 60 pages of a book, I overslept, my head hurts so I spent even more time napping, and I haven’t even gotten to do any of the challenges! This is a very good example of “life getting in the way” of a readathon I was super excited to take part in. Sigh.

However! We’re only halfway through, so there’s still time to turn it around. I’m grabbing some water, a blanket, and I’m gonna power through my book. And I’m gonna start getting back on board by filling out the “Mid-Event Survey”.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? I am 60 pages into Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which is something I’ve had on my shelf for years but never picked up.
2. How many books have you read so far? Eh… this is still my first book of the day.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Well, if my some miracle I can both finish The Graveyard Book and start another, the next on my list is Landline by Rainbow Rowell.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I guess I shouldn’t have started this blog post with a preface, since I seem to have answered many of the questions already, indirectly. I have had ALL the distractions, most of which being this stupid headache. So far I have dealt with them by letting them win, but I am GONNA READ THIS BOOK NOW. OR ELSE.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? It’s hard! But I’ve been enjoying seeing everyone taking part in it and doing the challenges, and I hope my next foray with this readathon is better than this one.

How are you doing? How much have you read? Have you read either of these books?

Hello, lovely blog readers!

Today’s blog post is going to be a little bit different, because I am actually hosting a challenge for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon! To find out more about this read-a-thon, check out their website and consider joining in! Because – good news! It’s only currently Hour 3 of this 24 hour event, so you’ve got plenty of time to grab a book and dive right in.

For those of you specifically here for the challenge, here it is:

Take a picture of yourself in the weirdest reading position you can think of.

Whether that’s standing on your head, hanging upside down off your bed, or with seventeen things stacked on top of you — I wanna see pictures! Here’s mine, if you need some inspiration:

Leave a comment on this blog post with your photo entry as well as your twitter username so I can contact you directly if you win.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a proper challenge without a prize, would it? The winner of this challenge may choose a prize from this site! I’ll be announcing the winner on my blog later today, so check back to see if you’ve won!

If you’re participating in the read-a-thon, good luck! And if not… what are you doing?! Grab a book!

Hello, lovely blog readers!

Halloween is my favorite time of year. It’s the only time when the rest of the world shares my love of costumes, everything smells like cinnamon and pumpkins — and suddenly it’s totally normal to do things like getting lost in fields of corn and scooping the innards out of a pumpkin!

My family was diligent about carving pumpkins together each year, and that’s a tradition I’ve carried on with me into my adult life. But I’ve never been a “scary face” jack-o-lantern type of girl… no, I’ve been making geeky pumpkins since my parents trusted me with my own knife. While I’m now a big fan of drawing my own pattern, I definitely used to look them up online before I had any idea how to do it myself.

In the past I’ve made Harry Potter Pumpkins, Lumpy Space Pumpkins, and this year I’m planning to figure out how to get Sailor Moon’s face on there. Maybe. We’ll see.

However! If you’re a bit artistically challenged (no judgement here!) Nintendo has graciously offered these sweet Mario templates for video game nerds to geek out with their… seeds out? That joke sort of got away from me there. Anyway we’ve got Bowser, Boo and Shy Guy for you to pick from: If you decide to use any of these templates, let me know! Or, if you design your own original geeky pumpkin, please send me a picture! I would love to see what you create. Send me an @reply on Twitter, you know my username!

 

This past weekend was GeekGirlCon up here in Seattle, which is a great little convention centered around being a fun and welcoming community that promotes the role of women in geek culture. While men and boys are welcomed and encouraged to attend, the con itself exists to “celebrate and honor the legacy of women contributing to science and technology; comics, arts, and literature; and game play and game design by connecting geeky women world-wide.” I hadn’t been in a couple of years and it was such a treat to see how much it’s grown in that time.

While I attending a number of amazing panels (Working with Worbla & Women and the Horror Fandom, to name a couple) my favorite part of the weekend was cosplaying. This was my third official cosplaying event and I was so pumped to rewear and old costume and try out a new one.

On Saturday, my friends and I wore our Candyland costumes. We debuted these at PAX earlier this year, but since then we obtained a gender-swapped Mr. Mint, filling the group out even more.

I love these costumes. Not only is Queen Frostine the first costume I made entirely myself, 100%, everything from scratch – but it also brings a certain joy to people’s faces when they realize what we are that I just love. Nearly everyone played Candyland as a child, but very few have seen the characters in any way other than a few inches tall on a game board. Not to mention all the small children who just want to follow us around because they like our “pretty dresses”. Wearing these Candyland costumes is always a delight and GeekGirlCon did not disappoint.

Now we just need the other characters! Anyone interested?

Sunday, however – Sunday was the day I had looked forward to with both extreme euphoria and fear. After months of work, my Sailor Moon costume was ready, and I couldn’t wait to show it off at the con surrounded by seven (SEVEN!) other scouts.

I’ve been watching Sailor Moon since I was a child – I remember waking my mom up to watch it in her bedroom at 7am before I even knew what anime was or how much it would later affect my life. I remember my resurgence of interest when I was 11, when I started doodling Sailor Scouts on my middle school notes and calling dibs on which scouts we were with my friends at lunch time. I never got to be Sailor Moon. This was a big point of contention for me in middle school – I WAS THE BLONDE ONE. I WANTED TO BE SAILOR MOON.

Sometimes it takes years for justice to be served, I’ve found. Fifteen years, to be exact – because at 26 years old, my cosplay group unanimously decided I was the obvious choice for Sailor Moon. I was giddy, I’m not going to lie. This costume, this group of friends dressing up as the Sailor Scouts… this fulfills a fifteen year old dream for me. So take that, middle school friends. Who’s Sailor Moon now?

I had an absolute blast. We found that walking around with a couple of scouts wasn’t too bad – you could still manage to make your way around the con and see things, but if you had more than three (or, god forbid, the whole group) you might as well just stop and pose for pictures. Because that’s all you’d be able to do.

But we loved it. When you spend as much time on costumes as it takes to make these, you want your picture taken. You want to see people’s faces light up when they see you. Sailor Scouts day at GeekGirlCon was one of my favorite days of all time, top five at least. I had the most fun, and I can’t wait to wear them again sometime. Especially since we have a Neptune and a Uranus, they just couldn’t make it to this particular event!

I want to give a special shoutout to GeekGirlCon itself for being such an amazing atmosphere in which to wear costumes – the con has very strict rules about asking cosplayers before you take pictures and it enhanced the experience so very much. I had a number of wonderful conversations with people who enjoyed my costumes because of it, as well as chatting with other cosplayers (who were all extremely friendly and nice). I also loved how open everyone at this con was, turning the “Sex Scenes from the Female Gaze” panel into good old fashioned smut story time. Where else could authors share their favorite sex scenes aloud in front of a respectful and mature audience? It was wonderful.

GeekGirlCon was a fantastic experience, and even though I swore I’d take a break from making costumes until 2015, I’m already mentally breaking that rule by figuring out what’s next.

Stay tuned to my cosplay page on Facebook to keep up with my costuming adventures!