From your Aunt Clara

She always makes you such nice things.

My friend Dale modeling fashions from A Christmas Story.

Dear Nephew Gobo

Of all the Fraggles, I favor Traveling Matt. (Yes, Henson did intend for that pun, apparently)

He reminds me of early travelers to the Amazon, who came back claiming to have encountered all sorts of fantastical tribes. The one I remember in particular was a group of people described as having their heads embedded in their chests.



As you can see, the layout is very awkward and would make it all but impossible to wear a hat.

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A Bit of Good News

Was it Napoleon that said to celebrate small victories? No, probably not. I think it was my friend Drew. Anyway, my bit of good news is that one of my pitches will be included in the premier issue of the new Fraggle Rock comic. Yes, that Henson creation spawned from the Muppet Show. So, I'm going to celebrate with a spot of champagne. I'll update about the comic as I go along.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of Buckshot:




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Love this photo

The chicken really pulls the whole thing together.

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OSS 117 Cairo: Nest of Spies

This is the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. It's a French parody of the James Bond style genre. (Yes, it's subtitled, but get over it.) You've never seen the French lampoon themselves like this. I'm thrilled to see that they are currently making a sequel.

Put on your sharkskin suit, mix yourself a martini and enjoy!

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Engines of War

If you like your Mortar Carriers half tracked or your King Cobras venom enhanced, then Engines of War is for you!

I've been having some fun working a new gig, part of which involves naming vehicles, and a couple of other crazy items, for this popular iphone war game.

More Con

The Good Hostesses posing with a lovely girl that we turned evil and named Crimespree. I'm sure her boyfriend was a bit bewildered.

Comic Con 2009!

Well, as your can see from this photo, Comic Con 2009 in San Diego was a lot of fun. (And also stressful and exhausting and weird and fabulous - as usual.)

Oni Press was very nice to me and I highly recommend them as a publisher if you can get them.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind since the con, but two books I am currently recommending are:

The Inspectre - The Ghost Who Solves Crimes
By Mark Cooper and Allen Gladfelter

It's a weird little story with interesting art.

Also:

The Martian Confenderacy
By Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock
Theieves. Outlaws. Rednecks. Humanity's last hope on Mars!

Although, I must say that this Jason McNamara - or Mac, as he apparently prefers to be called - should be treated with suspicion.

Combating a shiny nose

The makeup artist I hired to beautify me for the WGA awards told me that those little sheets of paper you can buy to take the shine off your face, when out and without powder, are the same papers readily available in public bathrooms as seat covers. All you've got to do is tear off a piece for your face, before putting the rest on the seat.

Safety tip from my friend, Leslie: Remember to use paper to blot face straight out of the box. Not after its official use.

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Mad, bad and dangerous

Feel the need for a skewered look at the Goth scene?

Check out the books by Karl Christian Krumpholz

(Although I really must dissuade him from posting unattractive pictures of myself.)

He's the creator for Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous published by Slave Labor Graphics.

Darkly funny, just like Karl.



Karl Christian Krumpholz

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All Sparkly at the WGA awards!

I think Ben was saying something interesting.
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Ben Edlund and Not Annette Bening

During the cocktail hour, before the WGA awards, my friend Kelly and I were admiring the unique worsted wool dress of a woman standing nearby. It looked like a gorgeous garment sewn from the finest dryer lint. I know it's hard to imagine, but I mean it in a very good way. Later, we saw the same woman from the front and I said, "Oh, the worsted wool woman is Annette Bening." She looked fabulous and much younger than I expected, but not in that creepy, 'I've had a lot of work done', sort of way.

After the awards, people were chatting and I saw the remarkably well preserved Annette Bening again. She was smiling and looked very approachable, so I went over to talk. (And mind you, by this time, I had consumed a fair amount of wine to take the sting off of not winning, so I was feeling brave.) I complimented her dress, we chatted. I mentioned how I also liked the green rhinestone FUEL pin she was wearing in promotion of the movie up for best documentary screenplay. She responded by pulling another pin out from under her wrap and handing it to me. At that point I was thinking, "Wow, Annette Bening is really nice and she's giving me jewelry!" It was loud in the room and as I listened to her speak, I thought she had a mild speech impediment... no wait... some kind of accent... a familiar accent... a Danish Accent! Not Annette Bening's name is Bridgette. She is a fabulous Danish woman who is married to either the writer or director of Fuel. (Sadly, I can't remember and no one else seems to remember either.) Her husband was stuck somewhere on a shoot and couldn't make it so she brought her friend Ben.

My third and largest crush of the WGA awards was...

Ben Edlund!



Yes, the creator of The Tick! That Ben Edlund! Super nice, funny, handsome guy. He was also incredibly modest. I looked him up on IMDB and wow has he done a lot. Check it out:

Ben Edlund

What a sweetheart. Very crush worthy.



Jason, Kelly, Leslie, Ben, Not Annette Bening, another really nice man who makes commercials whose name I currently forget and myself all headed to our room to drink champagne and hang out. Very fun, good conversation, great people.

Halfway through the evening, I saw Ben open the note pad for our room and write something down. The next day, when we were packing up, I thought to look at what he wrote:



The weird thing is, two weeks ago, I was trying to tell Jason about a country in Africa and couldn't think of the name to save my life. How nice of the creator of The Tick to remind me. He really is a superhero.

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It's an honor just to be nominated... yeah, right...

Well, it was super fun to be nominated, but what would have been even cooler was to have a bunch of free advertising for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble and to have a fancy award to dust for the rest of my life. BTW, Haden Blackman, one of the Star Wars guys, let me hold his award (no comment from you, Beavis) and it was awesome. Really nice sculpture with a gorgeous patina.

My second crush of the evening was...

Carl Reiner!



OMG is this man funny. He literally sent my friend Kelly into a mild asthma attack. He is that funny.

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And the WGA winner is...

Star Wars!

Like #&@%$% George Lucas needs any more free publicity!

Actually, we met the Star Wars writers and they were very nice.

The event was sparkly and fun. We mingled with and gawked at celebrities, plus there was a feature on DHSGiT in Written By, the WGA magazine.

First observation on Hollywood celebrities, everyone is much smaller than you think. It's like viewing the Mona Lisa. Someone who is listed on IMDB at 6'1" is probably more like 5'8" or 9".

My first crush of the evening and the host of the awards was Neil Patrick Harris. And, let me tell you, gay, straight, whatever, he appeared to be sexy, self deprecating, handsome and did a great job hosting the show. I walked right by him and the man has incredible cheek bones.



More details on the show later. I have to work on writing a game now.
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The WGA Awards are tomorrow!

Will Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble win for best video game? It'd sure be fun if we did. After the initial shock of being nominated and some high stress shopping looking for a dress, I haven't been thinking about it too much. Now that we are about to head down to LA, I'm excited. It'll be fun to indulge in the fringes of Hollywood glamor. Fingers crossed.



This lovely hood ornament would make a nice addition to our home.
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DHSGiT on Amazon

Well, apparently getting a nomination by the WGA lit a fire under Amazon.com and Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble is now available through that site. Sweeeet! If we win, that should definitely boost sales.



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For Everything Fabulous!

Being a giantess in a short city, it's very challenging for me to find anything that fits, let alone a fancy dress for a black-tie award show. I was finding absolutely nothing for the WGA awards. I was in full panic mode, essentially freaking out and feeling like a giant shaved yeti. Thank the gods for my BFFs over at Splendora.com for everything fabulous. They outfitted me in a vintage sequinned dress and some killer silver heels.

Now I'm at least ready for a little Cinderella action if we win!

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Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble

Things are heating up with the WGA awards. There's been a lot of discussion on the net about Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble being nominated because it's an independent game. Seriously, Keith Nemitz practically created the whole thing himself, so he's pretty psyched about the nomination.

Here's a pretty complimentary link:
Colony of Gamers



Here's a link where they are not complimentary and I'm not quite sure what they're talking about, but it's still pretty darn entertaining:
No Mutants Allowed



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WGA Award Nomination

Might as well start this blog off right. Today, the Writers Guild of America announced that Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble has been nominated for Best Writing in a Video Game. The cool part, as far as I am concerned, is the fact that I am credited as "Additional Writer". Yes, that means I get to go the awards ceremony and everything. Should be fun at the very least. For more info on the other nominations, look here:

WGA Nominations