Aqua Weringerong

Can you feel the end of days?

There is a new preview of the upcoming Exquisite Replicas RPG available on Flames Rising.

Last week's preview introduced The Anonymous, the tragic heroes of the game. This week's preview shows off some of the "bad guys" of the setting. There are several different types of Othersiders, but few are quite as strange the Shadow Crews.

Chapter Three of Monica Valentinelli's Violet War novel is now available.

Drop by and take a look at this free urban fantasy tale. She is also looking for feedback on the story so far.

We've got reports of Origins and Wizard World Chicago up on Flames Rising with more interviews, reviews and previews on the way from the publishers and artists we talked to.

Origins Recap (with the Origins Awards Winners) and Origins Highlights both by merb101 who did some reporting for us while we were at the other convention.

Impressions of Wizard World Chicago by darkshiver.

 I Can Haz Apartment...


In a slightly related note, no one at my office knows what lolcat is...what a good starting resources for such n00bs?

housematehorror
Horror stories from the world of shared living spaces. EEK!

I haven't done this in a while, so here's some music I'm really enjoying right now. Some is older than others, but still awesome. ( YouTube videos under the cut... )

My Noble Knight Games order arrived while we were at Wizard World Chicago this weekend.

I scooped up a couple of good deals and managed to get the Hunter: the Vigil, Cthulhu Live and Trail of Cthulhu Free RPG Day items. All very cool.

I'm hoping the run HtV and ToC games soon, but we'll have to figure out some scheduling before that happens. Summer seems to wreck havoc with our gaming schedules, but convention games & demos seem to make up for it.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE, add and strikeout the books you read but didn't like / started but didn't finish.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 or less and make them read.

( 100 books ) 
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Eric Lofgren, who did the Exquisite Replicas cover, will also be creating the cover for the Tales of the Seven Dogs Society cover.

I'll post it when we get the final version.

dwseason4
A journal where the alternative fourth season of the TV show Doctor Who is being written.

lol_comics
Keep youself smiling at the little things with some funny comics.

bikes
A community for everyone who loves bicycles, motorbikes, and more.

We're back from Wizard World Chicago. I had never been to this convention so it was interesting checking out all of the comic publishers, artist displays and tons of retailers.

I ran into some folks I knew, met lots of Horror fans, talked shop with artists and authors and picked up several interesting new items. A more detailed recap will be up on Flames Rising tonight or tomorrow with photos and links to some of the cool stuff we checked out.

I spent most of the day with James Lowder while darkshiver went off to take photos and search for Thor items.

We've got lots of great items for review and I set up some new interviews and previews too.

So, looking for an apartment.  First thing, if the police ask, the people on the waiting list ahead of me were dead when I found them...
Second thing, and this was amusing for me to work out, was for 'expected income' requirements...I get direct deposit cuz I'm lazy about depositing checks on my one-day-off when banks are open.  So I had to back-calculate what I *actually* make in a week, as opposed to what I get deposited....Fun times.
Third, in order to make all the open houses and appointments I want, I would have to translocate.  If I could do that, I wouldn't be looking for an apartment.  I'd either go the super-hero route (ala Multiple Man) or have each body take a really lazy, low-paying job but by taking 10 of them, earn a ton of money (ala Jamie Madrox).

Jeremy Jones recently sat down with author & editor James Lowder to discuss the upcoming Worlds of Their Own anthology.

I just posted the interview on the Flames Rising website:

Worlds of Their Own Interview

That's what I'm talking about.