Sunday, September 6, 2015

This post is entirely optional

Especially if you follow me on Facebook, as you'll have heard a few of these tidbits already.

*****

You know how people ask you who's your captain, and people answer either Kirk or Picard, or perhaps Sisko or Janeway.

I always answer Bashford. Unless the person who asked the question is also into steampunk or dieselpunk, I regularly get stared at.

Capt. Constance Bashford, right, with, as she puts it, a "big part" of the crew
of Airship the Peregrine, Cas Hofstee and Emma McMurphy. 

But she's my captain, and I'm sticking to it. Capt. Constance Bashford of Airship the Peregrine commands my loyalty and service. Were I not a married gentleman, she might also command a small piece of my heart, but sorry cap'n, this old jackanapes is taken.

It's been like heartburn to know that she was visiting DragonCon, a mere 90 minutes or so up the road from me, over the holiday weekend, but that I would be stuck here working. So close, and yet so far.

(As many wonderful people as I've gotten to know online, I love it that it was the Captain who first reached out to me when she saw I'd written about her RAFM mini on this very blog. The conversation continues to this day. For example, I'm always glad to have her making sure I'm all right, as evidenced by this tweet.)


Here's a photo she shared on her FB page today from DragonCon in Atlanta..

Capt. Constance and Derek Brown, of the band Abney Park (and others) and main squeeze
of Kate Lambert (whom you might know as Kato, who's a judge on GSN's "Steampunk'd."

The captain's calendar is coming out, and I hope you were lucky enough to get your orders in. I hope to have mine in my grubby mitts in a week or so, but here are a couple of photos Sean leaked to us upon their arrival:




She's something, ain't she? She's got an Etsy shop that's taking a short hiatus as she visits the U.S. from her home in the Netherlands.

*****



Speaking of beautiful, multi-hyphenated women at work in the fields of our beloved genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror, I finally got to exchange personal messages with actress-model-artist-entrepreneuer Jen Page, whom many of you may have first encountered in The Gamers' movie "Dorkness Rising," in which she was the female Luster.



Jen created the chilling Cthulhuesque mermaid image above and held a contest for signed 4x6 prints of it. And I won one! (Kermit clap!)

This animated GIF should show Kermit clapping.
If it doesn't, use your imagination.

Getting to exchange messages with someone whose work (and work ethic) I so admire is as big a prize as the print itself. Go check out her mermaid and other imagery at her Etsy store, Damselfin.

*****

And here's what I consider my personal best from Facebook this week:

1.) This, um, emotional entry about how thankful I am for each one of you, and the magic you have wrought in my topsy-turvy life through your prayers, your time and attention. If you want to read it, here's the link.




2.) This photo, of the T-shirt I won from teevillain, with both Carol Anne from "Poltergeist" pressing against the TV and Samara (or Sadako, if you're more familiar with the original "Ringu") coming out of it. The Samara part glows in the dark, but that's really hard to take a picture of.

3.) And this post:

I am especially fond of words in English that we normally think of as nouns but can also be verbs. Like leverage. Or silence. Or fist.
Posted by Christopher Sheets on Friday, September 4, 2015

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