The Squad-Up Contest

For Comic Con this year, the fine folks at DC Comics are doing a Squad-Up Contest in promotion of their movie Suicide Squad. Basically, it's a cosplay contest for each member of the Suicide Squad and our own, Elizabeth Valentino has entered as Harley Quinn! She's put a ton of work in on the costume, getting each tiny detail perfect.

So we need your help. Until July 4th (Monday) we need you to vote as much as possible. (You can vote once an hour!) for Elizabeth. There is no sign up at all, just click the link each hour (or as much as you can) and click vote and she will have a chance to not only go to Comic Con in San Diego but will be a VIP guest of the Suicide Squad! Awesome right?!

She's kicking butt right now, in the top ten. So we need as many votes as we can get over the holiday weekend. Thank so many of you for doing this already, and thank you in advance for any votes you can muster over the next few days.

Just click this link and vote. Easy as pie.
http://bit.ly/28YMhnt

The Dreadfuls Issue 3

Issue number 3 of the Scary and Naughty Dreadfuls are available now! We are super excited about these spooky and sinful steampunk stories. Of course, the Naughty Dreadful comes with a custom photo-set that you will not want to miss.

Issue #4 is going to come out quickly. The photoshoot for it will happen in April in the amazing Port Townsend, WA at the Belmont Hotel. So get your issues quickly!

As always, individual issues can be delivered right to your door and can be inexpensively purchased at http://www.thedreadfuls.com/#!shoppe/cfvg

We also have a ton of cool news coming up about Eva. We should be allowed to tell you next week! So stay tuned.

The 31 Days of Halloween

Every year, Liz and I binge watch as many scary movies as we can in October. It's such a fun tradition and we usually find some really great movies as well as some absolute stinkers. This year was no different. Here's what we watched:
* = Movies we have already seen

The Shining*
Aliens*
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter*
The Village*
Odd Thomas
Paranormal Activity 2*
VHS
Big Bad
131313
Nurse
Tremors 4 The Beginning
Human Centipede 3 The Final Sequence
Halloween*

The winners for movies we have not seen are...

1) Nurse
Nurse is an awesome indy movie about a crazed nurse that kills her patients. It kind of puts you on edge while still having some campy (but not too campy) elements. And it was hilarious at times. It reminded me of American Mary (another awesome movie) but with Nurses. Shot and acted well.

2) Human Centipede 3 The Final Sequence 
The Human Centipede movies have been gnarly since the first one. The first one was shocking enough. The second was just down right awesomely nasty. But the third one takes all of that to super crazy-land. It was possibly the most un-politically correct movie I have ever seen. It was also totally funny. The prison warden (also the bad guy from the first movie) was absolutely out of control. It's too bad this is the last one.

3) VHS
I've been seeing VHS pop up Netflix for a long time and I've heard enough about it to peak my interest. Basically, some buglers break into a house to steal a VHS tape but there are a lot of tapes. As they go through them, there are a ton of strange murders that have been filmed. My favorite was the demon/succubus thingy. A totally fun watch.

The Big losers are

1) 131313
I don't know how this even got made. It was weird, and I still don't really know what was going on. The clocks all said 131313... and there was a date of 131313... I sort of get that they could get away with making 11111 a few years ago because that was sort of a thing but now... it's just a wreck.

2) The Big Bad
Here's a terrible Werewolf movie. It's hard to watch and whoever made it considers themselves a real artist... It's not hard to watch because it's gory or anything, it's just confusing, badly done and boring as all get out.


Can't wait until next year! Hope you all had an amazing Halloween!

IFCON

Liz and I are honored to be celebrity guests this year at IFCON in Victoria British Columbia. We're so excited to be a part of this for a ton of reasons. The con benefits the BC Children's Hospital, which is the coolest reason to have a conference, and the good news is the entire conference is almost SOLD OUT!

Liz and I will be there selling dreadfuls, posters, pictures, patches so look for us at a corner booth in the vendor hall. We also have a ton of events we are doing/going to attend.

Friday October 30th 7PM We will be at the VIP Meet and Greet off site at The Royal Canadian Legion
Saturday October 31st 4PM - (In the Small Workshop Room)We will have our Naughty and Scary Dreadful Panel
Saturday October 31st at 9PM at The Royal Canadian Legion - We will be guest judges at the adult costume contest (and we get to hang out with Ari Lehman, AKA the first Jason from Friday the 13th)
Sunday November 1st Liz is doing a celebrity photo op (all proceeds go to the BC Children's Hospital) this is at 2PM in the vendor hall.

There will be a ton, and I mean a ton of guests from TV, movies, comics, art... this could go on and on. There are movie screenings, panels, photo ops, food trucks, special demonstrations, a masquerade ball, live bands, once in a lifetime celebrity panel opportunities... There's so much, I can't even keep track of it all. Pretty much, if you like anything that has to do with pop culture, it's going to be there.

So if you are in the area, or are thinking of traveling, get your tickets quickly! Check out their website for all the info: Get Tickets Here

IFCON
October 31 - November 1 2015
Pearkes Recreation Centre 
3100 Tillicum Rd
Victoria BC

Here's our nifty promo vid we did for them:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7fvxccg2d76h7dt/IFCON%20VID.MOV?dl=0


I know so much insane work has gone into this and we want to thank everyone involved that has literally spent years making this happen. See you all in Canada soon!

Linkies for October

It's time for Linkies! That means it's time to share some cool stuff from people I know, and some I don't.

For anyone in the North West or looking to make an awesome trip to Canada, There are a VERY few tickets left for IFCON in Victoria BC October 31-November 1. Get them qucik, this is going to be a shockingly amazing con. http://www.ifconvictoria.com/

Harley Quinn gets her own comic series! This looks to be pretty awesome. No doubt DC is upping their Harley game in preparation for Suicide Squad. http://cosmiccomicslv.com/latest-news/harley-quinn-gets-her-own-series/

Need steampunk/Victorian/justawesomestuff? Shop at the awesome Frenzy Universe! http://frenzyuniverse.com/index.html

The steampunk TV show, Steampunk'd, ends on Wednesday! See who wins on GSN this Wednesday. http://www.gsntv.com/show/steampunkd/

Need more steampunk? Of course you do! Check out the awesome cosplayer Steamunk Boba Fett: http://steampunkbobafett.tumblr.com/

Shorty

January 2010 Hanging with Shorty. He even has a cooler of the Blue Stuff on him!

In 2010 I attended my first con as a vendor. My first steampunk book, Thomas Riley, had just come out and I picked a con that seemed pretty cool that was close to Nashville. It was Shadow Con. Honestly, I was a bit nervous. I had no idea how smaller cons worked or how people would be. I'd been to San Diego Comic Con before and to Dragon Con, but never to a more regional and strictly fan driven one. This time I was on panels and selling my own book and really on my own in the world of Fandom for the first time. That can be scary! I mean, did the steampunks speak in British Accents all the time? Would everyone judge me for my limited knowledge of Klingon or my poor skills at Warcraft? I had no idea.

At Shadowcon, I set my table up and everyone was insanely nice to me. They all were so cool. This includes one Stuart "Shorty" Bergman. He was a huge man with long hair and beard. Instantly intimidating. He was the nicest guy you could have met. He welcomed me to the con, hung out at my table and talked about, well everything and I just met the guy! Later, I ended up at his little room party in the hotel where we had "The Blue Stuff" which he then told me was his version of Romulan Ale. It was like a billion different kinds of liquor with Blue Curaco for color. At the end of this life defining conference, Shorty even sold me my first bottle of Mead, which I was really excited about.

I saw Shorty several more times, at Midsouthcon and again at Shadowcon the following year. We talked Facebook after I moved to Washington and he always made it a point to chat me up when he saw me online. I still regret not being able to go to the Memphis fandom con he helped launch.

I found out yesterday that Shorty's battle with Cancer had ended and I wouldn't get the pleasure of seeing Shorty's gleeful face or cheers him with a nearly poisonous amount of Blue Stuff.

Shorty was so kind to me when I was just starting out and he helped ease me into an entire culture that I was quite nervous about when I started. And through the years, he always stayed in contact. Fandom all over has lost an icon, a bright light, and a hell of a guy.

Rest In Peace, Shorty. I will miss you.

Steamposium 2015

Steamposium is the newest steampunk conference in Seattle, and man is it fun. This year they had stars from Warehouse 13, Steamgirl, and the new GSN show, Steampunk'd, We not only vended this year but also took part in panels. We met a ton of new awesome people and got to hang out with some of our old Northwest steampunk friends. Last year was awesome, but this year ratcheted it up a notch with more going on and more night time activities. This year I actually got to see the costume contest as well which was a cool treat. Shockingly cool costumes. It always amazes me how people can come up with such complex and detailed costumes.

Like just about every con, we can't wait until next year where there is rumor that Liz might be able to do a Naughty Dreadful Pajama Party!

Next up for us is IFCON in Victoria British Columbia Oct 31-Nov 1st. See you in Canada!

With our friend Andy

Lizzie at the table

Me with Brewskibot! Steampunk R2D2 that will serve drinks!

The table before the chaos.

Lizzie at post con sushi back in Gig Harbor.