Last Friday was the book launch for THE FRIDAY SOCIETY.
Or rather THE FRIDAY SOCIETY gala!!
It was held at The Gladstone Hotel here in Toronto, and organised by yours truly - and IT WAS SO TOTALLY AWESOME.
We had displays of steampunk props and inventions by Messrs Smith and Bodine. We had a demonstration of Bartitsu (with EW Barton Wright himself explaining the technique). We premiered the trailer. And of course I read.
People came in costume. People posed in the photo area with awesome props. People ate cake. Oh yes. I let them eat cake. Not just one cake but FOUR CAKES.
How did it all come to be? Well first of all I had insane amazing help from Chris Reed at Small Print Toronto and Adam Smith with Steampunk Canada. And of course the amazing support from the staff at The Gladstone.
Second of all I had awesome help from my parents. They drove me to the hotel at 4:30pm that afternoon, and my mom and I (along with some very helpful folks from The Gladstone) helped set up the room in a way that I thought worked best (yes we moved couches across the room, and then back again when I changed my mind).
Then the hotel technician came by to see what I wanted tech wise and he was just fantastic: highlighting certain areas of the room with light, and making sure the reading/trailer screening/fight demo ran smoothly.
Adam (along with adi, a fellow Adrienne and one of the organisers of the Ad Astra convention) showed up at 5pm, and set up a table where he could show off his amazing Steampunk props. They also helped me set up the stage area which was where the photo area was. I always get annoyed that stages take up so much space and are underused at events like this. They are used for the reading and then there's this big empty space. So I decided to set up one end to be a photo area. The room has amazing exposed brick walls and lovely deep red curtains over the windows so it worked really well. Prop a Penny Farthing (one of those oldy-timey bikes with the one giant wheel and one little one) against the wall and you're good to go! Adam helped set up a table of Steampunk props that people could pose with. And let me tell you, it went over gangbusters. People loved it. And the stage was well used over the course of the evening. :)
Then Mr. Bodine (his character name) showed, and set up another table with his fantastic Steampunk devices.
The fight team who were doing the demonstration came a little early to run through the fight on the stage. And then helped put up some twinkle lights. Because twinkle lights make everything awesome.
And then people arrived and everything went beautifully (I was seriously stunned by this, usually something goes wrong. . . but no! So crazy!). People took pictures on the stage, they loved the trailer and the Bartitsu demonstration (and were rather fond of the reading if I do say so myself :) ). And OMG, the costumes! People really outdid themselves.
It was an amazing evening, full of fun - and it wouldn't have been what it was without all the amazing people who came. I was so overwhelmed by the support, and I say it all the time, but it's well worth repeating . . . I know the most talented, most generous, and most awesome people on the planet. Yes. I am just that lucky. So thank you, again, all of you. It meant the world to me to share this evening with you all.
But enough words, the best way to share the evening is through pictures. Bear with me. There are a lot of them :) .
Me all oldy-timey.
my books!
some of the crowd (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
Me again. In colour this time.
My friends Heather and Tyler and me. I think we look like a trio of Victorian con artists. I think that's awesome.
Raven with a wee gun. (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
(photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
Me signing (in the background you can see Chris Szego from Bakka books). (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
Steampunk bird (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
Lisa (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
Messrs Smith and Bodine setting up (with Raven standing elegantly to the side) (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
The amazing steampunk confetti I ordered from Whimsey Dimples on etsy. (photo credit The Renaissance Paparazzi)
SHOWTIME!
Lesley Livingston introducing me. She made me all teary and stuff.
Me reading and being rather theatrical doing so.
The end of the trailer (which you will all get to see very soon!)
THE BARTITSU DEMONSTRATION
L to R: Erick, Nate, Scott
EW Barton Wright himself!
Nice Bartitsu collage courtesy of Heather
Adam's table with his Steampunk props!
A slightly blurry me and Adam.
The four cakes.
Me signing.
Another angle of me signing.
Four dapper gents (with Mr. Bodine on the far left)
Heather.
Author J.M. Frey
Me and my cousin Emma!
Me and Lesley in the fantastic oldy-timey elevator in the lobby of the hotel!
A short one for today, but no less fabulous. I realise that the internet is international, but I thought I should share some links for my fellow Canadians who were beginning to get interested in Steampunk.
When I was manning the Steampunk table at FanExpo a lot of people were curious exactly how one met other Steampunk people. What one did with the Steampunk. Granted yes, people make Steampunk things and sell Steampunk things, but there are also social gatherings of Steampunkers that happen on a regular basis. Again, I can only speak to some of the Canadian ones, but if anyone has knowledge of any others in other parts of the world please do share in the comments section below.
Steampunk Canada
Probably the most comprehensive listing for Steampunk activities across Canada.
Toronto Steampunk Society
Specifically for those Steampunkers in Toronto, there are many scheduled events in the city - walks, photoshoots, pub gatherings - and this page is actively updated every day.
Steampunk Ottawa
Similar to the TSS. Only if you, you know, live in Ottawa.
And don't forget about MeetUp.com, where you can search for any events happening in your region, and can totally use the keyword "Steampunk".
Yes, I might have made a decision this summer, and the
decision might have been to take a break from blogging.Which is what I did.And I’m glad I did.I’ve recharged my batteries, and come
up with what I consider to be a truly brilliant plan, at least for a little
while until I realize actualizing said plan is totally unfeasible.
Still, I did miss you guys, and it’s nice to be back in the
blogosphere! What's new? And how you doin'?
So.
My plan.
I am going to create a blogging schedule that I hopefully
will stick with for a while.That
schedule is as follows:
Monday: one of my usual insightful, witty and thought
provoking essay style blog entries.
Tuesday: your weekly Steampunk fix
Wednesday: sharing a bit of what my insanely talented friends
in many different fields are doing that you ought to check out
Thursday: Adrienne’s Tips.On what?No
idea.But they will be mighty
useful. (I was also thinking that this could be where I could answer your
questions on stuff, but of course I’ll need the questions from you guys, so
please feel free to post them in the comments section)
Friday: roundup of links of note.
So, that’s my plan!Pretty straightforward, not nearly as complex as my world domination one
which is going quite nicely I should add, but delightful all the same.
And, as such, and seeing as it’s Monday . . .
________________________________________________
I thought I’d catch everyone up on what I’d been up to this
summer.Because, you know, stuff
happened and stuff.
The first thing you should know is I celebrated my birthday
and it was awesome.Awesomest
moment?I was in rehearsals for a
Fringe show, and after rehearsal we were all going to go hang out to celebrate.Well I went into the washroom to change
out of my costume and upon reappearing the cast started singing and presented
me with some Red Velvet cupcakes made by one of the cast members.I swear, I wish every time I came out
of the washroom I was so greeted.Though . . . what would I do with so many cupcakes . . .
And that’s the other thing, I performed in a show this year
at the Toronto Fringe Festival.It
was called SWOON! (the exclamation mark makes it extra swoontastic), and was a
great success.It won Patron’s
Pick for the Factory Mainspace (which means it was the most popular show in
that venue) as well as Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Ensemble and
Outstanding Production.The cast
was wonderful, and we really got along well.So well that we make a point of still getting together en
masse as much as possible (I can tell you, this doesn’t happen with every
show).And we had T-Shirts made!:
And here is the cast/director/stage manager of SWOON!
This summer I also managed to get in a reading at the
Gravenhurst Library which was tons of fun (thank you again so much for the hospitality, you guys rocked!) and which also meant that I got to
hang out at my aunt’s cottage with my family and stuff.
My friend Katie got married, and I was one of her
bridesmaids.In fact all four
bridesmaids and bride have known each other since grade 8.So that was just a little bit special.
L to R - Gillian, Liz, Katie, Me, Ana
Here we are in Grade 8
Speaking of bridesmaids, it was also
an amazing summer for movies, including a certain comedy starring an ensemble
cast of women that managed to break down so many barriers to the point where
men were going to see it on their own, not just because they were going with a
girl.Of course the big comic book
movies happened also, and were pretty darn good.I’ve reviewed almost all of them over at
HardcoreNerdity.com:THOR, X-MEN:
FIRST CLASS (my fav of the superhero films), CAPTAIN AMERICAN and the one dud
in my estimation, GREEN LANTERN.And we had the surprise hits of the summer:SUPER 8 (not so much a surprise, it was assumed it would do
good business, but the film itself in its nostalgic throwback was truly
magical) and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (surprisingly good, and a
surprising box office hit).
I did a lot of reading this summer,
and made a conscious choice to take a break from anything genre.So I finally read BARNEY’S VERSION,
which is the kind of book that makes you realize you have so much further to go
as an author.It also makes you
ask yourself, “How the heck did he write this?”Also read one of the SHOPAHOLIC books at my aunt’s cottage
which took as much time to read as the ARCHIE comics I was also reading.Some Jane Austen:NORTHANGER ABBEY (which had very little
plot wise – and yes, I get it was a parody of Gothic literature, but still, you
can’t sustain a book on an idea alone) and MANSFIELD PARK (to be honest, I
couldn’t finish this one and I could see why it took them so long to make a
quality film of it.But the movie
version was augmented with letters by Jane Austen to her sister etc, so
yeah).Both these books
demonstrated to me just how wonderful her more popular works are, and why her
more popular works are more popular.Sometimes there’s a reason.
I got my ears pierced for the first time too. Yeah. I'm totally bad-a**. I put holes through my ears, take that society!
The summer ended with FanExpo, which
is the Canadian Comic Con.In the
past I’ve attended as a member of HardcoreNerdity, but this year I was there as
an author guest.I have to thank
Adam Smith and the Toronto Steampunk Society for inviting me as one of their
own.I got to sit on two
panels:Steampunk 101 and a panel
about Steampunk lit.Both were
standing room only, and so much fun was had with my fellow extraordinarily
talented panelists (especially the Lit one – for some reason we all had a great
chemistry together:J.M. Frey, Ed
Greenwood and Rob St-Martin).
I also sold out of books and gave away
some lovely buttons based on the cover design.
Here are some pictures of me with a giant bike. I really liked the bike:
Adam Smith, Me, Lee Ann Farruga
Here I am with fellow author J.M. Frey:
And here is an interview I did with
YouTube personality, Shakespearean actress, and delightful friend, Cecily
Jenkins:
I also did a tiny interview for InnerSPACE for the SPACE channel - Canada's version of SyFy - but as it is about Steampunk I'll share that with you tomorrow - here's a pic of it though, to keep you in suspense:
Don't I just look so full of wide-eyed wonder!
With the start of fall comes the
Toronto International Film Festival and our city is now buzzing with celebs and
fans and all that goodness.Once
more I participated in Bask-It-Style’s media day.Bask-It-Style is a swag bag that is sent to celebs’ hotel
rooms, and the organisers, JSquared, host one day as a media event to show off what the celebs will
be getting.This time I
represented THE GIRL WHO WAS ON FIRE.Here I am (it's a bit fuzzy, but note the Mockingjay pin??? I got that at FanExpo, I was SO excited to get one!):
And here I am between two Toronto
Argonauts (uh, that would be Toronto's football team . . .).I wish I could take them
everywhere with me, they make me feel so petite and delicate. Note how they are wearing my book buttons! (apologies for the brightness of the pic . . .):
And . . . that was last week, and we
now come to this week.What
adventures await this writer/actress?Who knows!Edits on THE
FRIDAY SOCIETY, to be sure (got those a couple weeks ago), Halloween as well
(yay!), but there are likely to be surprises around the corner.I look forward to them!
That’s all for now!Come back tomorrow for your first of
many Steampunk Tuesday Fixes!
