Roughly six weeks ago, as you might have heard on a recent episode of The Shared Desk, a friend of ours — Lisa-Anne Moore — introduced me, Pip, and Sonic Boom to the new Activision game Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures. Sonic Boom was intrigued by the concept of this game, that concept being that at any point you can swap out characters within a game, all dependent on what you need at that moment. The Boom perked up, however, when she heard about a character named “Sonic Boom.”

Imagine her elation when she found the character of Sonic Boom was a girl.

From the Skylanders Portal Masters’ website, here’s Sonic Boom’s story:

Long ago, Sonic Boom took refuge high atop a mountain peak in the far reaches of Skylands, hoping to keep her griffin hatchlings safe.  But despite her precautions, a devious wizard tracked her down and placed a wicked curse on the griffin eggs.  Once hatched, the young hatchlings can live for only mere moments before they magically return to their shells… only to be hatched again in an endless cycle.  Wanting to prevent such evil from happening to others, Sonic Boom joined the Skylanders and has trained her young to defend Skylands each time they are hatched.

In light of how toy makers stereotype girls, this makes me smile big.

How are toymakers stereotyping girls? If you were not one of the 3.7 million people who saw this video, take a moment:

And take a look at this search result for video games targeted for girls.

Seriously?! Cooking Mama 3?!?

Okay, so maybe girls want to play games that deal with virtual cooking, virtual child rearing, and virtual horse camps, but don’t we game to escape reality? And sure, there are games that feature strong characters out there that are women. Lara Croft. Resident Evil. The Femme-Sheppard option in Mass Effect. But as super-blogger Megan Howard points out, comic book and video game heroines tend to be less about getting the job done and more about being hyper-sexualized automatons. Like heavily-armed Victoria Secrets’ models. Before the comic book geeks tell me about Starfire’s propensity for sex — yeah, sure, I get that, but come on…

Come. On.

And as a dad of a little girl, it concerns me that my kid appears limited to her gaming to either “Imagine Babies” or armored anime girls that are lacking armor across two blatantly obvious targets…

Lemme guess — the blades bounce off, right?

That was before we at Case de Morris discovered Skylanders.

In her second week of playing, after spending the week telling us that she was going to be selecting Eruptor (picture the Hulk if he were made of molten rock and could spew lava) as her latest recruit, Sonic Boom surprised us by selecting Whirlwind. At first we wondered what was up as a winged unicorn was a big step away from a volcanic monster.

Then we started playing Whirlwind, and on leveling up the Boom picked up a “Rainbow Strike” power. Here’s where I cued up the cutesy-cutesy music because, yeah, Whirlwind is a girl and part-unicorn so rainbows have to be in here. So she can fly, and her horn shoots rainbows, strikes down enemies, heals her allies…

Wait. Hold on. She does what?

Turns out this half-unicorn-half-dragon is the Cleric of the Skylanders realm. You know, a Cleric — that throw-away “Why the hell are you in this campaign again?” character class that is standing over you right after an ogre ambush, asking “How’s that axe wound to the gut, Tex? Stings a bit, don’t it?” In one night, our own Sonic Boom turned Whirlwind into the most important character in her collection. She also gave Whirlwind a new nickname: Featherstrike. (She came up with that all on her own.)

And the more we play, the more we’re discovering that all the female characters of Skylanders are some serious ladies not to be trifled with.

This weekend, Pip and I celebrated five weeks of fantastic grades and behavior from the Boom by picking up for ourselves some Skylanders. Pip picked up Cynder, and I unboxed Hex.

Now take a look at this black magic woman.

Is she wearing a chain mail bikini? No. Is her upper chest doubling as a flotation device? No. Is she, at any point in this game, making me a sandwich? No.

Is she one of the most powerful of the Skylanders? Three words: Long. Range. Attacks.

It was halfway through my first level with Hex that I figured out I could take out a few baddies from a considerable distance. The more I leveled her up, the more distance her powers covered.

Comparing the ladies of Skylanders to the men made me truly appreciate the game on a whole new level. With air-tight writing and voicework, this game is a blast to play with the Boom; and we will both admit that after she goes to bed, Pip and I play because we enjoy it that much. On a parental level, I love that Activision and Toys for Bob went out of their way to make the details of this game appealing to both boys and girls. While the men breathe fire, fly with hydro-powered jet packs, and belly flop the bad guys, the women bring it with dark lightening strikes, undead magic, and tempest attacks. Finally, we got games that work for everybody, where girl characters aren’t pink, fluffy, big-eyed lintballs floating from adventure to adventure using the power of laughter to vanquish their foes. The girls of Skylanders are tapping kegs of whomp-ass and keeping it classy.

Now, we’re in a new week and quickly approaching a crossroads. We are short two elements — Fire and Life. The earlier mentioned Eruptor is a Fire element, and he’s got a lot of power. Who do we have representing the Life elementals?

And here’s what she can do…

My advice to the Boom? Go green.

With only a few days remaining until FenCon, Pip and I are planning furiously for what is promising to be a really fun weekend of panels, podcasting, and steampunk. We owe a special thanks to Matt Bowerman for being our location scout for our own “kickoff celebration.” If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on this Friday at 8 p.m., we are hosting a Texas tweetup — steampunk style — at Spring Creek BBQ.

For non-FenCon attendees, it a chance to hang. For FenCon attendees, the restaurant is just five blocks north of the hotel. Pip has made an event page live on Facebook (please RSVP there), but here are a few extra details…

TIME: Friday, September 23, 8:00 p.m.
ADDRESS: 14941 Midway Road, Addison TX
MENU AND INFO: www.springcreekbarbeque.com

We are also planning to wear our steampunk gear for the tweetup! Ladies, strap into your favorite corsets. Gents, wear your best bowlers (or, if you’re doing the Wild, Weird West, your sharpest ten gallon hat)! It’s time to gear up, chow down, and jump into a good time in Texas! Pip and I hope to see you there!

Yes, it has been a little quiet on my blog…but that doesn’t mean I’ve been standing still.

Our first steampunk exposition, The Steampunk World’s Fair in Somerset, New Jersey, is happening this week; and they are making us feel welcome! The guest list is mind-blowing, and yet we — the steampunk rookies — make their Lovecraftian promotional poster.

I think this is a sign of a FUN weekend ahead!

Both Pip and I will be there as part of “Ministry MAY-hem” and there are more details about the weekend to be found at the Ministry website. Track the weekend on Twitter by following the #SPWF hashtag.

We hope to see you this weekend as we get our steampunk funk on!

Hi, everyone!

It’s been a week and what a week it has been. Sonic Boom, fresh off her first-ever plane ride, walked the now-working set of Hobbiton, settled in Rotorua for the night, got up close and personal with Ella the Lion Cub at the Paradise Valley Reserve, and then worked the Poi Dancing as the youngest in attendance at Te Puia. Safe to say, we’re having a blast! There will be YouTube videos coming.

This week, we’re looking ahead to WorldCon 68, also known as AussieCon 4. Pip Ballantine, Sonic Boom, and I arrive in Melbourne, Australia (Yes, her second country in two weeks. Pretty impressive for a six year old!) and alongside familiar friends John Cmar, Laura Burns, Mur Laffery, and Gail Carriger, we’ll be taking part in good geekery from the Southern Hemisphere. This is my first WorldCon, and the Australians have handed me a rather robust schedule:

The Balancing Act of Speculative Fiction Comedy
Thursday 1400 Room 219

Reading: The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (with Pip Ballantine)
Saturday 1100 Rm 215

The James Bond Enigma
Saturday 1200 Room 210

Kaffeeklatsche
Saturday 1300 Rm 201

Anachronist Fiction: Successors to Steampunk
Sunday 1100 Room 219

3D cinema: Revolution or novelty?
Sunday 1200 Room 212

Writing in the Shadow of Adams and Pratchett
Sunday 1400 Room 219

Along with places we’ve visited (and you can get a look at some photos via Whrrl.com), a lot of other things have been happening concerning the writing and works-in-progress. As you may have heard me say on Twitter, “I need to get a blogpost together…” and I promise there is one on the way. Heck, at the rate I’m going, it’ll be a series of a blogposts; but finally I do have some time to blog and bring even myself up to date with everyone.

This trip has been a real adventure for both of us, and Melbourne is already proving to be a weekend of possibilities. I hope if you are in attendance at WorldCon you stop by one of my panels and say “Hi.” or even throw out the tough questions concerning Billibub Baddings, Morevi, or The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

What, you don’t know what The Ministry is all about? Hang tight — a blogpost is in the works…

Hey, everyone! You may all think I’m suffering some sort of steampunk kick; but as you heard in my previous podcast, it is the focus of my attentions. My current work-in-progress now circulating the market is a steampunk romp entitled Books & Braun: Volume One — Phoenix Rising, co-written with Philippa Ballantine. I have always been fascinated with this sub-genre ever since hearing about it from two of the most creative people I know, J.R. Blackwell and Jared Axelrod.

And it was another creative type, the incredibly-witty, and delightfully-sultry Gail Carriger who — in a ways and means of promoting her paranormal steampunk romance, Soulless — made the offer to write guest blogpost.

Gail is my first. You always remember your first…

So I’m bumming about the internet, as you do, and Tee tweets me…

“Wanna guest blog?” says he.

“Delighted,” says I. “Got a topic?”

“What makes Steampunk so sexy?” says he.

Obviously, first and foremost, one word: corsets. There are a number of fine corsets (on the outside and underneath, worn by men and women) bumming about the steampunk scene. But as scrumptious as they are, there’s also that jodhpurs and newsboy cap look (yummy!) and never discount how truly hot a man (or cross-dressing woman) in proper fitted evening dress, or, for that matter the adorable grease monkey. Those flashes of brass, the occasional interesting adornment or mechanical arm which force one to look closer, to ask questions, these only serve to make the person wearing the outfit more intriguing and approachable, that to is super sexy too. Because what it means is that the person behind the outfit is creative and smart – frankly, it there anything more sexy than that?

So we’ve dealt with the sexy surface features of steampunk, shall we delve underneath? There’s that attitude, no don’t ghetto-neck at me, not that kind of attitude. One of the best bits of the Victorian era that steampunk has gently been reviving is the manners and the politeness. Online in forums, or out and around the maker’s circuit, running into fellows of a steamy inclination at fairs or conventions, I’ve found they are genuinely pleasant to be around. I don’t know about you, but I find ladylike and gentlemanly behavior extremely sexy.

And then, I hope you’ll forgive me for going slightly philosophical here, there’s this overtone of visible technology. We live in an age where technology has become hidden away in little silver boxes. Steampunk has taken the machine and made it a work of art, and it gorgeous. Suddenly, we get to see the gears and guts spread out before us. There’s something lascivious and yes, a little dirty about that.

Also, very very sexy…

Ms. Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She now resides in the Colonies, surrounded by a harem of Armenian lovers, where she insists on tea imported directly from London and cats that pee into toilets. She is fond of teeny tiny hats and tropical fruit. Soulless is her first book.

In this picture are two people that I hold very dear in my life. One of them is my daughter. I will let you try and figure which one of them is her…

The other “bloke” is Martyn Casserly, a journalist, an accomplished musician, and now he is an award-nominated podcaster with his one-minute Movie Mantras podcast. (Martyn is also a dad and a good mate to boot…although his opinions concerning the new Craig-Bond films and recent Doctor Who are completely wrong, but I digress…) With the many endeavors he had going, Martyn approached me this Spring to talk about an article he was penning on podcast authors. He was optimistic that Wired Magazine (UK) would pick up the column. So I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

This morning, I checked my Twitter stream and found this waiting for me:

My article about Podcast Authors is up on Wired ! @scottsigler, @sethharwood, @jchutchins, @teemonster all appear. http://bit.ly/Pv53w

Now live on the site, Wired Magagine (UK) picked up  “Novels by Podcast” where Martyn discusses how we authors are giving away our hard work in audio format for free. He also goes into the genesis of the podcast novel and why we do what we do.

“Giving away your stories isn’t a risk… it’s a competitive advantage,” explains Scott Sigler. “If a reader who’s never heard of me has $25 to spend and they’re looking at my book next to a Stephen King book, who are they going to choose? They take King. He’s a proven storyteller. But if King is $25 and my story is free they may try me out first. Why not? It’s no risk to them. If they like me, they buy me. If they don’t they buy King. Whatever happens the customer gets what the customer wants.”

It is a tight article covering successes and milestones; and while many who follow us on Twitter, on blogs, and through podcasts, may consider what we do “old hat” after four years, podcasting — and more importantly, podcasting fiction — is still a brand-spanking new concept to the mainstream market. Articles like Martyn’s and venues like Wired are getting the word out about what we are doing. That’s what is important here: getting people to listen.

Show Martyn appreciation by blogging about this article (and yep, I got it covered from the business perspective over at Imagine That!), syndicating his link in your feeds, dropping him comments on the article’s page, and talking it up on your podcasts. Let Wired know we’re paying attention and appreciate their support, and let Martyn know both on Twitter and on Wired that his words ring true.

Thanks, Martyn. Well done!

Back in December, you might recall a blogpost proclaiming my love for New Zealand smut. Well, Chef Ballantine appreciated my kind words so much concerning the podcast too hot for iTunes, Erotica ala Carte, that she invited me to cook in her kitchen. The ingredients this naughty Gordon Ramsey (with help from her listeners) threw at me were:

• Alternative History
• Government Bureau
• Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

The end result is the short story (borderline novella) “Release Me” which dropped just before Balticon. As I mentioned, the story seemed to write itself and really took on some serious momentum, surprising (if not, disturbing) me. The end result, though, I am quite happy with:

In an alternative America a superhero learns a lesson in control.

Inspired by my favorite film of the year so far, Watchmen, I went with a government bureau of superheroes instead of something along the lines of The X-Files. (I think that is what folks were expecting.) There are also a few nods to the Twitter community and a homage to one of my Geek Chic heroines. This was a lot of fun, and a terrific exercise for me as a writer. So as it stands, J.C. Hutchins has challenged me with writing a thriller and Pip has tapped me for erotica. What’s next? Horror?

Scott Sigler? Phil Rossi? Any of you guys wanna throw the gauntlet?

Have a listen, and let me (and Pip) know what you think.

My kid’s day school teacher heard (from my mother-in-law) that I used to be a professional puppeteer. She asked me if I would be interested in putting on a show for her kids. Even with the schedule I have, I couldn’t refuse because this was for Sonic Boom.

I was told to come up with something that the kids would enjoy, and following a History Channel documentary on Halloween, some shopping on the official store of TAPS and Puppet Universe, and a night of testing sound equipment and recording rigs, this was the end result. As I found myself flying completely solo in the morning, I can’t say this footage will be winning me a Parsec anytime soon…

…but it was a lot of fun, and it will probably not be my last trip there. Laugh with me, or laugh at me — you choose. Whatever the case, Happy Halloween!