-
land of the giants
People might think there is no cross-over between geeks and fashionistas, but those stuffy stereotypes are vanishing. We’re all digital and cool these days. By Irish standards I’m almost a giantess, even though I’m not quite 6 feet in my bare feet. Most people see me wearing some kind of heeled shoe so generally I’m hitting into the six footer territory. Behold my new sandals, made by FLY London, in which I become even taller than normal. When I was younger I used to try to lessen my height. Now I embrace my tallness and am not afraid of heels any more (well, I’m not talking about stilettos, which are…
-
altered in post
I took this picture a few days ago to accompany a guest blog post which went up today on the Irish women’s web site The Anti-Room. The blog entry is called ‘Fly in the Foundation‘, and it’s about those dreadful ads on TV for beauty products (mascara and hair extensions in particular). It was a subject I’d been meaning to blog about so it popped into my mind when I was asked to guest post over at the site. A special hat tip to The Anti-Room’s talented editors Sinéad Gleeson and Anna Carey.
-
primrose heart
In the West of Ireland we’re enjoying wildly mercurial weather, as is typical for Spring. Today there were two downpours – one of hailstones – in between periods of glorious sunshine. The gusting winds rushed the clouds all over the sky. I guess they got annoyed and had a rain tantrum. Who likes being pressured? I took this picture of primroses in one of my local woods a few days ago. It was only when examining the image in close-up that I spotted the leaf uncurling in a heart-shape. So here’s some natural Spring Love. Don’t worry if the Spring breezes hurry in a shower. It will race away again…
-
Kapow! – with added women
The Kapow! Comic Book convention is going on this weekend, and it’s good to see that in the face of criticism over its initial all-male line-up the event has adjusted its guest list. I was not the only one who pointed out the lack of women, and I’m not claiming this result is due to my input alone. Honestly, this is a positive response, and I hope it means more women featured at the event (if they hold it again) when they have time to include women in the planning from the very beginning. Millar is even talking up the female angle now, mentioned a 30% female readership in this…
-
FanSciCon 2011
University College Dublin is hosting a new sf/f convention called FanSciCon, which will be taking place all-day on Friday, April 15th. The convention is free to enter, and the poster gives you an idea of the kinds of events that will be taking place. Guests listed are: Robert Curley, Stephen Doweny, Alan Nolan, Barry Keegan, Paddy Lynch, CE Murphy, Micheal Carroll, Deirdre de Barra, Hilary Lawler, Gar Shanley, and me. The event is in aid of Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team, which is a great cause, and members of the Team will be attending (as long as nobody gets lost up a mountain!). It looks like it will be a…
-
Jennifer Wilde
Here’s the cover of my latest comic book project, Jennifer Wilde. Like with RóisÃn Dubh, Rob Curley of Atomic Diner Comics approached me with a story concept, which I developed further with Rob and from that I wrote the comic book scripts. It will also be a three-issue comic book series. Our artist is Stephen Downey, and he’s not only doing all the interior art but the covers and the lettering too. The above art is the cover for the first issue. Stephen has been motoring his way through the script of the first issue but with no drop in quality. It’s been a joy to watch the evolution of…
-
Vic podcast is live
Thanks to dynamic duo of Sharon Ring and Del Lakin-Smith at Dark fiction Magazine my short story ‘Vic’ is now available as a podcast in its latest issue titled ‘The Waste land’. The TOC is: The God of Rain by Tim Lebbon (read by Marty Perrett) Vic by Maura Mchugh (read by Kim Lakin-Smith) My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band by Damien G Walter (read by Sam Moffatt) The Ease With Which We Freed The Beast by Lucius Shepard (read by David Moore) ‘Vic’ previously appeared in Black Static issue 10 and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran. I always approach listening to a podcast…
-
Roisin Dubh 1
After a delay on the Róisin Dubh comic book we’re getting close to a release of the first issue. It’s a three-issue mini-series, and this is the cover of the first chapter of the story, drawn by Stephen Byrne. Stephen Byrne is doing all the lettering and covers, as well as the interior art for issue 2 and 3. We’re at the stage of adjusting the niggling little details of the first issue before it gets signed off and sent to the printers. All going well the first issue should be on the shelves by the end of the month. I finished the last draft of the last script on…
-
just the facts ma'am
I’d like to add a few observations based on my last piece of detective work, and other similar projects I’ve tackled regarding re-adjusting the representation of women in creative fields. I’ve often been frustrated at how difficult it is to discover basic information like how many women work in a certain field with any accuracy. Wikipedia, for instance, is very inconsistent with its category listings, and more importantly: Women creators are often not listed in Wikipedia, or their entries are insubstantial. This exacerbates the perceived ‘lack’ of women in a field. If someone can’t Google the information and get a quick answer in the top ten entries then an assumption…
-
women in comics in UK/Ireland – overview
There are occasions when perhaps it’s best not to promise a blog post on a subject. Regular readers might remember that in January I commented upon the utter lack of women comic book guests at the forthcoming Kapow! comic book convention in London. This was followed by an entry in which I posted a number of women artists/writers working in the field in the UK (and Ireland), with a promise to put together a much more detailed listing of women working in the field. The follow-up post has been a long time coming because: There are loads of women working in comics in the UK and Ireland People might remember…
