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Image from THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING hardcover illustrated edition. Illustration by Stephanie Hans
So I already gave you guys some DC Drunk Solicits to help ring in the New Year (look for Marvel to show up on January 1st – it’s the way to start the year off right! Or at least help you nurse that hangover).
I also already gave you my comics Best and Worsts for 2012 over on She Has No Head!
And I promised to stop ignoring the blog…so what else is there to say?
Well, I’d love to give some love to all those people that have been so supportive of TGWWBK over the past months. First and foremost to those awesome folks that gave me awards. You people rock especially hard:
James Whatley over at WhatleyDude says THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING is one of the three best books he read this year. YES!
James and Brandon over at the awesome Comics! The Blog give THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Best Novel Our Friend Published”
And Seeley James gives THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Most Innovative Thriller for 2012″
All high praise indeed…even if I was possibly the only nominee in James and Brandon’s category! 
You can check out excerpts from all sorts of reviews on the updated TGWWBK website, including perhaps my favorite quote ever “… Lola is a hungry 
conqueror, claiming her title by force and seeking out further fortune like a would-be Ghengis Kahn in a catsuit.” (courtesy of January Hooper on Amazon).
I’ve also started up a TGWWBK Fan Art Page which already has some gorgeous submissions (submit directly to me at: 1979semifinalist[at]gmail[dot]com) to get yours up on the website. 
Of course there’s also the store, where you can buy limited edition hardcovers, all sorts of swag, limited edition prints, and even the mysterious “blue envelope.” If you prefer the ease of Amazon you can buy a digital version there, or a paperback edition there. You can also get the paperback version on Lulu (I actually think it’s a bit superior in quality to the Amazon version even though the thumbnail on Lulu is really blown out and saturated for some reason).
OH, and TGWWBK finally has a Facebook page. Please check it out and like/follow/whatever to keep up with all the news that’s fit to print…er…type.
What else? I’m still writing for Lit Reactor, doing reviews for CBR, and of course doing She Has No Head! for CSBG. 3 Chicks is still ongoing of course (in fact, our big “end of the year” episode full of bests and worsts will go up on Monday). I’ve also picked up another freelance gig doing comics reviews for Publishers Weekly, so I’m a busy busy girl. There has been some development on my first comic book mini-series (Heart In A Box) but nothing solid yet. Cross ‘em if you got ‘em!
Perhaps most important and relevant for 2012 is that I got a new agent and I feel really lucky that I was able to leave an agent and also get a new one within the same year. My new agent is amazing and I’m working on revisions to my new book (unrelated to TGWWBK) now, so stay tuned for development there. I’m still out of work, but I feel like the universe is actually taking pretty good care of me right now…thanks in large part to all of you. SO THANK YOU.
So I’m off to eat a bunch of cheese and crackers and probably some fruit, and drink far too much Veuve as I ring in the New Year, so Happy New Year to you all and here’s to an even better 2013 – for all of us!
May all of our days in 2013 be filled with the three C’s. COMICS. CAKE. & CHAMPAGNE. Gods, wouldn’t that be AMAZING?
A new She Has No Head! is up. That’s right, kids, it’s my “Bests (and a few worsts) of 2012″
Head on over to check it out. And here’s a hint…it’s Hawkeye/Saga-rific!
So I’ve got a nice fun and light new piece up on She Has No Head! this week called 25 Great Superheroine Covers Of The Past Year. It was originally intended to be a companion piece to my 25 Great Superheroine Moments in honor of Women’s History Month. But then the whole Wonder Woman #7 thing happened and well…you all know.
Anyway, so head on over for this late addition to Women’s History month!
A new She Has No Head! is up…a list of 25 Great Superherione Moments. Inspired by Sue’s new Tumblr – THIS! - I compiled some of my favorite goose bump inducing moments for women in superhero comics. Enjoy!
You know what definitely made the list? THIS!
So over on She Has No Head! I mentioned that two categories, “Best Cover” and “Best Single Issue” were incredibly hard to decide this year thanks to an influx of great stuff I had trouble deciding between. As a result I decided to do a top 25 “Best Single Issues” for 2011 on 1979. As I noted on She Has No Head! there are some notable absences here, largely due to gaps in my reading. Off the top of my head I’d say the most glaring absences are DMZ, Scalped, and Daredevil, all of which I am significantly behind on. Because I have written about almost all of these issues elsewhere, I’m not going to do paragraphs on each of them. You can find detailed CBR Reviews for 17 of the 25 below at this link. And if you have questions about any other titles I didn’t do reviews for, just ask and I’ll be happy to talk about them in the comments.
All that said…these are my “25 Best Single Issues of 2011″…
025. THE RED WING #1 by Brian Hickman, Nick Pitarra, and Rachelle Rosenberg
024. HELLBOY: THE FURY #1 by Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, and Dave Stewart
023. WOLVERINE & JUBILEE #1 by Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto
A new She Has No Head! is up and it’s my Third Annual Awesome Women In Comics Holiday Gift List…head on over and see what 2011 gifts you should be giving…or asking for!
Our last list of December (and of the year) to close out 2010 – check out the new She Has No Head! for a list of 2010′s ‘Bests’, and a few ‘worsts’.
Happy New Year to you all!
Head on over to CSBG for the latest She Has No Head!, my second annual “Awesome Women In Comics Holiday Gift List”. Enjoy!
If you want to read what this series of posts is all about, go here.
Disclaimer:
So I thought I’d do a pros and cons for each of the cities (NYC and LA) based on 15 categories of my choosing – i.e the kind of things that are important to me about a place that I chose to live. For example, since I don’t have any children, so you won’t see “education” on the list, but I do love to eat sandwiches, so “food” will definitely be on the list.
Keep in mind these are MY pros and cons…pros and cons that I have come to after living in LA for five years (2000 – 2005) and then living in New York for five years (2005 – 2010). This is intended to be a fun (and funny) list, and is not to be taken seriously, but I hope some of you, especially those of you who have lived in both places (or experienced them) will enjoy it. You can read parts one through fifteen starting here.
15. DIFFICULTY LEVEL
I think we all know the answer to this one. New York is one of the hardest places to live…certainly in the United States…and it’s a fact that most New Yorkers are proud of. You have to be at the top of your game to survive here, let alone thrive, from the competition for jobs to the cost of living and the sometimes inconvenience of urban living. It’s an intense passionate city that really doesn’t sleep and while I’ve for the most part been successful in adjusting to the NYC lifestyle, even five+ years in I sometimes find the city frustrating and inconvenient.
Sometimes I just want to be able to get in my car and go to Target and not worry about carrying crap back on the subway or splurging $20 for a cab ride. New York is a far more difficult city to live in across the board, and who wants things to be SO HARD all the time, especially as you get old (which I totally am). Advantage: LA
And the winner IS…in a tight race…Los Angeles. L.A. is the city for me, based on this highly scientific (not) breakdown after five years spent in each city. Adam…pack your bags…time to head back out west!
If you want to read what this series of posts is all about, go here.
Disclaimer:
So I thought I’d do a pros and cons for each of the cities (NYC and LA) based on 15 categories of my choosing – i.e the kind of things that are important to me about a place that I chose to live. For example, since I don’t have any children, so you won’t see “education” on the list, but I do love to eat sandwiches, so “food” will definitely be on the list.
Keep in mind these are MY pros and cons…pros and cons that I have come to after living in LA for five years (2000 – 2005) and then living in New York for five years (2005 – 2010). This is intended to be a fun (and funny) list, and is not to be taken seriously, but I hope some of you, especially those of you who have lived in both places (or experienced them) will enjoy it. Come back tomorrow for Round 15…the FINAL ROUND.
14. EXPENSE
Neither city is a real bargain, but I was pretty shocked by my expenses across the board in NYC.
My dad tells a great little story about why he didn’t take a job in Manhattan back in the early 1970’s after graduating from Berkeley and it goes something like this, “I came out for the interview and they took me to lunch, and I noticed that the sandwich on the menu cost $10! And I thought to myself there’s no way I can live in a city where a sandwich at lunch costs $10!”
And you know what? He’s right. Living here is incredibly expensive, then and now. A dozen eggs can cost $3.00, $5.00 if I buy local. A half-gallon of milk (the brand I prefer – which is organic) is about $4.00. If I’m also able to buy local (not always an option), which I also prefer, it’s easily over $4.00.
My rent on a 2-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side is $2100 a month – more than most people I know pay for their mortgage – and considered a steal by most New Yorkers, and that’s for the pleasure of walking up four narrow flights of stairs every day and having a real jerk of a mailman.
LA is not cheap by any means, and I struggled mightily financially while I was there – in part because I made a lot less than I do in NYC (which in fairness should be considered), but that’s also about experience and growth in my job…and the offset is just not enough to cause an upset.
Also…that mailman really screws NYC…I hate him. Advantage: LA
