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Two supporting characters come to life thanks to German readers Iris and Ines. Iris was the first person ever to send me fan art, and has been a great contributor to contests ever since. She is awesome, as is any friend of hers.

Hi Peat,

This is my (our) entry for the cosplay contest. We would be me and my friend Ines.

I’m Wonda, and she’s Mery. By the way, I’m sorry for the cheap arrows and the bow. ^^;

But anyway I hope you enjoy the photos!

Greetings from Germany,

Iris and Ines

Posted on August 2, 2011 at 12:01 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Germany, Warded Man
1 Comment »

Hi All,

Still have a bunch of Cosplay Contest entries to post (just a few hours left to enter!), but I wanted to give a quick Worldcon update.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I will be attending the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention in Reno, Nevada (AKA Worldcon or Renovation), Aug-17-21, 2011. Because of my shoulder surgery in June, I was not able to commit to the con until after the author panel track was confirmed, so I was not assigned to any official panels.

I was, however, invited to crash an epic fantasy panel by moderator Brandon Sanderson, and I will try and do that and pull other strings as available. I’ll also be attending most of the panels my friends and fellow fantasy authors are on, like Brent Weeks, Gail Carriger, Brandon Sanderson, Mur Lafferty, George RR Martin, Pat Rothfuss, etc.

In the meantime, the convention did assign me a autograph session, so if you’re planning to attend and would like to meet up without having to stalk me at the bar, you can find me here:

Peter V. Brett Worldcon Autograph Session:

Friday, August 19, 5PM-6PM, Hall 2, Reno-Sparks Convention Center (RSCC)

In other news, The Desert Spear has now been translated into Estonian under the title Kõrbeoda (which Google is unable to translate). Publisher Varrack has given it a pretty awesome cover. Check it out and let me know what you think. I’m not positive if the figure is supposed to be Arlen or Jardir, since the wards on his skin look more like scars than tattoos, but frankly, it’s an awesome cover either way. The spear looks kickass as well:

Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:00 pm by PeatB
Filed under Appearances, Desert Spear, Events, World Traveler
1 Comment »

The most incredible thing about this entry is that when I met Lizette (who kicked serious ass in the Desert Spear ARC Contest) in person at a signing just a year ago, she was 5 months pregnant with her third son, and she lit up the room even then.

Hi Peat-

Here we go again eh? So, I’ve been thinking and thinking how to pull off an Inevera outfit without it being inappropriate and I think we did a pretty good job. A lot of the images look alike because 1) we had to take these pictures at 2 AM (all 3 boys are asleep!) 2) they had to be done indoor because I don’t think I can pull this outfit off outside without being cited with an ‘indecent exposure’ fine and 3) we have to work in quick spurts before one of the boys wakes up and asks us what we’re doing….”Mama, why is Baba (Dad) taking pictures of you like this?” or even worse…them talking to their teachers about them catching Daddy taking pictures of Mama ‘dressed up.’ LOL.

Anyway, off to my explanation.:)

I chose some poses with the pouch filled with my demon bones (aka- black warded beans) on the outside of my robe so you could actually see it. I know, I know, not accurate, but you would not have been able to know it was there any other way. I also pulled the warded curved knife out for the same reason. I am wearing a scarf around my head in some shots because Jardir did not see Inevera’s face before he was married…so that’s that. I also included some images of what I imagine her looking like when she’s reading the demon bones for Jardir when they first meet….take note that I even put down a white sheet so ‘my white robe would not get soiled with dirt.’ Hmm, what else? I needed to include our skull in the image…wish I could make it a flaming skull…time constraints remember? I have a really conceited/mean look on my face a lot of times…I was trying to go for the “I’m Dama’ting, I’m better than you….oh yeah, I’m also Inevera with a capital I”- look. I hope you like it!

Take care-

Lizette and Khaled

ps- you choose which picture you prefer to display!

I choose to display all sixteen of them:

Posted on August 1, 2011 at 12:01 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art
4 Comments »

Wow. Just… wow. As if Carol’s first entry as Inevera wasn’t amazing enough.

Still one more day to enter the Cosplay Contest!

Sorry to leave this entry so late but making these two costumes has taken longer than expected.

My favourite character is Renna and I love the scene in The Desert Spear were she goes hunting demons on her own, Lauren’s background on your website was also a big inspiration. I considered cutting my hair and having more tattoo’s but thought that a little extreme (ha!). I bought a wig and drew wards on a body stocking. I cut up a dress and sewed a pouch to hold the warded chestnuts. A toy knife got warded and a necklace completed the outfit.

The demons head has taken ages, it started off as a cycle helmet and egg box and after many layers of card, wire and papier mache I hope it looks like a wood demon. If I’d had more time (work and holidays got in the way !) I would have spent it making a better demon body.

I like making costumes and have really enjoyed taking part in this contest.

Thanks from Carol Hinds.

Posted on July 31, 2011 at 3:13 pm by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Warded Art
1 Comment »

Holy crap. Someone actually did a Red Sonja: Blue entry in the Cosplay Contest (ends Monday, August 1!).

This is so awesome, and from Homemade Heroes winner Mia, no less:

Hello. Just when you thought you got rid of me…

When I read about the cosplay, I thought about it more as a what-would-I-do-if-I-could-sew kind of thing. I had a short list of 3: Bruna, Inevera and Red Sonja. You know I love Bruna but I couldn’t work out how to get the face right – don’t have enough wrinkles (yet), no makeup skill to speak of and using a mask feels like a copout. I have about 90% of an Inevera look but my model/niece was sick on our photo shoot date so I shelved that. Another time maybe.

I fell in love with RSB but thought I’d never be able to find the right blue fur so when I did, I had to give it a shot. I also learned to make the outfit without busting out a sewing machine.  There’s 2 sets of photos – couldn’t fit them all in one email. First set is the parts of the whole, second set contains full and action shots. I’ll let you pick and choose. I prefer taking pics to being in them so a friend graciously volunteered to pose for the photos.

Couldn’t do a location shoot with NYC such a furnace right now (& blue fur isn’t summer wear). Did it Indoors but furniture, fixtures, etc. kept sneaking in the shots so I removed all background and used a page of RSB as a backdrop

Apart from the essential blue fur, Sonja has — red/black wig (hard to find a full red one in the right shade), a not-so-long sword and sheath, a dagger (kitchen knife really), homemade thigh strap with hand skeleton holder, a whip of sorts, wrist and bicep bangles, brown boots.  Lastly, I wanted to include the iconic chainmail bikini somehow so there’s half a bikini top in some shots as a reminder that it’s broken. Besides, RS has to bring it back for repairs, right? It doesn’t show as well as I’d like in the photos but it’s the sparkly bit on the belt in some shots and is sort of featured in the last 2 in this email, sort of reenacting the moment it broke

I tried to do her justice, but I must confess it’s a bit more Project Runway than I’d like.

— Mia

Posted on July 29, 2011 at 1:28 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Fan Art, Fans, Homemade Heroes, Red Sonja
1 Comment »