I was happy to read your comment about the Stargate: Atlantis fandom, which you made sound wonderfully warm and welcoming, and highlighted everything good about being a fan.

I may not be a full part of it anymore, but the Stargate Atlantis fandom was where I truly realized what fandom meant on a [...]]]> Congratulations, strongpieces!

I was happy to read your comment about the Stargate: Atlantis fandom, which you made sound wonderfully warm and welcoming, and highlighted everything good about being a fan.

I may not be a full part of it anymore, but the Stargate Atlantis fandom was where I truly realized what fandom meant on a large scale, and what it meant for me. It wasn’t until I fell in love with the show, the SG mythology, the characters, the endless possibilities for back story and expanding the universe and world building, that I began to immerse myself in the fandom. There were hundreds of fangirls just like me, who loved the show for the same reasons, who did cosplay and wrote fic and made fan art and fan videos and connected with other women.

I met a very large part of my current friends through the SGA fandom, and it was during those wonderful five years that I came into my own as a fangirl and a geek. I wasn’t ashamed of loving something so wholly anymore, I went to my first Comic Con and met up with friends I’d only known online, I saw the world I’d stepped into expand across the globe. I increased my online presence doing something I was passionate about. And while I’ve left SGA behind a little bit as I pursue what being a geek means to me and the whole geek girl network I’ve discovered in the past two years, I still look back on the show with the the biggest heart eyes. I’ve fallen in love with other shows and fandoms since, but nothing has come close to the way I was apart of SGA’s fandom, and I doubt anything ever will.

Thanks for entering, everyone – and strongpieces, I hope you enjoy your Literati.

WE’RE JOKING. [Ed: Though if you want to email us dirty pictures of Nathan Fillion, we're not stopping you.]

Well, except that we are giving away a brand-new e-reader. Are we awesome or what?

This e-reader is a Literati, run on [...]]]> First person to e-mail us dirty pictures of Nathan Fillion wins.

WE’RE JOKING. [Ed: Though if you want to email us dirty pictures of Nathan Fillion, we're not stopping you.]

Well, except that we are giving away a brand-new e-reader. Are we awesome or what?

This e-reader is a Literati, run on Kobo software. Its awesomeness, in easy-to-read bullet points:

• It’s a full-color e-reader, with adjustable brightness and font size, among other things.
• It has easy access to wi-fi, where you can buy new books to your heart’s content.
• It comes pre-loaded with 25 books, with access to another 125.
• It comes with a leather cover, as well as a charger and a USB cable.
• It’s still sealed in its package! Never been opened! It may even look at you coyly while you unwrap it. Or sing “Like A Virgin”. (Disclaimer: Okay, maybe that one wasn’t true.)

Now, I did say “contest”…

We want to hear what fandom means to you. Given all the great shows we cover – Sherlock, Doctor Who, Supernatural – we’d like to hear in around 250 words what TV show has your heart, and why. Any show, anywhere – you choose!

All you have to do is post your entry in the comments by Saturday, August 27th. The winner will be picked by yours truly (butt-kissing welcome), and the top five will be posted on Wednesday, the 31st.

Bring it, readers!

Congratulations, Trish Heinrich!

Be on the lookout for an email from me, Trish!

And for the rest of you – thanks for entering, and don’t fret, because we have another giveaway just around the corner… and this one’s HUGE. [...]]]> After upholding the rigorous scientific standards of “eenie meenie miney mo”, we have our winner!

Congratulations, Trish Heinrich!

Be on the lookout for an email from me, Trish!

And for the rest of you – thanks for entering, and don’t fret, because we have another giveaway just around the corner… and this one’s HUGE. You’re gonna love it.

Behold, another fantastic giveaway by The Discriminating Fangirl!

This is high fantasy done right.

There are a lot of pitfalls for authors of fantasy. Little guy saves the world from magical nihilist bully… The time-honored formula, given to us by St. Tolkien himself. [...]]]>

The giveaway has ended! Thanks for entering!

Behold, another fantastic giveaway by The Discriminating Fangirl!

This is high fantasy done right.

There are a lot of pitfalls for authors of fantasy. Little guy saves the world from magical nihilist bully… The time-honored formula, given to us by St. Tolkien himself. It has to be so easy to slip into the grooves of that well-worn road. So when an author is able to not only work within some of those “rules” and yet bring something absolutely new to the game, it’s an amazing thing – and you get something like Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. This is a classic. It’s one of those series that you read until it’s loved half to death.

Sabriel is a young girl living in the country of Ancelstierre, a technology-based version of early-20th century England. Her father lives across the Wall separating it from the Old Kingdom, a dying place where magic works. He dies, and Sabriel begins to learn what her father has done for a living.

He’s a necromancer.

Well, that oversimplifies things a bit. He does deal with Death. His job isn’t to bring beings out of it, though – it’s to put them back in. And the job wasn’t one he simply picked up out of necessity or want; it’s one that’s in the genes… and now Sabriel is the last of the Abhorsen line. If she doesn’t throw herself into dealing with Death, there will shortly be a much larger number of people in it.

This world is brilliantly made, with amazing detail. Magic has detailed rules. And the two protagonists (Sabriel in the first book, Lirael in the second) are beautifully fleshed-out, realized characters, some of my favorites in the fantasy genre. In fact, you won’t find a character in these novels that isn’t three-dimensional.

It’s with happiness that we’re giving away a boxed set of all three books in the trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen). They’re paperbacks, and still wrapped in the plastic that they came in.

Want to get this amazing trilogy for free? It’s simple. Leave a comment on this post with a valid email address by August 11th, 2011, and one winner will be picked at random. We will ship anywhere. Good luck!

(Disclaimer: After reading this trilogy, we at the Discriminating Fangirl are not liable for any urges to adopt snarky cats named Mogget, or renames of any tan-colored, goofy dogs you might have.)

Thanks to everyone for entering!

And thanks, everyone, for entering!

Geeks rejoice! Simon Pegg’s memoir, Nerd Do Well, is coming out June 9! So if you’ve been dying to read about how he created Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, you won’t have to wait much longer. In fact, here’s an [...]]]> The Giveaway Has Ended!

Thanks for entering!

Geeks rejoice! Simon Pegg’s memoir, Nerd Do Well, is coming out June 9! So if you’ve been dying to read about how he created Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, you won’t have to wait much longer. In fact, here’s an excerpt to tide you over (keep scrolling for the giveaway):

In the kitchen out back, such was our deep affiliation to John and Bernie. But mostly, life for us at the Shepherds consisted of Nick and me simply sitting and discussing the world while sipping pints or ploughing pound coins into the Simpson fruit machine. Ideas were born and plans were hatched as we luxuriated amid the matchless comfort of our surroundings. On Monday nights, we would sit up at the bar and watch University Challenge with John, usually the sole customers. We would throw out answers at the TV, usually falling short of anything Jeremy Paxman would accept as correct. On the odd occasion that we came good on a starter for ten, John would look at us both with an expression of admiration and declare us to be a couple of geniuses. One of our frequent topics of conversations in the Shepherds was what we would do in the event of a full-scale zombie apocalypse. We would discuss the hypotheses in great detail, tracking our movements from witnessing a stray deadhead in the garden, through running along the rooftops of Archway Road to Pax Guns in order to retrieve a brace of ordnance, then commandeering a vehicle to take us to our choice of hideout. These varied from abandoned castles to Wembley Stadium, the centre of which Nick insisted would afford us a clear view of any stray zombies that breached the perimeter and give us a workable farm space to grow crops for sustenance.

However, this scenario did rely on us being able to get our hands on a vehicle, which we could get into and start without an ignition key. This meant, realistically, the most feasible plan was to remain in the area and the most obvious place to hunker down was the pub. With heavy, bolt-locking doors, thick windows obscured by always drawn curtains which stopped just above head height, to allow light into the bar, survivors could easily move around inside without attracting the attention of the walking dead, stumbling about in the street outside. Aside from an enormous supply of fear-anaesthetising booze, the pub was well stocked with frozen food, and the sandwich toaster alone would provide tasty snacks, as long as the electricity stayed on. The idea was so inviting, we half hoped the recently dead would start returning to life and attacking the living, if only to give us the justification to remain in the Shepherds all day, every day, without feeling guilty.

Not surprisingly, aspects of our extended fantasy made it into the screenplay for Shaun of the Dead, as Edgar and I readily ran with the dead ball, feeding it into the storyline as the solution Shaun proposes in his attempts to save his loved ones. Edgar’s own annoyance at our lack of social imagination became the source of Liz’s frustration with Shaun, positing the pub at the very heart of the film as the cause of distress and the answer to their problems. Although causing the downfall of the group, the pub does ultimately facilitate their survival and proves a better solution to that of the rival group, who are eventually whittled down to just one.

Shaun of the Dead was written during the height of our love affair with the Shepherds. Its influences on the film are numerous and not just in terms of the plot. The landlord and lady in the film were called John and Bernie, the jukebox had a tendency to self-select if it got bored of underuse and Ed’s improvised descriptions of the locals were lifted straight from our early days as strangers in the lounge bar. We might even have kept the pub’s name were we not in need of a plot point that provided Shaun’s team with a gun. Calling our screen pub the Winchester enabled us to mount an old-fashioned rifle over the bar, which, at a crucial point in the story, reveals itself to be a fully working firearm. By sheer coincidence, the next pub down from the Shepherds on Archway Road is called the Winchester, but it has no relevance or connection to our film, despite what you might have heard.

You can get more information by visiting Penguin’s book page, and you can also preorder Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid from Amazon.

BUT! If you’re the gambling type, you can also enter to win a copy from Penguin and The Discriminating Fangirl!

Giveaway

• One (1) winner will receive a copy of Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid by Simon Pegg

The Details

The contest is open to entrants with a U.S. mailing address. The giveaway starts today (Tuesday, May 24, 2011) and will run for one week. The last day to enter is Monday, May 30, 2011. The winner will be chosen randomly and contacted by email on May 31, and will have two days to respond. If the winner does not respond by June 2, a new winner will be chosen.

One entry per person/email. Multiple entries will be discarded.