Lots of Dresden Files stuff going on.

I’m on a Harry Dresden blitz at the moment. Let’s see, trying to take the list in some sort of logical order:

• There’s only two weeks (minus a few hours,) until the Ad Astra 2013 convention kicks off in Toronto, with Jim Butcher as one of the guests of honor. I’m really excited to meet him and attend as many of his panels as I can, and a lot of the other items are about trying to get ready for Ad Astra.
• I’ve been absorbing the Dresden Files novels on Audible at a fairly quick pace, for me at any rate. The marathon started about two months ago, Jan 13th, when I downloaded ‘Dead Beat’, the seventh in the series. I now have a little more than an hour to go in ‘Turn Coat’ (Dresden Files number eleven.) The plan is to finish the Audible version of #12, ‘Changes’, sometime in the week before Ad Astra, and get #13, “Ghost Story”, on Kindle, since that’s the one that has John Glover, not James Marsters, narrating the audiobook version. The Kindle will also be great for reading while I’m at the con.
• Side note: If you’re catching up on the Dresden Files like me, you’re spoiler averse, and you haven’t already checked out the blurbs for #13 or #14, then don’t. As far as I can tell, there’s so many cliffhangers and plot twists at this point of the series that it’s impossible to tease what’s going on in one book without spoiling the one before. (Fortunately I don’t mind a few spoilers too much, myself 🙂 )
• I’ve also picked up “Side Jobs”, the collection of Dresden-verse short fiction by Butcher, from the library, and read the first two pieces. It’s been fun so far, a different look at the characters and the world, and also a peek into the head of the author, since he’s written a short introduction to each one and explained the circumstances that prompted them; often an invitation to contribute something to an anthology run by somebody interesting.
• I’m wondering what I can get Jim to sign at the con. There’s the paperback copy of Dresden Files #1, “Storm Front”, which I happened to stumble across in the dealer room at Ad Astra 2011 and snapped up. They’ll probably have copies of #13 and #14, (if not the whole series,) to buy to get signed once I’m there.
• This may be the bit that I’m most excited about just at the moment; I’m putting together a Harry Dresden cosplay outfit to wear at the show. It won’t be as fancy as possible, because I have neither the time to carve a truly impressive staff or the money to spend on leather dusters, but I think I’ll have enough nice details to be respectable. Here’s what I’ve got in mind:
  Dark jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt as a base.
  A long dark blue raincoat.
  Shield bracelet; my Mom helped me put this together from supplies at a little jewelry craft store in Dundas that she’s been going to (and teaching classes at,) for years: Beads of Color. The bracelet is made from a thong of reddish-brown leather, with a bright metal clasp and a half-dozen accent pieces around it, dark and white stone, brass copper and steel. The accent pieces and the clasp all look kinduv shield-ey.
  Pentacle pendant: Big props to my mom on this one too; she’s been working on designs to weave a pentacle three or four inches across out of white beads.
  Blasting rod: I picked up a blue broomstick from Walmart that looked like a good size for this. Now I need to research some fire runes and sigils from around the world to decorate it with.

I can’t wait!