It's here! It looks like I am holding two books in this photo but the truth is they are the same book. Variant covers, you know. So exciting! The Librarian! Can't wait to read it- obviously I know what my story says, but I am very curious to see how the other writers handle the shared character of the Librarian and her talking bag-of-holding, Satchel. 

I just need to finish reading Nona The Ninth. It's taking me ages, not because I'm not enjoying it, but just so busy. Actually I love that book, and I thought about rereading Gideon (for the third time) and Harrow before diving into Nona but I didn't. I regret that decision but I will just reread all of them once Alecto comes out.

So yeah! The Librarian is here. I know I've talked about it a bit here and on social media but I'm going to talk about it some more. As a writer every publication is special and it's a validation that yeah, I actually can write and write well. It's an art and I have spent literally 20 years honing it- this 20yo blog is proof of that. And of course, I was writing long before there were blogs. (And long after, some might say lol). Anyways. I saw that cover when the call for submissions came out and I knew I had to write my little heart out to earn a place in the anthology. So I did. Yeah. And I don't mind saying I'm proud of that. I've gotten my share of rejections, sure. No problem, just part of the writing life.  But this is the one that mattered to me. Thanks for letting me flex a bit! Sometimes you need to, even if its just to the void.

Hey, speaking of the void, I got one more book coming out this year- at this point might be early next year- and I will let you know when that comes out. In the meantime my Ursus Verses Lego contest is still going! Scroll down for details!

Wonky TIEs are what got me to where I am today. Broke but with so much Lego. Lol. I built this Scuba TIE fighter by TJ's Lego Room  last week. I love it, the perfect mixture of cool and funny that I love in Lego designs. Kind of reminds me of those weird Batman action figures from the 90s with all the scuba gear. Like why? But also, cool! The TIE Convor by ScruffyBrickHerder was the design that got me into this whole Rebrickable/Bricklink aspect of the hobby. I've loved Lego for years but just kept to the official sets. Occasionally I would get it in my head to build stuff out of spare parts which was fine when I had the parts, but when I didn't I just shrugged and moved on with my life. But with BrickLink (and now my friend's second-hand store The Edmonton Brickyard) you can get any parts you're missing. Now entire universes open up to you!

But let's talk a little about reinventing the wheel. There are tons of TIE fighter variants on Rebrickable. Lego has produced a bench of versions. The eyeball cockpit is kind of the common denominator for most of them. Does that mean TJ or Scruffy or you have to design their own cockpit to MOC up a new TIE? Not at all (though I think sometimes they do, either improving or tweaking previous versions). It would be perfectly acceptable to take the eyeball from 75211 and build whatever wings you want or add a shark fin or whatever. (Please add a shark fin to a TIE fighter!)

I say this because I want my MOC contest to be accessible to everyone, not just people who can design a thousand-piece model with motors and hidden gears, you know? So, for example, I saw this awesome little bear at the Brickyard, and a few minutes googling tells me it is from this set, 31052. You don't even have to own the set, you can just look at the instructions for free and build one with parts you have. And that would be totally fine if you were making a diorama, say, based on a Homie Bear poem from The Ursus Verses. Homie and the Witch, or The F.A.F.A.F. which stands for The First Annual Forest Animal Forum, which is fun to say out loud. That's what I mean by you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can say "This is my diorama of Homie Bear and the Wizard Bear from Homie and the Witch, and I used the bear from that Creator set". Perfectly acceptable! 

On the other hand, though, if you wanted to depict the ancient abomination from Again, the Abomination, it would be unacceptable to make this amazing MOC and say you designed it. Right? Makes sense, I think. OF course, any questions, just ask. Or advice, help, whatever. The important thing is to have fun! Hopefully disaster won't befall you like it did to this Scuba TIE that was tragically shot down just doing a routine patrol: