This is the short story

For the few people who are still hanging on to this blog by RSS, I've got a few updates for you to explain my disappearance.  Following the immutable law that blog activity is inversely proportional to interesting life activities, I was having a lot of fun this last month.

First up in my catch-up posts is a project I'm very excited about.  I've been trying to find books, games, and other resources that depict the type of gender roles I want to promote (death to the Wynx!).  There really aren't very many, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I've teamed up with a very talented artist (who is also a good friend) to create a packaged set of images of female characters.  This will eventually take the form of a a memory game (for young kids), a card game (for 8-10s) and a companion book that explains the backstory to all the figures.

The project is coming along very well!  I'm just getting the first sample images back from the warriors/queens/goddesses series, and I've decided to link to them here:

http://cedarseed.blogspot.com/2010/06/sketches-for-card-game-on-theme-of.html

The first set will be back from the printers close to the end of July, and the expansion pack (featuring the Muses and counterbalancing figures) will follow in August.

Plus, the bonus is that we are even including each family member in the pack!  Each one of us will represent a different element from the 'Avatar: Last Airbender' series.  How cool is that?

I can't wait for the final versions!

For those of you who might be curious, here is the complete list of the characters who will be in the pack:

Basic Set:

Queens:  Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria, Wu Zetian,

Scientists: Margret Mead, Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie,  Wangari Maathai

Warriors: Joan of Arc, Tomyris, Chand Bibi,  Unniyarcha

Gods:  Athena, Isis, Durga, Oya

Family:  4 of us…

Expansion:

Muses: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania

Demons:  Succubus, Medusa, Vampire, Furies

Evil:  Lamia, Baba Yaga, Yuki-Onna, Lilith