This past Thursday I had the honour of addressing an audience at the Groton Public Library.  I'm afraid I rambled on for a bit at first, but once we got to the question and answer section the questions just kept coming!

I also unveiled a new piece, a piece that I've not quite finished but was designed specifically so anyone could make their own with readily available materials and common tools.  Stay tuned for details on where you'll be able to find the step by step instructions, sometime in the near future.

There are more pictures of the evening here courtesy of photographer Bob Lotz.

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Something about this little inside-out temporally inverted matchbox really really appeals to me - and it will be mine unless you out-bid me!  Actually you should out-bid me, and by a large amount as the procedes from these auctions go to benefit the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

[Update: Somebody out bid me!  But I upped my bid and I'm back on top! Mwah hah hah ha!]

It's all the doing of spectulative fiction writer Shira Lipkin who will be:

. . . doing a blogathon this Saturday, July 26 - posting to my LiveJournal every half hour for 24 hours to raise money for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. This is my sixth year blogathonning, and I write spontaneous short fiction every year. It usually tends to have an urban fantasy bent (as in fantasy in a city, not paranormal romance), but this year, I'm taking a distinctly SF angle on it. For 24 hours, I'll be in character as a xenoarchaeologist, trying to make sense of precollapse Earth... with the help of over 50 artists who donated "artifacts" to this project, including a few SF/F authors themselves. All artifacts are being auctioned, with a story card.

It all goes down here: http://shadesong.livejournal.com
And the auctions are here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZshadesong

And there's a lot more info on my LJ about why I do this, and why BARCC.  

I've been booked for the first ever California Steampunk Convention in Sunnyvale, California - October 31 through November 2! 

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing but there is sufficient time to put together a really bitch'n presentation and/or demo!  I'll also be participating in a discussion panel or two.

In addition, some of The Steampunk Workshop's bestest friends will be there, and by that I mean Ann & Jeff VanderMeer the editors of Steampunk as well as those roguishly appealing pirates: Abney Park!

Discounted tickets are on sale now until June 15 for $50, they will be $60 thereafter.

Abney Park posing aboard the Neverwas Haul at Maker Faire 2008

I am sorely tempted to build an entry for Dr. Erasmus P. Kitty's Great Hand-Car Regatta. There's not much info, but it looks like some great things are already being built. I love the idea of human powered vehicles to put to use some of the vast swaths of abandoned railway in this country.

That, and I can already see myself furiously peddling my creation down the tracks (cackleling!); twirling my moustachio, threatening iminent doom upon a damsel, tied to the tracks, vainly trying to wiggle free her bonds.

I'm sure the event will be fun, too.