I’ll be gone Friday to Monday at Fanime Con (http://www.fanime.com/) and I’m working around the clock to get stuff done for it. I’m excited since it’s my favorite convention of the year. Many of my friends show up to this one, so I’m ready for awesome pizza and good times with them.

If you will be there, come say hi if you see me! Hopefully I will have Saber Lily and Yue Ying done. They still need so much done on them and I’m rushing even though I don’t want to do that :< All my armor is made, but the props are still in the works as are the fabric parts. I need more than 24 hours in a day right about now…

In other news, Ejen Chuang, author of Cosplay in America (http://www.cosplayinamerica.com/) has let me know I’m in the book! I get to see it on Friday, so hopefully I will have something to post for it soon. I’m anxious to see it! He’s photographed so many people over the last year all over the US, so I’m happy to see this book come to fruition, as are a lot of people. He obviously dedicated himself to his project and it’s nice to see it make it to print. Not every project has a success story to follow it, so it’s wonderful to see this one has. I’ve been watching his youtube videos and site updates for what seems like ages, and it was neat to see all that goes into publishing. It’s a lot of work.

All of the preview stuff he has posted for it has been excellent, so I have high hopes. I’m going to be helping to promote the book with flyers throughout Fanime, so if you want more info on where to buy it (he’ll be in the Artist Alley there) you are welcome to come ask me for directions to his booth. Just tell him I sent you

As of April 15th, Otacool2 is out in japan! I just got my order email from Jlist saying it’s going to be shipped. I should have it in a week or so, and when I get it, I’ll post more info about it (maybe make a youtube video discussing it, too.)

Funny enough, this means I inadvertently ended up on Kotaku today. Never thought I’d be on there for something, but it’s cool to see myself on another well known site. The Otacool business is awesome Here a link to the short article.

This japanese article from AkibaBlog has some great page previews, so check it out if you want to see some of the book interior.

Interested in getting it now? Here is where you can get a copy:

<a href=”http://moe.jlist.com/click/3199?url=http://www.jlist.com/PRODUCT/YB075″><img src=”http://www.maridah.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/otacoolcover-205×300.jpg”><br>Buy OTACOOL 2</a>

Despite the date, my update isn’t a joke! I’m sorry for not having anything thought up to post here for April 1st. It just so happens the interview I did with Ninjovee for her blog Tangerine Tango is up today too. I’m excited to see it up so quickly, and it was a lot of fun to be interviewed by her.

Don’t you just love the citrus color layout? I really like the look of her blog. Very inviting!

★Here is the interview!★

I’ve read her blog prior to her asking if I’d like to answer some questions, and really appreciated the request! Please take a look! While at first glance you might think it’s a blog about figures and anime fandom, but she’s got articles in there that might surprise you. She really writes about stuff from a thoughtful perspective, not just canned comments or regurgitated opinion (not that it’s not okay sometimes to be matter of fact, but…) It’s refreshing to read a blog about ‘otaku’ subjects that has real personal opinion behind it! Blogs like hers are the kind that are the most engaging to read. It makes me think that I don’t use my blog here enough to express the way I feel about issues, so I’m inspired to branch out a bit and be more candid or have more content in my updates from time to time.

I had a tweet from my friend Nessa that I should check out this link and saw I’m on the revised cover of Otacool 2! Needless to say I’m really happy about it! It’s actually hard to sum up my excitement about it in a blog post right now.

Out of all the years I’ve been having fun with this hobby, nothing quite like this has ever happened, so I’m sort of in shock over the decision to include me on the front of the book. I’m elated, but still shocked. Really I’m just so thankful, I can’t even begin to go into it…

If one thing does make me sad about it, however, it’s that I took Danny Choo’s slot. He mentioned getting a lot of heat for being on the cover of the book in his article here. Considering the fact that without his site’s promotion of the publication many of us wouldn’t have even known to enter, it’s a little bit of a buzzkill.