Weekly Plugs for 8/23/07

No virtual writing session post this week. We did get together with the group at Borders, but Tuesday was Miranda's last time with the group for a while. She's off to college. Lori and Lynette showed up to wish her well, and Jeff also came and brought some of his artwork.

Gynn is currently working on changing the tuesday writing sessions into something more formal and more comic-book focused. More on that when it happens.

This week we start off with some plugs for places I visited during my recent trip to NYC and New Jersey.

Plugs From My Road Trip

Comic Explosion - Excellent comic book store at 88 Centre Street in Nutley NJ.

Annex Comics - Comics and games. Great store. Located at 314 Broadway, Newport RI.

Vector Comics - Another excellent long-established store. 902 Broadway, Bayonne NJ.

Jim Hanley's Universe - A huge comic book store and one of the most indy-friendly on the East Coast. West 33rd Street, Manhattan, across the street from the Empire State Building.

Jeollado - Delicious and affordable sushi/Korean restaurant in the East Village (4th St between 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave).

Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery - Cupcake bakery! East Village, 126 Rivington St.

We've Got Freakin Video Games - Video game store located in Hamilton NJ. They also run Magic: The Gathering tournaments there.

As an added bonus, here's a picture of of Gather Correspondent Laura Cushing, with my friend Agnes at We've Got Freakin Video Games.

Good Causes

This week, I'd like to highlight some of the groups doing environmental and wildlife conservation in my area. I've written a couple articles recently about saltmarsh monitoring and sea turtle rescue, and wanted to share the contact information on the groups involved with those and some other local efforts. All of these groups are do great work and are in need of support in the form of funding and volunteers.

The Humane Society's Cape Wildlife Center takes in rescued wild animals and rehabilitates them for release into the wild.

The Association to Preserve Cape Cod does saltmarsh monitoring and works on other local environmental issues.

National Marine Life Center, located in Buzzards Bay MA, rescues stranded or injured marine animals and does educational outreach.

The New England Aquarium not only has a great educational exhibit facility, but also handles much of the marine animal rescue in the New England states.

Upcoming Events

Information is already online for next year's Pi-Con, August 22-24 2008 in West Springfield MA. We are tentatively planning on attending.

We are now confirmed for next year's SPACE (The Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo) is scheduled to return to the Aladdin Shrine Center in Columbus OH on March 1-2, 2008.

We are currently finalizing arrangements to be at the Labyrinth event put on by Wicked Faire September 28-29 in Edison NJ.

Plugs For My Stuff

I write comics. My latest is Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire #2, illustrated by my wife, Gynn Stella.

I also write an ongoing fiction serial at The Edge of Propinquity, which appears each month along with four other stories by very talented writers.

I have three stories appearing in the upcoming Finis collection.

My personal zine is Caravan, which appears in the Phoenix APA.

You can also check out my Comicspace page, my Deviantart page, my Livejournal, and my blog at Geekalize. I have four groups here on Gather: Geek Travel, Magic the Gathering Players, Wildlife Identifications, and Panel Discussion (Comic Book Reviews).

For the gamers out there, I sell Magic: The Gathering cards on Cardshark. My seller ID is rsilva. You can find my inventory here.