StrixWerks ⋆ Page 3 of 5 ⋆ Mythology, Games, Writing, Diversity

August 23, 2014August 21, 2015

Contact Form Issues

It’s come to my attention that in the last few days my contact form suddenly stopped working!

The issue has been fixed and it is now working as it should. If you tried to reach out to me during that time and were unable to, I apologize. I can also always be reached via G+, Twitter, and Facebook. Links to my social media pages are always shown up in the right hand corner there along with the links to my Academia.edu profile and my IMdB page.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Cheers!

-Strix

August 8, 2014August 21, 2015

Fruition

Hey guys! It’s time to play catch-up again with what I’ve been up to.

First, Wyrd Con!

Wyrd Con is on my own back yard, and for that I’m kind of partial to it despite its foibles. Played some larps, did some panels. The panel that I partnered on with Robert Seutter was well attended. It was called Myth and Folklore in Modern Media. There was an excellent write up done for it by TechWarriorz which can be found here. To quote from the article, “I had only gotten to see two of the panels, but they both felt as though they should be given at IVY League colleges, I was ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY.” So yeah, let me pat myself on the back a little.

I had only gotten to see two of the panels, but they both felt as though they should be given at IVY League colleges, I was ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY. – See more at: http://techwarriorz.com/v2/wyrd-con-experience/#sthash.gJoYWIt6.OIKMU7rc.dpuf

Here is the video:

I also sat on the Gaming as Other Panel, which had a rather disappointing turn out for how important the topic is. I hate to say this, but it’s become clear to me that the SoCal gaming scene is several steps behind the East Coast as far as social progression and inclusiveness. We gotta work on this!

Speaking of which, Gaming as Other has released two more short videos that are definitely worth the watch. Interesting and easy to digest.

In one we tackle fantasy races:

And in the other, dealing with disaster at the gaming table:

I also finally had my academic essay, Mythic Modes in the Modern West: The Evolution of Interactive Theatre in Response to the Need for Myth, published in the International Association for Comparative Mythology journal!

I am so, so excited about this. I am thrilled to be published alongside Harvard professors and the top minds in mythology throughout the world.

Another small victory is that my IMDb credits are starting to show up! It took a while, but they’re starting to trickle in as the projects I’m working on get grounded. I know it’s a little thing, and not terribly important, but it makes me pretty proud. I know have a little IMDb button in my media bar of this page at the top right. Pretty rad!

I’d also like to announce that I will be writing the L.A. City Guide for Urban Shadows, a new table top RPG that I personally think is the coolest thing to come out in a while (besides maybe Numenera).

Urban Shadows has hired a staggering list of talent to write its city guides, and I’m super honored that I was the first one asked. I love working with Andrew and Mark. They’re good people and this is a great game.

I also did a brief appearance at Gam3rCon, where I sat on Aaron Vanek’s panel “Everything You Wanted to Know About LARP, But Were Too Afraid to Ask.” I was very pleased with the panel. I know that one of the other panelists, Kaza Marie (The Larp Girl), recorded it, so hopefully some video will turn up.

The research on LARP and technology that I’m doing through Carnegie Mellon is still going swimmingly, and I recently finished up with the 2014 volume of Between, Pacifica Graduate Institute’s literary journal. I had a great team to work with, and it could not have been done without Jesse and James. Here’s a sneak peek at the cover!

I also just found out I passed my comprehensive exams, which means I get my Masters and am fully vetted and qualified to move on to continuing my PhD work and writing my dissertation. This is super great! I want to throw a party. Like, really. In the last two years I’ve written 20 papers just for school, not counting the ones I’ve published. I’ve read thousands and thousands of pages of text. I have faced a number of existential crisis in regards to my abilities, my ideas, everything that I’m working towards. It’s nice to say, hey, I’ve gotten this far.

The next big thing is Gen Con. I’ll be hosting full time for Games on Demand. If you’re at GenCon and you’ve never tried it, you should. It’s a wonderful experience. I’ll also be sitting on two panels. The first, headed up by Shoshana Kessock, is “Why is Inclusivity Such a Scary Word?” It’s going to be Friday at 2:00 PM in Crowne Plaza, Pennsylvania Station C. The second is our big game headliner, Gaming as Other, which is headed up by Mark Diaz Truman. This one you really, really don’t want to miss. It’s Friday at 5:00 PM at Crowne Plaza, Pennsylvania Station C as well.

I know that’s a lot to throw at you. All I can say is that I’ve been extremely, extremely busy. There’s a couple of other things in the works that I haven’t mentioned, but they can wait until there’s a little more meat behind them.

Take care. I look forward to seeing a lot of you folks at Gen Con!

May 1, 2014August 21, 2015

Getting Gritty

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any busier, they did! More projects, more panels, more academic pursuits. I’m very happy to be so connected with so many wonderful people.

So let’s start with some bad news/good news. The panel I was hoping to get in on at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting didn’t form. Just not enough people putting forward abstracts for that particular subject (which was the relational space between ARGs/LARPs and religion/myth). I think a Gothic Monsters panel formed instead. Alas. I got a pat on the head for my proposal, but ultimately it had nowhere to go, so it’s getting shelved for now. This is actually the first time I have ever been turned down on a proposal. It looks like my long running lucky streak is finally over. In a way, this is actually good. As an academic it’s important for me to be able to respond resiliently to critique and setbacks, and the best way to do that is through practice. Well, not too much practice : p

The good news is that I was offered a summer research position at Carnegie Mellon, working out of the brand new games lab under the amazing leadership of games scholar Jessica Hammer. I’ll be doing research on larpers, specifically. Hurrah! I’m very honored and incredibly excited for this opportunity. Good research is going to come out of this that will hopefully benefit the community in the long run.

Other good news: I found out just today that my proposal for an academic paper in the upcoming peer reviewed section of the Wyrd Con Companion Book has been accepted. I’m starting to feel a little old hat, as this will be my third year publishing in this journal in a row. However, I’m excited that I have managed to lay the foundation for the type of scholarship being approached so that now we can really delve into it. The Wyrd Con Companion Book has always selected a variety of excellently research papers, and I am proud to be in good company.

Backing up a little bit, I was also recently a speaker at Maelstrom, an innovative new gaming convention on the East Cost whose panel series focused heavily on minority issues. I basically talked until a dropped, sitting on two round tables and an additional three panels. It was awesome and I would definitely consider going back next year. Mad props to Avonelle Wing for making the entire thing possible and helping foster an environment where minorities can have a voice.

I am also participating in an Indie + miniseries called Gaming As Other. This should probably be familiar to a few people by now, as I’ve participated in a series of Gaming As Other panels and speaking events already. They’re short little clips that boil down to a few key ideas each time. I believe we are running a series of three. The first one has already been completed, and you can watch it here!

Other than that I’m still slaving away at my current projects in both Hollywood and the gaming sphere. I made a brief appearance at WonderCon, and I’m now gearing up for Wyrd Con in May. And yep, still doing the Ph.D. thing. Life is good. See you around!

March 11, 2014August 21, 2015

The Longest Winter

Winter has been both fun and challenging. Waded through some major changes and made sure to keep on the horse. Some exciting things have been going on and are continuing to develop into even more exciting things.

December was paper writing crunch time for grad school. Early February I was up in L.A. for script work and I ended up being pulled into a fashion show! I have not done professional modeling in a long, long time, but I managed not to trip on the runway despite the buckets of fake blood that got spilled all over the catwalk from the designer before us. Eek! I walked for the Aneroc label, which belongs to my friend and talented costume designer Corena Gibson. It was a lot of fun, and for me, very nostalgic.

I also got to drop in on an interview with Camden Toy. Camden is a cool guy and I’m glad that he’s working with us on ADAM 8. I did get some actual work done though, and picked up two new scripts that I’ve been working on since, as well as pitched around some ideas with the writer/producer I’m working with. Fun times in Hollywood. You never know what’s going to happen.

In late February and early March I turned my attention towards the East Coast convention circuit. First up was DREAMATION, hosted by Double Exposure. Wonky website aside, it was an amazing gathering of cutting edge indie game designers and awesome players. It’s the most progressive and positive gaming convention I’ve ever attended. While there, I participated in a Gaming as Other panel, part of a series of panels that tackles the sticky topic of minority issues in the gaming community and within games themselves. As a bi-racial Mexican-American woman who has been a part of the gaming community for a long time, this is a pretty important topic to me, and one that I have a lot to say about. You can watch the video below.

I also got to play some really fun games, and have a strategy meeting for the Super Secret Project while there. The one negative? It was really cold!

After that was Intercon N, which while not quite so progressive as DREAMATION, was still enjoyable. I sat on three panels at Intercon, including an additional one in the Gaming as Other series, which I don’t think was quite as well received as it had been at previous cons where it was presented. My favorite panel was the one I sat on with other academics, discussing the psychology of playing characters. I could have gone on for hours, hours!

Overall, I’m sure I’ll be returning to the East Coast. There are a lot of interesting things going on there, and I definitely need more time to explore.

I also submitted to the call for papers for this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, the biggest conference in the world in my field. I have been biting my nails ever since! I’ll find out in April if my proposal is accepted, but I really think I might have a chance. How many other people can there be that are experts on the intersectionality of religion with ARGs and LARPs? It’s an extremely competitive conference though, so while I can’t lie and say I won’t be let down if I don’t get accepted this year, there will be many other chances in the future.

And just so the cycle completes itself it’s now time for another graduate school paper crunch. Woo.

January 13, 2014August 21, 2015

Interviews!

Some good news for the new year: The Tinker Kickstarter was funded! We’ll be shooting our pilot episode in February. Lots of people got the word out at the last minute, so thank you for your support!

Now that we’ve got a green light for the project things have been ramping up. I’ve done two interviews for Tinker recently. The first is with Brianna Sheldon over at her blog Bravo-Charlie-Sierra. The second is a video interview with Lesley Scott for the Weird Review.

If you’re wondering why I look so crazy for the Weird interview, it’s because I had just come from character acting for the Steampunk Murder Mystery at this year’s Steampunk Symposium on the Queen Mary! I got to scare people by chasing them around with a meat tenderizer and pretending to be an evil genius phrenologist. It was quite fun.

To switch gears from acting, even more good news in the academic sphere: The Wyrd Con Companion Book is out! My academic article, “Shadow Work: A Jungian Perspective on the Underside of Live Action Role-Play in the United States,” starts on page 94. I won’t lie, it’s some pretty dense theory, but there is a pretty illustration to go with it!

I’ve also gotten news from the International Association of Comparative Mythology about the article of mine that’s being published from the conference in Germany that I presented at last year. It’s been in limbo for a while, but it looks like the articles have been picked up by the publishing house LIT, and will become a book. Hurrah!

I’d also like to announce that I will be sitting on on three panels at Intercon N coming up in February. The panels will be Gaming as Other, The Psychology of Character, and The Wyrd Con Companion Book Panel. I am particularly excited about Gaming as Other because we will be exploring deeply important topics of inclusion within the gaming community at large. As a woman, and as a Mexican-American brown woman to boot, I often run up against marginalization in a subculture that is predominated by white males. I am eager to help geekdom move forward into a brave new world of awesomeness for everybody.

Winter quarter of my PhD program starts in a couple of days. I finally have a seminar class on the Americas, so I get to pull out all my fancy field work knowledge on modern post-Mayan indigenous groups. I’m strongly considering writing a paper for publication on this topic. Not that I’m tiring of exploring the link between mythological structures and play, but it would be nice to get back to my roots for a bit.

I am still on the ADAM8 project of course, and the new super secret project that Crackhorse Productions is developing and I can’t talk about yet. Still also on the super secret indie gaming project as well. I’ll also be kicking into high gear for my job as editor for the Pacifica Graduate Institute literary journal, Between, as we close submissions and begin the publication process for this year. There are some other things lining up in the pipe for spring and summer, but I think it’s still too early to talk about them. 2014 is going to be a great year!

-Strix