So my son will be five in a few months. His preschool gave him a box with a toy sheep, a toy cow, a toy bear, a toy zebra, and a rock. This is the story he wrote. He is a genius. That is all. Here is a picture of him trying to help theContinue reading “Blatant mum pride post”
Author Archives: Felicity Banks Books
Goulburn Comic Con & Wagga GammaCon
So I’ll be quite busy for the next 8 days as Goulburn Comic Con is literally tomorrow (free entry, Veolia Arena, 10am-5pm) and Wagga Wagga Gamma Con is literally one week later. I haven’t been to either event before but I’m very excited about both. Goulburn Comic Con is actually the reason my kids’ fantasyContinue reading “Goulburn Comic Con & Wagga GammaCon”
Captain Marvel vs Wonder Woman
See? I can do blindingly obvious clickbait too! But I do legitimately want to explore my feelings about these two beautiful films, so here we are. OBVIOUSLY team Wonder Woman and team Captain Marvel are all just one big ball of love and congratulations. And the fan art of the two superheroines is glorious. DoContinue reading “Captain Marvel vs Wonder Woman”
Fishing for a Kitten
My son TJ is four (and three-quarters) and has a lovely relationship with our kitten, Zipper. They don’t always understand one another, or play the same way, but they love each other. Here’s a video:
What is an escape room?
An escape room is a team game that involves exploring a room and solving the puzzles you find there in order to get out. In practice, that means being put into a room with a team and figuring out how to open and/or unlock various things. In Canberra, it is illegal to actually lock theContinue reading “What is an escape room?”
Escape Room Accessibility
The typical escape room company is located in a hard-to-find corner—somewhere with small windows, ill-suited to shopfronts or homes. There are usually stairs, and almost always darkness. MADAM ALCHEMIST, my portable magical steampunk escape room, is designed to be suitable for most ages and abilities. It is G-rated and has no physical challenges. This blogContinue reading “Escape Room Accessibility”
Madam Alchemist
This weekend is CanCon, and I have a stall there, with the tabletop version of my escape room (now called “Madam Alchemist” since it takes place in a mad scientist’s secret laboratory). I ran five play-tests during the day yesterday, and all of them went off without a hitch. I also had people approaching meContinue reading “Madam Alchemist”
Shooting Through: the escape room that comes to you
MADAM ALCHEMIST is now running in Canberra. THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ROOM will be made available again in future. What is the permanent location like? The permanent location is in Macgregor, within sight of the Kippax MacDonald’s and Vet. It is a room of my house that happens to also have hundreds of books in itContinue reading “Shooting Through: the escape room that comes to you”
Escape Room
I have designed a portable escape room (with a tabletop version that I shall be running at CanCon this weekend). There will be more info soon, but here are some pics in the meantime! It’s set in the same steampunk fantasy world as all my steampunk, but takes place at the same time (with noneContinue reading “Escape Room”
Christmas: Stress
NB: The Mary Sue pop culture site wrote a far better article on Christmas stress. Go read it here. I live in fear of Christmas from about October onwards. (I also start buying presents for my kids at that stage, which I like doing—so there’s that.) It’s particularly tricky for those who are at theContinue reading “Christmas: Stress”
Christmas: Gifts
Last Christmas was tricky. Louisette (then aged nearly-6) well and truly understood Christmas, and she knew exactly what she wanted. . . and was loudly disappointed when a gift didn’t live up to her expectations. She’s a sweet girl really, and we’ve had a lot of conversations since then about how to react when youContinue reading “Christmas: Gifts”
Christmas: Jesus, Gifts, and Stress
So Christmas is about three things for me. (Cunning readers may guess what they are based on the title.) This is the beginning of a three-part blog series on Christmas (aka holiday therapy for yours truly). Fairly obviously for a Christian, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus aka the God I follow. Yes, I’m awareContinue reading “Christmas: Jesus, Gifts, and Stress”
Cat VS Tiger
I acquired this giant tiger, which Tim shall receive for Christmas. When I chucked it on the couch, Zipper PANICKED and FLED FOR HER LIFE. So I sat down next to the tiger and gently encouraged Zipper to overcome her deep and genuine terror. While I took photos. Then I put it onContinue reading “Cat VS Tiger”
NaNo Oh No!
Astute viewers may have observed a certain lack of blog posts lately… a dearth of content that started just before November and is now ending just after November. Not a coincidence. November (and sometimes July) is National Novel Writing Month, when thousands of writers around the world attempt to write the first 50,000 words ofContinue reading “NaNo Oh No!”
Dogs, Goths, Kilts, Pirates, and Octopuses
Last weekend was the weekend of the annual Goulburn Waterworks Steampunk & Victoriana Fair. It’s always an absolute blast. The standard of garb at Goulburn is always amazing: corsets, top hats, pocket watches, waistcoats, bustles, crinolines, and epic boots galore! I thought I’d do a super quick blog on some of the side effects ofContinue reading “Dogs, Goths, Kilts, Pirates, and Octopuses”
GUI ChoiceScript?
I just found out that various people are working on making ChoiceScript easier to learn and use. I… probably won’t use these tools because I’ve grown comfortable with using CS directly and don’t want to mess with that (yes, I am old and crotchety. Shut up). Here‘s the link to much usefulness! Here’s Zipper, gettingContinue reading “GUI ChoiceScript?”
IRON LIGHTS review
My fellow Odyssey Books author, Carmel Bendon, reviewed IRON LIGHTS for me on Goodreads. Here’s what she said: Iron Lights is the third book in Felicity Banks’ The Antipodean Queen trilogy and the next in the adventures of the series’ heroine, Emmeline Muchamore. Iron Lights, however, stands alone as a cohesive read and there isContinue reading “IRON LIGHTS review”
Zip Zip
The kids are having a sleepover tonight, so the house is unusually quiet. Zipper is very concerned. She still follows us if we go to the bathroom, so the notion of spending a whole night without two members of her litter is Just Wrong. Here is a nice pic of her, and a not-that-nice picContinue reading “Zip Zip”
99 cents
IRON LIGHTS is on Amazon now, which probably means it’s almost everywhere! So to celebrate, Book 1: HEART OF BRASS is having a 99c promo. I’m posting it here for those of you on an RSS feed. https://www.amazon.com.au/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=felicity+banks And here’s Zipper, but sideways.
More Important Matters
So IRON LIGHTS is out (through my store and Dymocks Belconnen ONLY at the moment—it’ll be available everywhere in October, including digitally), MURDER IN THE MAIL is exhibiting at The Front cafe gallery… and all you really want to know is, “HOW IS THE KITTEN THO?” She is good. As you can see, she prefersContinue reading “More Important Matters”