Featured Artist Volume #1: Sharon Powell Photography/Moss and Mist Jewelry

For my first in my series of featured artists, I wanted to feature Sharon Powell. Sharon, aka Sharie, is a talented artist and photographer who has had her work included in nationally distributed publications, teaches art and photography at a college in Maryland, makes unique jewelry, and, not to mention, took the author photo on the back of Feralia. ;)

Some of Sharie's work can be found on the following pages:

Sharon Powell Photography on Etsy

Sharon Powell Photography Facebook Page

Moss & Mist Jewelry on Etsy

Moss & Mist Facebook Page



If you're into fine art or artisan jewelry with a romantic flair, check her out! We'll also be featuring her on the Feralia Facebook page, so keep an eye open for that as well.

<3 Clint

Catching Up!

Hey everyone! My apologies for the lack of updates here. It seems that working around 60 hours a week has continued to put a dent in my time devoted to other activities. Plus, the ease of updating on sites like Twitter and Facebook tend to cause me to be more relaxed about updating in other places. I do plan to get back into blogging regularly again. Some of the things I'd like to feature are a return to my anime and manga blogs, which I used to love to do on 1Up (again, a lack of time has pretty much killed my time on that site), and also, I'd like to do a regular section on featured artists. A friend of mine (who's already been doing it for a while, and will be my first feature) gave me the idea.

For the moment however, I thought I'd take the opportunity to catch up on Feralia news, in case anyone has missed anything over the past few months.

Book Signing
First up is a book signing we're having at Barnes and Noble Annapolis this Sunday from 2pm to 4pm! Other authors will also be there. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello!

Social Pages
Also, please find us on the following sites, where we update news regularly and are planning some fun stuff:
Facebook.com/clintcassa
Facebook Feralia Page
MySpace.com/clintcassa
Twitter.com/Feralia

We also post links to new blog posts there shortly after they're posted here.


LA Times Festival of Books
Feralia will also be on display at The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 24th & 25th. Check it out if you're planning on attending!

That's all the book news for the moment. I'll be posting again soon! (...I promise!)

<3 Clint

My (late) Otakon Blog

Well, it's only about a month and a week or so late, but here it is: my Otakon 2009 blog. Once again this year, thousands of anime fans filled the Baltimore Convention Center and the surrounding areas in Baltimore, Maryland. (Over 26,000 this year, in fact!) Ask anyone who has attended the convention - the second biggest anime con in the US and largest on the east coast - and they'll tell you how crazy and fun it is. I always have a great time, and this year was no exception. While we worked most of the weekend with our company (Alicia's Anime), we did get to enjoy a little of the convention outside of that - mostly looking at all of the great stuff in Artist Alley, and checking out the awesome cosplayers (there were thousands!).

Below are a few of the pictures we got this year:
Shunsui & Nanao from Bleach. What a cute couple!

Helloooo nurse! (I heart Silent Hill!)

Baby Naruto! How could something so cute have a Nine Tailed Fox Demon inside? ;)

Resident Evil! Rebecca and Chris with a Licker!

Giant cute panda!!

Who is this dork? ...yeah, that's me, as Ukitake from Bleach. lol
Here are a few more I got with some other Bleach cosplayers:
They were all so cool!

Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist, with pictures of his unbelievably cute daughter Elicia!

Jill from Resident Evil

The boys from Eyeshield 21. These guys were great!

One of my first and all time favorite anime characters: Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War

Staaaaaarrrs! - Nemesis from Resident Evil

Toshiro Hitsugaya from Bleach

A gang from Mario & Sonic

A Silent Hill nurse with Sasuke from Naruto

A great bunch from Super Mario Bros. Wario demanded 20 coins for the picture! lol

Kisuke Urahara from Bleach

Another one of my favorite characters: Yotsuba! She was so cute!

Tousen from Bleach

Death the Kid, from Soul Eater (So symmetrical!) ;)

Midna from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

An awesome cosplay of Taokaka fron BlazBlue!

Ashley Graham from Resident Evil 4

A couple of notable (and awesome) cosplayers that I missed getting pictures of this year:

Flo, from Progressive Insurance

and,

the Shamwow guy! He even had the hooker with him - they were both so funny!

Great stuff!

My Pick For E3 2009

I have to admit, I was a little bored with last year's E3 Expo, and I wasn't getting my hopes up for this year either. I was pleasantly surprised, however. For me, this year was a pretty big improvement. I thought there was a lot of great announcements, and great new info on games we've already heard about (whether through previous announcements, or even leaks).

I have a nice long list of stuff I'm excited about, but I thought there was one game in particular that deserved its own spot: The Last Guardian.

I'm surprised that I'm picking a PS3 exclusive game, considering I don't yet own the system, but for me, the presentation was beautiful. For those not familiar with the game, The Last Guardian is the follow up to two of the most critically acclaimed games of the Playstation 2, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, both of which featured innovative gameplay and beautiful art, set in a fantasy world. In case you missed it, here is the E3 trailer for The Last Guardian (courtesy of Gametrailers.com):


This is just the kind of game that Sony needs more of. It's the same kind of exclusive which the PS2 was so popular for, giving it arguably the best and most varied catalog of games in its generation. Once the PS3 has enough of these kind of exclusives, I'm sure many more gamers (including myself) will finally be getting the system. Other games, like Heavy Rain, seem to be a big step in the right direction as well. Will the PS3 ever get the amount of Third Party exclusives that its predecessor had? It's hard to say, especially with all of the big titles which Sony once had as exclusives going multi-platform (Final Fantasy XIII for example).

Regardless, The Last Guardian looks amazing. The developers seem to be taking it right along in the steps of Ico and Shadow, and given their history, we can be sure they'll be adding lots of new and exciting elements. The trailer indicates that they've already nailed the magical feel and emotional impact of their previous games. (Yes, I'm a dork. But it's true!)

- Clint :3

Maru the Cat's Latest Box

I love cats. Actually I love all animals, but cats have always been my favorite. One of my usual morning activities is to check my e-mail for the latest kittehs from icanhascheezburger.com. Today's was especially nice because they included a video by a box loving cat named Maru - a kitty they've featured before, and who I first heard about from my friend Aaron. I've been a fan of Maru since then, and was excited to see that he discovered a giant box in today's video!

Check him out: (Thank you, i can has cheezburger!)


I hope this makes your day, like it did mine!

- Clint

a bit on handheld games

Today I wanted to spend a little time on handheld games. I haven't given in and gotten a PSP yet. It's a really nice system, but for me personally, there just aren't enough games for it that I really, really want. So for me, handheld gaming = the Nintendo DS, and, still, the Gameboy Advance and its huge library of games.

My wife (and myself occasionally, usually not in public) plays her pink DS Light.

I still have my old grey original DS from the first day of the DS' release. I've often thought about trading my poor old DS in for a newer DS system, but since we have a DS Light, it just hasn't seemed worth it.

Now that the DSi is out, there's another option on the trade in. The DSi seems really nice, but again, I'm just not sold on it yet. The Downloadable Content just doesn't interest me (at least nothing so far), and the lack of a slot for GBA games is a big drawback for me since I still play those games a lot. So, I don't know. we'll see. I may eventually end up with the DSi since our DS Light still plays GBA games, but I'm just not pressed to make a decision any time soon. We'll see what E3 has to offer.

Currently Playing:
Final Fantasy III
One of the few Final Fantasy games I haven't played and finished, III has been fun (and challenging). The updated graphics are nice, and it just has that classic FF feel to it.

On my list:

Hopefully I'll soon be picking up The World Ends With You and Chrono Trigger (another classic that I missed back in the day!)

- Clint