Women who Run with (Were)Wolves

It's no real secret in my circle of friends that I'm the SciFi/Fantasy/Geek girl. Notice I'm not giving in and spelling it the way one of my favorite channels did when they underwent their re-branding efforts (trust me folks, super spiffy spelling is not going to broaden your audience). I'm not as hard core as some people, but I know what a Bantha is, I can slice and dice the various mythologies of pop culture vampires, and I still carry a torch for Spock. Both of them now that Zachary Quinto has taken up the mantle. I didn't realize how deep the association between me and the mythical, mystical madness had become until I heard a couple of my girlfriends refer to the upcoming movie Sucker Punch as, "you know, R's movie."

While many of the women I know have fallen hard for the Twilight series (and True Blood, and a myriad of other hip vampire stories), their interest seems to go as far the story lines and the sexy stars who play them, but stops there. I get that - I like those stories and characters too, but my passion extends to more than the current rage of vampires.

Dark Phoenix

Of course, there are the vampires. I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel, but mainly because I'm a huge fan of Joss Whedon - the genius who created those worlds, plus Firefly & Serenity, and Dollhouse. The language, the story arcs, the anti-heroes - I could go on and on, but this isn't about Joss, this is about me. Tolkien (print & screen) is another favorite. Asked once which character I would be in his works, it wasn't the luminous Arwen or the fiercely brave Eowyn who I aspired to be, but Aragorn - preferably when he was known only as Strider - who captured everything I wanted to be. Both Marvel and DC Comics house characters I love to love. Yeah, DC is a little older, and maybe a little darker, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no competing with Marvel's X-Men. Clarify - there's no competing with the Phoenix (even when she's dark). After we were together for a while, my husband and I combined our comic collection (oh, foolish, foolish flies), and to this day still argue over who actually owns the various issues. Especially the unopened ones. Yes. I do that. And for the record, the Wolverine ones are mine.

Currently (as in, "since I discovered Facebook"), I'm involved with an online fantasy RPG (role playing game)  called Castle Age. There are heroes, generals, quests to complete, dragons (and other beasties) to slay, armies to build, arenas to fight in. It's been called, "extremely deep and complex," and was rated "one of the top ten most significant social games" of 2010. It is the reason I have over 450 friends on Facebook. Which leads me to the point I started to write about when I first sat down.

Sometimes I feel absolutely alone as the SciFi/Fantasy/Geek girl amongst my friends.

Because none of the women in my real life circle find this stuff even remotely interesting. I teasingly ask them to come see Thor on opening weekend with me - knowing full well that we're going to wind up seeing the latest cute chick flick. I try to explain the appeal of building an online army to slay the next beast and get halfhearted smiles (which I truly appreciate, by the way - hey - they're trying for me). Even my mom, who loves all aspects of me - good, bad, and weird - sent me a sympathy card (yes; the kind you send when someone dies) when she found out I was going to see Interview with a Vampire all those years ago.

An image I love for my CA character, Lady Talon

Funny thing though … since I discovered Castle Age (thank you Facebook!), that "alone" feeling doesn't pop up as much. As mentioned, at least half of my online "friends" are there to help build my army (Army, Guilds, Orders - it goes on and on), and you have no idea how amazing it is to find all kind of women from all over the world who are as passionate (if not more so), about Castle Age and the whole SciFi thing as I am. KW from Ohio is one of the most organized that I've met. She's tough, she's consistent, and if you're on a monster with her, you know two things: the party health is staying up, and that monster is going down. AMS from Italy has a powerful build (and no, that does not mean physical) and consistently returns hits and leaves hearts on my wall. VR from Alaska always has my back; AH from South Carolina sends great "gifts;" and TH - who I think is from Australia (maybe England?) - always has the best advice linked to her wall.

No, these are not my BFFs. We don't go out for coffee. We're not in a book club together. But we do wind up chatting about our real lives from time to time. And we do have a strong connection in common. Yes, we all probably all spend way too much time on our computers; on Facebook; on Castle Age, but more than that, we are the women who run with (were)wolves and other beasties of the SciFi world. We run with them. And we slay them. And we're pretty damn good at what we do.

A note about the whole [Part 1] thing. I'm not entirely sure that I'm writing anything else about this, but then again, I'm not entirely sure that I'm not. I like to leave my options open 

A later update. Well, the blog has taken a new direction, and while this was fun to write, it doesn't really fit with my current theme, so it seems like this will be it. For now. Thanks so much!