Winner - Best Time Travel Series Author

I'm so excited to have been named the Best Time Travel Series Author of 2015 by the DD Passion Awards for my Time Mistress Series! This is a huge honor, and I'm so pleased to share it with you, my readers. Thank you, as always for your support and for being such great fans!

The Time Mistress Series

Nerd-Girl of the Year, 2012 - First Annual Award

Each January from now on I will choose my favorite nerd-girl of the previous year. What makes the perfect nerd-girl in my mind? First, she should be successful in her nerdiness, not some sad goth queen living in her parents' basement or the go-to wench at a Renaissance fair. She shouldn't  let her love of things nerdy get in the way of being attractive, though that shouldn't be her first priority, and her nerd-look could be anything from bookish to out-there. She should be a stand out in her nerdly field, be it comic book designer, librarian, or Shakespearean actress. And she should be a model for other nerd-girls.

Therefore, after much contemplation, I have chosen as Nerd-Girl of 2012: Tina Fey.
Ms. Fey is a nerd-girl on many levels: actress, (having been one myself for many years I know they are among the nerdiest of all people), writer (enough said) and comedienne (almost all female comedians are ultra-nerdy). A self-professed "Super Nerd," her character on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon, is nerdiness personified.

After honing her craft at Second City in Chicago, a rite of passage for many great comedians, Tina became a writer on Saturday Night Live, ultimately moving up to head writer, performer, and star of Weekend Update. She went on to write and act in films, and created 30 Rock, hands down my favorite comedy show on TV. I'm heart-broken it's coming to an end. She's won boatloads of Emmys and SAG Awards, even a Grammy, and was the youngest recipient ever of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.She and Amy Poehler were glorious on the Golden Globes this year, and the two of them were just named ABC News's Persons of the Week, though I'm not sure Diane Sawyer would recognize a nerd if she saw one (perhaps her husband Mike Nichols qualifies).

One of Fey's greatest achievements is that she was, in my opinion, almost single-handedly responsible for winning the 2008 election for Barack Obama. With her uncanny portrayal of Sarah Palin, she showed voters what a true debacle that situation was; especially young voters, who may not have been interested otherwise.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Is she a nerd-girl in the same ways I am? I'm not sure - I'm pretty sure she doesn't write time-travel novels. But then, nerds don't always agree on what makes them nerdy. Yet a nerd, especially a nerd-girl, has a certain undefinable something that Tina definitely has, and which has caused me, after much careful consideration, to choose her as my first Nerd-Girl of the Year. I hope she will accept this honor with due humility. If she decides she wants a plaque, I'll put it in the mail.

Retro Two Gents is Great Outdoor Fun

Krystine Summers as Launce
and Lola as Crab

By Georgina Young-Ellis


The music of Styx and some crazy 1980s fashions sent me sailing away into the past, as the sun set over the East River, Friday, August 12th, 2011. I was enjoying Curious Frog Theatre Company’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona in Astoria Park. This quick, hour and a half version of Shakespeare’s light-hearted comedy of love letters and disguises grabs your attention from the first moment and never lets go. There is some wonderful new talent on the Curious Frog (CF) stage, and some company members that I was pleased to see there again. Many of the performers do double duty in their roles, as is director Renée Rodriguez’s way: make the most of what you’ve got and keep the cast small. One stand out is the irrepressible Krystine Summers who we enjoyed last summer as Puck in A Midsummer night’s dream, bringing her quirky physical comedy and wry interpretations to her roles as Launce and the Third Outlaw in this production. Let me just say this: if you can manage to be onstage with an adorable Chihuahua (the lovely Lola who played the part of the dog, Crab) as Ms. Summers is so much of the time, and not be upstaged, you’re doing your job as an actor. 

Angela Sharp as Julia
and Umi Shakti as Lucetta

Another returning member of the company, Bushra Laskar, plays Silvia, the irresistible love interest to Proteus and Valentine. While snooty and self-centered, parading around the grass in her "Candies," she manages to enchant the audience with her expressive eyes and ease with the language. The "gentleman" in Verona are all exceptional actors: Justin Maruri, riveting as Valentine, Emilio Aquino engaging and funny as Proteus, and Antonio/Duke played by James Ware, an exciting new presence at CF, whom, I learned, will be playing Caesar in that simultaneously running Curious Frog production. I loved seeing Robert Dyckman on the Astoria Park stage for the first time; an exceptionally versatile and energetic actor, he plays the roles of Speed, Eglamour and the Second Outlaw. Angela Sharp is a standard at CF, and though I have enjoyed her performances in the past, she tends to be a little shrill in her role as Julia as she works to project in the open air venue.

Justin Maruri as Valentine
and Krystine Summers as 3rd Outlaw

The production is non-stop action and laughs, the kind of spectacle that has children from around the park running to check out, and staying to watch (however, it's not specifically a production for kids as it contains some rather bawdy humor). The fight choreography is precise and original, something Ms. Rodriguez is particularly adept at, a hallmark of all CF's Shakespearean productions.  The color blind casting that is part of their overall mission as a theater company also makes for interesting visual dynamics. But though the '80s theme is a good gag, I wasn't sure it really added to the story in any necessary way. All in all, if you're a fan of cool, innovative Shakespeare with bare bones sets but complete attention to acting, language, physicality and spirit, you won't want to miss either of Curious Frog's productions this summer. You can catch them at these locations and dates:

Two Gentlemen of Verona: Fort Greene Park (8/22 7pm); Central Park/Cherry Hill (9/3 6pm); Inwood Hill Park (8/27 4pm); Waterside Plaza/Manhattan (8/30 7pm); Pelham Bay Park (9/4 4pm). 

Julius Caesar: Prospect Park (8/20 4pm); Fort Greene Park (8/23 7pm); Central Park/Cherry Hill (8/26 6pm); Inwood Hill Park (8/27 6pm); Battery Park/Castle Clinton (8/29 6pm; 9/1 6pm); Queensbridge Park (8/31 7pm); Pelham Bay Park (9/4 6pm); Waterside Plaza/Manhattan (9/10 4pm). 

www.curiousfrog.org

Let's Face It, Nerd-Girls are Sexy!

Sexy Nerd-Girl Tina Fey

You probably just now googled "Sexy Girls" and came up with this post. WAIT! Before you click away, hear me out. I'm the first guest to share on this blog, the first dude. What I want to say, and I think you'll agree, is that there's something in us guys that finds the smart girl very enticing - that she might be smarter than we are is even more of a turn-on. Think of the librarian: a little lonely, a little repressed, just waiting for the right man to push the button that turns her into a tigress. Or the authoritarian school teacher. Did you ever fantasize that she'd keep you after school to "punish" you? What about the lady scientist, alone in the lab, who suddenly whips off her thick glasses to reveal an alluring genius (kind of like Sandra Bullock in the movie Love Potion Number Nine).

Rosalind: As You Like It

If you're lucky enough, like me, to be married to one of these goddesses, you really know what I'm talking about. My wife is a writer, a teacher, a speaker of many languages, a Shakespeare buff...was even on stage, and played one of Shakespeare's most alluring temptresses, Rosalind, from As You Like It. My wife is the best kind of nerd-girl: sexy and smart all at once. Smarter than me? Oh yeah.

By the way, if you are a dude, you might just impress a nerd-girl by giving her the gift of one of my wife's clever time-travel novels (ebook form or print) wherein a smart, beautiful woman, (loosely based on my wife Georgina as you might have guessed) visits first Jane Austen's England in The Time Baroness and then pre-Civil War New York City in The Time Heiress.  Both are fun, intelligent, and a little sexy.

If you're an actual nerd-girl reading this, all hail to you! I don't need to convince you to check these books out!

(And by the way, if you happen to be slightly over-weight, as often nerds or nerd-girl lovers are, here's how I slimmed down: "If I Can Lose It... A Middle Aged Tech-Fanatic's Extraordinary Journey & Guide-Book For Losing Weight" Sorry, just had to plug my own book :)