Finally on sale! Now you can eat like the crew (or, hopefully, better). Recipes were submitted by fans, Jewel Staite, fans, Greg Edmonson, fans, Niska, fans, and “Buffy” alums Claire Kramer and Camden Toy into a massive, 264 page book with artwork by (you guessed it) fans. 

The 250+ recipes were either favorites of the cast or inspired by the show, which should make for some interesting eating. Profits from the book go to Freedom from Hunger. Some samples:

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QMX, after showing off their pretties at the Browncoat Backup Bash, have been shipping money packs all week so if you’ve ordered yours you should be seeing it soon. If not, get over there! Remember, money packs ordered through their website include an exclusive map of the ‘Verse from Serenity graphic designer Geoff Mandel, and you also get a chance to get one of 5 Golden Tickets to win production artwork signed by designers Mandel or Tim Earls.

You can also get one, maybe by entering the contest at The Signal; the Firefly/Serenity podcast is giving away 15 of the sets. And one grand prize winner will get an uncut sheet of the money and an unfolded map, along with one of the Golden Ticket packs. Deadline is Jan., 11,  details are in this podcast.

QMx has also launched their new blog, Propaganda, which contains, so far, video of their Geoff Mandel interview and video from the Backup Bash. Shiny!

See what happens when I forget to check? I’m sure it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that someone else bought the Chinese book last week before I got to it… (Actually it didn’t. I’m forgetful and lazy, not spiteful) Here’s the last few items I missed, still for sale.

Rubber grenade - Non-exploding, sorry. Made of hard rubber, painted dark green and black with a red panel.

Chinese paintbrush set - Set dressing from Inara’s place. The wooden box contains two brushes, a black dipping pot, and a Chinese chop.

The Operative’s Stunt Pistol - No, the gun doesn’t do tricks or stand in for the gun that has a better agent. This is the rubber version of the Operative’s pistol that could be tossed around. Rubber, painted silver and black, it comes in a display with a screen shot from the movie.

Prototype Message Block - What Mal had to get out to the ‘verse. Or a somewhat plainer version of it, anyway, as this is a mocked up block with circuitry designs on it.

Chinese Parasol - One of the stalls outside the bank that the Serenity crew robbed had an awful lot of parasols, and this is one of them. Now it can be yours!

See, last year a group called Booster Events held this massive Firefly/Serenity convention in California last year called “Flanvention.” A lot of the cast shows up, there were panels and dinners and photo shoots and whatnot, membership was limited, and it was a lot of fun, a way for fans of the cancelled-too-soon show and because-we-demanded-it movie to talk to their favorite stars. This year’s hotly anticipated event sold out months ago and everybody was psyched.

Or would have been. The organizers cancelled it. The day before it was scheduled to happen.

There were some worries this would happen, after Nathan mentioned he hadn’t been approached yet and vague warnings of financial troubles popped up on the Booster Event forums. To the 500 people who paid hundreds of dollars for tickets (and, in some cases, thousands of dollars for lifetime memberships, since BE does other cult-favorite cons throughout the year) this was a huge slap in the face. Outraged fans made their voices heard before the organizers came back a few days later to say they got a loan and all was, again, well.

Then they cancelled it after people around the world were already on their planes and in their cars and on their way. To say that the Browncoats were staggered would be an understatement.

As stunned and betrayed fans began to arrive the California Browncoats jumped up to meet the frantic challenge of organizing a convention during, you know, the actual convention. Fans settled in to party among themselves anyway, mutter dark things about Booster Events, and make the best of it with the newly formed Browncoat Backup Bash.

Then the stars started showing up.

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Dump World of Warcraft, escape Eve Online, warp out of Star Wars Galaxies and come play in the ‘verse! Wired has reported that Multiverse, the folks who offer free multi-user gaming platforms, are expected to announce tomorrow that they’ve signed a deal to create a Firefly-themed online game.

“Television series can be really good properties to turn into MMOs, because when you make a TV series, not only do you need great characters, but you need to create a full, rich, compelling place,” Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges says. “If you’re doing science fiction, you have to really think it out and create an incredibly rich environment that is compelling in its own right, and worth exploring and going back to week after week. That’s what Joss Whedon did with Firefly.”

Multiverse (still in beta) offers a common MMORPG platform with open source software that allows designers to make their own games, you can see a demo at their site. Don’t expect the Firefly game until 2008 at best, but this is fantastic news and I’m already itching to play it. Hell, I’m itching to design it. Wonder how fast I can learn this stuff…

Washtown, the virtual Browncoat community in the online 3D “game” Second Life, got a nice mention in the SL newspaper New World Notes based on a submission from Washtown resident and Shiny Saloon barkeep Tillery Woodhen. And he gave Big Red Button a nice plug! Woo hoo!

New stuff from Dark Horse! New PVC figures of Mal, River and Jayne are now available for preorder from Things From Another World at 20% off the retail price.

The master sculptors at Gentle Giant Studios have taken full-size 3-D digital scans of the main actors from Joss Wheden’s blockbuster film Serenity and created a fabulous, realistically detailed PVC set of the favorite three crew members. This process has allowed us to achieve an unprecedented level of accurate detail, both in terms of the distinctive likenesses and the accessories and costumes. Since you can’t get these actors to come visit you at home and sit on your bookshelf or computer, this is probably the next best thing!

More licensed stuff! I’m pleased. I must have some more shelf space around here somewhere…

Jayne is 4″ tall, Mal is 3.9″ tall, and River is 3.45″ tall. Shipping May 16, 2007 (I hope).

New at The Prop Store of London - a prop in our price range!

This pretty cool-looking parasol was used as set dressing for the front of the bank/store/whatever that the crew heisted at the beginning of the movie.

After a scary time of maybe-being-cancelled, Flanvention II is back on for this weekend. Go see your favorite stars, mingle with a thousand other Browncoats, and try not to think about the rest of us out here looking in and licking our lips.

And shop! There will be merchandise aplenty there from our favorite peeps, just waiting for your hard-earned credits. Go see:

Black Market Beagles, a great fan shop with wonderful art praised by the Jossmeister hisself. They’ll be sharing a booth with QMx, the happy fellows making replica prop money and Mal pistols, meaning you’ll get to fiddle with the display models.

11th Hour will be featuring her amazing artwork at the same table with Denise from Wash-O-Saurus. Beautiful designs! Stunning graphics! Juggling geese!

shinyhappyklin from Out to the Black Outfitters will have her usual fine products, including the classic Browncoats shirt, her messenger bags, her funky hats, her Jayne hat cellphone bags (I love the Jayne hat cellphone bags) and a new “Bunkmates” shirt design that will premiere at Flan! And where she is, FireflyGal’s lanyards and pins can’t be far behind. And FanDone will be ready with a fine spread of Browncoat goodies.

Brian Wiser and Jeremy Neish from “Done the Impossible” will be there with a presentation and Q&A, so I’d be very surprised indeed if there weren’t copies of the documentary and incredible soundtrack there as well.

If you want your soundtrack a little more personal, hunt down the Bedlam Bards. They’ll be performing Saturday night, you gotta see these talented musicians in person. And they’ll prolly have a CD or two they could slip you…

Jason Palmer will have copies of his gorgeous Firefly and Serenity prints, probably including the new River artwork. Be sure to get a remarque on your copies, they’re fantastic.

And there will be folks wandering the place with merchandise in hand, ready to sell. Flag down Jesse from SerenityVerse — “I’ll be wearing a black badge with “jetflair” and a pic of Nathan on it” — to see the shiniest jewelry you’re ever likely to find.

I know I’m forgetting somebody. If it’s you, please let me know and I’ll post it, quick.

Have fun everybody, and try not to think about us poor, Flanless souls out here, sniff sniff…

DeepDiscountDVD has a 2-for-1 sale going on for FOX TV show DVD sets, including one we’re particularly fond of.

Until December 15 when you buy Firefly for $36.95 you can get another one free! Or you could get another DVD set, I suppose, if for some weird reason you wanted one…