You can now preorder the Inara’s Shuttle ornament from Dark Horse from TFAW.com.

Dark Horse is so appreciative of the enthusiasm of Serenity fans, that we’ve been inspired to add more ships to our line of popular ornaments. This month we bring you Inara’s Shuttle.

Fans of Firefly will be familiar with the shuttle that Inara Serra, well-respected companion, rents from Serenity for her periods of separation from the ragtag crew. The shuttle appears again in the film Serenity, when Inara makes her welcome return to the renegades.

* This item is limited to pre-orders only. After orders are taken, edition size will be set.

5.5″ long x 5″ wide, Ornament can be hung or placed on stand for display. Retail is $29.99, you can preorder for $23.99. Due February 13, 2008.

Just got my “Serenity in Disguise” variant ornament. Sweet! In a horrific way, of course.

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In a seriously cool move, DynamicForces.com has put several Whedony things on sale.

From now until the San Diego Comic Con, 100% of all proceeds from this sale will be donated to Equality Now. In addition to the Joss Whedon books, DF is also excited to announce that Brett Matthews will be signing the new Serenity HC (as an extra special surprise to help support the cause!). All net proceeds from sales of the Serenity HC will also be going to Equality Now.

The sale is here, and the link for the Matthews-signed hardcover prerder is here.

“Everything’s shiny, Cap’n!” TFAW.com is continuing their dedication to all things versy with yet another new official design.

A great new shirt featuring hex-shaped images of the cast! Screened image on a tan, 100% cotton shirt.

Available in medium, large, and extra-large, $16.19.

You may have noticed the totals in the Saffron Song poll have come down. I had to moderate things a bit.

Some quick info on computers: every computer has an IP address which tells the network/Internet/whatever where that computer is. Many online polls record IP addresses to prevent people from voting more than once with the same computer. However, this isn’t perfect because groups of computers in the same network (such as a workplace or a computer lab) could show up as the same IP address. And tracking by IP got even trickier when Internet Service Providers began using groups of rotating IP numbers that were assigned at random whenever a computer logged on, because it meant that the same computer might get a different IP address (allowing the same computer to vote again) or a computer that was not used to vote might temporarily get an IP address that the poll recorded (meaning someone who had not persdonally voted would be blocked). So most online polls offer a choice of either restricting votes by IP address or by cookies. The poll system I’m using for the Saffron voting uses cookies.

Which is another problem, since someone could vote, delete their cookies, and vote again, repeat as desired. Or the poll might not care if your computer doesn’t save cookies, I dunno. Either way, some multi-voting seems to have been happening with the Saffron votes.

Thing is, I don’t know that for sure. Could have been accidental, could have been someone’s entire workplace showing their support. I don’t know, and have no way of telling. So what I’ve decided to do — knowing that anything I decided would probably be unfair to somebody — was to go through the poll responses, find the ones with duplicate IP addresses, and trim back those votes if they were over a certain number.

There’s no way this can be anything approaching a “scientific” poll anyway, but hopefully this will keep the results closer to actual individual votes. Please, if you’ve already voted, don’t try voting again. This is for fun, folks, I’d like to keep it that way. Also, I have to go through it and remove entries one by one and it’s a pain…

Feel free to comment on this decision, I’d like to know what you think.

“Serenity in Disguise” hit the stores today, and if you failed to preorder you can prolly grab one anyway if you’re quick, since TFAW.com has a few extra.

Due to overwhelming demand, we are creating a special variant edition of one of our most popular new releases, the Serenity ornament. This will be a special release, and will be limited to advance orders only. No reprints or reorders.

As Serenity fans know, there is a sequence in the film where the crews disguises Serenity as a Reaver ship. We’ve taken the existing ornament, added a few sculptural details, and revised the paint application accordingly. Voila! Something special for the true fan.

Like the regular ornament, this version will have both a hanging hook and also a small pedestal base, allowing the ornament to be hung traditionally or displayed on the base on a flat surface.

6″ long x 3 1/2″ wide, full color ornament, $24.99. Order it here. I’ll post pics as soon as mine arrive.

Before the announcement about the Inara statue is even cold, Diamond Select Toys has already announced the next statue coming out after that: “Zoe’s Revenge.”

Continuing the DST line of Serenity statues, this action-packed sculpt features the first mate of Serenity, Zoe! With her husband killed by Reavers and her Captain on a mission of his own, this 7″ piece demonstrates how this lovely lady takes care of her own out in the black. Sculpted by Michael Norman and limited to 1,000 pieces, each statue features a magnetically attached Zoe in scale with the previously released action figures as well as a numbered base with matching box and Certificate of Authenticity.

I’m overjoyed to see more Serenity stuff coming out, and I love all of it. That said, I’m going to need to see this one more closely before I decide what I think. The face doesn’t look quite right to me, but then neither did the promo pic of the “River Triumphant” statue and I was happy with the actual result. Retail price isn’t listed yet but I think it’s safe to say it’ll be the same $99 as the other two.

And how cool is it that they’re doing the women first? Take that, male chauvinistic action figure manufacturers!

The summer before “Serenity” came out, I starting to work on a book about fandom. I wanted to try and explain to all those people who mock conventions and online forums and geeks and freaks exactly what being a part of a fan community is all about. I did some interviews with various Browncoat movers and shakers but ultimately I let it go because, being pleasantly antisocial both on- and offline, I was the wrong person to write it.
 
Which is good because Allyson Beatrice’s book would have blown mine away. She’s the perfect person to write it because she doesn’t try to analyze the socioeconomic impact of talent-consumer interaction or the changing trends in the networks’ use of end-user-friendly viral marketing. She just wrote a book about herself and her friends.

It’s called “Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?” and if you’ve ever made a friend online you will not be able to read this book without smiling. Allyson is not just a fan, she’s a fan who can mobilize other fans. She started the Posting Board Parties for Angel, led the postcard campaign and wrote the famous Variety ad for “Firefly,” and offered support for countless numbers of people she never actually met. And in 17 essays she captures the feel, the love, the responsibilities and affections and fun and manic behavior and cheerful obsession of fandom. She talks about organizing cons, mail-in campaigns, parties, and last-minute weddings. You’ll find out how to handle trolls, deal with sock puppets, and argue with uppity showrunners. You’ll see the transcript of the night a group of people on a forum abruptly decided to raise money to bring a much-loved, never-met friend over from Israel and the speed with which the thought became the deed will look awfully familiar. You’ll laugh and get sniffly and most of all, you’ll recognize the people she’s talking about because you are the people she’s talking about. Sometimes literally, especially if you’ve ever hung around The Bronze or Whedonesque…
 
Q: You wrote a freaking book! How cool is that?
 
I’m having a hard time letting it sink in. I’ve always had this romantic view of writers, all smart and mysterious behind their typewriters. And then an idiot like me gets published. Standards have gone down the toilet, obviously.
 
I’m so pathetic that I went to Barnes & Noble the day after they shelved it so I could stare at the endcap display and try to burn it into my brain, just in case I never sell another book. I was on the same display with Woody Allen, Gabe Kaplan, and The Big Book of Jewish Humor. I’m on the Jewcap. My people are a funny people, apparently.

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Creation Entertainment — the folks holding the Serenity Salute Con in Burbank Oct. 27-28 — are coming out with licensed Serenity gear, and they’ve started off with stamps.

Photo stamps, to be precise, and the first set features Mal, Jayne, Wash, and Zoe with the Serenity logo. You get 4 pages of 10 stamps each, 40 stamps all together, for $49.95. Each page is numbered, and only 100 sets will be made. They list it as the first in a series, so more should be on the way.

Just announced in Dark Horse’s October order list, Inara’s shuttle:

Dark Horse adds more ships to our line of popular ornaments. This month is Inara’s Shuttle.Fans of Firefly will be familiar with the shuttle that Inara Serra, well-respected companion, rents from Serenity for her periods of separation from the ragtag crew. The shuttle appears again in the film Serenity, when Inara makes her welcome return to the renegades. 5.5 inches by 5 inches, $29.99, in stores on Feb. 13.

Remember, the Reaver variant shuttle arrives in stores tomorrow. Brace yourselves!