There was a slight hiccup with this post earlier, leading to it being prematurely posted… apologies for the confusion…

So, Christmas Dog (or Eddie as we call him) has finished obsessively paying attention to his pressies. There was one particular issue with a duck that had need for an urgent squeakectomy which our well trained canine surgeon was able to perform with the minimum of fluff on the floor…

Now that this clear emergency is over and done with (the patient is awaiting stitches in the dog toy infirmary) he has decided to come out and endorse a product for a worthy cause…

Here he is pictured with the LARP Lyme Disease Action charity calendar… there are several reasons Eddie thinks you should buy this which I shall outline here:

1. It is for charity. A charity supporting Lyme’s disease which, as you know is caused by Tick bites. Because my day job is a teacher of science (particularly biomedical science) I am honour bound to give you this link so you can learn more about it. But you don’t need to know more about it to do the right thing and help the charity.
2. It has pictures of LARP in it. In case you are not aware, this is Live Action Roleplay (though there is some controversy over the use of ‘action’, some say it should be LRP, the rest are wrong). It involves dressing in costume and playing out interactive stories in fields. I have spoken about it before (in this article in fact). It is a very cool hobby and can produce some awesome photos of cool people doing cool things and looking awesome. This is your chance to own prints of some of those photos including lovely ones by Oli Facey and Tom Garnett, among others.
3. I took one of the photos. The March photo to be precise. One of my more patriotic LRP photos. It involves a woman doing Science! In true Steampunk fashion. With men in top hats and military uniform around her. The woman in particular is Lucy, someone familiar to this blog… You can also see the wonderful Alex Campbell, who you may remember from Vampire Month as this month’s figure.
4. I am in one of the photos. In fact I am Mr July. I am positioned on the same page as a nasty looking tick bite. In case you get confused, I am the one in the green overalls. The sexy one is the tick bite.
5. If you come to the Mancuinion EasterCon, Manchester Author signing event in August, Odyssey LRP or any other event I am attending this year and if you can find me, and if no one else can help, maybe I might sign either of the photos for you (if you want, that is… or you can totally just say hi).
6. Woof

There. 6 compelling reasons to buy this calendar. Of all of them number 6 is the most compelling, if you can understand the subtle nuances of dog language it really makes perfect sense. If you can’t understand those nuances, never mind. Just take my word for it, it is one hell of a convincing argument. Plus, isn’t the doggie cute?

You can buy your copy of the calendar here and see a preview of the photos in there below:

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Worth noting as a little aside… the copy of the calendar I have is actually a rare limited edition. It is one that credits me with two of the photos rather than just one. I noticed the error after ordering my copy and before the file was edited and reuploaded…