I’d like to attach EL wire to the edge of a fan, but I suspect it wouldn’t like being doubled up when the fan folds. Am I right about that? Any suggestions for how to get a cool glowing edge by other means?
(What I really want is for the fan to light up automatically when opened, and go dark when folded. But I suspect that would require rather more engineering than I’m capable of, or want to do.)
OH HOLY GOD THE OTHER THING WORKED, TOO.
(The other thing, in this case, being my costume. Pictures will follow. Only the crown bit was the subject of the Boggan Deathmatch a while ago; the rest, I paid someone to make, because sewing it myself while also finishing With Fate Conspire would have required paying a lot more money in psychiatrist bills.)
Early breakfast tomorrow, then shuttle back to Denver, flight back to home. This has been fabulous, and there will be a detailed report.
Spent most of this evening working on a sekrit costume project.
In all those hours, there was only one outbreak of profanity.
Dude, this never. happens. Normally I’m swearing before the first hour is up. But I was probably a good four hours in before I busted out the four-letter words, and it only lasted a few seconds, and the thing is almost done, and it looks awful perty, and if the one thing I’m really worried about doesn’t happen then this will have been the most successful Boggan Deathmatch ever. (Not that any of its predecessors constitute a terribly high bar to clear.)
Many thanks to khet_tcheba, my guide and partner in crime, without whom this would not have gone nearly so well.
(And no, you don’t get to find out what the sekrit project is. Not yet, anyway. I promise there will be pictures after it’s been put to its intended use.)
On August 31st, A Star Shall Fall comes out.
On October 7-10, I will be at the Sirens Conference in Vail.
I have therefore decided to have my first (slightly belated) proper launch party for a book, at the conference. It will take place on Saturday the ninth, in the hour leading up to the costume ball. There will probably be giveaways of the book at that party, but there are also two chances to win special prizes.
WHETHER YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON OR NOT — we’re holding a contest to design a faerie-themed (non-alcoholic) drink to serve at the party, with the winner to be announced that night. If you aren’t present, I will ship your prize to you when I get home, which is a signed copy of Deeds of Men, the Onyx Court novella.
IF YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON — since the party will take place before the costume ball, I’ll also be awarding a prize for whoever shows up at the party in the best Onyx Court faerie costume. You don’t have to present as a specific character; something in the general style is fine. The winner gets signed hardcover copies of Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie.
Full details for both contests are here. If you have any questions, just let me know. (And yes, I will be showing up in costume to my own launch party. Assuming everything works out the way I’m currently trying to arrange for it to do.)
Because my browser is too full of stuff.
Pretty stuff:
V Magazine: Curves Ahead — for those of you with an interest in issues of weight, body image, concepts of beauty, etc. A photoshoot (semi-NSFW) that treats flesh as a beautiful thing.
The Plimoth jacket — the result of an epic, many-handed volunteer project to re-create an early 17th-century embroidered jacket. Scroll down to the bottom for pictures, include detail closeups that will make the costumey folks on this list drool.
The art of cutting leaves — some truly stunning artwork, achieved by surgically excising leaf surfaces while leaving the veins intact.
Less pretty stuff:
The Americanization of Mental Illness — an interesting discussion that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of how we conceptualize and treat mental illness, and what happens when our ideas get exported to other cultures.
If I had the time, I’d post a picture of the thing I’m currently wearing. Not because it’s pretty — far, far from it — but because it is the result of my first-ever attempt to draft a piece of clothing completely from scratch, with nothing more than my dress form, some muslin, and lots of pins and markers.
I doubt I’ve done a very efficient job, mind you; there’s been a lot of wasted muslin along the way, as I reinvented the wheel of things like arm holes and Redesigning Men’s Garments For People What Have Breasts. It would have been easier had I used darts, but weirdly I decided to avoid them, as they were not used in the days of doublets. I say “weirdly” because I’ve got another design element in here that is likewise not period, but that decision was made long after I’d progressed beyond the darts decision, so oh well.
It doesn’t have to be period. It just has to be functional. When I get time to work on it next, I’ll be cutting it out of some leftover taffeta from another project, to see if it still hangs okay when rendered in a stiffer fabric. If that works, then the next step is to take both the taffeta and the brocade I’m ultimately going to use and have them punch-tested, because y’see, what we are making here is a fencing doublet. (Or two, if the taffeta works out acceptably.)
And once we know whether I’m safe from being skewered, then we make the final version. And then I will have a hood and a jacket, and if I stick underarm patches on some old shirt the only loaner-wear I’ll still need is a gorget.
Which I can’t make myself. But I can make pretty-please eyes at other people, and think about buying my own blade (since I’m not using the ones I have), and then I will be loaner-gear free. Huzzah!
Just when I thought I had escaped the Great Button-Sewing Extravaganza that was my life a month ago . . . .
Yeah, that’s right. I spent tonight sewing on fourteen more &(*#@$!!! buttons.
On the bright side, the second Morwen dress has sleeves again. And on that note, I’ll see ya’ll at the Renfest tomorrow.
If you would like to see more pics of the costumes from the Regency game (mine and others’), you can check out sapphohestia‘s here and danielmc‘s here.
EDIT: Actually, look here for sapphohestia‘s pictures; it’s unlocked and also doesn’t have pics of a different game preceding the Regency ones.
I have several things I’ve been meaning to post about, and lucky me, they share a theme: how awesome my friends are.
Let’s take them in chronological order, shall we?
First up: khet_tcheba. Some time ago, she created the mask you can see in my LARPing icon, plus a mask for kniedzw, because I wanted something very particular for the White Court game and suspected she would have the costuming-fu to create it for me (and then my boy jumped on the bandwagon, too). The results were spectacular. So, like a bad person, I e-mail her a month or so ago and ask whether she can make me a fore-and-aft bicorn for the Regency LARP, ’cause the only ones I can find for sale online cost several hundred dollars (I can only assume they’re vintage pieces, not replicas). The photo of me from the game doesn’t show it all that well, but keep an eye out for an upcoming post with links to other people’s pics and you’ll get a better idea. (The thing is freaking ridiculous, but the fault for that lies with history, not Khet.) So the Swan Tower Millinery Award goes to her, for adventures in felting.
Second: tooth_and_claw. Back when I was running Memento, she made a number of awesome sketches for the game, and I commissioned from her a portrait of Invidiana. I ended up getting two: a headshot and a full-length portrait. So if you want to have an idea of what the fae queen in Midnight Never Come looks like, there you go. (I’m hoping she’ll end up on the cover, but I have next to no control over that; all I can do is suggest it to my editor.) The Swan Tower Illustration Award goes to her — as if she hadn’t already earned it with the Memento cast painting.
Third: unforth. I have a hardcover copy of Doppelganger! Y’see, she’s a librarian, and she knows how to bind books. A while back she mentioned that she was looking for suggested rebinding projects. Until she delivered it into my hands, I had no idea she’d decided to make her first project a hardcover rebinding of my very own novel, complete with a wrap-around paper cover replicating the front, spine, and back of the original. Unless there’s somebody else out there with her skills and deranged enthusiasm, this will probably be the only hardcover edition there ever is — certainly the only hardcover of the first edition. For her, the Swan Tower Bookbinding Award.
So there you have it: I have awesome friends. Seriously, you all (not just those three) have a stunning array of knowledges and skills, and if I occasionally get depressed that there are a million and one things I’ll never learn to do, I cheer up when I remember that I might know people who do. Keep up the random hobbies, folks; they make me proud to know you.
I got shot. It was one of the best things that happened all game.
I love it when I can say something like that, and mean it as a sincere statement of fun. ^_^
It’s easier to post about one-off games in a way that’s comprehensible (and, dare I hope, interesting?) to outside audiences, since they’re designed to be self-contained, so if you’re curious about how I got shot and why this was such a fabulous thing, look no further than beneath the cut.
