I’ve had an excellent weekend all around: teaching, gathering with friends, ritual, and so forth. Artistically I have triumphed, but you’ll hear about all of that when I have visual proof for you. Not only have I triumphed, I’ve indirectly created the potential for future fun gifts, which is just fine with me.
And, as the cherry on top of the whole weekend, I have a gently used laserjet printer waiting for me in Oakville. Hurrah!
I have a public who requests updates. I am touched.
A big thank-you to all who came out to support my husband’s studio launch on the weekend. All five members of Studio Elements were touched (and decidedly overwhelmed) by the response and enthusiasm displayed by the attendees. I think everyone sold a piece of artwork, too, which was unexpected; it was a party, not a show, after all. You just can’t hold back popular demand, however, or deny good art.
We also had the Montreal NaNo wrap party, where we discovered that many of us had story elements in common (apart from the psychic ferrets, I mean). We also played t!’s annual game of NaNo Questions, where queries such as “If your novel were a food, what food would it be?” and “Describe your novel in ten words or less!” were posed. It was a riot to hear the answers from such a varied group of people. The room was humming with creative responses from creative-types. So, overall, it was a remarkably artistic weekend.
The art theme continues this week as I make a Yule gift for a friend, which cannot be detailed here as she is quite likely to have the surprise ruined for her. You’ll all be kept up to date with appropriate vague references.
The Changeling game that Roo (dubbed “the very cute pagan gamer geek girl” by admiring friends who met her on Saturday night) and I have been discussing for the past little while is becoming more and more likely to actually happen, which makes me jump with joy inside, being as gaming-starved as I have been for months. It’s really making me think about when children lose their completely enchanted view of life. Playing with my goddaughter this weekend (whom, by the way, delivers the very best spontaneous hugs, complete with back-patting and sticky kisses) raised the same question. When do we lose that completely open, joyful celebration of absolutely everything we see? When do we begin to trap things inside, to deny our individual interpretation of life, to conform to consensual reality simply in order to make things easier? And, the ultimate question: why? Playing Changeling will allow me to further explore these questions. Plus it’s just going to be downright fun, ‘cos it’s with cool people and will no doubt involve large amounts of candy and giggling. Think the ultimate sleepover or the best day off from school and you might hit on the general feeling.
On a completely different note, my dreams have been remarkably vivid these past few days. I don’t know about how others dream, but my dreams tend to involve pop culture figures, most recently the Lord of the Rings film characters. The cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel pop up frequently, too. (There was a run last spring where my dreams featured the Buffy cast performing a different Gilbert & Sullivan operetta weekly.) My latest dreams involve lots of swords being passed from person to person as symbols of their identity. Entertaining, but one does have to wonder what it’s all about. (No, this is not an invitation to psychoanalyse me; it’s a rhetorical question.)
Or maybe it’s just all about the gorgeous costumes that my subconscious mind dreams up.
Hmm. Almost makes me want to drag out my toy sewing machine and get back into the construction of absolutely beautiful outfits with little to no practical purpose.
I just received news that the annual Hallowe’en party for which I create my costume has been cancelled this year. On one hand, this is bad news; I love this party. On the other hand, it’s just fine, because the only investment I’ve made in my costume this year so far is make-up. It also means I can tuck this idea away and use it next year. Voila! I am so prepared for 2004!
I had a wonderul weekend with Trish Telesco, our most recent visiting author. It’s always a good sign when the first thing an author says after she’s introduced to you is, “She’s wonderful! Can I take her home?” Turns out she’s done work under a pen name in the past for the US publisher I’ve signed on with, so we ended up talking business about potential titles over dinner on Saturday night. (Further proof that it is, indeed, a Very Small World.) There was a moment over dessert that made me freeze up under a coolness wave, when I realised that if she writes a title for this new series, I’ll be writing a two-page preface for it.
Having worked in the book business for twelve years means that I’ve met more than my share of authors, and have discovered that they’re Just People. More than that, being a writer myself, I know that creating books is Work, Hard Work. So when I hang out with authors, they’re just people who do the same thing I do. Of course, there’s a tiny part of my brain screaming that they’re Famous People Who Do What I Do, but that’s the fangirl part of me which is kept firmly under control. (At least, gods, I hope so! I don’t remember ever gushing to any of the authors I’ve hosted…)
I awoke with the glimmerings of a NaNo novel idea.
And I have a costume idea for the end of the month.
Now in both cases I simply have to flesh them out and figure out how to accomplish them. Easier said than done, of course…
Is it too much to ask that people actually do a little bit of research before they post stuff on eBay?
If you’re selling costumes, listing something as RENAISSANCE / VICTORIAN / HIPPY (sic) when it’s a brand new sundress means that either you don’t know what you’re talking about, or you’re implying that your product evokes one or all of these keywords. The only thing that all three would have in common that I can think of is that they have full skirts.
No, wait, there’s a third option — you just don’t care. Or you assume that your potential clients are stupid.
I’m cranky. I was awoken rather rudely at 4.34 AM when a piece of heavy construction equipment trundled down our street, setting off car alarms as it passed. Then the cats woke up. Then my husband woke up and watched the morning news, which I heard very clearly through the pillow over my head.
I gave in, and got up.
The good thing is that it’s sunny outside again, which means my mood ought to correspond shortly.
Okay, everyone else has mentioned the costumes, but for those who don’t frequent other local web logs, here you go:
I promise better photos with more detail of my costume anon, when we’ve developed our film from the Hallowe’en party. No, you can’t see the Evenstar that Ceri was so impressed with… you’ll just have to wait for a close-up full-front shot to appear somewhere. In the meantime, if you want to play around with enlarging these ones for a better look, you can check them out here. (Many thanks, Scott!) My husband and Ceri‘s husband were two of The Endless from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman universe, Destruction and Destiny; here’s Destruction’s source art:
See, we told you he was an archetype…
So there�s gloating going on over at Ceridwen�s Cauldron, too. I really need to break this down, for my own sanity.
You have a vision. You design your vision on paper. You struggle with dropping far-fetched elements, or elements that would just be too difficult (as cool as they would be!). You research methods and materials, then purchase materials. You begin the process of bringing your vision into the tangible world. There are obstacles, challenges, mis-read directions, the discovery that the process you theorised would work in fact would defy physics. Methods are re-evaluated. Shortcuts are taken. Certain steps are lingered over. When a step is completed successfully, there is joy, pride, excitement. When the entire project is done, those emotions are directly proportional to the amount of time spent from conception to delivery, anguish felt during the process, challenges triumphantly defied. There�s a physical proof of your talent in bringing vision to reality.
Hallowe�en costumes aren�t about impressing people (okay, I grant that there�s a bit of thrill when people behold your work), they�re about having fun during the creation process; and since both Ceri and I are costume addicts, creating a new costume calls for more time and energy than the average person usually thinks is sane. Ceri and I aren�t building things up by gloating; we�re simply celebrating a couple of months of work, of fun, and now we�re anticipating even more fun when we get to share all that work with others and generally have fun at a party with friends.
Kind of like planning a wedding, now that I think about it. Except without the irritations of caterers and finalising food.
Champagne � okay, sparkling cider � should definitely be involved at this party, I think. It’s a celebration, after all.