Gathering of Powered Persons
Many, many thanks go out to Ceri and Scott for hosting the third annual Superhero Party, and giving me an excuse to create one of my best costumes ever. Thank you, George Perez, for coming up with a more exciting costume than the original. Whee! Here you are, complete with one of my source pictures:
More proof that I married an archetype, and not a man at all: HRH won Best Costume for his portrayal of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy.
Ad finally, rumour has it that Montreal’s F/SF bookshop never would have closed if the manager and the owner had dressed like this more often:
An excellent evening: fabulous and imaginative costumes all around; good conversation; lots of laughs. And now I have to start thinking of something for the fourth annual party. And, of course, there’s Hallowe’en first. Drat. This is the hardest part, you know: coming up with the idea.
(A veritable Who’s Who of powered persons on the guest list may be found at the Third Annual Superhero Party Gallery. Viewings of the Second and First Annual Parties are also available. All photos by Scott.)
Daily Book Update
Today’s word count: 3,024
Total word count: 35,766
I’m only about six hundred words below my weekly target of 10K. I’m pleased.
Musings on the Art of Costuming
The costume is minutes away from being finished. Of course, the few minutes that it will take are delayed until tonight, because I can’t find the replacement glue sticks for my glue gun, and I need gold cord, too.
The snippy little pocket machine I borrowed from Scarlet won’t sew through more than two layers of fabric, I discovered to my immense annoyance, so earlier today I was hand-sewing pieces of slippery satin and interfacing, finishing off the details of a collar. I was decidedly unhappy with the results (I’m picky) when I remembered that I had a tiny glue gun left over from Yule gifts. So I dug it out and began turning bits of interfacing down, moving along happily… until the glue stick ran out.
While I was gluing, though, I thought about how I approach costuming. I’m enough of a perfectionist to want my costumes to be elaborate and perfect, with no sign of a human being having touched it in any way. However, I know they’re only going to be worn once or twice, and a costume is about overall effect. No one is going to be peering at my seams. (If they are, they belong in the SCA, not at a superhero party.) Costume purists might choke at the thought of a glue gun, but my costume experience comes from theatre, where no one is close enough to be picky anyway, and emergency repairs usually consist of spit and bubblegum. Having seen close-ups of the costumes from the LOTR film trilogy, I can say with all confidence that nothing looks the same in real life as it does on the screen.Part of the magic is having a real, flesh-and-blood, breathing person moving around in the costume, giving it life and something bigger-than-life, too.
I take pride in that overall presentation when I costume. I’ll do what it takes to achieve the effect. All that means is I’m skilled in the art of making a costume look better than it actually is. It’s an illusion.
But then — that’s what a costume is all about.
Twenty-nine hours until the superhero costume party!
Mementoes
Yes, you too can own a piece of TV history by bidding on authentic Angel cast costumes.
The first piece, Angel’s black leather coat from episode 5-10, is already at US $1,080.00, and there’s still 26 hours to go. It started at US $55.
Egad. There are so many other things that can be done with that money.
Another Daily Book Update
Today’s word count: 2,360
Total word count: 32,742
I ought to have crises regarding my suitability for this job more often. No, I take that back. Really. I don’t want more crises. I’d rather sail through this with full confidence.
By the end of tomorrow, I ought to have half the manuscript officially finished. I have five chapters mostly done, another four partially done, a couple with outlines to be expanded, and two with absolutely nothing in them yet. I probably should start brainstorming on those soon.
