I am now a published author!

So a few months back, Captain Robert of Abney Park posted something to Twitter about his suggestion to his kids that they go to the botanical garden. But his older daughter, Chloe, misheard him and said that she wanted to go to the mechanical garden. My response? I was going to write a story about the mechanical garden for Chloe.

I met Chloe when she was about 4, at one of Robert's Halloween parties. I walked in dressed in my all black belly dancer costume, to which Chloe said "It's another beautiful princess!" (Her costume was very pink and glittery, as many costumes for 4 year old girls tend to be.) I've only seen her a handful of times since then, and I was embarrassed to realize recently that she's got to be 8 by now, not 6 as I thought when I started writing the story.

My decision to write the story happened to coincide with the submission period for Crossed Genres Steampunk issue, so I said "why not?" And it paid off!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present: "The Recondite Riddle of the Rose Rogue". The story is suitable for kids of all ages, though it may require a lot of explanation for smaller kids. I think it comes up as about a 4th grade reading level, at least according to the grade gauge on Google Docs. :)

I made stuff!

So I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the studio on Saturday, while Jeremy tried to get some rest at home. He's still fighting off a cold, and it was making us both pretty miserable on Saturday. Of course, I still haven't taken pictures of the studio, as I arrived there with a nearly dead camera battery, and a ton of product pictures to take!

Aside from my photos, I made a couple of big fleece blankets. On bringing those home Saturday afternoon, Jeremy was astonished. "You made those today?!" Apparently he thought that the pattern on the first one I showed him was something I had stitched or woven or some such. He has not seen me with my bags of remnants. Clearly. :)

I also altered a dress that I had found at Goodwill a while back. The dress itself was cute enough, but it had an elasticized waistband which was not very flattering on me. So my solution was to take the dress apart at the waist, reattach the top to the bottom, and end up with a long vest. I also added ties to the back, because the dress was kind of shapeless both before and after my initial alteration. The photo that Jeremy took before I went out on Sunday isn't great (especially because I accessorized heavily OVER the skirt of the vest), but there it is. In addition to the alteration of the line of the dress, I also replaced maybe half of the buttons (taking the rest off entirely), added a patch to one pocket, and put star buttons on the collar points. Oh, and part of the waistband (the non-elasticized part) became my headband. :)

(For the entire outfit: altered vest/dress over an old belly dancing top (which you can't even see), with my black skirt (so worn it looks blue now), and a gorgeous velvet scarf with burnout panels at the ends draped over my military belt. And sandals, because it was bloody hot last night. This is one of my many steampunk gypsy variations.)

The whole reason I worked on the vest, of course, was for the Abney Park show on Sunday night. Jeremy wasn't well enough to attend, so instead I dragged our friend Katie along with me. She was reluctant to tag along until I told her she could dress up out of my steampunk collection. She ended up going with a tan button-up shirt and a long rust colored vest/dress with a grommetted belt, over her jeans. She also borrowed one of my flight helmets, and Jeremy's goggles. Super adorable. :) (And she had a blast. :) )

Oddly, I didn't see even a moment of the show, as I volunteered at the merch table, as per my usual. I get paid with hugs and thanks from the band, and it means I didn't have to brave the heat and crowd in the venue. I had a chair! :)

Monday again

Well, at least it was a super good weekend. :) The Abney Park show on Friday was a blast, and we were SUPER busy at the merch table, which made me happy. :) I ended up hanging out after the show so that Nathaniel could give me a ride home, which meant I ended up at The Hurricane at about 3 a.m. Even though I hadn't been drinking, it just sounded like a fabulous idea. :)

Of course, this made me pretty well dead on Saturday, though I ran what seemed to me to be a pretty good Werewolf game. And then I crashed out for as long as I could on Sunday, followed by running errands and doing chores and other fun stuff.

My only disappointment for the weekend is that no one got a really good picture of my outfit. As soon as I walked in, Robert and Nathaniel were gushing over it, and Robert told me that I won. The main item of gushiness was the steampunk gypsy patchwork skirt, but I thought the whole outfit came together pretty nicely. I will have to recreate it and get Jerome to take pictures... though I won't promise to redo my makeup... there was a serious amount of strange colors going on... :)

I'm looking forward to a relatively normal week. I'm at the archives for work every day, but the evenings are looking vacant and relaxing. Though I may decide to run to Goodwill tonight on a quest for some sweaters and long sleeved shirts...

Friday! :)

Got a busy day at work ahead of me, so I doubt I'll get much time to play around online later. I'm not sure I like busy Fridays... but at least it should keep the day moving past quickly. :)

Spent all day yesterday doing research out of the office, and thus with no internet. All next week will be the same. Of course, this means that I shouldn't have to work around them rearranging my office, as I'll be sharing my office come October 1st. My co-worker and I were given the option of sharing or one of us going back into the open space at the back of the office. No thanks, I'll share. :) Both of us travel enough that hopefully we'll each have some time when it's just us in the office. Knowing our luck, however, we'll end up traveling the same weeks and in the office the same weeks. :)

Weekend is looking like it should be a blast, with plenty of recuperation time as well. Tonight is the Abney Park show, tomorrow is Werewolf, and Sunday is blissfully empty. I have a few errands to run here and there, but nothing super major. After spending my last weekend in KC (fun, but I didn't get much done), this will be good!

I think my shoes are trying to kill me...

Okay, not really. But I do apparently need to learn to walk properly in heels, as I've nearly turned my ankle twice today. Trying to break in a fancy pair of Oxford-look heels, that remind me of a 1920s secretary's shoe. (HAH! Google search, and you will be rewarded. Those are the exact pair of shoes I'm wearing over there to the right.) The heel could, of course, be much worse, but this is enough of a challenge for me.

The good news, of course, is that I'm doing okay in them aside from the shoes trying to kill me, so if I practice walking in them a bit more, I should be fine to wear them on Friday night. Hurrah!

And what is Friday night, you may ask? Abney Park is playing in Seattle, and I'm working the merch table as always. I've started referring to myself as the erstwhile stowaway on the Ophelia, in fact. :) I just haven't managed to go with them for any out of town shows yet... :) So at any rate, this means snazzing it up in my steampunk best, which includes the vest and bloomer set that I bought from Brown Button, and the snazzy shoes above.

I'm still working on the rest of the outfit, as I don't want to look entirely like I stepped out of a Tim Burton movie (the vest and bloomers involve black and white stripes). I'm thinking a black skirt and white and black striped tights are a must, but then hopefully get some olive drab into the equation with my shirt or jacket. I also have to be very careful to not get too many competing patterns involved here, which is a shame, because I have two skirts I've made that I really would love to wear... but I've been waiting to debut the vest and bloomers for a good long while now...

*sigh* The perils of the only occasionally fashionable... :)

'Scuse me while I SQUEE for a bit!

On Sunday, my eBay auctions (books) ended, and I got paid for them. I promptly turned around and spent the money on buying the new Abney Park CD, "Lost Horizons," and a flight helmet, which is an item I've been wanting to add to my wardrobe for a while now. Well, I knew that they had band practice on Monday, and that's also when they put together packages to mail out. So I was pretty hopeful that we'd get our stuff this week.

Jerome called me at work yesterday to say "We have a package from this band we know..." Mailed on Tuesday, arrived on Wednesday! How's that for some service? (It helps that they're based out of Gig Harbor, so the package didn't have far to go.)

And the flight helmet?



Priceless.

The album is also awesomely good, as I suspected it would be. :) I had heard at least half of the songs before it was released, so I knew what the general sound was going to be. But it's so much more exciting when the CD is actually in hand. :) I'll hopefully end up reviewing it for AC, but who knows... I say I'll write things, and then realize that I'm a crazy type person for thinking I can get the writing done!

Now I can breathe normally again... I think...

So yeah, my whole life turned into some sort of crazy whirlwind for a few days. I was out of town Thursday and Friday. Saturday was supposed to be my day to recuperate, and I guess I must have, since that day is a complete blur. I think that's the day I made the cute fish from the last post, and otherwise just acted like a vegetable.

Sunday was the EtsyRain Troll Stroll in Fremont, which was a lot of fun, but way too cold and windy. And then I walked home. :) (It's actually not bad at all... about 12 blocks, mildly uphill. I didn't feel it the next day, which is GOOD!)

Yesterday, I spent my entire day editing, but actually managed to get out of here a little earlier than normal, so that we could make the 50 mile drive down to Abney Park rehearsal. At one point Robert said "so is this the smallest show you've ever been to?" I said "well, yeah, I think there were at least 20 people at Witches' Ball." :) Last night: 5 band members, 5 guests, 3 children of band members. :) Awesome. :) And, of course, I'm even more excited about the new album, which is due out March 1st.

So now, I have to get back on track with a million and one things that I've been neglecting in my busy-ness... and yet my busy-ness is not done yet, as I'm going to a birthday party tomorrow night! Well, at least work is calming down. :)

*runs around in circles*

Today's going to be a crazy day, so I'm just getting my posting done right now. I've got a TON of editing to do today, and I would probably be working later than normal (in addition to going in early and working through lunch), but then this evening, we're driving down to Gig Harbor for Abney Park practice. So yeah, I'm just gonna be go go go all day!

So I will leave you with a cute lil' fish, and hope that tomorrow is considerably less insane than today. :)

So Jerome was watching TV last night, and while flipping through the channels, he happened upon the video for "Red Skies" by The Fixx. I convinced him to stop on whatever channel that was, because I like that song.

As it turns out, it was VH1 Classic, and they have apparently revived 120 Minutes, which used to be one of my favorite shows on MTV. No matter what other crap MTV was playing, 120 Minutes was always worth watching.

The VH1 Classic version appears to be similarly worth watching. I only watched it for about an hour, but I saw a Morrissey video (possibly the first and only Morrissey video I have ever seen, oddly enough), along with an old Specials video, the B-52s, and Sinead O'Connor. After I went to bed, Jerome came in to our room to tell me that Pulp was on, but I was well on my way to being asleep, and didn't want to get back up. (That is the bad side of this; I think 120 Minutes must come on at 9 p.m. our time. But I also think that may be better than when it was on when I was younger...)

Now, if someone would just bring back Alternative Nation and GOOD Headbanger's Ball, I will be in heaven. :) As long as both of these shows come on appropriately early enough for me to be able to watch them on weeknights. :)

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In other news, the Abney Park show was fabulously wonderful, and I got to hear two of the new songs! Hurrah! :) Also, if you've been looking at the new patches online, and can't decide if you want one (or twelve) or not... having seen them in person, I say buy twelve. At least. They are really sharp looking. :)

....

And, in other other news, never flip a coin to decide which album you will be buying. Not that I don't like Bad Religion, I'm just really coveting the new Interpol album right now. :( Not to mention the used Demented Are Go CD that I found while Jerome was buying said Bad Religion CD. :(
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So we went and saw "Stardust" last night. For those who don't know, this movie is based off of a book by Neil Gaiman. I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan, but this book is definitely one of my favorites, because it's a fairy tale. In fact, when Neil Gaiman was describing this movie at Comic Con, he compared it to "The Princess Bride." If anyone is still surprised that I like it, they should probably reexamine what it is they think they know about me. :)

Unsurprisingly, I loved the movie. True, there were a few parts that bothered me a little bit, but that's because they weren't completely true to the book. If, however, I had not read the book before, I know I would have completely and utterly loved this movie. Sadly, most of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that they left out my favorite line in the entire book, and that it really seemed like they rushed through a lot of bits to get to the "good parts." And one of those "good parts" was something that totally was NOT in the book.

But I can't complain, because I loved the steampunk pirates with their airship SOOOO much! (I looked it up last night, and the pirates are in the actual book for all of 5 pages, and they're nothing like they are in the movie.) I really can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD, because I will then watch the pirate part frame by frame to find all of the beautiful details that I missed the first time.

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In other news, I get to go see Abney Park tonight, which will be awesome. Sadly, Jerome does not get to come with me (both because he works late and can't get into the place where they're playing), but I think I'll have a pretty good time anyhow. I will probably end up working the merch booth with their new merch boy/cabin boy, Qais (that's pronounced "case," if you were wondering).
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Crazy busy gaming weekend, involving three LARPs. This ended up equaling Jerome and I losing our characters (and making new ones), me becoming a Harpy again, and me becoming a Ductus through the cunning use of lies (not flags). But hey, no one has checked me yet to see if I'm a big liar. Because that character is. :)

It's a month to DragonCon now, and Abney Park and Ego Likeness are confirmed. This means I'm going to be seeing 3 of my favorite bands/artists in the world, along with 2 bands that I like quite a bit. I am happy. :)

With DragonCon a month away, this means I'm working on costumes like a madwoman. Right now, it looks like I'm doing four costumes and one other outfit over the course of three days.

Friday night, it'll be Death from Sandman. I had to find a new pair of black jeans, but I still had everything else I needed for that costume.

Saturday day, it'll be Kaylee from Firefly. I still need to find one or two patches for her jumpsuit, and make sure that I can do my hair in the little buns that she does in the pilot episode. And sew the patches on. And maybe find a necklace that looks good. Maybe.

Saturday night, it depends on who is playing. Most likely, though, this will just be the night that I goth out.

Sunday day, I think I'm going with Alice from America McGee's Alice, only because I already have every piece of that costume. :)

Sunday night, which is when I suspect AP will be playing, I will probably revive my Dark Green Fairy costume that I wore for their last show that I got to see, though it will be undergoing some serious modifications, mainly for the different season and climate. I want to try to make some yarn hair falls, but I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I need a different shirt, so I may go back to Goodwill to pick up something I saw on Saturday. And I really should rethink the stripey tights, because it's likely to be too hot for those... I'm definitely rethinking the armwarmers. :)

But yeah, that's gonna be a lot of clothes to pack, particularly as it involves a couple of large dresses/poofy skirts. The good news, of course, is that Jerome will prolly cram all of his stuff into one bag, leaving plenty of trunk space for Jesi and I. w00t! :)

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In other news, you would think that putting three adults and two cats into a tiny two bedroom apartment would get a bit crowded, but we're making a pretty decent go of it. Still need another bookcase, but we're working on how we can get that... :)
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Yeah, yeah, weird week continues. Super weird, all around.

Today, I bought a guitar. :)

The guitar is super sweet for several reasons, including:
1) The color of the guitar, according to the manufacturer's webpage, is "Vampyre Red Satin." How neat is that?
2) It's in a coffin case. Black case, red lining. SWEET!
3) Oh, yeah, it sorta used to belong to the former guitarist for Abney Park... :)

I'm totally squee-ing over the last bit, in particular. It's a gorgeous frickin' guitar, and it's in a totally sweet case, but oh. my. god. it was used to record some of my favorite songs in the whole world, and he may well have been playing it when I saw them in Seattle. I can't remember, honestly. But it's awesome, no matter what. :)

Now, to maybe actually learn how to play it... and then New Nick and I can both play guitar at game / after game. Rock on. :)

No End of the Work Week Wisdom this week. I will soon have a guitar. What more do you want from me? :)
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