Writer's Conference

I know, I know. I've said it before. Made it a New Year's resolution, even that I finally would a) attend a writer's conference b) establishing a working relationship c) actually drink enough to mistakenly email a query letter off to A LITERARY AGENT d)try the damndest to get published.

January of '07 I did "c". Though, I wasn't drunk per se, I was incredibly exhausted from New Year's and had spent entirely WAY too much time in an alternate universe having buried myself during Christmas vacation in a story. The first thing to any writer's travels, I hear, is to GO TO A WRITER'S CONFERENCE with REAL published authors, actual editors, and living, breathing agents. And LISTEN TO THEM. They KNOW what they're doing. So, January of 2007 didn't work out as the only agency that responded really didn't fit the genre I was writing. It was a HUGE boost to my ego, however, but I know (and so does everyone who graciously helped edit the story in a 10-day pinch) that I and the stories still need A LOT of work.

But, while planning the trip to Crescent City, I was checking out the chamber of commerce's event's calender and stumbled across an event in September where the Del Norte College of the Redwoods was hosting this year's Northern California's Writer's Conference. Ha! Not ONLY is it a workshop with lectures, BUT they will have an agent AND an editor. AND I can send a sample for them to critique (must wear THICK skin that day) - for a fee. Huh. Couldn't get a FREE critique with registration. But, it is by far the cheapest conference I've seen YET. AND it's in CRESCENT CITY. So, if I go (I mean, WHEN) then Vin can go to and have no shortage of things to do while I'm busy! What's also nice is that it's short. It's only a Friday and a Saturday so no having to take off extra time for a week-long or 5-day extended weekend. Perfect introduction to my first writer's conference.

So what am I doing now? Furiously and mad-cap editing the Caitlyn story (book one of the trilogy) to be critiqued by a professional. And guess what? I had WINE.

Update on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 01:45PM by Skinny Monkey

There. It's mailed. The first 10 sample pages that will undoubtedly be eviscerated by the powers that be. Ack!

Of Lavender and Pottery

From Petroglyph, the signature blue-plaid butterdish to assist in our kitchen theme:

and the wreath salvaged from the wreathing tragedy - see the Smith House page for details!

In Progress

From pattern to pieces of fabric...

Crafting... This was originally going to only be a surplice shirt, but Vin liked the length and convinced me it would look good as a dress. So - a dress it is becoming!

Becoming a dress... although, one potential design flaw - my hips. Since this was scrap material found in a bin I rummaged through at Joann's it may not have the width to accomodate my curves.  It just may be a shirt after all, but that will only be determined once I sew most of it and try it on. Either that, or lose 10 pounds. *sigh*

What do you think, folks? Plain? Or...

...with ribbon? Whatchya'll think?

Dress Form

I had stumbled across a really neat idea while surfing the net for deals to buy a dress form. It's hard to make clothes for yourself if no one is there to pin patterns to you.  Or, trying to measure yourself.  Rather than it taking two people, a dress form is a likely answer.  However, there are TWO problems with dressforms. A) It's a manequinn's rendition of your form if you get one with adjustable knobs.  Which means it doesn't mimic your posture or all your unique lumps and bumps. And THAT can make or break an outfit. Secondly, they range between $100 - $1000. Who has that kind of spare dough laying around? Not we, my friends.

So, an ingenious idea that I found was only the cost of a roll of duct tape, two bags of stuffing and a willing participant (aka VIN) to tape me up. Oh, and about two hours. The idea is to create a cast or a mold of yourself with tape.  Vin was such a good sport and he did SUCH a good job. 

You basically horizontally tape yourself using small strips tight enough to conform to your body but not tight enough to misform your shape. Around the bust area its done radially and then somewhat like a halter top around the shoulders before returning to a horizontal pattern. Then, the next layer is all vertical. This creates a more stable layer. Third layer is a smoothing layer and returns again to a horizontal pattern. The bottom is reinforced with the cardboard of an old box.

For stuffing we reused some old stuffing from pillows we were going to toss seeing as they didn't match our new color schemes in the house. All together the dress form cost us about $45 and it's a more accurate clone to assist in sizing.  We should have taken pictures before I started pinning a pattern to it, but I didn't want to remove the patter-in-progress. Don't mind the darth-vadersqueness of the dress form, you could pick any color. We picked black because it was the cheapest, and when we ran out of it I used a teal for the arm and bottom caps.

It's a bit odd seeing your likeness in such a strange color sitting in the corner somewhere. 

Buried in Alternate Universes

To many who know Monkey, it's no secret that I write creatively. My ultimate goal? To be published, of course. But, that's a bit like winning the lottery - so meanwhile, it's a way to get my imagination that clouds my mind out onto paper so I can focus on other things like dishes, or transplanting flowers, vacuuming, school, date night - that kind of thing. It's a hobby.

As I've been immersed in school, it's been more difficult to find the energy or any left-over creativity reserved for papers and mock companies to create and manage for assignment to devote to my favorite hobby - writing.  Many of you have sampled my stuff - in its most raw, infancy stage and form to the more refined and edited stuff.

There are a few stories I have going at once (all depending on my mood, right?).  A few are completed, others I've gone back and changed completely or given alternate endings to. One thing a writer must recognize about herself is that she must know her genre that she writes for. Is it literary? Is it fiction, is it horror, is it romance, or sci-fi? Me? I'm all over the place. Not just in one book, mind you - but in the different stories that are there.

One is fantasy - a medieval tribute to vampire-like creatures. Two are sci-fi with completely different alternate universes. One of my favorites is part of a pending series and that is a crime thriller with an accompanying spin-off.  And there are a couple of others that are mostly suspense, all of course are fiction.

In total I have 2 completed works, 2 different series' and five in progress stories.  Over the last year, I've not been able to focus on this hobby, let alone the story, structure or continuance of those pending (and the impending, unending re-editing of all those completed, or near completion).  I miss those worlds I've created, I miss those characters like they were my friends. I feel like I'm missing out on their adventures - as they stay frozen, caught in my inability to breathe life back into them and have them continue on their merry (and in some cases, not so merry) ways.

Lately, because of the holiday and the way schedules have worked out, I won't have to be to school for two weeks. Which means, two weeks of no homework, 9 page long papers and endless hours manifesting, creating or using all free time for school assignments. Which, guess what that means? You're right! I get to write for FUN again. Well, for NOW. Until next week.

Trust me, I took full advantage of it, and with Vin's infinite patience at me spending my time elsewhere (we're both still recuperating from last weekend) have knocked out 43 new pages of material for one of the stories - the most challenging story of all  because of the layers and immense depth of it - the fantasy story about the vampire-like creatures. This story I have been working on since I was in high school. It's been re-vamped (no pun intended) nearly a dozen times and reinvented into the monster it is now. It has to be sliced up into 6 different books (if it ever makes it to a publishing house) due to the vast page number. It won't be hard to do given the amount of major events that occur and intertwining plot lines. It spans eight thousand years in history and has about a dozen meaningful characters in it.

I read somewhere that novelists don't make a whole lot of money, with the exceptions of names like Anne Rice, Danielle Steel and Stephen King, and that writing is a side-job.  Well, I'm okay with it now, not making us any extra money, because I enjoy visiting those characters and those lands.  I write what I would love to read. And love to go back and read what I've written (ever with the red pencil out, just in case).