Okay, I’m not black and blue–yet. But I’ve safely arrived at Battlemoor, the tent is set up, and I am starting to feel like my lungs aren’t going to collapse from lack of oxygen at this altitude. My joints are even forgiving me a bit for my shenanigans.
I managed to get a lot of new writing done in my travels to Colorado, and I’ve gotten my MCs both into and out of and back into trouble, as it should be.
I don’t have much time to post right now–the rest of the camp needs tending to. But there’s signal, so I’m happy.
More to come later 🙂
Category: #nerd
Battlemoor bound
Well, this morning we head off for Albuquerque, then tomorrow we’re caravaning (guess that’s not a word–spellcheck doesn’t think so, anyway) up to Colorado for our second out-of-kingdom event. (The first was Great Western War last year). It should be interesting at least. Only three of us members of the Queen’s Guard are attending (not counting the Captain), so we’re pulling five shifts at guard each, some of them double shifts. I volunteered for the double shifts I’m taking though, because I felt it was my duty as a member of the Guard to make sure the Queen is guarded. I hope Grand Court isn’t too long–I hate standing Court Guard, but it was the only one of the three mandatory guard shifts that were available that I could take.
I plan on taking at least a couple of A&S classes while I’m there–the one on leather carving sounds super interesting–and doing a couple rapier tournaments. Beyond that and guarding, it’s going to be a lot of helping out around camp. I don’t cook, so I’ll likely be doing a lot of dishes this week.
When I’m not guarding or swording or artsing or cleaning I’ll be trying to get some embroidery time and some writing time in. Writing time will probably be in the wee hours of the morning when I’m up and no sane person should be–embroidery time will be for times when I’m standing guard and the Queen is just resting or watching something (we’re supposed to have “hand work” to do when we’re not active–the benefits of the Queen and King both being Laurels) or when I’m in camp and not busy. I have to get my sister’s birthday present done, so the Outlands arts exchange project will have to be on hold until that’s finished. I found a cool howling wolf design that I think she’ll love to see embroidered.
Cell service in the area will be spotty at best but most likely nonexistent. In other words, read up on the archive if you’re interested in seeing more from me because I’ll be incommunicado. Oh, sure, some of it’s inane babble like this post, but there are some gems in there. You’ll have to read through them to find out! 😉
See you after Battlemoor!
Guard duty (heh-heh, I said "duty")
The time has come for another out-of-kingdom SCA event, and as part of the Queen’s Guard (and one of only three Guard members attending said event) I had to pick out my shifts for guarding Her Majesty.
It’s interesting being on Guard for events. Normally at events I like to wing it and maybe plan to be at one or two things (besides rapier tournaments–whenever possible, I try to make the tournaments), but now that I’m on the Guard I have to decide what classes/things at the event I might want to do before I go raising my hand to volunteer for a shift at Guard.
The nice thing is that Her Majesty likes for her Guards/attendants/Court members to be busy with arts and crafts work as opposed to just standing around. So I get to embroider while I’m guarding, provided I’m not standing Court or some other such thing where it’s more formal. Still, that will go a long way in helping me to get my Outlands arts exchange project worked on. Of course, I’ll have to be more careful in who I let see said project, because the event is in Outlands and I don’t want the recipient to see my work before it’s done. I’ve gotten one piece done, but I plan on at least … four or five more pieces. There’s a $35 limit on materials cost, but with embroidery the cost isn’t as much in materials as it is in time, so I can make more items (provided I can find the time). I’m super excited to see how the recipient likes the stuff I make, even though they won’t get it until September.
Well, it’s about time to help a friend move. More on the Outlands event later!
Whatever happened to the girl who could stab people for hours?
Man, the first time I put a rapier in my hand that was it. Game over, man. I was hooked.
So what happened?
Let me backtrack a bit: I started out super gung-ho about rapier fighting and fencing. I wanted to learn All The Things, and I would get uber frustrated if I didn’t get something right. I went to every practice I could, and I joined a local fencing school to get even more practice in. I did tournaments at events (even though I’m not the greatest at it)–once with a broken foot–, and I even tried melee fighting (which I am even less the greatest at).
Lately, though, and I mean for a good few months now, I haven’t been at it as much. I’ve been withdrawing from the rapier fighting and even exercise days with my rapier friends. Why? What’s got me shying away from the one sport that ever got me excited, that ever made me feel like I could be good at a sport?
Part of it, I think, is that I got burned out after Estrella War. I practiced so much that I just got practiced out. Another part might be that, for whatever reason, my performance in tournaments has dropped significantly. Not that I was ever even close to winning–I wasn’t–but I feel like I’m just flailing around, whereas before I was more focused and driven.
Another part, and it’s not necessarily his fault mind you, but another part is my husband. Due to some … we’ll say “unsportsmanly behavior” … from some more experienced, respected rapier fighters, my husband withdrew from rapier first, before I did. He didn’t want to go to the regular practices, and more recently he stopped going to the rapier academy practices as well. It’s largely a personality clash issue. Not to say that either personality is “wrong,” just that they don’t jive together well. He doesn’t want to go back, but I do…don’t I?
We’ve also been super busy; we go to more out-of-Barony events than we did at this time last year, so Sundays we’re either exhausted from traveling or still heading back from wherever we traveled when it’s time to practice.
I’m still gung ho about trying to get a rapier practice area set up on our land. I’m still plotting that out in my head. But I don’t go and actually practice anymore.
Is it because I live further away now? Well, that would explain the SCA practices, but I’m a tad closer to the rapier academy practices now, so that’s no excuse. I still love my friends and love fighting them and learning from them, so that’s not an issue. So what is it?
Last night I went to a different Barony’s rapier practice. I got to fight a couple of people that I don’t usually fight, and that may have helped a bit to motivate me to do better. I need something more though, some extra push, to get me back in the rapier game. Maybe if I ask my White Scarf for a set day during the week to practice I will get back into things. I mean, I can’t use traveling as an excuse if it’s a work day–I’ll theoretically already be in town.
Regardless of the hows or whys, something’s gotta change. I have to get back at the stabby-stab so I can improve, learn, and excel.
I just gotta figure out tho hows of that bit.
I got it covered
I’d thought I had lost my Arts and Sciences project–the only one I’ve gotten finished so far–until yesterday. I gave the craft room one last sweep before I left to go visiting my potential-future-Laurel, and lo! and behold, there it was. On the floor. In a place I’d looked at least three times previously. Right between a couple of boxes. Thanks to that discovery I don’t have to redo the whole damn thing, and I was able to finish the beading on it. Next up (sometime in the next three weeks): the documentation paper to go with it. Easy peasy. Right? Well, maybe not so much, but I’ll get it done.
I got another project–well, the first part of another project–done as well. Introducing my fourth embroidered cup cover:
Done for an arts exchange project with another kingdom, but it’s not the only thing I’m doing; I’m also going to make some matching napkins, a feast gear utensil holder, and, time permitting, some coasters. Yeah, ambitious, I know, but I have a couple of months on those. The cup cover, btw, is 100% handsewn and hand beaded. No sewing machines were harmed in the making of that cover.
Yeah, it’s not perfect. I pulled the stitches too tight and crowded them too much on the white embroidery filling in the device. I eyeballed the circular edge when I was sewing the back onto the front, so yeah, not the evenest. Still, it’s pretty, and it’s I hope something the recipient will love.
I’m wondering something though…would people want to pay for cup covers like the ones I’ve made? One of them was a commission, but there were … issues with payment. Was it because the person thought I was charging too much? I don’t know, but I enjoy doing these kind of short embroidery projects, things that take a couple of weeks of stolen moments before or after work or during lunch, little snippets of creativity snuck in when possible. What am I getting at, anyway? Basically, I’m looking for something I can do that can hone my embroidery craft while still making creative things for other people. I’m just not sure there’s enough of a demand for it to make any kind of effort to advertise what I do worth it.
Here are some pictures of the others I’ve done (one wasn’t beaded because the person who commissioned it wanted to put the beads on herself):
Considering my previous failed attempts at creative entrepreneurship, I probably should just let word of mouth do its thing and if I get asked to make some, I make some; if I don’t, I don’t. I can make them for gifts or something and stoke my creative fires that way.
Who knows. Maybe this post will generate some interest? Maybe so, maybe no. I think I’m going to stop overthinking and just go do some laundry or something.
Stuck between a wall and a soft place
Can’t seem to make up my mind as to what activity I want to do before work this morning… I mean, I’ve been kicking ass on the embroidery project I’m currently working on, but I also have hit a mild brick wall in the writing of Book 2, and that really needs to be addressed. Then there’s the Viking hood I promised my husband I’d make for him (shouldn’t take too long, but I have less than an hour before I have to get ready for work right now) as well as Arts & Sciences stuff to work on. Oh, and there’s the tiny little detail of my first A&S project disappearing sometime in the last couple of weeks.
Yeah, I hid it in a “safe place” for the SCA party so it wouldn’t get stolen or messed up.
A very safe place.
So safe I can’t for the life of me find the fucking thing.
It’s not like I can’t redo it, or even that I can’t redo it in the time I have left before A&S. I can, if I push myself, but do I really want to have to do that? No. I also don’t want to have to tear apart the craft room (the last place I have to search) to find it. Decisions, decisions.
I suppose I should just work on writing. It keeps my eyes focused on the computer screen, so I can see the time and theoretically not lose track of how much time is left before I have to get ready.
In Boot News, I am free of the boot on my left foot, provided it doesn’t start hurting too much again. I guess I sprained a ligament in the middle toe, but at my two-weeks-and-one-day follow up (I went back in earlier than three weeks because of how my work schedule is) the doc said I was doing better at 2+ weeks than most people do at 3 weeks. So I did something right, at least.
Well, off I go to, y’know, do things and stuff.
Rained out
Well that was a wash…
… I learned this weekend that outdoors + stupid boot on my foot + rain + arthritis does not in any way equal fun. I was cold, damp, and miserable. Every time I tried to roll over or shift on my cot during the night I cried out in pain a little bit.
The event got cancelled, but not before we abandoned most of our stuff on the mountain. We’ll go back for it tomorrow, but it was just too hard to try breaking down camp in the rain at the time.
I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to a cooking event. I don’t cook. Like, unless it comes out of a box or bag, forget it. But I told my husband I’d go, so despite dreading the event I went. A bit of precognition, perhaps? Probably not, but regardless it was a hot mess.
We ended up going to our friends’ house, where we’ll stay the night before reclaiming our belongings. There are a bunch of people over as we ended up having an impromptu party. So not a total bust, but I kinda wish I’d brought my laptop. Clare and her story are calling out to me.
After obsessing over the changes I had to make to accommodate the new ending to Abnormal, I’ve finally figured out how to work it in. I just need my computer. And time. I need time.
Book 2’s first draft reboot will be done, hopefully by the end of the year, but I’ve got to buckle down and focus.
Incoming
Well, it’s official–
I’m going to exhibit at Tucson Comic Con!!!! Finally managed to pay the table fee this afternoon. I am going to be a sci-fi author with a table at a comic convention.
It doesn’t even feel real yet. I think I’m partly spamming my social media sites with this photo because I’m trying to convince myself that it’s real.
It’s. Effing. Real.
I think I’m going to go fangirl over myself for a bit. Lol
A second time around for the second time
In the midst of house party prep, work, sleep, crafting, and never-ending laundry, I somehow managed to get a start on the rewrites for Book 2. I haven’t counted how many new words I’ve written, but between cutting and pasting the usable stuff from the first draft, rejiggering it to fit with the new ending of Abnormal, and fresh writing, I’ve gotten about 2.5k words in about three or four hours of work.
It’s not much, but it’s the start I’ve been trying to achieve. Well, the restart.
The bad guy’s even more of an asshole than he originally was, but I know something he doesn’t know. 😉 The little surprise from a minor character I mentioned when I first wrote the draft is still good to be left in, and they may even have more up their sleeve than even I knew.
It’s not going to be easy, but now that I’ve got a start I feel much less anxious about the work I have ahead of me.
Tomorrow marks the first official housewarming party, though, and it’s the SCAdian one at that. I should be focused on not losing my shit with so many people there. Lol It’s not exactly a small get-together, and my social anxiety wears me out at times. I can’t escape from this party. I have to suck it up and pretend to be sociable no matter how freaked out I am inside.
Making a list and checking it eleventy times
Well, I did it–I applied for a table at Tucson Comic Con…and I was approved!
I talked it out with my husband, and since the con is three days while Coronation is only one, he’s going to drop me off at TCC the day of Coronation, drive up to see his friend step down and get his Duchy, then drive back to Tucson to sit with me at my table. I’ve already annoyed all my local friends to try to get them to at least stop by the table (if not purchase a book or two while they’re there 😉 ), but my mind is racing with stuff I have to get done beforehand.
- I’ve gotta get a tablecloth. That will make it look nicer. The TCC website said there would be a table provided, but no mention of tablecloth was made.
- Square reader. Need one. Easy enough to obtain, but I don’t want to forget to obtain it.
- Cash box/pouch? Hmm….
- Better start plans to stock up on books to sell/sign at the con.
- I need to finish fixing my Dark Phoenix steampunk corset. I made it too large when I initially sewed it, and even though I’ve regained some weight I’ll still need to take it back in.
- Devise and sew a sci-fi-ish cosplay to wear one day? Hmm…. I do have a pattern for a body suit…I’d have to get my serger up and running again and remember how to use it though…And make a corset to go over said bodysuit because omg fatness lol
- If I do do a new cosplay, a fun new wig to go with it 😉
- Once I find out what promo materials I’ll have from the publisher, I need to make another list of display items to get, like some kind of stands to prop up books, signage, etc.
- Tubs to carry stuff to and from the table in each day.
I’m sure there’s more I haven’t thought of, but that’s enough for now. I am beyond excited to have this opportunity. It’s fun to think that I’m getting back into cons and stuff, but it’s also going to be work. I won’t be able to leave the table much because I’ll have to be there so people can actually meet the author and get autographs if they want. So it’s not all fun and games. I’ll have moments of severe social anxiety that I’ll have to suck up and swallow down, because I can’t go freaking out over all the people when I paid money to be up in the thick of it (or back in a corner somewhere, which is more likely where I’ll be put. Lol)
There’s also a little thing called a housewarming party that I need to finish straightening the craft room for…I have to clear off both tables so we’ll have a place for people to sit and eat, and I have to get some semblance of organization done so my husband’s Peer has a place to crash for the night.
Oh, and I have to go see the podiatrist yet again because my left foot is either broken or has a neuroma or some crazy shit like that. There’s that, too.