Steampunk Sunday: Hats

When talking Steampunk, you have to include the hats. It's the cherry on the sundae that is a fantastic Steampunk costume and a brilliant way to let your creativity shine. It also makes it easier to pick somebody out in a crowd. A unique hat is sure to stand out!

Look at the little trumpet bell!

I've admitted my corset fetish before which is probably what leads me to this absolutely gorgeous hat. I love the lacing up the front but take a look at all the rest of the detail. There's a lace applique on the vinyl that's wrapped around that velvet top hat. Combining lace with vinyl is something you won't see anywhere else and it's something that is so completely Steampunk, I'm surprised I haven't seen this before now.

I love the lace up hat for men! 

Another hat with lacing on it, this time with a thick silver fabric that just lights it up. I love the vinyl straps that keep the fabric in place. Utility and decoration are a great combination for all things Steampunk.

More lace with vinyl!

A Steampunk bonnet! In vinyl! This hat may be more appropriate for a wild west setting than for a city setting, but it still keeps the spirit of Steampunk and that's what's the most important. Besides, substituting clockwork for a flower is a great way to take a simple piece from period to punk.

Red and copper is becoming one of my favorite combinations.

I have no idea where the tiny hats came from, but I'm loving them! So much detail on such a small canvas gives it such a feeling of opulence, I can't help but feel impressed.

NaNoWriMo: Day Five

Wow, day five was so much better! Woke up with ideas that were slightly evil, making my character more morally ambiguous than she started out as and that made me smile in delight. My girl is so not a good guy. She's not the bad guy, but an angel she's not.

I was helped out today by Write or Die. I freaking love this website. You give it a word goal and a time goal and start typing. I did 915 words in 30 minutes today. I may keep using this when I'm having difficulty focusing. The timer and word count at the bottom are very motivating and I got more accomplished today than I really thought I would.

I'm not doing quite as good as Jilly (she's doing fantastic and I'm so proud to watch what she's accomplishing) but I'm keeping up and at least writing something every day. The discipline is good for me and I have great hopes for what I can accomplish by the end of the month and into December.

Stats for today:

title: Amaria
Total words written: 8369
Words written today: 2956

NaNoWriMo: Day Four

So, it's the end of day four and I forgot to check in!

Did a bunch of writing and forgot to log it. Yep, I'm kinda special that way. Word count for day 5 is gonna be awesome!

I ended up sleeping off the painkillers and unpacking a bunch today so I didn't have a lot of time until this evening but yay! I found myself in a scene I hadn't anticipated but flowed completely  naturally with the story. Those are the best kind.

Today's stats:
Title: Amaria
Total word count: 5413
Word count for today: 529

NaNoWriMo: Day Three

So, day three, gotta say, you were not a good day for writing. Spent most of the day in pain or on muscle relaxers. Honestly, the muscle relaxers gave me some great ideas but made it so hard to focus on the computer screen that I just had to give it up and go lay down.

Now, i'm up and going to get some words written. However, as it's approaching midnight, I'm going to keep myself honest and update with what I've got.

Title: Amaria
Total word count: 4884
Words written today: 15

NaNoWriMo: Day Two

So, the writing continues apace today. Woke up with a scene in my head that's been nagging at me for almost 5 years, but I couldn't ever seem to see it quite right. Today it seemed to jump, fully formed, from my head onto the computer screen. It's a scene a bit further into the book but, now that I have it down, I'll be able to fill in what happens between the two. Is that cheating? No idea, but it worked for me today.

Also today, I slipped on the ice while trying to unbury my car from the snow. Sprained both ankles and threw my back out so I am typing this with the aid of a few muscle relaxers. Looks like I'll need them to sit at the computer for the next couple days so the writing may be . . . interesting.

Stats:
Novel title: Amaria
Total words written: 4869
Words written today: 2606

Writing is Fun!

I've been doing a lot of introspection over the last few weeks. Yeah, that's what I do when I can't sleep at night. I also don't keep a journal, mostly because my mom told me once to never write down anything you didn't want people to read. Good advice, and I'm pretty sure it explains why she's surprised I write. She asked me once if what I plan on writing and publishing was going to be PG. When I stopped laughing, I explained that she probably wouldn't like it but that there were plenty of people who would.

All this led to me asking myself why I write. Part of that answer is, well, because I can't not write. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. I even started a (very short lived) publishing company in second grade; it closed when I got in a fight with somebody who said the stories we published should come with a free dictionary because we were poopyheads for using big words. I got pulled aside by my fourth grade teacher for turning in something that wasn't 'age appropriate' to a county wide writing contest (I have to agree with her, it was definitely not something a 4th grader should be reading).

When I started writing my novel, it was because I had a story I wanted to tell and nobody to tell it to. So, I told it to my computer.  I rewrote it because, hey, I could tell it so much better now! I don't know that I ever intended it to see the light of day. The first story I meant to be seen by other people still makes me chuckle, and I may see if I can dig it up some day. It was for a contest for the Rocky Mountain News. They were doing a short story contest for stories set in Colorado.

Yep, we have cowboys in Colorado.

I decided to write a space western.

Now, I'd never read a western before but I loved Star Trek so that should be fun, right?


The plot: The Raviolis from the planet Fettuccini were abducting people from remote spots for their intergalactic pet store. They couldn't figure out why humans refused to breed in captivity. They found some cowboys on a cattle drive and decided to take them but their equipment malfunctioned, giving the cowboys a chance to fight back.

Yep, that was it. I never sent it in. I was having so much fun writing it that I exceeded the word count by almost double and it wasn't done yet. I decided to keep it, finish it and read it occasionally to amuse myself. Did I mention I was in 6th grade?

Vicious looking, aren't they?

That story really solidified for me why I write. I wrote stories I wanted to read and it was unbelievable fun. I still do that. And yes, I still make the bad jokes, much to my own amusement and my family and friends groaning acceptance.

NaNoWriMo: Day One

So, I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I've thought of doing it before but I kinda committed at MileHiCon a couple weeks ago and figured I should actually go ahead and go through with it.

In my mind, the novel I'm writing is a sequel to a novel that I never took past chapter 1. Mostly, I think I was using it to flesh out the world. The original story is interesting but I really prefer what I'm going to be doing with this one. Love, politics and subterfuge are all things I absolutely love to read about and I'm really enjoying writing about them.

With as busy as my life is (and has always been, and will be for the foreseeable future), my writing strategy looks like it's going to involve me carrying around a notebook and writing long hand, transcribing the pages at night before I go to bed.

Anybody have a working laptop I can have for, well, free?

Stat's for today:

Novel title: Amaria
Words written today: 2263
Total words written: 2263

Looks like a good start, here's to the rest of the month. Wish me luck!