Making a Dragon - Belulah

Belulah, the Disco Dancing Dragon

Belulah loves to dance, and her favorite music is disco.  When her human neglects to play her favorite songs, she dances on a disc to send a hint.

 She started out as a simple devil's claw seedpod with a wonderful neck and perky (and very sharp) claws.

Next I added wire legs, here attached with white thread.  Miles of white thread.  Not very efficient, but it held everything together.  I also discovered that Belulah loved to dance, and that she could balance on one foot for ages.  Quite a trick for a little dragon!

She soon informed me she wanted to whistle while she danced, so I installed a red seed bead for her lips.

"Liquid Gold" and black wings and gold neck spikes complete her ensemble.  And a disc, of course. :-)

She is glued to her disc, but I felt bad doing so.  She enjoyed standing on one foot, even after her wings were attached.

For more photos, have a look at my Etsy shop, MagicSeeker:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94433932/devils-claw-dragon-art-doll-belulah

Making a Dragon - Anajad

Meet Anajad, my first dragon.

His body is a devil's claw seed pod, seen here covered in paint.  Fabric paint, of all things, but it's a material I know well and enjoy working with.

His arms, legs, and wings are made of wire, and his wings are covered with a double layer of gauze. 

His eyes are faceted glass, and he's looking up in defiance. He's found something he wants, and no mere human is going to stop him.

You can call him a jewelry thief if you like, Anajad doesn't mind.  He has a hoard to build, and a lady dragon to impress.

See more photos at:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94433615/devils-claw-dragon-art-doll-anajad-the jewelry thief.

My Newest Enterprise!

I'm thrilled to announce my newest enterprise: I'm creating dragon art dolls.  And I'm having more fun than I've had in years!

Each dragon is based on a devil's claw seedpod, with wired wings and legs, then coated many times with fabric paint to create the shape and color.

I'll soon start a new series of blog posts, "The Making of a Dragon," showing photos of how each dragon was made.

Have you ever felt the urge to do something creative, but unusual? Did you follow through with it?

Writing Inspiration and Reading

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog’s question this month:

What type of book do you read for writing inspiration, and why?  Do you read fiction or non-fiction, and what genres?  Mysteries and YA, or archeology and astronomy?

I read cozy mysteries, fantasy, and historical novels for entertainment, but I read non-fiction for inspiration.  One of my recent favorites is The Writer’s Guide to Psychology, by Carolyn Kaufman.  It’s been a bit intimidating that the other ladies of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog are all psychologists or medical doctors, but this book made me feel a little less inept.

I also follow blogs about things that interest me, especially about horses.  Judith Tarr, a wonderful writer, of Book View Café Blog, has a running series about horses that has given me many ideas to explore.

Lydia’s Medical Mondays gives me great ideas (when it doesn’t gross me out, and more when it does). Laura’s Mental Health Mondays and Sarah’s Strangest Situation give me a lot to think about.  (Mostly making me glad I’m not in the psychiatric field. ;-)

Churchill, though, is happy when I read anything, since it means I’m sitting still and he has a warm lap to sleep in.  Like right now.  LOL!

What do you read for inspiration?  What is the right balance to keep you writing?

Writing Expectations

Sarah asked the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog’s question this month:

"Where do your expectations for your writing skill or quality come from? Is the source internal, external, or both? And how do you cope when you don't meet them?"

My writing expectations are strictly internal, and they vary wildly depending on the day, or even the hour.  I’m definitely my own worst critic.  When I’m working on a first draft, I do my best to tune out my Inner Editor and just get the story onto the paper.  My expectations are reasonably low, because I’m concentrating on emotions, plot, and to a lesser extent, on flow.

The deeper into revisions I go, the higher my expectations become.  And that’s where I run into trouble:  I rarely meet my goals.  Oh, my copy is clean; my grammar is beautiful.  But the exorbitant life I *thought* I had breathed into my novel is – as flat as central Texas.  Think shallow rolling hills, but no highs worth mentioning, and no lows at all.

I become discouraged.  I start to think I’ll never write a decent story, much less something anyone besides my mom would want to read.

That’s when I go work on a different project, something new and creative.  Sometimes it’s writing, but more often it’s crafts.  Occasionally I go on a reading binge.  (All right, frequently.)  But sooner or later I wander back to my novel and try again.  There are stories inside me that want to climb out.

What do you do when you don’t meet your writing expectations?

Formal Education and Writing

Here’s Churchill in my writing corner, wondering what the heck I think I’m doing. Need I admit I’m playing with the camera when I should be working? LOL!

Lydia’s question for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog:

“What formal writing experience do you have? (classes, degrees, major/minors). Did it shape your writing? Have you ever considered getting an MFA?”

I have a BA in English, earned mumble years ago.  Did my education shape my writing?

Maybe.  I read many brilliant books for those classes, and a few clunkers, which might not have been so awful if I’d understood them.  I’ve always been a painfully literal person, and sarcasm and satire often go right over my head.  Novels like Babbitt were excruciatingly boring because I missed the point altogether.

The “bad” novels were painful, but in many ways the great novels were worse.  How could I write to that standard?  How could I make my characters live and breath?  How could I entice readers to see and hear and smell my settings?  I knew it would take practice.  A lot of practice.

Yet the MFA programs have never tempted me, probably because I’m a genre reader and writer.  Literary and mainstream don’t interest me, and all the MFA programs I’ve noticed emphasize literary writing.  The extra years of effort didn’t seem worth the possible results.

How do you feel about MFA programs?  What formal writing training have you had?

I hope y’all had a happy holiday week, and I’m wishing you a prosperous New Year!

My Reasons for Avoiding NaNoWriMo

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Welcome back to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog.

Laura chose our question for this month:

If you do NaNoWriMo, why do you do it? If not, why not?

No NaNoWriMo for me this month.  I have Etsy on my mind.  And family.  And Thanksgiving.  And lots and lots of excuses.

I freely admit that most of my reasons for avoiding NaNo are excuses.  It’s hard work!  But among my best reasons are: When I attempt NaNo,

I rush through my story.  Lots of telling, but very little showing.

I still manage to be tooooooooooooooooo wordy.  Out of 50k last year, I suspect 20k needs to go.

By the time I finished my 50k, I was so exhausted I could barely function.  And worse, I was tired of my story.

By the end of my 50k, I adored my tersely spoken, non-human characters, but I didn’t much like my humans.  I still liked my basic concept, but many of the carefully crafted details had stopped making sense.

And a year later, I still haven’t gotten back to clean up or finish that manuscript.  I can’t decide if I simply can’t cope, or if I’ve moved on.

So for now, I’ve decided not to worry about it.  I’ll get back to that story eventually.  For now I’ll work on the other things that have caught my fancy.

Speaking of new toys, I recently joined Google+, but I really don’t know what to do with it.  Are you on Google+?  What’s the best way to network when social media is a foreign language?

Animals and writing

It was my turn to pick the topic this month. My question for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog was:

How do your pets/kids/plants (something you take care of) influence your writing?  Do they help you, or distract you?  Do you include them in your stories?

People rarely inspire my fiction, but the animals in my life often have.  I’ve even named a kitten after one of my characters, then used his personality to guide the character’s behavior.

I’ve asked what my darling, long deceased Mystic would have done if she’d been human and in such a situation.  Her ghost informed me she’d never act as silly as humans do and would never have gotten into such a situation.  When I reminded her of some of the stunts she pulled in life, she just stared at me with that cool cat stare that says “You’re thinking of someone else, but I’m too polite to correct you.” LOL!  She was good at that.

My family had horses when I was a teen, and horses are often supporting characters in my stories.  Occasionally they have more personality than my humans.  Horses are more than a mode of transportation. They have feelings and reactions and quirks, and they most certainly are not cars that can run forever without tiring.  Horses are fairly fragile, and die from misuse or accident, in real life and in my fiction.

Churchill, my current owner cat, is purely a distraction. He insists he needs to lie upon my keyboard.  No way, my lad.  That’s one of the few battles I’ve won.

How do animals affect your writing? Do you like stories with animals as significant characters?

Tooting My Horn

I’m embarrassed to be writing this post.  I hate to blow my own horn.  I don’t even like to talk about my writing, or myself.  But if I don’t tell you what I’m up to, how will anyone know?

Sooooo, I’d like to announce that I’ve released two new Mantua-Maker historical sewing patterns this year.

#1880-15 

1870 - 1890 Sunset Knoll Polonaise, Redingote, and Tea Gown

   Three major variations for dressy or severe styles.  It can be made as a ball gown, an evening gown, or as a working woman's plain, tailored redingote.  Personally, I love the Tea Gown version.

#1880-29 

1880 - 1895 Artistic Classical Gown

    While it really was worn by the Artistic set, this dress with its Grecian-style undergown are perfect for a masquerade.  It's surprisingly simple to make, and I think it looks wonderful.  (I know, I'm biased. :-)

My other news:

I’ve also opened two shops on Etsy, an online marketplace for handcrafted items.  My first shop, MantuaMakerPatterns, was intended for my historical sewing patterns, but my mom asked by to sell her bead work and my dad’s silver jewelry.  I said, “Sure thing!”

Four jewelry boxes later (and more still appear intermittently!), I opened a shop for them – I wasn’t sure how many more boxes would appear.  Not feeling terribly original that day, I named it MomNDadsJewelry. 

I hope you’ll have a look.  I’ve included links to both shops in my side bars.

What have you accomplished lately that you’d like to share?

Creating Character

This month’s question for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog came from Sarah:

How do you develop your characters? Do you flesh out the details before (like writing as that character, writing backstory, or filling out a questionnaire about their preferences and history) or invent as you go?

When it comes to creating characters, I’m a combination of a plotter and a pantster.  I create character sheets with physical info, fears and desires.  I determine ages, rages, and backstory.  Then I start writing.

But as military strategists will tell you, the best laid plans don’t survive engagement with the enemy.  Or in my case, with my subconscious.  My characters take on lives of their own, and some of them flatly refuse the plans I’ve made for them.  One of my minor antagonists nearly took over the story, and he definitely became a protagonist, helping to save the heroine in the last chapter.  If I ever rewrite that novel, I suspect I’ll need to start with him instead of the MC I’d chosen, and base more of the story on his actions.

Because of my pantster tendencies (and that sounds strange from a confirmed plotter), I don’t like questionnaires.  Knowing that much about the character confines my imagination too much.  Yet pinning down minor attributes, such as hobbies and clothing, can help me add details and subplots for richer and deeper characters.

How about you?  How do you create and define your characters?