Steampunk Dress: Outside Top
It’s not done, as such – but if I wanted, I could wear it as is. You can’t tell, but the buttons are steampunky, I swear.
I’ll be taking it in (but not until the rest of the dress is made, since it’s made to be worn over the top), and changing the neckline so the silhouette is symmetrical.
Crappy First Drafts
Speaking as someone who once wrote a 50,000 first draft in three days, I’m a big fan of the “just get it on paper and fix it later” strategy of writing. So is Lynn Price, as she writes here. When my students have to write a short story for school, I’m constantly telling them, “Stop thinking and write.”
Lynn says: “When I’m doing a first draft, I don’t worry about pacing and flow because I know I’ll hit that up once I have a solid foundation in which to build upon. For now, I simply need to barf it out there.”
“The Hunchback Assignments” by Arthur Slade
The Steampunk Scholar recommended YA steampunk writer Arthur Slade, and his taste turned out to be just as good as I’d guessed.
“The Hunchback Assignments” is the story of two orphans – the stunningly beautiful Octavia and the stunningly ugly Modo. Both were rescued (or is it captured?) by the mysterious and powerful Mr Socrates.
The rest of this review is now at Comfy Chair, where I get paid for it.
That’s not a poo-splosion, THIS is a poo-splosion!
I rarely use exclamation marks. This one is, believe me, deserved. Time for a daily awesomeness that uses the OTHER meaning of “awesome”.
Alternate title: The Bum-Gun.
Picture the scene: It’s 5:00am and all is quiet except for a stirring infant and her mother; a woman light-headed and blurry from lack of sleep. It’s time for a feed and – judging by the smell – a nappy change.
The mother cuddles the infant and places her on the change table. She skillfully scoops up a very full load of nappy without letting it spill and stain the baby’s clothes or wrap. She drops it in the nappy bin and reaches for the wipes with a smirk of self-congratulation.
That’s when it happens.
Pow! Blam! Squirt!
A stream of liquid poo shoots up (yes, up) and out (yes, out) at a 45 degree angle (yes, a 45 degree angle) hitting the mother’s hair and spraying across the carpet and furniture.
The mother emits an inarticulate noise of shock and awe. She freezes, thinking, “Did that just happen?”
It did. Oh yes, it did. There is no mistaking the angle of attack: The evidence lies, warm and pungent, half a metre above the scene of the crime. In my hair. So much for gravity.
Five centimetres to the left, and I’d have copped it in the mouth.
Is this the face that conceals a startling secret weapon?
It is. Oh yes, it is.
Six weeks in
Louisette is now six weeks old, which is about when I’m supposed to be fully recovered from giving birth. I was pretty much recovered by three weeks, but improvement has been slower since then. I’m now exercising four or five times a week, and have just started eating a little less chocolate (I hadn’t lost any weight for several weeks, and I have a good ten kilos to lose – particularly from my belly, which is big enough that I can’t wear normal clothes yet – and it prompts speculative looks wherever I go). I can do pretty much anything I used to be able to do, but I do take longer to recover afterwards. My breasts are still mildly painful.
As always, the crucial issues this week are breastfeeding and sleeping.
From Monday last week we had incontrovertible proof that Louisette needed more formula than she was getting, so we increased it at once. She’s meant to gain around 150 grams a week. Last week she gained 20 grams – but this week she gained over 200. In the last few days, she’s started to not always finish her bottles. That, and the slow increase of what I get from the breast pump, bodes well. Last week I said I was getting an additional 10ml of pumped breast milk a day. That was somewhat optimistic. It looks very much like I’ll need to take a whole lot of formula to China in a month’s time. I am still feeding Louisette 7-8 times a day, and using the pump a further 5-6 times a day. Generally, the largest amount of time I am free during the day is one and a quarter hours (although I move the pump times around a bit when I have stuff to do). It’s insane. It also means that “sleep when your baby sleeps” doesn’t work nearly as well as I’d like.
On the up side, she’s pretty good at sleeping at night. She usually sleeps 4-5 hours in a block. Without that, I’d be a wreck. People keep asking me if I’m okay, and I get the feeling that when I say I’m great they think I’m being nice. Regular readers will know I’m far more honest than nice. When I say I’m happy, you can believe it. It’s true that I’m low enough on sleep that I’m uncoordinated and sometimes light-headed.
I also have a life apart from Louisette: I’ve been able to do some sewing, and I’m editing a chapter of my steampunk novel each day. One of the things I truly enjoy about motherhood is the complete obsessive focus – but I still get antsy if I don’t do some writing every day (and blogging doesn’t quite count). Every day I do something outside of the house, and take Louisette with me. I enjoy being more mobile than I was when I was pregnant, and I think Louisette benefits too.
Louisette’s facial expressions continue to fascinate me. Here’s several photos from a single day – plus a couple of smiles and a pout for good measure.
Make a friend
This year, I did something extraordinary: I made a new friend. We met several years ago at a kind of careers fair for Christian missionaries – so we already have God and international aid/travel in common. She’s also smart and funny – and, since she recently returned from several years in Gambia, she’s rebuilding her life (very few friendships survive mission trips). It can be hard to make friends with introverts, so I invited her to a few group things so I could get to know her a little without either of us having to hold up the whole conversation. She said yes, so I knew she was willing to risk spending a little time with me. And a few weeks later, we didn’t need the crowd to help us along conversationally; we’d found enough in common. Voila! We’re actually friends. I love it when a plan comes together.
We both had birthdays recently, and it turns out that her family takes her blackberry picking in the pine forest each year. She brought a giant pot of fresh wild blackberries to dinner with myself and CJ. They were insanely delicious. She is one classy broad, and I’m incredibly impressed with myself for realising how much I wanted to get to know her better.
Steampunk Dress: Part 1
Okay, I’m not ENTIRELY finished the outer top layer that I was hoping to have finished by now. Too bad.
This section is designed to go over the top of the dress, and attach on to it around the waist (which is as high as I can get it). I think it would also work as a top in its own right.
The pieces:
The material is classique suiting (whatever that means – all I care about is it doesn’t seem to crease), with interfacing sewn on. I pinned the pieces together at the shoulders and sides, and then made adjustments – and did the same thing again (more accurately) once I’d actually sewn those seams.
As you can see below, it’s designed to open in two panels at the front, like overlapping doors. There will be buttons down the middle seam (I cut it so it’s closer to the middle and looks better), and a waistband beneath all this. First I need to gather or pleat the front bottom seam. I have some nice steampunky buttons ready to go. I’ll post pictures when it’s fully done.
I learnt a fair bit as I went along, most importantly that it doesn’t matter HOW much you tell yourself, “Don’t cut the tablecloth, don’t cut the tablecloth” – you’re going to cut the tablecloth.
Coming soon: Other bits! Grommets! Press studs! More startling events due to my creative methods!
Old, older, oldest
*I’m switching Steampunk Sunday with Miscellaneous Monday this week in hopes that I have something to show from the steampunk dress tomorrow. Wish me luck – with my sewing, I need it.*
I think that whatever age we first meet someone is the age they always are in our minds. My parents, to me, have barely aged in my lifetime. They’re still just. . . there. . . in a twilight region that’s much older than me but never truly old. It will be a great shock to me if they suddenly start having old-person health complaints.
I have another friend who is four years younger than me. As adults, that makes us effectively the same age – but we’ve known each other since primary school, and four years in childhood is a distance greater than the circumference of the earth. So I’m always underestimating his age, because to me he’s much, much younger than I am.
And I imagine this means that I will always look at Louisette and see the wide-eyed yet deeply suspicious baby that I love. Hopefully I’ll see all the other ages of her life too.
D.I.C.T.I.O.N.A.R.Y.
Here is a GREAT article on some common publishing terms. Some definitions vary a little from company to company, so make sure you always read and follow their specific instructions.
Some of the most basic are:
Full: A full manuscript.
Genre: The classification of books. Examples of genre in fiction include mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, and in nonfiction you might see sub-genres like business, health, parenting, pets, art, architecture, memoir, or current events.
Literary Agent: A literary agent works on behalf of the author to sell her book and negotiate with publishers. A literary agent also helps with career planning and development and sometimes editing and marketing.
Novel: Book-length fiction. Therefore, note that it is redundant to say “fiction novel.”
Partial: A partial is frequently what an agent will ask for when taking a book under consideration. For fiction and narrative nonfiction a partial usually includes a cover letter, a designated number of chapters from the book, and a synopsis. For non-narrative nonfiction a partial usually contains an extended author bio, an overview of the book, an expanded table of contents, detailed marketing and competitive information, and of course sample writing material (usually a chapter or two). Also called a Proposal.
Query: A one-page letter sent to agents or editors in an attempt to obtain representation. A query letter should include all of the author’s contact information—name, address, phone, email, and Web site—as well as the title of the book, genre, author bio if applicable, and a short, enticing blurb of the book. A query letter is your introduction and sometimes only contact with an agent and should not be taken lightly.
SASE: Short for self-addressed, stamped envelope, a requirement for any author who wants a reply to a snail-mailed query.
Slush/Slush Pile: Any material sent to an agent or an editor that has not been requested.
Synopsis: A detailed, multipage description of the book that includes all major plot points as well as the conclusion.
“Brilliance of the Moon” by Lian Hearn. Book 4 of 4.5
This is the final book in the original Otori clan trilogy (there is a prequel, which I love, and a sequel, which I don’t like). Lord Otori Takeo is denying his peaceful upbringing and fleeing his genetic inheritance of supernatural skills as an assassin – and he is fighting for his rights as the adopted son of the Otori clan.
Between them, Takeo and the love of his life, Lady Shirakawa Kaede, can bring peace to the three countries. But the enemies arrayed against them include the corrupt Otori lords who stole their place twenty years earlier; the newly-risen lord who once saved Lady Shirakawa’s life; and the Tribe, who have bent all their supernatural skill on seeing Takeo killed for his defiance of their demands.
It is a climactic end to the trilogy, and ultimately it is as painful and beautiful as all the rest. Do yourself a favour and read the prequel and the trilogy. They’re just brilliant.
Free sample (when Takeo comes across the aftermath of a massacre by members of the Tribe; only a boy is left alive):
‘What happened?’ I said.
His teeth were chattering but he tried to speak normally, his voice coming out louder than he’d intended. ‘Two men came through the roof. They strangled Kitano and Tsuruta. Someone else slashed the tethers and panicked the horses. My father ran after them, and when he came back inside the men cut him open with their knives.’
He fought back the sob. ‘I thought they’d gone,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t see them! They came out of the air and cut him open.’
‘Where were you?’
‘I was in the storeroom. I hid. I’m ashamed. I should have killed them!’
Rating: M/MA for sex, violence, and violent sex (never gratuitous, but it’s there)
Felicity Banks 