So, far I’ve been keeping up with my word count for NaNo. You need 1667 words per day minimum to make the 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’ve got about 7000 words right now.
My previous two books were lighthearted YA fantasy complete with princesses. I still have to finish editing both of them but I’m getting closer to a final draft on Hyacinth’s story.
This new one is also YA, but a touch grittier and more on the scifi end of things. My working title is ‘The Median’. (If anyone’s got a better idea let me know.)
In an overpopulated future Earth, where everyone’s chipped in to the mesh and creds buy chip/society privileges, 16 year old Jian is the lowest of the low: a basement dweller, a null. With nothing but basic subsistence–the algae slush that passes for food, and the narrow sleeping shelf she’s allocated in the stacks–she must scrabble to survive.
While hunting for crunchies (cockroaches) she witnesses what looks like a gang murder, except that they brutally remove the victim’s chip and neuro plug. She flees into the tunnels and sewers to avoid becoming the next victim and while looking for a place to hide, she stumbles on the Median–the last wildlife preserve on the planet.
Formed back when the last of the National Parks were bulldozed for housing or industrial parks, the Median is made up of thin strips of force field protected land between the aerways. Jian must adapt to this new world and the creatures it contains, and stay alive as she learns the gang violence she witnessed isn’t as simple as it seems.
The Bead Bazaar was a lot of fun this year. And for the first time ever, I think, I made more money than I spent. The economy seems to be picking up since I did about 5 times better than I did last year.
I picked up some cool silver frames that I plan on using with a sculpted design inside. And I also got some wonderful labradorite beads – I love the way the colors flash in the light. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet, so they’ll probably spend some time in my collection with everything I’ve bought in previous years 
I also got some great pewter charms which are made by Green Girl Studios – definitely worth checking out if you don’t know their work. I love the round little hippo I got.
National Novel Writing Month starts November 1st and I’m getting ready for it.
If you’ve ever thought about writing, November is the time to try it. NaNoWriMo is when a group of crazy people all over the world attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.
It’s intense, but it’s do-able. And it’s a lot of fun.
I have my idea and I’ve been making notes and doing some research. It turns out cockroaches are edible – a fact that I plan to make use of in the overpopulated future of my imagined Earth. I draw the line at tasting them myself to allow for realistic description though.
Still haven’t decided whether I want to write it in 1st or 3rd person though. And I need a good name for the group of bad guys. Hmmm….
This was while ago but I never posted it. One of the many visitors to our bird feeder We’ve had this raccoon, a mother with two babies, grey squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, a hawk which caught several of the chipmunks, a grey fox, a buck, and of course numerous birds.
If you’re in New England, drop by the Connecticut Bead Society‘s 12th Annual Bead Bazaar.
Sept 12 & 13 – Hours 10am – 5pm
admission $5
The Holiday Inn, 201 Washington Avenue,
North Haven, CT
(Rt 5) Exit 12 off I-91
Official description: Over 40 vendors will offer for sale everything from vintage glass and lampworked beads, semi-precious and freshwater pearls, raku and porcelain, seed beads and silver, polymer clay, beading supplies and much more.
The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild will be there and we’ll be selling original work by our members – including me. Stop by and visit.
The postcard above shows some of the great work from the rest of the guild. The fox in the lower left is mine.
It’s a nice bead show – the only problem is that I always spend more than I make 
Cormorant relief sculpture
My Cormorant relief was accepted into a local exhibit – the Wickford Art Association’s 14th Annual Art Of The Ocean State Open Juried Show. It runs from July 17 – August 12, 2009.
I think cormorants are really interesting birds and I haven’t seen them depicted as much in art. I also wanted to try a looser style with this and just capture the feel of the bird, not every feather.
This was the largest relief I’ve done yet. It’s 12 inches high and sculpted in black Premo.
I added a wash of watered down turquoise acrylic paint to the background, and also used acrylics to highlight the beak and eye. I drybrushed the feathers in dark brown to bring out some of the texture and lift them from the dark background.
These are some Bottles of Hope that my mother and I made a few weekends ago.
They’re a great small canvas for trying new techniques, color combinations, or using up interesting scraps, AND, more importantly, you’re giving something to someone else to tell them they’re not alone – someone cares.
Article on an interesting idea – a kaleidoscope window created by Patty Peffer.
The invention is an operating kaleidoscope that can be installed as a new or replacement window in homes.
….
Five years and countless designs later, the end result is a round specialty window that uses a 24-inch opening in the wall with an interior clear viewing pane that is 10 inches wide. The Kaleido View Portal is made up of a three-mirror structure that reflects light off shaped images in red, blue, green, yellow. The image resembles half of a 3-D geodesic dome, she said.
They have a website at www.kvpwindows.com
Side 1
This was my first attempt at using my new metal working tools. I had some scraps of brass sheet laying around – they were meant for trophy plaques I believe. I don’t have a torch (yet) so I tried kiln annealing the metal. I’m not sure if it’s the right way to do it but 1000 degrees for about 10 minutes did the trick. I ended up with some color change and patination on the brass, and some nasty fire scale on the copper tubing I tried, but it worked.
I could have cleaned the brass but I rather liked the look and just banged on it a bit with a textured hammer to give it some interest. Then I cut out a brass rectangle with an attached vertical football type shape at the top for the bail. I only broke two saw blades doing it.
I filed down the corners and edges to get rid of any burrs and sharp edges. Then I used a set of forming pliers to fold over the bail although I could have just used a set of regular pliers and bent it around some sort of mandrel.
I drilled a couple holes for the rivets (brass escutcheon pins – thanks for the idea, Libby) in both the metal and the two clay pieces I wanted to attach. Then I cut the pins to length (love that tube cutting jig). The great thing about the brass pins is that I only had to mushroom one side. I ended up using a bolt as a punch since I couldn’t get the hammer in to the pin without smashing the clay.
It all worked out though and I made two sets of earrings to go with each of the sides. I’m pretty pleased with it for a first project when I didn’t really know what I was doing
rivets
This was the last class I took in the Weekend of Clay and, in a way, the one which made the most trouble. Lanette taught us some metal working basics including how to use a sawframe and cut sheet metal, and how to make rivets. It was great, although you can see I need a bit of practice still on my rivets.
The problem is that now I needed a whole new set of tools. I now have a sawframe, tube cutting jig, a b&s gauge (for checking the gauge of wire and sheet), oh, and a cool metal necklace mandrel that I haven’t used yet that I got from contenti.com. I also have doming punches and disc cutters from Harbor Freight.
And I’ve signed up for a four day class to learn how to use the tools better in August. It should be fun. But it’s one more set of tools and supplies to add to the collection
