Category: Learning

Serge of energy

#design, Cosplay, Crafting, Learning, Sewing

Thanks to my awesome mom and wonderful husband, I have an early birthday present–a serger to sew with!

Less than a year after I got my first sewing machine, I’ve become somewhat of a sewing addict, especially when it comes to cosplay. That’s not all I use my sewing machine for, though; I also plan on altering my scrubs that don’t fit quite right so I have more options to wear to work, and I want to make new scrubs as well.

I was getting sluggish on my cosplay work, but now that I have the serger I’m excited to get some thread for it and get to playing around with it. I’ll definitely have to practice first, because we’ve spent too much on fabric for cosplay for me to just dive right in without learning how the thing works. From what I understand (after asking in a Facebook group or two), once you learn the threading it’s not so bad, and as long as you don’t forget to take out your pins–which I take out anyway–you’re golden. I hope it’s true advice.

So once I get the thread and start practicing, I’m sure my drive for cosplay design and sewing will pick back up. Now if only I could stay awake in the mornings to do all this….

It’s easy to get into these pants…

Comic books, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Learning, Sewing

No, that’s not what I’m talking about! Geez, get your minds outta the gutter. I’m talking about getting into sewing my husband’s cosplay pants for his Shatterstar costume.

Gaveedra_Seven_(Mojoverse)_from_X-Factor_Vol_1_250_cover

I was afraid that the color blocking would be difficult to figure out, but it actually was surprisingly easy. Just had to use some spare fabric to sketch out the color blocking and make a rough pattern to cut it out. It’s not going to be exact, but it’s pretty close. I’m kind of proud of it.

The actual sewing and putting together of the pants was easy as well, because I’m using the same pattern that I used for his Gaara pants. So I’ve made the pants before, and while they gave me a hard time the first time I now better understand the hows of putting it all together. I’m almost done with them–just taking a lunch break right now–then it’s on to the next part.

The coat will be next, and that will be more of a challenge. Once again I’ll have to alter a pattern, and also do color blocking, but I think now that I have a handle on that part I’ll be okay. It’s the pattern itself that might give me issues, because I’m using a new pattern that I’ve never used before. I was apprehensive about the Gaara coat, though, and that turned out all right, so I think this will as well. I just need to follow the directions and go at my own pace. I have 2 1/2 months to put these costumes together and it took me 1 month for Temari and Gaara combined.

I can do this. Here we come, Dragon Con!

Experiment, Day 4

Flash Fiction, Horror, Learning, Marketing, Novel, Poetry, Social Media, Writing

Well, this is somewhat interesting. My day 4 numbers as far as free book downloads were more than double the day 3 numbers. Could it be that people are trying to get the book while it’s still free?

Today will be the final day of the free book promo for my novel and my two anthologies (my poetry anthology and my short story/flash fiction anthology). The horror short anthology has been doing relatively well, considering I haven’t really advertised it specifically on social media. Not nearly as well as the novel, but decent numbers for not having been talked about.

This experiment has been interesting, given that I haven’t done anything different besides putting my novel on a temporary free promotion. Does this mean that people aren’t willing to pay the price I’ve set for my novel? If so, does it mean that the price is too high, that the blurb isn’t catchy enough for them to want to pay for it, or does it just mean that people like free stuff?

Since I’m not a scientific person by nature, I’ll probably never know the answer. Still, this has been a new experience that I will probably experiment with more later on.

Experiment, Day 3

Learning, Marketing, Novel, Reading, Self Publishing, Social Media

My experiment is more than halfway over, and I have come to the conclusion that perhaps a full five days of freeness might be too much.

I wanted to reach the largest audience I could, so I figured the longest available free promotion would be best. It’s looking to be an error in judgment right now. Though the book did quite well the first day and somewhat well the second day, yesterday (day 3) was something of a bomb in comparison:

The first day saw 227 copies sold, the second 144, but yesterday only 42 copies were sold. Granted, 413 copies is vastly more than any number I had reached prior (I think my previous record was six in one day, just after the launch), but how many will read it? I myself have gotten free books before and not read them. I have probably at least a dozen on my Kindle app waiting to be read, maybe even two dozen.

I’m not drawing any definitive conclusions until the five-day promotional period is done, but I’m thinking that five days is too long. Free for a weekend? Yeah, that’s a possibility. But free for five days? It’s not looking like there’s much interest anymore.

Today (day 4) there has only been one copy sold, but given that it’s only 1:15 in the morning we’ll just ignore that little tidbit and wait for more solid results later in the day.

As far as predictions for tomorrow go, it’s hard to say. Have all the people who were interested in the book gotten it already? Will some people see that “last day to get it free” tweet and scramble to pick it up while the deal is still going on? Who knows.

Language barrier

Charity, Diversity, Education, Language, Learning, Musings, Reading, Writing

English is one of the toughest languages to learn. This is almost universally agreed upon.

You know what’s even tougher? Learning proper English when you’ve spent your entire life speaking and writing in American English.

British English is almost as different from American English as any two other languages you could pick. The grammar is different. The punctuation is different. The slang is different. The spellings of some of the same words are different. As an American reading British writing (for the charity anthology project I’m working on–with primarily British writers), it can be frustrating. Is this a misspelling or just a cultural difference? What the heck is this word? What the fuck does this even mean?

For the writers of the anthology, one of our functions is to critique the other writers’ works. This critique process helps to clean up first drafts, second drafts, etc. It also gives the author of each piece a different perspective of how the piece reads. It’s a great process, and it has improved my writing immensely. However, as a “foreigner” when it comes to British English, I feel as though I’m trying to critique a short story/poem/etc that’s written in Greek or Spanish.

Granted, I’ve learned quite a lot about British English through this project. When I watch a British television show I’m not quite as lost at some points as I may otherwise be. It’s quite interesting to see the differences in two languages that are supposed to be the same language. No wonder it’s considered one of the toughest languages to learn. You can learn British English fluently, then take a trip to America and suddenly feel as though you don’t know English at all (or vice versa).

Since I’m partially bilingual (I know Spanish well enough to converse with the Mexican patients at work and we can largely understand each other, but I don’t consider myself fluent), does my newfound knowledge of British English make me actually trilingual? It’s a fascinating concept.

De-con-pression

#nerd, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek, Learning

Yeah, yeah, the con titles are getting old. This should–maybe–be the last one…for a while. Possibly.

So as my husband and I decompress from the convention, we’re catching up on TV that we missed and discussing our next cosplay pairing for Dragon Con in September. Being that I have an awesome husband and mom, I’ll soon own a new serger and be able to sew knits and Spandex for more cosplays. We also attended several panels on cosplay design and creation, so we’re hoping that gives us a start on accomplishing bigger and better cosplays.

You’ll be seeing progress photos as my husband and I get to work, partly because I get super excited and geeked out over it all, and partly because I like to see the progression myself. It’s fun to see what started out as, say, a couple bouncy balls from the toy section in Wal-Mart to a larger-than-life prop gourd that got tons of compliments during Phoenix Comicon.

We only have a couple of photos of our cosplays so far, so I’ll wait and see if I find any more of them before I post the “finished” looks here. (I put “finished” in quotes because we’re already brainstorming ways to improve on our first attempts.)

On to interview transcription and article writing! (That’s right, I didn’t forget that I was attending as a member of the media) 😉

Early Morning Confusion

Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Learning, Sewing

I have no idea what to do next on those damn pants. The next step involves “ease stitching” at the top of the pants, where the waistline will be added. Wtf is ease stitching…and how do I do it?

This is why I shouldn’t allow myself to try this crap at 0200. I keep waking up early, all excited to get to sewing, only to be reminded that I mostly don’t know what I’m doing. Oh sure, I can slap two pieces of fabric together and stitch ’em, but when it comes to terms like ease stitching I’m in the dark. (Ha! Pre-dawn pun!)

I’ve reached out to a Facebook group that’s generally helpful for cosplayers who want to learn about sewing or share cosplays that they’ve made, so I’m hoping that when people start to wake up I’ll get an answer. As for right now, I guess I’m going to write a little more. Got some creative juiciness going on here; might as well not waste it.

As I finished that last sentence someone answered my question. Turns out it’s not as complicated as I thought, but now I’m in bed and comfy. I’ll ease into it tomorrow morning. (Ha! Another pun!)

I hate pants

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Learning

So frustrated right now. The current pants pattern I’m working on isn’t as complicated as the first pair I did, but this next step in the instructions is confusing me. I can’t figure out how to pin/ stitch it, so I’m taking a break until it clicks.

I had this same problem with the first pair of pants that I made for him. That pair was a semi-historical pattern–well, a costume pattern for some pirate pants, which had a front flap and used a lot of interfacing. It took a lot of looking over several times before it hit me how to do it.

I’ve been forewarned by a friend of mine that the coat I’m going to make will possibly be equally frustrating, so there may be a post in my future that is titled “I hate coats.” But I’ve made sleeved scrub tops before, and the first one had no real “pattern,” just an old scrub top that I had seam ripped to see how it was put together. Still, I’m going to do my best. As Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame would say, I’m going to “make it work.”

It’s sweet that my husband wants me to make his cosplay pieces. He takes such pride in my work that he loves showing it off to friends when he gets the chance. I’m even going to make a prop for him. He’s going to help, but I’m going to do probably most of the work because my OCD will make the paper maché turn out smoother. I don’t mind, though. It’s crafty stuff. I like being crafty, and it gives me a chance to try my hand at fabricating props. I’m not making the prop for my character–it’s too large and complicated–but I’ll at least be able to say I made the majority of the cosplays.

Everyone’s a Critic…but that Doesn’t Mean You Should Listen

Art, Drawing, Learning, Poetry, Thoughts, Writing

So I’ve taken a sidetrack from the manuscript to do some more work on the charity anthology (that is, in fact, still in the works). It made me think a bit about critiques and what they mean to a writer/artist (for the purposes of brevity, I’m going to be long-winded for a moment and say that for the rest of this post I’m going to just refer to all writers and artists as “artist”).

They say everyone’s a critic–and they’re right. No two people are going to agree 100% on the style of any piece of art, whatever the medium. But some criticisms are useful. So how do you tell which criticisms to take to heart and which ones to ignore?

In my opinion, the artist is the ultimate decision maker on their art, regardless of what others say. As an artist, you are the creator. You are God. But even a god can make mistakes, and therein lies the rub. You have to be open to acknowledging those mistakes and making changes based on the critiques you receive.

Take your time when giving and receiving critiques. As a critic, try to put yourself in the mindset of the artist. What are they trying to say? Is that sentence fragment on purpose? Is that swipe of the brush an accident or a happy little tree? As an artist, think long and hard about what the critic is saying. Do you really need to rephrase that fragment? Should you make that brush stroke into a happy little tree?

It’s all subjective, of course. Well, not grammar…that’s objective. Except when it’s subjective. Savvy?

Critiques are that simple, and they’re that complex.

Back in the saddle

Celebrity, Interview, Learning, Work

It has been a long time since I’ve had the time and availability to do a phone interview for Talk Nerdy With Us (well, aside from one Skype interview with someone in Australia, whose lunch time coincided with my just-before-bed time). It felt kind of nice to do an interview again, even if the conversation didn’t last very long.

I need to work on that. Other writers talk about interviews that run over an hour long, or becoming buddies with the person they interviewed to the point where they exchange emails or phone numbers to keep in touch.

I don’t get that. Despite my best efforts to keep a conversation going, I just run out of things to say. I’m not great at small talk, and I get shy and awkward even over the phone. Not that I’m too shy to actually talk with an actor or musician, but I just feel like I don’t have anything important to say. Talked about the weather? Okay. Asked my questions? Okay. Now we can chat about…what? What else is there? If they’re not into nerdy things like I am, I don’t know how to relate.

Hiking and traveling? I don’t do those much. (Okay, hiking never.) Music? I like to listen to it, but I can’t play any instruments or even sing on key.

There was one interview where I had a good conversation with my interviewee, but that was because we had common interests. Pair me with someone who likes Doctor Who or Star Wars or something and we’ll do great. Pair me with someone who’s into working out and venturing into the great outdoors, and I clam up. I can’t relate to that.

So how do I get these long, friendly interviews? What do I have to do to get that? I simply don’t know. They say the “secret” is to just treat it like a conversation, but guess what–I’m a terrible conversationalist. Normally, I hate talking on the phone. I’ll test or direct message any time, but put me on the phone and I don’t know what to say. It’s rather pathetic, really.

Maybe next time will be different. I may not have had the longest interview today, but I felt comfortable talking with the actor (even though I didn’t have anything in common with him to keep the conversation going), so I guess that’s a start.

Not much of one… but a start.