There is no epidural for the birth of a book

My novel is officially two chapters long now, and by the very fact that the first chapter is complete the book’s chances of survival are hugely increased. It’s a sad but true fact in my case that dozens of story ideas that I have never make it onto a page. I lose interest, the idea doesn’t pan out, something better comes along, and the previous concept gets reabsorbed into my mind. The loss is always disheartening, but this time it looks like the culmination of dozens of scrapped ideas have formed into a new and hardier specimen, one that I can write without feeling put upon or dissatisfied. Here are some samples of said novel, just to pique your interest:
“Listen, Gabriel, I don’t know what the hell is going on but I do know that the man who raised me has been murdered and the last things he was able to pass on to me were a book full of cryptic writing, a necklace that I know I’ve seen even if I have no overt memory of it, and a note telling me to run for my life. So pardon me if I’m a little hysterical.”

“We have a murderer in London who’s clearly out of his mind and threatening to do harm to others, assassination attempts on her Majesty, and all manner of petty crime and theft besides, but we’re supposed to drop everything to investigate the death of some French artist’s model?”

“Mother, the man who tried to kill me had a picture of your necklace in his pocket. I have to know what all this is about.”
“Oh god, I’d hoped to spare you this,” Ramses’ mother turned away from him, hugging herself as though she was cold in the blazing Egyptian sun, “I’d hoped your French blood would thin out the curse that runs in our family.”

In the meantime I’m working out my Halloween plans. My costume is all lined up – I’m going as a kitsune, a Japanese fox spirit – and am only waiting on the mask. I also recently purchased some sock garters decorated with gears from the online shop known as Sock Dreams, which will get a critique once I get some time to do shops as well as media in my reviews. I’m also trying to think up a way to do a Steampunk jack o’ lantern, though I’ll probably just copy the face of the pumpkin scarecrow in Sleepy Hollow, like I do every year, and searching for Halloween parties to gatecrash and/or have a grand time at.
And on a final note I’m currently on the lookout for a boyfriend, in that I’m officially sick of being single. I’m not going to talk about my candidates here, as god knows who reads this blog *shifty eyes* but rest assured they exist and you may get updates on the Steampunk Aristocrat’s attempts to find love.

Safe flying, airship pilots!

I know I’m back in college when I wake up with strange books all over my bed and haven’t a clue how they got there.

Wow. What else is there to say, really? Over the last week I have gained over twenty new subscribers to my youtube channel and four new watchers on my blog. I’m not really sure what to say about it, though grateful and honored don’t begin to describe my feelings. I started making these videos practically on a whim, and I am so unbelievably happy that they’re well liked. I’m also curious as to where the sudden windfall of attention has come from. It seemed like overnight people were beating down my youtube door, and though I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth I’m still curious as to the ‘source point’ of all this attention. Or, perhaps, there isn’t one, and my sudden deluge of subscribers is a standalone complex to rival anything Ghost in the Shell has ever had to deal with.

Now to jump to an unrelated topic, Etsy Vs. Artfire. This is a nasty, prickly issue that has popped up in my life more and more recently, mostly because I’m an Etsy addict. The argument I’ve heard thus far is that Artfire is more independently minded and just generally better. I, however, still favor Etsy for several reason: most prominent, I find that the aesthetic design of Etsy is superior. It’s simple white background and lack of clutter is less distracting than the colorful and image heavy front page of Artfire. After that point I don’t see any particular level of superiority vs. inferiority. If I wanted to sell via one or the other, perhaps I would have stronger feelings. But I’m not a seller, I’m a buyer and a critic of shops from the patron end of things. I can also say that I tend to trust Etsy more because it’s been around longer, a classic symptom of my tried-and-true loving Capricorn nature. If Artfire manages to make a bigger name for itself as a good seller and not just a champion of the under-fed artist I’ll take more note of it.

And on a final note, I still have no freshman shadow, which is just fine by me. I’m busy enough with my awesome roommate. Our relationship is something on par with Holmes and Watson. I’m the Holmes, quiet, antisocial, busy with my computer the way the famous detective was busy with his chemistry set. My roomie, on the other hand, is a far more friendly being, selfless to a fault, willing to help people regardless of time or trouble, a perfect double of Watson, albeit a version of Watson that has two X chromosomes. I’d say we make a good team, and we are certainly a superior one to that which I had the year before, in which my roommate considered my fantasy magazines and novels to be evil. More on that in later entries.

Safe flying, airship pilots!

Chaos and Cards

Well with my new review posted and my next review in the works, something has occurred to me. When I first posted Episode 8 the credits music was Depeche Mode’s well known song, ‘Personal Jesus’. No sooner had I uploaded the video, however, than youtube muted the entire thing because I had used that song and apparently I didn’t have the right to. I was then forced to take it down, change the music to E Nomine’s ‘Mondengel’, and reupload. This whole affair was a phenomenal pain in the ass, and I have thereby come to the conclusion that, simply put, I need some theme music of my own, since I do not ever want to have to fidget constantly with the video, checking and rechecking that it hasn’t been muted.

Now I don’t know how many people read my blog regularly, but I’m going to post this here and on my youtube channel: I’m holding a contest to see who can make me the best theme music. It can be any style, with lyrics or without, I’m not picky. The one I like will become my official theme music and play over the endings and possibly the opener (which I’m considering adding) of all my episodes, with credit given to the composer in the credits. It’s that simple.

All this aside, not all that much has been happening this week. My most exciting prospects will occur this Saturday, when I learn to play whist for the first time. I’m a lover of card games of all kinds, though I’m severely out of practice, with my favorite games being Texas Hold ‘Em, Five Card Stud, BS, and Black Jack respectively. I would, however, like to learn some older, more upper crust card games, particularly ones that would have been played during the Victorian era, and whist seems like a good place to start. As a child I was also taught rummy, and I will hopefully renew my ability to play that as well.

Safe flying, airship pilots!