Revisiting my childhood…well, pre-young adulthood
Revisiting my childhood…well, young adulthood
My dad had been collecting and reading science fiction books since he was a kid. He still blasts through them at an alarming rate. He never wanted to write them, though, just read and read and read and read.
Sometime around fifth or sixth grade, I asked my dad what to read. I’d been introduced to Madeline L’Engle, Anne McCaffrey and of course J.R.R. Tolkein by this point in school, but I didn’t know of any others I might like.
Dad’s book collection was monstrous although most were stored in boxes rather than on shelves. We’d had a basement in our old house, but after moving, my dad had to give up the bookshelves in favor of boxes in the garage because very few houses in California have basements. At least not where we’d moved.
Anyhow, “I want to read something science fiction, Dad.” I interrupted him from one of his Ace Doubles. “What should I read?”
“Well, there’s a lot of books out there. What do you really want to read?”
“I dunno. That’s why I’m asking you.” I figured if I had the same taste in books as my dad, I’d probably never have to buy a book ever because I’d just work my way through his library. (Yes, I have always been cheap, but I like to think of it more as ‘making the best of what’s around’.)
“Hmmm… Well…” He thought on it for awhile. And then awhile longer. “Let me see what I’ve got that you might like.”
It took him a while of hunting, but he produced The Swordswoman by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. “I think you might like this. You seem to be more into fantasy and I just don’t have a whole lot of that, but this one, I think you’d like.”
“Thanks Dad!” I took the beat-up paperback (I don’t think Dad ever bought brand new books, in fact, I think he still gets all of his books at thrift stores and flea markets!) and shut myself up in my room.
I read The Swordswoman in about a week.
And then was assigned a book report for school, so I read it again.
After that, the book was stored with my growing collection in my closet for a few years before being swallowed up and overtaken with romance novels a few years later when I discovered Jude Devereaux and the used book store that had moved in about six blocks from home. I don’t know what eventually happened to that copy of The Swordswoman, but I do recall the cover falling off and the book breaking in two halves at the spine. It’d been thrashed when I got it and continued to decay as I grew up.
I’ve looked to replace my copy a few times since then because I remember that book being, like, the best book I’d ever read, but I couldn’t remember who’d written it.
Until last week. While sifting through boxes of some old stuff of mine (hunting for an old story I’d written), I found that book report! And jumped with glee because now, the next time I was in a bookstore, I could look for it.
Well, that time came while I happened to be at Powell’s Book City in Portland, OR. I was in town (dragged by Jason) for a few days and was staying a couple blocks away. Even though I wasn’t going to the convention with him, he figured he’d offer to bring me along so that I could get some writing done.
I did.
And I got to start reading The Swordswoman by Jessica Amanda Salmonson and it is every bit as good as I remember. Complete with a little romance in it, too. And the copy I found at Powell’s is in way better shape than the one I’d read years ago.
Yay!
Booth 59 on Publisher Island
In Second Life, I go by the name Twyla Briggs. I’m still learning the ropes, but I just set up a booth on Publisher Island. #59 to be exact. It’s in view of Book Island, too. I put a phantom castle on the front. You can’t miss it.
Beyond the castle is Tayna’s Chronicle Room from Otherness: Rift. How nifty is it that anyone can write a book and then create its world in Second Life? And, like, walk around in that world? Good golly, the possibilities are endless and I look forward to doing Ashleigh Raine books there, too.
I had tons of fun scouring SL for props and scanning various things in my Real Life repertoire (aka stashes of precious junk) for correct textures. The castle image on the front of my booth is actually 3 photos from various vacations in England. Yay! For re-purposing vacation pictures!
My favorites from the whole experience were seeing the big ol’ book laying on Tayna’s table, Tayna’s tea cup and Twyla’s crystal ball.
In Otherness: Rift, the book is called the Rede. Right now, in SL, the Rede is just a simple object. I have much planned for it in the future. Much more than what’s in the novel I wrote…because, well, I can play with it more in Second Life!
While Tayna’s tea cup isn’t exactly like any of the ones she drinks out of in Otherness: Rift, it’s close. Plus, it was the first thing that was given to me (thank you, Weasel Gough), so to modify it was also kind of special. It started as a very simple, white cup of black tea. I transformed it into a celtic-patterned cup of green tea. Feel free to stop by my booth and copy one for yourself. I left the drinking script in it, so your avatar can enjoy!
And finally, Twyla’s crystal ball. Well, that’s a sort of funny thing. I’d gotten a box of miscellaneous lights that included some particle balls. None of them were quite right for my idea of the ball Tayna was using to scry in Otherness: Rift, so I opened up the script to see if I could figure out how to modify it. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I kept changing numbers until I got the right colors, the right movement and the right speed. My husband was so shocked, he helped me build a base for it from scratch. What a fantastic learning experience.
I look forward to many more builds and such in Second Life. Say hi if you see Twyla Briggs!!!!
Virtually Living
I enjoy exploring Second Life as Twyla Briggs, but for some reason I hadn’t considered having a presence there until recently. Sure, I always figured I’d collaborate with some of my friends (they’ve already got a lot going on), but I hadn’t dreamed of doing something on my own…y’know, like figuring out how to build stuff.
Well, the time has come. I have booth #59 on Publisher Island and I gotta do something really cool with it. I mean, like, really, really cool. ‘Cause with the quality of what my friends do and have done, I gotta present something at least respectable. I’m married to Fallon Winnfield, for goodness sake. Visit Manoa. You’ll see why I’m feelin’ pressure!
And I don’t want his help, either. Advice, yes, but I wanna learn this myself. My goal is to have him come to me asking how to do stuff, not always the other way around. I want my friends to be surprised that I did so well first time out.
When physical light is introduced in Second Life, well, I’ll be even more motivated than I am now. Once upon a time, I was a theatrical lighting designer. I still read books on the history of stage lighting just for the fun of it even though I haven’t done a real stage show in several years. I miss lighting. A lot. So, to have the opportunity to do it in Second Life without renting fixtures, dimmers, miles of cable, a light board and then having to load, hang and focus it all myself using a ladder that’s probably too wobbly and short…well, you get the picture.
Right now, SL lighting isn’t physical. There are no shadows unless you manufacture them yourself. I’m too lazy. I wanna point a light at something and have the shadows happen naturally like they’re supposed to. To me, that’s one of the things that makes light so beautiful: the give and take between what is seen in the light and what is unseen in the shadows.
Blue Root, or Would You Like To Connect?
You see it in the middle of the banner at the top of my site, but what the heck is Blue Root, right? Why would I give away a whole novel for free?
There’s a lot of reasons, but mostly because I want it published and it’s a hard sell to traditional publishers, so I gotta go an other-than-traditional route. It’s a real genre-mixer, even a genre-bender. The science is pure fiction. The romance serves the science as much as the characters involved. The whole darn thing is a corny, slapstick comedy. What the hell happened?
More importantly, why not just shelve it and cut my losses?
Because writer friends of mine keep asking me what’s up with it, where it’s being published and are shocked to find out that no, it’s not going to be released in paperback or even ebook from a publisher who was willing to take a chance. They enjoyed it so much that they still ask after having read it over a year ago and hadn’t forgotten it.
Sure, it’s got some first-book-itis, but a lot of the things in it are being tackled today. Teledildonics comes to mind. Bluetooth-enabled portable computer devices. The iPhone.
I just don’t think I should let Blue Root rot on my hard drive any longer. I should share it with the world…or at least anyone who visits my website.
So here it is. For some light reading including a networkable, programmable sex toy, a wimpy villain who reeks like garlic, a semi-self-aware A.I., a cat named Trouble, a rekindled romance and a whole lot of sex-crazed, living zombies, read Blue Root.
I just set myself up on Twitter
I get very busy quite often. Sometimes, this blog seems forsaken. That’s not the case anymore because if nothing else gets updated, I plan to Twitter. That means that the little section of the sidebar under my picture will frequently change.
I might mention what I’m doing at that very moment, what I’m about to do or what I’ve already done. Sometimes, it’s boring and sometimes, well… it could get interesting.
I sometimes do a lot of unrelated things in a day…after all, that’s when I’m at my happiest, so I’ll do my best to share.
For instance, one of the things I could’ve twittered if I’d gotten set up about a month ago would be: After pairing my phone with a Lamborghini Gallardo while I was at a stoplight, I realized it was too early to call anyone.
Or from last week: I am hunting down pics of myself dressed as Cancan Leeloo so I can post them on my website.
(Yes, look for those soon!)
In fact, I’m gonna go do a new one right now: Drinking High Mountain Ginseng Oolong tea that doesn’t taste like shit.
How I Became an Extra
I’m going to go all the way back to the beginning on this one. I’ll try to be as brief as I can, but the path was a fun one and I hope to impart some of that mirth while relating this story.
In college, I discovered the theatre…as a technician, not an actress. After sampling carpentry, sound, and props, I settled in on lighting. My first gig as a Lighting Designer was also my first gig as Master Electrician and Light Board Operator. My boss had faith in me and coached me along and I must say that that ballet turned out great.
At that point, I’d become the ultimate lighting tech. I’d work on any show…sometimes for free, because I didn’t have to worry about rent. I still lived with mom and dad. But my love for the theatre was what brought me to the Los Angeles area because there just wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity where I came from.
So, in college, I continued my lighting career, landing a job at a manufacturer of lighting filters. This was my first real job and it also gave me my first exposure to the world of TV and film. It was my job to find out who was filming what and go there to talk to the crew. It was sort of a sales job without the hard sell. And I got to hang around on set, watching and learning. It was great.
When that job’s description changed, I switched gears and went to work at a small studio as their Lighting Equipment Repair Technician. I loved it. But then September 11 killed the economy and I ended up out of a job.
A bit angered at the entertainment industry, I left to work for a company that manufactured racing engine parts. But I always felt that I was in the wrong place.
My husband needed a hand at his agency, so I went to work for him. Well, sort of. He’d started a subsidiary company and that was the desk I occupied as the office anchor. It was great because by this time, Jen and I were working like crazy on Lover’s Talisman. I wrote quite a few scenes while I was ‘at work’…because there wasn’t any other ‘work’ to be done.
Eventually, I blew the whistle on that, wanting to get back into the entertainment industry somehow, too. But I had zero contacts by this point. All the guys I used to know either had different phone numbers, moved out of state or switched professions themselves. And it’s nearly impossible to get in unless you know someone. So what was left? Background Acting, of course.
All one has to do is sign up…So I did. The pay sucks big time, but non-union, there’s lots of work to be had…especially if you’ve got a huge wardrobe like I do. I’m a thrift store queen and can costume up in clothes from the 1960’s through right now. From homeless to ultra-rich. I’m not a fashion fiend…Jen can vouch for that! I just like clothes.
So, I started going out on shoots and discovered that there’s plenty of down time. In other words, I could still keep up with Jen on our writing. And on a day-to-day basis, I met all sorts of interesting people and got all sorts of story and character ideas. Each day’s work was more like an adventure than anything. For me, it was the perfect job.
I got started at the end of January 2003 and worked like crazy until we started heavy editing on Lover’s Talisman in July. Then, Jen and I were really hittin’ the writing and I couldn’t go out on as many gigs. That obviously gave me more time on my hands in between working on Magic In The Works.
My goal by this point was to get into SAG [Screen Actors Guild] because the pay was better and I could work less in order to write more. Well, luck was in my favor because I have three pre-1975 cars and Starsky & Hutch was in desperate need of one of them. So much so, they were willing to give me SAG vouchers to work on the movie. I jumped for joy when I got that phone call!!! I’d worked on it a couple days in April, but when they called me near the end of production, it was a totally different thing because I was being paid union rates. And those second two days ended up being a turning point for me in more than one way.
That following week, I visited one of the casting agencies that had booked me a lot on Carnivale. Armed with photos of myself and my cars, I put on my best smile and placed the photos in the hands of a casting director. She was so happy, she nearly fell out of her chair. She was casting Anchorman, which also took place in the early 70s. I ended up working at least one day a week for the next 9 weeks and managed to make enough money and SAG vouchers galore to get into the union.
That was September 2003 and I don’t think I’ll ever give up on extra work. It’s certainly not for everyone. The hours are very long. The conditions get questionable from time to time and there’s just nothing like spending a freezing cold windy night in a thin short-sleeved dress while the crew is wearing down jackets and telling us extras not to shiver when the cameras roll.
Yeah, we extras are the bottom of the food chain, literally, but I swear we’ve got one of the hardest jobs on set sometimes. Some days are spent waiting in boredom for 8 hours only to work for 1 and then go home. Others are fifteen hours of walking back and forth doing what I’ve come to call background pinball across frame all the while trying not to look like the same person each time we cross frame. Every day is different and for that, I’m so glad!
If anything, I hope my adventures in Hollywood make for good reading. No matter how crazy, they are all true. Some are so weird that I couldn’t’ve made them up even if I’d tried! I hope you enjoy.
Types of Car Guys
Types of Car Guys…
While posting in a Mustang forum the other day, I had a tangential thought that had nothing to do with the forum or what I was posting. It just randomly landed in my brain and had me looking back over my automotive life.
The early years were spent in autoshop. It was there that I intensely learned the types of car guys through the school of hard knocks. Not that I’m grumpy, I’m most certainly not. I love guys and find them fascinating. Hell, I’ve been told I’m “more of a man than most men.” And it has been wondered if I’m a lesbian because I’m not into traditional girl things. Well, if I’m a lesbian, why do I hate chicks so much? Why would I prefer to be around guys and cars? I guess I’m just wired different. Oh well. Such is life. In fact, it keeps my life interesting to say the least.
Although still off my original topic, that brings me to something else I gotta share. One guy say to me, “You must be a dude. You have a dick, don’t you?” Before I could say anything, my ex-boyfriend said, “She doesn’t have a dick. She’s got five. She keeps them in jars as trophies.” Same guy who said I am more of a man than most men. It has been about a decade since then. I wonder if I’ve girlified since then. I still have the jars–err…uh…never mind.
Anyway, back to my topic…
In no particular order, I started thinking about the various car guy types I’d met. From the old guys who’d seen and done it all and really didn’t give a shit anymore. To the young bucks dripping with so much machismo, they slipped in their own puddles.
But it wasn’t always about age. I think it was a confidence thing.
As evidenced by my little Car Guy Types here:
There were a few–maybe two or three–guys per autoshop class who were genuinely excited about having a girl in the class. They wanted to take me under their wing and teach me a thing or two (or three or four) about cars and for that I’m greatly indebted to those few men who for the most part were surprisingly not trying to date me, or if they were, didn’t show it. I did date a couple of these guys because I’m attracted to people I can learn from. And what better way to learn than from someone as passionate as I was about cars? Plus, there’s always the added bonus of working on cars together and cracking jokes about honing my master cylinder.
Next are another favorite of mine… The guys who genuinely didn’t care that I was a girl and treated me like one of the guys. There was the occasional, “You wrench like a girl.” type jokes, but I love ’em. I loved those guys because they also helped cultivate my deep appreciation for dick-and-fart jokes while teaching me a thing or two or three about cars.
Now we start getting into the other, less fun types…
And there are two subsets of this type. Both hated that there was a girl in the class. She didn’t belong there no matter how smart or how capable or how much she liked cars. She was a girl and should be playing with dolls or something. (Little did they know, at home, I was collecting antique dolls and now I restore them as well as I restore cars.) Anyway, one type I put up with because of the nature of their affliction. The other I simply avoided like the plague because I didn’t need the bullshit.
On my first day in bodyshop class, during break, a guy sat down next to me. I’d been hiding all the way in the back of class. I never know if I’m walking into an ambush, so I just hide until I know who feels what about having a girl in class. Anyway, this guy plunks down next to me and says, “So why are you here?” I reply, “Uh…To learn…” Duh. Why else does a person take a class? He says, “Yeah, sure. You’re just here to pick up guys.” I stifled a pretty hard laugh. I mean, doesn’t every girl pick up guys in autoshop rather than engineering or business, or even music or literature? Sure. And every woman knows mechanic’s hands are always so clean and silky smooth. Uh-huh. Yeah, like a rasp or a cheese grater when sculpting bondo. Niiiice. Like the business end of a cylinder hone. Mhmmm… Oh yeah, now there’s a great exfoliant.
But that set the tone for my in-class relationship with the guy. In essence, I avoided him. Just as I avoided the guys who said, “Isn’t there a kitchen you should be cleaning somewhere?” Bullshit. I suck at cleaning. Always have. Just ask my mom.
So, you have the guys that are just really irritated that there’s a woman in ‘their domain’. They try to sabotage every now and then, but I’ve also found that they are often pretty stupid. Which makes them more pissed off when I get around whatever they put in my way. More bullshit just triggers more avoidance. Who needs the anguish? Besides, success is the best revenge.
And finally, there’s the guys who like the other sub-set are upset that there’s a woman in the class. She doesn’t belong there, but she’s there and he’s gotta deal with it. And by golly, there’s no fuckin’ way she’s gonna score higher on the test or fix a car better. No fuckin’ way. No sirree. He’s gonna have to show her just how much smarter and how much better he is.
And that’s why I put up with those guys. They learn the most from the class and about life while trying to outdo the chick. I wasn’t there to impress anyone but myself, so I really didn’t care if a guy felt he had to do better than me. Quite honestly, I’ve always been book smart and the autoshop tests were pretty easy for me…which made ego guys work harder to learn more. I always had one of the top three or four scores on each written test. And seeing a guy go from a D to a B during a semester was always a joy.
Same for working on the cars. I wasn’t always that great. I had lots to learn about how things went together and stuff. That was when the ego guys could and often did show me up…and I learned a lot from them showing off. For that I’m thankful.
So there you have it. Toolwench’s take on the types of car guys. I still think it’s a confidence thing. Women are guilty of it, too. There were times when I did want to show that I had a clue what I was doing. I do get irritated when I rumble up in my Mustang and some asshole says, “Hey, is that your boyfriend’s/husband’s/dad’s/brother’s/uncle’s car.” I do sometimes feel that I have something to proove, but I choose those battles wisely. I know where I stand in my car knowledge and lack thereof. I always want to learn more. That will never change.
And, no, it’s not my boyfriend’s/husband’s/dad’s/brother’s/uncle’s car. It’s mine!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just found this pic from 1998
While sifting through a file of non-car pics, I found one that is totally car-related. One of my favorites from this time period.
I like to think of it as a true portrait of the real me. It says just about everything anyone needs to know about me. (Well, except that I don’t normally wear pink. I just happened to be wearing pink on the day this pic was taken. Just imagine the shirt is blue or something.)
This also demonstrates what I mentioned a few posts earlier… Hand a guy a camera and ask him to get a few shots of me working on my car and there’s always a butt shot in there. And this was taken before I got a digital camera, so you can imagine my surprise when I got the pics back from the developer! Ah well.
Like I said, it’s all me. I’ll work on my car any time, anywhere, while wearing anything.
Hell, when my car caught on fire the first time, I was wearing a skirt. Yeah, on the side of the road, there I was using my fire extinguisher while trying to keep my skirt from flying up and giving even more of a show than my car.
Got the fire out.
Told all the tow truck drivers to get lost. They tried to take advantage of me, thinking that I’m just a dumb girl and I don’t know anything about cars. HA! Once the flames were doused, I was back on the road in ten minutes. No tow required.
Life changes, sometimes quickly
I haven’t forsaken my blog, I swear it. I just got very sick and then very busy. During those sick weeks, my life sort of got rearranged…for the better, but it’s just not the same thing it was before RT.
Part of the change was because I agreed to do something rather odd… I agreed to dance the Cancan while costumed as Leeloo from the Fifth Element. Come to WorldCon and catch the costume Masquerade. The show I’m dancing in is the half-time show.
Yeah. Not only am I soooooo not a dancer, I also had to build my costume. Believe me, cancan dresses are quite involved. I’m about half way through construction and while I love it, good grief, what a lot of work!
But the one thing I can say for certain is that I’m learning a lot. A helluva lot.
Also, in the life changing department, Jason and I plus a couple friends have started up a wine review site featuring video podcasts. We’re trying to break the barrier between wine snobs and the general public. We don’t want to use colorful language (ie. our reviewer would never describe the ‘nose’ of a wine, he’d say, “smells like…”) and we want to be accessible to everyone, not just people with boatloads of money.
See for yourself at wineass.com.
I’ve learned so much just in these last couple months, it’s incredible. I have learned how to edit video and sew a mean pair of bloomers.
But, I tell ya, I can’t wait until September…or at least until after WorldCon so that my life can chill out and get back to…uh…well…”normal”.
I came home very ill
In fact, I don’t fully recall any head colds in my recent history which were this evil.
I do recall one back in ’94 or ’95 when I was the technical director of a high school production of the Sound of Music…or was it South Pacific when I was so ill? Either way, I completely lost my voice and was having to whisper-holler from the back of the gym. See, if I’d taken a day off, the show wouldn’t’ve gone on very well. The show always goes on, but I owed the kids a damn good show and that was what they put together my illness notwithstanding.
But ten years later? Well, let’s just say I’m taking those days off that I missed back then and I’m not entirely convinced that I ‘missed’ much those years ago. I’ve watched the entire 6th season of Highlander in the last two days. What I wouldn’t give to be able to read a book without my eyes getting all bleary. Another day or so and I’ll be writing again. I have so much to say, too!
RT was AWESOME! I missed Jen a lot, but I also made a lot of new friends. I’ve got tons to write about there. One of my new, well…newer, friends Kathy Love is a finalist for the Prism awards. I can’t wait until RWA National to see how it all turns out.
Also, today, I discovered that my hubby, Jason Stoddard is a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon award. I love my man. Yeah, the same guy with the “I think. I can.” shirt on in some of the engine swap pics is a finalist. That’s awesome. Life is good.
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