That's right--you guessed it. Today is the day that we announce the 2014 themes for Penumbra!
It's actually a lot harder to select themes than you might think. We want to engage authors in three different genres. We want to pay homage to some of the great writers in those genres. We want to incorporate different mytholgies, traditions, and folklore. And every once in a while, the Freud in us wants to toss out a single word just to see what everyone will come up with.
2014 is no different. After a lot of hemming and hawing and dithering, we finally settled on the following themes:
January--Winter
February--Egyptian Mythology
March--A Night at the Villa Diodati
April--Issac Asimov
May--Superheroes
June--Isolation
July--Hyperspeed
August--Pain
September--Lewis Carroll
October--Paranormal Adventures
November--Aliens
December--Arthurian Legend
Obviously, some of these are no-brainers. As my daughter said this morning, "Winter is the theme? In January? Shouldn't that be cruel and unusual punishment?"
We live in Ohio and she doesn't like snow all that much.
But there are a lot of directions that writers can go with a theme like winter. Or pain. Then when you set a theme that's both specific and perhaps a little obscure, like A Night at the Villa Diodati, writers will have to research to find out what the theme is. The Villa Diodati is where Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Pollidori had their infamous horror story competition--the one that resulted not only in Frankenstein by the 18 year-old Mary Shelley, but Pollidori's less well-known offering The Vampyre, which was at the forefront of the Victorian vampire craze. So the theme of the March issue is to write your own horror story for that opium and wine-laced contest with some of literature's greatest writers.
You can read more about these themes--including the call dates--by heading to our submissions page here on the blog.
Then once you've checked those out, leave me a comment and let me know what YOU think of the 2014 themes.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Price of a Book
by Andrea Blundell and Andrea Colasanto
I know, I know. We’ve all read the stories about e-book pricing versus print book pricing. We know that Big Six hardcover books can cost almost $30. We know that those same books in trade paperback can run almost $20. And their digital versions? Well, e-books often cost less than the print book, but they still average in the $10-$15 range. But why is this? Why do e-books have to cost so much most of the time? The answer is that they don’t. And Musa Publishing is out to prove it.
Celina Summers, one of the founders of Musa Publishing, a digital-only publisher, recalls an early conversation between the four founders about e-book pricing. “We said at the time that our readers would be able to rely 100% on the pricing set by word count limits we’d put into place here.”
And readers can. Musa’s e-books are priced based on their word count. Period. And because of this, when Gary K. Wolf’s much-anticipated Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? releases in November, at about 91,000 words, it will sell for $4.99. Yes, you read that correctly—just $4.99 for a major new release.
When asked about the decision to publish Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? as a digital-first and digital-only book, Summers had this to say: “Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? is proof that you don’t need to spend thirty bucks on a hot release, and you definitely don’t need to spend twenty bucks to get the digital version. You can buy digital first and spend the rest of that money on other outstanding books.”
So let’s put her claim to the test and compare Musa publishing pricing to some recent New York Times bestsellers in the most popular formats:
Hardcover fiction:
The Cuckoo’s Calling, by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown) $26.00
And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) $28.95
Inferno, by Dan Brown (Doubleday) $29.95
Average price: $28.30
At Musa, you could buy The Indian Shirt Story (just released), by Heather Lockman, for $5.99, Typical Game, by Gary K. Wolf (author of Who Wacked Roger Rabbit?), for $3.99, and Finding Grace, by Rhea Rhodan, for $4.99, and still have $13.33 left over.
Trade paperback:
The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown) $18.00
Joyland, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime) $12.95
Alex Cross, Run, by James Patterson (Grand Central) $15.00
Average price: $15.32
Again, if you spend that money at Musa, you can get The Disciple, by Jemma Chase, for just $1.99, Drowning Cactus, by Carrie Russell, for $4.99, First Love, by Kieran Woodhall, for only $0.99, Pearls of Water, by Richard C. White, for $1.99, Michaela’s Gift, by Cordelia Dinsmore, for $2.99, Suburban Gnome Invasion, by Julie Jansen, for $1.99, a collection of free reads, found here, and still have $0.38 to spare.
Mass-market paperback:
Magic Rises, by Ilona Andrews (Ace) $7.99
Three Little Words, by Susan Mallery (Harlequin) $7.99
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (Tor) $7.99
Average price: $7.99
At Musa, you could buy Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? plus a second amazing book like Another Journey, by Michael Sutherland, for only $0.99. Purchasing both would be under six dollars.
And then there are e-books. If we look at the e-book versions of the hardcover books listed above, these are the prices:
The Cuckoo’s Calling $12.99
And the Mountains Echoed $10.99
Inferno $12.99
Average price: $12.32
At Musa, you could purchase Killers, by John B. Rosenman, for $0.99, and Time Will Tell, by Mary S. Palmer, for $4.99. Add in a copy of Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? and you still are paying less than the price of one of the above e-books.
So Musa’s pricing strategy may seem unusual, and even low, but it is, and will remain based on word count.
“There are no surprises with Musa books. Not ever. We believe that avid readers should be rewarded for their loyalty with the ability to buy more books for their money instead of less. We are proud of the books we produce at Musa, and we are determined to give our readers real value for their money."
Look for the digital-first and digital-only Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? when it becomes available for pre-order on October 22nd.
And be sure to look for these other upcoming releases on November 29th from Musa Publishing:
Rescuing Lady Rose, by Marguerite Butler
DEAD Santa, by Lizzie T. Leaf
Kissing The Tycoon, by Dominique Eastwick
Reunited, by Helen Hardt
The Ditzy Chix, by Sharon De Vita, a USA Today Bestselling Author for her previous book, The Estrogen Posse.
And don’t worry about waiting for pay day to buy these books, you can just check under your couch cushions and scrounge up enough change to buy one … or two … or three of them.
I know, I know. We’ve all read the stories about e-book pricing versus print book pricing. We know that Big Six hardcover books can cost almost $30. We know that those same books in trade paperback can run almost $20. And their digital versions? Well, e-books often cost less than the print book, but they still average in the $10-$15 range. But why is this? Why do e-books have to cost so much most of the time? The answer is that they don’t. And Musa Publishing is out to prove it.
And readers can. Musa’s e-books are priced based on their word count. Period. And because of this, when Gary K. Wolf’s much-anticipated Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? releases in November, at about 91,000 words, it will sell for $4.99. Yes, you read that correctly—just $4.99 for a major new release.
When asked about the decision to publish Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? as a digital-first and digital-only book, Summers had this to say: “Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? is proof that you don’t need to spend thirty bucks on a hot release, and you definitely don’t need to spend twenty bucks to get the digital version. You can buy digital first and spend the rest of that money on other outstanding books.”
So let’s put her claim to the test and compare Musa publishing pricing to some recent New York Times bestsellers in the most popular formats:
Hardcover fiction:
The Cuckoo’s Calling, by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown) $26.00
And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) $28.95
Inferno, by Dan Brown (Doubleday) $29.95
Average price: $28.30
Trade paperback:
The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling (Little, Brown) $18.00
Joyland, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime) $12.95
Alex Cross, Run, by James Patterson (Grand Central) $15.00
Average price: $15.32
Mass-market paperback:
Magic Rises, by Ilona Andrews (Ace) $7.99
Three Little Words, by Susan Mallery (Harlequin) $7.99
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (Tor) $7.99
Average price: $7.99
And then there are e-books. If we look at the e-book versions of the hardcover books listed above, these are the prices:
The Cuckoo’s Calling $12.99
And the Mountains Echoed $10.99
Inferno $12.99
Average price: $12.32
At Musa, you could purchase Killers, by John B. Rosenman, for $0.99, and Time Will Tell, by Mary S. Palmer, for $4.99. Add in a copy of Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? and you still are paying less than the price of one of the above e-books.
So Musa’s pricing strategy may seem unusual, and even low, but it is, and will remain based on word count.
“There are no surprises with Musa books. Not ever. We believe that avid readers should be rewarded for their loyalty with the ability to buy more books for their money instead of less. We are proud of the books we produce at Musa, and we are determined to give our readers real value for their money."
And be sure to look for these other upcoming releases on November 29th from Musa Publishing:
Rescuing Lady Rose, by Marguerite Butler
DEAD Santa, by Lizzie T. Leaf
Kissing The Tycoon, by Dominique Eastwick
Reunited, by Helen Hardt
The Ditzy Chix, by Sharon De Vita, a USA Today Bestselling Author for her previous book, The Estrogen Posse.
And don’t worry about waiting for pay day to buy these books, you can just check under your couch cushions and scrounge up enough change to buy one … or two … or three of them.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
The Actor Behind the Pencil
by Andrea Blundell
You’ve seen Jacques Muller on the silver screen. Not his face per se, but his characters’ faces. You see, Jacques is a legendary character animator who’s worked on such films as Space Jam, The Rescuers Down Under, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and what he’s most known for, the Oscar-winning film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Musa Publishing is excited to announce that Jacques is revisiting Roger Rabbit and Toontown after twenty-five years to design the cover art for Gary K. Wolf’s upcoming release, Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? And in the process, he’s telling us all about what it’s like to be a character animator, and what it was like to work for Disney and be a part of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Jacques still remembers going to the studio in Camden Town London that first day on the job of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and getting his first glimpse of the work-in-progress film. “[Don Hahn] invited me to have a look at the last rushes from the previous day. So I entered the small projection theatre, and I saw the main scenes of the opening kitchen sequence out of order but in color. Like in a Tex Avery cartoon, my jaw dropped to the floor.”
Jacques initially worked on the film as an assistant to Phil Nibbelink, who, along with Andreas Deja, was seen as the best of the Disney animators. But after a few months, he was promoted to an animator position by Richard Williams, the animation director. “I was beyond myself with joy. [I sat] next to Andreas Deja and Nik Ranieri, not far from Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells. Rubbing elbows all day long with people like these you surely cannot fail. Something is bound to happen as the inspirational vibrations floating around abound in such quantity.”
Jacques worked on scenes with several of the main characters, including Roger Rabbit. “My first scene [was] with Roger in the bar, when Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) is holding him under his arm, trying to open the can of dip. Eventually Roger unfolds his entire body, still held by the neck. He pedals in the air with his big legs and feet for a moment and then comes to a stop. The scene only lasts ten seconds of screen time, but my crew of assistants and I spent a full month on it.” Jacques also contributed to a major part of the warehouse sequence near the end of the movie, where Roger and Jessica are attached to the hook.
Jacques became very familiar with drawing Roger Rabbit’s character, and what he calls his 'plastic structure, contrast of shapes and volumes, and his dynamic property.'
“Richard Williams based his creation [of Roger Rabbit] on a triangle shape for the body, crowned by a pear-like skull, crossed by a sausage-like shape for the cheeks. Bob Zemeckis asked him to come up with a combined character mixing the WB qualities; those of a Tex Avery from MGM and a bit of Br’er Rabbit from Disney's Song of the South.”
Jacques worked for Disney for five years, and he describes the Disney experience from two perspectives. “On one hand working for Disney was like having two giant boosters attached on your belt to propel you into the stars. When the studio decided on it they could make you instantly famous—for a week or two—which happened to me during the launch of Roger Rabbit in France. Appearing on national evening news on all TV channels, radio stations, main magazines, etc, was an experience, but only that. The nature of our world is such that fame for most of us is a very temporary thing, and I am quite fine with that.
"On the other hand working for Disney allowed me to approach The Disney Phenomenon from very close. I spent quite a bit of time at the main Burbank studio and at the archives. This was a fantastic experience to be on the grounds where Uncle Walt and his enormously talented artists made it all happen. Then there were the many encounters with great people like Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Joe Grant, and other veterans; and all my fellow animators of course. Finally I should mention my traveling with Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg to Paris on a promotion tour [for Oliver & Co.].”
Jacques currently splits his time between teaching classical animation at Nanyang Polytechnic of Singapore, and working on animation projects. He is finishing a short film in 2D called “A Horse’s Dream,” among many other independent projects.
When asked about the toughest part of animating, his passion immediately shows through. “The biggest challenge in character animation (la crème de la crème) is to deliver a performance that rings true. When all the parameters combined bring to the screen a moment of suspended disbelief; where the work stops being a bunch of drawings, and suddenly an entity appears and moves (in one way or another) the audiences' emotions. Look at all the great characters from the Disney studio; they move you terribly through laughter, empathy, dislike, or wonderment. So it is really of an actor's performance that we are talking about, but an actor behind a pencil or a mouse.”
And now, Jacques is bringing that passion, that performance behind the pencil, into the world of book cover design. “Gary K. Wolf is the one who first mentioned the cover of his new Roger Rabbit book to me. He mentioned that he has a cel of Roger and Jessica on his wall that he enjoys looking at every day. I asked him if he could send me a picture of it. And then, guess what, it was one of my scenes with the couple attached to the hook that appears at the end of the movie! I told this to Gary, and his first response was to offer me [the chance] to do the cover of his next book.”
Because Disney owns the trademark to the film character of Roger Rabbit, Musa needed options for the cover art if Disney refused to grant them the use of the character. Jacques’ experience on the film will allow him to bring an authenticity to the book cover without violating those rights. Another perk of the job is getting the opportunity to visually create a whole new cast of Toontown characters from the new book. “It is a welcome challenge to create new original characters for Toontown. I like the idea and find it extremely exciting. I am especially interested in creating a Jessica antithesis.”
Regardless of who ends up on the cover, there is no doubt that Jacques Muller will bring his passion and authenticity to the drawing table as he revisits Toontown and Roger Rabbit. And soon, you will have seen Jacque’s face on the e-reader screen too—that is, his characters’ faces!
You can read the full interview with Jacques Muller in the September issue of Penumbra. And keep an eye out for Jacques’ latest artistic work when Gary K. Wolf’s Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? releases on November 22, 2013, from Musa Publishing.
Jacques still remembers going to the studio in Camden Town London that first day on the job of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and getting his first glimpse of the work-in-progress film. “[Don Hahn] invited me to have a look at the last rushes from the previous day. So I entered the small projection theatre, and I saw the main scenes of the opening kitchen sequence out of order but in color. Like in a Tex Avery cartoon, my jaw dropped to the floor.”
Jacques initially worked on the film as an assistant to Phil Nibbelink, who, along with Andreas Deja, was seen as the best of the Disney animators. But after a few months, he was promoted to an animator position by Richard Williams, the animation director. “I was beyond myself with joy. [I sat] next to Andreas Deja and Nik Ranieri, not far from Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells. Rubbing elbows all day long with people like these you surely cannot fail. Something is bound to happen as the inspirational vibrations floating around abound in such quantity.”
Jacques became very familiar with drawing Roger Rabbit’s character, and what he calls his 'plastic structure, contrast of shapes and volumes, and his dynamic property.'
“Richard Williams based his creation [of Roger Rabbit] on a triangle shape for the body, crowned by a pear-like skull, crossed by a sausage-like shape for the cheeks. Bob Zemeckis asked him to come up with a combined character mixing the WB qualities; those of a Tex Avery from MGM and a bit of Br’er Rabbit from Disney's Song of the South.”
Jacques worked for Disney for five years, and he describes the Disney experience from two perspectives. “On one hand working for Disney was like having two giant boosters attached on your belt to propel you into the stars. When the studio decided on it they could make you instantly famous—for a week or two—which happened to me during the launch of Roger Rabbit in France. Appearing on national evening news on all TV channels, radio stations, main magazines, etc, was an experience, but only that. The nature of our world is such that fame for most of us is a very temporary thing, and I am quite fine with that.
"On the other hand working for Disney allowed me to approach The Disney Phenomenon from very close. I spent quite a bit of time at the main Burbank studio and at the archives. This was a fantastic experience to be on the grounds where Uncle Walt and his enormously talented artists made it all happen. Then there were the many encounters with great people like Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Joe Grant, and other veterans; and all my fellow animators of course. Finally I should mention my traveling with Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg to Paris on a promotion tour [for Oliver & Co.].”
Jacques currently splits his time between teaching classical animation at Nanyang Polytechnic of Singapore, and working on animation projects. He is finishing a short film in 2D called “A Horse’s Dream,” among many other independent projects.
When asked about the toughest part of animating, his passion immediately shows through. “The biggest challenge in character animation (la crème de la crème) is to deliver a performance that rings true. When all the parameters combined bring to the screen a moment of suspended disbelief; where the work stops being a bunch of drawings, and suddenly an entity appears and moves (in one way or another) the audiences' emotions. Look at all the great characters from the Disney studio; they move you terribly through laughter, empathy, dislike, or wonderment. So it is really of an actor's performance that we are talking about, but an actor behind a pencil or a mouse.”
And now, Jacques is bringing that passion, that performance behind the pencil, into the world of book cover design. “Gary K. Wolf is the one who first mentioned the cover of his new Roger Rabbit book to me. He mentioned that he has a cel of Roger and Jessica on his wall that he enjoys looking at every day. I asked him if he could send me a picture of it. And then, guess what, it was one of my scenes with the couple attached to the hook that appears at the end of the movie! I told this to Gary, and his first response was to offer me [the chance] to do the cover of his next book.”
Because Disney owns the trademark to the film character of Roger Rabbit, Musa needed options for the cover art if Disney refused to grant them the use of the character. Jacques’ experience on the film will allow him to bring an authenticity to the book cover without violating those rights. Another perk of the job is getting the opportunity to visually create a whole new cast of Toontown characters from the new book. “It is a welcome challenge to create new original characters for Toontown. I like the idea and find it extremely exciting. I am especially interested in creating a Jessica antithesis.”
Regardless of who ends up on the cover, there is no doubt that Jacques Muller will bring his passion and authenticity to the drawing table as he revisits Toontown and Roger Rabbit. And soon, you will have seen Jacque’s face on the e-reader screen too—that is, his characters’ faces!
You can read the full interview with Jacques Muller in the September issue of Penumbra. And keep an eye out for Jacques’ latest artistic work when Gary K. Wolf’s Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? releases on November 22, 2013, from Musa Publishing.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Unexplained Science
by John Deakins
Time Travel always requires Unexplained Science. You have to have a time machine. The “machine” might transfer human consciousness, move you bodily, or accidentally suck you through a time-warp. Even (ugh!) Romantic Fantasy needs a magic mirror or something. Remember the dangers of over-explaining? Unexplained Science is a subset of “Ignore It.” There ain’t no time machines, and the science to produce one is nonexistent.
Time travel will work if your time machine is actually a time-and-space machine. You’ve re-invented the Star Trek transporter, emphasizing movement through Time instead of transportation through space. You can travel to past-Chicago if your machine compensates for the thousands of kilometers by which past-Chicago is separated from present-Chicago and somehow sloughs off all that nasty kinetic energy and momentum difference between the two. That’s asking a lot, but Star Trek repeatedly “beams up” people, inevitably involving Time as well as space. There’s only Gee-Whiz “Science” behind the “transporter.” I’d be almost embarrassed to use it.
You can Live With It. We all already travel in time: forward only. A human in suspended animation, could “skip ahead” to the future. Perhaps you foresee a future that great past SF authors haven’t envisioned. Going backward in Time, however, is out of the question. Almost every writer has been forced to go with Ignore It. How embarrassing! Is there no hope?
You wouldn’t think that it’d take long to exhaust Live With It. What you really want is to stay in a fixed location relative to the Earth, as you travel in Time. Why not pick an unchanging object on the Earth, like a piece of dense metal, and “lock” your time machine to that? Your (fictional) machine would always arrive in the same relative position to its “Time anchor,” even as the planet moves around. It would be best always to travel to the same relative day-hour-minute-second as the time you left. Thus, there’d be only minor differences between your beginning momentum and arrival momentum. The Time anchor could absorb small momentum differences, like catching an incoming carrier jet on a tail-hook. Travel too “far” in Time would create too great a momentum difference, however, and the anchor might melt or explode. Can you say, “One way trip?”
You now have a workable time machine. Think of all the wonderful complications you can generate. What if your “time anchor” hadn’t actually been in as “fixed” as you thought? Somebody moved it, and nobody told you. You could end up on another continent in an alien culture. What if the “solid” anchor you depended on hadn’t always been as solid as you assumed? What if the math was wrong and, after a certain number of years, solid molecules had moved beyond their apparently fixed positions?
Why were you time traveling at all? Is the past a “fixed” continuum, no matter what you change? Is the past flexible so that you change the future by your slightest action? What about the paradoxes? It’s time to have fun again.
John Deakins, B.A., M.S.T. is a four-decade veteran of the science classroom and author of his own fantasy series Barrow.
To read an excerpt from Barrow book one, please click HERE.
Time Travel always requires Unexplained Science. You have to have a time machine. The “machine” might transfer human consciousness, move you bodily, or accidentally suck you through a time-warp. Even (ugh!) Romantic Fantasy needs a magic mirror or something. Remember the dangers of over-explaining? Unexplained Science is a subset of “Ignore It.” There ain’t no time machines, and the science to produce one is nonexistent.Time travel will work if your time machine is actually a time-and-space machine. You’ve re-invented the Star Trek transporter, emphasizing movement through Time instead of transportation through space. You can travel to past-Chicago if your machine compensates for the thousands of kilometers by which past-Chicago is separated from present-Chicago and somehow sloughs off all that nasty kinetic energy and momentum difference between the two. That’s asking a lot, but Star Trek repeatedly “beams up” people, inevitably involving Time as well as space. There’s only Gee-Whiz “Science” behind the “transporter.” I’d be almost embarrassed to use it.
You can Live With It. We all already travel in time: forward only. A human in suspended animation, could “skip ahead” to the future. Perhaps you foresee a future that great past SF authors haven’t envisioned. Going backward in Time, however, is out of the question. Almost every writer has been forced to go with Ignore It. How embarrassing! Is there no hope?
You wouldn’t think that it’d take long to exhaust Live With It. What you really want is to stay in a fixed location relative to the Earth, as you travel in Time. Why not pick an unchanging object on the Earth, like a piece of dense metal, and “lock” your time machine to that? Your (fictional) machine would always arrive in the same relative position to its “Time anchor,” even as the planet moves around. It would be best always to travel to the same relative day-hour-minute-second as the time you left. Thus, there’d be only minor differences between your beginning momentum and arrival momentum. The Time anchor could absorb small momentum differences, like catching an incoming carrier jet on a tail-hook. Travel too “far” in Time would create too great a momentum difference, however, and the anchor might melt or explode. Can you say, “One way trip?”
You now have a workable time machine. Think of all the wonderful complications you can generate. What if your “time anchor” hadn’t actually been in as “fixed” as you thought? Somebody moved it, and nobody told you. You could end up on another continent in an alien culture. What if the “solid” anchor you depended on hadn’t always been as solid as you assumed? What if the math was wrong and, after a certain number of years, solid molecules had moved beyond their apparently fixed positions?
Why were you time traveling at all? Is the past a “fixed” continuum, no matter what you change? Is the past flexible so that you change the future by your slightest action? What about the paradoxes? It’s time to have fun again.
John Deakins, B.A., M.S.T. is a four-decade veteran of the science classroom and author of his own fantasy series Barrow.
To read an excerpt from Barrow book one, please click HERE.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
5 funny and creative fake gauge earrings
 |
| Polymer clay Pencils via Etsy |
Get inspired by these funny and creative fake gauge earrings. Most of these are made with polymer clay but there are a lot of objects around the house that can be cut easily in two to make your istant pair of fake gauge earrings.
The pencil earrings above are made of polymer clay but I think that real colored pencils can be used too. Any creative person should have a pair!
 |
| Grumpy cat fake gauge earrings via Etsy |
 |
| Octopus fake gauge earrings via Etsy |
 |
| 3d dinosaur stud earrings by artfire |
This is a really clever transformation of a common object into a unusual accessory. Any plastic toy animal can be used, cut in two and transformed into a pair of earrings.
 |
| Shark earrings |
Enthusiast as I am? Get inspired and make your fake gauge earrings but don't get too carried away like this boy did!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Jewelry from the hardware store
 |
| Kate Moss for Versace eyewear - pic via fabsugar |
 |
| screw earrings from Cahier d Exercises |
 |
| screw earrings by artfire |
 |
| screw earrings pic via The Frisky |
When Animals Speak
by Edoardo Albert
I have always been vaguely surprised that animals don’t speak. Maybe I am unusual in this, but I believe my reaction, on being addressed by a cat or spoken to by a dog, would more likely be relief that I had finally been let in on the conversation rather than amazement at their speaking. And it’s not just cats and dogs either – the last few, sweaty hot nights have seen me sleeping with windows thrown wide, only to be roused from the fitful slumber of the early hours by the extraordinary racket set up by the birds at four in the morning. There’s definitely something going on in the avian world that they keep to themselves, relying on slugabed humans not being awake to hear.
Nor would I stop at animals, be they feathered or furred. Who has walked at twilight through a wood, when the wind gets up as the sun goes down, and heard the creak of timber and the hiss of leaf and not thought, with a twinge of mingled excitement and fear, that the trees are speaking of the day. Although the idea of the music of the spheres now seems ridiculous, how much is this down to the haze of light saturating our cities and excluding all but the brightest stars from a sky that is no longer black but a neon grey. The city nightscape is a dull, closed in bowl. But on those occasions when I have been beyond the reach of artificial light, and innumerable stars have arched across the sky and the night has been so black I could not see my own feet upon the road, then the idea of crystal music reverberating around the heavens seems considerably less outmoded. I suppose the distant receding echo of the creation that suffuses, well, everything is the drone over which the stars and galaxies weave their harmony. Honestly, sometimes it seems that all creation is engaged in one giant conversation from which we alone are excluded. ‘For everything that lives is holy’, as Blake said, to which we might add it’s busy talking too!
Of course, the question is why we are excluded from the conversation of creation. In CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy, the Earth, Thulcandra, is called the silent planet due to the revolt of its presiding spirit against the presiding spirits of the other planets. However, that does not really address why we are excluded from the conversations of the creatures that share our world. Moving from biology and astronomy to mythology and folklore, stories and legends from throughout the world and almost all eras attest to creatures talking to us: elves, dwarves, djinn and devas, the list is long, the conversation not always edifying – interviewing a vampire only recently becoming something desirable – but for most of human history it has been ongoing. Until now. The last century or so has seen a trickling away of such stories. There has been the odd, overly intimate, encounter with aliens, but the beings whose worlds used to intersect with ours have retreated. We live alone in a world gone silent. The question is why.
Having dragged you this far, it would be a pretty poor show if I didn’t at least attempt an answer, so here goes. The world has not fallen silent. The animals and birds speak, the creatures of legend and myth walk their shadow paths, but we are too preoccupied, too caught up in our own endless chatter, to hear or to see. As we have been able to talk more, through letter, telephone, television and now, ceaselessly, online, all other conversations have been drowned out. The human party has grown too loud and rowdy to allow anything else a voice. It is indeed a wonder of our age that we should be able to talk across the world but in doing so we, necessarily, tune out everything else. Returning to our human party metaphor, talking to someone there requires the suppression of everything else: concentration and exclusion. Our whole world is a cacophony of competing human voices. To hear any of them – to keep from going mad – we have to concentrate and exclude. Is it any wonder then that we can no longer hear other voices, and tune in to different conversations?
So, and pace the wonderful people at Penumbra, my suggestion is this: switch off your computer (or phone, or iPad). Turn off the television. And listen. You never know what you might hear. There are all sorts of conversations going on around us all the time. Falling silent ourselves allows us to eavesdrop on them. And, who knows, if we listen, quietly, patiently, politely, they might, in time, include us in the conversation again.
This is the road less traveled in human history: the one taken by the quiet ones, the hermits, the monks, the people who see the overgrown path leading up to a cleft in the hill and take it, the ones who shut the door against the noise of the city and listen to their walls breathe. Uncomfortable, uncomforted people, garnering little sympathy in our compulsively sociable world. There is no guarantee in such a journey. The path might peter out, the walls become a prison, but still and still…
Listen. Close your eyes. Listen.
Who knows what you might hear?
The responses to Edoardo Albert’s work rather prove what he argues. The stories, the books, the articles, have drawn some compliments, but the best response ever, which saw a friend rolling on the ground, helpless with laughter, was a lonely-hearts ad. It was probably the bit about tickling the belly of a wolf that did it.
Find Edoardo Albert’s books (he’s particularly proud of Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom) and stories via his website although the lonely-hearts ad will not be making an appearance in the foreseeable future. Connect with him through his blog, Twitter or Facebook.
Nor would I stop at animals, be they feathered or furred. Who has walked at twilight through a wood, when the wind gets up as the sun goes down, and heard the creak of timber and the hiss of leaf and not thought, with a twinge of mingled excitement and fear, that the trees are speaking of the day. Although the idea of the music of the spheres now seems ridiculous, how much is this down to the haze of light saturating our cities and excluding all but the brightest stars from a sky that is no longer black but a neon grey. The city nightscape is a dull, closed in bowl. But on those occasions when I have been beyond the reach of artificial light, and innumerable stars have arched across the sky and the night has been so black I could not see my own feet upon the road, then the idea of crystal music reverberating around the heavens seems considerably less outmoded. I suppose the distant receding echo of the creation that suffuses, well, everything is the drone over which the stars and galaxies weave their harmony. Honestly, sometimes it seems that all creation is engaged in one giant conversation from which we alone are excluded. ‘For everything that lives is holy’, as Blake said, to which we might add it’s busy talking too!
Of course, the question is why we are excluded from the conversation of creation. In CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy, the Earth, Thulcandra, is called the silent planet due to the revolt of its presiding spirit against the presiding spirits of the other planets. However, that does not really address why we are excluded from the conversations of the creatures that share our world. Moving from biology and astronomy to mythology and folklore, stories and legends from throughout the world and almost all eras attest to creatures talking to us: elves, dwarves, djinn and devas, the list is long, the conversation not always edifying – interviewing a vampire only recently becoming something desirable – but for most of human history it has been ongoing. Until now. The last century or so has seen a trickling away of such stories. There has been the odd, overly intimate, encounter with aliens, but the beings whose worlds used to intersect with ours have retreated. We live alone in a world gone silent. The question is why.
Having dragged you this far, it would be a pretty poor show if I didn’t at least attempt an answer, so here goes. The world has not fallen silent. The animals and birds speak, the creatures of legend and myth walk their shadow paths, but we are too preoccupied, too caught up in our own endless chatter, to hear or to see. As we have been able to talk more, through letter, telephone, television and now, ceaselessly, online, all other conversations have been drowned out. The human party has grown too loud and rowdy to allow anything else a voice. It is indeed a wonder of our age that we should be able to talk across the world but in doing so we, necessarily, tune out everything else. Returning to our human party metaphor, talking to someone there requires the suppression of everything else: concentration and exclusion. Our whole world is a cacophony of competing human voices. To hear any of them – to keep from going mad – we have to concentrate and exclude. Is it any wonder then that we can no longer hear other voices, and tune in to different conversations?
So, and pace the wonderful people at Penumbra, my suggestion is this: switch off your computer (or phone, or iPad). Turn off the television. And listen. You never know what you might hear. There are all sorts of conversations going on around us all the time. Falling silent ourselves allows us to eavesdrop on them. And, who knows, if we listen, quietly, patiently, politely, they might, in time, include us in the conversation again.
This is the road less traveled in human history: the one taken by the quiet ones, the hermits, the monks, the people who see the overgrown path leading up to a cleft in the hill and take it, the ones who shut the door against the noise of the city and listen to their walls breathe. Uncomfortable, uncomforted people, garnering little sympathy in our compulsively sociable world. There is no guarantee in such a journey. The path might peter out, the walls become a prison, but still and still…
Listen. Close your eyes. Listen.
Who knows what you might hear?
The responses to Edoardo Albert’s work rather prove what he argues. The stories, the books, the articles, have drawn some compliments, but the best response ever, which saw a friend rolling on the ground, helpless with laughter, was a lonely-hearts ad. It was probably the bit about tickling the belly of a wolf that did it.
Find Edoardo Albert’s books (he’s particularly proud of Northumbria: The Lost Kingdom) and stories via his website although the lonely-hearts ad will not be making an appearance in the foreseeable future. Connect with him through his blog, Twitter or Facebook.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)