Starting from Scratch in Fantasy Cosplay

WonderCon 2011

I have a dream - a dream of fantastic costumes and hairstyles. Of Khloe Alwell made real.

When Kiddo was little, and unaware of everything beyond 12 inches from his face, I watched the SyFy channel religiously (I mean, those are my people). My favorite shows were the reality special effects shows, like Face Off, but I also found Heroes of Cosplay fascinating. I love how people transform into fantastic characters before my eyes. It scratches that part of my creative brain. But I've never done it myself.

I do not consider myself a hardcore fantasy/sci-fi nerd, by any stretch. I hardly count as a fan. Periodically I dabble. I mean, I've watched some anime. I've read Pern books. I grew up with Star Trek, Aliens, Labyrinth, and The Princess Bride, but I never really dove into the fan culture. I never owned comic books. I never played Magic or LARPed, or anything of the sort.

I comfortably straddled the fence between genre nerdom and popular culture.

So even though I also knew a lot about art, I didn't learn much about fabrication. I had no real impetus to learn. I didn't involve myself in drama, or in cosplay. I can barely work a sewing machine (mostly because I haven't practiced...at all).

And then I went to a comic convention. It scratched that part of my creative brain. I read about characters that I might cosplay, that Christian and I could cosplay together (we decided Thor and Sif were probably the most look-alike comic characters).

But... now that Khloe is finished as a series (read: shedding single tear), I really want people to fall in love with her the way I have (and everyone in the Otherworld does in the books). So Christian and I were talking about it, and an idea was born.

If I was a character in a graphic novel...

Christian: Alexis, why don't you cosplay as Khloe? I mean, are there any outfits that would work?
*I blush*
Christian: Did you just blush?
Me: Some of the outfits are...
Christian: Really?
Me: I mean, they're tasteful, but they are definitely...uh...
Christian: Hm.
Me: I mean, I would love to cosplay as Khloe. I love the clothes. I just don't know how I would make them look like they are in my head.
Christian: Do you know anyone who cosplays? Who might help you?

Ahem. So, that's where we are. Do I know anyone who cosplays? Who could help me fabricate this? Or who would want to fabricate it? These are involved outfits, some of which would be pretty intense projects, but also might put a person on the map (judging from the things people look for in the Heroes of Cosplay show).

Leave a comment below or message me: http://facebook.com/authoralexisdonkin or twitter @alexisdonkin

I'm so serious about this, so if this is a project you'd be interested in, please let me know!

THRIVE Launched, Now What?

I've got a lot further to go.

I've been struggling the last few weeks. In the wake of THRIVE's publication, total exhaustion set in. I want to get a whole bunch of things done. I want to work. I know there are things I should be doing. I know this.

I think part of me felt like I hit my milestone and that was that. The project was over and I could space out. And it was a lot of work. And some of it paid off, but mostly it was just the beginning of a larger lead up to more things....which mean the dividends haven't come in yet.

I've been reading a lot about this, especially through my author forums, which have proved invaluable (for which I thank Clara, as strategic a person in thought as I am in feeling). In these forums, muckety mucks slum around with us peons. And it is great for the peons, and gives perspective to the muckety mucks. We find out how much more we have to do, and they realize how much they've done.

I have to say, honestly, it can be disheartening. I am at a disadvantage with what I am able to do (limited primarily by resources). But there are also things that encourage me - such as the reminder that this process is never over. Books do not stop selling - and with the internet, they can always reach more readers. There is always someone else who has not heard of me (Okay, in my case, at this point there are probably around 7 billion, but even for the famous author, there are probably 2 or 3B.).

This is actually a good thing because it means I can always do more for a book - there is always more that could lead to sales. Also it is a bad thing, because, well, it is never done.

Right now, after the insane push I made with THRIVE, some part of me thought the momentum was already there. That I could sit back and enjoy THRIVE having a life of its own. But I'm not there yet. I've hardly begun. It feels like the week after mid-terms where the tests are done, but there's another half semester to go. The nights of studying are not over. The note-taking is hardly finished. And I have no energy. And I'm struggling to get FAMILY FRIEND OR FOE rewritten, which while turning into an excellent book, is going much slower than I'd like. I have until August 2nd to finish the manuscript and upload it to Smashwords (incidentally, you should preorder it to get the 20% off price before it goes live!).

And after that I need to work on ANDREW, and redo all the Rollins Pack covers, and revamp all those books, and finish proofing SIX DEGREES.

And while all this is going on, I need to continue working on speaking engagements about THRIVE, guest posts about everything, possibly blog hops, and remembering to eat and sleep... sometime.

When I do all that, not only will I feel damn accomplished, but I will have transformed my life. And that is incredibly exciting, but it is also a lot of work. And I need to keep reminding myself that it is worth it. I need to keep developing better systems for getting everything done that needs doing, that assures forward progress.

Here's to efficiency, effectiveness, encouragement, and energy! And crossing my fingers I get all four in hand...and soon!

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Transform your life and heal through my memoir and small steps for 32 days!

Get digital copies of THRIVE: HOW I BECAME A SUPERHERO and TRANSFORM TO THRIVE: 32 DAYS FROM VICTIM TO SUPERHERO!

You can also get paperback copies of both the memoir and journal.

Pre-Holiday Artist/Writer Mania

It's been a busy time what with having a broken power supply for my laptop, making Christmas gifts, reading up on success, and taking care of kiddo. I'm in the middle of a bunch of things that I'm planning on making available to my readers etc:

1. I'm thinking about putting up some videos with pronunciation keys for my books to make it easier to negotiate the crazy Gaelic names (yes? Yay or nay?).
2. I'm still working on my short story that I hope will be available by Christmas. Tip for Khloe fans: It will include the exact wording of the Lilith prophecy!
3. I'm also writing some songs... in a variety of styles.
4. And in case that wasn't enough, there's always Book 4...
5. and there's also the other short stories/tidbits I'm going to put into a book for Khloe fans who want all the different side and back stories.

 Needless to say, my days are INSANELY busy. I've been napping at least once with my kid and crashing at night. So yeah, blogging has been a little hard. I promise to continue updating everyone and I will try to get to these other media tidbits for you (I'm excited about them and I hope you will be too!).

Oh, and in case I don't get back here in time...for everyone who believes, have a fabulous holiday next week! :-)

Good Idea, Bad Idea? Tactics for the Writer

I've been thinking a lot about ideas. How do we have them? Where do they come from? When we're trying to write, what kind of ideas stick and which ones get pitched before they've been fully vetted?

If you're like me, you have a new idea every other second. It's dizzying. I actually throw out more ideas than I work on because I just don't have time, energy, or money to complete them.

And honestly, it's disappointing not to work on them all. I'd really like about 12 hours more per day for the rest of my life. I think that might make up the difference, but enough about my ridiculous ambition...

But what if you struggle to have ideas? I've been in situations where I wanted desperately to come up with something and just hit wall after wall. Forcing an idea to happen feels impossible, but it can be done. The question is, will that forced idea be good enough to pursue?

So how do you come up with a good idea when you need it? The best way I know is to be systematic.

First you need to come up with problems to solve. So make a list of problems or types of books/stories you'd like to write. For me this was pretty simple. Last year I decided I wanted to write a stand alone book for adults. If I could, I wanted it to be science fiction. I came to this conclusion because I hadn't written any stand alone books yet, nor had I written anything for adults or anything in science fiction. Basically I wanted to see if I could do it (the key here was discovering the problem I wanted to solve - setting a goal of achieving something I hadn't done).

Then I had to figure out where it would get started. To come up with a location, I delved into places I knew. In order to limit my location possibilities, I decided I wanted to have the main character in graduate school. I thought this would be a good bridge age (you can still attract some young adult readers while appealing to a more mature audience). From there, I decided to pick the character's major. Most people pick graduate school based on one of two things - cost or quality. I wanted to eliminate cost as a factor for my character and so gave her a scholarship to one of the best programs in the country for her major.

I wanted to have a game changer in the middle of the book - a large twist that would throw sci-fi nerds through a loop (maybe a sucker punch?). So I did that. I incorporated some marginal ideas that I saw on a reality TV show and BAM! I had BELOW THE BELT.

Another thing I wanted was to have a book of short stories. While my stories have not developed into books yet (I'm still sitting on them waiting to get published in lit zines), I had to come up with a few themes. I could have sat down and brainstormed themes, but as it was, I started by writing a story. The story was about a political issue that bothered me deeply - women's reproductive rights. From there, it was easy to write several more stories about women and children. I picked one aspect of women and children's wellness for each story. I still have several more to write if I want them to be a biddable collection.

The next idea in writing I'd like to pursue is the interlude short story. This is a story that happens between books to main or supportive characters and often fills in the gaps that fans want filled. Currently I'm pondering possible stories in the Khloe Alwell saga. I figure one short could be about the Ceres-Lugh-Llewellyn debacle. Another could be about the writer of the Lilith-Ammon prophecy. These are points that were raised in my books, but could not be developed because of the chronology involved.

The best way to come up with ideas? Decide on goals. Brainstorm. Make lists. Ask questions and then answer them. These are different tactics that can be used separately or in conjunction with one another. The result is you'll figure out something that speaks to you - and if it speaks to you, it's probably a good idea.

Climate Change and Haiyan

I feel prophetic, or psychic,...or at least really intuitive.

Let's go with really intuitive.

I'm in the midst of finishing my Khloe Alwell series and the last book is going to be full of all kinds of things - love, betrayal, war, politics, and prophecy. Beyond this however, it is about climate change and the effects humanity has on our environment. It's about the inevitable backlash we'll receive from natural forces - from Earth.

If there were Sidhe in this world, or under a veil somewhere, they definitely would have caused Sandy. They definitely would have caused Haiyan. And these would only be the beginning.

And the call of Filipino leaders to a council of action to address climate change is the kind of thing humanity needs to do, will have to do (and will do in my series) if there is to be any hope for us.

Who Caused Haiyan?

This post is written from Khloe's perspective about a current event that is a little too close to the premise of her saga. It's ironic I thought of this type of terror years before Sandy and Haiyan...

I was watching the news. I read it on my smartphone while waiting for Dani. I knew they had plans to destroy humans but I never thought it would get this bad. I saw Sandy and while my father caught those immediately responsible, it doesn't prevent things like Haiyan from occurring. We have to catch the ones pulling the strings if we want to avoid record wind speeds and death tolls.

Laran has ideas. Like him, I think those responsible are the same ones who killed his parents - the same ones who attacked me, and recruited Macha. And it's only going to get worse. If, as I suspect, there are Seelie and Sidhe colluding against reunification, there's only one solution.

You have to stop. You have to stop thinking everything can be thrown away. You have to stop using things that will only destroy land, water, and air. Stop now! Forget plastic. Forget industrial agriculture. Forget gasoline and constant electronic use. Forget GMOs. Forget fracking and mountaintop removal mining. Forget oil. Forget pesticides. Forget using anything that takes longer than five minutes of travel. Forget cities and computers. Forget clear-cutting and dams.

This time, this obscene industrialization and super technological age, is over. This is your last chance. If you continue, you risk your race's complete annihilation. I'm going to do what I can, but there are no guarantees. You have to do your part. If you don't take responsibility for your actions, for the destruction you've wrought, there's nothing I can do.

In the end,  it's your choice. You decide.

Book 4 Begins - The End of A Series

Between naps, bad prime-time thirty something soaps (okay, if you had to cluster feed, you'd have a fluffy television addiction too!), and diaper changes, writing has been a little difficult to do. And then my beloved kiddo took another nap, and I moved my laptop to the second floor (also known as Fortress de Bebe). Suddenly I was able to write in earnest, or at least in a sort of punctuated equilibrium.

I've mentioned this process before (which is what allows me to write this blog post currently - though kiddo is stirring) but so far all I'd done was blogging. Blogging is fine, but it's not going to do me any favors long term as far as keeping people hanging on my books (at least, I don't think so. I could be wrong...). So?

Yes. I started writing book 4 of KHLOE. I'm really excited about this book. It is the "stunning conclusion" of my first series, or at least I hope so. All the threads I've been weaving will be tied up. Questions remaining about characters will be answered (Incidentally, what are your questions you want answered about Khloe and friends? Leave comments below, on my FB page, or on Twitter!). The grand conflict will be resolved one way or another.

Sounds good.

Of course, this will happen between nursing, tummy time, and diaper changes...which means it's going to take a little juggling on my part. Still, I've got 1200 words so far today...and may write more. After a few days to see how many I can pump out, I'll be able to set a daily goal for myself which will make the process much faster, and clearer. I'll keep you posted.