Pumpkin Challenge Week 4

This week we took a stencil and then modified it to give our own styling.

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and I drove out to a farmers' market and picked an awfully large pumpkin, along with some smaller decorative gourds. 

We found a stencil based loosely on a Halloween movie poster, then tweaked it to meet the size/shape considerations of our pumpkin.  It was good practice, and really got him thinking about the idea that you're not beholden to the directions, as long as your end product keeps to the spirit of the original plan. 

We also got to make small gourd faces, and what could be more fun than that?

Getting Ready to do Re-Writes...

...and I found some inspiration from Amina Gautier's article in the Glimmer Train bulletin.

“Revision is the kick in the pants that propels the writer out of complacence, jars him from the euphoria that tends to come when he thinks he’s completed something. Revision is the inevitable and necessary faceoff between one’s lazy writer self who defends the good enough draft, “This sentence/passage/description/scene/character is fine the way it is” and one’s higher writing self who argues, “Yes, it’s good enough and it says what I want, but does it say it in the right way? Does it say it in the best way?””

— Amina Gautier

Check out the original bulletin here.

Week 3: The Shaded Stencil

Pumpkin Challenge Week 3

Tried to do this one on a weeknight, and ran into bed-time issues, both for FosterKid and myself. 

This one actually looks better in the light, rather than with the candle burning. I think we didn't shave deep enough in order to get the shading variation we were going for.  But hey, it's not a real Challenge if there isn't a little failure along the way, right?

It was still fun, and we're looking forward to next week.

Pumpkin Challenge Week 2

The Simple Stencil

Pumpkin Challenge Round 2

The foster kid & I took our second stab at a pumpkin, trying out a stencil we found online.  The Walking Dead zombie stencil from PinkRayGun.com did admirably for us.

Although it's not visible in the picture, I picked up a pumpkin with a great stem, lots of trailing strands, etc.  To get around damaging it, we went in from the back. using some dowl rods to hold the panel in place. 

Next week:  The Shaded Stencil

Breaking News

Update on Week 1:  Squirrels ate part of our first Jack's face, so now he's got a little more character.  Sort of like an old time movie actor snarling out of the side of his mouth. I like it.

Eehh... You kids get outta here, see? We don't DO trick or treat in this neighborhood, see?

Pumpkin Challenge Week 1

The Classic Jack

Our household is embarking on a bold journey into seasonal decoration by declaring this the year of the Pumpkin Challenge.  Every week from now until Halloween,  we will decorate, carve, or otherwise fancy-up a perfectly good pumpkin. The first week: the classic free-hand Jack O'Lantern.

For this project I was closely assisted by our foster child. (There are a number of regulations involved in foster care. One of them is no social media images or names for foster kids. This rule will be respected here.)

So anyway, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and I did a tag team on the layout and actual carving. His main concern was that it "look evil".  Mission accomplished, in an age-appropriate sort of way.

In Process

The goal is to kick up the complexity every week and see where we end up by the big holiday.

Next week, the Simple Stencil. 

Pumpkin Challenge 2014

Eight Pumpkins in Eight Weeks

Every year I am filled to the brim with intentions to do cool pumpkin carvings. And every year I end up with a single, moldering, uncarved pumpkin sitting in my backyard, sinking in on itself as its blank orange face mocks my lack of follow-through.

Well, THIS YEAR is going to be different.  With the help of our newest foster-family member, we are going to be lighting up the orange and black to celebrate the season.

A pumpkin a week from now until Halloween, each one more complicated than the last until we culminate an in unholy gorey gourd of terror the likes of which has never been seen!  (Or, until we screw one up, whichever comes first.)

Stay tuned, people. It's gonna get pulpy in here....

With bated breath...

Coming soon:

Pumpkin Challenge 2014

Acer R7-572

I'm in love with this new computer. I haven't had a convertible tablet since my old Toshiba Portege died five or six years back. 

I picked up an Acer R7-572 after being drawn in by its vibrant 15.1" -N-trig-pressure-sensitive-general-bad-ass screen.  My old Toshiba had a Wacom digitizer, but I've found that the combination of capacitive touch and N-trig makes for a much more intuitive interaction. For example, in Manga Studio I can draw with the pen, then slide, rotate, and resize the canvas with my left hand. This mimics the real world ability to attack a canvas/paper from multiple angles, a technique that was technically available before, but in a much slower, more cumbersome form. 

I also was able to pick up the Acer at a steep discount, around $500 refurbished. Looks like it didn't sell enough units.... perhaps because it wasn't marketed right, perhaps because it couldn't overcome the Acer stigma. I've only had it a couple weeks, but it seems to be a well-built, solidly engineered device.

The largest issue is the placement of the touchpad, which has been moved above the keyboard. I use a usb mouse in the office, so it doesn't bother me there. When using the R7 to draw, the trackpad placement is an advantage, as I can still access keyboard hotkeys if I choose. (I can slide my hand between the back of the collapsed screen and the keyboard. It kind of feels like playing the accordion, and I sometimes pretend I'm Weird Al Yankovic. I mean, I did that before, but even more now.)

The Acer Aspire R7-572 can be researched in depth at http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes...

Week's vacation in a cabin, found this guy nestled by the front door on the way out.

The Bulldog Ant is Not a Team Player

Short Story in Print!

I'm very happy to say that my short story, "The Bulldog Ant is Not a Team Player" is included in the latest Plan B Magazine anthology.

I'm sharing space with authors who have written some terrific stories, and had a wonderful experience with Darusha Wehm, who edits both the anthologies and the regular Plan B Magazine website. 

The anthology is available at Amazon here and my story will be up in rotation at the Plan B website, if you'd like to check it out for free.

This is my first time being published, and I couldn't have hoped for a an easier, more writer-friendly experience. Thanks to Darusha and everyone behind the Plan B site for helping out this newbie.

Plan B - Volume IV: a mystery and crime anthology (Plan B Anthologies)

By Frank Byrns, Laird Long, Daniel Marshall Wood, Adam Howe, J. M. Vogel, Michael McGlade, MJ Gardner, Dan Stout, Lavie Tidhar

Buy on Amazon