Sunday,
November 1, 2009
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Aaaand we're off!
Yes, folks, it's November, which means it's time for National Novel Writing Month, and for us to nail our asses to the chair and chunk out a minimum of 1,667 words a day in order to complete 50,000 words by 11/30/09. And since WKQA will be ready to submit by next month and MURDER AT THE SANDS OF TIME has less than 40K to go, I'm going to be wild and crazy and pull out that plot bunny I came up with in September and work on that (in addition to editing WKQA and working on MURDER, of course -- hey, I don't need sleep).
So, as of this morning, A MOST MALICIOUS MURDER (alternate history mystery -- Edgar Allan Poe evades his vengeful brothers-in-law-to be in 1849, marries Elmira Shelton and founds The Stylus. Two years later the 'zine is in financial straits, so Poe travels to England to go on a lecture and fundraising tour, and becomes implicated in a mysterious murder in Oxford and must clear his name by solving it with the assistance of a shy, stammering undergraduate named Charles Dodgson) is underway and currently stands at 1,712 words, with more to come while I'm waiting at the airport. Huzzah!
Meanwhile, back in LA...
One of the reasons why I've been absent for so long (other reasons being the writing, various events at the Death Star, various events in Real Life, etc.) has been a Sekrit Project I cooked up after seeing NEVERMORE. As of yesterday, the Sekrit Project was successfully completed and delivered to the recipient, who seemed eminently pleased with it, which pleases me to no end (I like making people happy).
The Sekrit Project? Well, as you know (Bob), I have a running gag that my Muse spends most of her time in Bali, and only swans into town when she's tanked on mojitos. As it turns out, her latest drunken visitation came while I was reading an article in Miniature Collector about recreating scenes from books/movies/etc. as room boxes.
All of a sudden, this giggling voice slurred into my ear, "Ya know...you could do a scene from NEVERMORE as a room box."
"Mm, yeah, I could. Be a lot of work, though."
"You've been whining about not getting to build anything all year -- just do it. And get me another mojito."
She had a point, dammit, so I tossed her a bottle of Parrot Bay and hit Through The Keyhole for the necessary implements, then got to work.
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Yes, this is really how I work -- I don't do neat. Good closeups of Jeffrey in and out of costume as references for the Poe doll are taped up (and oh, my God, but I need bifocals because I was studying a picture/taking my glasses off/working on the doll/putting my glasses on/studying a picture/taking my glasses off *arrrgh* until I just wanted to kill myself), various tools and accoutrements are on either side of the table, paints/stains/varnishes on the box at the back, a roll of paper toweling to hand because I ALWAYS spill something, and my three stand-ins for Poe at the ready. |
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The stand-ins: the Doctor, so that I could see what a male figure would look like in the room, my EA Poe action figure so I could see how the dark coloration would work with the lighting, and Sailor Moon so that I could see how a doll in proper scale (5.75", which in full size would be 5'8", the correct height for both Jeffrey and Poe) would work against the stage set and furniture. "But Melanie," I hear you ask, "why didn't you just make the Poe doll first, then base the set and furniture against him?" Because, gentle reader, I've never made a doll before from scratch, much less a character doll that actually had to look like someone, so I chickened out and decided to do the easy stuff first. |
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The box base is a Real Good Toys room box kit made from MDF; after I ran through a couple of external decoration possibilities, the Bodacious Brit suggested I make it look like an antique Victorian display case to match the period of the play. I wound up sheathing the box in cherry veneer, then added a Bombay mahogany stain and brass corner fittings, and BB pronounced it appropriately Victorian. |
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Next step -- constructing the stage in miniature. It's designed to copy the NEVERMORE set, with black walls, ceiling and proscenium, a black curtain on stage right and two red velvet curtains framing the stage. While building the framing supports, I realized that a stage set really should have working lights (this may have been another rum-scented suggestion, I dunno). So I ran Cir-Kit lighting tape along the walls and connected it to a battery pack beneath the stage (the stage front is designed so that it slides up, allowing the battery pack to be replaced as necessary), popped a rocker switch into the side wall, then attached two adjustable spotlights to the back wall. An additional strip of lighting tape under the flooring of the stage would power an electrified candlestick, because miniaturists develop situational OCD after a while and if Poe had a lighted candle during the play, by God he would have a lighted candle in the room box. |
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Once the interior was finished, it was time to build the furniture and Poe figure. I attended two more performances so that I could sketch furniture details and study Jeffrey's costume (it did occur to me that he might wonder, "Who is that strange redhead in the front row and why is she staring at my clothing?"), then started construction. |
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| The lectern is made of brass strips and rods twisted with jewelry pliers, a vise and brute strength, then fastened together with JB-weld metal epoxy and coated with silver enamel and a light coat of matte black for a pewter effect. |
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The chair is a combination of wood and brass with a faux grain finish (I tried to turn chair arms and legs to look like the original -- the less said about that, the better), and the table was purchased and stained to look like the full-sized version. After the furniture was completed, I built the Poe doll. This is my first doll, and considering how I was almost paralyzed with panic when I started working on him, I'm extremely pleased at how he turned out. The head, hands and feet are sculpted from Fimo; the face is based on promo pictures for NEVERMORE and Jeffrey's blessedly detailed head shots from FedCon. |
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The hair and mustache are black viscose, and Poe's clothing is made from white and black cotton batiste, black 1/16 inch ribbon (for the neckcloth), ¼ inch black velvet ribbon (for the coat lapels), and brown 1/16 inch ribbon (for the suspenders). |
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And yes, there's a flask of rye in his jacket pocket. |
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In fact, there are a couple of Easter eggs scattered throughout the room box, including a tribute to messers Gordon and Paoli. What can I say -- I like my miniatures with a bit of whimsy. |
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The final touch was to add a decorative brass plate to the bottom of the plexiglass window, reading: Commemorating the premiere of NEVERMORE, All in all, I gotta say I'm pleased with the results. |
But wait, there's more!
See, Stacy called me a week ago and surprised the hell out of me by explaining that she'd emailed Jeffrey to tell him about the room box and ask if I could present it in person (I was just going to leave it at the theater with a card explaining the provenance, since I knew he was tired after the show and I didn't want to bother him, thank you Mom for training me to be hyper-polite). He very graciously agreed to meet with me after the show, so I was escorted backstage last night and got to spend about 15 minutes chatting with him, his makeup crew, Stuart Gordon and Amit Itelman (artistic director for the Steve Allen Theater) while everyone checked out the room box.
And can I say, oh, my God, but everyone was just so damn NICE. Seriously, these people are all in the will -- they made me feel welcome and gave me the ego boost from Hell with their compliments on the room box. And Jeffrey is not only a wonderful actor, but an utter and total sweetheart who put an extremely nervous redhead at ease within seconds and completely got what I was trying to do with the box. Just...wow. If he ever needs a kidney, all he has to do is ask.
And on a final note
JJ
(who happens to be a black cat) likes to sprawl next to my desk while
I work. One night I had THE BLACK CAT on my iMac, and was listening
to the commentary as I worked on the doll.
Just as Poe grabs his wife's pet cat and does a rather gory thing to the poor animal, I happened to glance down at JJ. He was staring at the iMac in horror. If the looks we exchanged could be translated into English, it would go something like this:
JJ: MOM!
Me: What?
JJ: A house ape just cut that cat's eye out!
Me: Oh. No, JJ, that's not real--
JJ: Dude, he cut the cat's EYE out! What kind of whackjob movie are you watching?
Me: Well,
it's really good--
JJ: Are you on crack? What part of HE CUT A CAT'S EYE OUT are you not parsing?
Me: (sighs) Look, I'll show you the special effects section later--
JJ: Jesus, Allah and Zoroaster. That house ape comes near me, I will fuck his shit up. Wait a minute -- what are you holding?
Me: Um...a craft knife, but--
JJ: That's it -- I'm outta here.
He spent the rest of the evening watching me warily from my office doorway. Oy...