abstract perfection

What a nice day

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Sunday Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:33:00 +0000

Garden

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Instagram

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:21:00 +0000

{ Oh I've been lost... }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Okay, so it's absolutely true that I haven't listened to a lot of new music this year. It's a sad fact, but there you have it. I did however purchase a CD (how old school of me!) on a whim and I am so so glad that I did. What I bought was The Head and the Heart's self-titled debut album. I loved it from the first tapping of drumsticks. It became my soundtrack while I painted my bedroom. Oh how I enjoyed singing along at the top of my lungs. Good times.

I was really disappointed to learn that they'd played a show with my favorite band (The Decemberists) within driving distance of my house. I was broke at the time so I couldn't have gone to see them, even if I hadn't found out about it two days before the show (plus I'd already been to a Decemberists concert earlier that summer). There aren't many bands I'd go through the trouble of seeing perform live, but these guys are one of them. Goal for the coming year: see The Decemberists, Mumford and Sons and The Head and the Heart live. Make sure you guys are touring and stop by Maryland, okay? Even DC is close enough.

{ Your otaku is showing }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Okay, I'll admit it. There was a pretty big chunk of my life when I was a huge fan of Japanese pop culture. It started way back when with a magical girl show called Sailor Moon. Now, most people my age started watching it on Cartoon Network during their Toonami show block. But I remember seeing it during the wee hours of the morn some years before. I had been up early because of a cold and I remember being mesmerized. Cut to some years later, and I was hooked.

To say I was a Sailor Moon fan would be putting it lightly. I was obsessed. I ran home and watched the TV (laughing and crying all the way) and devoured the manga when I could. I dragged my mom into Hot Topic and made her buy me the cheesy merchandise. I still own the comic-style issues they printed. I spent hours on the internet, looking up the Japanese version of the manga. I printed out images and collected them in a binder. I'm pretty sure I got grounded once for using up too much ink.

I hunted down clips and listened to the music. I knew the Japanese theme by heart and even had a chance to listen to the German and French themes. And remember folks, this was before Youtube. Before Google even. *shudder*

I bought the badly dubbed movies and watched horrendous fansubs of the lost seasons. They made a live-action TV show and I was there, front and center. Hell, Sailor Moon was the reason why I bothered to learn Japanese.

Fanart? Check. Fanfics? Check. Fancomics? Double check. I cut my storytelling teeth on writing about my own Sailor Senshi. Am I embarrassed by it now? Yeah, a little. Did my passion wane? You bet. But this past August, Kodansha started reprinting the Sailor Moon manga Stateside and I've been in nostalgia heaven.

Moon Prism Power, bitches!

{ Undomesticated }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

As much as I find the image above to be adorably cute (the yellow is so horrific, that it's awesome), the truth is that I am just not that person. I don't have a cute apron, nor the desire to cook or bake. My knowledge of the culinary arts is limited to microwaving, toasting and boiling. No preparing, measuing, mixing, frying, sauteing, grilling, steaming, poaching or any of that other nonsense.

And yet, each year around this time, I feel this longing for the kitchen. There's something about the holiday season that drives me to actually look at recipes--and in grave situations--actually cook. Well, bake anyway. Baking's easy. I can do baking. When I want to. Or when I'm bored.

Last year, I made a couple of batches of shortbread cookies. Now, any of you who have actually done a little baking, know that shortbread is about as easy as it comes. It's really hard to screw up making shortbread cookies. Gather ingredients, mix ingredients, shape cookies, bake, done. I had this crazy notion of making icing to go on them, but laziness soon put an end to that idea. I did color them and cut them out with leaf-shaped cookie cutters, though. That made them fancy enough for me.

I used cookie cutters to make the little leaves.

This year, since we're doing Thanksgiving on our own, I'd love to find some lovely recipes to try out. Ready your stones for throwing, but I actually don't like anything about a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Well, except for the cranberry sauce. And pumpkin pie. I love me some spicy pumpkin pie. Instead of turkey and the heaps of sweet potatoes, I'm thinking of doing something yummy with chicken and roasted potatoes. Instead of stuffing and corn, how about baked mac'n'cheese and a nice green salad? I wouldn't say no to some asparagus in a tasty sauce either...

Anyway, back to baking.

I bought a cute pie dish on impulse recently (had some store credit to use up) and since we had a bag of apples with no purpose, I decided to bake a pie(!) complete with a fancy crust and everything. The result was okay, I guess. It looked good, at least, and it was edible. Wasn't quite as tangy or apple-y as I would have liked. It was spicy as hell, though. I think I went a little overboard with the cinnamon. Oh well, better luck next time.

Next up, a strawberry pie!

{ Just a little deconstruction }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:52:00 +0000

Well, I've gone and played around with the blog's layout again. Still the same basic images and color scheme, just a more streamlined appearance. The base coding of the layout was created by the wonderful Katrina over at Pugly Pixel. She has tons of tutorials on creating great-looking blogs. For this one, I've gone the minimalist route, which is crazy because I'm not a big fan of minimalism. But I thought the blog should focus on the posts, not the 'other stuff'.

Since I'm not really in 'author mode' here anymore, I feel okay not focusing on my books on my blog. I figured once I got anywhere near publishing, I'd do another revamp and update it with a theme that matched the cover of my book. In the meantime, I'd like to stick with something I don't mind looking at.

I might as well tailor it to my preferences, since I'm the only one who reads the darn thing...

photo // Theo Gosselin

{ Magical Illustrations - The Art of Arthur Rackham }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:21:00 +0000

After all this time, I'm still on the fairy tale kick. I'm happy to report that I enjoy both Grimm and Once Upon a Time, plus this season of the BBC's Merlin is absolutely fantastic. I'd forgotten how much I loved that show. I also happened to watch a German comedy that spoofed Snow White, called 7 Zwerge ('seven dwarfs'). I found it hilarious in a Robin Hood Men in Tights sort of way.

Anyway, whenever I get to thinking about fairy tales, my mind automatically goes to Arthur Rackham, the Victorian illustrator behind many beautiful editions of classic tales, including the Complete Brothers Grimm, Alice in Wonderland, the opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, and a series of fairy tale books written by CS Evans.

I first discovered Arthur Rackham in the way that all things seem to be discovered nowadays--poking around the internet. Since then I've collected an illustration treasury, as well as a few illustrated books. I've since discovered that The Everyman's Library has reprinted the CS Evans books and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on those. The silhouette work in Sleeping Beauty looks amazing.

Arthur Rackham is known by artists for his use of neutral, earthy color palettes, as well as his gritty realism. Giullermo Del Toro has said that Rackham's work was an inspiration behind some of the designs for his movies, Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy.

What I love about his illustrations is the attention to detail. Each image is fully formed, with many of the color illustrations having complete backgrounds that create believable worlds for otherwise unbelievable stories. His illustrations are dark and mysterious and sometimes downright grotesque. They're epic and small in scale, relatable and wondrous, just the tales they illustrate.

{ This is not a book review: WILDWOOD }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:44:00 +0000

I suck at book reviews, which kinda really sucks since I'm a bookseller by trade and that sometimes entails people asking me for my opinion about books. If it's a book I really like, I try to pack as much enthusiasm into the "Oh, I LOVE that!" as I can, but I usually find myself sputtering like an idiot when people ask that inevitable question: "Why?"

I have plenty of favorite books, but I'm just no good at telling you why they are my favorite. The best review that I can give for Howl's Moving Castle is that I've read it three times. That's an adequate description to show how awesome it is, right? Right?

Anyway, since I can't write a book review, I'm just going to say this: I liked Wildwood and I'm excited to read the next installment of the series. Since I've kinda gotten a feel for Mr. Meloy as a writer, I'm interested to see where he takes this story about Prue McKeel, Curtis the Cayote Solider and little baby Mac.

The book itself is beautifully crafted with lovely color
and black and white illustrations

As a fan of The Decemberists (I may have mentioned them once or twice on this blog...) it was a given that I would buy and read and probably enjoy Wildwood. For Carson Ellis's lovely illustrations, if nothing else.

The book reminds me of CS Lewis's Narnia series and that's the way I've taken to recommending it to people. I even did the dreaded thing and compared it to Harry Potter, though I meant in a kind of general way. Sure there are those fantasy elements and whatnot, but to me the big thing about Harry Potter is the gravity of the story--decisions are made and consequences are dealt with. I think there is enough weight and, more importantly, enough potential weight to the story of Wildwood to warrant such a comparison. It's one of the reasons why I love Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain books. Yes, they were kids books, BUT they had a deeper meaning to them.

In the end, the book was a little too long, though I did enjoy most of the segments of the plot. The vocab was a little too elevated sometimes (though that kind of thing is expected from Colin Meloy) but the writing was wonderful. I could see the movie in my mind, as they say. The book had me laughing and cheering and frowning for all the right reasons. The battles were especially tense and gripping. Being a book written by a member of the indie crowd, Wildwood had the potential to be horrendously pretentious (kind of like this non-review) and it did tend that way early on before we get to Wildwood, but all pretensions were lost in the Wood.

Now, I'm pretty sure all the copies we've sold have been to hipsters and not children, but whatever. Little hipsters in the making, maybe?

{ It's a wicked, wicked world }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:14:00 +0000

I saw Laura Jansen on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (my beloved guilty pleasure) and I really liked the song. It's fun and wickedly catchy. How happy was I to find a fun and wickedly funny video to go along with it? Who doesn't like the idea of fairy tale (Disney) characters sleezing it up in a bar?

Though the song is a couple of years old, it's just one of many little things revolving around the fairy tale trend that's been subtly going on. While it's nowhere as hardcore as the whole vampire/werewolf thing, the trend seems to be coming to a sort of climax with the dueling fairy tale TV shows (see: Once Upon a Time and Grimm, or don't see them, I don't care...) and the two Snow White movie adaptations, called Snow White and the Hunter and Snow White and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen (that's quite a mouthful, isn't it?). This after movies based on Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. I think the trend was started by the likes of Enchanted and Gregory Maguire's books. And then there was all that Scary Johnny Depp in Wonderland hoopla and Syfy's Alice... There really are more things than I thought now that I think about it... The Looking Glass Wars...etc.

Out of the recent stuff, I've only seen the first episode of Once Upon a Time and it was...eh, all right, I guess. I wanted it to be more whimsical and to not have such a sourpuss of a lead, but Robert Carlyle and the chick playing the evil queen (almost) make up for it. I'm excited to watch Grimm later this week and I'll probably end up seeing both Snow Whites (in about two years once they come along on my Netflix queue...).

I've even fallen victim to the whole fairy tale trend myself, though it was probably something like six years ago. I once toyed with a story based on the classic Thousand Furs tale (which falls under the Cinderella tale type, according to my folklore professor). I remembered watching a little cartoon of it when I was a kid and I loved the story. My version was called Allerleirauh (after the original German name of the Grimm version) and I of course added a few tweaks of my own. Instead of having the girl wear a cloak of a thousand furs, I just made her furry, kind of like the Beast. The prince was a complete tool bag (vain and egotistical, etc). This just led to a funny kind of tension between them, because she was by no means a simpering princess. I still might revisit that story one day. Who knows?

So, what's your favorite fairy tale?

{ Autumn Leaves }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:21:00 +0000

This past Saturday, I went to Gettysburg, PA with a friend. Despite the chilly overcast day, it was lots of fun. I've been going to Gettysburg for more than a decade now, but I know I've come nowhere close to doing everything there is to do.

After getting a little lost on the way there, we drove around the battlefields and took some photos of the beautiful autumn leaves. We then ventured into town, where we drove around for an hour because we didn't have any change for the parking meters. Eventually we got out and walked around for a few blocks. We stopped at some homemade ice cream place, where my friend ordered a delicious strawberry milkshake and I got some pumpkin ice cream. It was spicy and oh so good.

photos // Canon PowerShot SX120 IS
editing // Photoshop CS5

{ Farm visits }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:18:00 +0000

This past Saturday, I visited two local farms along with my dad and my brother. We walked through a corn maze at Rogers Farm, which was lots of fun. Afterwards, we picked some pumpkins. I ended up lugging a 30 pounder around, which was not fun. My arm still hurts! The weather was nice though. I couldn't believe how blue the sky was.

We then went to Weber's Cider Mill Farm and bought some delicious baked goods and pumpkin fudge. I was so excited to find a strawberry pie! Strawberries are my favorite, but everyone always looked at me like I had six heads whenever I mentioned the idea of a strawberry pie. IN YOUR FACE, PEOPLE! And the best part: it was DE-LI-CIOUS.

Anyway, later that night, I kicked back, enjoyed my pie and flipped through my new Toast catalog. All and all, it was a very good day.

photos // Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

{ Week two in seven }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:53:00 +0000

I've been reading Wildwood by Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists fame) and I'm happy to report that it's really good!
As was this slice of former apple pie.

My dad used to build model train gardens. I happened to find some of his houses stuffed in a cabinet in the basement. The Old West garden was my favorite.

These shots remind me of the amazing "bigatures" built for the Lord of the Rings movies. I can't wait to see The Hobbit. Is it next year yet?

I was taking this photo while a driver was impatiently waiting to take my parking spot. Don't people know that art comes first?!

Nutella is the new love of my life. Hands down.

The Globe Theater at the Maryland Renaissance Festival

Wine and Alchemy performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival

photos // LG Vortex phone and Canon PowerShot SX120 IS
video // youtube

{ Week in seven }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000

// photos taken with LG Vortex phone and Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

{ Life in Seven }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:42:00 +0000

Who watches the watchmen?

Reading Esquire made me feel like I was spying on the enemy, but not really, because none of the men I know actually read Esquire.
It's unfortunate, because maybe then they'd dress like this.

I ate one of these a day later and chipped my tooth. They look harmless enough here.

Spaghetti, popcorn chicken, mozzarella sticks and Wheat Thins. Best. Meal. Ever. (Not really, but it is really good)

Field trip!

"Fetchez la vache!"

Autumn is coming...

{ When it rains... }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Danielle Kroll

Okay, so in some ways this little print is a little insensitive, considering parts of my state are underwater right now. It's been raining like crazy this week. But since I don't live in a flood-prone area, it didn't occur to me what kind of damage this rain was causing. Historic Ellicott City, a place I love to visit, had a river instead of a main street at one point. Even a road I used to take to school flooded pretty bad. Mother Nature obviously isn't finished with us yet this hurricane season, but here's hoping it doesn't get any worse.

Anyway, despite the widespread damage, I've actually been enjoying the rain this week. Things have been slow and mildly productive at work, which is always nice. On Tuesday, my day off, I particularly enjoyed the steady rain as it fell. I cracked open my window, bundled up in a sweater and listened to some tunes. I spent the day working on a brand new outline for Ghosts of Fallen Leaves, trying out a few different things to see how they improve the story.

Football season has officially started. I never used to care about sports, but over the past two seasons, I've enjoyed sitting down on Sundays and watching the Ravens with my dad. Last year I even played a little fantasy football and I enjoyed it so much that we're doing it again this year. I can't wait to watch the Ravens play the Steelers on Sunday. GO RAVENS!!

{ Books with Pictures }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I spend my days working in the children's department of a bookstore. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? I get to spend my days surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of books. Must be a booklover's dream come true, right?

Working in a bookstore has its perks (not the least of which is the discount) but it does have its disadvantages. Besides the usual terrors that accompany any retail job, I found myself facing an unexpected problem. After being surrounded by so many books for so long, I've become a little immune to their charms. They no longer catch my eye like they used to, demanding me to read them.

My first two years as a bookseller saw my book consumption levels skyrocket. I counted nearly 30 read in one year, which was very ridiculous for me. Since then, I've probably read ten, fifteen at the most...over a three year period. It's absolutely horrible and I feel very ashamed of myself. I really need to get back into reading on a regular basis. I need to start doing a lot of things on a regular basis.

Anyway, one of the perks to working in the children's department is that I get to see books that I might not have seen otherwise. Out of those ten/fifteen books, a fair number of them were young readers titles. And no, I'm not talking about Harry Potter, though of course I have read those, too. It's become fashionable/acceptable for adults to read young adult (otherwise known as teen) titles, but very few will admit that they still read children's books. But I love them.

But it's not just young readers titles. Since I've started to do storytime twice a week, I've also been looking at a lot of picture books. I've even bought a few of them for my own collection. My favorites are the girly ones with the pretty illustrations, but I also love the funny ones, the ones that are a great to read out loud.

{ You're gonna know me }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Corporate decides what music we get to listen to at my job. Granted, actual CDs are much better than musak, but sometimes the difference is minuscule. However, every once in a while we listen to music that I enjoy. This month we're listening to Hugh Laurie singing the blues and the soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, which is freaking awesome.

Last month, we listened to Little Red Boots by Lindi Ortega. While the title song is my favorite, I wasn't able to find a version to share with you guys that wasn't absolutely sucky. This video of "Angels" is nicely shot, though, so enjoy watching and go check out her album!

Lindi Ortega- Angels (Wood & Wires Session) from Adrian Vieni (Wood & Wires) on Vimeo.

{ Recently rediscovered: watching movies }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

I will admit up front that I am a TV person. I will sit down and watch a dozen episodes of a TV show before consenting to watching a film. It's not that I hate movies. I just usually don't sit down and watch them. Going to the movie theater has become so rare in the past years that it takes a real movie event to drag me out (see: Harry Potter). I always tell myself it's because scheduling is always a nightmare and the tickets are too expensive nowadays PLUS I can always rent the thing when it comes out... But somehow I never do. All those great movies that came out in recent years--yeah, I've never actually watched them.

The worst part is that I have a Netflix account and I didn't skimp out on the disc deal either. Well, I've decided to fix that. I've decided to start crossing off movies on that To Watch Before I Die list. Between renting, borrowing and streaming, I've managed to watch all four of these films in the past three days.

(500) Days of Summer was wonderful, as I expected. Zooey Deschanel's character was unforgivably frustrating, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt was amazing as always. I loved the production and the writing, as well. This movie must be added to my collection. I was surprised by how entertaining I found Breakfast at Tiffany's. I guess I'd never quite understood what kind of movie it was. I know Holly Golightly is Audrey Hepburns's iconic role, but I really liked George Peppard in the movie. When you think about it, both of these movies have quite a lot in common, no?

The next two, Ondine and I Capture the Castle, were late night streams. Ondine was good, if a little confusing at times. I think the term 'indie film' is really just code for 'mumbling on camera' sometimes, so that coupled with the freaking Irish/Scottish/Romanian accents made it a little harder to understand what everyone was saying. It was a good movie, though. I Capture the Castle turned out to be one of those 'How have I not seen this before?' kind of films. I'm a sucker for period pieces and this one was just beautiful. Funny and sad and gorgeous and awkward and hopeful all at the same time.

Hmm, I'm seeing a common thread here: There is a general lack of neatness in all of these movies. How authentic of them. Life is messy, after all.

{ My second-favorite French word }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:47:00 +0000

Normally I don't have much trouble writing endings, but the ending of Ghosts of Fallen Leaves has always stumped me. In past drafts, I've always spent so much of my time making my characters hate each other, that I found it very difficult for them to get past the events of the climax of the book...and yet I desperately needed them to.

The ending of the story is all a matter of forgiveness and where things stood, whenever I sat down and really thought about how my characters would react, I knew that forgiveness was next to impossible. And yet, if there wasn't forgiveness, then there wouldn't be a story. And that would suck.

In order to mitigate this problem, I've changed some of the things that are revealed during the climax, as well as changed the characters themselves so that they react to these situations in a better, more cooperative way. No longer are the secrets revealed completely earth-shattering.

The problem I'm having now is keeping the denouement to a reasonable length so that's satisfying, informative and engaging enough to make the reader want to read the next installment in the series, while also keeping it from being too sappy.

I'm a sucker for happy endings, so that's the way my writing naturally inclines. I'm also a sucker for neat endings. The more that gets wrapped up, the better. Since GOFL is the first book in a series, it wouldn't make sense to have this sort of ending. I can't answer all of the questions and I came to terms with that a long time ago.

I also love me a good twisty cliffhanger, as anyone who's read the current draft up on Inkpop knows. I think this is something that good, gripping television writing accomplishes in every episode. Finish up a decent chunk of the day's story, but always end the episode with a teaser of a cliffhanger that leads into the next episode. Lost was good at it, as well as shows as different as 24, Fringe, Burn Notice and Teen Wolf. (Yes, I watched Teen Wolf. Don't judge me. :P)

GOFL no longer ends at that particular cliffhanger, but it will end on one nonetheless. There's no doubt about that. Cliffhangers are just too juicy to resist.

What I'm having trouble with is where to leave off the main characters' relationship at the end. So many things happen by the end of the story, that's its been very difficult wrapping everything up neatly with a bow. It's very frustrating, not having things turn out the way you want them to.

I think, for writers, the key word to keep in mind for any ending is 'satisfying'. An ending doesn't have to be happy to be satisfying. Some endings to stories just make sense, even though they're not necessarily what you would have wanted.

True, it is possible to write an unsatisfying ending. Some might say this route is 'daring' or 'edgy', but it's not for me. I've read a few unsatisfying endings and they ruin the whole story in my opinion. I don't want people to say that about my stories. You know, "It was amazing...until the end. Then it sucked."

And just to challenge myself, I'm going to end this on an unsatisfying note and not tell you what my favorite French word is. Denouement is only second-favorite. You have no idea how much it pains me to do this.

{ Rumblings }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:52:00 +0000

Mountain View by Native Vermont Studio

Well, as some of you may know, the East Coast experienced an earthquake today. I'm sure all of you living on the West Coast laughed at our panic. But then again, I'd love to see how the city of Los Angelas would handle a blizzard of four feet of snow.

Needless to say, it scared the crap out of me. I felt the ground rumble, heard the windowpanes rattle. I hid myself under the support beams in the basement until it ended. I didn't stop shaking for a few minutes after it ended.

Now to get back to my Doctor Who marathon...

{ My Burning House }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:46:00 +0000

After seeing The Burning House project featured on a couple of blogs I follow, as well as on The Anthropologist, it got me thinking about making my own. Started by Foster Huntington, the photo project asks one simple question:

"If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It's a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question."

At first I honestly couldn't think of too many things I'd be desperate to save. I own a lot of crap, but most of it is superficial and easily replaceable. As I searched and thought, however, I found myself making a pile of stuff that I'd be very sorry to lose--sentimental items that may seem insignificant to others, but are special to me. While picking through my things, I also took into account the things that would be difficult to replace (ie: expensive), as well as the essentials that I'd hate to be without even for one night.

I'm going to preface my list with three items that couldn't make it into the photo: my two cats, Morgan and Mason, and my computer. They are so far at the top of the list, they weren't even worth mentioning. Plus the cats really didn't feel like having their photos taken today. Pair of divas.

{ From top to bottom, left to right }

1. Keys: My red Toyota Echo may be a vehicular joke, but I love it. Plus that tape measure is a great nervous toy.
2. Pajama pants: cheap purchases from Target and I absolutely love them. I'd spend all day, everyday in them if I could.
3. Favorite CDs: Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones, a selection of Decemberists albums, The Head and the Heart, plus my Lord of the Rings soundtracks.
4. Favorite books: A British copy of Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones. Old copy of The Hobbit that used to belong to my mother.
5. Replica of the key to Independence Hall in Philadelphia purchased on one of my favorite field trips when I was in fifth grade. I love love love history.
6. Necklace from ShopRuche.com. I've worn it so much that the metal has started to wear off.
7. Pink blanket knitted by my Mom-Mom when I was an infant. This is probably the one irreplaceable thing on this list. It's at the top.
8. My Nook and Nook Color. All of my books can burn (except for a few) as long as I can read them on my e-readers.
9. Nero Wolfe DVD collection. I limited myself to one DVD for this, since they're easily replaceable. Coming in a close second: Simon Schama's A History of Britain.
10. Little replica container I got from the gift shop at the House of Seven Gables while on my favorite vacation of all time. It also holds my hair tie collection. God forbid my hair touches the back of my neck while my house is burning down.
11. My glasses, because I really hate squinting all the time.
12. My iPod, which holds some of my favorite albums that I don't own CD copies of: Basia Bulat's Heart of My Own and the Decemberists' The Crane Wife.
13. Box of bobby pins.
14. Soulless by Gail Carriger, another favorite book.
15. July 2008 Anthropologie catalog. This thing has a ridiculous amount of sentimental value for me.
16. Celtic knot ring bought at a Renaissance festival. My best friend has a matching one.
17. Yellow scarf that I knitted myself.
18. Anthropologie scarf. It's so 'me'.
19. Wallet--a gift from my best friend. She knows my taste so well.

{ The Princess Experiment Update }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:57:00 +0000

I haven't done an update on my public domain experiment in a while. Mostly because there hasn't been much to report. Anyway, here it goes.

Back in February I started selling a public domain title, The Princess and the Goblin, through Barnes and Noble's PubIt. I created a cover for the ebook and formatted the text (no easy feat, let me tell you) and then put it up for sale for 99 cents. For each copy sold, I get a grand total of 40 cents profit. Considering I spent $10 dollars for the cover image, I knew it would take me a while to break even.

And as of last month, I've done just that.

I've actually made $12 in profit as of today. B&N doesn't send out a check less than ten bucks, so I expect to be seeing my direct deposit sometime in the next month. I'll try not to spend it all in one place.

As I've said before, I didn't do this little experiment in order to make money. I just wanted to see what the PubIt experience was like. It was fairly easy to work out and I'm pleased with the whole system. It certainly is less intimidating than Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, which I have yet to try out since their policy on public domain titles is stricter than B&N's.

I'm just now discovering that BN.com has started nesting ebooks, so same-priced versions of public domain titles are getting shoved on the same page. This makes it a little harder for people to find my particular edition, but that doesn't really mean much when actually shopping on an eReader like the Nook.

I know I need to start poking around at Kindle's site sometime before I set out to publish GOFL, but there's something about it that just seems so intimidating. Oh well...

{ Weathering the storm }

noreply@blogger.com (h.m.resch) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:59:00 +0000

I live in an area that sees a wide variety of weather conditions throughout the year. Right now it's raining cats and dogs. A week ago the temperature was high but bearable. A week before that--sweltering. It got over 100 degrees for a few weeks this year.

Spring and Fall each last for about a week and a half during the year and the rest is Summer and Winter. We've got humidity, wind, rain, fog, thunderstorms, below freezing temperatures, ice and snow, as well as the occasional tornado, hurricane and blizzard. I know this isn't exactly weather-related, but every eighteen years we also get a visit from swarms of cicadas. We basically get everything except for dust storms and thank the weather gods for that.

Weather is a very important factor in my life. Not only does it affect how I dress, it affects my mood. Sunny days tend to see me happy and bouncy, while things slow down and get a little depressing on gray, rainy days. Warm sunny days leave me itching to go driving outside while listening to music, while days like today make me pine for some knitwear and a chai latte.

I take the weather conditions into consideration in my writing all the time. Loch Raven takes place during the summer because at its heart it is a bright story filled with warmth. It's also easier to contrast that warmth with the cold parts of the tale. Ghosts of Fallen Leaves takes place in the fall because such a chilly, spooky story seemed perfect for that chilly, spooky time of the year. I've recently made the decision to do a bit of editing and make autumn more autumnal in the story. It is my favorite time of year, after all.

Weather is fundamentally a part of the setting when it comes to writing. You can't describe an outside scene without describing the weather. Some people pay attention to it more than others. The weather can be used as a literal plot element--it is raining, therefore giving the character a chance to get wet. Or it can be used metaphorically--sunny skies reflect the happy mood of a character.

Sometimes I like to think of the weather another character in my stories. It affects the plot and the human characters in more ways that people realize.

{ Weather songs }

These are just some tunes that make me think of the weather or specific seasons. The reasons why are more obvious for some and less for others. The Black Prairie songs in particular always make me think of sitting on the porch on a hot evening just as the sun sets. Will There Be Enough Water by the Dead Weather invokes thoughts of hot and sticky summer nights. KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic album makes me think of fall/winter because I used to listen to that album while driving to school all the time. The Decemberists songs are obvious: rain and the summertime. Kim Taylor's Days Like This was actually the inspiration behind Loch Raven--story, setting and mood.

** Those using an RSS reader, click through for music player.