Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!

Gaelic's a bit of a tricky language for non-native speakers.  To wish a group "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" you'd say "La ale-lah pwad-rig son-ah jeev!"

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.




May those who love us, love us.
And those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts.
And if He can't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.

 

May the roof above us never fall in, and we friends gathered below never fall out.


 

Now for a little Irish blessing of my own:

May you have good drink, better food and plenty of friends to share them with.

 

Work in Progress - Lethe, the seahorse

The paper mache technique worked very well!  Much quicker than mixing up epoxy and applying it in layers, that's for sure!

Here's a picture of her after I'd uncurled the wire mesh frame for her tail and stuffed it with crumpled newspaper:

The pink band is actually epoxy, which I used to attach the wire mesh.  I wrapped the mesh with masking tape to cover the edges that would poke through, and to keep it closed around the newspaper.

And here she is after the first layer of paper mache has been applied.  Unfortunately the way I had to set her to dry (on her belly on a plastic container perched on top of a can of spray adhesive) pushed her tail out a bit further than I wanted, and so she's standing more upright than I'd intended.  I could cut notches in her tail and squash her back down before I finish her tail, or leave her as she is.  (The tail fin is temporary - it's a piece of napkin I cut to the size and shape I think I want the finished fin to be.)

 

 

You can tell from this back view that she's developed a bit of a lean.  Not sure what that's all about, except the mold itself does tend to lean to the left a little.  I don't think I'll worry about that; as long as she stays upright I don't mind the lean.  Kind of makes her look like she's just bobbing in the current.

Here she is from the front.  You can see where I removed all the old rough seams on the horse body.  I still plan on removing the rest of her mane and turning that into a spiny dorsal fin.  Not sure if I'll add another dorsal, make the spiny dorsal take up her whole back, or just make the spiny dorsal the length of the old mane.  Guess I'll figure that out when I get to that stage.

I still need to taper the end of her tail a bit before I make and add the caudal fin.  Trying to decide if I should shorten the tail or leave it the length (seven inches, with another five inches for the fin) it is.  I might try to curve it upwards just a bit, and make the caudal fin curl forward at the ends.  The base I have her on is just temporary - I'm going to make one from clay that will have a bit of a "cradle" effect, to help keep her upright.  I'll cover it in sand and add little bits of coral and seashells. 

But for right now she's on the back burner, because I want to work on an Appaloosa mustang for a while.  I want it to warm up a bit outside before I take her out to the garage to remove her mane; standing on frozen cement in a drafty garage isn't a lot of fun!

Work in Progress - hippocamp

I love fantasy creatures.  Centaurs, unicorns, dragons, griffins...you get the idea.  I've tried my hand at making some equid-based creatures, using Breyers (We in the hobby call models we use for customizing "bodies."  They can be in any shape, from missing limbs to even brand-new models, although those usually give me heartache to mess with) with varied results.


My first two attempts were a pair of winged horses (There was only one Pegasus in mythology, so there is no "correct plural" other than winged horses), one on the old Jumping Horse, and one on the Fighting Stallion.  I don't have pictures of Alexandros, but here's Nikolas.  I had to rebuild his tail from scratch (a wire mesh cone covered in epoxy) and cover a large hole that had been burned into his forehead by his previous owner - she was going for a unicorn.

Pretty sharp, hey?  Too bad about that goofy mane...  I've since learned a better technique for manes, and have plans to go back and make it better...probably when I reattach his tail & the hind leg that got broken when Arwen was under the misguided assumption that since he had wings he could fly.  Silly kitty.  (In her defense, he got knocked off the top shelf of my work desk when she jumped down.)

Speaking of the wings - they're from an action figure called Spawn by McFarlane Toys.  The feathers are flexible, but the "body" of the wings is more rigid.  Since at the time I was making Niko I didn't have a rotary tool I had to use a serrated knife to remove the "tabs" that fit into the slots in the figure's back.  (I still have one of the figures, and have plans to turn him into some kind of a knight.  Or possibly use him for another Centaur.)  Then I just made a couple big "blobs" of epoxy (I use Apoxie Sculpt, a two-part epoxy) to attach the wings to the body, one wing at a time, and sculpted feathers around the base of the wings once the epoxy set.

I've also done a Centaur, using a Conan the Barbarian figure (He was leaping to attack a giant gorilla-beast - hacking his legs off was a chore and a half) and an Andalusian body.  Unfortunately I couldn't get the figure's hips off, so I twisted them to get him into the wire mesh "chest" I'd built, which caused the mesh to bow out, making him look fat, so I added a "ruff" around the chest.  Not sure exactly what my reasoning there was.  Oh well.  I also added flying mane down his back.  Yeah..."seemed like a good idea at the time."  One other problem was the Conan torso wasn't quite in scale with the horse, so he looks kinda funky.

 Arion was the name of a horse endowed with speech in Greek & Roman mythology

For quite some time now I've wanted to make a hippocampus (not the part of the brain), a "sea horse," if you will.  I had something in mind ever since the first time I saw the wonderful resin Fleur de Lis by Debbi LerMond.  The first thing I needed, of course, was the horse body.  I opted for the Rearing Stallion, which is a smaller version of the Fighting Stallion, and I felt would be easier to work with.

Cute little guy, huh? 

First step was removing the hind legs.  In the picture above you can see some bubbling on his hip, where I had been heating him over a candle flame.  More on that step later.

I was able to borrow my father's Dremel and cut the legs off.  I also started working on thinning the mane to a sort of mohawk and carving out the ears.  Word of advice - when using a power tool on a plastic horse, do it outside and wear a dust mask!  Also be prepared to be absolutely covered in plastic dust!  Blech.

"Ohhh, I'm melting!"  (insert evil laugh here)

"Doc?  I can't feel my legs."

This is what we in the hobby refer to as "equine plastic surgery."  (I'll give you a moment to groan.  Please don't pull out the seltzer bottles.)  The melting was to take down the hip bones, since that area is going to be covered by the fish tail.  I left the tail for added support of the fish tail.  When heating up plastic with a candle flame BE CAREFUL!  Too close and you get bubbling and scorched plastic, or possibly a hole right through the critter.  The goal was to soften it enough to push the points of the hips flat, which...well, hot plastic and bare fingers don't get along too well.  I didn't get burned, just warmed my fingers a bit.

I wasn't sure at first just how I wanted the mane to look.  I was leaning towards something light and airy, like seaweed or kelp.  My mother suggested using a feather of some kind, and I grabbed a peacock feather I had in a box of small feathers (Did I mention I make dreamcatchers and medicine shields?  I have a ton of feathers of all sizes, shapes and colors.  But I digress.)  It looked cool, but not quite right.

Actually, more "80s punk rock" than "mystical sea horse"

Lethe's been banging around in the body box (Doesn't that sound horrid!?) for a while until I could figure out how to build her.  She does have a wire mesh "frame" for her fish tail, which has been attached with epoxy, but I haven't done much work on her, sadly.  Because I've just been stumped.  How to make the tail?  I wanted scales, but couldn't figure out a good method to make a lot of scales in the right...well, scale.  Tip of my pinkie nail?  I've done that - serious crampage.  (I used my nail for feather details on my hippogriff, who needs a LOT of help before he's featured here.)  Coffee straw?  Possible, but the trick would be making scales and not circles.  Plus talk about time-consuming.

Then one night I was poking around a website I frequent called Instructables (A fantastic "how-to" site covering everything you can imagine, from building your own bow & arrows to decorating cupcakes.) in the Halloween costume section (That's another interest of mine, which I'll talk about in another post sometime) and came across a link to Dan the Monster Man's site Gourmet Paper Mache. This guy does some amazing stuff in paper mache! 

And then it hit me - that's the perfect solution!  (Ok, that pun was totally unintended.  I promise!) I'll stuff crumpled newspaper into the mesh to give strength to the tail, and then cover the tail in paper mache.  I don't remember any rule in the hobby saying "You can ONLY use epoxy for sculpting!" so why not?  Dan's specialty is dragons, and after he forms the body parts (Man, I sound morbid tonight!) out of paper mache and attaches them, he covers his sculptures in a cloth mache "skin" - strips of fabric (he prefers old cotton sheets) dipped in white glue.

So that's my current plan.  Since I was going to mix up some paste anyway to work on a "rum" bottle for my pirate costume (More on that some other time.  I promise!) I'll work on Lethe's tail at the same time.  I'm still trying to figure out scales; Dan makes his from folded fabric and glues them on after the fact, but I'm working on a much smaller project.  I think I might use very fine netting, possibly tulle or something similar. 

Watching some of Dan's time-lapse videos and reading his blogs gave me the perfect solution to the mane problem (Ok, that one deserves seltzer bottles) and also her fins.  Right now I have in mind for her mane to look like a spinous dorsal fin, with possibly a soft dorsal behind it (The spinous is the ones with the pricky spines; the soft fin's spines are covered), and the caudal, or tail fin, will resemble that of a veiltail goldfish.

You know...like those gorgeous fish in Walt Disney's Fantasia during the "Nutcracker Suite":

 

 Or, actually, more like this:

Since I want to have her resting on her tail, she'll have a typical "fish tail" but the caudal fin will definitely be flowing.  And I have something in mind that I think will work perfectly for that.

As for color scheme, I plan on doing the horse torso in black, a blue-black I've developed for my horses that has a nice sheen to it, and the fish tail will be a dark blue.  I have interference powders I'll dust over her when I'm finished - interference blue on the horse torso to bring out the blue sheen, and duo blue/green on the fish tail, which will shimmer green or blue depending on how the light hits it.

I'll post pictures of her as I get each stage done; I hope to have her resting on her tail unsupported, but I might have to install a clear acrylic rod into her stomach that will be secured in her base.  I have small shells and bits of coral that my grandmother had collected in Hawaii that will go on the base once I've covered it in sand.

Oh, and her name?  Fans of "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer" will recognize it from the memory spell Willow cast on Tara to make her forget their fight (Lethe's bramble) but it comes from Greek legend; Lethe is one of the five rivers of Hades, the River of Forgetfulness.  It flows through the cave of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, and the murmur of the river brings on drowsiness.  It borders Elysium, the final resting place of the virtuous.  Lethe means "oblivion" and it was said that those who drank of its waters forgot all their sorrows.  Only once the past life has been forgotten can one be reincarnated.

Book Report

Another month comes to a close, and this time I've managed to read six books.  Funny, since February is the shortest month, but given that I read two books in four days, not that surprising.

Yes, you read that correctly - I read two books in four days.  I'll explain shortly.

As I said in the first post about my monthly book reading, this month's series was the Calliope Reaper-Jones novels by the lovely and talented Amber Benson.

First up was "Death's Daughter," where we meet Callie and her most unusual family - older sister Thalia, younger sister Clio, her father's executive assistant Jarvis de Poupsy, and her father...Death.



Callie wants nothing more than to pursue her dream of working for a fashion magazine, but the life she thought she'd left behind - immorality, demons, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory - interrupts her "daily grind" life in New York.  Someone's kidnapped her father, Thalia, and the entire Board of Directors of Death, Inc, and it's up to a very reluctant Callie to rescue them.

In the second book, "Cat's Claw," Callie encounters  even more bumps in the road when she has to do Cerberus, the three-headed hellhound guardian of the North Gate of Hell, a really major favor. 

Then I took a slight detour before reading the third book, "Serpent's Storm."  I'd finally found the last two Spenser novels written by Robert B. Parker before his passing, and took the time to read both of them.  In four days.  For some reason those books are insanely easy for me to read (obviously) and it's not unusual for me to get through one in three or four days.

In "Painted Ladies" Spenser is hired to protect a man who is making a ransom payment for a stolen, very rare painting.  When his client explodes, Spenser finds himself drawn into a very complex world of art, forgeries and deceit.



"Sixkill" was a very different Spenser novel.   The title refers to the last name of one of the characters, a large Native American named Zebulon (as in Zebulon Pike) Sixkill, the former bodyguard of a fat, self-important actor accused of killing a young woman.  It felt to me like Parker was planning on using Sixkill in future novels - we got a lot of his back-story, and he became one of Spenser's "projects," like Paul Giacomin, the young kid he takes under his wing in "Early Autumn."

Both books were good, with the snark and wit I've come to love from Spenser.  I plan to read the entire series from the beginning in the near future.

The last two books in this report are the last two of Amber's that I have (Still haven't gotten the final book in the series, "The Golden Age of Death," but I hope to soon), "Serpent's Storm" and "How to Be Death."



In "Serpent's Storm," Callie once again takes on the mantle of Death when an old enemy of hers breaks free of Purgatory and tries to stage a coup.  Callie finds out that she really has to be careful what she wishes for, because with her powers it will happen.

And in "How to Be Death" Callie, Jarvis and Runt (Cerberus' daughter Giselda, whom Callie "borrowed" in the first book and bargained to keep in the second) have to attend the annual Death's Dinner and All Hallow's Eve "Eve" Masquerade Ball, on the one night of the year when all magic ceases.

Amber is amazing.  She blends mythology, magic and the "real" world seamlessly, bringing in legends from around the globe (Kali, the Hindi Goddess of Death and Destruction, Wodin, Watatsumi, the Japanese God of the Sea who takes on the form of a giant sea serpent, just to name a few) and various religious beliefs (souls, the afterlife) without any of it seeming farfetched.  Callie grows throughout the series, learning what her strengths are and how to overcome her weaknesses.  It's sad that "Golden Age of Death" is the last of this series.

Next month I start off with "Dr. No" and "From Russia, With Love," by Ian Fleming.  I've never read any of the Bond novels (Although I have all the movies.  Including Never Say Never Again, and the first two of the Daniel Craig films.  I'll probably get the last one just to have all of them, but he just doesn't feel like Bond to me.) but they were .79 cents each at Goodwill, and I couldn't pass them up.  Then I'll start the Odd novels by Dean Koontz over ("Odd Thomas," "Forever Odd," "Brother Odd," "Odd Hours") because I just picked up "Odd Interlude," which is a collection of the three digital books released for the first time in paperback. 

Oh dear.  Looks like I'm running a bit behind in that series - "Odd Apocalypse" came out last year, and "Deeply Odd" comes out this year.  If I can just track down my missing copy of "Brother Odd" (I know I have it.  I remember reading it.  Just like I know I have those three missing Valdemar books, "Arrow's of the Queen," "Arrow's Flight" and "Arrow's Fall" but can't find them anywhere) I'll add the other two to my "next time I'm in a half-price bookstore" list.

In case you're wondering, the narrator's name is Odd Thomas.  That's actually his given name.  He's a short-order fry cook who can see the dead, and also shadowy forms he calls "bodachs" that manifest around someone who is about to commit murder, or someone who will die soon.

(As a side note: There have been two graphic novels, "In Odd We Trust" and "Odd is on Our Side," but I don't read graphic novels, and have no plans to get these books.)

Now on to March, and Her Majesty's Secret Service.

You've really got a hold of me (Or: When the muse strikes)

I love writing.  I have since I can remember.  I first wrote fan fiction (although I didn't know it had a name then) back in seventh grade, I believe.  Just a short story about a young woman who wipes out skiing and comes to on the Enterprise.  Goofy, but I did take second place in a writing contest with it.

But the first show that heavily influenced my writing was Donald P. Bellisario's "Quantum Leap."  I knew the entire history of both main characters, and by the time I graduated from high school I had written 24 individual "Leaps," which were chapters in a book I called "Leap Year."  (Yeah, real original, I know.  The idea was that all the Leaps took place during one year for Al.)  I had an additional 16 chapters in a second book, and then had various computer issues and stopped writing QL.

Promo shot from the episode "Piano Man."  Aren't they just dapper?

I by no means fell out of the love with the show; Sam & Al were always kicking around in the back of my head.  But I moved on to other shows, writing fic for "The X-Files" (Two were actually cross-overs with QL, with Sam Leaping into Mulder) and "Nash Bridges" before discovering "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer."  With each show I had to get to know the characters and be comfortable with their voices before I started writing.  And some shows, like "Firefly," I haven't tried writing yet.

Some people ask me "Why don't you write your own characters?"  I do.  I have several stories of my own creations, ranging from just simple fiction ("Obsessions Anonymous," "Fallen Idol") to pure fantasy ("Seasons Change," "Choices We Make").  But every once in a while, those old familiar characters insist I tell a new story about them.

And who am I to argue?

Sometimes it's just a "Hey, what if Buffy encountered..?" and I start playing around with the idea.  For instance, I love Irish mythology, and felt it would make for an interesting story if Buffy ran into a clurichaun (Related to the leprechaun, the clurichaun attaches itself to a location and drains all the alcohol in the vicinity).  From there the story "Rayne of Terror" evolved, bringing back an old enemy of Giles' and loosing several Irish daoine sidhe, or fairy-folk, on Sunnydale.  

The dullahan, one of the daoine sidhe that Buffy & Giles encountered

 In another story, I have the Scooby Gang sitting around the fire while Giles tells them various English and Irish folktales, including about the Black Dog: "They were commonly described as being entirely black, about the size of a calf, shaggy, with large, saucer-like eyes.  Very often they were spotted at crossroads or on ancient lanes, which were believed to be areas where the veil between worlds was thin.  They had the ability to mentally harm a person, possibly driving them insane, which led to an eventual physical decline and death.  They could also be an instrument of divine justice – they would stalk a guilty person until justice was served, in one form or another.” 

But sometimes a story smacks me full-force and I have to sit down and start writing it.  Such is the case with "Day Tripper," the first new QL I've written in...oh, at least a decade. 

It started with a dream snippet just as I was waking up from a nap, and then the entire plot came to me that night as I was going to sleep.  I located the five hand-written pages of a story I'd started a few years ago (a revision of one of my old QL stories), typed them up...and now I'm up to 10 pages in a story I started on Tuesday.  Apparently this one really wants to be told!

I'm not going to give away the plot, because I think I might actually post it here, but it's set in 2004 - Sam's been gone for 10 years, and the government has finally shut down Project: Quantum Leap.  Al alone has remained at the Project, even though he can no longer go back to whichever year Sam has ended up in.

My muse is having trouble focusing right now, so I better get her to settle down so I can get back to the story.  That's one reason I could never be a published writer - deadlines make my muse take a vacation.

Books of the Month

I love to read.  Have ever since I was little.  When my school used to have the MS Read-a-Thons I always had one of the highest totals.  You'd get sponsors for every book you read, and I know at least once I had 100 books read.

When the old high school library had a book sale, I bought grocery bags full of books.  (We had two libraries - the grade school and the high school.  You had to be in junior high to use the high school library, so it was awe-inspiring to go into the big library to buy books.)

Sadly, my librarians were never this good-looking

And I never did come across this book

When a friend emailed me about a $100 gift card giveaway from Half-Price Books, I signed up for the chance.  What a perfect thing for a bibliophile!    It was part of the company's Resolution Program, and when you signed up it asked you how many books you planned to read this year.  You had a choice of a book a month for 12 books in the year, or a book a week, for a total of 52.  I didn't think I'd be able to read a book a week, so I did the book a month.

Well, I've already topped that.  I just finished my fourth book this month.  So I decided to keep track of how many books I can read a month, just for the fun of it.  I'll post the totals here, along with the titles of the books.  I'm not going to wait for each month to start to start a new book; I'll just note the book I started at the end of the previous month.

This month I finished up the DragonLance books that I have.  Last month I read the Chronicles, which is the first trilogy.  ("Dragons of Autumn Twilight," "Dragons of Spring Dawning" and "Dragons of Winter Night")  This month I read the second trilogy, the Legend series, "Time of the Twins," "War of the Twins," "Test of the Twins," and the one book from the Tales trilogy that I have, "The War of the Lance," which is a collection of short stories by various authors.

The DragonLance Chronicles are very good; I've read them several times.  Written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, they're set on the world of Krynn, which is populated by humans, dwarves, elves, kender and magic-users.  The first three books tell the story of the Heroes of the Lance, a group of unlikely companions who must band together to stop the spread of evil across their world.  Led by Tanis Half-Elven, and occasionally aided by a befuddled wizard named Fizban, they have to learn to work together, despite their differences, to defeat Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness, who is trying to cross through the Portal into Krynn.

 

The second trilogy, the Legend series, deals with two of those heroes - warrior Caramon Magere and his twin brother, the dark mage Raistlin.  Raistlin desires to become the most powerful wizard on all of Krynn, and challenge the Dark Queen to a fight to the death.  Caramon (accidentally accompanied by Tasslehoff Burrfoot, the irrepressible kender) must travel back in time to stop his brother from bringing Takhisis through the Portal and destroying the world.



Now I'm starting "Cabin in the Woods," the novelization of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's topsy-turvy horror film.

You think you know the story...

 After that I plan to reread Amber Benson's Calliope Reaper-Jones series so I'm ready when the fifth and final book, "Golden Age of Death," comes out in a couple months.  I like to refresh myself on the story before each new book comes out.  I'm going to be sad when this series ends; it's smart, funny and a joy to read.  It starts with "Death's Daughter," which is about Callie, a young woman who really just wants to pursue her dream of being in the fashion industry, but instead finds herself having to take over her father's business when he and several board members are kidnapped.  The small hitch?  Her father just happens to be Death. 

The lovely, sweet, funny and talented Amber Benson, with two of the books

Jan. 30 - Just finished "Cabin in the Woods," so that's five books in one month. Not a bad start!  Amber's series is next.  Amazon lists February 26th as the release date of "Golden Age of Death."

Preparing for a live show

Coming up next month is the Sleigh Rally Live Show in Columbus, Wisconsin, so I thought I'd give you a little look into how I go about getting ready for a model horse show.