Thrift Store Crawl

I got my thrift store shopping on Saturday. Despite the light snow it was a great day, not too cold, but crisp enough to keep me moving. The subway was doing it's usual weekend shenanigans so it went local the whole way to W23 st.

After getting my morning shot of caffeine laced goodness at Starbucks, I met up with the Thriftaholics and we hit the stores.

I set a $40 budget for the day and we planned to hit seven thrift stores with an option for another handful uptown.

I ended up going to Housing Works, Angel Street, The Salvation Army, Good Will, and  The Opera Thrift, the rest of the group continued on. My budget was all used up by the time we got to the the Opera thrift store.

I ended up with 4 tee shirts, 9 headbands, 4 scarves, 1 necklace, 6 fancy hair pins, (can you tell I like hair accessories) and a cool Chanel inspired brief bag.

I ended up with 4 tee shirts, 9 headbands, 4 scarves, 1 necklace, 6 fancy hair pins, (can you tell I like hair accessories) and a cool Chanel inspired brief bag. My grand total for the day: $39.46.

The tee shirts are for a top secret crafting project that I'll reveal when I've collected enough of them to realize the vision. Stay tuned!

If there's a New York City thrift store you like I'd love to hear about it. I am a convert and I will be thrifting on the regular. Leave me some thrift store links in the comments. Thanks.

The Great Blog Move to lisatoppin.com Land

I'm getting ready to move my blog to my own domain, lisatoppin.com. I'm not super techie, but doing a Wordpress website and blog seemed simple enough. That is until I decided to change my web host. I initially parked my domain name on Network Solutions, but I went with BlueHost for, well, hosting of the website.

This is a case of everything taking longer than you'd expect. I had to call Network Solutions to get an authorization code for Bluehost to move my domain over. I was trapped in voicemail hell for a while then when I finally got a person on the phone, I had to verbally wrestle her into submission, before she would stop trying to persuade me not to switch and just email me the code I needed. Grrr!

I started the process of making the switch on January 22. I hoping that my domain will have been switched to the new host without incident by January 29. Network Solutions said that it could be up to seven, count them, seven days before the switch actually occurs.

Sometime in February I'll have a new website that includes my blog. I'll let you know the launch date in another post. I'd love to hear any ideas that you have about other features you'd like to see on my author website. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Fair Isle Mitten Progress Update

I’m still working on the Fair Isle mittens. I started the swatching Wednesday. The yarn knits up fairly densely I don’t think I’ll be lining these mittens. I’m using Knit Picks Palette, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in a range of grays and black. 

The mitten pattern is from Magnificent Mittens and Socks by Anna Zilboorg. Ms. Zilboorg’s writing style reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s take-no-nonsense from the knitting style. I found her instructions and tips both clear and empowering. 

My first stab at following the chart was a bust. I pulled it out before I thought to take a picture of it. I saw that I wasn’t developing the ridge across the top of the mitten and the pattern was looking really wonky. 

My second try went wrong in a slightly different way. The pattern was still not developing properly and I really hated my color combination. Managing the floats wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I ended up using a two-handed method for managing the yarns. I knitted the background yarn continental style and knitted the contrast color yarn English style. The two-handed method kept the yarns separate. No more stopping every round or two to untangle them. This is what it looked like:

The toughest thing for me was deciding the color balance. I ordered 4 colors of Palette: Silver, Mist, Black and Ash. When I do another Fair Isle project, I’m going to give myself more options within my color pallet. When I knitted Silver and Mist into my first mitten, they were so similar I couldn’t see the pattern and the black was way too strong.The other thing I didn't like was that next to the black, the silver yarn read as white, very stark.

It took a few tries, but I finally found a color combination that I liked: the background color is Mist and the contrast colors are Black and Ash. The pallet’s very wintry and, being a subway rat, I appreciate that the colors will hide the dirt. 

I eventually started the mittens over a total of 9 times, but each time the cast on became easier. I didn’t realize the mittens in the book were knit from tip to cuff until I started my mitten. The upside is that now I’m totally ready to knit a pair of toe up socks its the same technique.

Tribal Inspiration

The marks on this woman's body, form a pattern that tells her story, or maybe is just her society's vision of female beauty. I like the look on her face, she's confident. She knows she looks good and that she has the marks of belonging.

Society's mark their members in all kinds of ways. Tribal marks are an unacknowledged code that we all learn to read in order to survive. I notice it most when I'm on the subway commuting to work. There are people my eye just passes over because they bear the marks of my tribe: "The Daughters and Sons of the Daily Grind."

Then, every now and then, there are folks whose tribal marks make me so uncomfortable that consider giving up my seat and moving to another subway car, and that's saying something for a New Yorker.

I think tribal marks, both literal and figurative are going to be important in Ravening. I like the way the marks themselves tell the story of the person's life.

Nelly Odessa and I have set up a Facebook Fan Page for  our book, 101 Acting Questions, Answered! It’s called 101 Acing Questions of course. We are featuring articles about the business of acting from around the web and from our blog 101 Acting Questions.

In February, Nelly will be hosting a series of interviews with guests from all segments of the entertainment industry who'll share their experience of breaking in and forging a career.

Nelly and I are creating a place where beginning actors can get together, share information, and get support. Come on over and check out our page and get in on the conversation.

The main character in my short story Spirit Wolf is a Mage. I don’t know why she’s a Mage as opposed to a witch or some other kind of magic user. I’m still working out what a Mage actually is.

Magic User
The clearest notion I had was that Melissa is some kind of magic user. She’s not a witch if you use the definition of witch as a magic user who approaches magic from a religious point of view. My Mages are more like physicists they work by manipulating the physical world on the molecular level. They play with energy and matter as though they were one and the same.

Secret Society
The other thing I know about Mages is that they maintain a separate society that exists within the ordinary human world. They have internet connections and ipods, but they also use magic as a tool for everyday living. They don’t have a democratic “government” the most powerful have formed a loose confederation that keeps the rest in line. There main task is to keep the existence of Mages secret. The penalty for “piercing the veil,” as they call it, is pretty drastic.

That is the kernel of what I know about the Mages. I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to have astonishing abilities, yet be forced to keep them a secret? I'd love to hear from people in the comments who are part of a "secret" segment of society.  How do you keep the secret?

Vogue Knitting Live 2012

Wow, there was so much energy at the Hilton. Knitters, Crocheters, Spinners and Weavers all out to play with the yarn. I got completely over stimulated in the market place. Anything you could use for fiber crafts was available in abundance. My only criticism was that there was no marketplace on Monday.

I took a sweater design class with Leslye Solomon, owner of Woolstock Yarn Shop , during the class, another student was making a hat out of the most fabulous blue art yarn that had peacock feathers spun in to it. We were all so enchanted by the yarn  that every student in the class wanted to run to the market place and buy some. Then we remember that there was no market place. What a bummer!

The high point for me was the Vogue Knitting fashion show. The people at Vogue had a surprise for us. Instead of showing the garments from the Winter issue they previewed the clothes from the Spring 2012 issue. The audience let out a collective squeeee! when we heard the announcement. There are some really fun trends for spring click here to see the pictures.

Textured Stitches Book Signing

I had a really great Artist Date this week. I went to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio for the Textured Stitches book signing. Connie Chang Chinchio, is a busy working mom who managed to design the patterns, write the book, commute from NJ to DC and have a baby in 2011. I was exhausted just writing that.

The book, typical of Interweave publications, is full of gorgeous detailed, photos of contemporary, wearable sweaters and accessories. Chinchio's designs feature textural accents that add a touch of elegance to simple shapes.

I want to make a sweater this year. So every time I get my hands on a knitwear designer I'm planning to ask his or her opinion of what a good construction method for a beginning sweater knitter. Chinchio recommended a top down raglan. Maybe, I'm going to look at a few to see if there's anything I like.

I got a couple of pictures of the sweaters in Textured Stitches. They look great in the book, in person the knitting was soft and lofty. The colors were much richer in person too. Check out my pics from the evening:

The Dire Wolf is my inspiration this week. I kept running into images of them. The Shifters of Lowell Island are the last remnant of the Dire Wolf in the world. Click here to see picture of what Dire Wolves might have looked like.

I didn’t get much work done on 101 Acting Questions, Answered! This was a difficult week for me. I was just getting back to work after being out sick, flat on my back in bed sick, and on my second day back to the office there was a major flood in the building. 

My schedule was completely disrupted. This week I spent a lot of my off time just trying to catch up on my work. Things should settle down somewhat. I will have a new version of the cover to show you. 

I think what I’ll do in next week’s post is put up all of the variations I’ve come up with and see what people like best. Stay tuned.

If you visit my blog at 101 Acting Questions with Nelly Odessa you'll find a post about social media for actors.

The Secret History of Lowell Island

There was an ancient painting in a cave on Lowell Island, the paintings were ancient when the first of the Algonquin peoples settled the islands of Long Island Sound. 

The cave drawings seem to show a changing of the guard after the last ice age. The time of the mega-fauna had come to an end and most of the larger carnivores died off when the last of their prey animals went extinct. This die-off included the Dire wolves. That’s the temporal explanation of the scenes depicted in the cave. 

There is another story depicted in the cave paintings that predates human habitation of North America. The paintings depict battles between wolves huge, short-faced Dire Wolves and smaller more nimble modern wolves. As the pictures progress, the Dire Wolves seem to lose territory until they were pushed right off the North American mainland, and the final picture is of three Dire Wolves on an island. 

In a universe where matter can’t be created or destroyed, it seems that the energy of the wolves may have remained behind on Lowell Island after the death of the last pack.

A DVD And Some Knitting: The Instant Artist Date

I’m working my way through Julia Cameron’s Walking In This World. Part of the program involves setting aside time each week to go out and just do something you enjoy and that feeds your creative self.
I’d planned to go to ABC Carpet and Home.

I’d had a really busy weekend, traveling and ringing in the New Year with family and friends that I was really tired on Monday. I ended up exploring some knitting blogs that I’ve been meaning to get to and then I popped Priest in my DVD player and got some long over due knitting done on a shawl project that’s been languishing unfinished in a plastic bag.

If you're reading Cameron, I'd love to hear about what you're doing for your Artist Dates.  Check out: Julia Cameron Live for more ideas for your Artist Date.

God of Blood and Fire

The day after Christmas I heard about a tragic fire that claimed the lives of a woman’s parents and her three young children.

I woke this morning with the notion in my morbid imagination that I hear about one of these horrible holiday fires that wipes out whole families every year.

I couldn’t help wondering if there was something lurking just behind the fabric of our reality that demands a sacrifice each year. We may have moved on to new gods, but it demands it’s annual offering of suffering. I think this might be the seed of a dark, winter tale.

Magic Loop Knitting

This week I tried out  the Magic Loop technique. This might not be new territory for experienced knitters, but for me it’s terra incognita. I’ve read about the magic loop technique, but I got so overwhelmed by the idea that I never really tried it.

I found the Youtube video below that made the technique so clear. So I got my courage up and got a circular needle. I decided just to make a little ten-stitch circle.

My circular needle wasn’t really long enough, the process was a little awkward. Most sources recommend using a circular needle with a minimum of 24 inches of cable between them. I could only find a pair of circulars with a 16 inch cable this morning just before I ran out the door to work.

I had to start over a couple of times before I got the hang of it. Even with the short cord, the Magic loop is really simple. I already like it better for really tight circles than double points. I didn't take a picture of my, too loose and laddery, little circle because I was on the Q train when I was knitting and I didn't want to be that subway weirdo who stops to take pictures of the tiny piece of knitting she's working on.

The Not So Simple Q and A Book Project

I’m deep in the second draft of 101 Acting Questions Answered! Nelly, my writing partner for the book, has been sending sections of it out to her actor friends to read through and so far the notes have been really helpful. It is awesome of them to take time to do it. I am so grateful.

I’m already starting to look back at this project and think about what I would do differently for the next. I learned that everything takes longer than you’d expect. Next time I schedule out a project I’m going to add 20% to 30% more time than I think I’ll need for each stage of the project.

Check out our website: 101 Acting Questions

The Tribe v. Individuals

I’m diving back in to my novel, Ravening. I got kind of lost in the plotting when I was working on it.  My outline had a lot of holes that really came back to bite me when I decided to try to write around them. I ended up putting it aside in favor of a much more linear non-fiction project.

It took me a long time to figure out what the story was really about. To me, the main theme is belonging. How does some one find their tribe?

I come from an immigrant background. I was born in Panama, my parents brought me to the US when I was a little girl. The funny thing is, that looking back in my own family history, we seem to have been on a generations long journey. My grandparents on both sides immigrated to Panama from other places. Then, a generation later, my parents came to the US.

The search for belonging forces us to make choices. There’s always pressure to join or reject the various tribes that we meet in order to define ourselves. We are all members of multiple tribes, some are more hermetic than others, but all tribes have initiations, markings, and codes of conduct for their members.

Tribes can be based on ethnicity, occupation, religion, location, or any combination of arbitrary criteria we can come up with. The power of the tribe, I think, is their ability to control the behavior of the membership.

 Although most of us try to fit into our tribes as best we can, there are always those who, for what ever reason, never quite fit in. I’ve always been fascinated by the outsiders. Outsiders shake up the established order and by their very existence threaten the power of tribes. If the tribe maintains that their way of life is the only valid one then how do outsiders not just survive, but go on to live long and happy lives.

I think that’s the root of why some groups are so tightly closed against outsiders. They worry that some of their members will see others living just fine and abandon the tribe. That threatens the power structure and that is not allowed.

Furthermore, I think we tend to have the sneaking suspicion that if a loner can survive without the tribe they must have some secret source of power they can tap into, a notion  that makes every levels of the hierarchy uneasy.


Tribes have the power to banish non-conformists or deny membership altogether. Some tribes demand absolute conformity in nearly every aspect of the lives of their members. Others seem to tolerate more individuality on the surface, but will crack down if the power structure is threatened.

What would happen if no one feared banishment from their tribe. I think most tribes would evaporate rather quickly. The power of tribes over people is an idea that’s just nagging me right now.

If you listen to all the doom criers 2012 is supposed to be the end of time. I’m taking the optimistic view that life as we know will continue by putting my writing goals out there for all to see. 

• Publish Ravening: I stopped working on my novel when I took on a nonfiction project. Ravening will be available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords in June 2012.
• Complete 2nd Novel: I’m nervous about this one, but if I keep to my schedule. I should be able to get through a first and second draft.

• Weekly Blog Posts: that’s a tough one. I know, that’s pretty ambitious for someone who struggles with once a month. Aim high I always say.
• Publish 101 Acting Questions, Answered!: That’s my non-fiction book project. It’s in the second draft stage now and I can see the end in sight.
• The Knitter’s Life List Project: I got the book, The Knitter’s Life List, by Gwen W. Steege, for Christmas. The book is a wonderful collection of suggestions of skills knitters can acquire over a lifetime of knitting compiled in one place. Ms. Steege’s lists inspired me so much that I’m going to do one item each week of the year. I’ll really build my knitting skills and have a lot of fun along the way.
• Publish 12 Short Stories: I didn’t succeed at this goal last year. I’m going to try it again. Last year I planned on getting 6 stories out because I started late and I actually did 2. I think I’m a little better organized for task this year. I’m ready in 2012.
• Start a Website: I’m really excited about getting a website going I’m working on ideas for my content already. The site will be part of the foundation of my platform.
• Enter 2 Writing Competitions: Contest season is gearing up and I’m looking to find two competitions that are appropriate for what I write. More platform building for me.
• Attend 1 Local Writer’s Conference: I want to meet my peers and introduce myself to the writing community.

 

That’s my plan for 2012. I'd love to hear about your plans for 2012. Cheers!

Our Mysterious Archipelago--New York City

                  It always seems funny to me that New Yorkers don’t see themselves as islanders. When in reality, except for Bronx residents, most people who live in the five boroughs live on islands. New York city is part of an archipelago that contains hundreds of islands, some very small, most uninhabited.

Each Island has it’s own unique history. Last year I was inspired by Gardener’s Island, owned by the same family for the last 450 years, the island a largely undeveloped private estate ruled by what may be the United States’ only titled family, the Lyons. The head of the family actually bears the title “Lord of the Manor.” How cool is that?

The island’s unique history inspired the setting of my shape shifter stories. For me, shape shifting predator’s need room to roam. Besides, I wanted my shifters to build their own society and live by their own rules. They wouldn’t be able to do that while still maintaining a human masquerade in a city or even a small town living side by side with humans.

Last week I learned about Execution Rocks Island, with a name like that how could I resist digging a little deeper? This eerie little island in Long Island Sound is home to Execution Rocks Lighthouse and a couple of grisly tales. According to local legend, British soldiers may have moved executions to this island to avoid further inflaming the populace. They were said to have chained the condemned to the rocks and let the tide drown them, even going so far as to leave the bodies so that the next batch of unfortunates could see their fate before it was their turn. A more likely story is that the rocks and nearby reef were a shipping hazard and “executed” a number of ships?

There’s even a serial killer associated with Execution Rocks Island. In 1928, Carl Panzram, admitted to having killed 21 people, although more victims were attributed to his killing spree. He used the island as a dumping ground.

Fictional Lowell Island is nestled among the many islands dotted around Long Island sound. I think there might be several preternatural communities hidden in the reaches of Long Island Sound.

NY Comic Con 2011-Get Your Geek On!

Comic Con, four days of intense geekery, in other words—heaven. First, the haul I got a gorgeous feathered hair clip from Rock Love Jewelry. 

I"m pretty flamboyant, but even I wouldn't wear this to the office. I have a party coming up at the end of the week, I might debut it then.


The first thing I actually bought was The World’s Greatest Search and Discover Poster, a 3 foot by 6 foot feast for the eyes and imagination. WGSD is like the ultimate “Where’s Waldo” type puzzle there are dozens of items to find hidden in hundreds of images.

Ostensibly, I got it for my niece to play with when she visits, but I’m already planning to hang it in my writing space for those times when I need a little distraction. My two-year-old nice, came over last week and I broke out the poster. Searching for the items she picked in The World's Greatest Search and Discover Poster held her attention for a good 10 minutes. That's like an hour for a two-year-old. 

The best con swag I got was the 21, yep 21, free books I collected from publisher’s row. The major publishing houses all had booths and part of the attraction was hourly signings and book giveaways. Thanks big six, my reading list is full three months or so. I can’t wait to dive in.

The book haul:

• Pariah, Bob Fingerman
• Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson
• Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi
• Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi
• Gossip Girl Psycho Killer, Cecily Von Ziegesar
• Awakenings, Edward Lazellari
• The Iron Hunt, Marjorie M. Liu
• Shadow Ops: Control Point, Myke Cole
• Across The Universe, Beth Revis
• All Men of Genius, Lev AC Rosen
• Halo Evolutions Essential Tales of the Halo Universe Vol 1
• Into the Storm, Taylor Anderson
• Planet Tad, Tim Carvell
• The Lost Fleet Dauntless, Jack Campbell
• Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
• The Warded Man, Peter V. Brett
• Working Stiff, Rachel Caine
• The Demon Lover, Juliet Dark
• Cry Wolf, Patricia Briggs
• Lady Lazarus, Michele Lang
• Ripper, Stefan Petrucha

On the work side, I handed out flyers about Spirit Wolf to let people know it’s out there and let them know that Ravening, the novel that continues the story is coming soon. I gave out about 340 of them myself. I had my sister and a couple of costumed adventurers, I met in the line, helping me at various times to give out the other 500 plus. I was nervous at first, but after a while engaging the people became a game. I never knew who would stop and take one of my flyers. I can’t wait to see how many of them take the next step and download Spirit Wolf.

I learned some lessons about working conventions and doing my marketing in general. I had a lot of lead time to get ready for Comic Con. I didn’t use it to my best advantage. I procrastinated, so of course I ended up working down to the wire.

Also, it turned out that I was not able to offer Spirit Wolf for free on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I didn’t know that until I’d printed my free download cards. I scrapped the cards. Stressed, but undaunted I designed a flyer and had it reproduced just before leaving for Comic Con.

Despite, my rocky start, being in the creative soup that was NY Comic Con was exciting, inspiring, and quirky as hell. Artists are out there making everything imaginable, and don’t sleep on the fans. Folks use a writer’s world as a jumping off point for their own creative expression. The weekend left me so energized, I’m already looking ahead to projects for next year.

Shapeshifter v. Werewolf

I have a little bit of a pet peeve about the blurring of the lines between werewolves and shapeshifters, just because a shifter takes the shape of a wolf that doesn’t mean he or she is a werewolf.

Let’s look at werewolves first. Werewolves are cursed creatures. They’re people who, under the influence of a curse, are forced into the shape of a wolf during the full moon. They don’t have any control over the change or over their actions while in wolf form. Finally, the “curse” can be transmitted through blood or body fluid contact.

A lot of the werewolves we see in fiction now are not, at least by that definition, werewolves. They are shapeshifters who take the form of a wolf. For the most part, they seem to retain their human intelligence and personality while in wolf form. Therefore, if the person is a killer the wolf will also kill humans. If the person is not a killer then the wolf is, for the most part, not a danger to humans.

I read a lot of paranormal romance and that issue bugs me. The werewolf is the hero so he can’t be entirely a werewolf otherwise it’s tough to make him sympathetic. So most of them are shapeshifters with werewolfy tendencies. They shift usually around the full moon, but they can shift at other times. Their shifting seems more connected to their emotional state than to the phase of the moon.

When I imagined the wolves of Lowell island, I called them werewoves at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to see that they weren’t really werewolves. They maintain human intelligence, they shift at will, they don’t stress about their loss of humanity. The shapeshifters of Lowell island, don’t consider themselves human at all. They don’t do  it often, but they are not averse to eating humans.

Oops, I almost called them werewolves again, the shapeshifters, or the changing kind of Lowell Island featured in my short story Spirit Wolf, are neither wolf nor man they are another species  that happens to share the world with humans. Usually, we put ourselves at the top of the food chain, but what if that’s an illusion. We look into the night and see only the lights and sounds of the city. What if there are things walking in the darkness, just beyond our sight, that watch and wait for  one of us to stray from path.  I think that is the ingredient I’ve been missing that I want in my own work. I want to take that journey into the shadows.