The Happily Ever After anthology is now on bookstore shelves (both virtual and physical). You should certainly go pick up a copy if you’re a fan of fairy tales, subversion of fairy tales, mythpunk, and other related things, as this book is FULL of such wonderful nonsense. The table of contents alone is enough to tempt people, and that cover is to die for. Here, I shall make it easy for you:
Amazon | Kindle | B&N / Nook | IndieBound
Last week at KGB I came down (almost) directly from work, so I had work clothes on. The shock on people’s faces at seeing me in something other than jeans and a t-shirt was hilarious. Nora actually said, “Oh Jesus what happened to you!?” and I believe Genevieve’s exact words were, “You’re secretly a call girl now, aren’t you?”
Do you see why I never bother to dress up? Sheesh.
Anyway, I did stop by my apartment to drop off my bags and laptop and decided to finally wear the lovely necklace you see around my neck for the first time. It was a gift from the very talented JoSelle Vanderhooft and is based on Black Feather. I nearly fainted from the vapors when she first gave it to me. And it looks just as awesome on as it does in my little hands.
Here are some more shots of me in my shocking state of prettiness. This will have to tide you all over for another year or so, cuz if the faces of surprise people pull is going to be normal, I might as well spare people heart attacks!
See more KGB photos here. All taken by Ellen Datlow.
Don’t make me be the one to buy it, because I love it. YOU need to buy it and give it to someone you love.
You love me, don’t you??
Because I had to complete some jewelry then take pictures of it.
Can I just say: taking pictures of jewelry is fucking hard! I need a better lightbox or something. Or maybe just some classes on how to get all the yellow out of images.
Anyway, the fruits of all my labor:
These are called Inwood Hill. Click the image for a bigger pic (not excessively big, tho). This is the completed version of the WiP I showed you last week. And, like I said, I was inspired by Deborah’s necklace. It’s made from glass beads, small fancy jasper, small wood beads (the red), a few glass leaves, some coral (the gold/brown), all dangling from loopy chain. You may also notice that one earring looks fuller than the other. That’s because one of the pair has two dangly chains. And if you look really close, you may see the glass black feather hidden in the woods.
The earrings are slightly heavy, but not very much so. I’m going to put them on posts with wide backs for support.
And then…
That’s a bracelet. I haven’t named it yet, but it’s meant to symbolize the shirts that the sister in The Twelve Ravens/Seven Swans/etc. has to make. I used cotton ribbon and interweaved it with a metal chain (it’s sort of meant to evoke this trendy bracelet, but be more awesome) then sewed buttons on. You can wrap it around the arm 2 or 3 times, depending on the thickness of your wrist. I suppose it could also be a choker.
Those are both going up for auction soon. And then there’s The Hidden Heart:
If you click the image, there’s an extremely large version where you can see a little more detail on the heart. I chose that bead because it has black bits at the center that look a bit like wings or birds. This is another piece based on “Black Feather”. I’m being a bit obvious with this one — hiding the heart or the core behind a bunch of restrictive chains. I’m thinking of just selling these since I have three things already going on the IAF Auction and I’d feel a bit like an attention hog if I just kept putting up my own stuff. Plus, it would be nice to make some money!
I suppose I should get to bed now…
Why it’s a necklace based on my story. Woo! And it’s really, really beautiful. The artist is Deborah J. Brannon and, much to my surprise, she says it’s the first necklace she’s ever made. Way to come charging out of the gate there…
Deborah is the author of one of the most beautiful reviews of Black Feather, which she then incorporated into her artist statement:
…the story is a river: it fetches you in with intriguing shallows, soft eddies of water, refracting light as it swirls over half-obscured and winking stones. And then, once you’ve waded out so far, a strong current seizes you and pulls you under into terror and wonder and understanding.
!! Okay, go bid. You must. I insist. It’s so awesome!
(p.s. other awesomeness today includes a superfantasticohmygoditsamazing pendant from Elise. Bid on that, too!)
