Costume Analysis

I think the Book That Would Not Die is really and truly done. If not, I may be sticking a stake in it. But I say that every time. I'll be on my deathbed revising that book. It'll be my posthumous publication. And in addition to doing the final (for now) read-through, I managed to get over to the library for early voting, then had a nice book chat with the librarian I met on Saturday (looks like they'll be ordering my books!) and with the librarian I went to high school with. It was interesting eavesdropping on the conversations in the voting line when people were talking about our fabulous library. Someone mentioned that it was the first time she'd darkened the door (her words) of a library in years. How do people live like that?

The response to my Halloween costume has been interesting. The weird thing about that costume is that, as reserved and demure as my clothing tends to be, I didn't have to buy anything new to do that costume. The pleather pants came from an early 30s life crisis, during my "incredible disappearing men" phase, when I kept going out on dates that went well enough that we were planning the next date during the date, but then I'd never hear from the guy again. That was sapping my self-confidence, so when I saw the pleather pants on clearance at Target and they actually fit me and didn't look too bad, I bought them, figuring that even if I never wore them, knowing I had something like that in my closet might make me feel more confident. I actually have worn them a number of times. I wore them to a concert and then to a couple of publishing industry events when I was trying to write normal chick lit and kept being told I wasn't edgy enough, so I decided to show them edgy (maybe the fact that the pants aren't real leather only showed them that I was fake edgy). Mostly, I've worn them to Browncoat events, since I figure that when I put them with a Chinese top, the (p)leather pants resemble something you might see in an Asian-influenced space western. The midriff-baring top is a v-necked tank top that shrank in the wash. You can't see the front in the photo, but the wide black belt buckles on the side in a way that kind of looks like a sword belt. That's a remnant of the mid 80s, when there was a short-lived (which is probably for the best) trend of wearing big shirts belted at the waist over stirrup pants. You also can't see it in the photo, but the requisite tribal necklace is something my parents got me in Alaska. The battleaxe came from an office birthday party. At my old job, they had a budget for each employee's birthday party. For my party, I guess the party stores started putting out their Halloween stuff in early August, and the party planning committee bought a bunch of Halloween things like the axe, a few other plastic weapons, a tombstone and some decorations, plus some Buffy stuff and did a "Shanna the Client Slayer" birthday party. I figured I was safe getting from the car to my house after the party this weekend, even with the neighborhood robber still on the loose, as he'd have to be insane to attack a woman carrying a battleaxe (even if it was plastic, it would probably hurt to be whacked with it).

And in case anyone (Mom) is concerned, the party where I wore that costume was one where I knew all the people and they were all science fiction/fantasy fans, so they were in on the joke. At the convention we had recently, one of the freebies being distributed was a sampler book from a sf/f publisher, and the cover of that book consisted of thumbnails of all their upcoming book covers -- and my costume was pretty much a composite of all those book covers. So they recognized it. I probably wouldn't have worn that outfit in public or in a more general gathering, and I wore a sweater over it when going to and from the party.

There was an article in the newspaper this morning where they had a Jungian analyst talking about what various kinds of Halloween costumes say about you psychologically and from an archetype perspective. I wonder what mine would say about me. Probably that I'm a real smartass.

And now I get a day out to clear my brain for the next project, though the "day out" is actually a research excursion. Then a call with my agent Wednesday morning to discuss The New Project (the one from August/September).