Maddy Barone's Blog, page 62
March 7, 2011
Maddalena's Retainer Bag Pattern
In the SCA, royalty seldom stays still. They are off to peerage meetings, off to A&S displays, off to watch fighting, off to mingle with the populace. They need some items brought along with them like water, cups, sewing kits, aspirin, sun block, insect repellent, notebook and pen, tokens to be handed out, etc. But it just doesn't look right to have the Queen haul around a totebag or basket. So they have retainers, like ladies in waiting, to carry these items for them. Many of them use baskets to carry their stuff in, but when Tarrach and Fina won the Crown Tourney of the Midrealm, they asked me design some bags that would be easily carried, and with multiple pockets to keep things straight, that their retainers could use. I came up with a couple of prototypes, and a narrow bag with a long strap that could be worn cross-wise from one shoulder to the opposite hip was the winner. These bags are less stress on the arms. Last time I carried a basket over my arm at Pennsic my arm felt bruised.
A few people have asked me recently for the pattern. This is barebones, and is written for someone with some sewing knowledge. If you would rather purchase one of these bags already made up, please contact Baroness Lusanna di Cerchi at zanni@mad.scientist.com
It occurs to me that this style of bag could be ideal for carrying at conventions, too.
MADDALENA'S RETAINER BAG
Supplies:
1-1/4 yards bag fabric (canvas, tapestry, upholstery, etc – heavy weight)
1-1/4 yards lining fabric (heavy to medium weight)
1 piece of interlining (buckram, heavy canvas, plastic canvas, etc) 6" by 15" for bag bottom
1-1/4 yards of quilt binding or extra wide double bias tape to cover raw edges of bag bottom (optional)
Instructions
NOTE: Each square of the graph = 1 inch except for the pockets. The sewer can choose the size of the pockets per their need. To fit most waterbottles the pocket should be cut 12″ x 10″.
Bag: cut 2 of outer fabric, 2 of lining
Bottom: Cut 1 of outer fabric, 1 of lining and 1 of interlining
Pockets: cut 2 (pocket 2) for water bottles, 2 for misc pockets (pocket 1) of lining fabric
Water Bottle Pockets
For each pocket, fold over a quarter inch one of the narrower ends twice, press and sew. This is the top of the pocket.
Fold over the other 3 sides once and press.
Make box pleat on the bottom edge of the pocket.
Pin pocket to the right sides of bag lining. Sew.
Bag & Lining
Sew the top of shoulder strap of bag together. Press.
Sew the top of shoulder strap of lining together. Press.
Put bag and lining right sides together. Sew the long curved edges of strap together.
Trim seams, turn bag right side out by pulling through the strap. Press.
Open bag and lining out, putting right sides of bag together and right sides of lining together, matching seam. Sew.
Miscellaneous Pockets
Fold one of the longer edges of pocket twice. Press. Sew.
Fold other 3 sides of pocket once, press.
Center pockets carefully over the seam on right side of lining. Being careful to not catch bag, sew onto lining. These pockets are for notepads, pens, aspirin, etc. so you can stitch some dividers to create separate areas for these items.
Bag Bottom
Line up raw edges on bottom of bag, trim and baste.
Sandwich bag bottoms of outer fabric, interlining and lining together so that the right sides are facing out. Baste
Pin bag and bottom right sides together. Stitch. Trim excess away. If desired, cover raw edges with quilt binding or wide bias tape. Or serge edges.
Finishing
Top stitch along outside edge of bag a half inch from edge to strengthen the strap.
At this point you can add whatever bells and whistles you might like to personalize your bag. A D-ring with a clip sewn to the inside of the bag is handy for holding your car keys so they don't get lost, or a narrow ribbon with folding scissors sewn to the side is good.
Notes:
Pocket 2 is the water bottle pocket. It measures 10" x 12", and after the pleat is added for fullness, it measures 8" x 12". Put one on either side of the bag for balance. A cup or mug can go into the othe pocket.
Bottom is a narrow oval 5" wide and 14" long.
Bag is 18" wide, a total of 40" tall with strap, but body of bag is 13" tall.
March 2, 2011
13 Facts about March
It's March! That means that here in North Dakota winter will be over in a month or so. Hooray!!! But March can be a treacherous month. Did you know that some of the worst weather on record occurred in March? Here are some random facts about March:
1. The word March is from the Roman god of war, Mars. March was the first month of the Roman year.
2. The Great Storm of March 12-13, 1993 affected 26 US states and much of eastern Canada. Syracuse NY had 43 inches of snow. Birmingham AL had 13 inches, Atlanta GA had 4 inches. Several NASCAR races had to be postponed for weeks.
3. On March 4, 1793 George Washington delivered the shortest inaugural speech ever, at just 135 words.
4. On March 15, 1941 the northern plains were hit especially hard by a blizzard. It was 20 degrees and sunny in the morning so folks went into town wearing their spring clothing, but by that evening over 150 people were dead in North Dakota.
5. In the US March is Women's History Month.
6. In Japan, the spring equinox (around March 20-21) is a national holiday. I like that. It's better than St Patrick's Day.
7. On March 1, 1983 the low temperature in Quincy Missouri was -21 F. Yowza. That would be low even for North Dakota.
8. On March 22, 1457 the Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
9. On March 25 31 AD the first Easter is celebrated in recorded history.
10. On March 26, 2009 the previous record for flood level was broken in Fargo ND. It crested a week or so later at over a foot higher than the previous record.
11. On March 2, 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game. NO one has come even close since then.
12. In March of 1949 Newfoundland became Canada's 10th province. (Not the Yukon)
13. The first St Patrick's Day parade took place in New York City on March 17, 1762. That was before the Irish Potato Famine drove large numbers of Irish immigrants to New York.
Does any of this surprise you?
March 1, 2011
Far From Perfect by Portia da Costa
FAR FROM PERFECT – Portia Da Costa
Enduring passion, turbulent emotions, and an engagement of convenience…
Anna Felgate and Nick Lisitano shared a night of passion together four long years ago, and even though the sex was perfect, the emotional aftermath and the estrangement that followed were about as far from perfect as it's possible to be. Both strong willed individualists, they've been keeping their distance ever since – even though they both secretly admit that they're still hot for each other. But the best laid plans of estranged lovers never run smoothly, and a crisis in Nick's family brings the two of them back together again. For the sake of his ailing father, Nick proposes a daring plan – a temporary engagement – and even though she knows she's playing with fire and putting her heart in deep peril, Anna is compelled to agree to it.
Can these two former lovers pull off their deception without tearing each other apart in the process? And will they manage to resist their mutual desire and keep their hands off one another… or will they plunge headlong into an affair, perfect or otherwise?
Read a longer excerpt at Google Books
February 25, 2011
What Happens After a Manuscript is Accepted?
Have you ever wondered what exactly happens after an author submits a story and a publisher accepts it? Well, I'm not an expert, and I can only speak for my own experiences with e-publishing. Other publishers and authors may have very different experiences. But here is my experience.
1. The author has read, polished, re-read and re-polished the story and submits it to a publisher.
Let's pretend that the publisher decides they want to offer a contract for the book with no pre-contract revisions requested. (Sometimes a publisher may think the story has promise, but they want to see some changes before they accept the book.)
2. The publisher sends a contract to the author to sign. Contracts differ from publisher to publisher. The author reads over the contract, makes sure s/he has no questions or concerns (The house I'm with, Liquid Silver Books, has a very straight forward, easy to read contract) and if s/he is satisfied, the author signs the contract and returns it to the publisher.
3. The publisher sends a Cover Art form to the author. The author describes his/her characters, perhaps some key scenes from the story etc, and returns it to the publisher.
4. The editor contacts the author and the editing process begins. This might take a couple months, depending on how many times the editor and author go through the story. My editor did a first pass to have me correct some grammer and basics, and then a second pass to add some more description and round out some scenes, and a third polishing pass.
5. The artist turns in his/her initial mock up cover art and the publisher sends it to the author. The author may make some suggestions or want some changes made. These suggestions may or may not work out.
6. The author writes a blurb about the story, about 100 words. It should tell a reader what to expect and "hook" them so they'll want to read it.
7. Final cover art is submitted and approved. The publsiher sends it to the author. The author (that is to say, ME) will show it off to everyone, even complete strangers. And post it on their website or blog.
8. Final Line Edits are sent to the author. This is the final edit to catch any spelling and grammar errors, and perhaps some details that may detract from the story.
9. The author is given a Release Date. S/he may do some special blogging or other types of promotion for the new book.
10. The book comes out!
11. Royalties come pouring in. (Hopefully. But for someone who has never been paid for writing, even a small check is exciting.)
For most epublishers the time from signing the contract to release is around 6 months. My first book was 4 months two weeks. Right now I'm at step 3 for Wolf's Glory, and have Tracking Tami about 1/3 done. I've always loved to write. Now it's a job, so I have to take it more seriously and be sure I can meet deadlines. Sometiems it seems a little less fun and more like work, but I still love it.
February 22, 2011
Good News on the Writing Front
To celebrate, here is a short unedited excerpt of Glory and Shadow meeting for the first time. After their plane crashed Glory and Jane were paired up to walk to find help for the injured. After a day of walking over empty prairie they find a group of men on horseback with a pack of dogs and flag them down for help.
Glory turned her attention back to the Indians, searching them for phones. She didn't see any and none of them wore enough clothing to hide a cell phone in, so she supposed they didn't have any with them.
"Um." Glory had to clear her throat to cut through the dust coating her throat. "Hi. Sorry to interrupt your … whatever you're doing. But can you help us? Our airplane went down back that ways and – and … Wow."
Another Indian walked through the horses, tightening the string around his waist that held his breechcloth up, and Glory completely forgot what she'd been saying. It was a movie set! Who else would dress like this except actors making a Dances With Wolves movie? That was her favorite wrestling star in makeup and a really long black wig. And very little clothing. Yowza. He was living proof that guys like the ones on romance covers really did exist. Damn, he was hot. She swallowed, wiping a hand over her chin in case she was drooling, and started over.
"Hi. Look, sorry to bother you, but our plane crashed and we need help. Like an ambulance. And …" her voice trailed off again because all these men were looking at her very strangely and sniffing the air. The extra-gorgeous one leaned down to sniff at her neck. She and Jane weren't freshly bathed, but talk about rude. "Hey!" She snapped her fingers. "Listen up! This is important."
February 21, 2011
My Bit For the Fargo Flood Prep
It's looking less and less likely that Fargo Moorhead will avoid a major flood this year. The city is asking all the larger employers to send 10% of their workforce to Sandbag Central to make sandbags on company time. My employer signed up for today, Feb 21, and next Monday Feb 28. I took the morning shift. We were all smiles as we took our places at Shute #1.
I was going to try for a light hearted tone, and talk about my announcement to the entire building that I wrote smutty romance and the drop dead gorgeous guy I clunked in the head with my shovel handle, but really I hurt too much right now for that.
I am almost 50 years old, and extremely out of shape, but some of the younger gals from work were hurting pretty badly too by the end of our four hours. 
Just let me say that I am proud of the hard work I put in today and I hope that it will help in the flood fight.
The weather service is saying that this flood has a higher than 25% chance of topping the flood of 2009. Here is a short feel-good slide show about 2009. I've watched it a couple times and it almost gets me to the point where I can stand straight and raise my hands above my waist.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/30/fargo.slideshow/index.html
February 17, 2011
13 YA Books I Love
I know I'm almost fifty years old, but I still enjoy reading Young Adult novels. In fact, I just read an ARC for Dark Mirror by MJ Putney (MaryJo Putney is one of my fave historical romance writers, and she's writing YA as MJ Putney) and I loved it. My Thursday 13 is a list of some of my favorite YA novels, some old and some new.
1.
Beauty by Robin McKinley. IMO the best Beauty and the Beast retelling written.
2. 
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
3. Lark by Sally Watson.
4. The Hornet's Nest by Sally Watson
5. 
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
6. 
Cat in the Mirror by Mary Stolz
7. 
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
8. 
Moccassin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
9. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
10. 
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
11. Terrier by Tamora Pierce
12. 
Blitz by Hetty B. Beatty
13. 
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Do you still read Young Adult books? Which are your favorites?
February 14, 2011
Congrats to the Winner!
The Spread the Love Valentine's Day Blog Hop was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the snippets, excerpts and short stories along the way. Many thanks to Alanna and Michael for setting it up, and thanks to Mr. Catherine A Noone for supplying the romantic photo that inspired so many of us. Thank you to each of you who hopped on the tour bus and visited our blogs and left so many lovely comments. I hope we can do this again soon!
The winner of the download of Sleeping With the Wolf was Falyn D. Congrats, Falyn!
February 11, 2011
Valentine's Blog Hop
Here is an excerpt that may appear in the next After the Crash book, and may be the intro to the 5th book in the series. Rose Turner was not quite sixteen when her plane crashed fifty years in the future. There was no electricity or cars or other technology, in this future, and women were scarce. What the future did have was men that could turn into wolves. And one of them, a teenager just a little older than she, had claimed her for his mate.
Rose left her room in the den to head to supper. Her stomach dropped when she saw Sky leaning against the wall, obviously waiting for her. He was wearing only a pair of worn out jeans, which was more than most of the wolves here wore. His bare chest was overly developed for a seventeen-year-old, Rose sniffed to herself. For just one second, she wanted to step back into her room and slam the door shut. Taye, the Pack Alpha, had forbidden Sky to set foot in her room; it was the only place she was safe from him. Not that Sky would hurt her. No, of course he wouldn't, but ever since he had announced that his wolf had chosen her for his mate she had felt like a rabbit he was hunting.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. In her world she would have been dating the speech and debate team captain , not avoiding a teenaged werewolf who had all the social graces of a caveman.
The hallway was too narrow for her to walk past him without coming within arm's reach of him. Should she go back into her room and hope he went away? Sky didn't give her a chance to retreat. With the unnatural speed and grace that all the wolves had, he bounded forward and snatched her arm. "You sat next to that Kearney man," he accused in a snarl.
"I didn't sit next to him. He sat next to me! Not that it's any of your business who I sit by."
"It is. You're my mate," he said, hard and furious.
"No!" Rose shouted, trying to free her arm. "I'm not your mate! Even if we weren't too young, I wouldn't be your mate for anything!"
Sky's voice rose to a muted roar. "You are my mate, and I'll kill the next man who touches you."
"Could you please be a little more dramatic?"
Her sarcasm rolled right off his bare broad shoulders. His eyes, unearthly blue in his dark face, shimmered like a cat's. "You shouldn't play with me, mate."
"I'm not playing." Rose tried to smooth her voice to something calm and reasonable. "I'm only sixteen. You're just seventeen. Carla said you should leave me alone until I'm eighteen. Then we can … discuss our relationship."
With a strength that no seventeen year old should have, Sky pushed her against the wall and held her there. "Why should we wait? We're old enough."
Rose yelled, "Let me go! Stop! Help!"
The strength of his body pressing against her almost made her forget how the scent of him always made her knees weak. He had her sandwiched between his near-naked body and the wall, holding her hands above her head, so even if her knees did buckle she couldn't fall. She stared wide-eyed into his face for a minute and then he was kissing her savagely in spite of her attempts to jerk her head away.
"No," she tried to say, but his mouth smothered her voice. And … It smothered her resistance too. His mouth was rough on hers but hot too, and his weight was pressing on that one spot that made her want to squirm even closer.
Then out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. Taye was coming up the hallway like a thunderstorm rolling across the sky. He tore Sky away from Rose and threw him into the opposite wall. Rose gasped, trying to control her shudders. Of relief? Or just reaction to Sky's forceful lovemaking?
The hallway was filling with wolves. Carla pushed her way to the front of the crowd to stare with horrified eyes at Sky. Sky was half-crouched against the wall, staring defiantly at Taye. And Taye—easy-going Taye—was standing tall and unmoving, putting out infuriated Alpha vibes that made Rose want to cringe and thank God it was directed at Sky instead of her.
"Sky, explain yourself," Taye demanded.
For another second Sky held Taye's eyes. Then his challenge wavered, his eyes dropped and he tilted back his head to show his throat.
"Explain yourself," Taye said again, more mildly. "We do not ever hurt our mates."
Sky slid a yearning look at Rose before answering. "I only did what the man in the book you gave me did to his woman when she defied him. I held Rose so she couldn't get away and I kissed her. I was going to tear her shirt off like the man in the book did, but I didn't want to ruin her shirt by ripping it so I tried to take it off her gently—but she started to cry. That's not what happened in the book!" He glared accusingly at Taye.
"Taye!" Carla's voice was exasperated. "You gave him one of your romance novels to use as a game plan for seducing Rose?"
Sky said defensively, "It worked for the Chief. You fell in love with him right away."
"He never held me down and tried to force me … Oh, never mind! Those books are a lot of fun to read, but they're not real. Women don't really want to be treated like that."
Now Taye was frowning. "But last night—"
"Sh!" hissed Carla, blushing. She cleared her throat and looked self-consciously around at all the interested faces in the hallway. "After a woman gets to know a man she might—might!—enjoy pretending sometimes. But not right away. In the beginning a man should bring a woman roses. When he's sure she's the right one he should get down on one knee and beg her to love him."
Wolves were staring at Carla, fascinated. Taye looked horror-struck. "You wanted me to beg you to love me?"
Carla curled her mouth into a tiny smile, looked her tall muscular mate up and down, and shook her head. "I didn't need to beg you to love me. I already knew you did."
Taye took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. "I loved you the moment I first saw you. You will never need to beg me for anything."
Sky straightened up from his crouch with a sound of disgust. He leveled a glare at Rose, who said loudly, "I will never beg you for anything."
"We'll see about that," he snapped back.
Taye turned around, the tender lover gone and the furious Alpha back. He hoisted Sky up by one hand under his arm and dragged him down the hall. "You have a lot to learn about being a mate and until you show some sign of learning it, you will stay away from Rose."
Rose let out a shaky breath, finally relaxing. But when Sky looked back at her she froze again. His long black hair swaying over his back was as beautiful as a woman's, but the heat in those blues eyes was all male. It promised her that this was not over.
Valentine Blog Hop
Hey, everyone, come visit the http://justromance.me/ romance blog hop starting tomorrow. Win books! Read excerpts and short short stories by great romance writers. If you've read Sleeping with the Wolf, you might like a little sneak peek at what going on with Carla and Taye a month after their book ended. If you haven't read and you think you might like to, you can be entered to win a free download just for going on the blog hop.
Looking forward to lots of fun visitors tomorrow!
