Maybe there’s something legit to this upcoming Blood Moon/latest apocalypse that’s coming up (and side note: how many times have we all survived the pending end of the world? Wasn’t the last one the end of the Mayan calendar? Or the last Blood Moon?). I haven’t worked on a historical fiction in like, two months.
This is a weird development.
I am so into Steampunk right now! We’ve dallied in this realm before, notably trying not to get sucked in (see here), but now…I don’t know, it’s like….Pinterest level addiction. I’m the proud over of a Steampunk reference board. I may have looked to see if there are any Steampunk groups around here. And when I say ‘may’ what I mean is ‘I did.’ And yes. There are.
At this point, I need to come into large sums of money in order to purchase and rock some Steampunk gear: namely, a corset, a fancy skirt, rockin’ leather boots, and a top hat. I’m easily convinced to get the top hat anyway, because what says ‘quirky author’ more than a jaunty top hat? And, on a related note, my Steampunk co-writer, Becca Hamilton, and I have decided that once our SP novel gets published, we’ll be wearing top hats to author events. So, there’s that to look forward to.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I dyed my hair bright, Manic Panic red over the weekend. Which is awesome! Unfortunately, the next day I went into Downtown Pittsburgh in 90 degree weather, stood in line for an hour and a half to walk through a steel WWII era landing ship, and ended up having my hair dye start to melt on my face. Well, technically speaking, my sweat encouraged my hair dye to drip everywhere. And since it’s red, it looks a wee bit stigmatic, as if I was sweating blood. Everywhere. The Hubs elbowed me and very, very stealthily whispered, “Do. You. Have. A. Napkin?”
I’m digging the red hair! I’m not digging the fact my pillow is now red. My mother, who has little hair dying experience but mass experience with fabric and thread, suggested I rinse it with vinegar, since that stops thread from bleeding color onto fabric. So, I’ll be trying this soon. Ish. I mean, it’s not that I’m not totally looking forward to smelling like Easter Eggs, but I’m petrified all the hair dye is just to leak off my head and I’ll have to dye it again. Though, if that happens, I’m staging some Psycho movie montage pictures and, voila. Christmas card.
The LST was awesome. An LST is a Landing Ship, Tank. LST 325 participated in D Day, landing on Omaha Beach on June 7th (technically, D Day plus 1). It also took part in Operation Husky, which was an invasion of Sicily in 1943. About 1000 LSTs were built in 1942 and more were built for Vietnam and Korea. LST 325 had 70 years of service and is actually the last
fully operational (insert Star Wars joke here) LST left.
I’ve been on battleships before (the Alabama in Mobile, Alabama) but this was pretty awesome! It was more open (more the tanks and gear it transported) and had much, much smaller guns. There was a really cool battle bridge below the regular bridge. You can go to their website http://www.lstmemorial.org/ for more information.
I taught Younger Child to say, “Woooo, Betty Grable!” which was fun. You know, sometimes WWII reenacting sounds really awesome–I know a few peeps who do that time period. It’d be fun to wear cool clothes, cool shoes, and do my hair in 40s style Victory Waves. Do I do this anyway? Yes. But I’m looking to do it with other people who are doing it too.
And, speaking of reenacting, the last Civil War reenacting event of the year is swiftly approaching, also known as Halloween at the Heights: the annual event in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia at the end of October. I’ll be the one trying to figure out how to hide my exceptionally red hair under a hood. Or hat. Or wig. Good times.