Happy Fourth!

Have fun with BBQ's and relaxing today. Remember those who make sacrifices for freedom.

Here's my favorite scene I made fashioned after a vintage cookbook cover.

Fast Food and Fast Writing?

Fast or slow? Writing can be like fast food, right? That's the topic I'm talking about today at Acme Authors Link. Come on over and give your two cents worth...

Updating....

Note: the print version of In Miniature Style II at Amazon.com is being updated and should be ready in a day or two. The ebook and other format versions are still available. See links, details and photos at website

Hanging a Miniature Door - Tudor Half Scale House

An update on the Half Scale Tudor House I've been constructing (forever? ha!) (See other pix of the house here.)

The door is done in the top pic; I still need to add the bottom bay window.

The hardest part was figuring what to use as hinges for the door. In my full-size Tudor Tea Shoppe (see link on my miniatures page on my website), I used hard plastic strapping tape cut to size. Well, I have to reglue the tape now so I didn't want to do something like that again.



This time I tried something different and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. As you see in the above pic, the hinges are metal. I cut sword-shaped strips from the top of a mixed nut can (the metal is fairly thin and has an opening tab you pull up.) It cuts easily with scissors.



I glued strips of balsa wood across the door for boards. I then dabbed the back of the metal strips with Quick Grip to hold them in place. Next, I cut regular straight pins very short, again with scissors. Predrill or gouge a small hole into the wood. Hold the pin with small pliers and push it into the hole as far as it will go. Once all the pins were in place, I hammered them in so they were flat and then glued the trim around the door.

I plan to age the metal slightly and add a door knob. I may have to make a door knob to fit the house style.

Talking about Characters...

I'm talking about characters and how to make them real today at the MuseItUp Publishing blog. Stop by and comment with your tips.

Miniatures Update: New Cake Displays

Sharing some of the latest cabinets I made for my Half Scale Tudor House which has a garden shop on the bottom floor and a bakery/cafe/bookshop on the top floor. The cabinets are about 1 1/2" high.



I got the bookshelf at a show and the size fit better for a cake display cabinet. I made the right cabinet for a counter. My friend Kitty made most of the cakes except for a few from a swap in the half scale group. I made the cakes on the top wire wicker shelves from wooden plugs.

New Story in Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance, back copy

Yay! Got my copy today of the anthology Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance from DAW Books.

It contains my new story, "Kinetic Dreams" by C.A. Verstraete. In the story, the saga of Alva Edison and her famous brother, Thomas, continues with newly married Alva realizing her life isn't as she thought it was. Can she help Thomas get back to the past and escape a threat from the future?

Here's what the back of the book says (my story is described first):

What would the past look like if the future had come along earlier? This is the question that steampunk stories seek to answer in tales that place those possible futures in Victorian settings.

Now join sixteen visionary writers as they explore the many romantic possibilities of the steampunk, pseudo-Victorian age in such striking alternate adventures as when:

- Time travel and a chance look at an untimely newspaper headline complicate Alva Edison's blissful home life...
---

In the first story, "Edison Kinetic Light and Steam Power" from Steampunk'd, also from DAW Books, an unexpected accident has Alva Edison assisting her brother Thomas in developing some of their time's most amazing discoveries, and improving on some of H.G. Wells' work.

* Read an excerpt from the book's inside first page at my website.

New Project from In Miniature Style II: Plants Pants

Fern's "Plant Pants"

This has to be one of my favorite projects from IN MINIATURE STYLE II. (See Fern's version in the slideshow at link.)

When I first saw this project by Fern Rouleau, I laughed and thought it was the "cutest" thing I'd seen in miniature!

I knew I'd have to make my own, and I finally had the right materials to make my own "Pants Planter." But I had to also take it a step further and make a smaller version to fit in the garden shop I'm making in a half-scale Tudor house!

In the 1" scale version in pink and blue (left), I used a regular pair of pants instead of overalls. The plant is made from a kit by my favorite flower maker Susan at SDK Miniatures.

Since I didn't have any tinier pants and definitely didn't want to try making them that small, I decided to do something different for the half-scale version. I made a skirt. The daffodil plant also uses petals from Susan. Here's my secret: the tiny pink shoes are from a Polly Pocket set and were the perfect size. I used small lace for "socks."

Yes, doing the project in half-scale takes some fiddling since it's harder to get the pieces assembled, but overall, I'm happy with how it turned out. I just had to make both versions.

One guy I had talked with mentioned he was thinking of scaling down the patterns even further to make quarter-scale versions. I'd love to see this project in that size!

* The how-to and a profile of Fern and her work are in IN MINIATURE STYLE II. See information, photos and details at link. (Available in ebook/pdf, iPad, Nook, Kindle & other formats, and print.)

BUY: Print

Today at Acme Authors Link...

Today I'm at Acme Authors Link talking about not taking your writing too seriously. Stop on by!

Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance Featuring New Alva Edison Story by C. Verstraete - Now Available!

Today is the release day for Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance from DAW Books featuring my new story, "Kinetic Dreams" with my characters Alva and her famous brother Thomas Edison.

The saga of Alva Edison and her famous brother, Thomas, continues with newly married Alva realizing her life isn't as she thought it was. Can she help Thomas get back to the past and escape a threat from the future?

The first story, "Edison Kinetic Light and Steam Power" is in the book, Steampunk'd, also from DAW Books.

An unexpected accident has Alva Edison assisting her brother Thomas in developing some of their time's most amazing discoveries, and improving on some of H.G. Wells' work in my latest story, "Edison Kinetic Light and Steam Power" in the STEAMPUNK'D anthology from DAW Books.

* Read an excerpt of the first story (which was printed on the book's preview page).