IWSG, Must I Corset?

Welcome to another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group conceived by illustrious Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh! Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

I'm not sure I can do this cosplay thing...

As you all may know, I am currently two books deep into a Steampunk trilogy. I LOVED H.G. Wells and Jules Verne as a kid and have always lost myself in this type of story. The what if and elegant inventions. Writing in a genre I have always admired is a DREAM!!

But the other day I was talking with a friend of mine about going to a conference as a vendor to offer my book and maybe connect with other lovers of the genre and she asked me if I was going to dress up.

I was confused... "Like, wear a suit?" I asked her.

No, it turns out that she thought I might go all steampunk'd out to the conference since the GearCon's and Gaslight Gatherings celebrate dressing up and cosplay. I knew that attendants did this, but vendors?

In fact she showed me some blogs of other steampunk authors and they are all dressed in period/world attire.

Panic Cat demonstrating my expression.

Panic set in. I'm not sure I can do a corset and not manage to fall all over myself. 

I want to look professional...like an author...not like one of my characters. I mean, I have never seen Stephen King dressed up as Pennywise or Cassandra Clare dressed as a Shadow Hunter.

I write Gothic Mystery also and have never had cause to be all 'ghosty' or whatever.

Not sure what to do. Is this something I should be worried about? Is there a compromise...perhaps some sort of 'nod' to the devices in my book that I can have displayed instead?

Help!!

Do Laptops Mutiny?

Broken Message
Originally uploaded by lrargerich

I am a gleeful techie. I love gadgets, and software, and all the wonderful ways they enable creativity. My computer holds a special place in my day-to-day life because not only are my manuscripts on it…so are all of my children’s grades. So suffice it to say, that even though all my important documents, pictures, and information are backed up…it drives me crazy that my computer is beginning to mutiny.

It started with random shutting off, usually in the middle of grade submissions. Argh! I have a cooling fan under it, I periodically use disk cleaner, registry back up, and I delete my temporary files regularly. So why is the portal to the written world fighting back…more importantly…is there a sale on computers coming up?

I took typing in high-school. It was required and we used actual typewriters. In fact, we fought over the new electric ones because you didn’t have to manually return the carriage. I remember that white typing correction film that never quite did the trick. How far we’ve come, and yet, when things go awry with my laptop, I start to wonder if old school isn’t the way to go. I mean, if something goes wrong with a typewriter, I break out the screw driver and fix it. I don’t have to wait for a guy in a bug to show up, pocket protector and all.

I’m going to take another look at the hard drive and maybe run some more diagnostics on my precious laptop before I start to panic. I wanted to give a shout out to my daughter for getting off the family computer long enough to let me post this. Until next time…gulp…hopefully…rb