Expert Advice on Cosplay from Expert Cosplayers

My panel of experts:Shawn Tuffy (2011 AWA Costume Contest Winner)Anna Heim (2011 AWA Costume Contest Winner)Courtney O'DonnellAmie PeacherPLANNING: Amie) DO YOUR RESEARCH. Always have a budget and a "game plan". Know what you're going to do before you start bidding and buying. It saves you time and money. If you're having trouble with making something, odds are, someone has had that same problem and probably posted it online.Courtney) Research...

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Finished Draft

Tonight, I finished the odes for Olympia Heights: The Weight of the World (Book 2 in the Olympia Heights series). I did an edit as I wrote the odes (the poems in between the chapters) of the 1st draft of the episodes (the chapters), and so draft 1 1/2 is complete.From there it goes to my primary editor who tells me what works, what doesn't, and makes me cry, suck it up, and fix a lot of things. He also buys me chocolate. Then I make the adjustments...

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Halloween Sale

Buy...

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Focus

Hey guys! Over the past few months I've had a lot of fun writing this blog. I started off writing about just about everything because I didn't know what to write about, but I wanted to keep my writing skills sharp. Now it's time to find some focus.Of course I wasn't able to narrow it down to one singular topic because my life has so many focuses. I'm a teacher, a grad student, a writer, a marketer, a derby girl, a dog lover... it goes on. I do have Nerducation, which is my start-up teaching blog, and that is where the teacher/grad student will...

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8 Things to Do BEFORE NaNoWrimo Begins

November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and around the world, writers will be racing their page-a-day calendars to crank out a 50,000 word book by the 30th of November. The goal is to write, write, and write just to get it down on paper. Don't stop. Don't edit. Don't give yourself time for a crisis. You can edit and cut all you want later-- you should have 50,000 words to chop down into whatever genre standards you require.I will be...

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Recent Deviations

I did not major in painting or illustration or graphic design. I majored in Performing Arts. So while I have an education in the fine art foundations and have learned greatly about design and color theory, being able to draw is kind of a bonus.For a while after SCAD, I didn't draw at all. Because I teach preschool and constantly draw for kids at Art Center and for teachers (to decorate their doors) I've started drawing more. So here are 4 of my recent,...

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Your Modeling Profile Sucks (Here's How to Fix It)

A few months back I had the pleasure of casting a model for the cover of my 2nd book. I found Tiffany Britton Rell on modelmayhem.com. Sometimes I go there to find images of people to inspire characters. Back in my text-based RPG days, I mined that site for unusual Played-Bys.I noticed a few things that drove me crazy when I was on my hunt for a young blonde with light eyes and a certain look. So many people had bad or misleading profile images or...

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Jumping the Shark: Bio 100

Thursday we went out to a swamp for Bio 100. I have to take the course as a prerequisite because SCAD never had me take science for my Bachelor's. So, I have to take biology with college freshmen for my Graduate Studies. My Professor gave us a simple assignment-- write a paragraph. That's it. It doesn't have to be about science, it's just about observations.I might have overdone it when I put the poem into the shape of a beaver (the predominate...

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Music Review: My New Favorite Song About a Girl Named Amy

♫ She sees a black cat hanging 'round my doorstep/ I'll need all day tomorrow to recover from today... ♫My first experience with the music of Andrew McMahon was from the wall of televisions at the back of the Target Electronics Department. I was 17, it was 2003, and As You Sleep from Something Corporate's Album "North" was playing in the loop. I bought the CD and immediately had to backtrack to the previous 2 studio albums, 3 extended...

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