Author, John Scalzi, recently posted his new policy on attending conventions: If they don’t have a clear anti-harassment policy, he won’t be going! (Anyone can co-sign it here.)

An acceptable policy includes:

• A clear definition of unacceptable behavior
• Where to find convention staff who will help you
• Making the policy obvious via the website, program, flyers, or opening events. (Preferably all of the above)

I was happy to  co-sign it!

As a fantasy jewelry artist, I will, as early as this fall, be looking to sell my jewelry at at as many conventions as I can reasonably attend.

But it’s immature and unacceptable for a convention to sell out victims to keep their customers happy. Also, as a 24-year-old woman, I’m not enthusiastic about trapping myself behind a table for a weekend unless the convention will assure me I’ll be reasonably safe from people bothering me.

That’s not the end of it, though. This will be my personal approach when a convention’s policy is unacceptable:

• When I approach a convention about becoming a dealer, I will absolutely commit to having a jewelry showing on that weekend in that town.
• If the convention policies aren’t acceptable enough for me to attend, I will instead have my showing at library, community center, women’s shelter, or similar organization committed to making the world a safer, more respectful place. (With a percentage of sales donated to the organization.)
• Promotional materials and press releases for this alternate event will highlight the convention’s poor approach to keeping guests safe.

Personal experiences:
(Every convention I consider attending, and the state of their policies.)

-Dragon Con:  Bright shiny new anti-harassment policy this year!

Do you go to conventions? Is the statement something you would co-sign? Why or why not?
(Disrespectful comments will be deleted, and I reserve the right to do the same toward debating that gets too intense.)

Welcome to my blog, the future home of my monthly contests. Hosting my contests here has two distinct advantages:

1. You can enter even if you don’t have a DeviantART account.
2. I can feature entries on this page directly. (Unlike DeviantART, WordPress lets me add images to my posts without buying a membership!)

July’s Contest: (Extended through August)

Work with another artist to make art from two different mediums, inspired by my jewelry. Both artists of the winning entry will win these puzzle piece friendship necklaces.  

All entries win free US shipping until October. ($5 off international shipping.)

1. Both of you must be subscribers of my newsletter. At least one of you must be a new subscriber.
(What’s in the newsletter and what are the perks of subscribing?)

 2. Work together to make a piece of art inspired by my jewelry style, each contributing a different art medium.

Examples:

writing, poetry / illustration
lineart / adding colors
beads, focals / jewelry
handmade paper / drawing, painting
photos / photomanipulation
physical art / Photography of art

3. Each of you, post a photo of the part you contributed to one of the following places 

• DeviantART
• instagram
• imgur

 4. If possible, link to this page and any jewelry pieces you were inspired by.

5. Each of you, message me on that site with your contribution.

• DeviantART: Starlit-Sorceress
• Instagram: @colleenssj
• imgur: StarlitSorceressJewelry

General rules

• Keep it G-rated
• Contest ends September 1
• I get permission to copy/paste every entry onto my computer and use them to promote my jewelry for as long and as often as I want. (I won’t change anything or sell your work directly. If I use your work at all, I will link to you on my website.)

Rules for entering more than once:

• Each entry must have at least one new subscriber.
• Someone can only count as “the new subscriber” for one entry.
• Someone can only contribute to three entries.

Suggestions for finding someone to work with:

• What kinds of art do you like to make?
• What kinds of art can you make your art out of?
• What artists can make their art out of your art?

 Feel free to add questions and comments.

A brainstorming tool, a name generator, and a blog filled with useful articles. (No particular order of preference)

1. Telescopic Text

I was moved to write today’s post when this site helped me dramatically revitalize my artist statement a few hours ago. The link opens in a new tab, but I’m happy to describe the site if you’d rather stay here.

The site is very minimalistic. The most prominent feature on the mostly blank page is a simple sentence. “I made tea.” But each word is highlighted in light gray. Clicking on highlighted words will expand them into more words, some of which may also be highlighted. “I made a cup of tea.”  A few clicks later: “Yawning, I made myself a nice cup of strong tea.” When there are no more clickable words, the page will be covered in words.

At the bottom right corner is a link to make your own telescopic text. Type a sentence. Click on a word.  Type the text that it will expand to. Click on another word.

My artist statement makeover

When I first found Telescopic Text, I played with the tea story, bookmarked the site, and forgot about it…until I realized how much it could help me with my artist statement.

I arrived with two things: My tagline and my old artist statement. My tagline, “Fantasy-inspired art jewelry”, is pretty solid, but my artist statement was a scattered, disjointed collection of an otherwise decent way to describe my artistic vision and mission statement.

I typed “fantasy inspired art jewelry” into Telescopic Text and expanded it phrase by phrase, using all the material from my scattered artist statement. Once all the pieces had been put back together, I went from this:

Using wire and small objects, I give form to 
imagination and daydreams. I express the beauty 
of spontaneity. I find magic and awe in 
everyday objects and scenes…
and then I highlight it.

I’m inspired by magic and high-fantasy.
I like calm, analogous color schemes and
twisting, spiralling lines.

…to this!

Magic and high fantasy inspire me to find 
beauty and awe in everyday objects and scenes.
Capturing that wonder, 
strengthening it, 
and adding chaos and spontaneity, I create 
abstract art jewelry, hoping to inspire you 
toward imagination and reverie.

2. Fantasy Name Generator

The basic generator lets you pick typical options such as “short”, “long”, “vowel-heavy”, but the advanced generator not only shares how it generates such specific names, but invites you to customize your own.

It’s a little confusing at first, but if you have the time to figure it out, it will quite possibly become your most useful name generator for getting the perfect name from very specific instructions.

Example:

Let’s see… how about a name beginning with “Lo” that starts out soft, but ends on a harsh or abrupt syllable.

So I type  “(Lo)VcVC” which is composed of:

-Letters in parentheses, which will stayconstant
-V stands for a random vowel or vowel combination
-Lowercase c stands for just one random consonant
-(Another random vowel or vowel combination)
-Uppercase C stands for a random consonant or combination.

Then I browse through the results, looking for particularly abrupt ending consonants. Out of over 100 names on the page, only three look really good:

Lousit
Loerok
Loeadoc

I discard “Lousit” because it sounds like “lose it” and refresh the page a few times to get hundreds more results.

Loaecod
Loaelig
Loelerd
Loilauv
Loeeyiac (Interesting, but how do you even pronounce that?)
Loanit (Nope, sounds like I just smushed “Loan it” together and tried to pass it off as a name.)
Loavek

I like the last one. Also Loerok or Loedoc from the first round.

3. Superhero Nation

Novels and comics about superheros aren’t my artistic calling, even if I wanted to be a writer or comic artist, but when I first found this website, I couldn’t stop reading it! The advice and tips are so helpful and well-reasoned, that they can apply to any kind of writing. Even artist statements! (My decision to use the word “you” instead of “people” in my new artist statement came from a guest post I browsed while stopping by for the link.)

Unlike a lot of blogs, they have a nice big list of their favorite/most useful posts on the left sidebar.

I really want to go into more detail and list a few of their most awesome posts, but there’s so much good material there, I’d barely be scratching the surface.

Did you explore any of the sites? Share your telescoped text, generated names, and writing breakthroughs in the comments.

This is my third post in what has become a series about non-traditional ways of participating in fandoms.

Do you have to read/watch all of a series to call yourself a fan?

Very few people who like the Avengers have actually read all the comic books. Not many Doctor Who fans have seen all 26 seasons of the classic series. Do you know any Skyrim fans who have played Elder Scrolls #1?

But fans get less of a break when the fandom has a smaller time investment.

I usually have to read/watch a story to completion, but here are some exceptions (besides Avengers and Doctor Who of course

Stopped midway:
-Naruto (Gave up when it refused to end)
-Dune (Does it count that that I read everything by the author, but not any of the later books?)
-Ender’s Game (I finished reading Bean’s series, but not Ender’s)

Started midway:
-Doctor Who (I started with the new series, but I actually recommend people with only a casual interest start at season 5. It’s a good introduction, and you’ll catch up sooner.)
-Blade (I started with the third one first and still haven’t seen them all yet.)

What about you? Did you start watching Star Wars with the prequel trilogy? Did you only play Mass Effect 3? Share your unconventional fandom experiences in the comments.

What are your thoughts and experiences with writing and reading fanfiction?

Writing

I write fanfiction (mostly short stories) whenever I’m inspired with an idea–either a parody or an interesting scenario. Most of my recent stories have been inspired by a jewelry piece. And I don’t plan most of those stories–they appear suddenly and demand that I wait to post the jewelry until I’ve finished writing the story.

The Loki staff necklace was a birthday present for my sister, so I was inspired to write a story where Loki steals the flying aircraft carrier as a birthday present for himself. For the evil snitch necklace, I wrote a few paragraphs about Draco Malfoy learning of a deadly change to the rules of Quidditch. The last one was mostly for myself. I was miffed at how the Star Wars Old Republic franchise took the storyline from the last game to the MMORPG. So I fixed it.

 Reading

I occasionally read fanfiction if I have an idea it will be good–either from a recommendation or a well-written pitch from the author.

Two I’m enjoying right now:

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Aunt Petunia married a math professor instead of Uncle Vernon, and Harry Potter is raised as a scientist by a loving family. When he gets to Hogwarts, he brilliantly combines magic and science while lamenting the lack of rational thinking among wizards…and that’s not nearly half the reason this is one of the best stories I’ve ever read.

Ensign Sue Must Die
The origin of the term “Mary Sue” was a character in a Star Trek fanfiction. So this fancomic starts with Old Spock warning Reboot Spock about Reboot Mary Sue. Once she shows up, the exasperated crew tries to figure out how to get rid of her. (As an added bonus, the sequel features the Tenth Doctor and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock.)

Speaking of Mary Sues, what are your thoughts? (I can hardly blog about fanfiction without mentioning them, right?)

I think an overpowered character with an overdramatic past/origin can be redeemed if they’re given flaws, an interesting personality, and if they’re challenged properly. If the average superhero appeared in a novel, he/she would probably be classified as a Mary Sue if , but what makes comic books balance out is the addition of the supervillain.