Secondary skills

In the words of Odo when Quark questioned his interest in funerary rituals, "Everybody needs a hobby." It didn't come in to the Hevun's Child trilogy, because almost everyone I was writing about literally did not have the time to kick back, relax, and faff around.

I glimpsed at it in The Amity Incident but by and large, the entire human colony were a bunch of nerd whose primary focus was their better future. The luxury of messing about with things to fill in time is something that only established bases can afford.

Now that I have an established base to write about in Adapting, we get to see Lyr Marken, mother of three and one of the main security officers for the Elemeno. She also has an interest in history. Not just her own, but the history of all those around her. It rarely comes in handy, but now that there's a temporally displaced citizen in her care, you'd better believe it does.

Said citizen, lost in time and space, finds meaning in being an Ambassador-in-name-only, but tends to treat it as frivolous make-work. She would much rather be busking in the streets, and helping out waifs and strays.

As for me? I am a writer. I am constantly in a different reality. Turning ideas in the fields of imaginings with the pitchfork of What-If? I'm trying to make money out of it because I can't not write. And, because I am a writer, I know a little about a lot of things. My interests are diverse and fleeting.

But my secondary skill is jewellery. I know enough about it to put things together so that they look pretty, but I'm not up to casting metal to suit my needs. Yet.

I never say never-ever. There's always a window of possibility. Like... I'd like to know how to make things from scratch. It's a matter of funding, time, and co-ordination at a minimum. Other contributing factors are my health and relative strength. And my moderate ability to design anything at all.

Those free story covers? I have a go at making the thing I want it to look like, and then I hand it to Beloved to make it look firkin brilliant. Instead of, you know, pasted together by an amateur with a $0 budget.

That said, I'm pretty good with physical objects. Beads, pins, and other findings come together in my hands and beauty comes out. It's one of the reasons why I'm going ahead with EGDB. And it's also why I made Chaos a pair of purple, sparkly clip-ons. Yes, I have a good photo. No, you're not going to see it for a month or more.

Beloved suggested I use the photo for my commissions page. And, given that getting the clips from Spotlight costs about $5 a pair before anything goes on them... I might have to charge $20 before I get as far as postage and handling. There is literally nowhere else that sells clip-on findings, any more.

I tell a lie. There are a few, but they might as well be on the moon. And I'd still have to wait for my order to get to me. Even then, you have to watch out for the ones without the loops to hang things from. So very many places think that glue is the only thing you need to make a clip-on. Or you get the abominations with the lump on the front end that's just plain fugly.

Hell, I've seen some clip-on findings with the abomination-lump and no loop to hang anything from. What the hell is the point of those ones?

But I digress.

I don't expect a lot of business from commissions. People are bound to want the cheaper designs that I can make from the bulk stuff I have. And -hey- if they're willing to send me the stuff to make a thing and a good idea of the design, I might cut it down to $15. They are paying for my time and knowledge. And I need to allow for experiment time to make sure the idea works.

And speaking of ideas. I need to get on with my writing so I can work on some presentation for Chaos' earrings.