Interpreting Reflections

            Art holds a mirror up to the world. It takes what the artist sees in the world, changes around a bit, then shows the artist’s interpretation of the world to those who view, read, hear, and even taste or smell it. Sometimes it’s merely a reflection for the sake of entertainment, and other times it has deeper meanings – bordering on educational. It’s one of the great things about art, as combining entertainment with education is the most effective way to teach – and, being open to interpretation, art allows people to come to their own conclusions. Yet, sometimes I wonder if we artists reflect too much.

            When artists set out to create deep, meaningful interpretations of the world that allow them to share their ideas and revelations with others, they take the elements of the world they want to showcase and make them very prominent in their work. The idea is often to say, “Hey, look at this! Does it remind you of anything?” and then proceed to show the observer why it is good, bad, or sometimes just to get them thinking about it. It is a marvelous form of education, but sometimes we have to stop to consider... What exactly are we teaching?

            Back in highschool, an English class assignment was to examine the lyrics of a song and interpret the meaning of it. One of my classmates chose a song that I was amazed the teacher even allowed to have the lyrics shown for his presentation. However, as he went through the song, he was representing it as a satire – a commentary on a particular type of lifestyle rather than, as it appeared to me, bragging and lauding said lifestyle. Until then, it never would have occurred to me that the song was satirical – and that’s where we hit a major flaw.

            What happens when something is intended to be satire, and people interpret it as real? What happens when commentary is interpreted as praise? What happens when metaphor is taken to be literal? What happens when an artist is just making art and people are convinced it’s full of deep meanings?

            What ends up being learned isn’t always what was intended – and learning wasn’t even necessarily intended in the first place. However, learning is what humans do constantly – we take in our surroundings and interpret and learn from them. We don’t even know we’re doing it half the time. We just keep absorbing and absorbing....

            So, when an artist presents to us the world as it is, highlighting the flaws, some people will see what the artist is saying and learn from it – maybe even help the world to change and grow. Others may see it and simply disagree, while others will miss the point entirely. Often what will happen is that people will see it as just a straight up statement of “This is how it is!” which they will take to mean it’s normal, which is the most dangerous view of all.

            By showing the world as it is, artists can inadvertently reinforce the very flaws they seek to highlight. The art reflects the world, and the world – upon seeing its reflection – says, “This is how it should be,” or perhaps, “This is how it is, and there’s nothing to be done about it.” Then the art is no longer teaching us about the flaws in the world; it is teaching us to make all the same mistakes of the past.

            It makes me wonder what the difference would be if there was a dramatic shift in art – from reflecting the world as it is, to reflecting the world as it could be. What changes might be wrought in our society if, rather than displaying and normalising how everything is, art showed us how the world could be? I suppose it’s possible that it could do nothing. On the other hand, it might make all the difference in the world.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Artistic Judgement

            One of the fun (here, fun means “horrible”) things about being an artist – no matter the medium – is an inability to judge the quality of your own work. Or, rather, we can judge our own work, but we do so on a scale of Dreadful to I Guess It’s Kinda Okay.

            When I was just out of high school, and still fairly new to making chainmaille, I made a project that was my then-crowning achievement. It was a chainmaille vest made using a pattern known as elf-weave – one of the most complicated chainmaille weaves in existence. The shirt has over 100 hours of work in it, and looks great. But it has a flaw in it. Somehow, while I was making it, I managed to combine two rows into one, losing half a row.

            Even though the flaw isn’t visible to anyone not looking for it – and someone without excellent pattern recognition skills is unlikely to spot it – it is very hard to see. But to me, the creator, that tiny flaw is a horrible oversight, all but ruining the shirt.

            Talk to any artist and they’ll tell you similar tales. Ask them about a specific project and they’ll be able to tell you every flaw in minute detail. This line is out of place, that note was performed slightly off, and that part that goes in should have gone out but it couldn’t be fixed without destroying the whole thing.

            Each new created piece of artwork that manages to meet the artist’s approval is the best piece they’ve made to date – in fact, it’s so good, it makes all the previous pieces rubbish. Not that it’s any good....

            I think that this harsh self-judgement is part of what pushes artists forward, encouraging them to strive to improve their craft and make more projects. But, at the same time it’s disheartening, because nothing is ever good enough. People may shower our work with praise, but can’t they see that flaw right there? They must be lying.

            What is it that makes a creator so hard on their work? Seeing all the minute details that they had to be aware of in order to create it. An outside observer – even other artists – didn’t painstakingly draw each line, write each word, or link each ring together. As such, they look at the whole – the completed project. They don’t see the mistakes, because they have no idea that they are mistakes. They’re too busy being distracted by everything that was done right to notice what was done wrong.

            A valuable lesson that all artists should learn is how to step back from the project and observe it without their artistic lens. It is true that we must always strive to better our art, but sometimes we need to step back, look at the whole, and appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Otherwise we may forget how well we’re doing and give up.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Ebb and Flow

            Something that I find amazing about working an art-related job is that there’s no telling what items will sell, or when. Selling chainmaille this past weekend at ConBravo! was mind-boggling – I never could have predicted the way our sales went.

            First, some background. When Colleen and I first started attending shows with Ringcrafts, we had no idea what to expect. We didn’t know what would sell – or how much. As a result, we managed to over-prepare by quite a bit. We made five of each chainmaille design we had on hand, only to learn that at any given event we would rarely sell more than one or two of any given item.

            Well, we learned. We cut back to three of each item, and when something proved popular we would up the number to five. Alas, as soon as we had plenty of said item, it completely stopped selling. Plus, we discovered that we were having trouble finding space to store and transport everything as our variety steadily grew larger.

            So, we fine-tuned our system. When we make something new, we now only make one. If it sells, we make two for our next show. After that, every time we sell out of a particular item, we add one more to the total that we keep on hand – the idea being that we’ll always have one available for display. This is working remarkably well, and in part helps predict what is most popular and what will sell well.

            This year, though, has been very strange. Items that have never sold before are suddenly our most popular items – alongside things that were popular in our first year selling, but that have received little interest for three years.

            This weekend continued that trend, but in a new and unexpected way. Usually, most of what we sell are our low-to-mid priced items – keychains, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and such. We usually sell a tie or two per show and a few dragons, those being items that are getting into a higher price range.

            At ConBravo! this weekend, we were astounded by the number of large items we sold – not only did we sell a beanie, belt and coif (higher priced items that rarely sell), but someone bought the chainmaille Spiderman mask that we’ve had on display for over two years. We were blown away – with the track record, we’d thought it would never sell.

            We’ve talked to other vendors and artists, and they all say the same thing: you carry items around and have them on display for years without selling one. Then, suddenly, they’ll become the most popular product you have.

            The ebb and flow of what is popular really is an inscrutable thing. I’m very interested to see in what direction this latest trend will carry us – and what will happen next.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Cultural Shifts

            My parents recently returned from a trip to China and I was particularly struck by the stories about the current cultural structure they have. They are currently in a transition from communism (where – at least in theory – everyone is provided what they need, but no one really owns anything) to capitalism (where people earn money based on their work and their job and use that money to buy whatever they need or want – or just stockpile it). Since this is a rather extreme mix, they've ended up with a fascinating mash-up of the two, with an odd class system in the middle.

            In the cities live the “citizens”, who have money, rights and all those sorts of things. They own and rent property – although the prices are extremely high and the spaces are small – and function much as we in the Western world would expect.

            On the other hand, out in the country live the “peasants” – mostly farmers who are paid very little and own nothing. Yet, at the same time, they live in houses free of charge and often these homes are nicer and have more space than those of the privileged “citizens”.

            In this system, the “peasants” who work very hard and sacrifice much can buy their way into being a “citizen” – the tour guide was one of these and had made the proud step with much hard work and with the help and sacrifice of his parents. The people seem very proud of their transition into capitalism.

            What I found most interesting about the current state of the system is how close it currently is to ancient Rome. There they had slaves. There were rules about how they could be treated and at a certain age they could be released. They even (at least legally) had the ability to save up money to buy their way to freedom and possibly even a citizenship (if I'm remembering correctly).

            The sad part, though, is that with the change to capitalism, China is starting to lose its artists. In a system where everyone is provided for equally, there is plenty of room for people to focus on developing talents and artwork – and beyond that, there is no need to charge for that art what it is really worth. Switching to a capitalistic system, the artists need to make an hourly wage for their work. With all the detail and care that goes into any given piece of art, it is rarely possible to sell it at a price where someone will actually buy it. So, the artists of a country largely defined by its art are slowly fading away.

            The same problem has struck in the farming community as well, causing a food crisis for the country. Many farmers are abandoning rice fields in favour of fishing, where there is much more money to be made.

            Hearing about this culture and its shift is very enlightening and inspiring to me as a writer, creating my own world and cultures. However, as a resident of this world, I can’t help but feel sad about it. The world leans so heavily towards capitalism, where money is valued above all else. There’s an emphasis on getting as much money as you can, regardless of whose toes you step on to get it. The worst part is that it gives the impression of working well, so many people get behind it and cheer it on – especially the people who have figured out how to make the system work for them and don’t see everyone left behind.

            But where would we be if everyone managed to get the system to work for them? What if all the “unimportant” minimum-wage workers suddenly up and vanished, having found a better way to live? Who would flip our burgers? Who would cash us out and stock the shelves in grocery stores? Who would grow the food?

            Capitalism is clearly not the way to go. They say money is the root of all evil and all you need to do is look at the world to know that it is true.

            What will work better instead? Honestly, I don’t know. I've put a lot of thought into it and every time I think I have a solution, I find a way that human greed will turn it against itself. But I keep hoping and thinking. Perhaps someday I will come up with the answer, or someone else will. Then it will be our turn for a cultural shift.

            Until then, all I can do is share my insights and hope that they might make a difference.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Why Not End War?

*Disclaimer* Remembrance Day is a pet peeve of mine and, while expressing my ideas on the subject, what I say can sometimes come across as saying that veterans do not deserve our thanks. This is not the case – I simply believe they should not be hero worshipped because that leads to others following in their footsteps and suffering as the veterans have (or falling in battle, causing their families to suffer). I also believe that Remembrance Day should be focused on remembering the tragedies of war so we can stop repeating our mistakes. Gratitude to those who have sacrificed for us should be a constant, passive thing, not something that dominates a day that was once – and should still be – dedicated to peace. If you have strong emotions related to this subject, you may want to stop reading now.

            One day I thought to myself, wouldn't the world be a much better place if every country in the world disbanded their armies and ceased production of all weapons? What a wonderful world that would be.

            Then I stopped to think about what would actually happen.

            According to Wikipedia, Canada has 104,150 people in militaristic jobs. The UK has 371,360. USA, 2,231,447. I started to add up all the countries, then decided it would take too long. I was at over ten million, though, and I’d barely scratched the surface. This doesn't even include the researchers or the people who make the weapons and uniforms.

            So, what would happen if the world did away with war and violence? Mass unemployment. Certainly some of those jobs could be repurposed, but there already aren't enough jobs to go around.

            Why not just have those people in reserve, trained and ready in case we are attacked? Because if no one is fighting, people begin to wonder why their taxes are paying all these people. So the soldiers are sent off to fight – and often to die, which (dare I say it) “conveniently” eliminates the excess population that the world doesn't have enough jobs for.

            It all becomes a great cycle then. We need war so we can employ soldiers so people can afford to eat. If we eliminate war, the whole economy comes crashing down around our ears.

            Like many others, I dream of a world at peace, but it will never happen unless we drastically change the way our economy works. My vote is that we stop siphoning money off of arts programs and we flood the world with artists.

            That is something I’d like you to think about this Remembrance Day (or whatever November 11^th is in your country). I’d like you to think about how much society pressures us into remembering and thanking veterans, how we are taught that they are heroes so that more of us will follow in their footsteps.

            I want you to think about all the lives lost or ruined because we don’t know how to make the economy work without war. What a waste.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Hobbit Book Review (Sort of)

            I guess this isn't really a review because, let’s face it, The Hobbit really doesn't need any reviews. If I even have to tell you it was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, chances are you’re reading the wrong blog. So, I guess this is more like my thoughts on the book rather than an actual review.

            Naturally this isn't the first time I've read this book and it most certainly won’t be the last. I think I was in the area of five years old when my dad read The Hobbit to me and my brother. I loved it, in spite of the recurring nightmare it gave me (Smaug chasing me and my family – actually, when the dragon attacked in the movie, it was almost identical to my dreams. Well done, Peter Jackson). It is, to this day, one of the greatest stories I've ever read.

            It isn't just the story itself that has made this book so great, but the writing. Tolkien’s style in this book has personality. It’s more than just words on a page, its storytelling. The book reads as if Tolkien is sitting there in front of you, a fire crackling in the fireplace while he tells you this beautiful tale.

            As I read the book this time, marvelling at how wonderful and enjoyable it was, I came to notice something that I find to be very sad.

            No one would publish The Hobbit in this day and age.

            It all comes down to the writing and what is expected of us as authors. If you look up writing tips, Tolkien goes against a great many of the ones you’ll find.

            We’re supposed to use “said” all the time. No more dwarves grumbling what they say or Bilbo squeaking when he’s frightened. Apparently readers’ eyes just skip over the “said”s and similar. Personally, I read every word in a book and there’s nothing quite as bland as seeing nothing but “said”.

            Exclamation marks! We’re not supposed to use too many exclamation marks. They lose their effectiveness if they’re used too frequently, it’s true, but the amount they’re supposed to be cut out is unbelievable. Used properly, exclamation marks change the entire tone of a sentence, the feel of the book. You wouldn't believe how many of them Tolkien uses! I agree with moderation, but these days they’re becoming extinct.

            Adjectives. Descriptive words. We’re supposed to avoid them. Some people take this too literally and say to never use them. Instead of a nice word that gives clear and definitive meaning to something, we’re supposed to use excessive space to describe the specific characteristics of those words. To me, that’s a waste of time for both the writer and reader if every time someone waves excitedly their hand waves back and forth in blur with a grin on their face. Tolkien uses adjectives all the time and very effectively. Again, it’s a case of using it in moderation, but elimination clutters the writing.

            So, on the off chance that someone decided to publish The Hobbit, they would first run it through editors to eliminate all these “problems”. I can’t say that I’d want to read the book once it came out the other end of that process. They’d take out the split infinitives.

            If you haven’t read The Hobbit before, you should. There’s never been a book like it before and there never will be one again until people stop clinging to guidelines as rules. Writing is an art and art is an expression of yourself. If you allow rules to remove your personality from your writing, can you still call it art?

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Artistic Life Choices

            The day after ConBravo!, a friend of mine commissioned a chainmaille shirt – the catch being that he wanted the shirt for an event that was next weekend. Because of the time required, both for production and for the materials to arrive, this posed an interesting challenge. Luckily, I had a few advantages in this situation: I had enough materials on hand to start the shirt, I have Colleen working with me to make chainmaille, and we both are making chainmaille full time.

            This got me thinking about the difference between people who are artists as a hobby and artists who are making a living off their art (or trying to, at least). The challenge with making money through art is getting paid for your time. That’s the biggest problem with every form of art – there is a lot of time involved. It has to be a labour of love.

            The result is that many artists undercharge for their work, because not many people are willing to pay even $200 for a painting with eighty hours of work in it. Yes, there a few people who will, but even if that painting is sold, the artist is only getting paid $2.50 per hour, and no one can live off of that.

            So, most artists use their art as a hobby, some of them making money on the side, while working a full time job. This limits their time to produce art, but it also provides them with a secure income. They can charge less for their work if they want to, but they don’t have as much freedom when it comes to rush orders.

            On the other hand, there are full-time artists – few and far between. They (or we) need to make a living off of what they sell, so they have to charge for the time invested in their products. Unfortunately, this means that prices are higher, but it also means that they have a lot more time to hone their craft, which in turn means more speed during production. The costs get lowered a bit, but still stay fairly high for larger projects.

            Chainmaille shirts are very large projects. I first started making chainmaille as armour. When I look back at the first shirt I sold, I am appalled that I sold it for $160. The materials alone cost $100, which means I was making about $1-2 per hour. On the other hand, I was still learning my craft and I was a high school student on summer holidays with no job.

            When I started looking into making chainmaille for a living, branching out into jewellery was almost mandatory. It’s simply because there are more people who will spend $15 on a bracelet that cost $3 in materials and took an hour to make than who will buy a chainmaille shirt for $600 that costs $120 in materials and took 40 hours to make. Especially when you can get one that was made with slave labour for $150 on EBay.

            Nevertheless, armouring is what I truly love about my art, so when opportunity knocks, I’ll answer. Here, being a professional artist pays off. The armour was needed within a time limit. There probably aren't any people out there with full time jobs that could make a full chainmaille shirt in under two weeks. My wife and I managed it in five days (well, six, but two of them were more like half days).

            Technically the shirt still needs a little more work on it that will have to wait until after the event – unfortunately my supplier was busier than usual and the materials for finishing it won’t arrive on time (the worst part is there’s only a few more hours of work to put into it). However, the shirt was complete enough and fully functional in time for the event – and if the materials had shipped when they normally would have, it would've been complete with all the bells and whistles as well.

            I was silly enough to hand off the shirt prior to getting a picture of it in its neo-complete form, however here’s what it looked like with 15 hours of work in it. It now has 42 hours and is much, much longer.

            Now, I don’t want you to take out of this that full time artists are better than part-time artists. We’re just a bit crazier and usually a bit hungrier. All arts are labours of love and deserve respect, attention, and purchasing.

            My instinct says I should end this blog with something along the lines of “Support artists”, but since you’re here and reading this, I don’t really need to, do I? You’re here because you support my chainmaille, my writing, or both – at least, I assume you do, otherwise I've got no idea why you could possibly be here.

            So, instead I’ll finish with saying, thank you for supporting artists. Especially me ;)

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

In Praise of Con Organizers

            I'm just back from a fantastic weekend at ConBravo! where there were loads of friendly people. Lots of them liked chainmaille, too, which was a plus for me.

            I could spout about how wonderful the convention experience is, but you've heard it all before – at least if you've read my previous blog posts about them. Instead, today I’ll tell you about the people who run them.

            Fan-run conventions vary in size, but the popular ones inevitably grow. The amount of work that has to go into one is monstrous – panels, guests/celebrities, artists, vendors and volunteers all need to be organized and coordinated. The location has to be secured and paid for, contracts written and signed. Security must be arranged, marketing needs to be done, and far more that I either can’t think of right now or don’t know about.

            All of this is done by a handful of people and they usually don’t even get paid for it – more often than not, they’re spending money to make the convention happen. Whenever something goes wrong, no matter how big or small, these are the people who get harried about it until it’s fixed. They’re on their feet, running around, making sure everything runs smoothly for the entire convention, not even able to enjoy the product of their hard work (I had one of them visit me on the only break they could steal and tell me that if anyone asked, she wasn't there).

            Yet, these same people do this again and again, year after year – sometimes even multiple shows every year! The ones I've talked to say they’d like to eventually make their living at it, but until that’s possible it’s just a lot of hard work for other people to have all the fun.

            So here’s a shout-out to all those con organizers out there. You people are extraordinary and, I must say, more than a little crazy. Keep up the great work – I hope you get all the appreciation you deserve.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Thank You for Supporting Artists

            Oooh, I'm actually writing this blog on Monday for once! Of course, that’s because it’s after midnight and I just recently got home from a weekend of vending at the Oxford Renaissance Festival. That means, sadly (or happily, depending on how you feel about it), another short blog.

            This weekend’s show went spectacularly for Ringcrafts. We made over three times as much as we did at the same show last year and twice as much as we thought possible. We were completely blown away by how successful we were.

            For this reason, I’d like to thank everyone out there who goes to these events and supports artists. After a weekend like this one, we feel so incredibly appreciated that our will to push forward and make a living through our art is redoubled. I’d particularly like to thank our customers who remembered us from last year and saved their money so they could buy from us (it made us feel really special when you told us that), as well as the delightful lady that bought our scale shirt – making armour is where I started and I never get to make as much as I’d like to.

            Above all, I’d like to thank whoever it was who decided to give us the first booth inside the gates. You’re my hero. Please do it again.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Life and Times of Duel Love

            Today I shall share with you the tale of the only play I've ever written and how, after sitting dormant for seven years, it managed to find its way onto a stage.

            The story starts in 2006 when I was in my fifth and final year of high school, during my grade 11 drama class (I came to drama late in my school career, as my optional courses went to music classes first). It was at this point in time that we were assigned a play to write. I don’t remember all of the parameters we were required to follow, but the play had to be one act (30 minutes or shorter), have 3 scenes, 4 actors, take place in a realistic setting and convey some sort of message. We were also encouraged to not attempt to write a comedy because of how difficult humour is to write.

            Well, I've always been one for following the rules, but I've also always been one for bending said rules to suite my needs. Being told I needed a realistic setting was the first thing I needed to work with – after all, even then everything I wrote was fantasy. So, I got as close as I could and set it in medieval times.

            As for making the play a comedy, well, the plot that jumped into my mind required it. Thus, Duel Love, a play about two knights having a sword duel over a woman (the fairest in the land) was born, written with a very British style of humour.

            After all the plays were written, one scene from each of them was read to the class and we voted on four of them that were to be performed. Duel Love came out on top and, as a result, I ended up directing it for a summative assignment.

            The play came together wonderfully – even though I had at least one of my actors absent from all but two of the rehearsals. Then, on the day of the performance (which had been delayed by a couple snow days) one of my actresses didn't show up until a couple minutes before we had to go on stage. And, of course, the one time an actor forgot his line, I had managed to lose my copy of the script on the opposite side of the stage, and the two knights just stood there with their swords crossed, staring blankly at each other until I managed to remember the line and call it out.

            In spite of the hiccoughs, the performance was wonderful – everything I could have hoped for with my play, or so I thought. Then the play was put aside, only to be read periodically when someone in my house stumbled across the script.

            That might have been the end of Duel Love – I hadn't even read it in three or more years when, last summer, I received a message on Facebook from someone I’d never heard of before. It turned out to be the sister of one of my play’s actors, who happens to be the director at Maybles’ Productions – a small theatre company. She told me that she’s been fruitlessly searching for the playwright who went to school with her brother and had written Duel Love. The script had been accepted as part of a one act play festival, but now she needed permission to use it – if I was the playwright, of course.

            Well, how could I possibly say no to that? I informed her that she’d found the right person and she was welcome to use the scrip. I was thanked profusely and she told me that she’d loved the script from the day her brother brought it home and was excited to finally be able to perform it. She also asked if I’d be able to come to see the play – as if I’d miss it.

            In the months leading up to the play, I began to get a little nervous about a few things I was being told as the rehearsals progressed. First was that my script had been edited – something no writer likes to hear without having a say in it. Then the play started getting promoted as Monty Python and Princess Bride inspired – something that I took as a compliment, but didn't really see until I was told that the cast had workshopped the script and added a bunch of references.

            At this point, I only had one thought in my head: “What have they done to my play!?” I could have stepped up and said something – requested that they send me a copy of their improved script for approval – but I chose to hold my tongue. I knew there was a chance that they’d turned the play into something I wouldn't like, but I also knew that their changes could be fantastic. So, I waited until the performance (a week and a half ago) to find out.

            Now, one thing that is important to know about writing comedy is that, by the time you’re done, your jokes aren't very funny to you anymore because of how often you've "heard" them. An additional tidbit of information is that I'm not much of a laugh-out-loud person. Those, together, should tell you how well the play went when I say I was doubled over laughing for the entire performance.

            It was fantastic! The changes I was so worried about only made the play better, and the actors played their roles far beyond my expectations of how the characters had been written. It was truly incredible to see my words come to life as they did, and to hear the surrounding audience laughing along with me.

            When the awards were announced, I was thrilled to hear that Duel Love had earned Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Production. Congratulations, cast and crew, and thank you for taking my words and crafting a masterpiece.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Life as an Artist

            It is a common misconception that people who are selling things have money. It usually isn't even a conscious thought – it is just something that is assumed. The result is that shoppers are frequently looking for a better deal on things.

            This idea stems from the existence of huge companies that have CEOs spending millions on summer homes. Unfortunately, it is extended to include everyone who owns a business and, by extension, anyone selling something. This makes life much harder on everyone running a business who isn't a rich CEO – and even harder for an artist.

            So, I’d like to share with the world (at least the portion of it that reads my blog) a bit of what life is like for an artist sitting behind the wheel of a small business.

            The first thing I should mention is that my wife and I work seven days a week. To be fair, we don’t always work the typical eight hour days (sometimes it’s three hours and sometimes it’s fourteen), we set our own hours and we’re usually doing something we enjoy – but work is work and, no matter how much you love doing something, there are times when you just don’t want to do it.

            The last time we took time off and had a vacation was our honeymoon – a year and a half ago.

            If you go to an event we’re at (or our website), you can see some of what that work produces – our various products that we have for sale. You may even notice how much work we've put into displaying our work, or building and maintaining our website.

            As for the having money part, well... we've been officially in business for nearly two years and technically haven’t made a penny. I say technically because it depends on how you count the numbers – as in, if you don’t count all the materials we have to keep in stock so we can keep our products in stock, we've made a little money. If you do count them, we still have significantly less than we started with (this is normal – someone starting a business usually doesn't actually make money for the first five years).

            When we go to shows, we get a variety of responses to our products and prices. A very small handful of people tell us that our prices are far too low and we should raise them (we like those people). A lot of people comment on how reasonable our prices are (these are frequently people who have seen a lot of chainmaille, have made it themselves or truly understand the work that goes into something handmade). Most people seem happy with our prices. Many people think they’re a bit too high (though some of them like what they see so much that they buy it anyway). Others take one look at our prices and run away.

            Every once in a while, someone will ask me for a deal on something. Sometimes I’ll say yes – especially if they’re buying several items, they’re really nice and/or they’re coming to me with the last of their money and really want something that they don’t have quite enough for.

            On the other hand, there are people who make it perfectly clear that they think our prices are gouging them (thinking we are either deaf or blind), then ask for a discount. Needless to say, they don’t get it. At that point, I don’t care if I'm losing the sale – if they can’t see the value of an item, they shouldn't be buying it in the first place, let alone from an artist and/or small business owner.

            To these people, I want to say: Look at what you are holding. It is made by hand. When you buy that item, you are paying for the time spent making it and the materials it is made with. What you are not paying for is the time it took to design it or the years it took to learn the skills and become fast enough to get the price that low. You are not paying for the time we spend standing behind the table serving customers nor the time it takes to set up and take down the display at the beginning and end of the event – you’re not even paying for the space we’re renting to set up our display in. Do you have any idea how much has been invested in this display you aren't paying for? You’re also not paying for the time, gas or vehicle maintenance involved in getting to and from the event (you won’t be paying for our hotel room when the event is too far from home). You don’t pay for the time it takes to clean and polish our products. You don’t pay for the hours upon hours we spend taking pictures and editing them as professionally as we are able so we can keep an up-to-date website. You don’t pay for the web hosting that allows us to have a website. You don’t pay for our marketing. Not only do you not pay for the materials we keep on hand, you don’t even pay for them to be shipped to us.

            All we’re asking you to pay for are the materials in what you are holding and the time it took us to make it. Is that really too much to ask?

            Sadly, saying such things is a bad business practice and frequently a waste of breath. It won’t likely win a sale and it won’t make them understand how hard artists (the not-famous ones) struggle to make a living. I just wish more people knew and understood how much of a good deal they are already getting and complaining about.

            The worst part is that the example of my business is a fortunate one for artists. Most artists don’t even get paid for the time that goes into their art because there just aren't enough people who will pay what it’s worth.

            On the other hand, I would like to thank all of you wonderful people out there who do recognise what artwork is worth – especially the ones who insist on paying more than what we artists ask for our work. Thank you to everyone who supports a small business, even if it means paying a little more, because you are the people who keep us up and running, doing what we love.

            Above all, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this long and rantish blog post to better understand what it’s like to eke a living by chasing a dream. I hope it was enlightening to those of you who don’t know what it’s like and, for those of you who do, I hope it is encouraging to know that other people do know what you’re going through – and that we care.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Write On Con

            There is nothing quite like a gathering of aspiring authors, at least from my experience. The online conference I attended last week, Write On Con, was set up perfectly to cater to the crowd it drew.

            Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked, but I did try to keep up with what was going on. I’ll try to give you an idea of what the event was like.

            The conference mostly took place on the forums, which actually opened for business long before the actual event. This was wonderful because it allowed attendees to come early, meet each other and share advice on their books and query letters.

            There were sections of the forum designed specifically for that – authors could post their query letter, the first 250 words of their book and the first five pages of their book. Because authors are such a friendly bunch, they were more than willing to step up and share their knowledge. As far as I could tell, everyone who posted something got at least one response.

            Then, when the conference officially started, the Ninja Agents came out. This was a group of agents who volunteered their time to cruise through the queries on the forums, giving advice and possibly even requesting work. Again, they were exceptionally helpful and that alone was worth attending the event for.

            The forum also had a section for authors to find critique partners. A critique partner is nearly essential for an author because, no matter how impartial you try to be, you can never be the best judge of your own work. You can also never catch all your own mistakes. Luckily I have Colleen for that, as well as my parents (someday I’ll tell you about my extensive editing process), but not all writers are as lucky as I am. For them, who better to look over their work than another author?

            There were also live events where authors could directly ask agents questions. I can’t tell you about those as I didn't manage to get to any, but from what I heard they went very well and were quite informative.

            Of course, there was also the off-topic section, where just about everything was being talked about. The one topic, however, became a highlight of the event – Larua Tisdel (author and artist) made the extremely generous offer to sketch other authors’ characters. She’s still working on the list now, after the conference is over. She’s very close to mine, so drop by later this week to see what she’s done.

[Insert Picture Here]

            That about covers it for the conference. Even with my limited attendance it was exceptionally fun and informative. I fully intend to return next year, although hopefully I’ll be attending as a helpful published author by then.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Miracle of Social Networking

            Today I have no choice but to talk about the miracle of social networking. Those of you who know me well will find it astonishing that I have anything positive to say about anything containing the word ‘social’ – it’s true that I’d be perfectly happy living in a cave somewhere were it not for the bugs, lack of food and the absence of internet – but sometimes even I have to point out the merits.

            A couple weeks ago, I discovered the Dragons Fan Page on Facebook through a couple of author friends I met on Authonomy. After clicking the Like button on the page, I discovered that the person running the page sometimes posted links to the artists’ whose work was being displayed and, sometimes, models or figurines were posted as well as pictures. They also had 18000 people following their page and the wheels in by brain started to turn...

            You see, for the past month I've been sitting on a pile of pictures of my chainmaille dragons, waiting for the time to edit them and put them on my website. Well, now that I'm moved I found that I had time, so I prepared the pictures and had the adorable little dragons for sale on my website on Monday morning and announced their arrival on Ringcrafts’ Facebook page in the afternoon. That evening, shortly before going to bed, I sent a message to the Dragons Fan Page, asking if they might share a picture of my chainmaille dragons with a link to my work.

            I woke up Tuesday morning to quite the shock! The number of Likes on my page had gone from 76 to well over 400! Not only that, but I had tons of comments and questions to reply to, as well as several orders. Throughout the day, more questions and orders came in and the Likes on my page steadily rose until there were more than 550. All thanks to the kind person running the Dragon’s Fan Page who was nice enough to help me out and, of course, Lindsey and Sophie who inadvertently led me to the page.

            So, in the span of 24 hours, Ringcrafts went from being known by a few people here and there to being known by a good deal more people, scattered around the world. I'm amazed and delighted to say that the numbers are still climbing.

            This ties into something that I've learned from the authors on Authonomy. If you want to make a living as an artist, you need to turn yourself into a brand. As I am most certainly an artist – the only careers I considered after my childhood whims of being a veterinarian, a spy or a detective were author, musician/singer, music teacher, and chainmailler – I took this advice to heart. That’s why this blog is linked to both Authonomy (where you will find my book) and to my website. Not only that, but Authonomy links to here and my website, my website links to here and my Facebook page and my Facebook page links to my website. Everything is interconnected and it is easy for someone who likes some of my art to find the rest of it. In fact, some of you reading this may have found this blog through the events I've just been talking about!

            I can’t even begin to describe how much it means to an artist to have someone buy and enjoy their products. You see, the thing is that artists don’t create their works to make money, they make money so they can create their works that they hope other people will enjoy. Nothing is more important to an artist than the knowledge that their art has brought joy to someone else and, as such, there is no greater gift you can give an artist than a compliment on what they created or – better yet – buying it so they can continue creating.

            I hope for a world where, someday, all artists can make a living doing what they love. Until that happens, you should buy loads of chainmaille from me and pester publishers to publish my books.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.