Time for The Muse: What Fashionable Pirates Will Wear This Season

Hello, Welcome.

            I am Captain Val’s muse, and she’s asked me to fill in for her this week. I’m a little put out as I thought she needed me while she writes her novel’s last chapters. But, no. I guess she’s sailing solo on this, and I wish her all the best.

            Hurrumph.

            As she’s given me carte blanche to do as I please, I will, thank you very much. I do believe she has a bit of burnout at this juncture and needs a little fun. As Steve Jobs (yes, that one) once said, “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

            And as I’m quite good as her muse (not unreliable as she sometimes says, and not MIA when desperately needed; I mean, honestly, I do try, and it’s not as if I don’t have a life too), I’ve chosen fashion as my topic this week.

            You see, I’m quite taken by fashion as art, how we find ways to adorn ourselves without looking like everyone else, which of course is difficult, I know. But I’ve a fondness for pirates, as you can tell by my choosing Captain Val (FYI: muses choose their subjects, not the other way around), and pirates love their dress. Yes, yes, they love their ship, their treasure, the cute little way they speak. But really, look at what they wear!

            Now, here’s an inside bit you may not know about our Captain Val: she was inspired by one of her very early crushes:  Errol Flynn in “Captain Blood.” Was it his handsome bad-boy looks and behavior? Or is it true that the clothes (or in this case costumes) make the man? Well, have a look and judge for yourself. (The song accompanying the video? Perfect!)

            Pirates have been an inspiration for—well, forever! (or as long as I can remember and I’m not that old of a muse) Pirate garb has even shown up on the New York runways.

            As for pirate costumes, Halloween will soon wrap us in our alter egos, and I’ll give a little free advert to this site as they have pirate costumes galore and this might  be my fave …

            … although! I do wish this site, Gypsy Moon, still offered their “World’s End” collection. Ahhh.

            For the serious pirates out there, you will drool over this site from Europe: Pirates Cave. They offer custom-made pirate wear. Oh, my, I’m so … so … gobsmacked! To have a chest of gold to buy any of these!

            Ah, but thanks ToBeaPirate.com. More fitting for my purse. I’m rather fond of the frilly red Mary Read (ai, a pirate herself) set, but, oh, my Captain wouldn’t be.

            She’d dress like the captain she is, although, I happen to know she loves the romantic look when she’s ashore, and this happens to be her favorite for being at court.

            Oh, good heavens and North Star! I must fly. I’m late. I’m never late, well, not often, but right now, I must be off and let my captain once again take over her log. She’s promised to give you some juicy stuff in the next two weeks, including the interview with Jan Eliot, another pirate of the comic sort.

            To you who love the swashbuckling life, I say adieu, and confess that if I had my way, I’d choose this swashbuckler for an amusing time.

            I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun little escape and as my captain often says, if we don’t have fun once in awhile, we can’t possibly be good at our jobs, now, can we. Until I'm called to rescue her again,

             Creative Cravings and Amusing Musings to You!

From the Captain

            Thank you, muse. As always, you either cheer me up or I can’t locate you (yes, honey, you do go MIA, but not often; I understand, really I do). But today, I’m back in fine fettle and have a few questions for my shipmates.

            Have you had fun lately? Have you played with your muse?

And what would you name my muse? She seems quite lovely here, doesn’t she? I won’t, however, in the future let her take over the ship when she’s … cough … not so sweet and, let’s say, obliging.

            But what, pray, is a muse without a name? I do have a name for her, but I’d like to see if you can guess it or top mine. If you do, there’s a surprise in me treasure chest for you.

            A clue about her name: she’s named after a pirate who hasn’t been mentioned in this log. If you can’t guess it now, I’m gobsmacked.

COMING UP!

More News and Confirmed Gossip from the Writing World

What it Takes to be a Writer

And … an unusual interview with cartoonist Jan Eliot of “Stone Soup”

Gobsmacked: Winner of May Drawing, Opinions, Gossip and More!

Ahoy, Shipmates and Landlubbers Alike!

            Aye, it’s been another week of merriment, this time in ol’ PTown with me first mate. Rose Festival gearing up there, sailors everywhere as it’s Fleet Week, plus a carnival at the waterfront. (Yes, Adam, I'm back, arrgg-ing and bloggin'.) 

            But as all good things must, the birthday celebratin’ has come to a fittin’ end with the May drawin’, a bit late I confess.

The Drawing

            Had me best mate draw a name from me hat of all those who emailed and commented on me blog and here’s the winner o’ me France anthology plus hot off the press, the first copy to go public, Jan Eliot’s ninth collection of her cartoon strip “Stone Soup” with the more ‘n accurate title of Brace Yourself. (check it out at http://www.stonesoupcartoons.com/) I be sendin’ ‘em both to:

Lou Maenz of Springfield Oregon

            Congrats, Lou, me heartie! Glad ta hear ya could use some humor and good news!

Pirate ship in Cabo san Lucas

            This week, fer fun, I be sending along a few guest comments I found entertainin'. They have their own categories, so listen up! And enjoy.

Opinion

            Captain, My Captain!

            I stand with you on deck to toss the very word (dare I say it) - Platform - overboard. Do not misunderstand: I have great admiration for those who have yacht-sized ones and keep them afloat. My 'platform' is so small that I balance on it with toe-room only. My social networking is called email contacts and writer events. "Do you have FB?" he asks. "Yes!" (Which I almost never look at it and have exactly 3 FB friends, who just happen to be REAL friends not simply cyber-friends.) "Do you have a blog?" Well, no, but I'm linked to 4 good ones that teach me lots—and I barely find time to read them much less answer them so exactly when would I actually write my own??? But I digress. As for a website—I'm working on it; kind of; actually I'm thinking about it—in between writing my book (and occasionally a sellable essay). Truth is, until forced by winds of an agent, my 'platform' is Office Chair with Butt In It. No glamour involved. Some assembly required. Scaffolding sometimes.

            I do not despair. I am breathing it (memoir) and teaching it (senior life-writing) and writing it (nonfiction). I am a writer. I can't help it.

            LJ Bousquet

            p.s. Do not ask me to Twitter. Me old mother twitters about everything and anyone and it shivers me timbers.

Confirmed Gossip

From me pal, Randy Sue Coburn, who used ta work at the Washington Star:

            And here’s my little tidbit for your zeitgeist hopper:  In my cub reporter days at the DC newspaper, I did a telephone interview with a certain bodybuilder turned actor. He asked me what my bra size was. When a guy has to grope a girl even on the phone, well . . . to quote Captain Renault, “I’m shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on here!”

Pirate News

Well shiver me timbers! Dolly Parton has joined me pirate ranks.

            MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- In a dramatic change, Dolly Parton is hoisting the Jolly Roger and tilting her sails to the wind, matey! Pirates' Voyage is docking in Myrtle Beach! The spirit of Blackbeard and his buccaneers, Captain Kidd and Anne Bonnie sailing the coast of the Carolinas, comes to life in a new show opening in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in June of 2011.

Fer now, me hearties, that’s this week’s news. I be gettin’ back to the promised logs next week. I leave ya wi’ this little ditty from me long-time shipmate, Jan Eliot, who sent it ta me for "my" birthday jingle. Love it and her!

Smooth sailin’ and treasure ahead,

Captain Val 

COMING UP!

“Oh, Google, My Name is …”

… and IN TWO WEEKS the interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven

Every Picture Tells a Story

Ah, Stalwart Followers!

            You’ll likely want to flog me, but I veer off course again. Here’s the drift:

            This very mornin’, while readin’ over my latest Captain’s Log, I see I here promised a photo gallery escapade, the Key West sail with the proper English relatives.

What in Hades are you doin’? I say to meself. This isn’t Facebook, you dunce! This is about your writin’ life, you fish fodder.

            Aye, I could argue all is fodder for a writer, even the English relatives. But nay, this weren’t one of those times. I’d let me cutlass down, been caught in the moment of the fun, the partying, the being away from the desk and writin’. Am I daft for wantin’ more play?

            Returnin’ to the ship called home, I was, however, ready to write, thank Neptune! Bein’ self-employed, I had a few awaitin’ and a new one to boot. Late I was in approachin’ the blog, but I had greadily readied myself for the visuals of photos. Now I was going on gobsmacked. How the heck could I switch direction, again? Was I driving my readers crazy? Would they join me as I hopped like a frog from one lily pad to another? And where the bloody hell is that interview with Jessica Maxwell you may be asking? Ah, mateys, scheduling conflicts, and I won’t do an email interview. Live ones give the unexpected and are dammed good interesting. So stay on board!

            Aye, I could beg forgiveness, but you’re a good lot, and I expect I’m not the first to disappoint. Instead of floggin’ myself, I’ll move the bloody photos to FB.  Could it be simpler?

            But where to go, messmates?

            I sit, thump me head, drum fingers, drink tea. Check me last blog again.

            There I find the latest comment and sail over to Kirsten’s blogship.           

            A twinge! My gut’s a flutter. She’s followin’ “A Thousand Hands Clapping.” I do not know this ship, but I take a look. And blimey! Lookee what I find—

 

            E’er was this synchronicity squared? I write to Catherine, captain of the blogship and congratulate her on her first movie/slideshow. Watchin’ it, reminds me of the photos I’ve taken, and a thematic tide surges through me. Like a ship, a floating bit of wood and canvas upon the sea that contains all a buccaneer needs, these photos squeeze much into little, something I call artistry from confinement.

            Oh, me buckos! Visual arts feeds me. In Florida, I watched no movies, so stimulation came from the unexpected and humorous. Whether sailing to Key West with my brother or afterwards trawling South Beach with my sister, I looked for objects that that tell a story. That’s why we take photos—to remember our stories, to create our stories. As a storyteller, I try to find photos that speak to me. Here be a few. Imagine what they say, what stories they tell. What stories you spin from them.

            I know not how these “found objects” will surface in my writing. I’m followin’ this line of thinkin’, fellow seamen and women, ‘cause it has to do with “feeding the creative beast.” Or should I say “chumming the waters?” Perhaps, as in dreams, I am both the beast that I’m feeding and the feeder of said beast. As a writer, I don’t dismiss any of this crazy wandering of the mind. Not all needs to be purposefully followed. Like day dreamin’. If it surfaces, I pay attention or perish. It is, as one of my late compatriots at Hedgebrook Writers Colony said, all grist for the mill.

            And I think I’ll clatter on with this very same subject next week with more about “found objects” as a jumping off place for writers. Nay, this isn’t about catching ideas for a story like so many fish, but more about stimulatin’ the creative glands or filling the creative stomach. We need nourishment, all of us. Writers sometimes find it in the mundane, sometimes in the mysterious. It’s all part of the process.

And if you understand any of this prattle, if any of the photos strikes a story in you, join this blog with a comment. The wilder, the better.

All my duty to you,

Captain Val

"A Thousand Clapping Hands" blog can be found here:

http://athousandclappinghands.blogspot.com/

Coming Up! (I hear ya laughin’, you scallywags!)

“Found Objects: a Launch for Creative Storytelling”

"The Fountain of Creative Ideas, or Why My Resume Wouldn't Land Me a Normal Job"

"Platform, Flatform"

"A View of My Writers Room Wall: What Inspires Me"

... and soon an interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven

That Errant Wench “The Muse” Returns

Thanks to Pirate Pal Ms. K for the followin’:

            “Sea chest open, treasure shimmering, fog lifting and loving the ever-unfolding mysterious adventure!”

            And a hearty “ahoy” to Pirate Pal Mikayle. Hope Pirates of Penzance warms the cockles of your heart.

            Ey, lads and lassies, mates one and all,

            As I warned ye in the first log of this adventure, I would be at times droppin’ anchor and lettin’ ya go to shore, to carouse, drink a pint or two, and leave me to me writin’.

            Well, today is one of those days when my wayward muse is back on board, penitent while at the same time full of herself. (If the two can be said to live in the same waters, and I can put up with her!) Ya see, sometimes she wanders away to have a think, to sit at the end of a bar or a pier, depending on ‘er mood, and lose her self to the project at hand, or so she says. Aye, I understand, even if I swear to feed her to the sharks when she returns. As my crew, you’ll see her jump ship, but let ‘er go. I have to trust the wench will be back.

            And back she is. She’s so bloody lively, I’m gonna have to cut you loose, give you permission to swing the lead. So you’re free to wander and wonder what the damnation I’ll be squawkin’ about next week, for I have a bloody heavy tale to tell about this pirate’s life and past assaults on the Ship of Publication.

            In the meantime, for fellow mates in the writing world, for those learnin’ the ropes, and for those who just love the wordy seas and adventures they toss up, here’s a quote from fellow pirate Roger Ebert, the scallywag who’s lost his voicebox, but not his voice. Here he’s writin’ ‘bout the movie Another Year.

            I see a lot of movies where the characters have no personalities, only attributes. Every single character in Another Year is human, and some of them are all too human.

            Aye, Roger, attributes. Pasting on artificial traits that do not a human make.

            I, too, have fallen for this siren who calls me to the rocks when I be lazy. So now I advise me mates this way: when some good intentioned landlubber tells you to stick a few tics onto a character to make them real or to figure out what pretty frock your protagonist will choose to wear, jump their ship. What’s real, what calls to a reader, is how a character acts when they’re under siege. Do they jump ship, do they take the last lifeboat, do they fight to the finish, or do they have one moment, when their foes show a weakness that offers a way to win the battle? A character could do all. Or a coward might start out taking the last lifeboat, see a child drown as the ship goes down, and is so guilt ridden, he or she must seek redemption. What are they wearing in that lifeboat? Who cares? Unless it’s the last life vest, too.

            So, think on it, and I’ll get back to my muse, who is now righteously pissed at my inattention. She’s workin’ me fingers to the bone, but she’s brought back the gold, so I’ll shut me gob and leave ya with a look at some of me pirate pals from this past year. They crew one of the best laden ships this side of the globe, Ship Holiday Market aka Saturday Market in the port of Eugene, Oregon. Ahoy, lassies! Keep smilin’. 

Kim, Cindia & Elissa

           To our mutual success,

           Captain Val

Coming Up and in No Particular Order!

“Chasin’ the Elusive Ship Publication”

“Sink or Swim: the Dangers of the Writing Life”

"The Fountain of Creative Ideas, or Why My Resume Wouldn't Land Me a Normal Job"

"Platform, Flatform"

... and an interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven