Author: The Costumer

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER:

This is a “rescued” post from a now retired, theological theme subject matter blog, Hagios Blogging. It was worth reposting as a prelude to the exciting happenings rapidly evolving this April in association with my feline friends at NipClub and the site re-launch.  This post has been ever so slightly edited for content and craptastic(R) grammar.

“How I Spend My Thursday Nights”

Originally dated 4/12/2012 in the “Almost Crazy Cat-Lady-land” category

Several A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a group of people on Twitter who called themselves “Ani-pals.” I discovered they tweeted on behalf of their pets and made friends with other like-minded individuals.  Hence, they had become animal pals, which became shortened to Anipals because when you’re limited to 140 characters or less to express a thought, you abbreviate . . . a lot.  (and yet another reason the English language and grammar are doomed, but that’s another rant for another time.)

I bring this up for a reason: through the process of gaining followers on Twitter and reciprocal follow backs, I have swapped tweets with many wonderful people, many of whom, like my husband, had gotten into animal rescue “accidentally,” having been seduced by the precious face of one of God’s purring or barking creatures.  It started innocently enough for us by watching the elderly lady next door and her porch full of semi-feral cats that she would feed.  Not being a cat person, I was amazed to watch the cats gather as if by an announcement by their own Feline News Network that a snack would be available and the various routes they would take to get to her front door.  At the time, it seemed like they had transporter technology because the porch was utterly empty one moment, and the next, they were there.  As time progressed, it became apparent that these cats were not getting enough to eat, so we started putting food out every couple of days, too.

As this was during the time that the both of us were working from home, I was afforded the time to observe these furry creatures just being themselves from our kitchen window while doing dishes. I was able to connect the dots, so to speak and make correlations between cats and how they treat us and how we treat our Lord and Master.  A paper, Curious about Kurios and Cats, came out, where I discussed my observations of how we became cat people.

Now to the subject of Thursday nights:

… Having been introduced to this group of people and reading their tweets, I discovered that they were not only animal lovers but also supported animal rescue charities and held fundraiser events on Twitter.  They called them “Paw Pawties” and used the hashtag #pawpawty in their tweets so other people could sort and follow what was happening.  I “attended” my first one in April.  It had a Science Fiction theme and was a birthday pawty for Boris Kitty’s human dad.  It was a little intimidating as most of the group had been pawpawtying for over a year, and they had their own lingo and talked about things like Niptinis and Bacon! Beer, but with a photo-shopped picture of our Obi-Wan Katnobi as his namesake for my avatar, I watched and learned.  An actual PawPawty itself is best described as a virtual reality gathering of like-minded individuals either tweeting on behalf of their pets or as themselves (the majority are pets) and carrying on as if they were at an actual party.  (Think LARPing but online, with cats, dogs, bunnies, and the occasional hamster.)

The following month, someone had a brilliant idea to create a weekly ‘pawty’ gathering where people could hang with their friends in a more casual manner, relax and have a good time like the 1980′s TV series Cheers …and #nipclub was born.  Since then, as my work schedule permits, I have popped onto Twitter, chatted, and shared a virtual cocktail, and have had the privilege of meeting some of the most excellent “folk” around.

You can read a fantastic article in the Anipal Times about Nipclub’s origins here, and you can visit NipClub’s own page and read their history from the cats’ own mouths.

Nipclub is getting ready to celebrate its 6th birthday on the second weekend of May 2016, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Here is a brief recap of the trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into the past year:

1. Still working on our historical romance novel.
2. Taking a stab at learning biblical Hebrew and sucking at it, royally.
3. Discovering QueenAnneBolyen.com and the possibility of doing some writing for them.
4. Became a Downton-head
5. Becoming obsessed with Game of Thrones.
6. Hosting Minibreeze and well, costuming him.
7. Holding Egar da Kitty reluctantly hostage. (long, lame story)
8. Knit a pint-size Doctor Who scarf for our twitter friend, Zack Rabbit.
9. Discovered “Meals in a Jar” and making my own!  and No, I haven’t gone prepper.

So it’s only September 22 and #nanowrimo doesn’t start for another 39 days but who’s counting?  But I’ve continued to work on the the novel I started some ten months back, which in truth is a storyline that began to take its shape back in 1983 when I was developing the backstory for my middle class Renaissance Faire personae.  Yep my peeps, it’s a bucket-list item — I always told myself that I would finish this dang thing and now I am committed to doing just that.  It’s original working tile was “Summer of Splendour” and now currently “Lament” and yes, I’ve gotten myself an editor [a fair trade for the Eleanora of Toledo gown] who is very excited about it and lots of doors have been opening.

Now two things to note:

First and dearest to my heart Foxes Period Costumes will make recreating all of our heroine’s note worthy gowns

Second, in doing some research for the novel, I decided “what the heck” and Googled the gentleman who played opposite to me at Faire and discovered that he too is a fledgling writer and oh yeah, he started writing at about the same time I did.  He’s published about a half dozen short fantasy story stories, which works out to my current word count.  For those who knew the both of us 25-30 years when we were a quasi-couple back in the day wouldn’t be too surprised but a little disturbed that we were doing the same thing at the same time …from opposite ends of the state.

So from my National Novel Writing Month’s novel recap page, I give you:

Lament

Synopsis

Exploring the natural evolution of two (very, very retired) Renaissance Faire characters in the form of your basic trashy historical romance novel — One part Skye O’Malley, one part Once Upon a Time.

Excerpt

Lady Katherine sighed deeply as she thought of the details of her life that had brought her to this place. She tucked her fur lined velvet throw tightly around her legs to help block out the cold night air. The roaring fire in the hearth did very little to keep her warm, but it was certainly warmer than where she would be headed in a few short hours to answer for her alleged crimes.