Haven't done this in a while so Ask Me a Question

[puppetmaker]

Ask me a question. (Questions will be taken on a first come first serve basis; Questions I don't feel like answering I will pass on (this included politics, anything I or Peter have signed a NDA on and anything to do with the wing speed of swallows [it's been done]).

I am grateful for all questions asked.

Comments

[budgie-uk.livejournal.com]

How often do you read blogs by friends in the UK and wish they'd include a glossary?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Doesn't bother me. I am such a friking anglophile that I speak fluent English and sometimes have to translate for Peter. I also lived in Oxford and London for a while so it's not a biggy. I had a friend in Atlanta who use to take me to English films to translate for her.

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

How did you get into making puppets and conventions and stuff?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Let's see I have been making puppets since I was very young and really can't remember a time in my life that I didn't have puppets in my life. My skill levels jumped when I worked at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta for a while since I got to work with all kinds of puppeteers and puppet builders.

Conventions started with my high school library club that became a Science Fiction club and we went to a Mini-Con. I was 12 or 13 at the time. After that we just went to lots of conventions in the south-east.

Now going to conventions is part of business since both my husband and I are involved in the professional end of things.

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

Do you know an effective way to get a preschooler to eat dinner without stalling? :)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Boy Howdy if you come up with a solution please tell me. Caroline has both the limited diet of an ultra picky eater and the ability to drag a meal out for the longest amount of time possible.

I have gotten her to sit down with the family for dinner but getting her to eat can be a challenge especially when she pops off her chair and runs to play with her toys.

Good Luck!

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

anything to do with the wing speed of swallows [it's been done]).

So has anything to do with woodchucks and wood. Or "Why do drive-up ATMs have Braille instructions?" (It's because the factories that build ATMs don't know which machines will be installed as walk-ups or as drive-ups, so they put the instructions on all to be sure.)

Anyway...

I remember hearing you're fond of camping (PAD mentioned it in one of his columns from when you and he were becoming a couple). Have you gotten to camp recently? Any particular areas where you're especially happy to camp? (I've had my most camping experience camping in the Shenandoah Valley.)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I haven't gone camping since Caroline was born but I still have most of my equipment so when she is older I can see the two of us going camping.

Most of my camping has been in North Georgia up in Unidilla and in southern Tenn in the Appalachians.

Two questions

[skydancerlilitu.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite thing to do to relax and unwind?

Would I be able to acquire signed copies of the first two books in the Arthur trilogy that Peter wrote, and if so, how much would it cost me?

Re: Two questions

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Relax and unwind....hmmmm....I like going bowling for fun to unwind. I also like long hot bubble baths.

Yes you can and it won't cost you a dime. I just have to find a couple of copies around here and I'll ship them off to you.

How do you want them signed?

Re: Two questions

[skydancerlilitu.livejournal.com]

Bowling... that is something I haven't done for way too long. I need to see about doing that sometime soon.

Yay! I read the third one that y'all sent us and loved it, as you know, and then found the first one in the library. I read that and enjoyed it too, but at this point I haven't read the second. I can't imagine I would like it any less than the other two, so I'm really excited!

I have no idea how I'd want them signed, other than obviously by Peter. I've not had many things signed by the authors/artists, so I'll leave that to your extremely fertile imaginations! Do you need me to send you my address, or do you have it already? Thank you so much!

Re: Two questions

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I have your address some where but the operative word in that sentence is somewhere.

Can you send it again to puppetmaker (at) gmail (dot) com?

Re: Two questions

[skydancerlilitu.livejournal.com]

Done!

[readinggeek451]

How much was my share of the Lunacon room?

Don't you ever check your email? :) :) :) :)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I know I know. I just have to find the bill again in one of the stacks of paper that is this place but I should have an answer for you soon.

Yes I do check my e-mail but you remember how hard it was to get a letter out of me.

[readinggeek451]

Fair enough.

I haven't eloped with a midget yet, but I'm getting there. [g]

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Non-Disclosure Agreement.

It is what the company signs before we get the scripts that Peter adapts as novels or the information about a project we might be working on or are working on.

It basically means "stuff we can't talk about at all".

[readinggeek451]

RTBTCKI is Random Thoughts Before the Coffee Kicks In

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the catch. Apparently I hadn't enough coffee before I answered this one. *grin*

[wandereringray.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite puppet you've made to date?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is a hard question to answer.

Probably Morphie the first (my first Sandman Puppet) since it opened some very interesting doors for me and made me some good friends over the years.

Although I do have a fondness for Peliquin (based on the Nightbreed character) and Ralf the Klingon (which is how I met Peter)

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

Tell me about the day Caroline was born.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

That's a day I remember well and the day before too. I had just finished my last day of work at Del Rey before I went on maternity leave. I remember being grateful that I was not going to have to commute on the train anymore because it was getting very uncomfortable.

I went to see my OB that evening. He did an internal exam explaining what was going to happen over the next couple of weeks and he stopped mid sentence and said "you are 70% effaced and your bag is bulging. You are in labor right now.Do you feel ok?"

I told him that I had felt a little uncomfortable but I had been having so many Braxton Hicks contractions I hadn't really noticed.

He informed us that I was having this baby within the next 24 hours. Peter joked that it was his bowling night and I had promised him that I wouldn't go into labor on his bowling night.

We went home since I was not that far along and Peter went off to bowl. We ended up going to the hospital a little after midnight which was a good thing because we had a major ice/snow storm that next morning. If we had waited until the next morning we might not have made it to the hospital.

The hospital got me set up and I got some sleep that night. The next day was all about the pushing and I have hazy memories of the morning and early afternoon. Then at 2:53 pm Caroline came into the world. The Doctor put her on my chest while Peter cut the cord. I held her for the first time and my whole world changing in that instant.