EelKat

Age: 33

Gender: Female

Status: Single

Occupation:

Writer,
Editor,
Publisher,
Artist,
Gothic Fashion Designer,
Costumer,
Retail/Fashion Sales,
Sales Representative,
Makeup Consultant,
Cloth Doll Maker and Designer,
Animal Rights Activist

Hometown: Old Orchard Beach, Maine

Favorite Car:

1964 Dodge 330 4-door sedan limited 25th anniversary edition (own one)
1985 Peugeot 505
1989 5-door wagon Cadillac S&S Victoria
1992 Volvo 240
1971 MTD 3-wheel MudBug
1964 VW Beetle
1975 VW Thing
1974 AMC Gremlin

Favorite Animals:

Eels
Bobcats
Roosters
Cats
Birds
all animals in general

Favorite Movies:

Anything with Vincent Price;
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
Pirates of the Caribbean,
Harry Potter,
Labyrinth,
Dark Crystal,
Sense and Sensibility,
The Key To Time,
The Princess Bride,
Sweeney Todd,
Secret Window
Phantom of the Opera (1989),
Phantom of the Opera (2005),
Kill Bill,
Saw,
HellBoy 2

Favorite TV Shows:

InuYahsa
Darkwing Duck,
Doctor Who (classic & new),
Xena Warrior Princess,
X Files,
Star Trek (the original series),
Outer Limits

Favorite Books:

Retief (series),
InuYasha,
Uncle Scrooge,
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
Phantom of the Opera,
anything by Edgar Allan Poe & H.G.Wells,
Harry Potter,
Assey Mayo (series),
Nancy Drew (series)

Favorite Actors:

Vincent Price,
Johnny Depp,
Alan Rickman

Favorite Music:

David Bowie,
Poison,
Alice Cooper,
Liberace,
Nightwish

Pets: 13 Cats, 1 Dog, 40+/- Bantams

Companies: Owner of:

The Twighlight Manor Press,
The Pidgie Fund,
Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts,
Black Bobcat Fashions,
Purple Peacock Patterns

Is there a story behind that name? Funny you should word it that way, because actually, yes there is, literally.

I wrote my first book in 1978 (Vol 1 of *The Twighlight Manor* series... now out of print) the main character of the original book (only a minor character in later volumes) was a talking black bobcat from a planet in another galaxy. Her name was not pronounceable by human tongue, so humans called her Miss Citten The EelKat instead or The EelKat for short. The reason was because she raised rare breeds of eels which she had collected up from the various planets she had visited. She is the narrator of all of my stories, my books being her reports about earth that she sends back to her home planet, so technically she remained the main character throughout the series.

Anyways, that same year (1978) I started using the name EelKat, and so people just know be by that name, so once I discovered the internet (in 1997) I just started using EelKat as my id everywhere.

Being used to writing in *her voice* for my books, I found it easier to make my Squidoo lenses in the same way.

On most sites, I use a picture of something/someone I like *cough*Lord Sesshomaru*cough*, but when I joined Squidoo, I actually went a used a real picture of myself. I figured, when people by books, they like to look on the back to see a picture of the author, and for me, Squidoo is all about writing stuff (thus my lenses average 7,500 - 20,000 words per lens - ouch! I guess you can tell how much I like writing!). I think of my Squidoo lenses as a branch of my non-fiction writing, so I decided to treat it as such and put my *author bio* picture up as my Squidoo avatar, since my readers instantly recognize me by that picture, thus when they see it here on Squidoo, they know that once again, they are reading something I wrote.

Lots of them. I have enough hobbies so that if I get bored with one I just move on to the next one. My hobbies rotate quite often as a result.

Reading and writing obviously are two that I do near constantly, as is art/drawing/painting.

I also sew cloth dolls, stuffed animals, and teddy bears, all of which are from patterns that I created/designed myself.

Of course I sew my own cloths, created from patterns I designed and made myself.

I also build models: wooden dollhouses and plastic antique cars, both on 1/24" scale.

The hobby that really takes up most of my time, and I do mean MOST of my time too, is embroidery. I started embroidery when I was about 6, as I needed something to do during the hours I spent in hospital waiting rooms. Hours, meaning 7 or 8 hours a day, for weeks on end, for a space of time of several years. Most of my read, writing, and school work was done in hospital waiting rooms or in the backseat of The Goldeneagle (My 1964 Dodge 330). My mom had spine problems, both grandmothers had cancer, one of my brothers nearly died when he was born, and my dad was in a coma. Since I was 6 years old, there has not been a year in my life were I have not spent at least 4 months of that year sitting in hospital waiting rooms. Over the years I developed an avoidance of doctors, an aversion to white walls & ceilings, and the most extraordinary hand and eye coordination imaginable.

In my early years I needed a pattern. Today, give me needle a thread and a cloth and say anything, absolutely anything, and I can stitch you a detailed picture of it that will rival the paintings of the old masters. My ex was constantly amazed that I could watch tv and embroider, and not make mistake while barely looking at my stitches. Embroidery is like a second language for me, I can do it without thinking, and I can do it better than anything else I have ever tried to do.

I can do all forms of needlework: crewel, crazy quilt, bead work, bead weaving, bargello, white work, Jacobean, Turkish flame, cross stitch, petti point, latch hook, Turkey Work, soft sculpture, tapestry, Chinese satin, and Japanese embroidery.

My longest running projects include a 3' x 4' tapestry which was started in 1991, and remains unfinished due to the fact that I only work on this while in church services on Sundays. And a King sized crazy quilt started in 2002 as a "busy work project" which I work on, when I get bored with my other projects.

My most ambitious project ever however started in March of 2008, and currently takes up 3 to 5 hours of my time each and every single day: Lord Sesshomaru's pink flowered court robes (a 16th century Momoyama kimono, embroidered head to toe). Real kimono worn by Japanese lords took 6 to 10 years to embroider, with 2 to 5 needlworkers working day and night on them. So it should only take me the rest of my life to sew Sessh's kimono.

Many look at my Lord Sesshomaru project and think I'm doing this, because I wanted to recreate the character. Nope. Fact is I ran out of challenges in the field of embroidery. I've already done several "impossible" embroidery projects and I needed to find one to beat them all. With Lord Sesshomaru, I found that.

Most unusual in terms of what is was? A coati.

I once had a big 2 foot long wild eel named Eli.

Most unusual pair of pets ever, were Utopia and Pidgie. Best buds who who did everything together. Spent hours playing a game of tail chase, which involved Pidgie grabbing Topi's tail and than running away. Topi would run after Pidgie. It was sort of a game of tag, which they played daily for 9 years. The thing was the Topi is a Siamese cat and Pidgie was a pigeon. They were the same age, and grew up together as featherless chick and week old kitten, so they never knew cats should eat birds not play tag with them. I think Pidgie thought he was just one of the cats and not a bird since he grew up with the kittens.

Most unusual in terms of a weird animal was my horse who thought she was a dog.

I had a one eyed horse a few years back, she was 14 when I got her (or so I was told... the vet thinks she was closer to 20 or more). She had been a wild horse before her previous owner had her, but they had never been able to tame her and so she was a really mean horse and would bite and kick any one who got close to her. Except for me. I was the only human she would allow near her. No one ever did know why she liked me, but she did, so I brought her home and she lived with me and my dogs (at the time I had 6 dogs).

She liked living with the dogs, either she thought she was a dog like them, or she thought they were wild horses like her, but anyways she and the dogs loved running back and forth through the field together, and at night they slept together in a big pile. She never had a saddle, instead she had a leash and went for walks just like the dogs.

I had her for 14 years. The last three or four years she was blind and had to be guided. Careing for a blind horse is probably the hardest animal with a disability you could care for as it requires the hard life of caring for a horse mixed with the hard life of caring for someone who is blind and needs your constant help.

Originally she was a slick black horse, but by the time she had died her fur had grown very long and turned totally grey. The vet guessed she was close to 50 years old possibly older, and said she had never seen a horse as old as my Thunder was.

Of course than there are all the Snapping Turtles I've had over the years. I love turtles... we live near a swamp so big snappers are always getting hit by cars, I end up nursing injured snapping turtles back to health almost every summer. Everyone I know is scared of them, because they are really mean, and their beaks are wicked sharp (can snap your finger off in one bite if your not careful) but I just pick them up. I've been doing it so long now, that I can pick them up without getting bitten, because I know how to handle them. After a week or so they get really tame and can be hand feed by anyone. Once they are well again I take them back out to the swamp and let them go.

If I had one I would make my spouse sleep on the floor before my pets.

Yep, that's me all the way... me and my dog and my 14 cats, all in one bed or rather all on the floor on one futton (a flat Japanese pillow like mat) as I don't own a bed and haven't slept in a bed in more than 20 years.

Once in a while there'll be a rooster or two gathered into the group as well, well, more often than once in a while actually, and for 9 years there was a pigeon that slept on my head at night.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Of course finding a spouse, that agrees with you... now that's not easy! Part of the reason why I am still single. It's not easy to find a guy that will put up with walls of comic books, obsessions with cartoon characters, and a bed full of animals.

Lots of reasons. Waste of money. Waste of space. More room for comic books. More room on the floor for cutting out the vast amount of fabric it takes to make my costumes. I hate mattresses with all their uncomfortable springs. Do you realize how much money people waste of beds? Thousand for the bed, $300 for the mattress, $200 more for the coverings. When they get done they've spent $2,000 or more, and for what? A place to sleep? A cushioned floor mat costs $30 - $50 and does the same thing.

I haven't slept in a bed since I was about maybe 8 or 10 years old. I started using my bed for a book shelf, that's where I kept my comic books, and I camped out on the floor beside the bed in my Smurf sleeping bag. (Reading Smurf comic books... King Smurf was my nightly ritual, read it every single night before going to sleep, I was obsessed with comics, even way back than!) It was more fun to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag than on the bed. Eventually, I got older and got rid of the bed altogether.

It's been so long now, that I don't even think about it. For me it's just the natural thing to do, sleep on the floor in a house with no bed. No tables either, I eat sitting on the floor. My computer is also on the floor, I sit on the floor for that too, no chairs. Well, I have 4 chairs in my room , but I haven't sat in any of them since they moved in here. *looks at boxes of comic books stacked in all 4 chairs* You know, I may have more comic books than I thought I did.

The year I lived in a tent, I was thankful for my lack of furniture and having not slept in a bed in years, because I was able to fold up my futton and take it with me. I actually got used to being in the tent after a while, and now I kind of miss it, so I'm planning to put up a yurt, or rather I was putting up a yurt until the town tells us they are not safe in winter and thus illegal in Old Orchard. WHAT! A yurt... not safe in winter! Are they serious! I just spent Maine's coldest winter on recode since 1927 living in a tent made out of a tarp and 12 cinder blocks, and had no problems with it at all, and they tell me that a yurt isn't safe in winter? Do they even know what a yurt is? They live in yurts on the Himalayan Alps, where they get 40 feet of snow a year, BECAUSE a yurt is the safest thing to live in in those kind of weather conditions! OMG! A yurt not safe in winter! I don't know what they think a yurt is, but obviously what they are calling a yurt is not a yurt. I liked living in the tent, but a tent won't stand up to Maine weather long. I want to live in a yurt. I may need to move to Mongolia just so I can live in a yurt. *sheesh* Yurts illegal. Who makes up these laws anyways?

Let's see. Me and comic books. How do I explain this?

*Looks at 12' wall of comic books*

*looks at other wall of comics*

*looks at closet of boxes of comic books*

*looks at comic character costumes scattered about the house*

uhm...yeah...me and comic books...long story...

Well, back in the 1930's my grandmother was a rebellious tomboy teenager who read pulps with the boys. By the 1940's she has amassed a giant collection of pulps and comics. My dad was born in 1944. His mom continued her rampant comic book collecting, now using the excuse that she was buying them for her little boy. I was born in 1975, and my grandmother was still buying comic books. She had never thrown out any of them. Back than people read comics and threw them away. No body collected comics back than. My grandmother was very odd, collecting comics the way she did. She died in 1983, and I inherited her comic book collection, several thousand comic books from the 1930's through the 1980's. Since than I have steadily added to that collection, with my own focus being on Disney's Uncle Scrooge, which I collect in 12 languages.

Sadly as many of you already know, first a flood and than a fire decimated our home in the last five years. Many comics from my grandmother's original collection were destroyed, first in the flood, and than more in the fire. Many of them, being so rare, that I can not afford to replace them.

Today, my wall of comics hold roughly 7,000 issues.

So, me and comics? Well, I grew up with them, not just one or two here and there, but literally thousands of them, all around me, all the time, every day. Is it any wonder that I grew up to be the rabid comic geek I am today?

*looks at 14 Squidoo lenses devoted to Lord Sesshomaru*

*looks at all the forums I've drive folks crazy while talking about Sessho and/or Uncle Scrooge McDuck*

*looks at red frock coat and black top hat in cloest*

*looks at my box of autographed Don Rosas*

*looks at Fluffy-Sama plushie I just finished sewing, and 14 foot Mokomoko half finished, and white kimono on embroidery loom*

*stares back blankly at you*

So, what was the question again?

I mean, REALLY, do you have to ask? You do realize that it's me you are asking here, right? EelKat? Scrooge McDuck collector extraordinar? The Bride of Sesshomaru who just happens to live at The McDuck Money Bin? Yeah... I'm THAT EelKat.

Best comics in my collection, well, easy: Uncle Scrooge and InuYahsa.... all issues! Best issues of Scrooge are the ones written by Don Rosa. Best issues of InuYasha are the ones with Sessho in them.

I have Don Rosa's autograph! WOO-HOO! (more than once too!)

I have Alan Young's autograph! (which he sent to me for my 30th birthday!) WOO-HOO!

All I need now is Rumiko Takahashi's and David Kaye's.

Anything special in my collection? You mean like, a first edition of "A Little Something Special"... ? Not worth much, but I like it.

Probably the thing that would be considered most special in the eyes of someone looking at my collection, would be Roy Rodgers #1 and Roy Rodgers FanClub Newsletter #1, the entire run of Gene Autrey, a Cisco Kid coloring book, and a special edition Hopalong Cassidy that included a 12" model of his horse (got the horse too). My grandmother loved the singing cowboys, I got most all of them.

Maine

This is the house that burned down (where I've lived my whole life):



This is the tent-tarp thing I lived in after the flood/fire when I was homeless:





This is the place that HUD stuck me in a year later and where I'm at right this second (the white house):



And this is my future house where I am going to live as soon as I get enough money to convince the current owners that they need to sell it:



This is my Lord Sesshomaru Costume, which I am currently sewing:



And this is Serj Tankian, a guy who I just like posting pictures of =D

French Vanilla closely followed by Pistachio. Both together is good. Rainbow Sherbert too... actually, Ice Cream ranks among my favorite foods. I've tried nearly every flavor out there, (including Moxie flavored, blueberry flavored, rum flavored, and pumpkin flavored!) and to date only ever found two flavors I did not like: Coffee and Maple.

First off I would hope I got stranded on Papua New Guinea, because than I'd seek out the Chimbu tribe that I write too, than I'd have some friends that could show me around the island! Once I got to PNG, I don't think I'd ever leave, cause I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I wants to live there sooooo bad! The people over there are just amazing! Oh, I love them to pieces! I could difinetly see myself marrying a Chimbu man and joining the tribe.

This question will require a bit of thought. I know me, I'll have quite a bit to say about this once I get it all thought out, so I am starting a lens just to focus on this question.

School... wow, that was 15 years ago. I haven't changed much since than either. Always had my nose in the history books.

History.

I love history. Old history. World history. Studying cultures, old society, religion practices, fashion history, folk lore, art history, I love that stuff. I'm never without stacks of huge books... museum books, you know, stuff published by the museum, text written by the curators, and rambling on about the latest exhibit. Like books put out by the Metropolitan and such... those really, really big books that no body reads. I read 'em. I love 'em. Can't get enough of them.

I think some of the best books ever written are the ones published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, because they don't just show you the art, they spend entire chapters detailing the entire life history of the artist, the culture, etc. I also love stuff like National Geographic. With me, the bigger the book the better. I love the 900 page 14x22 books that weight 20lbs, and are written by museum curators who spend 3 chapters analyzing the cracks in the face of some Greek statue, or why the threads are sewn at this angle instead of that angle on one of China's dragon robes. I get these books out at the library, bring them home and than I sit down and read them cover to cover: literal, every single word, even the picture captions. I am a museum curators dream come true. I hang on their every word.

Science came in second place, but it depends on what type of sciences. Nature, plants, ocean, birds, animals, astronomy, that kind of science I love. Machines, chemicals, math equations, that kind of science I hate, well, not hate, I'm just totally bored with it, it doesn't interest me at all.

I loved school. Still do. My method of schooling was such that I have never stopped *being schooled* really, because I believe that everything in life has something to teach us and the goal of school is to learn, therefor we are always *being schooled* because we are always learning. Make sense?

I was home schooled. The method was a bit *unschooled* mixed with *traditional* text book type schooled. For text books we used a lot of different publishers, but it was the A Beka ones that were the best.

I was reading and writing at age three. I started sewing at age 6. Was cooking (cakes, pies, jams, pickles, etc) at age 12.

I started collage at age 14, also via home school through courses done in the mail. I finished in 2 years graduating at age 16.

A lot of my learning came from *real life*. I grew up on a farm, we grew our own food, sewed our own cloths, etc. etc. etc.

A lot of my *book learning* came from my obsession with reading every huge museum book (usually published by the Metropolitan) I could get my hands on. I had a rabid love for history (still do) and have cards for 5 different local libraries, including the state library which isn't that local, but they have 3 floors of books, and you know me, 3 floors of books is like being in paradise to me.

I love home school. I am who I am today as a result of home school. There is nothing better.

I used the A, B, C grading system, because for my town, local laws required that I took the *regular* tests each year, which the school provided. (to prove that I was actually learning something, I guess). I filled in all the little bubbles with #2 pencils and gave them back, and at the end of the year, I was given my report card, just like every other kid in our town. I was a straight A in all subjects except for Spelling (C) and Math (C-). They said that my scores on Reading, Grammar, History, and Science, said I was working at an advanced college level... I was 13 at the time. I started college a year later at 14.

To this day, my math is barely above a first grade level... addition in about my limit; this being due to the fact that I have dyslexia, and can not work with numbers no matter how hard I try, and I have tried too! I am wonderful with words, but numbers are, I don't know.... they just do not stick in my brain for some reason.

Uhm... well, I sew a lot of costumes for one thing, only for me they are not costumes. For another thing, CosPlay for me, is a way of life. It's not something I do at a convention here or there, I wear these cloths every single day. This is how I dress in real life. When I say I walk around dressed like Naraku, I mean, every day, at home, around the house, in the garden, in the barn, on the beach, at the store, .... hey, you can't miss me cause I'm the girl with the long black hair wearing the blue and purple kimono set. I do Naraku more than any other character because, well, I look like him, so, no wig needed, and his cloths are pretty easy to wear every day, not too outlandish.

Uncle Scrooge and Tom Baker's Doctor Who are the other two characters you'll see most often, as well as most of the girls from Sense and Sensibility.

Sadly my most worn costume ever (see photo--->), my beloved red Glittering Goldie gown was burned in the fire, as I was wearing it, and it along with several inches of my formally super long hair, went up in flames. I was for nearly 10 years recognized as Glittering Goldie, this red gown being my trademark outfit. I still have it's blackened melted remains, which I'll use to create a new version of it, however, my hair has yet to grow back. :( I suppose seeing how much damage my cloths and hair went through, I'm pretty lucky to have not had my skin burnt off as well. I had 1 dog, 9 cats, and 3 birds trapped in that fire, thus I ran into a burning building that I was on the outside of when the fire started, thus my cloths and hair caught fire. Firemen arrived, rounded up all the pets and everyone got out okay. As a result of the fire, I keep my much shorter hair tied in a bun and I am now sewing an entirely new wardrobe.

I love designing my own clothes, and clothes for my dolls, and hope to one day have a fashion line of my own and a little shop in Maine to sell them in. There are no Gothic or Lolita or CosPlay stores around here, I want to change that.

My clothen style includes velvet, capes, empire gowns, gowns with trains, burnoose, shawls, runas, fishnet hose, striped stockings, combat boots, velvet, top-hats, long dresses, ruffled frilly skirts, cosplay, Gothic, Lolita, Victorian, Edwardian, velvet, frockcoats, Alice in Wonderland, vampire fashions, Medival fashions, crilolines & petticoats, eyelash-fringe fabric, sequins, beads, glitter, lace, cloaks, ruffles, broomstick skirts, stripes, plaid, poet blouses, peasant dresses, fairy tale princess gowns, faerie outfits, wizard-look stuff, big hats, bright colored hats, ballet flats, platforms, anything that Dracula would love to wear, and stuff like worn by Jem*, The Holigrams, and The Misfits.

I was dressing like Jem, before Jem was invented.

I love anything made of velvet!

I don't like pants: won't wear them, won't own them.

I the 1980's I wore min-skirts, but as the years have gone by, my dresses and skirts got longer; today my hems sweep the floor and they often have trains. I have one dress that has 7 yards of fabric on the skirt alone, it can be worn with or without hoops.

No, what I'm wearing is not a costume.

Yes, I dress like this every day, all day long, even around the house, when working in the garden, and when shoveling manure out of the barn. Yes I am a farmer.

No, I don't own any "normal" clothes.

No, I can't tell you where I bought them, because I didn't buy them, I sewed them.

No, I can't tell you where to buy the pattern, I didn't buy a pattern I made the pattern. I've been sewing since I was 6 years old when I made my first doll. I made my first ball-gown at age 12. At age 16 I graduated from a 2 year course in fashion design & merchandising. I've spent most of my life studying fashion history and the art of recreating historical clothen from the Gothic periods (1300 - 1500 & 1850 - 1930), and those are the clothes I thus wear.

No I already told you this is not a costume, these are my regular cloths, I don't care if you think this is a costume, it is not, please stop asking me if it is.

I don't like people who think I'm wearing a costume even after been told that I am not.

Yes, I know this looks like a Willy Wonka costume, yes, Johnny Depp inspired it. Yes, I do wear a top hat everywhere I go. No, I repeat this is not a costume.

Yes, I REALLY am making a historical reproduction of Lord Sesshomaru's costume, and yes, I do intend to wear it, fluffy tail, battle armor, and all... in public as part of my daily wear, because, I don't make anything unless I intend to add it to my daily wear wardrobe.

So, cosplay lenses are just second nature to me. It's something I do every day, therefor something that is on my mind every day, therefor a topic which I write about on my lenses.

1. Are you a fashion freak?

Oh hell, yes. I cosplay 24/7. I can make drag queens look normal.

2. Do you tend to wear what others are wearing, or are you the trend starter?

Trend? HA! I neither lead nor follow. I wear whatever I feel like wearing at that particular moment, which throughout most of the 1990's was ball gowns, medieval gowns with huge trains and 7 yard skirts, and costumes from Sense and Sensibilty (one of my all time fave movies ever... staring Alan Rickman once again...I love Alan Rickman.)

Prior to the 1990's and currently, my outfits are heavily influenced by Medieval Japan and I pretty much live in kimono and hakama.

Of course regardless of what I'm wearing you never see me without my blue burnoose which I wear all the time. A Burnoose is a huge cape with a giant hood and a hem line that trails a foot behind you when you walk ... very *Grim Reaper*.

So, you tell me, do I follow any trends you know of and do you see many folks following mine?

3. Do you like the trend where you wear leggings under a mini skirt?

In the 1970's and 1980's I did. I lived in mini skirts back than (under my kimono of course, I lived in kimono back than too... I call that my *Godzilla Era*, I feel in love with Godzilla movies and soon everything else Japanese followed in Godzilla's footsteps.)

4. What is the ugliest trend you've ever seen?

All awards go to baggy pants, hanging off the hips so you can display your underwear. I HATE that, it is absolutely hideous, and yet, every body is wearing that style these days!

Immodesty is never nice. I live on a beach... a French beach. The beach that is lovingly called: *Quebec's Playground*. Speedos left and right, on men, on women, on young and old alike. What is it with the French and Speedos? It's like you can't have one without the other! Take one step on the beach and it's like every Speedo in the world just dropped out of the sky! We get 2 million tourists each summer, and 90% of them arrive wearing Speedos.

And me on the beach in full kimono (which means, layers of kimono on top of layers of kimono, btw), boy do I EVER stand out on the beach!

And maybe not ugly but hella uncomfortable: high heeled shoes! I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE high heeled shoes. Come on women (and a few men) Why give up comfort for style? You would never catch me wearing something that is uncomfortable to wear. For me it's all about comfort first.

5. Did you have one of those sparkly purses with the sequins when they were popular?

I can't say as I remember them ever being popular, at least not around here. I'd buy one if I saw it though, cause I'm like Liberace: I never meet a sequin that I didn't like!

6. Do you think fashion is overrated?

Oh yes, diffinetly. I hate it when you go to the store and you see magazines with titles like: "What women everywhere will be wearing the Spring!". Makes me want to puck. People should wear whatever the hell they feel like wearing and forget about fashion and trends. Just wear what makes you happy.

I really hate it when folks walk up to me and ask:
"What the hell are you wearing?"
"Why are you dressed like that!"
"You do know that went out of style, like 400 years ago, don't you?"
"It's not Halloween. What's wrong with you?"

You know what? Why does it matter? Why do they care? I like it, it's comfortable to wear, I'm happy wearing it. I think they are weird for wearing carbon copies of each other's cloths... look like a pack of clones.

7. What is the best clothing store?

I like Macy's and their INC type stuff, though I never buy any of it, nor would I wear it. I make all of my own cloths, so I'm not really sure what most of the fashion stores are. uhm... I work at Macy's, therefor, I know what Macy's sells.

8. Do you shop at places like American Eagle, Abercrombie, and Hollister?

ugh! gag! choke. Quick, someone get me a vomit bag! I wouldn't get caught dead in a place like those! OMG! How can people wear that stuff. It's uber ugly. And khakis, jeans, & pants! ACK! Can somebody say straight jacket? How can people wear pants, they are so restricting! I tried it once and I felt like I was being shackled down and couldn't move my legs. ugh, never again!

9. Would you ever set foot into Hot Topic?

I practically live there. Just down the hall from Macy's, I go there on my lunch break to get ideas for what to sew next.

And guess what? I like this store so much, I'm an affiliate of thier's too. See:

10. Which celebrity do you think has the best fashion?

Professor Snape.

11. What do you think of the current school fashions?

I'm afraid I never understood the concept of *school fashions*...uhm... I didn't go to school, so that may have something to do with it, but anyways, I look at school fashions and ask myself *Why are these people worried about cloths?* They are going to school to learn not look good, or did I miss the point of school? I don't know, maybe I'm too much of a book worm, but I just don't get the whole *school fashion* movement.

I do agree that like you say, fashion shows a persons personality. Cloths do effect how others see you and what they think of a person and how they *think* you are, wither what they think is right or wrong, they are going to think it anyways, based on what you wear.

I think, that people should just wear what they like, because it makes them happy and is comfortable to wear. Too many people wear cloths to look good first and sacrifice comfort, when they should put comfort first.

1. Do you wear any makeup?

Only if I'm doing a cosplay that requires it... Like Sessho and his hot pink eyeshadow. :)

2. Do you like belts?

Depends on what you are calling a belt.

Regular belt type belts with buckles and all... no.

Sashes... long strips of fabric ties about your waist and trailing off behind you as you walk.... yes. I wear them daily. A requirement when in full kimono, otherwise the kimono would...uhm...fall off.

3. Do you wear a lot of jewelry?

In the 1980's I looked like a walking jewelry store... rings on every finger, necklaces in layers, watches and bracelets all the way up my arms. What I couldn't fit on my body got attached to my coat... pins, rude buttons, lots of chains... I wore that for close to 10 years, only stopped wearing it after it reached more than 30 lbs and was too heavy for me to wear any more. That coat btw, is how I know I can wear Sesshomaru's battle armor, which weighs about 30 lbs. I got very good upper body strength as a result of wearing that coat.

Today? Nope. I got a Capt Jack Sparrow watch, and a man's gold lionhead ring, and that's it. Gone are the days of me and my tons of jewerly

4. Have you ever used Acne cream?

What a weird question! I did for a short while, when I started selling Avon, and took it upon myself to byone of each of all of Avon's skincare and makeup products and test them all on myself so that I could than tell the customers what each product had done for me.

Yes, I really do get that obsessive when it comes to sales pitches, because I will never promote a product I don't like. I am not afraid to tell the customer: "Hey, I tried that, and it's crap!" either, which, may or may not be good depending on how you look at it.

I LOVE being a salesman; 7 years with Avon, 3 years with Macy's, and now working on opening my own store.

5. Do you like lip gloss?

No, it dries my lips out something fierce, and most brands I am wildly allergic too.

I actually have a hard time with most all make up, because my skin is wicked sensitive.

6. Do you go to tanning salons?

ugh! OMG! NO! Just the thought of the word *tan* is enough to keep me away. I'm white as driven snow, avoid daylight at all costs, and refuse to step outside with out wearing my Burnoose. I dare the sun to even try and cast a ray on me! No tans. No way. Never. I like being whiter than Wonder Bread. (You should see me in my Wonder Bread costume... yes, I do have one! LOL! I loves the pretty polka dots.)

7. Have you ever plucked your eyebrows?

No, that's weird.

8. Have you ever used fake eyelashes?

I once bought some, but than never wore them.

9. Do you like painting your nails?

I used too. Every color ever made has been on my nails; blue metal flake was what I wore most often.

After about 12 years of it, I got bored with nail polish, and just stopped wearing it. Haven't worn any since the late 1990's.

10. Have you ever used fake nails?

Only for Sessho, because his costume requires 3 - 4 inch long talon-claws

Nope neither. I actually find this to be a rather odd question, cause I don't know any body who does. I once had a friend with 21 rings in one ear and 23 in the other, a few in her nose and a couple in her tongue and lip. She also had more than 50 tattoos. Church leaders were up in arms and ready to through her out. I had another friend who risked excommunication by getting a butterfly tattoo on her ankle, which is about as rebellious as you can get in the Mormon church without causing a major outrage. No body noticed her tattoo of course, they were too busy telling my how I was the child of Satan based on my mode of dress (24 hour CosPlay). All three of us left the church, too much dictatorship and communism for us freedom loving Americans.

10 years ago, I never would have predicted that 3 years ago, a flood would destroy our home and put my dad in a coma, or that 6 months later a fire would destroy everything that the flood hadn't and I would spent the next year, including 2 blizzards, living under a tarp. Nor would I have predicted that none of the event were natural causes but rather acts of vandalism at the hands of church members angry over my lifestyle and my having left the church a few years prior.

Vandalism. Hate. Flood (caused by severed water main, not rain). A relative disabled. Fire (arsine). And a year living on the streets. Ten years ago, I had plans, goals, dreams, hopes, and predictions. I saw those dreams shattered. Today, I no longer make predictions about my life. I have no hopes. I make no goals. Plan on nothing. I have no more dreams to dream. Life can not be predicted. Life happens, and it doesn't care what you planned on. In the blink of an eye, everything was gone. I now find it very hard to see a future at all.

I think this is kind of a weird question, and I never understood why people always ask it, but anyways...

Yes. Though I don't believe our life is "pre-destined" or that things happen because of "fate". Which kind of goes against my saying *yes* in answer to your question, doesn't it?

I believe everything happens for a reason, because I believe we are here to learn and progress. I do not believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell, because it suggests that once this life ends, life is over, and we had no farther reason to move on, thus it would be pointless for us to continue to live. I believe instead that we live a series of any lives, and that it is the events of the current life and how we react to those events that determine wither we move on the the next level of existence or come back here to this one to relive it over again until we have learned what we need to learn to progress.

In other words, things happen, good things, bad things, normal boring things, and it is not the event itself which is important, but rather the persons response to the event in question, which is important.

There you go, me being all theological. I'll stop now, because once I get going, on this subject, I really get going... last time I ended up writing 900 sheets of paper on this topic, took me 9 100 packs of college ruled lined paper before I got everything I had to say said, all written in longhand, and took me about 3 months to write. (BTW: Everything you see me write here on Squidoo lenses was first written longhand on paper, and was deeply edited to make it short enough to fit on the lenses.)

I like Buddy Jesus.

Buddy Jesus is fun.

Buddy Jesus is happy.

Buddy Jesus is your friend.

It's the only picture you ever see of Jesus really smiling and laughing out loud.

Buddy Jesus says: Stuffy religions that make you wear black and get mad if you smile, suck.

Buddy Jesus says: Don't worry be happy.

Buddy Jesus say: Life sucks, but you know what? Who cares? Not me.

Buddy Jesus says: Get out of your dusty old church and start living life for once in your life.

Buddy Jesus says: Look around the world, find something to be happy about. Spread the joy, make other happy, because that's what life is all about.

Buddy Jesus says: Stop worrying about stupid religious dogmas and start worrying about each other.

Buddy Jesus says: Stop being morbid. Stop focusing on my death and look at how I lived my life while I was alive.

Buddy Jesus pokes his finger at religion and says: Stop making me look like a mean God, when all I ever did was try to show how great life can really be.

That's why Buddy Jesus shows up so often.

(And besides, I like Alan Rickman. and if you don't know what that means, than you don't know Buddy Jesus!)

Is Buddy Jesus sacrelig? You bet it is! For those who don't know the story of Buddy Jesus, here it is in a nutshell:

God got so feed up with the human race that he suddenly decides to hell with them, I'm going to live my own life and let them just ruin their's. So God becomes a hippy-woman and dances off into the sunset. God's voice (played by Alan Rickman) gets depressed now that God has left and the human race is beyond all hope of saving, so he heads out to the bar to drink his woes away only to find that God can't get drunk, so now he's even more depressed than ever. Meanwhile the Angel of Death is having a field day killing off the human race left and right now that God is no where to be found. The humans decide we've done something terribly wrong by telling everyone how mean and hateful God is, because now he's angry and really is mean and hateful, so we'd better make up for it by telling the truth and showing people that God is really kind and loving, so they replace all the sad depressing crucifixes with the new and improved *Buddy Jesus* statues.

Of course that's not the entire movie, that's just the story behind the Buddy Jesus statues in the movie, and actually it wasn't that good a movie, kind of dull and boring really, but I liked the whole concept of The Buddy Jesus, and have used that picture ever since.

I don't believe in luck. I do however have a favorite number... well... three favorite numbers:

13

458

666

I snipe them regularly on the [].

Yes.

Yep. It has. Sorry 'bout that. Of course, without Icy, Flowers, and Meme, the Padded Cell is dieing and the [] is being trolled again lately. I come back every few days to bump the Padded Cell back to page one, to keep it alive until the cellmates return, but it's been 8 months now and it looks like the []er trolls have finally won, because most of the old []ers are gone and no longer posting anymore.

And the other thing is, the []er Trolls are gone Pink Slap happy. It's pretty hard for me to post on the [] with out getting a Pink Slap anymore. Given the choice of buying or forum posing, I'm gonna choose buying, because eBay is where I get my comic books and the supplies for my costumes.

As for Squidoo verses eBay, well, it's no secret I don't take flamers very well, and while the [] has hundreds of them, Squidoo only has one or two, so Squidoo is just easier on my nerves. And besides, I can place all my eBay bids right from Squidoo now, so yeah, Squidoo has affected my eBay habits.

I am neither Republican nor Democrat nor any other party either. Why? Because I don't agree 100% with the politics of either party. Both have things I support. Both have things I protest. Both have candidates I would (and have) voted for. Both have candidates that I seriously hate.

When it comes time for me to vote I don't care if the delegate is Republican, Democrat, Wig, Torry, Green, Libertarian, Independent, or Independent Party. I don't care if it's a man or a woman, young or old, black, white, Asian, or Native American. I do not look at their party, gender, or race, what I look at is what they say, what they do, how they live their life, how they treat those around them, and do they practice what they preach. I vote based on causes they support and issues they protest. You will never see me vote for a person based on party.

1.) Who are your favorite authors?

Rumiko Takahashi
J.K.Rowlings
Brain Froud
Peter S. Beagle
Don Rosa
Carl Barks
Lewis Carroll
Roald Dahl
Tolkien

I do a lot of just picking up fantasy books and reading them, and have no idea who half the authors are! I see a book and think "Oh, I like the faeries (unicorns, dragons, elves, wizards, whatever) on the cover, I guess I'll read it." I end up reading all kind of fantasy paperbacks based totally on the cover art, and than never stop to think about who the author was!

Only if the book stands out as one I really, really, really like a lot, do I remember the author's name. Like Harry Potter. I really, really, really liked Harry Potter, odd, because it's not the kind of fantasy I normally read.

and these are sci-fi, but I classify sci-fi as a type of fantasy ;)

Keith Laumer
James Blish
Orson Scott Card

Can I call Stephen King fantasy too? :)

2.) How long have you been a fantasy fan?

I wrote my first fantasy (a short story) in 1978...
I'm old, been a fan a long time

3.) Why are you a fantasy fan?

uhm... no idea... I never thought about it actually. It's not just books, cause I'm into all the fantasy movies too; my faves being:

Labyrinth
Dark Crystal
The Princess Bride
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I just like things that could never really happen. It's like being in a dream world, where life is (usually) better than the real world.

and besides, gives me loads of great guys to fall in love with! I got thing for pale skinned elfish type guys with long blond hair a cute pointy ears! :) Sesshomaru, Legolas, AlKeeme, Etiole, Jareth, Prince Nuada, Wesley, Luscious Malfoy .... name miss-spelt on purpose :) ... you get the picture right?

4. )Where do you come up with ideas?

I answered that question here. It's a bit too long to copy and paste it all on this post, but basically from things that happen in my own life. Just ordinary every day things, inspire all sorts of imagination in me.

I sell my art on Zazzle products off of my lenses. I also promote art by my mom, and my 3 brothers, all of whom, also have Zazzle products which get featured on my lenses.

To see all of the products available from The Copper Cockeral and it's sister galleries, please click on the links below:

Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts
The Pidgie Fund
Designs by Tiddledeewinks
Designs by Flash
Designs by The Juice Man
Designs by Johnny5Allen
Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts on CafePress
Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts on Printfection
The Twighlight Manor Press on Zazzle

Our newest thing to promote are our shoe designs. We've got well over 100 shoe designs already, and we have only just started adding shoes in August of 2008! Here are a few of my faves so far:

........................

I own Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts.

There are 5 artists behind The Copper Cockeral: me, my mom, and my 3 brothers, all of whom are Squidoo lensmasters and each of whom owns their own Zazzle Gallery.

Moving on the actually answer your question...

The answer to this question got so long that I moved it to it's own lens:

I absolutely LOVE crayons... I just bought the new Crayola 120 Big Box this week, not that I really needed it, cause I already have 3 of the 96 crayon big boxes already! LOL! I use crayons for my art. Everybody always looks at my pictures and asks "How'd you get the colors so bright? what did you use?" and I tell them, I drew it with crayons, and they just totally didn't expect that! They were thinking crayons were for kids, but I ain't been a kid for 20 years now and I'm still using crayons every day!

I think drawing with crayons is actually very therapeutic as well, lets you draw with more freedom than say oil paints... lets you just draw without holding back, like you did when you was a kid. There is much to be learned from crayons.... DEEP THOUGHT... 42.

The meaning of life and a box of crayons and my trusty towel (with Jack Sparrow on it!) ... life is good.

...and if I just lost you there, than, well you and I don't read the same books! =P

If I was going to be a crayon, what color would I be? Orange. My bedroom is orange. My big stuffed chair is orange. My bookshelves are painted orange. My ATV is orange metalflake. My car is orange metalic. My blankets are orange. My sleeping baag is orange. I collect hunting gear because I like the bright neon orange it's made out of. I have an orange cat. My dog was orange. Several of my roosters are orange. Oh yeah, and most of my cloths are orange too. Yeah. I like orange. It's my favorite color and I have no idea why.

As of August 2008 I have 331 lenses.

Most likely I'll come up with lots of ideas for more. I've always got something to say about everything.

Okay... a lot of questions have been sent to me regarding Squidoo. At first I was answering them here, however, this lens is about me and all these questions about what I did with Squidoo were crowding out the questions about me, so, I have gathered them all up and moved them to a lens all of their own, where I can answer all your questions about how I use Squidoo. Savvy?

My Lord Sesshomaru Costume lens. Unfortunately it got so long that it stopped loading so I cut it up. When I got done cutting, it STILL is one of my longest lenses and it is now spread out over a total of 14 lenses, each of which are my longest lenses (tells you how long it was before I cut it!)... Before I cut it, it had over 75,000 words of text on it! (The size of a 100 page novel, in case you don't know how long 75,000 words is.) The curse of being a novelist is that when I'm not writing novels, I still write in novel lengths.

Lord Sesshomaru vs Historical Accuracy.

(which was originally a section on my Lord Sesshomaru Costume lens)

Why? Because that poor lens has been through hell and back and it just keeps on going and going and going in spite of the fact that it's getting bad reviews, flame comments thrown at it left and right, hate emails filling up my inbox on Yahoo.... yeah... all I did was to start making a costume, and than compare Lord Sesshomaru to real Lords of 1500's Japan, and now all of Sessho's crazed fangirls hate me. LOL!

Uhm... I castrated the guy. Not joking. Really, I did. Historical accuracy proves that he's a eunuch and 210 of his fans went into spaz-matic hysterics when I said that and threw every dagger they could find at my lens. I can sympathize with these girls who are up in arms over it, I'm as crazy over the guy as they are. All I wanted to trace the history of his really freaky outfit, I had no idea it would turn out that he's dressed as a eunuch. Explains his complete avoidance of women, though.

You gotta love flamers and the things they can find to flame someone about. My poor lens, it became my favorite lens just because it has got to be the most hated Squidoo lens ever!

It has to be my Publishing Methods lens. Everybody loves it. Literally EVERYBODY! OMG! In November of 2007 I was getting 300 - 400 visits a day. It was crazy! I found out that it was being promoted by several NaNoWriMo contestants during the NaNoWriMo contest, and that after NaNoWriMo, several of them wrote reviews about it on their blogs. One blogger had a really really popular blog, and was telling folks that my Publishing Methods lenses was what helped them get their book published. I was like superstar famous over night! I loved it!

While all this was going on, my lens lept onto Squidoo's coveted Top 100 list and it stayed there for a few weeks, reaching #32 as it's highest ranking.

After the contest was over, my traffic died down, and the lens dropped into the 1,000 rank, but it has never come down under 2,000 since the day it was made. Than in April 2008, it shot back up again, this time traffic was coming from NaNoWriMo's other contest: Script Frenzy.

In May 2008, it went back down again, staying around 600 in rank. Than in mid-August 2008, it shot up again to 200 rank, once again, because traffic coming in from NaNoWriMo. If it's already getting this much traffic from the Wrimoers in August, there's no doubt that by the time NaNoWriMo hits again in November, it'll be back on Squidoo's Top 100 List, hopefully it'll make it into the top 10 next time!

It was a rant I wrote on my NaNoWriMo blog. Some folks on NaNoWriMo were talking about copyright laws and publishing scams, and how they were being forced to pay loads of money to buy copyrights and ISBN numbers before the publisher would publish their books, and than the next thing they knew, they were out a few thousand dollars and the publisher had up and disappeared. It was a nightmare story and several of them were retelling basically the same story over and over again. It had happened to so many of them.

Sad thing is, this is not an uncommon thing in the world of publishing. New authors are getting scammed left and right every day, and it just pissed me off that no one had ever written a website to tell them how to avoid these types of scams. I started ranting about in on the NaNoWriMo forums, and every one was agreeing that someone should go out there and build a website telling new authors what to look for. Next thing I know I was writing one up and it turned into what would later become my *Publishing Methods* lens.

Yep. I got so excited over Squidoo after receiving my first payday that I told every body I knew about it. I got to talking about it so much that, people I knew started checking it out, and next thing I knew they were signing up too. Now I actually know people on Squidoo who I know in real life too! YAY!

My mom and my 3 brothers each have Squidoo accounts now. Here are the links to their profiles (be sure to check them out):

No! Not at all!

When I first joined Squidoo on April 17, 2007, I was getting most all of my traffic from Google and Google only. At that point I had 15 lenses, which I wasn't updating, and I did not know much about Squidoo. Google hits were at 100 - 300 per page per week.

Than in October of 2007 after the Squidoo Google Slap, my lenses all dropped to getting very little traffic from Google, so I started doing my own self-promotion instead to bring in traffic other than from Google. At that point Google hits were 10 - 20 per page per week.

Now, in April of 2008, it's a good thing I did, because in the past month, not a single one of my lenses has gotten a single hit of Google. No one is sure what is going on, but it's so wide spread across Squidoo, that it appears Google has sent Squidoo yet another "slap" and has cut off traffic hits entirely. Looking at my stats page, it's like Google has completely vanished! Now 100% of my traffic comes from my own self-promotion and no where else at all.

This is a very odd question that got asked on a forum, and for some reason everyone started fighting with the question asker and not a one of them answered his question.

I read the whole thread and than sat there wondering WTH is wrong with these people? All he did was ask a simple question. The question itself is copied into the title box. After the question he had added the note: "Please leave a link to the post so I can read it and rate your blog."

Everyone was all upset over the fact that he had asked them to leave a link to their blogs! OMG! Bloggers usually WANT traffic, but not these guys, they just wanted to fight! Oh well, such is life. Rather than get involved I just typed my answer, and than copied it to paste it here on my lens, and here it is:

My best post ever, was a rant that took me 3 hours to write: my really long and random rant I had just read the final volume of InuYasha (vol 558) and while I over all liked the ended, one part of the ending didn't make any sense at all and got me really angry and ranting and the next thing I knew I had spent 3 hours typing up that very, very, very, VERY, long blog post! Maybe it's not my best post ever in terms of style, but it certainly was the post that I put the most heart and soul into, and it ended up getting a ton of comments on it.

And that was my answer to his post. The fighting on that thread is so bad however, that I closed it and will not go back, because my post interrupted their little private battle, so no doubt they are blasting their comments towards me by now, and I, me just don't want to deal that kind of thing.

David Kaye is one of my favorite voice actors and yet, I've heard him say what, out of 167 episodes, 300 words at best? David Kaye is the voice actor for a man who stares at you, lops off you head, and than walks away with out having ever said a single word on screen. David Kaye is the voice of Sesshomaru, the man of few words. If you talk a lot than you'll have a really hard time CosPlaying a character who is more likely to open his mouth to bite you than speak.

People read my long windedness online and assume that I talk as much as I write . . . and than they meet me in person, and wonder: "How the hell do I get this women to say something? She doesn't speak! She won't speak. Omg! Can she talk? I don't know, she's just sitting here smiling at me while I freak out over the fact that she has yet to say anything! I feel like I'm in a Spy vs Spy cartoon!"

While I can write page after page of text, to actually get me to speak vocally, is difficult at best. Honestly, I think you'd have better luck getting Sesshomaru to say something than you would me, which makes me perfect for CosPlaying him, because I can stand there staring at you for hours without ever saying a word.

I don't really like talking and yet, I'm a salesman. Door to door for 7 years and a floor walker 3 more years. I'm a pretty good salesman, and yet, I sell things while saying almost nothing.

Last year (2006) when I got my job at Macy's I was faced with something I had never anticipated: the telephone. Even after 7 years of selling Avon, this is not a thing that I had used more than a couple of times in my entire life. The first few times it rang, I did not answer it and my boss was quite upset with me. Fact is, it had not occurred to me that I should answer the phone, I just thought of the noise as just one of those sounds you always hear in the workplace. The fact that I do not own a phone didn't help matters much either. I had not realized that I was supposed to answer it, she had not told me that use of a phone was to be part of my job, and when I did answer it, I found it very difficult to use, having hardly ever used one before. The idea of speaking to someone I can not see it just too weird. The idea of speaking to someone whom I've never spoken too before, is even weirder.

This caused me to be chided by the other sales girls whom I worked with, girls 10 to 15 years younger than me, girls who walked around work with a cell phone stuck in their ear and paying more attention to it than the costumers, girls who asked how can I have never used a phone before? Girls who found reason to make an attempt to force me to speak as a result.

My answer was quite simple: "I have never needed to use a phone before, I don't talk, I write."

Yes, weird stares, this time not for my cloths either. I'm used to weird stares, so I went back to cleaning out the fitting room and folding sweaters while they snuck out to smoke out front of the mall even though it was not time for their break.

At work the girls also questioned my working and never taking a break to talk with either costumer or worker. My answer again, was the same: "I do not talk, I write. I am here to do my job, not talk, Macy's doesn't pay me to talk, I have no reason to talk. Talking is as a waste of time and distracts me from my work. I'm sorry, but we have to get these racks empty before closing, it's what they pay us to do."

I so very often find myself the only one actually cleaning the fitting rooms, which if you know Macy's than you know not one of their customers puts cloths back on the rack, they try them on and than throw them on the floor in the fitting room. I makes me shudder to think what these people's homes must look like if they do that in public! I find myself the only one cleaning the fitting rooms, because the other girls are usually, ducked away to go talk, which I find annoying, because due to them being off talking I am left to do all of the work, which basically means I'm not only doing my job, but I'm doing their job too. Plus I have to run the cash register besides and I have to be on the floor with the customers in case they have questions to ask. I love working at Macy's, it is just the best job I can think of, but I wish the other girls would stop goofing off so much.

Before Macy's I sold Avon for 7 years. My method however, was to simply leave the book and not bother the customer. No sales pitch what so ever. Just smile and hand them a book, no need to say a word. The next day they called my mom's phone and left an order, which I delivered to their house when it arrived, and 9 times out of 10 delivered while they were not home, them leaving a check on the door. About half of my customers I never actually met face to face! My method of selling Avon was very unconventional, yes, but customers like it, because I was not constantly forcing them to buy things they didn't need. They also liked that I was honest about the products. Take Anew for example. Avon really wants to push Anew in the costumers face, because it's the highest priced face cream on the market. Well, I tried Anew, and you know what? I'm allergic to it, I couldn't use it. I was selling Avon the year Anew was introduced and us sales reps were being told, to promote, promote, promote the new Anew! Yeah right! I not only didn't promote it, but when customers started asking questions about it, I came right out and told them, how much I didn't like it.

I did another unconventional selling thing. One customer asked me if she could have a sample of one of each of every color lipstick Avon sold, and a sample of one of each of all the perfums. I gave her a whole case....one of each of every sample Avon had, not just lipstick and perfume. She loved it. Than said I didn't need to ever leave her a book again, cause she never looked at the books. For the next 5 years when she wanted something, she called my mom's phone and I would go over, and she'd pull out one of the samples and say "I want to buy one of these, put an order in for it next time it's on sale." Unconventional, yes, but it worked.

A few of them, all elderly women in homes for old folks, I did talk too, and often. It was not unusual for me to stay there and chat with them for an hour or more, and not about Avon products either, but instead about the local news, their grand babies, the dog they had 30 years ago, the husband who died in WWII, or whatever else they wanted to talk about, and oddly, during these conversations, I hardly ever said a word. It was a case of these women buying Avon from me for one reason and one reason only: I was willing to come in and sit there and listen to every word they had to say about absolutely anything, without interrupting them. The advantage of speaking little is that you become a very good listener, something that is really quite rare in today's fast moving society.

And there in lays the answer to how I became a very good salesman. I can pitch a sale if I have too, but customers would much rather you stand back and let them tell you want they want. The customer knows what they want, they just want you to help them find it. They do not want to listen to a sales pitch for this item when they only want to buy that item. So, shut up, let the customer talk, find them the product they seek, they buy it, and you've made a sale without having to say more than 6 words: "Hello, How May I Help You?"

So, for those who expected the long winded EelKat to be vocally long winded as well, nope sorry, silence is golden and every thing I have to say gets written in pen and ink. My thoughts are read not heard.

Yep.

Every time a new question comes along I answer it and post it. A year ago this lens started out with just my 10 second bio on it.

The content of this lens was created by Wendy C. Allen compiled in part from posts on Star Log Pink, Star Log White, EK's Writing Blog, EK's CosPlay & Sewing Blog, Xavier's Nest, and EK's Business Blog, the official blogs of author and artist Wendy C. Allen, a.k.a. EelKat. Reprinted here on Squidoo with permission.

EK's Star Log and it's sister sites Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2004-2008.

Star Log, Space Dock 13, The Twighlight Manor Press, Moonsnails, Buried Treasure, Copper Cockeral, Black Bobcat Fashions, Purple Peacock Patterns, The Rabbit Hole, and Xavier's Nest Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 2003-2008.

Twighlight Manor, EelKat, White Rock Asylum, Planet Ptarmagin, Crystonite Chronicles, Etiole, Sir Roderic, The Swanzen Family, and all other related characters, info, writings, names, images, and content Copyright © Wendy C. Allen 1978-2008. Reuse of these names, characters, writings, and images of the Twighlight Manor and TM characters are not allowed without prior authorization.

All content written and designed by Wendy C. Allen unless otherwise stated. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted without the express permission of the author. All rights reserved.