AoE has moved into the test reader phase. As you'll recall, the main character is trapped in virtual reality. The A stands for Avatars. More on E later. I still haven't decided whether to run the book through this or not. I tried it once before but never received feedback on step one.
In the book there's a Victorian house. Sample images here. It's not a big part of the story. Specifically, it's an Eastlake Victorian "with modifications". Since I've learned more about that style of house, I may change it to a Queen Anne in the final version. The house in the book has a tower. Towers and turrets seem to be a bit of a staple with Queen Annes. Regardless, it's a setting in virtual reality and not a main part of the story.
It turns out I quite like the Victorian style. I've decided, when I'm rich, my house will be a custom-built, modern Victorian. I saw this company on This Old House. They make reproductions of old houses. I don't see a Victorian in their lineup, but if they specialize in old houses, someone else does, too.
I really like Victorian woodwork. After studying pictures of it, the individual pieces look relatively simple. A door frame might have three grooves carved into it. The trim around the gutters isn't very complicated. Patterns might be circles, starbursts or simple swirls. Individually, they're not very impressive. When the pieces are all put together, however, the whole is more than the sum of the parts. They create a luxurious feel that feels like home to me.
Of course, in my modern one the rooms would be bigger. The stairs would not be too steep or narrow. Wood paneling would be minimal at best. Wallpaper. I used to hate wallpaper. I'm still not a fan of every style of it. However, when it's done right, it adds to the luxurious feel of the house. There would be some wallpaper. I think the problem with wallpaper is two-toned paper. For it to start looking decent, it needs at least three shades of color to give it depth. And it can't be too busy. Three color values creates dimensionality and makes it feel more like a piece of furniture than a flat two-toned paper.
After researching Victorians and then seeing a modern home, the modern ones feel sterile and empty. Even in an empty room, the woodwork in the Victorians is a decoration on its own. They don't have an empty feel to them. I watch some of the house hunting shows. In modern houses, if a room is empty, it's really empty. Whoever is viewing a house has to work to imagine the space being beautiful. They have to speculate on paint colors and furnishings to even be able to imagine living there. Or the real estate has to do the thinking for them. Or the seller has stage the house with furniture that is sometimes rented just for that purpose. When the owners move in, they have to fill the space with knickknacks and tchotchkes to make it "feel like home". And they take all that for granted without realizing how sterile modern houses really are. In the Victorians that feeling of hominess is build into the house already. Furniture is almost a bonus. A million decorations to imprint the owner's personality into the setting aren't necessary. It's kind of like the house itself says it all. Maybe the house represents the owner's personality instead the knickknacks. I'll have to think about that more later.
So, this has been the summer of distraction. I mentioned a while back a path for my life God may have shown me, very distracting. I'm still waiting for some kind of solid confirmation. This week has had another distraction that I can't talk about now, but it looks like it will be a major announcement in the next week or two. More on that then.
Have a great weekend.
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