10 Creative Projects Planned For Project Starfish
(and one that isn’t!)
First, you need to know that I don’t do things by halves. I double down, I triple down, I see you four … you get the idea.
Today’s post is a Substack Soiree prompt, and I wanted to share it sooner rather than later, to whet your appetites for what is to come. (Or overwhelm you. It could go either way, honestly.)
Speaking of whetting appetites … I was going to reveal this later, but…
Introducing the series title (and new name of this Substack publication):
That unfamiliar word môrdreigiau is Welsh. The correct Welsh term for sea dragons is dreigiau môr, and I will be using that in the book. However it sounded (tasted?) better when it’s “dragons sea” as opposed to “sea dragons”.
You will be seeing some changes in how this Substack looks in your email and on the website in the coming week. The serialisation won’t begin until 2024, but I will be revealing a little more of the characters and the story between now and then.
Ten Creative Projects Planned For Project Starfish The Môrdreigiau Chronicles:
#1-3
The book that became three books (although it might be three parts to one book): a Regency-era Arthurian quest to avoid ecological collapse, with sea dragons. This one is definitely happening. I am typing up the instalments!
You might think it’s already cheating to group them together so I can make it to 10, but it’s three different books (or parts), so they each get their own number. So there.
And to share more about each of them would be spoiling.
#4
The mixed media journal in a Travelers Notebook diary. This is where the first book is going to be written as hidden diary entries. This means I get to decorate and collage to my heart’s content. I will be sharing the decorated pages and maybe some footage of creating the pages and hidden journaling as well!
#5
The fictional newsletter … where I share this amazing antique “find”. It’s simply a framing device but I want to do it well, and plan to film the discovery as well as write around it.
I’m also looking for newsletters to “recommend” in that side bar that do with antiquing and restoration … to “add” to the story.
(Got a recommendation? Leave a comment using the button below, or hit reply!)
#6
Either I will find an old-looking box to put the journal in or make a new one look old. I’m vacillating between cute vintage luggage from the 1920s or an old wooden trunk or buy an A3 size box from OfficeWorks and grunge it up … This means I will also need to do a bit of set dressing—because we have to dig to find books two and three. Perhaps under other books or sheet music or old clothing?
#7
Books two and three have to live somewhere. I mean, I could simply type them up and present them here on Substack but Where Is The Fun In That?
I plan to make a home for them as well. They will live in a lapbook that once belonged to a historian, who was researching (oh I can’t share what, that’s a spoiler, I can tell you after we’re done with book/part one) and I will “find” it in the trunk/luggage/hatbox mentioned above (that’s why it has to be bigger than a breadbox!).
#8
A prequel. Let’s just say that I have an old Arthurian historical story idea that is a sequel to the Tristan and Iseult story. I am beginning to wonder if it can become a prequel to the first Project Starfish book/part. (And there’s a middle-aged heroine in this one!)
#9
Book/series trailer. Just as I was leaving behind the writing of romances, book trailers were becoming a thing. Are they still a thing? Who knows, but it will be fun to make one and umm… with a bit of help from Canva (the free version yet!) it shouldn’t be too difficult to make something in iMovie. I just need a list of scenes and a story board.
#10 (and possibly the craziest)
This is a slightly crazy one that I might not be brave enough to do. I was reading Alexandra Franzen’s marketing tips without using social media1 and someone dressed up as a dinosaur with a sign.
What if, what if, I dressed up as a Regency lady and paraded down the High Street (which is now a mall), handing out beautiful letter-pressed matte postcards sharing about Project Starfish? It might be fun to do during the almost weekly Slow Food Market.
Letterpress would not be cheap but I could Canva-fu it?
I’d need to buy a Regency outfit too … ‘cause I gave away my two gowns as I no longer fit into them. And something to cover my short hair because I gave away the wig also. As I wear glasses, I’m wondering if I can find frames that would work, or live with the anachronism...
Of course I will share if I do dare to carry this one out! (Might have to have my husband video it for my YouTube channel.)
Should I do it? Should I do it? , , will you enable me? But the question is open to everyone! Reply to this email or let me know in the comments. It’s totally okay to reply/comment more than once!
And the one creative project you won’t find here on Project Starfish.
I am fortunate to live in a beautiful old house that has been standing for 100 years and has been beautifully restored.
For a while I considered having the original owner “find” the journal among her husband’s things (he having died in the Great War—this is fictional remember!), and she had a friend film it (as it’s the dawn of cinematography) and then I would “find” the film canisters and the journals in the depths of the garage’s attic. I would then “pretend” that the film has somehow survived 100 hot summers and drenching, cold rainy seasons, and share that footage as a framework. (It’d be a filter or two over the iPhone footage.)
But while I have the set, I do not have late Edwardian garb, and certainly nothing that would pass for it, except maybe a blouse and perhaps a skirt… and I’d have to find old eyeglass rims too … This hasn’t stopped me looking in the shops for something I could history-bound2 in.
And also it felt a bit … convoluted. Primary and secondary source documents, discovered by one person in 1914 with their opinions which in turn is shared by another person in 2024 with additional opinions (which makes this publication a tertiary “source”). I mean, it could be fun, but it teetered over into way too much work.
That concludes the 10 projects so far planned and/or underway for Project Starfish the Môrdreigiau Chronicles! Which ones are you looking forward to most?
Alexandra Franzen, 20 Ways To Find Clients And Customers Without Using Social Media, https://www.alexandrafranzen.com/2021/01/30/marketing/
History-bound: To give the appearance of vintage or historical garb but with modern touches and wearing it as your everyday attire. See also, “Historybounding: The Hobby You Didn’t Know You Needed” at the Lazy Historian
Eeep! This all sounds amazing! 🙌🙌🙌
Please please please dress up and hand out cards!! I want to see photos!