When I turned 29 in October, I detailed some ridiculous things I wanted to accomplish before I hit 30. One I finished (the new book is done!), and I’ve recently begun work on another. And the results have been pretty awesome.
As a child, I was in love with adventure stories. My (amazing) Mother bought me all classic novels I wanted. The works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Arthur Conan Doyle sat stacked by my bedside, and I spent a lot of nights hidden under blankets with a flashlight, totally consumed by fantastic tales.
I was eight, and I loved steampunk before I even knew what it was.
All the reading was the result of my parents not letting me watch a lot of TV or play a lot of video games (oh how things have changed). The few times I interacted with either, I could be caught watching films and playing games that catered to what I read. Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Wing Commander and Prince of Persia. And of course, The Rocketeer.
When The Rocketeer was finally available on VHS and the video game was on my SNES, I was ten. I watched the movie countless times, played the (terrible) game again and again. The Rocketeer was a mash up of everything I loved in a good adventure story. A protagonist that was a common person, larger than life villains, a world in peril, and inventions that felt like they belonged to another time. Plus, the main character could fly.
Jim of Sweet Juniper, who made his young son an adorable Rocketeer costume, perhaps says it best in his blog post about his son’s outfit.
Is there a kid in the world who doesn’t believe it a considerable injustice he was born without the ability to fly?
This isn’t some cathartic endeavor. No one broke my heart this time. This is just for me, just because. Thus far, I have the pants, the boots, the aviator gloves, and the amazing leather jacket. I’ve been collecting parts piece by piece, using eBay and Etsy, praying that when the items arrived they’d fit okay.
A copy of the leather jacket
The boots, need to get rid of the wingtip pattern
Full outfit, posing in front of my awful bedroom mirror
So far, so good. Next up? Helmet. Jetpack. Mauser replica.
