As an agent, I wear many hats and I love them all!
Miner’s Hat:
Worn while picking through slush pile submissions.
Tiara:
Worn in celebration of gem discovery in the form of your marketable manuscript.
Gold Crown:
In celebration of signing you to be a new client.
Baseball Cap:
Worn as I strike through weasel words in your manuscript.
Sun Bonnet:
Adorned during our picnic, where I dispense tea when you need sympathy.
Saucy Red Beret with diamond ribbon broach:
My sales hat. This means I am energetically pitching your wonderful manuscript! The diamonds mean I am already successful, and you will also be successful since you’re with me!
Fedora:
Serious meeting hat for contract negotiations, and is always accompanied by a business suit. In black.
Bankers Visor:
For those times when the we analyze your royalty statements and collect the publisher’s payments.
Hermes Scarf:
For tooling around town in our rented convertible, on our way to meet with editors, to keep hair from getting mussed. Accompanied by Tiffany sunglasses.
Royal Ascot Hat:
Wide-brimmed and adorned with an embarrassment of blooms, this is what we wear to celebrate your success!
Your Turn:
What type of hats do you wear when you are writing?
By the way, Steve Laube wanted to share what hats he wears. They are pictured below. One to wear and one for backup while the third is being washed.
Steve must find those “hats” useful in contract negotiations!
Love the hats piece!!! 🙂
Personally, I wear my Blogger’s bandana on Monday.
My Coach’s whistle on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
My Fiction feather in my hair on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
And my Sweatband shows up here and there as I stretch out between chapters!
And for all the times in between, I try not to forget my Mommy mask.
Looking forward to the day when I’m wearing my Author’s scarf. Do they make those?? 🙂
I wear my cowboy hat, since I’m writing about 1890’s Arizona. It’s a hand made felt hat and was made in a small factory in Sucre, Bolivia. It’s been all over the Andes and looks like an Akubra. Made from Bolivian and Argentine sheep’s wool, it cost me a whopping 120 Bolivianos. I have a Chaco dressage hat as well, which cost 60 Bolivianos. Which is roughly 7$US. When I wear them, I feel the need to put spurs on my Merrells and stand out front at around 11:59am, just in case any bad guys come rolling down my street. We haven’t had any rustlers show up yet, but my neighbors lock their doors when I come outside, beats me why.
Hilarious, Steve.
Depends on which day of the week. If it is my cleaning day I wear a mop hat as I run to my computer with the dust cloth slung over my shoulder to write down the story that’s been going on in my head. Chef hat goes on at the last minute when I tear myself away from my story to throw together the evening meal. Running errands, I wear my chauffeur hat, but always have my computer right by me in case a great thought comes I can pull over and start typing away. (Tamela you might remember that)Other than that I will say it helps to put on the hat of hero or heroine depending which head I find myself in.
LOVED this, Tamela (although I’m still feeling a bit “traumatized” after seeing Steve’s hats). 😉 Since I’ve been polishing my turn-of-the-century manuscript, I’m wearing a hat my heroine might’ve worn (adorned by lovely little pink flowers). 🙂
I loved all these hats! I’m pretty much always wearing my multitasking hat so I can take care of the house, family, and get some writing in. But when I can focus on just writing…I’m usually wearing a whimsical hat, maybe something with an unforgivable daisy peaking out the top 🙂 You know, just to keep me creative and happy and humorous for my romantic comedies. Fun post!
I’m having more fun reading the responses than I did writing the post. And I must say, writing it was a blast! 🙂
Why do Steve’s hats not surprise me? I love your hats, especially the Gold Crown and the Royal Ascot! I’m wearing my Sherlock Holmes’ deerstalker hat.
Love it! No hats for me. It’s all about the glasses:
Mad scientist glasses (woah, you must see them… http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.62215585.jpg) for brainstorming and creating characters,
3D goggles for “showing, not telling,”
protective goggles for slicing and dicing my manuscript in editing,
night vision glasses for persevering during the dark stretches…
and contacts for regular days. 😉
Right now, I’m lovin’ your saucy red beret! And I can’t wait till the time comes for donning that fedora and adding another blossom to the royal ascot hat. Fun post, Tamela.
Love your hats and girl you look great in all of them! As for me, I don’t look good in hats so I created invisible hats, that way no one knows what I’m really up to … LOL
What a fun post Tamela! (Sorry, couldn’t help the little !)
I’ll plop on my Miss Marple tweedy beanie to add clues in my current story in progress. After a bit, I’ll exchange it for a white cap to gain more insight into the Amish community, alternating it an adorable shiny black headband favored by the California coffee house barista befriended by a kind Amish woman.
A break in my writing schedule allows me to don a golfing visor or my Grandma’s baseball cap ready to root for my grandchildren.
Wearing my nursing hat, I’ll listen carefully as a doctor explains my father’s latest impending operation, while comforting my mother.
And, at last, I’ll slip on a beret worthy of any writer meeting like-minded friends, a la San Francisco Writer’s Grotto style!
In my closet, stored for a later date, you’ll find a wide-brimmed Derby Day hat waiting to celebrate finding an agent. Tucked in a corner, high on a shelf, is a glittering tiara anticipating the announcement of a publishing date for my book.
Tamela, don’t wear a hat, but put my clan kilt on whenever I need more inspiration for my series than the pipes playing in the background. As if you didn’t guess, my books take place in Scotland, on the Outer Hebrides Islands. Actually do wear my kilt to the local pub or Ceilidh when I visit every summer.
Love your posts!
Tamela, the clip art you used reminds me of one of my favorite childhood books, “Caps for Sale.”
As far as the hats that I wear, I’m afraid to make a list because it might overwhelm me!
YES! I LOVE Star Wars!! 😉
LOL! This is awesome, Tamela.
And Steve, can we get a voice recording to go with that hat?
Hmmm…maybe I wear a fruit basket hat. Lots of color and variety to inspire my imagination…and it’s useful when I get hungry too. No need for a kitchen break.
Picking out a hat to wear? That’s just what I need – another excuse to procrastinate!
Can I just say how much I laughed at this? This was awesome! I suppose since I am currently writing the sequel to my debut Victorian novel, I am wearing a huge Victorian touring hat adorned with flowers, feathers and maybe even a little bird.
This is hilarious! Love it! And Steve Laube’s hats…LOL. Thanks for the smile. The miner’s hat is fabulous, but most authors would say the Tiara is our favorite.
At first I was traumatized because I thought Steve was writing the post. When we got to the saucy red beret, I realized it was Tamela. 🙂 Loved the post. (And I liked Steve’s hats too, I’m a huge Star Wars fan. I always wondered who the real Darth Vader was.)
I’m almost afraid to open my hats closet and look because it’s so full! But let’s look in the writer’s hat pile:
Miner hat: I have one of those too, as I search for historical facts to make sure my stories ring true to the time period and looking for those little known tidbits that make such interesting story fodder.
Baseball hat: Turned backwards when I get down to the business of actually writing the story.
Surgeon’s scrub hat: When I am editing out the drivel and irrelevant.
Fedora: A black one, accompanied by Dolce & Gabbana shades as I sit in tucked away places, watching the human race for real life happenings I can edit and incorporate into my novels.
Motorcycle helmet: I get some really great ideas on the senses while riding on the bike.
Whimsical hat: It’s ever changing and this is where my imagination runs rampant. I usually wear this one under many of my other hats while going about daily life. Always has a story idea perking in there.
Prayer hat: Because no story is ever written without this first step.
I have three sizes of tiaras for different stages of success.
Small: For finishing personal goals and having a polished chapter.
Medium: For typing The End on a manuscript.
Large: I’m saving this shiny Ms. America one for when I get a sale.
Those are just a few. What a fun post.
Hi, Tamela,
Sherry Gore, my editor-in-chief, says you’re wearing the saucy red one for her. Happy, happy!
My writer’s hat? Well, it’s a cute little number cleverly fashioned from the Monday newspaper. That’s because I pen “Grounds for Insanity,” a weekly column that appears in – well, the Monday paper.
As for the rest of my life, I have too hats many to count. The prominent one this week appears to be a metal helmet that matches the whip my 4 sons (22 down to 5) are sure that I carry. They’ve named me The Original Egyptian Slave Driver. Rather proud of that title, especially as it’s spring break and three of ’em are home. Now I remember why their father, wearing his financial advisor hat, appears downright relaxed when he comes home from the office. They’re not spring breaking over there.
This was a fun post!
Rhonda