Here is my schedule of upcoming events:
Saturday, October 13th Noon to 6PM PumpkinFest in downtown Westfield, MA on Elm Street. I will be among the artists and authors along the block of Elm Street extending from Fast Feet on the corner of School Street up to the empty lot where Newbury's used to be. I'll have copies of The Hanging Man and Other Stories and The Clockmaker's Son with me, plus framed black squirrel pen & ink drawings I'm doing for the event.
Saturday, October 20th 3PM-5PM WhipCity Wordsmiths Meeting at Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main Street, Westfield, MA across from the gazebo. The monthly social and support group meeting for writers and authors at all levels of the craft. A lively monthly gathering of local authors and writers and those interested in pursuing various forms of writing. Open to the public.
Saturday, October 27th, 6PM-8PM Ghost Stories Live! at Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main Street, Westfield, MA. Russell Atwood hosts this annual event at his book shop. I'll be writing a new ghost story that I'll read at this event.
November 1-30th NaNoWriMo, Western MA group. I'll be writing a new novel in 30 days or less during the month of November. Kelly is an ML again this year. She'll be hosting a few Write-Ins during November I hope to be able to attend, otherwise, I'll be writing at the kitchen table every night after work and on weekends during the month of November!
Saturday, November 17th at the Agawam Congregational Church, Holiday Bazaar 9AM-2PM. Main Street, Agawam, MA. I'll have a table at which I'll be selling copies of my three Holiday novellas and four Christmas story collections- A Major Production, The Red Velvet Suit, The Winter Solstice Ball, Christmases Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Inspirations, and Christmas with the Family.
Saturday November 24th Shop Small Saturday at Blue Umbrella Books, 2 Main Street, Westfield, MA. I'll have a table and be selling holiday books and a few other books during Shop Small Saturday.
In between all these events I'll be going to the High Kings concert at the Calvin in Northampton this Saturday, and sneaking in a 5-day vacation, the first in two years, at some point before Christmas arrives!!
Thursday, September 27, 2018
New Book Available & Art
The Worth of a Woman is available on Amazon.
I am still not happy with Memento Mori: Garnet & Quella, so am rereading all the various versions and gleaning the good parts from each one. When finished, I'll attempt the first n this new ghost series once again. I know what I want to do, but it all hasn't clicked together yet.
NaNoWriMo is coming up during the month of November. I plan on writing the third in the Romney & Ivy series that began with Black King Takes White Queen, then continued in Black Knight, White Rook. I've started this novel twice, so will dig out those two beginnings and decide where their story goes next before the start of NaNo on the 1st of November.
In the meantime, I am doing a bunch of pen & ink black squirrel drawings for PumpkinFest here in Westfield. I'll have a table on Elm Street with some copies of The Clockmaker's Son and The Hanging Man and Other Stories, plus a number of 5x7 drawings. In 2000 I drew the original silhouette that was on all the trademarked The Black Squirrel merchandise sold atConner's Inc on Elm Street (currently the site of Rosewood. I did some pen & ink renderings of black squirrels back then, then didn't do any drawing to speak of for 18 years. It's been fun and relaxing to get out the dip pens and ink bottles and draw squirrels again.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out if I like KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). CreateSpace is no more. They have fewer book cover styles to choose from. It's a little more expensive. Books go right to Amazon and Kindle with no extra steps, but shipping is way more expensive, and copies a bit more expensive. I might have to look into another way of publishing in the near future.
I am still not happy with Memento Mori: Garnet & Quella, so am rereading all the various versions and gleaning the good parts from each one. When finished, I'll attempt the first n this new ghost series once again. I know what I want to do, but it all hasn't clicked together yet.
NaNoWriMo is coming up during the month of November. I plan on writing the third in the Romney & Ivy series that began with Black King Takes White Queen, then continued in Black Knight, White Rook. I've started this novel twice, so will dig out those two beginnings and decide where their story goes next before the start of NaNo on the 1st of November.
In the meantime, I am doing a bunch of pen & ink black squirrel drawings for PumpkinFest here in Westfield. I'll have a table on Elm Street with some copies of The Clockmaker's Son and The Hanging Man and Other Stories, plus a number of 5x7 drawings. In 2000 I drew the original silhouette that was on all the trademarked The Black Squirrel merchandise sold atConner's Inc on Elm Street (currently the site of Rosewood. I did some pen & ink renderings of black squirrels back then, then didn't do any drawing to speak of for 18 years. It's been fun and relaxing to get out the dip pens and ink bottles and draw squirrels again.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out if I like KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). CreateSpace is no more. They have fewer book cover styles to choose from. It's a little more expensive. Books go right to Amazon and Kindle with no extra steps, but shipping is way more expensive, and copies a bit more expensive. I might have to look into another way of publishing in the near future.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
A Wonderful Afternoon with the WhipCity Wordsmiths
It's amazing how one's author/writer/creativity battery can be fully recharged by attending a gathering of local authors/writers. It's an indescribable (you'd think as an author and wordsmith that I'd have all sorts of adjectives to string together here) feeling to sit among ones peers and just absorb their energy and enthusiasm.
The WhipCity Wordsmiths, the authors/writers social & support group that Kelly and I founded in June 2017 that officially launched in September 2017, met today after a two month summer break. Ten members attended with others sending regrets and hopes to be in attendance in October. Three of today's group were new members attending for the first time who were warmly welcomed and jumped right in with both feet, participating in discussions, offering advice and making suggestions.
Artworks of Westfield President Bill Westerlind, a member since the group's founding, was in attendance today. He spoke about his experience as a book reviewer on goodreads. He also talked about the upcoming PumpkinFest in Westfield on October 13th, how Artworks was offering display and sales space to authors and artists along Elm Street during the event. Rhonda and I will be there. Kelly, Sandy, Connie, Sonia, and I did PumpkinFest last year and had a blast! Bill also briefly mentioned the annual Artworks hosted Articulture event which makes space available for authors. A number of Wordsmiths have participated in that event. This past April all 10 authors who signed up were WhipCity Wordsmiths (Susan, Kelly, Melissa, Lindsay, Kate, Carol, Judith, Sandy, Rhonda, and Ayden). We have a talented pool of authors in the group, and some talented up and coming authors as well.
Two hours flew by this afternoon. It would have been easy to pass another hour with these people, but some had traveled a distance to attend and had to get home as the dinner hour drew near.
I can come feeling energized and ready to write. I have been feeling discouraged because the novel I've been trying to write has had numerous false starts. I really need to write an outline as there are subtle layers to the story and they have to be laid just so. That's what's been disappointing and frustrating me. I feel able to attack that chore now.
The battery is charged! Ready, set, write!!!
(I wasn't very enthusiastic about starting a writer's group when asked to do so...but once I decided I didn't want an ordinary write to prompts and gently critique one another's writing type of group, I wanted something more dynamic where all members could participate or take over the entire meeting if they wanted to, I felt better about it. It took several months to feel comfortable with one another, but by November of 2017 the group got rolling in the right direction and it has taken on a force of its own. Today, I can say that I'm happy and satisfied with the direction this group is going in...and I hope it continues with each new member who joins us.)
The WhipCity Wordsmiths, the authors/writers social & support group that Kelly and I founded in June 2017 that officially launched in September 2017, met today after a two month summer break. Ten members attended with others sending regrets and hopes to be in attendance in October. Three of today's group were new members attending for the first time who were warmly welcomed and jumped right in with both feet, participating in discussions, offering advice and making suggestions.
Artworks of Westfield President Bill Westerlind, a member since the group's founding, was in attendance today. He spoke about his experience as a book reviewer on goodreads. He also talked about the upcoming PumpkinFest in Westfield on October 13th, how Artworks was offering display and sales space to authors and artists along Elm Street during the event. Rhonda and I will be there. Kelly, Sandy, Connie, Sonia, and I did PumpkinFest last year and had a blast! Bill also briefly mentioned the annual Artworks hosted Articulture event which makes space available for authors. A number of Wordsmiths have participated in that event. This past April all 10 authors who signed up were WhipCity Wordsmiths (Susan, Kelly, Melissa, Lindsay, Kate, Carol, Judith, Sandy, Rhonda, and Ayden). We have a talented pool of authors in the group, and some talented up and coming authors as well.
Two hours flew by this afternoon. It would have been easy to pass another hour with these people, but some had traveled a distance to attend and had to get home as the dinner hour drew near.
I can come feeling energized and ready to write. I have been feeling discouraged because the novel I've been trying to write has had numerous false starts. I really need to write an outline as there are subtle layers to the story and they have to be laid just so. That's what's been disappointing and frustrating me. I feel able to attack that chore now.
The battery is charged! Ready, set, write!!!
(I wasn't very enthusiastic about starting a writer's group when asked to do so...but once I decided I didn't want an ordinary write to prompts and gently critique one another's writing type of group, I wanted something more dynamic where all members could participate or take over the entire meeting if they wanted to, I felt better about it. It took several months to feel comfortable with one another, but by November of 2017 the group got rolling in the right direction and it has taken on a force of its own. Today, I can say that I'm happy and satisfied with the direction this group is going in...and I hope it continues with each new member who joins us.)
Friday, September 14, 2018
A Quiet Launch For The Worth of a Woman
The Worth of a Woman, my new, soon to-be-released novel (it should be on Amazon early this coming week) is getting only a quiet launch. This novel is different from anything that I've previously written.
This book makes me uncomfortable and uneasy.
This book has subject matter in it that is graphic and brutal. The language is realistic and foul.
This book is way outside my comfort zone.
This book made me cry the first three times I read it. I wanted to change the ending, but knew I couldn't.
Its origin was a dream segment that haunted me after I woke up. It was partially written in a week. I walked away from it and worked on another novel because it was upsetting me. About a month later I resolved to finish it. It took about another week to finish writing it.
This is the novel I wrote the last chapter of at breakfast before going to work and literally sobbed. I was still crying when I got to work (my coworkers thought someone had died...well, someone had, but it was not a real person, not to them anyway) and had a difficult time pulling myself out of the abyss. It took me a few days before I could write the necessary epilogue. I cried as I wrote that, too, but it wasn't as emotionally wrenching as the last numbered chapter had been. Then, I ignored it again for a couple of weeks not wanting to put myself through the emotional wringer again. Finally, I proofread it, made some changes, got a printed proof, read that, made additional changes, redesigned the cover, and ordered a second proof. I finished going through it one more time today, changing a few more things, replacing words, tightening it up some.
Tonight, I uploaded the new word file, happy as I could be that when all my CreateSpace books were moved all in one fell swoop to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) that the book went with the 47 others and was waiting there to be finished. I wasn't satisfied with the back cover text, but couldn't change the cover at this point in the process. It is what it is right now. I'll have to design a whole new cover for the ereader version because I don't think it will grab the already existing cover (I never saved it anywhere)- I need to explore KDP a little more. It's all new to me, different from CreateSpace in a number of ways.
I wrote outside the box, and now I want to crawl back into it. I wrote outside my comfort zone and left myself scrambling to get back inside that zone.
In conclusion, if you're easily offended, have delicate sensibilities, cannot abide violence, vulgar language, and graphic, disturbing sexual situations then leave this book off your must read list. All I can say is that, like those other 47 books I've written, this story moves fast, hits hard, and will not leave you feeling very good.
So, that's that.
This book makes me uncomfortable and uneasy.
This book has subject matter in it that is graphic and brutal. The language is realistic and foul.
This book is way outside my comfort zone.
This book made me cry the first three times I read it. I wanted to change the ending, but knew I couldn't.
Its origin was a dream segment that haunted me after I woke up. It was partially written in a week. I walked away from it and worked on another novel because it was upsetting me. About a month later I resolved to finish it. It took about another week to finish writing it.
This is the novel I wrote the last chapter of at breakfast before going to work and literally sobbed. I was still crying when I got to work (my coworkers thought someone had died...well, someone had, but it was not a real person, not to them anyway) and had a difficult time pulling myself out of the abyss. It took me a few days before I could write the necessary epilogue. I cried as I wrote that, too, but it wasn't as emotionally wrenching as the last numbered chapter had been. Then, I ignored it again for a couple of weeks not wanting to put myself through the emotional wringer again. Finally, I proofread it, made some changes, got a printed proof, read that, made additional changes, redesigned the cover, and ordered a second proof. I finished going through it one more time today, changing a few more things, replacing words, tightening it up some.
Tonight, I uploaded the new word file, happy as I could be that when all my CreateSpace books were moved all in one fell swoop to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) that the book went with the 47 others and was waiting there to be finished. I wasn't satisfied with the back cover text, but couldn't change the cover at this point in the process. It is what it is right now. I'll have to design a whole new cover for the ereader version because I don't think it will grab the already existing cover (I never saved it anywhere)- I need to explore KDP a little more. It's all new to me, different from CreateSpace in a number of ways.
I wrote outside the box, and now I want to crawl back into it. I wrote outside my comfort zone and left myself scrambling to get back inside that zone.
In conclusion, if you're easily offended, have delicate sensibilities, cannot abide violence, vulgar language, and graphic, disturbing sexual situations then leave this book off your must read list. All I can say is that, like those other 47 books I've written, this story moves fast, hits hard, and will not leave you feeling very good.
So, that's that.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Button Collector
I've probably mentioned this before, but am going to write a little bit about it again today. I'm a button collector. I started collecting antique and vintage clothing buttons in 2003 after deciding hatpins were not my thing, although I appreciate them and still have a few in the china cabinet in the dining room.
I knew absolutely nothing about buttons other than when my French Canadian great-grandmother moved in with my family in the 1960's in an apartment attached to our house, she brought along a wicker basket full of buttons. It was one of those 1920s/30s baskets with the Chinese coins and beads on the lid. When I visited her I'd lie on the floor after taking the button basket out of the closet and dump all the buttons out onto the rug, then sort them by color or shape, or by metal and plastic. We raided her button basket for buttons to use as replacement game pieces, to sew on Barbie doll and baby doll clothes, and to replace buttons on our play clothes that had gotten lost.
That was the extent of my exposure to buttons until 2003. I don't know what made me think of buttons when my friend Darlene and I were looking for something small and easy to store to collect. We found the local button club, Crescent Club, by means of a Google search, and discovered the Massachusetts State Button Society. I contacted the secretary of he Crescent Club to ask about the club. Within a day Darlene and I were invited to a member's home for their monthly meeting. The topic that day was Sporting & Hunt Buttons. Honestly, neither one of us had never even heard of those kinds of buttons! But we sat around Martha's dining room table admiring the brass and white metal (and possibly gilt and silver) buttons with stags, deer, rabbits, foxes, boars, hunting dogs, pheasants, etc embossed on them. The watchcase gilt buttons were breathtaking!
Buttons, we discovered weren't cheap to collect, but some kinds were affordable, such as black glass and some clear and colored glass, plastics, metals, wood, and leather buttons. At one of the next few meetings I saw my first charmstring and from that developed a passion for collecting them to the point where I now own 99 of them. I'm shooting for 100. Many of them can be viewed at a blog Kelly created for displaying our collection: charmstringmuseum.blogspot.com She and I have been too busy to post updates recently (well, for maybe 3 years now) but hope to do so in the near future.
Anyway- we began attending Massachusetts State Button Society shows (held four times a year) and collecting buttons. Soon, buttons were taking over my house, and part of Darlene's collection was also stored in my basement! Small buttons, when mounted on 9x12" cards and slipped into protective sleeves and stored in file box cartons take up a sizeable chunk of space! John converted the walkout basement bedroom to a hobby room for me, but although my button collection is still there, all Kelly's stuff from college and things she's been collecting for her own house are blocking access to the boxes of buttons. The room is still fairly full of buttons of all kinds.
We've met some amazing women and even a handful of men who collect. Our late friend Pauline's house was like a button museum with custom crafted slide drawer cabinets that displayed a portion of her fabulous collection! Her enclosed porch held the rest of her collection in tall lateral file cabinets, cartons, shelves, bins, etc. There was always new buttons to look at and admire when we visited, and she generously gave us duplicates of buttons she had and occasionally let us chose others from cards she'd won in various auctions because she wanted one button from the cards for her collection and didn't care about the others!
Yesterday, Kelly and I went to the button show in Three Rivers after missing shows since last fall due to health reasons and trolley museum schedule conflicts. There are fewer members attending shows these days, fewer dealers showing buttons, but we each found buttons for our collections. I found two camel buttons I didn't already have (I have four or five cards of camel buttons- so finding ones I don't have is a rare event!) I also found two skull buttons I didn't have for my skull button card. Who would ever think there were so many skull and skeleton buttons around? But- you can find just abut any subject matter on a button from apples to zebras. I have butterflies, roosters, mermaids, bells, the Eiffel Tower, Charlie Chaplin, Sarah Bernhardt, cats, dogs, foxes, deer, just to name a few subjects on buttons. You can find other famous people, scenes, buildings, plant life, and birds on buttons, You can also find storybook characters, mythology characters and subjects, Aesop's fable images, and opera subjects. Then there are glass buttons made using a multitude of techniques. Kelly has been assembling a charmstring of all swirlback glass buttons from the mid to late 1800's. It now contains over 1,000 buttons and they're all different!
I was editor of the Massachusetts State Button Society Bulletin from 2007 through 2016, the last year it was produced. When I resigned as editor of the then annual 42-page Bulletin, no one else had the motivation to continue with the magazine. It was a labor of love that Kelly (photo editor and contributing writer) and I (editor and contributing writer) did each spring. I miss putting it together, but no longer have the time to do it now that I'm busy writing my own books and working full time.
I still have a passion for buttons and probably always will. My mission is to preserve the charmstrings (one dates back to 1874) for as long as I can before they fall into the hands of dealers who disassemble them to sell the buttons individually- some are quite valuable, but to me the intact strings are even more valuable because you can get a sense of a family's history from studying the types of buttons on each string- such as what branch of the military they served in, political affiliations, a sense of economics if the buttons are ordinary or extraordinary, and also by the various mementoes found on the strings like rings, love tokens, medals, broken bits of jewelry, doll tea set spoons, etc.
It was a fun day yesterday hunting for new buttons for my collection. I even brought home a graveyard scene studio button made by our Crescent Club President, Lorna! Looking forward to the November button show, the last one of the year, also n Three Rivers, MA.
Playing with buttons today!
I knew absolutely nothing about buttons other than when my French Canadian great-grandmother moved in with my family in the 1960's in an apartment attached to our house, she brought along a wicker basket full of buttons. It was one of those 1920s/30s baskets with the Chinese coins and beads on the lid. When I visited her I'd lie on the floor after taking the button basket out of the closet and dump all the buttons out onto the rug, then sort them by color or shape, or by metal and plastic. We raided her button basket for buttons to use as replacement game pieces, to sew on Barbie doll and baby doll clothes, and to replace buttons on our play clothes that had gotten lost.
That was the extent of my exposure to buttons until 2003. I don't know what made me think of buttons when my friend Darlene and I were looking for something small and easy to store to collect. We found the local button club, Crescent Club, by means of a Google search, and discovered the Massachusetts State Button Society. I contacted the secretary of he Crescent Club to ask about the club. Within a day Darlene and I were invited to a member's home for their monthly meeting. The topic that day was Sporting & Hunt Buttons. Honestly, neither one of us had never even heard of those kinds of buttons! But we sat around Martha's dining room table admiring the brass and white metal (and possibly gilt and silver) buttons with stags, deer, rabbits, foxes, boars, hunting dogs, pheasants, etc embossed on them. The watchcase gilt buttons were breathtaking!
Buttons, we discovered weren't cheap to collect, but some kinds were affordable, such as black glass and some clear and colored glass, plastics, metals, wood, and leather buttons. At one of the next few meetings I saw my first charmstring and from that developed a passion for collecting them to the point where I now own 99 of them. I'm shooting for 100. Many of them can be viewed at a blog Kelly created for displaying our collection: charmstringmuseum.blogspot.com She and I have been too busy to post updates recently (well, for maybe 3 years now) but hope to do so in the near future.
Anyway- we began attending Massachusetts State Button Society shows (held four times a year) and collecting buttons. Soon, buttons were taking over my house, and part of Darlene's collection was also stored in my basement! Small buttons, when mounted on 9x12" cards and slipped into protective sleeves and stored in file box cartons take up a sizeable chunk of space! John converted the walkout basement bedroom to a hobby room for me, but although my button collection is still there, all Kelly's stuff from college and things she's been collecting for her own house are blocking access to the boxes of buttons. The room is still fairly full of buttons of all kinds.
We've met some amazing women and even a handful of men who collect. Our late friend Pauline's house was like a button museum with custom crafted slide drawer cabinets that displayed a portion of her fabulous collection! Her enclosed porch held the rest of her collection in tall lateral file cabinets, cartons, shelves, bins, etc. There was always new buttons to look at and admire when we visited, and she generously gave us duplicates of buttons she had and occasionally let us chose others from cards she'd won in various auctions because she wanted one button from the cards for her collection and didn't care about the others!
Yesterday, Kelly and I went to the button show in Three Rivers after missing shows since last fall due to health reasons and trolley museum schedule conflicts. There are fewer members attending shows these days, fewer dealers showing buttons, but we each found buttons for our collections. I found two camel buttons I didn't already have (I have four or five cards of camel buttons- so finding ones I don't have is a rare event!) I also found two skull buttons I didn't have for my skull button card. Who would ever think there were so many skull and skeleton buttons around? But- you can find just abut any subject matter on a button from apples to zebras. I have butterflies, roosters, mermaids, bells, the Eiffel Tower, Charlie Chaplin, Sarah Bernhardt, cats, dogs, foxes, deer, just to name a few subjects on buttons. You can find other famous people, scenes, buildings, plant life, and birds on buttons, You can also find storybook characters, mythology characters and subjects, Aesop's fable images, and opera subjects. Then there are glass buttons made using a multitude of techniques. Kelly has been assembling a charmstring of all swirlback glass buttons from the mid to late 1800's. It now contains over 1,000 buttons and they're all different!
I was editor of the Massachusetts State Button Society Bulletin from 2007 through 2016, the last year it was produced. When I resigned as editor of the then annual 42-page Bulletin, no one else had the motivation to continue with the magazine. It was a labor of love that Kelly (photo editor and contributing writer) and I (editor and contributing writer) did each spring. I miss putting it together, but no longer have the time to do it now that I'm busy writing my own books and working full time.
I still have a passion for buttons and probably always will. My mission is to preserve the charmstrings (one dates back to 1874) for as long as I can before they fall into the hands of dealers who disassemble them to sell the buttons individually- some are quite valuable, but to me the intact strings are even more valuable because you can get a sense of a family's history from studying the types of buttons on each string- such as what branch of the military they served in, political affiliations, a sense of economics if the buttons are ordinary or extraordinary, and also by the various mementoes found on the strings like rings, love tokens, medals, broken bits of jewelry, doll tea set spoons, etc.
It was a fun day yesterday hunting for new buttons for my collection. I even brought home a graveyard scene studio button made by our Crescent Club President, Lorna! Looking forward to the November button show, the last one of the year, also n Three Rivers, MA.
Playing with buttons today!
Thursday, September 6, 2018
I Should Have Been a Storm Chaser
All right- I'll admit it here. I should have been a storm chaser.
I should have been a storm chaser, but now I'm too old for that.
I'm the kind of girl who doesn't go running for cover when wild weather arrives. I go running for my camera and dash out into the thick of things to take pictures of- black clouds. I've shot short videos of torrential rain and strong wind making the mighty oak branches whip around.
I find storms exhilarating, and am rather disappointed that I don't live in an area that gets much in the way of hurricanes or tornadoes. I realize these storms can be devastating, but the force and power of nature just fascinates me. I even like blizzards.
If you look through my photo files on my computer you'll see a lot of images related to these 3 distinct subjects- the first is cemeteries, the second is antique buttons, the third is clouds, particularly storm clouds.
I've watched storm chasers on TV and understand it's foolish to risk ones life, especially when Mother Nature is a jillion times stronger than a mere human being and she can fling you like a ragdoll and quite possible kill you, but there is something awesome about a cyclone, a tornado, a water spout, a raging thunderstorm, heat lightning, torrential rain, wild wind, pounding surfs...
...so, if there is a storm outside, my husband and daughter know where to find me- standing on the deck with camera in hand, or standing at a window recording the storm.
John usually has a bath towel waiting for me on the corner of the kitchen counter when I come in...although he doesn't understand my passion for wild weather, he does understand I usually run out the door and forget to grab a towel. Thoughtful man!
I should have been a storm chaser, but now I'm too old for that.
I'm the kind of girl who doesn't go running for cover when wild weather arrives. I go running for my camera and dash out into the thick of things to take pictures of- black clouds. I've shot short videos of torrential rain and strong wind making the mighty oak branches whip around.
I find storms exhilarating, and am rather disappointed that I don't live in an area that gets much in the way of hurricanes or tornadoes. I realize these storms can be devastating, but the force and power of nature just fascinates me. I even like blizzards.
If you look through my photo files on my computer you'll see a lot of images related to these 3 distinct subjects- the first is cemeteries, the second is antique buttons, the third is clouds, particularly storm clouds.
I've watched storm chasers on TV and understand it's foolish to risk ones life, especially when Mother Nature is a jillion times stronger than a mere human being and she can fling you like a ragdoll and quite possible kill you, but there is something awesome about a cyclone, a tornado, a water spout, a raging thunderstorm, heat lightning, torrential rain, wild wind, pounding surfs...
...so, if there is a storm outside, my husband and daughter know where to find me- standing on the deck with camera in hand, or standing at a window recording the storm.
John usually has a bath towel waiting for me on the corner of the kitchen counter when I come in...although he doesn't understand my passion for wild weather, he does understand I usually run out the door and forget to grab a towel. Thoughtful man!
Second Proof Copy of The Worth of a Woman is in the House
The revised cover, revised interior second proof copy of The Worth of a Woman arrived today- left in my driveway just in time for a torrential downpour this afternoon when no one was home. The cardboard was soggy from lying in a puddle, but the two copies inside were only mildly damp feeling. I like the new cover (green) better than the original one (purple) I designed. I might change the picture one more time. I really want a target with a heart bullseye and an axe bisecting the bullseye...might still draw it myself...I'm thinking about it.
Still shooting for a soft release later this month.
This is the novel that upsets me and makes me cry every time I read it, so I'm really not looking forward to reading it through again. I could use a beta reader, but the subject matter is disgusting and disturbing. The whole book is way outside my comfort zone. The main female character really has a terrible life, made all the more violent and unhappy because she can't conform, she can't be what she's expected to be. She is, essentially, a strong teenaged girl in that she's not afraid to speak up, she's not afraid to stand her ground. But she suffers for it. However, she demonstrates the worth of a woman by her actions...but, just as her value is beginning to be understood by more than just one man...well...I don't want to write spoilers here.
Meanwhile, I'm doing a read through and edits to Memento Mori: Garnet & Quella. This is the first in a series (I'm hoping) in which two people are brought together by ghosts, or paranormal circumstances, death, whatever. I'm still working on that. There are like seventeen versions of this story written or rather partially written...this one is lengthy and needs judicious editing. There's also a bit of a plot twist that needs tweaking. Working on it as time allows.
And finally, had my annual skin check at the dermatologist today, necessary because of the basal cell carcinoma they found back in October 2015 that was carved out of my scalp...ouch. Today she found a small scaly patch on my left cheek. I've been picking at it off and on for a little while, but I can't remember for exactly how long and I never really paid much attention to it. Bam! She frozen it with liquid nitrogen because it looked suspicious, so now I'm walking around with a penny-sized "burn" on my cheek surrounded by red tissue. She also used the liquid nitrogen on a new skin tag on the back of my neck that has been irritating me. I guess I really didn't want a basal cell carcinoma developing further on my cheek, and I'll be happy when the skin tag falls off and both sites heal...but right now? Ouch and ow!
Still shooting for a soft release later this month.
This is the novel that upsets me and makes me cry every time I read it, so I'm really not looking forward to reading it through again. I could use a beta reader, but the subject matter is disgusting and disturbing. The whole book is way outside my comfort zone. The main female character really has a terrible life, made all the more violent and unhappy because she can't conform, she can't be what she's expected to be. She is, essentially, a strong teenaged girl in that she's not afraid to speak up, she's not afraid to stand her ground. But she suffers for it. However, she demonstrates the worth of a woman by her actions...but, just as her value is beginning to be understood by more than just one man...well...I don't want to write spoilers here.
Meanwhile, I'm doing a read through and edits to Memento Mori: Garnet & Quella. This is the first in a series (I'm hoping) in which two people are brought together by ghosts, or paranormal circumstances, death, whatever. I'm still working on that. There are like seventeen versions of this story written or rather partially written...this one is lengthy and needs judicious editing. There's also a bit of a plot twist that needs tweaking. Working on it as time allows.
And finally, had my annual skin check at the dermatologist today, necessary because of the basal cell carcinoma they found back in October 2015 that was carved out of my scalp...ouch. Today she found a small scaly patch on my left cheek. I've been picking at it off and on for a little while, but I can't remember for exactly how long and I never really paid much attention to it. Bam! She frozen it with liquid nitrogen because it looked suspicious, so now I'm walking around with a penny-sized "burn" on my cheek surrounded by red tissue. She also used the liquid nitrogen on a new skin tag on the back of my neck that has been irritating me. I guess I really didn't want a basal cell carcinoma developing further on my cheek, and I'll be happy when the skin tag falls off and both sites heal...but right now? Ouch and ow!
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
World Art Drop Day in Westfield, MA
Today, September 4, 218, was World Art Drop Day, an event held annually in an attempt to make the world a better place and bring the community together. Artists created artworks and then hid them throughout their city/town (in our case, Westfield), then posted clues on social media art drop sites and local pages and then sat back waiting to see who found their art.
Art Drop Day is like a town-wide scavenger hunt for decent art!
I got up early, still suffering from a migraine and a bad night's sleep, showered, dressed for work, ate breakfast, grabbed my art to drop, and headed out onto the road where I was soon entangled in a snarl of first day back to school busses and commuter traffic. I made it to Hampton Ponds Plaza where I was surprised by the number of cars in the lot at 7:20AM, but evidently there's a day care there. Dodging a few vehicles, I pulled up in front of the giant planter in front of Millie's Pizza (our new go to pizza parlor) and nestled the packaged first black squirrel pen & ink drawing "Rat Tail" and a signed copy of The Hanging Man and Other Stories at the front of the plantar, then snapped a picture, parked in a real spot, and posted a few clues before driving off.
Kelly had not been able to drop her art where she had originally intended to, so she snagged my second drop location because it was on her way to work and open so, on the fly, I had to think of a second location for the other black squirrel pen and ink drawing "Fluffy Tail". I thought of Westfield Feed on nearby Union Street, so zipped over there only to discover that the store opens at 8AM and I had to be at work for eight o'clock. An employee inside saw me and hurried to a loading dock door to shout to me to hang on, he'd unlock the door. I quickly explained about Art Drop Day, how people would come into the store asking for the art, but it was the first person to ask gets the prize. He was more than happy to participate! A quick snap of a picture, and off to work I went where I posted the clues and picture to a couple sites before rushing inside to punch in.
I was thrilled by the rapid response to locating our art works. One art seeker snagged Rat Tail and the book, then hurried to Kelly's Home & Garden to grab Kelly's pen & ink railroad logo attached to a framed print copy of her short, short Ghost Train story (published in our joint anthology Disturbing). She was unable to get Fluffy Tail, someone else had beat her to it even though she was so close by!
I enjoyed watching posts pop up of more art being dropped, of more people finding the art all throughout the day. Art Drop Day is an event that brings the community together. Hopefully as we in Westfield continue to participate in World Art Drop Day more artists will become involved and more people will hear about it and come out to treasure hunt!
We appreciate all the artists who participated and all the businesses that welcomed the artists and happily handed over the art works to the first person through the door who asked. We also appreciate the artists who hid their treasures outside of businesses and posted clues that were not frustrating and difficult to figure out.
Happy Art Drop Day! Kelly and I are definitely doing this again next year!
Art Drop Day is like a town-wide scavenger hunt for decent art!
I got up early, still suffering from a migraine and a bad night's sleep, showered, dressed for work, ate breakfast, grabbed my art to drop, and headed out onto the road where I was soon entangled in a snarl of first day back to school busses and commuter traffic. I made it to Hampton Ponds Plaza where I was surprised by the number of cars in the lot at 7:20AM, but evidently there's a day care there. Dodging a few vehicles, I pulled up in front of the giant planter in front of Millie's Pizza (our new go to pizza parlor) and nestled the packaged first black squirrel pen & ink drawing "Rat Tail" and a signed copy of The Hanging Man and Other Stories at the front of the plantar, then snapped a picture, parked in a real spot, and posted a few clues before driving off.
Kelly had not been able to drop her art where she had originally intended to, so she snagged my second drop location because it was on her way to work and open so, on the fly, I had to think of a second location for the other black squirrel pen and ink drawing "Fluffy Tail". I thought of Westfield Feed on nearby Union Street, so zipped over there only to discover that the store opens at 8AM and I had to be at work for eight o'clock. An employee inside saw me and hurried to a loading dock door to shout to me to hang on, he'd unlock the door. I quickly explained about Art Drop Day, how people would come into the store asking for the art, but it was the first person to ask gets the prize. He was more than happy to participate! A quick snap of a picture, and off to work I went where I posted the clues and picture to a couple sites before rushing inside to punch in.
I was thrilled by the rapid response to locating our art works. One art seeker snagged Rat Tail and the book, then hurried to Kelly's Home & Garden to grab Kelly's pen & ink railroad logo attached to a framed print copy of her short, short Ghost Train story (published in our joint anthology Disturbing). She was unable to get Fluffy Tail, someone else had beat her to it even though she was so close by!
I enjoyed watching posts pop up of more art being dropped, of more people finding the art all throughout the day. Art Drop Day is an event that brings the community together. Hopefully as we in Westfield continue to participate in World Art Drop Day more artists will become involved and more people will hear about it and come out to treasure hunt!
We appreciate all the artists who participated and all the businesses that welcomed the artists and happily handed over the art works to the first person through the door who asked. We also appreciate the artists who hid their treasures outside of businesses and posted clues that were not frustrating and difficult to figure out.
Happy Art Drop Day! Kelly and I are definitely doing this again next year!
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Authors/Artists
I have dual passions- writing and drawing in pen and ink. I've been writing and drawing since I was in elementary school. Both skills have vastly improved over time, but by age thirteen I remember I had two volumes of typed poetry on lined notebook paper, the pages tied together with colorful pieces of yarn. I still have them someplace, but can't put my hands on them at the moment- a frustration for me, but I can visualize them as if I just laid them aside yesterday.
I began drawing in pen and ink after experimenting with that medium in an art class in 9th grade. I hit the jackpot when I went to the art department at Johnson's bookstore sometime between 1973-1975 and found a Speedball A-B-C-D lettering pen set- tons of nibs, a Speedball lettering booklet, several pen nib holders and two bottles of ink! I was in Heaven! I no longer have the box they came in but still have most of those nibs and the pen holders. I broke a few nibs through the years. I also scored colored inks- red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange...By 1976 when I went off to college I was able to cover my dorm walls with my own art in a variety of sizes. I even drew a Cornflakes rooster and sent it to Kellogg's after they retired their longtime mascot and received a letter back telling me they were bringing the rooster back and thanking me for my artwork. What a happy day for a 19-year old girl away at college!
I drew a napping teddy bear for Kelly when she was born that hung on her nursery wall and retired my pen & ink materials, too busy as a housewife and new mother to dabble in art anymore. I did some colored pencil drawings for Kelly when she was in school, but it wasn't until 2000 that I broke out the black India ink and pens again to do renderings of black squirrels for my employer who was looking for something unique to Westfield to put on products for tourists and locals proud of their city. The Black Squirrel that still graces many products that used to be sold at Conners, Inc at 34 Elm Street, and are still sold at several places and online by the former owner of Conners, originated with my black ink silhouette of the squirrel.
Again, I put away the pen & ink when I got busy going back to work, writing stories for Kelly and my family and friends, and managing the house. Kelly renewed my interest in drawing when she began inking RR insignias and logos for fun. I thought the arthritis in my hands would flare up, but it really hasn't. My hands go numb if I work too long (more than two hours), so I've decided to do small art- projects that take 1-2.5 hours. The longest amount of time for a recent project was 5.5 hours but I broke it up and did it over two days- that was the largest draped cemetery urn for the 13 Urns series.
I've begun to notice recently with the monthly ArtWalks here in Westfield that many authors also are artists. Sandy (Judith) Sessler paints with watercolors and just took up pastels. Rhonda Boulette draws and also paints. My sister, Lynnmarie May, used to paint. She may still paint- I'll have to ask her. Melissa Volker does graphic arts. I'm sure there are may more out there, probably some of them quite famous but I haven't had two minutes to start researching this subject. It's just made me wonder how many other authors have duel passions- literature and art?
A number of authors are also photographers. I like photography, too, and have even begun shooting pictures for my book covers myself. I'm thinking of drawing the cover for my new novel, The Worth of a Woman. It would be a target with a heart for a bullseye, with an axe buried in the middle of the heart.
I began drawing in pen and ink after experimenting with that medium in an art class in 9th grade. I hit the jackpot when I went to the art department at Johnson's bookstore sometime between 1973-1975 and found a Speedball A-B-C-D lettering pen set- tons of nibs, a Speedball lettering booklet, several pen nib holders and two bottles of ink! I was in Heaven! I no longer have the box they came in but still have most of those nibs and the pen holders. I broke a few nibs through the years. I also scored colored inks- red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange...By 1976 when I went off to college I was able to cover my dorm walls with my own art in a variety of sizes. I even drew a Cornflakes rooster and sent it to Kellogg's after they retired their longtime mascot and received a letter back telling me they were bringing the rooster back and thanking me for my artwork. What a happy day for a 19-year old girl away at college!
I drew a napping teddy bear for Kelly when she was born that hung on her nursery wall and retired my pen & ink materials, too busy as a housewife and new mother to dabble in art anymore. I did some colored pencil drawings for Kelly when she was in school, but it wasn't until 2000 that I broke out the black India ink and pens again to do renderings of black squirrels for my employer who was looking for something unique to Westfield to put on products for tourists and locals proud of their city. The Black Squirrel that still graces many products that used to be sold at Conners, Inc at 34 Elm Street, and are still sold at several places and online by the former owner of Conners, originated with my black ink silhouette of the squirrel.
Again, I put away the pen & ink when I got busy going back to work, writing stories for Kelly and my family and friends, and managing the house. Kelly renewed my interest in drawing when she began inking RR insignias and logos for fun. I thought the arthritis in my hands would flare up, but it really hasn't. My hands go numb if I work too long (more than two hours), so I've decided to do small art- projects that take 1-2.5 hours. The longest amount of time for a recent project was 5.5 hours but I broke it up and did it over two days- that was the largest draped cemetery urn for the 13 Urns series.
I've begun to notice recently with the monthly ArtWalks here in Westfield that many authors also are artists. Sandy (Judith) Sessler paints with watercolors and just took up pastels. Rhonda Boulette draws and also paints. My sister, Lynnmarie May, used to paint. She may still paint- I'll have to ask her. Melissa Volker does graphic arts. I'm sure there are may more out there, probably some of them quite famous but I haven't had two minutes to start researching this subject. It's just made me wonder how many other authors have duel passions- literature and art?
A number of authors are also photographers. I like photography, too, and have even begun shooting pictures for my book covers myself. I'm thinking of drawing the cover for my new novel, The Worth of a Woman. It would be a target with a heart for a bullseye, with an axe buried in the middle of the heart.
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