Last September for International Art Drop Day, I slapped the dust off my artist's beret and drew two different black squirrels after an eighteen year hiatus from pen & ink drawing. Since September 2018 I've written two books, have a third that needs to be formatted and should be ready later this year for publishing, and just this past weekend started a new novel that's once again different for me as it's part mystery, part suspense, part psychological drama, and part police procedural. The title is The Scrapbook. The premise is that a woman goes missing in a small town, leaving no trace behind. Her family, including the primary narrator, a teenaged young woman about to graduate from high school, are left reeling. Ten days after her mother's unexplained disappearance, Caroline Parker buys a scrapbook and begins assembling everything she collects from among her mother's possessions such as receipts, dry cleaning tickets, movie and other event stubs, etc, family pictures she chooses from a shoebox full stored in a cabinet in the family room, scraps of paper with cryptic notes she discovers in her mother's desk, and other things she comes across as she tries to make sense of her mother's disappearance and come to grips with the thought that someone may have kidnapped her and even killed her. Or has her mother simply walked away from her life in Beaman Heights? Caroline struggles to make some sort of sense out of the sudden chaos that has erupted in her life as she tries to move forward into her adult life as a college student. Taken as a whole, her scrapbook is a collection of the detritus left behind in the wake of her mother's sudden vanishing act, but within the pages of the scrapbook, Caroline begins to see something sinister emerge that will turn her world upside down.
Well, that's the premise anyway.
Meanwhile, I have agreed to do several events as an artist beginning June 8th with the Dewey House Summer Social here in Westfield, MA, an event to raise money for the historic Dewey House. I'll also be showing my pen & ink art prints at the Veteran Classic Car show in July at the Westfield Fairgrounds. And in the autumn I'll be at the Fall Family Fun event at the American Inn in Southwick, MA.
I gave a talk after a nice luncheon at the Senior Center here in Westfield last Wednesday afternoon, having been invited to speak about my art and my books by the local book club. It was a wonderful, intimate lunch with ten lovely ladies who listened to what I had to say and then asked questions and told a few of their own stories. Each lady received a copy of Life, Death, Love, Cats & Dogs, an anthology of light romance stories in which there is a cat or dog character that plays matchmaker. Each book club member also received a pen & ink art print of a black squirrel art print titled Acorn. Acorn was the image chosen by Boy Scout Troop 109 to be placed on one of the fourteen 350th Anniversary commemorative wooden nickels geocached in various locations around the city of Westfield as Westfield celebrates another milestone anniversary this year (the city was founded in 1669). I also made 11 unique double-sided black squirrel keychains containing mini art prints. One print is a 2x3 inch version of Acorn. The other print is a limited edition black squirrel silhouette placing the last two letters in the city's name on a map of downtown Westfield. I have the 11th keychain on my bag.
This weekend, on the 18th, the month long Poetry and Images Contest held in April winds up with the announcement of the winners at each of six locations. A piece of art was displayed at each downtown location and aspiring poets were encouraged to go and view the art and ten write and submit their poem inspired by the artwork. I had Raucous Raven displayed at Blue Umbrella Books. Three poems were written and submitted. A winner has been chosen.
Also on the 18th, after the Poetry and Images event, the WhipCity Wordsmiths will meet at Blue Umbrella Books. In June of 2019 the Wordsmiths will celebrate their second anniversary as Westfield's author/writer social & support group. The group now has 55 members with attendance varying from 8 to 30 members at any given meeting, and members staying in touch via a private WhipCity Wordsmiths facebook group page.
Articulture2019 came and went on May 3rd and 4th with some inclement weather affecting attendance, but overall it was a really nice event with 13 of 14 authors in attendance, many of them WhipCity Wordsmiths, including Bram Stoker Award winning horror author Tom Deady, award winning YA and adult fiction author Melissa Volker, award winning historical author and fiction author Katherine Anderson, historical and fiction author Gerald W. McFarland, historic children's author Ayden Rogalski (who is himself just 10-years old and has four books published and another about to be published), children's authors Rhonda Boulette and R.W. Thompson, mystery author Glen Ebisch, fiction author Judith Foard-Giucastro, thriller/suspense author Claudia Turner, and me, plus detective/crime author Edward Farrell, and local historian and author Bruce Cortis. Wordsmith Jacqueline Sears was unable to attend the event and was missed this year.
It's a little exhausting at times, but I am enjoying wear two hats-my artist's beret (although not in public!) and my little, black, flat cap that I've worn for several years now as an author. I like keeping busy!
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