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!

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!

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!

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.

For National Dog Day...

Today was evidently National Dog Day. I didn't know this until sometime around mid-morning when someone mentioned it at work, and then I began seeing posts about it. Being a cat person, I'd never heard of National Dog Day, and most likely really wouldn't have cared much anyway.

This little story begins last week.

My co-worker, Kristina, was having a bad week. I'm not going to invade her privacy by saying much about it but she had a difficult week last week. She said something on Friday about her dog, Finn. He's her baby. Previously, she had been praising my recent pen & ink drawings of draped urn cemetery monuments. So I asked if she had a picture of Finn. I've never drawn a pen & ink dog before, but I have drawn some cats. She told me she'd send a picture of Finn to my phone at 5PM on Friday.We hugged goodbye and went home. Shortly after I got home my phone pinged and there was a picture of Finn! He's cute!

On Saturday afternoon, I spent approximately 2.75 hours drawing Finn. I'd recently bought about a dozen different colored inks, plus a bottle of white ink. Originally, Finn was going to be just black and white with various techniques used for shading lighter areas (he's mostly black with some white and golden brown- the colors you'd see on a beagle, but he's not a beagle.) So, I got out the new colored inks, sampling them on scrap paper. I chose canary yellow and peat brown, laying down the yellow and then putting the peat brown over it to give the areas a golden brown appearance like the real life Finn has. It looked pretty good.

When finished, I grabbed a black 4x6 frame that I had on the dining room table and framed Finn. I snapped a picture, put it on facebook with Kristina tagged in the message. She posted that she was happy with it.

This morning I put the framed pen & ink drawing of Finn on her desk so it would be there when she got in. Again, I didn't know it was National Dog Day. I just wanted to make a friend who is going through a few things smile and know that someone cares.

I got two hugs, but her smile was the real reward because that's why I did it- to make her smile.

Post Borrowed from today's Wordsmiths blog on 1867's use of Language & Words

About a month or so ago I found a book titled Burt's Illustrated Connecicut Valley Guide, published in 1867 sitting on the shelf in Blue Umbrella. Of course, being rather passionate about the 1860-1910 era the book had to come home with me.

This morning, while killing time waiting for John to come home from grocery shopping, I grabbed the book off the end table, plopped down on the couch and started reading aloud from it to Revere (yes, the cat) who was in the front window, and Kelly, who was in her room.

The volume begins with an apology from the editor's. Imagine that! Here is the first line of that apology-

 "In presenting this book to the public, it has been the aim of the Editor to awaken an increased interest in New England's fairest and loveliest regions, and to assist the seeker of pleasure to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the grandeur and beauty of Connecticut Valley scenery and that bordering on it."

and then he goes on to write, and I kid you not, this is verbatim from the same paragraph-

"He has aimed to discard glittering generalities for solid substance, stopping by the way only long enough to point out the piquant condiments that each may flavor to his own taste."

Oh, and I love this paragraph to death!

"An occasional anecdote and reminiscence, many of them never before in print, have been culled from the way-side and are here presented, to enliven and relieve the monotony of description, as too much of a good thing is apt to weary the best of tastes."

The apology concludes with this paragraph-

"The Guide is at your service, Reader, and it is hoped you will find in it a help to your enjoyment of a tour through the Connecticut Valley, where it is confidently believed you can find increased health and a pleasant life-long remembrance."

At first I thought, what pompous language...but then I remembered that this was written in 1867 when we didn't have television, social media, or even radio. People spoke to one another, and people read. This was their form of entertainment. Yes, the language is florid and not what we're used to in today's world of abbreviations, acronyms and emojis- we try to communicate in the least possible amount of words or key strokes. We've dumbed down our manner of communication, and even executives cannot write a coherent, literate email anymore. Seriously, that's sad.

Have we progressed? I don't think so.

Creating a Print Proof of a Novel

I think I do much better at finding mistakes, grammar issues, continuity problems, etc. when I hold a print copy in my hands, so I am in the process of creating a print copy of The Worth of a Woman so I can read it like a real book and scribble corrections on the pages.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a new novel about a Kentucky singer/musician who leaves rehab and finds himself in the Green Mountains of Vermont at a rural but scenic inn. That's all I'm saying at this point as I'm really only five chapters into it. Since I never plot or plan what I write, just let the story tell itself, I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but some random ideas have been going through my head. We'll see which ones make the cut and then I can reveal more.

This would make two books about real people in a row, no fantasy, no magic, no supernatural beings, no ghosts. Unusual for me. But, there is the beginning of another novel that I've begun writing that has a very real young lady escaping some unknown creature in a dark park, fleeing into the woods and somehow crossing into a parallel world where there is magic and strange creatures, and a young man in black with a murder of crows at his command who abandons her because she has became infected by the scratch of one of these dangerous creatures. Needless to say, she's not a helpless teenager.

Then I still have the mega love quadrangle novel to get a handle on, again with real people.

Also on my plate is preparing for the resumption of the monthly WhipCity Wordsmiths meetings. I really need to get that scheduled for September!

How did life get so hectic. Why is time suddenly flashing by like an express train passing a daytrip train. Whoosh! Leaves me spinning!