Creative Adventures

Being a writer I am always interested in the arts and creative side of other.  I have found that people who have one avenue of artistic ability sometimes have others as well.  I can’t tell you how many people I know that are writers that are also drawing artist as well.  I don’t know if that is due to drawing out their scenes, or the idea that maybe comics/anime would be a good idea to look into.  There are also people that play an instrument that can also write their own music, and/or design album covers.  I mean, wow right?

Well, I can’t draw to save my life.  You need a stick figure?  I’m your girl.  I suck at drawing.  That is not me being coy, I really can’t draw…at all.    

I do make lamp work beads.  But that’s more just for fun and a stress relieving activity.  I sell them now and then on ebay just to clear out when I get too many.  Lately, my grandson has been playing with the ones in my office.  I guess they could be fun to use as marbles or whatever.  Regardless, they aren’t all that creative to me. 

I used to play the flute.  I can still dash off a relatively decent Joy to the World, but that’s about it.  I can hardly read music anymore. Yes, I know that is really sad, but that’s what happens when you stop using something.  You lose it. I still have that flute…maybe I should hunt it down and see what I can accomplish.  Or not…

Lately, though, I have taken back up my painting.  I like to do landscapes (again, I can’t draw), and I had always used acrylics in the past.  This year, I wanted to try my hand at oil painting.  I am pleasantly surprised to say that I don’t completely suck at it.  It is way more work, more clean up, more mess, and more money, but it is actually really fun for me.  Shocked me too, I know.  No, I am not a Picasso…yet.  But I am getting better each time I have an hour to get it all out and paint.  I am still trying to learn the knife.  I swear that sucker is for right-handed people and is lefty adverse, but I am not giving up.  I will tackle that problem, one mountain at a time.  Where is Bob Ross when you need him?  What I wouldn’t give to go to one of his classes just for learning that damn knife. 

Thankfully, you can find him on line.  You have to love the internet.

Why am I painting when I am supposed to be editing?  Well, you will be happy to know that I am almost through the first harsh edit of my next book.  It’s different, and not my usual YA paranormal stuff.  I am not sure what to do with it as of yet, but it’s almost done.   Then I will get back to my next YA Paranormal.  It’s written, but it also needs a good edit.  I have a few in the bank apparently, which is great, as I really am enjoying my painting right now. 

Have a great week! 

David Bowie’s 100 Must Read Books:

David Bowie Passed away after a significant battle with cancer.  I’m sure you know this.  It’s all the talk wherever you look, but as most people are talking about it, I wanted to do something different.  I don’t want to talk about his death.  Instead I want to talk about how great he was in life.  But that is being over done as well.  But then, I came upon this list.  Being an author, I thought it perfect. 

A new version of the exhibition:  David Bowie Is,  opens this week at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where a list of his top 100 must-read books, is provided.  It is said to give a fascinating insight into the mind of the influential musician and style icon.  Blah blah blah.  He loved to read.  These are some of his favorites.  Anyone that reads like we do, will know that we aren’t fascinating in our reader list, we just like to read anything and everything.  However, the list is pretty awesome…just saying. 

~*~

Here you go:  David Bowie’s 100 Must Read Books:

The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby (2008)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz (2007)
The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard (2007)
Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage (2007)
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters (2002)
The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens (2001)
Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler (1997)
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes (1997)
The Insult, Rupert Thomson (1996)
Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon (1995)
The Bird Artist, Howard Norman (1994)
Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard (1993)
Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C Danto (1992)
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia (1990)
David Bomberg, Richard Cork (1988)
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick (1986)
The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin (1986)
Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd (1985)
Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey (1984)
Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter (1984)
Money, Martin Amis (1984)
White Noise, Don DeLillo (1984)
Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes (1984)
The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White (1984)
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn (1980)
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole (1980)
Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester (1980)
Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler (1980)
Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess (1980)
Raw, a "graphix magazine" (1980-91)
Viz, magazine (1979 –)
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels (1979)
Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz (1978)
In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan (1978)
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed Malcolm Cowley (1977)
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes (1976)
Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders (1975)
Mystery Train, Greil Marcus (1975)
Selected Poems, Frank O'Hara (1974)
Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich (1972)
n Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner (1971) Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky (1971)
The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillett(1970)
The Quest for Christa T, Christa Wolf (1968)
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn (1968)
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg (1967)
Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr (1966)
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (1965)
City of Night, John Rechy (1965)
Herzog, Saul Bellow (1964)
Puckoon, Spike Milligan (1963)
The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford (1963)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea, Yukio Mishima (1963)
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin (1963)
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (1962)
Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell (1962)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (1961)
Private Eye, magazine (1961 –)
On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding (1961)
Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage (1961)
Strange People, Frank Edwards (1961)
The Divided Self, RD Laing (1960)
All the Emperor's Horses, David Kidd (1960)
Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse (1959)
The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958)
On the Road, Jack Kerouac (1957)
The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard (1957)
Room at the Top, John Braine (1957)
A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno (1956)
The Outsider, Colin Wilson (1956)
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (1949)
The Street, Ann Petry (1946)
Black Boy, Richard Wright (1945)

Farewell my Goblin King - Good luck on your next journey

Chaos of this time of the Year

My brain is a mess of unorganized thoughts, problems, and issues.  I have been trying to come up with a decent blog for several days now and I have nothing.  So today, you get the chaos that is my mind.

1. Editing manuscripts.  I have two completed first drafts of novels on my desk that need my attention.  I spent last week working for one hour each night on the edit.  I don’t feel accomplished.  I don’t know why I hate editing so much.  I love the writing of a book.  The edit…is absolute torture.  I will get on it fellow readers.  I will.  I have some down time coming up and I will work hard to get at least one manuscript off my desk before January 1.  That’s my goal.  Will I reach it?  Not sure.

2. Wrapping Presents.  Why is wrapping such a time sucking chore?  Plus, why is it only my job?  I have wrapped approximately ¼ of the gifts.  I can’t bring myself to sit down and do the rest.  Maybe that’s why I was able to edit last week.  I was procrastination the wrapping.

3. Cookies.  My gma makes me cookies every year for Christmas.  The best cookies ever.  The problem is, that I tend to eat them all.  I had four for breakfast!  This is a problem, esp. since with my busy life at the moment I don’t have time to get to my zumba class.  All those cookies are sitting in my gut procreating fat cells as we speak. 

4. Social events.  I am dreading them.  They always sound like a good time until the time comes to actually attend.  Then I get ill at the thought of going.  I have so many that I have been invited to and I’m having a hard time getting together my strength and will.  Can I just attend by phone?  Do people really need to see me?  I’ll ship all the gifts and foods I have for all the events.  The funny thing is that most people wouldn’t even miss me.  I sit in a side chair and don’t talk a whole lot. Why must I attend?  Maybe this is why I have a cookie addiction.  I’m eating my anxiety of the events to come. 

5. Birds and Squirrels and Foxes oh my.  One nice relaxing pastime lately is that I have the bird and squirrel feeders up. They are coming in droves to feast at my new house.  I am very happy about this.  Esp. as the birds include blue birds (not the blue jays) and red headed woodpeckers.  I find myself sitting in that window for quite a bit of time in the mornings, simply gearing up for the day.  It’s nice.  Haven’t seen the red fox lately.  I think he comes through around dusk and as I’m not getting home now until dark, I’m missing his race through the yard.  The days will start to get lighter earlier so maybe I will see him again soon.

That’s it for me this week.  Hopefully my brain will settle down in the next week or so and I will have something interesting to discuss.  For now, this is all you get.  Have a great week everyone.

ctny

It's the Most Wonderful Time...

18’ish days give or a take a day depending on when you are reading this, until Christmas.  I love Christmas, well that’s not entirely true.  I love parts of Christmas.  There are plenty of things about it, I hate with a purple passion, but today, it’s all about the good things I enjoy.  

I enjoy the excitement of trying to find good gifts for the people on my list that I love the most.  Kids are pretty easy. Adults are harder, but let’s face it Ladies, men are hard to buy for you.  You can only get so many screwdriver sets, or handsaws, before you get tired of that idea.  Then you hit the sports wear and outdoor tools, and it’s not as much fun anymore to find gifts for them.  I start looking around August for my husband.  Why? He’s hard.  I mean almost impossible, but sometimes, every once in a while I get an awesome gift for him.  Not all the time, in fact sometimes I bomb it.  For instance, last year, I thought I had the PERFECT gift.  It was an art piece, “bust” type thing.  It arrived on time, (added plus) and I opened it and…it was like 2 inches tall.  I was so upset as that was supposed to be his main gift and it sucked.  I was heartbroken.  He loved it.  Or at least he insisted he did.  This year, I may have sucked again, as I ordered way in advance, but forgot about my address changing and forgetting to update it on my payforit account, and…well we will see if it comes on time.  Darn it all.  But even with all that, it’s very fun to find something you know, just know someone will love.  So the hunt, that’s part of the holiday I like.

I also love all the food.  I mean, turkey dinner and leftovers and homemade noodles, and pie and cookies and pie!  I have to work really hard for the next three months to get rid of all that pie on my hips, but man is it worth it. 

Christmas morning with the children.  That is such a wonderful moment.  I love the excitement and the tearing and ripping of paper and the ooh and ahhs and the wow!  I love the light in the eyes of everyone.  I could sit back and watch that all day and not even think about opening one gift of my own.  I love children at Christmas.  I just do.  I wish I could bottle that feeling for the dark winter months when I get lost in the cold. 

What do you love about the Christmas?

Ctny

The Dreaded Black Friday

Welcome to the Holiday Season.  Yes, now that we are passed Thanksgiving, it is officially, the season. 

Black Friday Shopping.  We all know those words.  I have never taken part of the black Friday madness, mainly because I have watched year after year of the absolute insanity that happens.  The news stories of the people crushing others to the ground in order to get the big screen tv or the veggie steamer at a low and obscene price!  Well, those news stories were always enough to keep my butt at home. 

The other side is I always felt very sorry for the people that had to work on that day.  Didn’t they want to spend time with their family?  Maybe they needed the sleep?  Maybe they just wanted a day off like the rest of us.  Maybe maybe maybe.

But then, this year two things happened. 

One, I spoke to several people in the consumer area that were going to be working on that dreaded Black Friday.  I was trying to tell them that I felt bad for them.  Give some support, you know?  Well, let me tell you that I was put right into my place and told to stop it!  Why you may ask?  Shock of shockers, they were excited to work on Black Friday, aside from the fact that it was fun in some regards, they also were getting triple pay!  Yes, you heard that correctly.  Triple pay for the night of madness.  They were not sad at all about having to work and in fact requested to.  Color me shocked and surprised and well, shocked.  With the holiday season here and all the upcoming expenses they would be making they were quite happy to be working and getting that bonus of a pay this time of year.  From now on, I will keep my big trap shut about all the poor people that have to work on Black Friday.  I have been schooled and will now just smile and wish them a Merry Christmas.  No, I am sure there is that one person that doesn’t want to work and doesn’t give a rat’s patooty about the extra holiday pay, but again, I have been advised that most think otherwise. 

And, two, I have a teen girl that asked me oh so sweetly if I would take her out Black Friday Shopping.  She has never asked me to go before and in fact, besides dance shoes and leos, doesn’t really ask me for anything at all.  So I contemplated how I felt about that.  I didn’t want to.  I didn’t.  She is too sweet though and I didn’t want to say no, just because I don’t do well in crowds or with strangers, or with people in general, so I said yes, but we would go around 4 a.m. and that we would go to the mall and not Walmart where a lot of the horror videos have been in the past.  She was thrilled and excited.  I was doomed and dreading.  4 a.m. Black Friday dawned dark and cool, with a bit of fog in the air to add to my gloom.  We left the house and headed over to the mall without much traffic.  We passed by the Cabela’s and saw to my dismay a HUGE line wrapped around the building all the way to the back.  We weren’t going there though so I tried not to dwell on it.  I entered the mall parking and saw…it was mostly empty.  WTH?  We got a prime parking spot right up front.  The morning was looking up just a little thanks to that spot.  We entered the mall through the food court, and saw…hardly anyone.  I looked at my tiny dancer and she at me and we smiled.  We walked through the food area and into the main shopping section and again, it was clear and hardly anyone was there.  There were people, but not many at all.  The night er…morning was looking up. We hit every store that was opened.  We browsed and laughed and enjoyed the morning without any people in our way.  We passed several teens sleeping it off in the main walk area, both on the floor and on the couches.  We saw several lines forming before a few stores that were not quite opened yet.  They were set for 6 a.m. apparently, but that was only a line of like 5 groups.  No big deal at all.  Everyone was cheery and nice and the working people were smiling and helpful.  We had a cinnabon, and we got most of our Christmas shopping done.  It was fun.  I wish shopping at the mall was like that all the time.  I might actually like to go. 

So what did I learn this weekend?  Black Friday shopping isn’t bad at all.  Will I go out next year?  Probably, but again no Walmart and no electronic places and now I also know not to hit the Cabela’s either based on that line we saw.

Did you partake of the Friday?  What do you think?  Do you love it?  Do you hate it? 

Welcome to the consumerism of the holidays.  Be safe out there everyone. 

New Release! The Full Moon Rises

It’s Release Week!  That means this is a short blog.  Here is what you need to know.

My latest book, The Full Moon Rises is out!  

 This is book 2 in the:  A Howl in the Night series.  

So what’s it about? 

Life as a shape shifter is not as easy as it would seem, especially not for Abigail Staton. Being a teenager and a shape shifter is even harder, not to mention being one of the last remaining females in the two competing wolf clans and the only girl in her new schools. Striving to find where she belongs, gets sidelined when an old threat to the wolves resurfaces. The clans are forced to come together in a semi-truce, and the already dominant males become even more controlling in trying to protect their own as well as their secret. Abby finds herself in the middle yet again, but this time, she will need both clans in order to survive.

Where can you get it?

Amazon Link

Rogue Phoenix Press Link

It is currently on sale at only $.99.  This price wont last for long, so get it now, while you can at this price.  

~*~ 

Here is book one in case you need it or want it.  A Howl in the Night.

  

What’s it about?

Sweet Sixteen is supposed to be a turning point in your life. The world is before you in all its glory, just waiting for you to reach out and grab it. Right? For Abigail Staton no, not so much. Not only does she suddenly lose her best friend due to a fight, but suddenly her mother expects her to believe that the father, she has never met, is actually a werewolf. With that revelation, Abby is thrust into the world of two wolf clans who are not only fighting each other, but also fighting for Abby, one of the few females born to the shape-shifters. Her father is determined to pair Abby up with Derek, a very dominant and overwhelming shifter. Abby vehemently balks at this union to disastrous results. When war is declared between the two clans, Abby has to decide what side she is actually on.

Where can you get book 1?

Amazon Link - Howl in the Night

Rogue Phoenix Press - Howl in the Night

That’s it, guys, short and sweet for this week.  It’s the holidays, do you like to read YA, or do you know someone who does?  Now’s the perfect time to get these two great reads at a great price. 

Just a random blog day

I don’t dance.  I know a lot of you know that my tiny dancer, however, does.  A lot…  It’s not that I don’t like dance, I simply can’t.  I have two left feet, and gravity hates me.  I do have a few memories as a kid of dance class that have been on my mind lately.  Don't know why, but nonetheless, they are there.  

Dance class was at the community center.  I don’t know much more about it other than that’s where it was.  Did it cost money?  No idea.  How many times a week was it?  Again, no idea.  What I do know is that it was held in an old building converted into the community center.  The room that held the class seems HUGE to my little form.  It had wooden floors, like you would find in a house.  Not a “dance” floor with special flooring, just hard wood. There is a smell every now and then that I catch when I go into old buildings that tickles forward my dance memories.  It’s old and dusty and something else, maybe dead mouse for all I know, but once in a while, I catch a whiff and I am transported back.  It’s not much of a memory.  But what I see is always the same. 

The windows in that old room were big, with individual square panes.  The window frames were large in that I could sit up in them in the sunshine that always seemed to be trickling through.  I loved to sit in those windows.  The dust in the air highlighted by the sunshine flowing through the air.  The warmth of that yellow light against my skin is still to this day one of my fondest memories.  I could pretend I was someone special sitting up in those windows, getting ready for class. 

There isn’t much more to my memories.  My sister took class with me.  I liked the song “Magic” but not the one by Olivia Newton John, the “other one” which the teacher didn’t have.  I don’t know if I had dance shoes or if we just danced in what we had or in nothing at all.  It really is only those windows that have stuck with me through the many many years since. 

Sometimes when I am writing a seen in an old building, that is the memory I pull from.  I wonder if that room is as big and grand as I remember it in my little girl brain.   If it’s not, then I don’t want to know.  I like seeing myself in that big window, the sun on my head, shining down through my hair as I wait for class to begin. 

FYI the “Magic” Song, is:  You Can Do Magic, by America.  I still love that song. 

Just a reminder, The Full Moon Rises releases in…less than a week!!!!!  Aren’t you excited?