Wendy Lawson Barnette

My best and oldest friend Wendy passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still reeling. That's a picture of her on her wedding day in June. She had a daughter who looks just like her.

Her death made me think about my beliefs on life after death. I do believe something carries on, just have no idea what. Life and work have been put on hold while I mourn.

Wendy was impossible to understand, giving, fun, interesting to talk to, and always answered my calls when I rang her. I know the hardest part of her dying will be those times when I need to talk to her in the months, even years to come.

I will always keep her in my thoughts and hope the best for the family she left behind.

Two Posts in One Day - Whooo!

Authors, I found a cool thread on the Kindle discussion board. Check out this site called Book Club Discussion Guide. For some wondrous blogger reason, the site won't link, but here's the URL: http://bookclubcentral.wordpress.com/

You can suggest your book for book clubs. The site has instructions on how to do it. One thing you have to do is write eight discussion questions and post them on your Web site or blog. Here are mine for The Blue Pen:

1. How does the cat bring Cleo and Parker closer?

2. Cleo's experiences could be mental illness or genuine psychic explorations. Which do you think they are and why?

3. Do Parker's ambitions lead to Cleo's bathroom scene, or do you think this is something she's done before?

4. Barbie and Cleo share a bizarre family background. Who do you think takes after her mother?

5. Many of the characters in the book have more than one name. Do you think this works in the book?

6. Do you think a place like the Beacon could realistically exist and would you go there?

7. Does this book make you more interested in psychic phenomena?

8. Does this book make you more interested in mental illness?

Good luck, everyone! I think this is a neat opportunity.

The Message was released on Kindle!

Yay!

Life is settling some, but everyone's been sick all week with something or other. Zinc is amazing stuff. Knocks what could be bed-ridden for a week to a day. I love ZINC. And no side effects.

I started working again on the third Night Person book today. I told the kids about it yesterday and now I'm excited about it again. I may try Nano with it, just start a lil early. I've never won a Nano.

I'm hoping Amazon will match the free price for Sam the Night Person soon. I check it every day. Who knows how they decide to do it?

Mikie wants to redo some of the covers. I think that'd be awesome. He spent all last weekend painting and did some amazing stuff. One was a poster of Jim Morrison's face and at the top he wrote, "One does not simply walk into Jim MorrDoor" with the Doors logo and the Great Eye in the background. So funny!

Morgana, Spooky's little girl has gotten big. She is the most darling thing in the world. Here's a pic of us together:



She follows me everywhere and sleeps with me. Pees with me, even. She's curled up on my chest right now, one of her favorite things to do. Kitty has me wrapped around her little paw. I adore her. She likes me to hold her like a baby and sing Elliott Smith songs to her. She looks deep into my eyes with love and then, when I'm done singing, I give her Eskimo kisses!

Another Interview with Artist Vanessa Rusczyk

Hello, Vanessa, and thanks for giving us another interview. Your last interview is the most hit post on my blog. You have many lurking fans of your art work. Readers, if you’d like to see Vanessa Rusczyk’s first interview, click here.

You have been painting with oils, and in the past have been immersed in watercolors. What was the transition like?

Much easier than I thought it would be! For some reason I had this view of oil as a more difficult medium, but that was just because I didn’t understand it. Once I started using the materials, I kicked myself for waiting so long. There were some things that were hard to get used to, like painting whites and lights last, whereas with watercolors that is the first thing you need to think about. The best part is that oils are very forgiving - you can always let them dry and paint over. With watercolor, once a painting starts to go wrong, it can be very hard or impossible to recover.

What have you learned painting oils in comparison to watercolors?

Other than the differences highlighted above, I’ve found that I am more suited to oils than watercolors, personality-wise. I have a degree in engineering and have always been a fairly right-brained thinker. Watercolors lend themselves more to spontaneity than oils - a lot of watercolorists love letting the paint “do what it wants” on the paper. Well, oil will only do exactly what you tell it to do! I like being able to plan what I’m doing and not be surprised by the result. It is also much easier to paint larger canvases. The most common size I’m using now is 30”x40” (as opposed to 22x30 with watercolors) and I have two even larger canvases that are just sitting there, waiting!

Do you still focus on plant life, or have you branched out? Your flowers are as breath-taking as they are in real life. Does this carry over into oils?

Thanks! Yes, that is still my focus, and more specifically, native flora of the southwestern United States. So far my oils have featured flowers from California, New Mexico, and Colorado. I think the results are even better than the watercolors! One of the hardest challenges with watercolors was the backgrounds, especially around an intricately shaped flower. While working on my first oil painting, Chaparral Mallow, Santa Barbara, when I got to the background I couldn’t contain my excitement - I loved painting it! Now the backgrounds are really fun and I can even experiment. I put that right-side brain to rest and just play around.

Do you hate waiting for oils to dry, or do you like that you have time to change things?

The materials I use with oils allow the first layer to dry overnight, and each subsequent layer dries a little slower. I use liquin mixed with oil on the first layer, which causes the paint to dry much faster. The first layer of paint is an underpainting, so there is no need to take time to do a lot of detail work. It consists of blocking in color based on value primarily. I usually also take in to account what is going to be the next layer - for example if the sky has yellow tones, then I might use yellow as the underpainting for the sky area. Each complete layer of paint uses less liquin until the final one where I use almost pure oil paint. I do love the ability not only to change things, but also to smooth, blend, meld the colors, especially in flowers were you have these almost imperceptible changes in color or shade.

Do you still do watercolors?

I’ve maybe painted once in watercolors in the last year and a half. There are several that are mostly finished that I will finish and frame at some point, but I am having so much fun with the oils now, who knows when that will be!

What is your painting schedule like? Do you paint when you feel the urge, or are you strict with when you paint?

Funny that you ask this question because I just wrote a blog post about it!! Until last week I was trying to follow a regular schedule but not succeeding. I finally realized it was because I was spending too much time on the internet! Last week I started having Richard take the internet with him to work (this is possible because we use one of those Sprint dongles). I have been painting every day and making great progress on several paintings. I believe if I’m really to succeed as an artist I need to paint as often as possible.

Do you have anything in galleries or otherwise displayed?

I am taking a class/open studio at the Art Academy of San Diego, and I have one painting on display there. Right now I’m concentrating on getting together a good portfolio of at least 20 paintings, and then it will be time to start looking around for places to display. I did have two paintings accepted in to the San Diego Fair Fine Art Exhibit, where they were shown for a month.

Where can we find your work on the Internet?

You can visit my website, www.studiosoledad.com, and I have also started a blog at www.studio-soledad.com/blogspot. The website is exclusively about my art, and the blog focuses on art, but I also occasionally post about other subjects that interest me such as gardening and travel.

Oh yeah, and Sam the Night Person is Free on Smashwords

You can find it here.

You need to take off the prude filter. I made it adult because of the smoking cigarettes in the book. Hope you enjoy!

Energy from Ginseng

I've always loved the effects of ginseng, but it's hard to find the right kind and brand to make the ole body react with energy and well-being. It's why my email was inscrutableroot for 15 years, till it got spam-bombed. That's another term for ginseng. Mikie found some good ginseng for me at a GNC and it's helping with my anxiety and stress levels. The first time I took ginseng, over 15 years ago, I played my dad's accordion for the first time. Fun stuff!

On to cat news. Devlin has disappeared, but she had turned feral for the most part. We saw her once a day, if even. Devlin Imposter still comes in once in a while, and she's pretty sweet. We're keeping two of Spooky and Osho's babies, Morgana and Poof. We named Poof that because we didn't want to get attached, but his big, round eyes and over-sized ears, daddy body and mama eyes (Harry Potter is another name for him) made us love him too much.

Personal life's been crazy, but I'm dealing okay with it. I said, screw housekeeping, and it sure shows. I have a brace on my foot due to a torn tendon and it's a pain.

Haven't been writing, but posted three of my old books as indies on Kindle. I got my rights back from CLP and Terrie was wonderful about it. She really is great, and if you're thinking of going with an ebook company, look up Club Lighthouse Publishing.

The Message is due out 10/11/11. Yay!

I had to stop doing Hazard Cat, much to my sad heart, but I couldn't afford it. Didn't get any editing jobs in August except for a few shorts and now need to cut corners/rub pennies together/steal mail out of the neighbors' mailboxes looking for checks. (Just kidding. I make the kiddos do that.)

Raven and the Writing Desk has ended our year and a half run, but we're putting out a book on Kindle of the stories we liked best.

Long Timey, No Writey

It's a day, the day after the day after personal life exploded. Oh well, it's calm now and my Sam Adams Cherry Wheat knows what I mean. My friend Jewels got me into this particular brew and it's fabulous, sip-all-day and yummyish. I recommend.

That's the cover for The Message, coming out with Passionate Writer Publishing in a few months, I think. Sent the edits back, shout out to Cherie Reich for her wonderful editing job!

I'm so sorry, faithful readers, to have not regaled (bored) you with kitten day-to-day. We gave Zowie Bowie, the girl tabby, to a couple we know. Here's a pic Rita made with her:



Isn't that an awesome pic?

We gave Panthor, black tabby, to my stepsons' mom. He lives with us again now, long story. I think eventually he'll go home again.

Poof, AKA Mr. Goforth, AKA Harry Potter (he looks like his dad, but has his mother's eyes), AKA Elliott (we had to stop calling him that cause we were getting too attached) is the short-hair orange boy going to my friends the Goforths. I'm waiting till they move into their new house before they take him. He'll be a great family cat and they have four little girls.

Morgana, long, luxurious orange fur...Spitfire. She's the one we're keeping. She's so fun and beautiful. But she's a bad kitty sometimes! When I made coffee yesterday, she climbed my velvet-clad legs three times, all the while I'm screaming her name as her claws anchor in my soft flesh.

She's sitting next to me now. Say hi to Morgana!

Hazard Editing is going great. I'm booked pretty far ahead, made some great friends, met some amazing, understanding and talented writers. I've had a rough year between multiple sinus infections and family dramas.

Hazard Cat not going as well. We've been s broke I can't pay my contributors, but I've gotten some great donations. Soon, in the next week or so, finances will be back to normal.

Haven't done any writing except for Raven and the Writing Desk. That's always fun!

My ex-mother-in-law's book came out, Gaia Dreams by Pamela Davis. Wonderful book I had the pleasure of editing. Go read it! Now!!!