S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 160

Always There

As many of you have heard, author Ray Bradbury passed away yesterday at the age of 91. His novels have been beloved by millions of readers all over the world; as a writer and creative soul he has had an enduring influence on me and countless other storytellers.

This is something he wrote about death:

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.

I haven't the slightest doubt that Ray Bradbury's work will continue to thrill readers and inspire other writers for many more generations. And Mr. Ray? Thank you for changing me. God speed and safe journey.

The Art of Journaling

Lynne Perrella's Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks was an online impulse buy I made mainly because it's published by Quarry Books. I'm building a nice little collection of Quarry's art titles, and not one of them have yet to disappoint me.

The book arrived today, and after looking through it I was quite impressed. Being a writer and an artist often means I have to choose between the two; Ms. Perrella's book speaks to both sides of my creativity by adressing not only design but content.

The book contains works by over forty different artists as visual and inspirational examples, covering a wide variety of styles, materials and approaches. Every time I turned a page I was surprised by how beautifully visual the ideas were, without having that over-done, overly-complicated look to them. Most of the examples included found objects and recycled items such as cigar boxes, antique photo slides and aspirin tins. One artist even made a journal skirt that could be worn as clothing.

Some years back, when I first began making my own journals, I was very intimidated by the concept. I did take a class in book-making and binding, but I still struggled with certain aspects of it, especially art and design. I wish I'd had this book to start out with, because it doesn't have all those endless rules and weird material lists and complicated techniques. There really aren't any rules in this book. And while there are plenty of ideas for the advanced journal and sketchbook artists, I think Lynne Perrella has something here for anyone who wants to try art journaling. If you've ever been afraid it's too difficult, or you don't believe you have the artistic talent to pull it off, I think you're going to find something in this book that speaks to you and convinces you to give a real try.

As always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, name any object you think could be made into an interesting journal or sketchbook by midnight EST on Thurday, June 7, 2012. I'll choose one name at random from everyone who participates, and send the winner an unsigned copy of Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks by Lynne Perrella along with a surprise. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

Neo 2 Neatness

The folks at Renaissance Learning are offering a couple of neat incentives for their new Neo 2 smart keyboard/mobile writing device:

Send them your old Alpha-Smart (any model, age or condition) and they'll give you $25.00 toward the purchase of a Neo 2. Renaissance is planning to recycle and donate the old models you trade in, too.

Buy a Neo 2 before July 1st and they'll send you a nice-looking portfolio to protect it at no charge.

These smart keyboards are terrific; you can store around two hundred manuscript pages in their memory. They're also incredibly durable and portable, and much cheaper than a laptop. The Neo 2 weighs less than two pounds, and will run for up to seven hundred hours on three AA batteries (you can also buy a model that runs for up to 200 hours on rechargeable batteries.) They're great for writers who want to work without any distractions, and perfect for meetings, conferences or an evening session at your favorite coffee shop.

Uh-oh

I am taking off today to spend time with my mama, who is visiting for a few days, but I thought I'd share this:

The Guardian reports that an autobio/cookbook manuscript, written by Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders and (allegedly) discovered only recently in KFC's corporate vaults, will be published online and given away via Facebook.

I avoid fried foods and fast foods these days, but I do think it's nice that the company is giving away the book instead of selling it; free books always get a gold star from me. Certainly Colonel Sanders was a self-made man, and can be considered one of the earliest, iconic founders of American fast food, so it might even be an interesting read from those perspectives (I won't know; I'm not on Facebook.)

Thing is, the man's been dead for thirty-two years, and evidently he didn't choose to publish this work while he was alive (or it would be in print, yes?) Based on what I've read quoting his opinion of KFC's food (scroll down to the bottom of this page for an angry tirade about the gravy) I wonder if he really would have wanted his opus to be used by the KFC corporation for any reason.

Yet another reason to destroy before you die anything you don't want published posthumously -- it might end up being part of a Facebook fast food marketing campaign.

For the Letter-Writing Lovers

In this age of e-mail and texting no one writes letters anymore, and Stephen Elliott and the folks over at The Rumpus are trying to change that by introducing literary authors to readers via their Letters in the Mail project.

The Rumpus has also begun connecting their readers by offering them a chance to write to each other. Even better, the latest Letters to Each Other is open to anyone, not just subscribers to Letters in the Mail.

The basics: you write a one-page letter (double-sided is fine), send it along with a self-addressed stamped envelope and $2 to cover postage to the address specified in the post. The folks at the Rumpus make five copies and mail them to five other people who participate in LTEO. If you want the folks who receive your letter to write back, you include a return address in your letter.

I participated in the first LTEO, and I had a lot of fun replying to the letters I was sent. Do be aware that this is an entirely random chance sort of thing, what with the shuffling of letters and not knowing where they go. Think of LTEO as a way of sticking a message in a bottle and tossing it into the sea of the universe -- who knows where it will land?

Quilt or Innocence

Back in March I mentioned discovering The Writer's Knowledge Base, author Elizabeth S. Craig's site that provides among many neat things a search engine specifically geared toward writers. They also put out a free monthly newsletter, for which they kindly interviewed me in April as their featured blogger.

Since then I've been shamelessly rifling through the links on the site, and while reading Elizabeth's blog post Covering Our Bases I noticed her June release had quilts in the art and one in the title: Quilt or Innocence . Fiction featuring quilts is pretty rare to begin with, but this one is the first novel in a mystery series set in the North Carolina mountains, and features a retired art museum curator turned amateur sleuth.

Here's some copy on the book from the author's web site:

As the newest member of the Village Quilters Guild, Beatrice has a lot of gossip to catch up on—especially with the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop about to close. It seems that Judith, the landlord everyone loves to hate, wants to raise the rent, despite being a quilter herself…

But when Judith is found dead, the harmless gossip becomes an intricate patchwork of mischievous motives. And it’s up to Beatrice’s expert eye to decipher the pattern and catch the killer, before her life gets sewn up for good.

The quilt-themed books I encounter are generally of the memoir, angsty Amish or bestest-girlfriend/lafemmance variety, so I was happy to order a copy from B&N. Buying it also gives me an opportunity to show my support for an author who provides free resources for writers on the internet, aka practicing what I preach.

What authors have you discovered via their support for their peers? Let us know in comments.

Road Trip

What would you see if you travelled 5158.3 miles in two weeks, chasing the colors of your dreams? (warning for those of you at work, some background music)



5158.3 Miles by Jorge Gonzalez

Steampunk Antho

White Cat Publications has an open call for their steampunk anthology, Airships & Automatons: "We seek steampunk stories featuring strong characters, exciting plotlines, and automatons and/or airships. We don’t want the latter to be mentioned in passing; they should be central to the plot. We aren’t shooting for any particular mood with this book. Dystopian, humorous, pulp, Lovecraftian, upbeat or dark— all have a place here. Please don’t feel constrained to write in a Victorian setting. It’s steampunk, push the boundaries. We’re looking for that certain flavor of writing that’s hard to explain, but obvious when it’s present. Like most markets, we aren’t interested in erotica or unnecessary gore (I know, I know. I said push the boundaries, but I’m not cutting the checks)." Length: "5,000 words preferably"; Payment: ".05 per word first publication/ .01 per word reprint plus a contributor copy of the book. If translations are made, writers will be paid .01 per word and 1 copy for each version." Electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Deadline: Until filled.

City in the Sky

The lotus flower has brought a lot of beauty to my life. In addition to practicing a form of lotus meditation, I also photograph and paint the flowers. I think they're elegant, serene and beautiful -- and I'm not the only one to be inspired by them.

To quote from the web site, City in the Sky is "a concept about an imaginary tranquil oasis above the mega developed and polluted city where one can escape from the everyday noise, stress and dirt. The concept is inspired by the Lotus flower which is known for its ability to emerge above the murky waters pure and clean." This video shows what that oasis might look like (and for those of you at work, this one has some background music):



Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa wrote a haiku about the symoblism of the lotus:

世の中よ針だらけでも蓮の花

Which translates to:

this world
full of needles and thorns ...
yet lotus blooms

Weave Your Art

If you'd like to try creating digital art but don't want to invest beaucoup bucks in expensive software, you might check out Artweaver, a digital painting program that allows you to play with many common digital art tools and features, customize your brushes, playback your session (handy if you want to show someone else what you've done.)

More features:

Support for many file formats like AWD (Artweaver), BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF, PNG and PSD (incl. layers)
Transparency, layers and layer groups
Common image editing tools like gradient, crop, fill and selection tools
Many effect filters like sharpen, blur, emboss and mosaic
Expandable by Plug-In modules (Artweaver standard)
Editable text layers
Pen tablet support
History function to undo/redo last editing steps
Support for many languages through language files


Plus it's freeware, so you don't have to pay a dime for it (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7.)