R.D. Vallier's Blog, page 7

$350 Studio Challenge, Part 1 Foundation

Isn’t my new desk beautiful? Haha. I have nowhere to store it yet, so a tarp will have to do.
Before we left, we started the foundation for the studio. Here you can see the tires we lugged out of the landfill for the base. (The photo is facing south.) I am very grateful my husband is doing the majority of the foundation. He used to do this type of work for a living and can get it done about 3 times faster and better than me. Although, his previous company never used tires.
We didn’t get to the concrete pour before we had to leave. But here is mostly what we have so far. (Photo faces west.) Twelve tires pounded with dirt, inner tubes, and free sand from the landfill. It turns them into 300lbs+ biomass bricks (although the passive solar effects on this structure will be minimal, based on the design). The boards surrounding the tires to create the form also were scavenged from the landfill. What isn’t pictured is the chicken wire screening on top, which we took from some temporary animal crates we had to make awhile back, and some pegs to hold the timber frame ... taken from a failed project last year. Keep in mind this foundation is a lot bigger than what the inside will be, since it will have 1.5’ thick walls.

Thus far the total cost is $0.00. I bought 10 bags of concrete, which I hope is enough for a two inch pad. Total cost: $39.00. I could have gotten it down to $6 (the price of a straw bale) if I made the whole foundation out of cob. But I am sick of cob and the cob floor we made inside the house took months to dry. I want the audio/writing studio functional in two weeks and completed no later than four, so I decided it was worth the cost.
I was too lazy to clean my chainsaw, and decided to take down the timber needed with an axe. Holy crap. I have serious respect for our ancestors. I only managed 1.5 trees. My husband finished the last half, because damn. The impact ended up bruising all the muscle and I think bone in my right hand and arm and I sprained my pinky. They were small trees, too! One is pictured, although it is difficult to make out the true size. The two trees I felled were needed to open the south face for solar exposure, and would have been choked out anyway because the tree grove was too tight for all the trees to flourish. These two will supply the rough timber for the whole base, minus the rafters which I think I can get from a tree that fell on its own earlier.

Normally, I like a stripped look to the timber, but I’ll leave the bark on this round. I might get some bugs inside for a few weeks or months, but otherwise there won’t be any ill effect. Shrinking also won’t cause major issues, if any, so I’m not worried about that (the number one question I usually get when I say we chop our own logs for structures).

Total cost for lumber: $0.00 + bruising.

I stopped burning the candle at both ends recently, and just pitched the whole thing into a fire. We’re at a motel, currently, and I’m trying to use this time to catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, sleeping has never been one of my talents. A constant war between the brain and the body, the imagination and the needs.

Giveaway Thanks! And New Studio on the Way (I hope).

My laptop fried, so I didn't get a chance to post this earlier: Thanks for a successful Giveaway! :) I needed 500 entries to justify hosting one, and ended up with 1469!! So, Thank You!!! I'll be getting more up in the near future, and I might just run them for 2 weeks, both local and internationally. I think I can afford more countries this way.

I need to play catch-up, but I'll post the latest roadside motel later. Also, I ordered equipment for making an audio book, but I don't have a place to record ... so I'm building a small sound/writing studio (I'll actually have a writing desk! And a real chair! :D) My budget is $350 to build a complete structure, equipped with solar power/batteries/wiring, insulation, roof, everything. I think I've scavenged enough to pull this off, especially if I make the foundation from rammed tires. I found a nice desk for $10 at Habitat for Humanity's Restore, and will build the structure around it. I'll post photos as I go, show how I do it, etc. It might be a complete failure, but I am rather confident it will work. And if it doesn't work, no biggee. I have other ideas. Really, my biggest worry is that I will break the budget making it pretty. I like pretty.

Also, a big "Hello" to the new followers! *waves* I'm happy you stopped by!

Last Illustration, & Storytelling Stuff

My two year old son is like a suitcase bomb loaded with peanut butter, and it is terrifying having anything of value or importance around him.
Here is the final illustration for Darkshine's 5 Illustrated Paperbacks Giveaway. Yay! Although it looks a bit more yellowish in the photo. The 500 entries I wanted got blown out of the water. So, THANK YOU!! I’m interested to see where it goes. :) And I can’t wait to do more of these in the near future!
I’m at a new roadside motel, which I will post later, hopefully. The rest of this is just story process stuff I’m posting mainly for my husband so when he gives me the “this always happens” routine in the future, he can prove it.

A few days after my major anxiety meltdown, I had my breakthrough. Yay! I envy people who can write a story start to finish. I can’t. I currently have 60 open scenes that I cycle back and forth through, weaving together. I was panicking because I could not see the binding thread, where it was going etc. Then CLICK! I was driving to the store and it all rushed in. My exact exclamation was: “Oh, fuck!” I hurried home and told my husband. His reaction was a tad different with an: “Oh ... Oh, fuck.” Now I am so excited with where this book (and the whole trilogy) is going. So different than the other day when I was in crash and burn mode. I do suspect more panic in the future, however, as I still have to pull it all off and not, you know, suck.

Anyway, future-me take note: This is your husband’s proof if you repeat this in the future. (And you made no promises if he proved to be correct, no matter what he later tries to convince you of.)

Giveaway Fox Illustration ... Finally.

Instead of freaking out over drawing a fox, I decided to shut up, sketch without thinking, and see what happened. Voila. Here’s the fox’s test sketch for the 5 Illustrated Paperbacks Giveaway. Color, Pen, and Pencil stages shown (although I inked the nose before I remembered to take a photo).

I’ve noticed I tend to have better results with both art and writing if I stop thinking. I’m not exactly sure what that says about me ... Maybe I shouldn’t think about it. :P On that subject, I had my second panic attack regarding book 2, which means only about 10 more to go and I’ll be finished! Yipee! They always come about when I get overwhelmed with fear and doubt. Sadly, I also have to cut one of my favorite scenes thus far for pacing. I should have known. I wrote that when I had an outline (ya know, when I was thinking *snort*), and those things never work out.

Cheapy Motel #2

My love of roadside motels continues. I can’t get a photo of the outside without giving away the exact location (and seeing as I’m typically here alone with a toddler, I prefer not posting that information on the internet). Imagine a two-story cube with single-pane windows and beige siding. There ya go!

This place is a little bit roadside motel, a little bit apartment complex, and a little bit hostel, with its community microwaves, coffee pot, and library shelves. I love the thrift store style nature paintings everywhere. :)

And check out this clock. This magnificent, glorious clock.

Here’s the room itself. We got the purplish-maroon room. I’ve seen two others. One was teal, the other lime green!

Typical generic motel beds, equipped with false headboard attached to the wall, so you can get your groove on without disturbing the neighbors.

What I like about this place is the huge dividing wall. I can put on the bathroom light, and get an outlet, without waking up my husband or son. Check out this desk view. Oh, yeah.

Rips in the carpet. Splattered and unfinished paint. Chipped baseboards. Rust along the drains. I think the reason I like these motels so much is because the passing history is rarely erased. Thousands of untold stories wandering through.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Chickadee for Giveaway, & Kindle Unlimited

I think I forgot to mention this earlier: Darkshine is now available for free on Kindle Unlimited.

And onwards...


Here’s the finished Goodreads Giveaway novel for the chickadee. One more book to go! I’m going to attempt a fox one more time. If I’m not happy with the results I’ll move on to something else.


We’re in another cheapy motel, and my heart just sings. I stereotype this place: “Single straight guy pouring love into an older building.” It looks part motel, part hostel, part apartment building. Photos to come.

Also, I broke the 200 mark on Goodreads book adds! And it looks promising that I will break 500 for the giveaway ... which means I can justify doing others! Squeeing has occurred.

The off-grid Homestead Shower ... Excuse me while I sob with relief.

We finally have an active shower on the homestead, with hot water which I have sorely missed. My husband has been taking cold showers, but I’m too much of a pansy and have been heating up water in the tea kettle to bathe. We also use that tea kettle for coffee, however, and I would sometimes get grounds in my hair. Ugh. I can attest to the fact that coffee does not work through osmosis, unfortunately. After a few months of this, we decided to finish the shower before finishing the greenhouse it will eventually sit in.

We used slate tiles and store bought lumber, making this area the most expensive we have built to date, by far. I bought cleaner to dissolve the mortar film, but I can’t find it so it looks dusty right now. :/ The paint is metallic copper, but the sheen doesn’t show well in the photo. My texturing attempt also failed. The bench opens and acts as storage. The floor is made from river rock we collected and some cheap cement.

The window was free from a window hoarder clean up, and the outside planking was lumber we nabbed from the landfill. I think it used to be a cabinet of some sort. The “door” is just temporary. This will all eventually be enclosed in a greenhouse that connects to the kitchen’s dutch door. (Our hillbilly attempt to recreate the effect in the movie Practical Magic.)

The shower’s left wall is just plastic sheeting at the moment, and will eventually lead to the rest of the bathroom. You can see the stacked tires in the back, which are rammed with earth to create the bathroom and greenhouse’s rear and side walls. (This comes from the Earthship building concept.)

We also started plastering the inside walls with lime putty since the floor FINALLY dried. We are in a motel for work right now, but hopefully that will go up quick and we can move in soon, and be out of the tiny travel trailer. Just ignore my husband’s butt. :)

Coyote in a Book

The truck stop cook called off sick and there's no replacement, so it is really quiet here which is awesome (for me. Not for the poor waitress). I work a lot faster this way. Coyote in the book. I'll sign it too...

And why does my html giveaway link always look so funky? I'm at 396 entrys right now. I might make 500. :)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Darkshine


by R.D. Vallier

Giveaway ends June 16, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Giveaway Test Sketch, Coyote

Here’s a coyote for the Goodread’s Giveaway . It’s drawn on bristol, and about to be redone in a novel. Hopefully I get good results! Dogs make me nervous, but I was determined to get at least one for this giveaway. I relied on color for this one. I took photos of the stages, so color, ink, and pencil shown. I’m going to try and crank these last book illustrations out, and my mailing list wing illustrations since I’m going to be screwed on time for most of next week, starting tonight.
I also need to make a press release, and I’m panicking ... but not quite sure why. Go away, anxiety. Go away. I’m going to do everything I want anyway. You really have no need to be here. Take a day off.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Darkshine


by R.D. Vallier

Giveaway ends June 16, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Giveaway Test Sketch Chickadee

image: Here’s the Chickadee test drawing for the Good Read’s Giveaway. Two more to go. I was going to do a fox and coyote, but, man, I’m doing a horrible job drawing canines. I guess I’m too rusty. Or maybe I shouldn’t have dropped out of art school. heh. I’ll probably do another chickadee and another moth. I suspect most people would not approve of a spider when they open their book.


On a positive note: I can print Darkshine paperbacks internationally, namely the UK and AU. I was approved from a higher end printer who prints there, which cuts the shipping costs down dramatically. Now to figure out the details... or more importantly, find the time to figure out the details! One more week of hell, then everything should steady out. I hope.


Also, I’m almost at 200 adds for my book on Goodreads! That’s so cool and weird and humbling. :) I feel like I should do something to celebrate, but I don’t know what. Hmmm. I’ll probably just end up squeeing a lot.