What's Going On Around Here

I'm not a very good blogger. Most days, although I'm a writer, an author, and a journalist...I don't have a whole lot to say. My brain is chock full of fictional people, places, and events waiting in a queue to have their existence come more fully to life on the printed pages I type. The smidgens of space devoted to my everyday life seem almost trivial, although they, too, are important to me. I can't write about my job which is where I spend the large part of my day five days a week surrounded by colorful coworkers who all lead more interesting lives than I do.


In November I wrote the sequel to Black King Takes White Queen, and Black Knight, White Rook. It's tentative title is White Bishop Amid the Pawns...but when I finished I realized that there really wasn't a whole lot about the character who is the white bishop...so I have to go back and fill in to show how he becomes the white bishop. Also, at the beginning of the book a relationship between two characters if described one way, but near the conclusion of the book a surprise relationship emerged that caught me off guard, so now I need to go back to the beginning and tweak it some to bring that relationship into alignment with what is revealed at the end of the book, without giving it away.


I was kicking around the idea of a modern day boy finding himself transported back to the 60's, having to adapt to black and white TV, no remote control, no hundreds of channels, rotary telephones, pay phones, no cellphone, no computer and internet, no video games-cultural shock sort of thing. Still perking in the back of my brain at this time.


Between writing projects I've squeezed in some art. I've always been able to write, but not a lot of people who know me as an author knew that I've been drawing since middle school or earlier. In high school we experimented with a variety of mediums-acrylic paint, pastels, charcoal, pencil...and OMG! Pen and ink with dip pens. Bam! The Victorian in me could relate to a pen with a nib and a bottle of ink.


I drew all sorts of pictures in high school and college. My dorm room wall was all various size pen and ink drawings, some black & white, but many in color, that I had drawn myself. My writing and my art always battled one another. Writing was always more prolific than drawing, but from time to time the pen and ink came out and I'd draw.

In 2000 (Y2K) I drew some black squirrels for the store I was working at. A black squirrel silhouette I drew became the logo for a line of The Black Squirrel hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and other items sold at the store to locals and tourists. I did four realistic black squirrels in pen and ink at that time, and one cartoony black squirrel standing before a map putting up the letters that spell WESTFIELD- the black squirrel putting Westfield on the map. In 2007 the store closed and I went to work as a medical secretary. I didn't have the energy to draw, so I wrote, only occasionally breaking out the pen and ink to do projects with Kelly.


Around 2016 I wanted to participate in World Art Drop Day which is like the first Tuesday in September. I wasn't drawing anything at the time, so I dropped a book and left clues. In 2017, the same thing, I dropped a book on Art Drop day because writing was my literary art. Pushing the envelope, because there is a book drop day, but I don't remember when that is. So, this past September, I decided to drop some actual art, got out the pen and ink and drew two pictures, two different black squirrels. On Tuesday morning before going to work, I drove down the street to the shopping plaza and tucked one print (and a book) in a huge plantar in front of our local pizza shop, snapped a picture, posted it on facebook and headed to site #2. Before I even got there, the art at site #1 had been scooped up! In less than 5 minutes! And people were wanting clues to site #2's location...and I hadn't even gotten there yet! Well, Kelly hadn't been able to drop her artwork where she had intended to on her way to work, so had dropped it at my site#2, leaving me to scramble for a second site for a black squirrel original drawing. I ended up at a location about a half mile from work, that wasn't open yet when I got there, but a man inside let me in and agreed to give the picture to the first person to come in and ask for it. I then went to work where I was still posting the clue on facebook when a woman who had just missed the grabbing the first drawing desperately pleaded for a clue as to where the second one was. I finished my post, texted her a clue...and before I had walked from my car to the employee door she was posting that she had gotten the second drawing! One of these two women also scooped up Kelly's RR logo drawing and short story about a ghost train.

How the art was received so enthusiastically, and how much I had enjoyed drawing the pictures set me off on a drawing binge, drawing a total of eighteen different black squirrels which made their appearance on my book table at PumpkinFest in October. I sold a few more prints than I did books.
I did a church holiday bizarre with just books and did well. Then did Shop Small with books and black squirrel prints and again sold a few more prints than books.


From there I have begun writing the Garnet & Quella novel once more, and branched out into different wildlife, adding a chipmunk, a fox kit, a black bear cub, a fawn, a raccoon and a great horned owl to the wild kingdom. On the domestic side, I drew an adorable kitten. Some images have color (the fox, the chipmunk, the kitten, and the owl.)


So, along my author journey I've crossed paths with my artist self, reconnecting my two passions. Now, I'm thinking of doing a picture book that combines my pen and ink black squirrel drawings with a local photographers images of scenes of historic landmarks around town, adding some text and creating a sort of souvenir of Westfield book.


While I'm not a diligent blogger, it doesn't mean I haven't been working hard on new books and now art projects. I guess you can say I'm twice as busy as I used to be while still working full time!


In January I will begin doing the edits, continuity corrections, and rewrites of White Bishop Amid the Pawns. I needed a break from it for a month to deal with Christmas and Kelly moving closer to moving into her own house where she's been busy doing renovations and repairs, however, I am happy to report that she wrote a novel in November as well. She just completed her edits and proofreading of it and handed me the binder this evening, telling me it was my turn. She also warned me I would cry around page 55. I guess I'd better have my blue Flair marking pen and a box of tissues handy when I sit down to read what she's written!


So, that's what's going on around here!