But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for the ‘My art’ Category

How to Get Killed at a Crafts Show

Or three things you should never say at a crafts show. (Under penalty of death. You have been warned.)

Disclaimer: By and large, the people who frequent craft fairs are terrific. Friendly. Polite. Just plain nice. But at every picnic, there must be some flies. Here are three recurring humans pests at Art in the Park. (Corrales, NM, every third Sunday of the month, May to September. Promote, promote, promote.)

1. The Cheapskate.

I’m an artist and a writer. Ever-diminishing cash flow is a fact of life. I understand that not everyone can afford original art and handmade crafts created by first-world artisans.

Nonetheless, there’s a special level of hell for people who say, “I can buy something just like this for half the price at Wal-Mart.” Special level, where you’ll be forced to watch endless reruns of Jersey Shore while bamboo slivers are shoved under your fingernails.

No, you can’t (more…)

Why I Don’t Auto Follow on Twitter

Alternate title, “Stop Selling Me Stuff!”

I confess, a big part of Twitter’s allure is following, not being followed.  See “being followed” implies a kind of “leading,” and as any employer that I’ve ever worked for will attest, I’m no leader.  I’m also not a follower. (The specific language on my yearly evaluations was, “Is not a team player.”)  I don’t follow,  per say, but rather lurk in the periphery. If you’re interesting, I stick around, but only if you’re interesting.

My time spent on Twitter or any particular website is about an hour, tops (See attention span, below). I drop in, look for funny, rude, or informative stuff and then move on. Because it’s all about me. Me. Me. Me. Entertain me.

One reason I don’t auto follow is (more…)

AWOL from the Battle of the Sexes

If men are from Mars, so too are women.

I periodically come across discussions regarding the depiction of men in romance novels, in particular, how men are written by female authors. The common concern is that the men aren’t “manly” enough, that they have been feminized (whatever that means).  Alternately, some female writers opine that men are mysterious beings who cannot be fathomed by the female mind.

This is big deal for some women writers.  They even take classes for insight into the male mind.

Which boggles my mostly female, but somewhat male mind.  Do these women know any men? Is the whole of (more…)

Editing, Tweeting and Drawing

I have a whole pile of partially written blog posts sitting on my desktop.

But I’ve spent the past week and change working through the print galley for The Music of Chaos.  In the interest of actually getting something done, I’ve resist the urge to fiddle around on the web.  Well, sort of …. there’s my recent fascination with Twitter.

Ah, Facebook, how quickly I fell out of love.  Actually, I never really was in love; it was just a fling, bought out of boredom and “everybody else is doing it.”

I’m a lurker. Twitter, unlike Facebook, is a lurker’s paradise.  With Facebook, since everyone has their profile locked out of privacy concerns (self included), there’s no skulking around on the edges, watching someone’s interactions to determine if they’re worth knowing.

With Twitter you can follow almost anybody. And it’s full of obnoxiously funny people, the kind of folks who like to slay sacred cows and turn ’em into steaks.

Technically, I’m doing Twitter all wrong.  As a good little author type, I’m supposed to be following people in the publishing industry and sucking up to interacting with them.  Ass kissing. Networking.

Except, I’ve never been much good at networking. Not now; not back in the days of a grownup job. If I thought someone was interesting, I’d pursue friendship. If not, I didn’t bother.  Yeah.  I know.  “Who you know” is how things get done, but I bailed on a 8-to-5 career expressly because I couldn’t shovel the requisite bullshit.

Not about to start now.

In the meantime, here’s a doodle of Talis, my emo, dark elf  in The Music of Chaos and its sequel. I haven’t done much drawing lately and I’m afraid any progress I made in learning to draw people has been lost.  So I’m going to try and get a least one little drawing, even a scribble done, once a week.

Have a great weekend.

The Canvas Thief

So I stopped procrastinating and put the contract for The Canvas Thief in the envelope.  It’s now crossing the continent, destination Canada.  Actually, the fact that Harlequin/Carina Press–yes, as in Romance novels–is in Canada is news to me.  Shows how much I know about what has (sort of) become my genre.  (There’s a long blog posting about my weird relationship with romance sitting on my hard drive. I keep fiddling with it, trying to explain my is-shoes with romance tropes in a way that doesn’t alienate every romance reader/writer out there.)

The Canvas Thief (which, I hope will get a new title because I suck at titles) is a hybrid of romance, urban fantasy and suspense. Set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it’s the story of an artist who accidentally brings two of her graphic novel characters to life.  It’s set in the same “universe” as The Music of Chaos and Breas the vampire is a secondary character.

Since I set out to write romantic fantasy, not a romance, it doesn’t adhere to some romance novel requirements.  Like that the hero and heroine meet in the first chapter, if not first page.  In The Canvas Thief, they meet in Chapter Four.

That could, I guess, change during editing. I’m pretty malleable, editorially, but I’m rather adamant that this story not have the usual forced, first page/first chapter meeting of H/h seen in many romance novels.  It just doesn’t work. Not for this story.

Beware of the Guinea Hen

Because I never posted the finished version of this, here.

The guinea hen crossing sign.

For anyone bored enough to wonder, the basic process to create it is as follows:

Again, sketch a design.  Transfer the design to plate steel with a projector.  (Sometimes I draw designs right on the steel, but it usually works better to project it onto the steel.)

Next, I cut out the design with a plasma torch. I do this by hand, although it can be done with a computerized plasma torch.  (Which is like the offspring of a printer and a plasma torch.) I enjoy this part and so I’m no hurry to go with the high-tech approach.

Once the design is cut out, I use an angle grinder to remove the rough edges and industrial scale (black stuff on the surface of steel).  I hate this part. It takes forever. It’s messy and I always end up snorking up black boogers afterward.

Then, I do any welding and assembly. For this design, that means bending the steel rod that makes up the base and stake. Then welding on the letters and guinea hen.

More grinding–ugh!–to clean up welds.

Finally, I do finishes.  My favorite finish is polished steel with heat alteration.  But it’s a pain in the ass (requires loads of grinding).  Paint is actually easiest.  Apply a primer coat. Then color.  I did this design with spray paint, and dabbed the white dots on with a brush. I then finish with a clear coat. And it’s ready to go.

Judging an eBook Publisher by the Covers

And by their web page.

These days new epublishers are popping up like daisies on the lawn. Over at Absolute Write, someone starts a thread inquiring about a press’s bona fides almost daily.

Before you sign a contract, or for that matter, submit a manuscript to a publisher, you should always do some research.  But before you bother to Google, post a question in a newsgroup, etc., there’s one simple way to gauge whether a pub is worth the mouse clicks.

Look at their web page, especially their home page.

A publisher’s page should do one thing and do it well. Sell books.

It’s easier to show than (more…)

And Then He Lied to Her

You know how children love to watch the same movie, over and over, and over?  Until, you swear, if you hear Buzz Lightyear say, “To infinity and beyond!” one-more-time, you’re going to start kicking cute puppies and drowning kittens.

I do that with songs.* The invention of headphones was a godsend for any unfortunate soul who’s ever lived with me. Back in the day, I wore out many a cassette tape–rewind, play; rewind, play….

Fortunately, now, there’s my trusty little iPod, a.k.a., Pinky.  (My husband thought it was funny to get his tomboy wife a pink iPod.)

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on the song and video for Josh Ritter’s achingly romantic song, “The Curse,” a song about a mummy who falls in love with an archeologist.

Long ago on the ship
She asked why pyramids
He said “Think of them as an immense invitation.”
She asks “Are you cursed?”
He says “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he kissed her and hoped
That she’d forget that question.

The lyrics inspired my attempt at a comic.  I can’t draw a ship’s cabin, so I opted for museum as a background. (Click image for a larger version.)

*Um.  And I still do this with movies, too.  I’ve seen Serenity, Galaxy Quest, The Princess Bride, and Master and Commander so many times, I know all the dialogue by heart.

Courage Is

A quick doodle that got out of hand.  Featuring Talis, a dark elf, and a character from my novel The Music of Chaos. (Click image for full view.)

This is totally non-canon since Talis is a pacifist. I was listening to the song “Courage” by Orianthi and this image came to mind. The Music of Chaos is set in modern day Albuquerque, NM and Talis’s usual apparel is blue jeans and a ratty T-shirt, not the D&D get-up he’s sporting here.

Talis is one of those characters who originates as a bit of background flavor and then devours page space like a rottweiler on a steak. He started out as a passing character in a single chapter.  Literary oblivion was the fate I’d chosen for him, since the chapter didn’t advance the story at all.  Then I made the mistake of giving him a drop of backstory.  The drop became a flood as I got more and more fascinated with him.

Before I knew it, he was Regan O’Connell’s (the protagonist) best friend. And then he started popping up in every short story I wrote.

One of these days, he’s getting his own novel.

With Apologies to Marc Chagall

I stumbled on this while backing up some old data.  It’s a chapter cover from the defunct webcomic, based “loosely” on my novel The Music of Chaos.  It took me about 90 pages to realized I’m not suited to graphical story telling. It was fun while it lasted.

This image was inspired by Chagall’s “The Fiddler,” the painting which, in turn, inspired the title for the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”

(Click image for larger view.)