Hi...just a quick update to say, I now have an Etsy shop and you can find it here at ACharmedEnchantment The other place you can buy my work is at Pegana Press Zines or Pegana Press Winter Tales
In other news, I am wiped out with some kind of respiratory thing right now. So I've been spending the last couple of days in bed.
Just spent the last hour writing my "about shop" page on Etsy only to find out it hadn't saved any of it. These things happen, but I just don't have the energy to rewrite it all now. So it's back to sleep.
More later. ♥
Friday, May 29, 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Zine-ing
As a self published author, I thought zines would be a good way to get my short stories out more quickly than writing a full length book. Plus it adds a whole new layer of creativity to the project. Plus it's fun.
But there is a dark side to this zine making. Yes.
I am learning about myself while engaged in this work. When I told my friend Sage I wanted to try my hand making a zine, she responded by saying that I had the hard part out of the way, because I already had written the stories.
Uh, no actually. For me, the stories are the easy part. Stories just sort of tell themselves to me. It's more like they just happen to me.
The cutting and pasting, now that's hard. Not kidding-really. The whole multi media art form thing was very daunting to me. But I'm getting the hang of it. And it's very freeing.
I was programmed from an early age, not to deface books. Not to cut them, or mark them up. To handle them with care. My text books in university were only barely touched with a highlighter, if at all. (Do they still have text books at universities?)
And being a book binder by trade, I am in the business of making books. So it's very difficult for me to take a pair of scissors even to a magazine.
And collage is all about the layers, right? But one of my other vocations is that I'm an energy worker/healer type, and in that activity it's all about removing the layers. So I was baffled by the whole process of collage at first.
When I was a kid I used to write stories and draw all the time. I got so that I could do very detailed pencil sketches with high lights and shading. But as I grew into a busy adult, the creative me began shrinking. And things like writing and artwork began to freak me out. The less I engaged in those practices the more important they seemed to be, and the less capable I felt myself to be. By the time I was in my late 20s, I was so wound up with anxiety around artwork, that to do a pencil sketch would take me hours, and then I would leave it unfinished.
That set a precedence, which led to a long string of unfinished stories too. Then I stopped singing and playing music too. That whole "not good enough" fear factor just spiraled out into every aspect of my creative life.
Now, many years later, I have reconnected with my creative muse. I am writing and drawing and singing again, only now my drawings are more like cartoons, and doodles and I'm okay with that, because now they are fun and spontaneous and I actually finish them.
I would much rather have a finished creative scribble, than an unfinished master piece. And this is why. Because all of the feeling you're trying to convey in that scribble is actually recorded on the paper. It is in every way like a vinyl record. So I know that what I'm trying to demonstrate with a sketch or a doodle is going to communicate itself, even if it's not fine art--and that's what I'm after.
Which brings me back around to collage and zine making. It's a great process for shining some light into the dusty corners of one's psyche. And it's a very primal way of expressing creativity which takes me right back to being a kid.
Hey, it's my first zine! I'm gonna put it on my refrigerator, like the rest of the kid art.
Hearth & Heart is available at Pegana Press. https://www.peganapress.com/zines.html
But there is a dark side to this zine making. Yes.
I am learning about myself while engaged in this work. When I told my friend Sage I wanted to try my hand making a zine, she responded by saying that I had the hard part out of the way, because I already had written the stories.
Uh, no actually. For me, the stories are the easy part. Stories just sort of tell themselves to me. It's more like they just happen to me.
The cutting and pasting, now that's hard. Not kidding-really. The whole multi media art form thing was very daunting to me. But I'm getting the hang of it. And it's very freeing.
I was programmed from an early age, not to deface books. Not to cut them, or mark them up. To handle them with care. My text books in university were only barely touched with a highlighter, if at all. (Do they still have text books at universities?)
And being a book binder by trade, I am in the business of making books. So it's very difficult for me to take a pair of scissors even to a magazine.
And collage is all about the layers, right? But one of my other vocations is that I'm an energy worker/healer type, and in that activity it's all about removing the layers. So I was baffled by the whole process of collage at first.
When I was a kid I used to write stories and draw all the time. I got so that I could do very detailed pencil sketches with high lights and shading. But as I grew into a busy adult, the creative me began shrinking. And things like writing and artwork began to freak me out. The less I engaged in those practices the more important they seemed to be, and the less capable I felt myself to be. By the time I was in my late 20s, I was so wound up with anxiety around artwork, that to do a pencil sketch would take me hours, and then I would leave it unfinished.
That set a precedence, which led to a long string of unfinished stories too. Then I stopped singing and playing music too. That whole "not good enough" fear factor just spiraled out into every aspect of my creative life.
Now, many years later, I have reconnected with my creative muse. I am writing and drawing and singing again, only now my drawings are more like cartoons, and doodles and I'm okay with that, because now they are fun and spontaneous and I actually finish them.
I would much rather have a finished creative scribble, than an unfinished master piece. And this is why. Because all of the feeling you're trying to convey in that scribble is actually recorded on the paper. It is in every way like a vinyl record. So I know that what I'm trying to demonstrate with a sketch or a doodle is going to communicate itself, even if it's not fine art--and that's what I'm after.
Which brings me back around to collage and zine making. It's a great process for shining some light into the dusty corners of one's psyche. And it's a very primal way of expressing creativity which takes me right back to being a kid.
Hey, it's my first zine! I'm gonna put it on my refrigerator, like the rest of the kid art.
Hearth & Heart is available at Pegana Press. https://www.peganapress.com/zines.html
Friday, May 15, 2015
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Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Zine Complete
I'm excited to announce that Hearth & Heart is finally complete and on sale now.
You may find it on the Pegana Press website by following the link below.
Hearth & Heart
You may find it on the Pegana Press website by following the link below.
Hearth & Heart
 |
| Hearth & Heart vol. 1 2015 Summer Edition |
Monday, May 11, 2015
Hearth & Heart
I am very fortunate to know Sage Adderley of Sweet Candy Distro. I met her a couple of years ago and to my delight, we have become friends.
Until I met Sage, I had never heard of zines. But her passion for them is contagious and now I have embarked on creating my first zine.
Hearth & Heart is a quarterly zine which features short stories (of magical realism?). What is Magical Realism? I just call it life. I can't help it if it reads like fiction. --I hope to have copies ready to sell before the week is out.
I have been taking a squint at my blog, (I had to blow the dust off it first) and I realized I hadn't been posting much since Penny died. Just life happening. It was Sage who reminded me not to neglect my blog.
So here's an update about the hens. When the hawk took my Penny, I was determined that would not happen again. My friends down the road who have chickens gave me a rooster, and he is turning out to be a good protector. In fact at times he engages in protecting the flock from me, which is always an adrenaline rush. It's really my boots that he hates apparently. So we have to work around that.
Chicken drama! Who knew?
Here's 3/4 of my flock. Rocky (the barred rock rooster) is in the foreground. I'm wondering if he will ever stop growing. He's about twice as big as the girls now. I fully expect to wind up with a six foot rooster. Barredzilla!
Working on the zine now. Will post update when it becomes available.
Until I met Sage, I had never heard of zines. But her passion for them is contagious and now I have embarked on creating my first zine.
Hearth & Heart is a quarterly zine which features short stories (of magical realism?). What is Magical Realism? I just call it life. I can't help it if it reads like fiction. --I hope to have copies ready to sell before the week is out.
I have been taking a squint at my blog, (I had to blow the dust off it first) and I realized I hadn't been posting much since Penny died. Just life happening. It was Sage who reminded me not to neglect my blog.
So here's an update about the hens. When the hawk took my Penny, I was determined that would not happen again. My friends down the road who have chickens gave me a rooster, and he is turning out to be a good protector. In fact at times he engages in protecting the flock from me, which is always an adrenaline rush. It's really my boots that he hates apparently. So we have to work around that.
Chicken drama! Who knew?
Here's 3/4 of my flock. Rocky (the barred rock rooster) is in the foreground. I'm wondering if he will ever stop growing. He's about twice as big as the girls now. I fully expect to wind up with a six foot rooster. Barredzilla!
Working on the zine now. Will post update when it becomes available.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Winter Tales/Customer Reviews
Winter
Tales contains three original short stories. I wrote the material for a
fine press limited edition chapbook, released by Pegana Press. Here are
some quotes from emails I received.
On Voice
of Fire:
I Love the concept of music being held within the memory of
the tree. Thank you so much for the beautiful book! I will treasure it for
years to come. Please keep writing! You are damn good at it!!
On Where
the Snow Folk Live:
I've read and re read "Where The Snow Folk Live."
I feel like I have one of those huge and heavy fairytale books
from my childhood. The book with stories that mesmerize. Tales for special
occasions only. Reading your story Is like uncovering a
mystical passage and discovering a book that was hidden in order to preserve
its secrets.
And that is what great storytelling does!!! Bravo
The characters (in addition to the letters) really
add to that story and the look of the page . They Create visual interest
for me.
Thanks
On Cup of
Cheer:
"Cup of Cheer" is my favorite of the three
stories. For me it's like Jack and the Beanstalk and the Snow Queen went on a
road trip and met the Star Trek crew. I love the idea of
the "mixture of cultural anomalies."
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