Art and Autumn Fever

It's time for Art of the Week. I chose this week's offering because I'm so ready for Fall that it hurts. We're having an unseasonably warm, dry September, so I'm getting a little impatient for my favorite season to arrive. Here you go:




AUTUMN
by Alphonse Mucha,
my favorite Art Nouveau artist
















AUTUMN
by Russian Impressionist painter, Piotr Nilus,
1893

This one captures the chill in the air. Nearly all the leaves are gone. Autumn on the cusp of winter. November, maybe.



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Truth or Lies Revealed...

Well, I took Nicole Murray's advice and mixed truth with falsehood on 5 of the 6 below. I said:

Truth or Lies:
1. I've been to all 50 states in the US and three European countries.
2. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas.
3. I managed to graduate with straight B's in college.
4. I married my high school sweetheart.
5. I didn't know I had a brother until I was ten years old.
6. I wouldn't be caught dead attending a Renaissance fair.

In truth,
1. I've been to only 26 states and three European countries, plus Canada and Mexico. I love to travel.
2. I was born in a dinky oil town in the Texas panhandle called Perryton.
3. I managed to graduate with all A's. Yeah, I had no social life. But graduating with honors rocked!
4. This one is true.
5. I was about 7 when I learned I had a brother. Maybe 6. One of those surreal discoveries that changed life forever.
6. I attend the fairs. I even have an expensive costume. *sigh* There, I admitted it.

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A Letter From Lady!

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When I studied up on correspondence with the child I sponsor, I prepared myself for the event that I wouldn't receive anything, at least not for a couple of years, when Lady would learn to write letters for herself. But today, I received an outstanding surprise: a letter written by her mother, describing Lady a little more intimately. And on the back is a picture Lady herself drew. Round-topped mountains, ducks in a lake or pond, two people walking up a path to a house or school, a sun and birds in the sky. Just the kind of thing I would expect from an intelligent three year old. But the one difference is the corn growing on the mountainside. The design might as well be carved into an Incan temple. Seeing that made her and her heritage real to me.

This goes far beyond my expectations.

But how do I even respond to something this precious? I fear that anything I write will fall far short of how I feel, or worse, that I'll sound pretentious. Well, I've got pink stationary paper with kittens sleeping all across the bottom. And now that I know that one of Lady's favorite colors is pink, I think she'll like that.

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Two Blogger Awards! Wow...

*girly squeal* I could really get used to this. It's fun, it's frivolous, and who doesn't like awards, even if they're virtual? So to start, I'd like to thank Justin, whose blog "The Key of the Twilight" celebrates the ups and downs of writing and offers hints about a really cool world Justin is writing about. Best of luck with those stories, Justin! He awarded me the "Versatile Blogger Award":

In response, I'm supposed to

1. Thank the one who gave me this award.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Present this honour onto 15 newly discovered bloggers.
4. Drop by and let my fifteen new friends know I love them.

Thus,
1. I'm a coffee addict.
2. I have three cats, one very big dog, and two wild bunnies to make up for the fact that I don't have kids but still need to take care of something.
3. I help run a writing community, in which I take enormous pride.
4. I collect swords and dragons and fairies and other make-believe critters.
5. I'm terrified of spiders but like snakes.
6. I have a birthmark on my leg and like to walk barefoot in the grass and wonder, if I'd been born five centuries ago, would I have been burned as a witch?
7. I believe that I'm not the only fantasy writer dreaming of a Hugo. I.e. I like to reach for the stars.

Now to pass it on. Since this young blog has only 19 followers so far, and I'm supposed to pass this to 15 bloggers, why not pass it on to everyone of you? If you've received the award already, don't feel obliged, but if this is your first Versatile Blogger Award, take it for yourself and pass it on. I.e. if your blog is listed under the "Wonderful People" heading, then I give you this award.

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As for the second award. Nicole Murray has awarded me the "Bold Faced Liar Award":

The Bold Face Liar Creative Writer Award requires me to:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to them.
2. Add the award to your blog.
3. Tell six outrageous lies about yourself and one truth. (Another variant: Tell six truths and one outrageous lie. YOU get to guess which variant I chose – and which statements are true, as well as which are lies.)
4. Nominate six creative liars/writers and post links to them.
5. Let your nominees know that they have been nominated.

Truth or Lies:
1. I've been to all 50 states in the US and three European countries.
2. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas.
3. I managed to graduate with straight B's in college.
4. I married my high school sweetheart.
5. I didn't know I had a brother until I was ten years old.
6. I wouldn't be caught dead attending a Renaissance fair.

So, you now get to have fun guessing which are the truths, which are the lies. Hmmm... I'll post the answers in a few days.

Okay, to pass it on. I wanna hear the truths and lies of:
Brian Fatah Steele
Milo
izzey
tab
Justin
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Birthday Surprise!

I am just thrilled. Expect nothing and you'll likely be pleased beyond measure.

My birthday is Sunday. I try to ignore the approach of my birthday and treat that day like any other. Having expectations about my birthday in the past have led to some very bad birthday experiences, so I refuse anymore to allow myself to expect anything at all from anyone. Usually, my mom and sister (and now niece) and I go out to eat and shop a bit (my mother insists she buys me the clothes I pick out) and that's usually about it. But this year I caught hints of my mother and my husband scheming behind my back. "Whatcha up to?" I'd ask. "None of your business!" he would reply. Then on Wednesday he came home with a huge box in the front seat of his pickup truck. My mother bought me a brand-new color laserjet printer. The old one, we'd had it for about a decade, had finally printed it's last novel draft this last winter and died with me cussing it till its last pathetic breath. Since then I've had to email every doc I've needed printed, so my husband could print them off at his office and bring them home to me in the evening.

So praises to my mother, the best Mom on earth!

Then last night, after our LifeGroup get-together, my husband took me to Carino's for Italian nachos and tiramisu. Junk food city! After that, he said, "I gotta run over here for something." Yeah, that's vague. But he's often vague, so I didn't question him, just rattled on about whatever we'd been discussing. Next thing I know we're at the bookstore. He says, "Go to the magazine aisle and don't look over the shelf. Stay there." I give him the "I know what you're up to" look. But I don't want to mess up his scheming, so I hide in the magazine aisle, ignoring covers of sexy half-dressed men and women and try to find a magazine of genre fiction. (Sadly, there is only one, the new Analog, which I don't read b/c it's only Sci-Fi, but I bought it anyway b/c I can't leave a bookstore empty-handed.) A little while later James comes back and says, "They didn't have what I needed. Let's go." We paid for the copy of Analog I'm likely to never read, then went to the truck. In my seat was a bag tucked around two items. I had to laugh. My husband found what he came for, paid out, ran to the truck, then ran back inside to get me, and I was so involved in looking for a fantasy fic magazine that I missed it all. He's so sneaky, and so sweet.

So what was in the bag? Why, George was in the bag. Not the curious monkey. My favorite author, rather. The Ice and Fire guy. I guess it was three posts ago that I worried that I'd not get back to a bookstore to buy that particular calendar until too late. Well, that calendar was in the bag. Strange to be excited over a calendar, I know, but the art of Westeros's castles is outstanding! I'm gonna frame the suckers when 2012 rolls around and hang them up in my writing room for inspiration. The other item was "Warriors," the collection of stories edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois. I had been eyeing that too, last time I stopped in. Started the first story when we got home. Late, it was, and I fell asleep dreaming of vikings.

Art of the Week, Sept. 7

Meh, so it's Tuesday... It's bizarre, it's surreal, it's Michael Parkes!




THE CREATION
by Michael Parkes, 1989



Parkes's work is so strange, it stretches my imagination to its limits. How about yours?

About writing: Some days it just doesn't happen. The magic belongs to someone else, has slipped off next door or something. I simply could not wake up today, despite two cups of coffee. Couldn't make myself get on the exercise bike either. Typed in some revisions on the novel and stuck it out for many pages, so all is not lost. Now I'm baking a big fat lasagna and mean to veg on the couch tonight and recharge with a good movie. I hope.

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Haiku Blogfest!

Below is my very rushed entry for Stephanie Thornton's Haiku Blogfest. A weekend that I thought would be available for me to participate to the fullest suddenly got overwhelmingly busy. When I thought I'd be able to visit everyone's blog and praise their efforts, instead I will be visiting with family I haven't seen in about two years. Yeah, it's an estrangement thing. Uncomfortable to say the least, so I will wish I were reading your haikus instead. I still hope to catch some during stolen moments to myself.

Without further ado, the haiku:


"WIP: a decade later"

In the hand fire sleeps
testimony of the will
written, inferno