Creative Endeavors

By Fran McNabb

If you follow Victoria Johnson and her fabulous blogs and were expecting to read another one of hers today, I hope you’re not too disappointed. Victoria asked me to step in to fill her spot just for this month. She should be back in full writing mode by next month.

All of us who started writing with Avalon Books still call ourselves Avaloners even though the publishing company no longer exists. Over the years we’ve become close “virtual” friends and colleagues. The group has a tremendous amount of expertise to offer in the field of writing, but I’ve realized that many of us also use other mediums to express our creativity.

I’m in the middle of putting out another book and I’m relying on the talents of a fellow Avaloner, Sofie Couch who also goes by the name of Annettte Jareb, to help me get the story published. Like so many other authors, Annette has other talents besides writing and has used those talents to start a business called Right Brain Graphic Design. She has an eye for designing book covers and the talent to work with software and create the cover. I have an eye for covers as well, but don’t ask me to use a computer to create the cover. I’m not at all technical. Thank goodness there are people in this world who are. Annette explains “in first grade, my BFF declared that she was going to be a writer. Not to be left out, I announced that I was going to illustrate her books. Today, I do both. As Sofie Couch, I write sweet romance. As Right Brain Press, LLC, I design book covers.” Check her out at www.rightbraingraphicdesign.weebly.com

Another Avaloner Sandy Cody spends her non-writing time quilting. "There’s more similarity between the two than you might think,” she said. “Both involve love of components that go into a finished product. I love words. I feel joy in their power to translate ideas into stories. I also love color. I’m fascinated by the way a color’s mood is affected by other colors–much like the characters writers create. A book begins as a tangle of ideas with a glint of story shining through. A quilt begins as a mishmash of colors and patterns that clash. Both writer and quilter study their components, testing combinations to blend conflicting parts into a harmonious whole. So much for similarities. It’s

the difference that makes them work for me. Writing is intellectual; quilting is tactile, a variance that requires different thought processes. Thus, the two activities feed off one another. In this quilt (to the right) I had fun playing with color. I used a basic pattern, put together a series of clashing reds, set them next to harmonizing grays, and threw in a bit of black for pop. The cat in the center was a lucky find. Serendipity. A welcome element in any venture.

Sandy isn’t the only Avaloner who spends time both writing and quilting. Leigh Verrill-Rhys also quilts.

Even though I (Fran McNabb) have always loved sewing, I never mastered the art of quilting. Like Sandy, I, too, love fabric and color. At one time I sewed for Mardi Gras and made hundreds of costumes for the balls along the Gulf Coast, but my favorite part wasn’t creating the garment, it was decorating it after the costume was made. I loved working with sequins and other embellishments. Today I don’t sew as much, but I spend a lot of time painting (It’s easier on the arthritic hands). I started by painting bookmarks to complement my books to sell at festivals. It wasn’t long before I realized I loved painting as much as writing. I work in acrylic. My painting (on the left) is called “Garden Gate” and was inspired by the cover of one of my books that is no longer in print.

Another Avaloner who loves to paint is Deborah Nolan. “When I went to law school, I quit painting,”

Deborah said, “and didn't start again until about ten years ago when I'd kind of retired. I paint mostly in oils and have been taking art classes in NYC every Wednesday night for more than ten years.  I haven't sold any of my paintings but my kids' apartment walls are all adorned.” Her painting of the barn (on the right)is about 5 feet by 5 feet and hangs in her apartment.

Even though writing and marketing what we write takes a tremendous amount of time, many of our Avalon authors have found time to enjoy other ways to use their creativity. Way to go, Ladies. Keep up the great work.

FRAN McNABB writes tender romances and will add to her eight published novels with her newest book, A SOLDIER’S HONOR, coming out within the next few weeks. Check out her others at  www.FranMcNabb.com

Filling the Well

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

Writers are givers, and that's a problem. First of all we have the normal obligations everyone does - family, home, job, civic and religious responsibilities - all of which take time and energy. Then on top of all this we also write, which is a very draining occupation. Using nothing more than imagination (and for a lot of us, caffeine) we have to create worlds and populations and both actions and reactions in a coherent format - to say nothing of editing, spelling, selling, publicity.... etc. - and they all take from us. (I've always wondered how we can give so much of ourselves and still not lose an ounce - we should all be at least size zero...)

Let's face it, we can only give so much without getting to the point where we have nothing left. We need to re-fill our well. Nothing can be created in the vacuum of fatigue and stress. The question is how to do it, because it has to be done. Time is a problem for all of us, but this is important, both for us as writers and as individuals.

We have to find our 'safe and happy place' even if it exists only in our heads, a place where we can turn off our brains for a short time and allow the well to refill. I am arthritic, which is not much fun and most people would not consider fortunate, but through this I found my happy place. Exercise helps arthritis, but as I am large it was both painful and nearly impossible, so my rheumatologist prescribed a hot tub. As we have a large back yard it was an excellent solution, one which pleases both me and The Husband.

And it became my happy place where I turn off my brain and allow my thoughts free rein. While most writing work is done in the head, I don't allow it when I'm in the tub. I go out just about every morning when the weather is clement (and sometimes when it's not!) and just exist. Oh, I do my exercises - which I hate - but in a way they're kind of Zen. I don't have to think, I don't have to do anything but just be. And move my legs. It's almost as refreshing as a holiday. Maybe more. I sit and watch the trees, whether in bud, full leaf, or bare branch. There are birds and cheeky squirrels (though I could do without them!) and, in season, hummingbirds attracted by my myriad feeders.

Now I'm not so silly as to believe that a hot tub is right, or accessible, or possible, or even desirable to everyone. Another person's happy place might be a park bench, or a coffee shop, or an exercise session, or a short meditation, or a shopping mall, or maybe just a quiet quarter hour with a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Happy places are as individual as fingerprints, and are always limited by both availability and price, just like everything else in the world. But you have to have one. What I am calling a happy place is a sanity saver, and Heaven knows writers need all the sanity we can get!

Find your happy place and let your well refill. You and your writing will prosper from it.

The Mayonnaise that Came in from the Cold

Moving always has its challenges. Along with divorce, marriage and pregnancy, this aspect of everyday life is fraught with stress and conflict. Ah, conflict! A word we all recognize in our search for writing tools. Without conflict, there is no story and certainly no point to the telling.

Humans grow and achieve, discover and innovate through conflict—the confronting and defeating of discouraging circumstances gives us opportunities to grow and achieve, find solutions and solve problems. Without conflict, testing or opposition, we tend to wallow in the marshmallow world of comfort zones.

When I moved earlier this year from the sunny shores to the high plains, I felt unnerved and insecure—out of my element. At the same time, excited and expectant of great things. Despite that trepidation and expectation, I was not prepared for the common realities of moving into an empty house with very little furnishings in my own possession.

One significant missing element was a refrigerator. The first few hours, the next day, were no problem. But with milk, yogurt, cream and mayonnaise in the picture, a cooler was the first choice because the fridge was scheduled for delivery in two weeks. While a cooler is fine on a picnic and great for the tailgate party, keeping the volatile mixture of raw eggs and oil at a safe temperature required much more than a bag of ice and a thin layer of Styrofoam.

 

Lightbulb moment. This may be the high plains but there’s snow in the front yard. 

 

Lightbulb flickers. Going outside every time a sandwich was on order when the temperature had dropped to 4° below began to wear thin. But one of the beauties of living in a small city in the high plains in the mountainous Midwest are the people. We learned that our appliance was delayed another few weeks. I presented my case. The manager of the local appliance store has provided a brand new fridge as a loaner until the one purchased makes its way to the empty space in my kitchen.

Dogs and Cats

I've had dogs since I was young, and my husband and I have always had big dogs. When we adopted Sable in 2003, I got involved in our local animal shelter and served on the board. I learned a lot about the plights of dogs and cats and other animals who need homes. When Sable died in April (at age 14 1/2) we missed her a lot. People said to us, since your kids are grown, why get another dog? But we couldn't imagine living without a dog. So in September, after our vacation, we adopted a hound-mix and named him Rawhide (after the old TV show). He's rambunctious but also very sweet! Many of my traditional romances have included dogs. But I am aware of how many cats need homes so I thought I would include a cat in my newest traditional romance, "Setting the Stage for Love." Tiger plays an important part in this story!

Irish Wisdom.

With St. Patrick's Day just a few days away, it seems appropriate to share a little Irish wisdom and this quote from that rascally Irishman George Bernard Shaw is about as wise anything as anything I can think of. 

I'm pretty sure most will agree that life is not always easy, but we might not agree that it is not meant to be easy. I like to think that the universe is a beneficent place that wishes all its inhabits to be happy and, actually, that's pretty much how I see it. But I also believe the universe intends for us to be all that we can be. It wants us to grow and to be ourselves beneficent. Would that be possible if life were always easy? I doubt it. 

How could we grow if we never had to work our way through life's uneasy patches? How could we learn to be beneficent if we did not need beneficence ourselves? That's where those uneasy patches come in. We need to be humbled every now and then before we understand that it's not ease the world needs, but kindness and forgiveness. How does the universe teach us those things?

It puts rocks in our paths. We stumble. Our courage is tested. Someone stretches out a hand and helps us up. We're grateful. It's good to be back on our feet. There's another side, though. We're humbled. As good as it is to be upright again, we really wish we hadn't had to depend on someone else. It's not easy to accept help. We're tempted to feel the tiniest bit sorry for ourselves. Then someone else stumbles. We help them up. It feels good to know that we've helped someone. We're proud, maybe so proud that our hard-learned humility gets pushed into the background. Big mistake, because we're sure to stumble again. And need to be helped up again. And be humbled again. And be given another opportunity to extend a hand to stumbling humanity. And so it goes.

This ebb and flow of stumbling and falling, needing a hand and extending a hand, continues - and we grow. We even learn to value humility. We come to understand that both sides of helping and being helped are gifts. Accepting becomes part of the cycle of giving. Humility becomes part of courage. The universe is better, more beneficent, when we allow ourselves to accept help.

So, as Mr. Shaw advises, take courage, my child, work your way through those uneasy patches, accept help when you need it, and never pass up a chance to help someone else. It's all part of life, which Mr. Shaw so wisely described as "delightful".

I hope you all have a delightful St. Patrick's Day.

A Few Hours Without Cable and Internet – Arggh!

by Karen McCullough

A few days ago my cable television service went out and took the Internet service down with it. 

Fortunately it was only for a few hours, but those few hours seemed like forever.

When did I get so dependent on that cable linking me to the rest of the world?

I remember a time when television was delivered via the antenna on the roof of the house. Admittedly it could be finicky. Sometimes you got nothing but static. Choices were limited to a few stations. But it usually worked to some degree.

There was a time before the Internet as well. A time when I could work, read, and generally go about the day without having to check in on email constantly or rely on that connection to get things done.

That time is no more. Having it out for just a few hours was incredibly frustrating. Admittedly, I’m a web designer so I probably rely on that connection to do my job more than most people. Or maybe not. My daughter uses her home computer to log in and get work done when bad weather prevents her from getting to office. My son works from home. Others in the family do extensive research with it.

Things I realized I couldn’t easily do with the Internet down: update a couple of websites that needed some changes, pay bills, check the location of a shipping place, answer emails from family and friends, buy a book I wanted for my Kindle, look at the upcoming weather forecast, and check in for a flight I would be taking the next day.

All of those things can be done in other, less convenient, more time-consuming ways. But I’ve gotten used to doing all of them from the convenience of my office desk via the computer.

Just as we used to watch a limited array of television offerings with sometimes grainy pictures. I’ve now grown accustomed to being able to choose from a wide variety of programming options. Throw in my Netflix subscription and it’s almost unlimited. I get to watch pretty much any sporting event I want.

I’m soft and I’m spoiled.  I’ve gone all in for convenience and choice. The result is that I can be nearly paralyzed by an internet outage. Good trade-off? I don’t know. It’s just the way things are now.

To Do, or Not To Do... 'It'

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

I think we all agree we live in a sex-saturated society. Everywhere we turn there is sex - social media, movies and television, books, even advertising. Yes, we all know sex is used to sell everything from coffee filters to motorcycles and just about anything you can think of in between.

These days it's difficult to find books or movies that don't drip with explicit, graphic and sometimes gratuitous sex, but it is possible. The writers of this blog write what some call 'clean' books that don't have excessive sex or violence... but be careful of saying that. The word 'clean' is a trigger for lots of writers and maybe even some readers, especially those who like their reading explicit. It implies, they say, that sex is inherently 'dirty.'

Well, that argument is way above my pay grade! Besides, what constitutes 'sex' is really a very grey area, open to all manner of interpretations. To some readers, a kiss before an engagement is salacious, while to some others getting to know the other person's name before the characters have sex is not really necessary. Most readers - and writers - fall somewhere in between.

So as writers what do we do about sex? Ignore it? Allude to it? Something else? There are those who say that sex is an integral component of romance and of life itself, and that to ignore it is dishonest. There are also those who say that some things should be private, and not everyone regards premarital sex or even descriptions of marital sex as an indispensable part of romance. And many mystery readers believe that sex - except perhaps as a motive - has any place whatsoever in a mystery.

What's a poor writer to do?

First, we must accept that whatever we do there are some people who won't be happy about it. Second, we must always remember that it's our story and our people, and what they do is at our decision and command.

There are all kinds of options open to us. We can write a story where sex is not only not mentioned, it's never even thought of. We can write a story where a couple (married or unmarried) have sex, but it's most definitely off-screen, with nothing but the most careful allusion to it having happened. Some writers get so graphic in their descriptions of The Act that it might as well be advertised as an instructional manual.

So - do your characters do 'It'? Or not? It's up to you - and your readers.