A taste of things to come

The temperature kept me indoors today.  The wind howled around the house and picked up everything not nailed down and it got under my skin in a good way. I love the sound of wind howling under the eaves but after four surgeries to remove skin cancers I have no intention of going out on days like this. I suspect summer will be a hot one this year if this is any indication.

Today has been productive, I managed to complete the latest draft of my September picture book story. I have put it on the forum in 12 x 12 for feedback then with a final spit and polish I will submit it to RYS on October 1st. I haven't managed to write much in the past five weeks due to family stuff so I am very pleased to have a Picture book written. This story about a little hunter and her intended prey. When the prey decided he has had enough he comes up with a solution to solve his hunter problem.  I have read it out loud once so far and my captured audience appreciated it. There are a few words I stumbled on so they need to change.

I also managed to make art today for the 52 week illustration theme of Words.

 I like the idea of turning the word into the art in this way. Many people have written poetry and prose over their art but I prefer this way. Many art teachers have their classes doing this little activity and teens seem to enjoy it.

 I might try a few different ways of doing this word. I used my fabre-castelle pencils for all three drawings and discovered they blend nicely.

water is something I need to revisit more often. I want to be able to obtain that reflective transparency with ease and that will only come with plenty of practice.



So did you miss me? I was gone for hours. I went to the supermarket for fresh rolls, lettuce and milk. I had two visitors, one dropped books off for me to read and the other came to regale me with tales of her travel plans and have a cup of tea. Then I made dinner for the family, home made hamburgers except they were beef not ham and delicious and prepared a meatloaf for tomorrow. I also cuddled the baby, made phone calls and did a further draft of a story. So what was I chatting about before I flitted off to do other things?
I am looking forward to the books. They are teen romance vampire stuff that I have avoided for several years but last week in desperation I watched the movie of the books and the same day read the first of the series and now I have the rest. I should not judge a story by the hype, honestly I should know better than that. I have read quite a number of popular fictions involving vampires and werewolves and teen romantic angst and I simply could not be bothered with one more except now I am. I am pleased I read the Sookie Stackhouse* novels before reading Twilight^ and disappointed in the overall film versions of both although the casting of the main characters of Trueblood is a delightful visual feast. Now I am reading Vampire Academy% after seeing the movie and it is lighthearted and entertaining at a time when I need lighthearted and entertaining and I liked the casting of the actors for the parts.


*The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels, is a series of books written by bestselling author Charlaine Harris. They began to be published in 2001. They serve as the source material for the HBO television series True Blood whose first season aired in 2008. The series has been retronymed the True Blood Series upon reprinting to capitalize on the television adaptation.
^ Twilight is a series of four vampire-themed fantasy romance novels by American author Stephenie Meyer.
% Vampire Academy is an American best-selling series of six young-adult paranormal romance novels by author Richelle Mead

I am so excited that two of my prizes from earlier in the year have arrived. A t-shirt and a note book. I was very excited to receive the parcel. There are still several other prizes that never arrived but that happens I suppose.
These prizes were for participation in the Chapter Book Challenge back in March. Not only did I learn a lot of useful things about writing, produced a story, made more friends around the world but I also acquired a t-shirt. Life is good.

Speaking of post, a letter came for me this week full of love and friendly words and I thought to myself that maybe letter writing will have a renaissance now that our government has reduced our privacy and given greater powers of invasion to our policing bodies who are now allowed to invade our computers and phone records to a greater extent than ever before. They were probably doing it to this degree already but now it is more apparent. Letter writing is sounding better and better to me except blogging and other social media help me network around the world, hand writing is painful and I don't need a stamp and a trip to the post office - hmmm I will have to think about this.

 Look who was napping with Nanna.

 This young man is the perfect audience, he actually enjoys me singing to him so long as it is upbeat and in a major key. Minor key has him dropping the bottom lip and crying.

sleep tight and dream sweet dreams.