Telling Stories with Paint by Sarah Wisseman

Recently I had the wonderful experience of a week-long oil painting class at Arrowmont arts and crafts school in TN. My instructor was Sandy Miller Sasso, and she was terrific. Our subject: “Evocative Still Life.” That means going beyond fruit and flowers, setting up a still life with objects that carry special meaning for you, the artist.  Sandy described the process as rather like being a stage manager: you control background, lighting, and placement of important objects. Things in the foreground are painted in more detail; things in the background blur a little, fade into the distance. You create a mood, and hopefully a story.

Here is one of Sandy’s paintings:

She told us the pendulum symbolizes constancy and steadfastness in a world of chaos.

I have already found much refreshment from painting. It is also the perfect activity when my writing is blocked. I think working with color, shape, and texture in a physical sense uses a different part of the brain, but the creative process is similar. You start with a plan, but the plan changes as you work, and it’s important to let serendipity, or even mistakes, take over at times. Just like a character starting a conversation in your head, the paintbrush can have a mind of its own.

Although we were invited to bring objects from home, we also improvised with objects around Arrowmont’s studios.  I fell in love with a bone, and this is what happened when I painted this still life two days after the election:

 What does it mean? Perhaps how ephemeral things are, especially favorite pets like the little cat (made of wood, so not permanent in the archaeological record) or the African seed pod (the tall brownish-red object turned on a wood lathe into a vase). But bones, in the right environment, can last a very long time…

I look forward to incorporating these experiences into my fiction writing.

What are your reading habits?

Writers are readers, too, so I'm curious, "What are your reading habits?"

Before we decided to be writers we probably read all of the time, fell in love with characters, their stories and were motivated to join the club. Am I right?

As children, we probably didn't enjoy everything we had to read for school - but beginning in middle school that seemed to change for me with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. When I realized that many of my favorite films were based on books I couldn't wait to read them. Everyone knows the books are always better - but sometimes the filmmakers and actors get very close.

Once I realized you could borrow books from the city library, where they had thousands more than my school did - it became one of my favorite places to be. The hardest part was deciding which books to read, the stack was always a foot or more high. 

One of the first books that struck a chord with me as a young adult was THE IVY TREE by Mary Stewart. I loved the story, the suspense, the characters and the romance. I read everything she wrote after that. Since then I've read hundreds and hundreds of books by terrific authors in various genres.

My favorite times to read are on rainy weekends. Bring me a quilt, a cup of tea and a book and I'm content. Reading before I sleep each night keeps me from rewinding the days' tapes and having to relive the day all over again. Some days you only want to live once. There is a drawback with reading before bed, if you can't put the book down then you lose precious sleep. Sometimes it is worth it! Reading THE NIX by Nathan Hill made my nights a little shorter for over a week - and I don't begrudge a single moment. 

When I received a Kindle for Christmas a few years ago it became my traveling companion. No more listening to my seat mate (unless I wanted to). I could read for hours and not be afraid I'd finish too soon or lose the book before it was completely read. When I was traveling for work I would take paperback books and leave them in the airport or hotel lobby when I finished. Don't you love to share a good story? 

Whether you are a writer or a reader you no doubt love to share good books with friends. Enjoy the journey my friends, and I hope you read lots of wonderful books along the way.

**************

Bonnie (BD) Tharp is an award-winning author of women's fiction, with novels FEISTY FAMILY VALUES and PATCHWORK FAMILY.  Also, the author of Kindle ebook short stories: THE CROSSROADS & EARL DIVINE.
 

A Tale of Two Covers: THE INHERITANCE by Jacqueline Seewald

My latest novel, THE INHERITANCE, will be published by Intrigue Publishing on December 1^st. The novel is a mystery that combines elements of the cozy with romance and suspense. As of now, the novel is available as a Kindle book on Amazon for pre-order as well as in a print edition:

https://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Jacqueline-Seewald/dp/1940758505

Also available at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-inheritance-jacqueline-seewald/1124086025?ean=9781940758503

as well as many other booksellers.

The date of publication was pushed forward because the publisher decided to change the cover art. I’ll display both covers here for comparison. Here is the original cover art:

Here is the new cover that the publisher intends to use:

Here is a little about the novel:

Jennifer Stoddard, a thirty-five-year-old widow with an eight-year-old son, receives a surprising letter which will change her life. Jennifer’s grandmother has passed away and named Jen as sole heir to her estate. To claim her inheritance she must return to Bloomingvale, the town in the Midwest where she grew up. Jen is informed by her grandmother’s attorney that to inherit she must meet the condition of living in her grandmother’s house for two years. Since the estate is substantial, she agrees. However, there are those who will stop at nothing to make certain that Jennifer does not inherit.

Excerpt:

Late that afternoon as Jen left the house and started to drive away, a strange sound whizzed across the open front car windows from the driver’s side through the passenger side. She was startled by the sound. Her heart began to pound. Jen glanced over at the thicket of overgrown shrubs and trees to the side of the grounds that led back into woodlands. Had the sound been a bullet? If so, it had nearly hit her. Her hands shook on the driver’s wheel as she took off at high speed.

One block away she heard the police siren and saw the flashing lights. She groaned. Not again! He signaled with his hand, pointing his index finger for her to pull over. It was all she could do not to burst into tears.

Grant Coleman approached the car like a gunfighter in a spaghetti western. “I thought you learned something the first time,” he said. “Guess I was wrong. License and registration.” He held out his hand with a bored, impatient gesture.

“I have a very good reason for speeding.”

The smile was more of a smirk. The man was infuriating! “I’ve heard them all, but you can try.”

“As I left my grandmother’s house, a bullet passed through my car. I had the windows rolled down. So they weren’t broken, but it just missed hitting me.”

He stared at her. “Maybe it was a kid with a Beebe gun. Are you certain it was a bullet breezing by you? How familiar are you with weapons?”

“Not familiar at all, but I know what I heard.” Jen swallowed hard. “I think someone might have intended to shoot me.”

He let out a loud laugh. “In Bloomingvale? I doubt that very much.”

“So you’re not taking this seriously?” She folded her arms over her chest.

“Admit it. You’re just looking for an excuse to keep me from writing you another ticket.” His intense gray eyes bore into her like the steel blade of a dagger.

Jen raised her chin and stiffened her spine. “You are so wrong. Why don’t you check the area near the house, just to see if you can find anything.”

“Waste of time.” He leaned toward her and she felt his breath on her cheek which caused her to shiver. “Tell you what I will do though. I won’t write you a ticket this time because that’s the most creative excuse I’ve ever heard.”

“So glad I managed to amuse you,” she said.

Jen watched him drive off. He was probably still laughing, the sexy jerk. Several people had come out of their houses and were staring at her. Jen managed to restart her car and drove off before others gathered. She certainly didn’t want to make a spectacle of herself. Letting out a shaky breath, Jen wasn’t certain now if she’d really heard what she thought she had. A professional law enforcement officer didn’t think anything of it. She supposed it might have been nothing at all. Maybe it was a child with a Beebe gun as he suggested. But try as hard as she might, Jen couldn’t convince herself.

Which cover as a reader would attract you more?

Which cover seems more appropriate for the novel? 

Your thoughts and opinions appreciated!

Publishing and Its Vagaries by Susan Oleksiw

About a year ago those of us who publish with Five Star learned that things were changing. I thought this meant the end of the Anita Ray series, and wasn’t sure if I could continue it with another publisher. To my surprise, I sold the two books in the series to Harlequin, for their worldwide mystery club. The Wrath of Shiva came out in mass market paperback on November 1.

The Anita Ray series is an object lesson in the vagaries and subjectivity of publishing. When I began writing the series, I struggled with defining the lead character, Anita, and her setting, Hotel Delite. I wanted the mix of Indian and non-Indian people because even in villages I encountered variety and extremes in population. Anita emerged in a short story I sold to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. “A Murder Made in India” appeared in October 2003.

I had trouble selling the first book, wrote another, and after a while sent that to Tekno/Five Star. Then came the fireworks. Marty Greenberg, co-founder with Ed Gorman, had medical problems, and his wife, Roz, took over. She bought the manuscript. Then he died and she fought for control of the company.

Through changes in editors, Five Star took three more Anita Ray mss. Harlequin bought the first, Under the Eye of Kali, for their worldwide mystery line but turned down the second one. I kept writing, and then as editors changed again and again at Harlequin, I decided to try another Anita Ray. I sent in the third book in the series, For the Love of Parvati. The editor inquired politely, “It looks like there’s another one in the series before this. Can we see that one too?” I sent in The Wrath of Shiva. Yes, the one turned down earlier. The editor bought both titles.

I don’t yet have a pub date for the third book, but I look forward to another gorgeous cover. And in a few months, I hope to interest Harlequin in the fourth Anita Ray, When Krishna Calls.

The point of all this is to remind myself and other writers that there is no order or sense or logic to publishing. Editors make subjective decisions every day over every manuscript even when they think they’re being rational and logical and calculating the odds on sales. Whenever I think about this I could feel better or worse, but mostly I feel the door is still open. I don’t know what will happen to the Anita Ray series, but I know there is still opportunity out there.

The fourth Anita Ray story, When Krishna Calls, has drawn a few four and five star reviews and seems to be doing well. It is the only book I've written that has not received a review or mention in the big reviewers: PW, Kirkus, or Library Journal. Despite that, readers and librarians manage to find it.

You can find the Anita Ray books here  and the lovely new paperback of The Wrath of Shiva here.