Art Post with Sheri Velarde and myself - Progress

So, I looked at my month for October and saw it was full of editing, and some writing. But I had to find a way to make sure I didn't drop my art as has happened so many times in the past. I lose some skill when I go weeks or months without even drawing. I decided to do 30 paintings in 30 days. I have a cheerleader, another artist who is thinking of tagging along, and another artist who is doing one larger one a week, and one other writer/artist who is doing this with me. I have through day for done by day three...and then the inevitable, I have five million hours of work to get done in 72 happened. But, you know what? Since I'm doing this, I'm now heading to my art cave instead of playing on FB all day. Though I am sure I could use the break, painting is a break! Besides, because of the challenge, I got two small pieces commissioned. I happened to have two small canvases I bought with me when we went to get coffee.

In the meantime, Sundays she will be blogging here (and she's much better at the schedule than I!). She even blogged yesterday when it was my day LOL

Here are her pics (She's up to day 13!):

I am still on day five, though that will change by end of day.



 

 

Sheri has an etsy shop where some of this has already started to appear. She also has a FB artist page for you to watch her doings. She does more than paint!

I have an etsy shop and FB artist page as well! :D I'm looking forward to doing a ton of paintings and sketches this week.

I hope you join us Sunday and Wednesday to see our successes, and yes, our failures. We are working to become better artists, but along the way, you always have a flop or two...or ten :S LOL But you also have many successes! I also hope that you are inspired to be creative in your own way with us!

Have a good one!

Just Do It

First, let me say, I'm very happy right now :D Super happy! I have so much writing things happening all around me, that I'm ecstatic. But I worked for them. I worked to make this happen. And I had lovely support from my friends and co-writers.

 

I'm a writer with severe asthma and allergies. I recently moved (am actually still moving :S), but it's too late for this year's dust up! Where I lived before made me so sick, that I've nearly died. I end up with pneumonia/severe bronchitis every year, and spend months trying to recover. I have five kids, three still at home. One, the youngest, has Down Syndrome and has regressed with the potty training with the move, though he's otherwise adjusted extremely well. Yet, I've found time to write. Admittedly, it is 100k words less than the years previously. But I still whipped out 60kish that last really sick year. (most of which is published! The rest is unfinished as yet J )

 

I've worked in jobs outside the home, and edit and sew from home on top of my writing. Writing is a way to release stress and emotions for me, but it's also a way to allow my imagination to run free and live in special worlds. But, how many times have I heard the phrase, "I'd write if I had time." in a condescending manner? Too many!

 

*Grins* And you know what? I smile. I smile and nod. And if it's a good friend, I will tell them to find time, even if it's fifteen minutes at a time. If they really feel the need to write, then indulge in it. My friends will know the personal struggles I have, and if I can find time… *Grins more* Nothing like having them take a second look at what they are saying.

 

If they are just acquaintances, I'll put them on the do not call list—just kidding :D I mostly let it float away like water off a duck's back. Why, when they are being so condescending and acting like what you do is nothing, and that any person could do it, but it's beneath them or not worth wasting their time on? Why just let it all go? Why not hold the resentment?

 

Lots of good reasons…including it's not worth wasting your time on! LOL But one main reason is I love to write in the same way I love to paint. I know how hard I work. I know that I did 3 hours of research for the first 500 words of a historical that I then chose not to finish as it's not the right time for me. I know that even though I include romances in my repertoire of books, that I'm a good writer and researcher, despite what many say about the genre! I know that I use words above a 6^th grade level. I know that I entertain people and give them a story worth reading. Though, like all great artists and writers, I feel a twinge—okay sometimes a cascading waterfall—of self-doubt and recrimination when I'm writing.

 

Still, it does no good for you to dwell on someone else's negative thoughts of your chosen vocation. You live and dream and do as you believe. If not, you end up with things like writer's block, or depression because you're not good enough, or something. Be happy! Think positive!

 

I'm working on writing and editing even though finding time is a challenge, but it's so exciting! I am a writer. An author, a mother, a painter, an editor, a gardener, a quilter, a cross stitcher, a crocheter, a scrapbooker, a baker, a cook. I am all those things. And today, it makes me happy. Very happy.

 

Was it always easy? No. Is it easy now? No. But I persevered. I didn't give up on my dream. Every day, I am finding ways to make it easier to do all the things I want to do. It takes work and time. But it's worth it. And that one fan that says, I loved "x line" or "x character" makes it all worth it.

 

No matter how much I say it doesn't matter what someone else says, we know it does to some extent. (I'm just saying don't let it stop you!) Writers and artists love the validation of having a fan, of having someone positively review their work. We love the feedback. We NEED the feedback. My fans have made it easier for me to keep going while I was sick. And now, while fighting what is hopefully the last year of this level of sickness, I appreciate my friends and fans so much!

 

If you have a favourite author, you may think you're only one voice of many, but I can tell you, it matters to hear your positive thoughts, your well wishes when things are not going well. So thank you to all the fans,. I hope I've inspired you to do something, even if it's five minutes at a time. It all adds up. Go make a quilt, or crochet an afghan. Start saving for that dream vacation. Every little step, every positive thought, takes you closer than you were before.

 

Don't be someone who says, "I'd do that if I had time." If it's important to you, make time. :D  I hope I've inspired you to do something, even if it's five minutes at a time. It all adds up. Go make a quilt, or crochet an afghan. Start saving for that dream vacation. Every little step, every positive thought, takes you closer than you were before. Just do it.

 

 

 

 

Hello Rhiannon Wellman!

Please welcome a lovely friend and terrific author, Rhiannon Wellman. :) This is just a bit about her works in progress :D How fun to see into an author's "stash" of work! Soon, I'm going to entice her to come and talk about the difficulties she's overcome--and has to overcome each day!--in order to be an author. For now, enjoy your peek into a writer's mind. Hello, Rhiannon!!

 

 

Firstly, I'd like to say thank you very much for having me. This whole tour is very exciting for me. I've already filled up seventeen of the thirty dates of September which is very cool.

I think I'm going to kick things off by telling you about the four stories I've picked for this tour and where I am on each of them. I do a lot of writing by hand, but for the sake of this, anything not typed doesn't count.

 

Story One

Moon Bound:- This is the sequel to 'Red on the Moon' (which is currently on sale on allromanceebooks.com, I'll put the link at the bottom)

This one tells the story of Scott Donald, the younger brother of Lucas. A werewolf living in San Francisco and how a series of coincidental events leads him to find his mate. But there are forces trying to stop them.

I have lots of this written by hand but as yet words typed is a big fat Zero.

 

Story Two

A Dirty Weekend:- This story might sound self-explanatory, but it only starts with the weekend. There are twists and turns that mean it doesn't end when Monday rolls around. (I do promise what the title says is a big part of the story too, I had fun with this one.)

I've written up to the end of the weekend, but only typed 333 words

 

Story Three

Writers block:-  When writers block strikes, sometimes the best thing you can do is get away from the computer. When Mark (I might change this name) does just that in search of inspiration, he finds it in the form of Ben and his little boy.

Words typed so far 178 (holy shit that's just pathetic)

 

Story Four

Out of Uniform and into Love:- Two service men on leave together are trapped in their tent to wait out a storm, a bottle or two of whiskey and a few confessions later lead to a whole new life neither expected.

This story was supposed to be finished, it was to be a little teaser story, but, well, I liked it so much I decided to tweak where I originally finished and turn it into a much longer story. So the word count for this one is a far more respectable 4504 words.

 

So those are the stories. What do you think? Is there one you'd like to hear more about? Each day I'll just post the title and word count. Now I'm rearing to go, hopefully we'll see a vast improvement in my counts.

Until tomorrow.

Rhiannon.

If you want to follow the daily posts you can find a list on my blog, I'll update links as we go, so if you miss a day, don't worry you can find it here:

http://rhiannonwellman.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

Buy link:

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-redonthemoon-1414906-340.html

Where My Art Roams, virtual walkabout

Hi :D

*grins tiredly* I am soooo tired. I have been moving! It came up fast and sudden. Thankfully, I had about 1/3 of our loose goods packed. Maybe a little less. I thought the rest of my art room would be a few hours. Yeah. No. Partly because my art room had everything in it. Makeup, books, tools, oddball stuff. Yeah. However, my family is super excited to be in the new place. I'm less sick there already, even with moving back and forth to old place and new one. I'm fighting the allergies with meds, and with washing down everything that comes in from old place. Course, this slows down the unpacking somewhat. But I know I'll be more than glad of it when I'm through.

 

In the meantime, I'm on this virtual walkabout tour with my art, which I'm calling, Where My Art Roams. Today's bit is North Carolina, in the United States J These were done as commissions from the costumer's photos. Here they are in their new habitat.

First, one of her cats J

 

 

Then a friend's pet, a black lab, I believe.

 

 

This customer also graciously allowed me to use her photo as a base for this one:

 

 

 

This is sold :)


If you want something commissioned, you can go to my Etsy shop for general pricing, or email me, or message me at the various places I'm available at :) I will give you an estimate for your painting based on difficulty and size (materials). Thank you for joining us!

 

Where My Art Roams is the first of what I hope to be many virtual walkabouts. I'm taking you on a tour of my paintings that I have given away and sold. From Australia to Washington, to Scotland, and places in between, I will show you the paintings in their new homes.

Next Stop is August 19^th, and Robin will be hosting it.  You will find that a lot of my friends are writers :D And some of them are also artists, like myself!

I have a FB art page: https://www.facebook.com/LeonaBushmanArtisteExtraordinaire

 

And an Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LBushmanStudios

 

You can follow me on twitter: @L_Bushman

 

My blog where I share my writing journey and post some of my artwork is here: http://www.lbushman.blogspot.com/

 

Do you have a favorite artist? From past and present? I love the impressionists, notably, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh (I hated Van Gogh during art classes...learned to like him as I was exposed to more of his work J ), Georgia O'Keefe, a lot of Dutch artists, particularly Jan Van Eyck, and his painting, Arnofini Wedding. Modern day includes Russ Potak and Jennifer Beaudet. Okay, anyone who comments, can PM me on FB and get 50% off any artwork they'd like! Also, will provide an ACEO (2.5 x 3.5 inches) if I get 20 comments or more on today's blog. Open to USA, UK, and Canada J

 

 

 

 

 

I'm an Editor, did you know?

Hi :)

On the road to being published, I fell very ill. During that illness, I found a new job that turned into something I love: editing.

I thought I wasn't going to like it much, and boy was I wrong. I loved it! Loved watching the books change and morph, loved the relationships built with the authors, love learning with them, teaching them, reading all the varied stories, learning the authors' idiosyncrasies, etc.

Any who've read my blog long will know, I don't worry so much on social media what I do correctly/incorrectly. I do it to have fun. As soon as I worry about blog hits/being perfect, I quit doing it as I feel intimidated, and it loses its fun aspect. I'm not a good marketer, so that is a big hit to lose the ability to do something that was an outlet and warm-up for my writing, as well as keeping me up on google searches.

So this love of putting things right for authors and spending long hours for virtually nothing (the pay sucked, and once I was let go, there is apparently a clause you don't get paid for your work if you're not a currently active, so I get NOTHING for the last six months as the books haven't been released or just released, and they paid a low percentage up to 50/150/250 depending on length for minimum of over 10 hours of work on shortest stories with the paperwork. I made like MAYBE 500 dollars (I actually believe it was less as I got paid author royalties in same checks) over the course of seventeen months.) came as a bit of a surprise to me.

I've relocated as a line editor with a small press (no can't be paid anymore of what you're owed if you quit/can't work clause there!, and am Editor in Chief with the publisher Three Worlds Productions (no stupid clause here either) whom have decided to take its company and open it to all authors of all genres, including non fiction and coffee table books :D Lots of good happening on the writing front as well, but I'll leave that for another blog post.

I also freelance edit. Here are my rates: (psst if you have ever used my freelance services, you get to keep using me at the original price you've paid for. If you are/were a BP author, you may cut these rates in half. If you were MY BP author, message me as you get special privileges!)

Content Editor Rates (in US monetary):

$400 US – 1 to 19,999 words

$600 US – 20,000 to 44,999 words

$900 US – 45,000 to 74,999 words

$1150 US – 75,000 to 99,000 words

$1300 US – 99,001 to 119,999 words

$1500 US – 120,000 to 200,000 words **Will include length suggestions and suggested scenes to cut or where to make it into two books, First half will get the three passes if made into two books, with an extra pass if necessary for this rate. I am also available if you have questions regarding any aspect of the edit I did.

 

These rates will include the following:

Three passes (three rounds of edits from me) ie, you send MS, I'll send first round of edits. You make suggested changes/reject them, add to the story. That equals one pass. On my end, you will have edits back within two weeks for anything under 100k words. Over will be dependent on how far over.

It will include general grammar, cohesiveness, pacing, plot issues, character arcs, and overall opinion on the story, ie fits genre, that kind of thing. You will get three passes which will give you a chance to fix any plot issues and still have edits done on them. I believe firmly in the author's voice, and way of telling the story. Also, the final edit is done with heavy emphasis on grammar, punctuation, etc. and is essentially a line edit even though that is not included in the rates. Payment is due upfront unless other arrangements have been made.

 

If you are interested or know anyone who might be, you can comment here, PM me on FB, or email me :)

 

So, that's what's up with me. What is everyone else up to today?

 

You have to be perfect, right? Wrong.

Gone are the days when I could just dream of writing full time and being published. I am published. The reality is never quite what you expect, no matter how many people you know who has published. Self publishing does not work for me (though I still have one out there) because of my weakness: marketing!

 

While growing up, I had this dream of writing by a lake (and painting for fun but that wasn't my job, writing was) while the children played off the docks and swam or fished. Notice no man around... *giggles* hmmm Maybe the beginning of another story... No internet worries, just writing and being published. Well, the reality is far different. For one, the advent of commonly used internet. Gone are the days of sending off paper manuscripts to agents (unless you have one who still requests them lol) and then leaving it in their hands. Emails fly, blogs need to be written, twitter, Facebook, tumbler, etc.

*groans* It's so not my dream.

 

Despite what many have said, you don't have to be a mastermind marketer and do everything yourself. It's like trying to edit yourself. No matter how good you are, you are likely missing something, or there are things you are doing wrong that you have no clue about. Right now, I exchange blogs with people, (and another thing I've not kept up on. Will be doing better!), have some promotion through my publishers, but it's still mostly left to me. I'm not good at this stuff. I'm in the process of setting up an exchange with someone. I give her a painting she dearly wants, and in return, she updates and keeps my website updated. I'm hoping this addition will help free up some worry time that I can turn to writing time again. I'm a prolific writer, yet editing (as an editor) and all the entrapments that go with having a book published have sucked all my time. It's hard to pull yourself out of that vortex and find balance, but it is on my list of things I want to accomplish this year) and will be doing it with a new company, but that is for another post).

 

 

That being said, I do think that, in this day and age, unless you are Laurel K Hamilton or the like, it is NECESSARY, not optional, to have Facebook author page (not a personal one—that is optional lol or you may have to have one, but you don't have to keep it current.) that is kept update and in which you engage with your readers, Twitter, a website, and preferably, another form with which to reach readers and for them to reach you—tumbler, google plus, what have you. Readers expect, no demand, more time and information about their authors.

So how to find balance? On top of being a writer, editor, and painter, I am also a mother of five (and a grandmother!!!) with age ranges from 23 down to 5. They all have health issues (as do I), I can't NOT market, or NOT write, or NOT edit, so painting suffered. I've discovered that when my painting suffered, I suffered. The stresses became too much. Something has to give. So I came up with the idea of bartering for my work. My paintings aren't cheap, so I'm not trying to sucker anyone. I'm looking at what services are worth, what my paintings are worth, and trying to find an equilibrium for all involved.

 

There are a lucky few who are as gifted at marketing as they are writing, and I think they look down on us that are not with a little snoot dripping. It is necessary to do marketing, but don't beat yourself up about it if you are not the be all and end all of advertising executives. We all have our talents; the trick is finding what works for you.

 

As a painter, I'm good with composition and color and design, but I suck at coding! I shouldn't have to spend a gazillion dollars and hours learning coding just to put up a website, unless of course it fascinates me and I enjoy it. I'd much rather spend those hours perfecting my craft and taking classes related to my chosen field.

 

This is all a pet peeve of mine that has eaten at me for awhile. It is unfair to expect everyone to be perfect at everything, and that applies to writers. There are things you need to do so that readers get a glimpse of you, and get to know you, but so much can be hired out. And sometimes it's expensive, but like for my serial starter, The Shot: The Traincoach of Death series, I spent 30 bucks for a cover reveal with Lady Amber Reviews. She rocked it! I was exposed to many new readers, and gained a few die hard fans from it. Even if I only made 2 new fans, well, if they buy the back list, and continue to buy the series, then I've more than made my money from it. Because people talk! So find the little thing you can start doing, and expand as money allows, so that your free time can be spent living the dream rather than beating yourself up about not being perfect on everything.

 

And that applies to all walks of life. Hire what you can afford to hire, so you can concentrate on what's important to you—like playing in the park with the kids.

 

That's how I find my balance.

 

 

 

Free Print book giveaways! First up, The Ulfric's Mate

 

 

 

Hi!! Well, guess what? I've been a busy girl! I've done loads of things, from finishing a fancy dress that needs a fitting, 

 

 

 to finishing a super secret painting job,

(no, this is not the secret painting job. Just how thick do you think I am?!) *the above is painted with left over paints from the super secret job*, to putting out new books, to dealing with the over 100 degree heat with no air conditioner, and trying to replant my container garden which a neighbor kid destroyed, on top of health issues and physical therapy, let's just say my brain is a massive puddle of icky, sticky goo! Honestly, I'm trying to write! I had planned to have three shorts and panthers finished last month. Now it looks as if I'll have to do a major push to get it finished this month! Also, I had planned to do more blogging. Does it count that I did a few in my head? It's more than I was doing before LOL

Now, for the big deal. You have two days left to enter the Goodreads giveaway! This is for a print book, people! And, better yet, this one is open to GB, US, and CA!!!! So fly, my pretties! Add your name to the drop!

As you can see, although my amount of words have not been gratifying, I have been busy finding review quotes, getting print covers, setting up blog tours, marketing, etc for my writing. While all of this is a necessary evil (except getting the covers!! I love getting covers :D), and has to do with writing even, it does not fill the part of me that wants to be writing grand adventures and getting the world to read! Nor does it provide my brain with the outlet for the million and one worlds and people floating through it's head. I must get back to writing. I have it on my list now. Oh, what lists? Well see, I've started making lists. And they helped me through the horrific health issues this time. And though I still had bad side effects, I did much better! It also took less time to recover and become productive! I am a list making fool now! Watch out ;) World Domination in progress.

Now, since I haven't quite accomplished that bit, will you please enter and/or go buy your copy of the paperback, or, for the price of a good mocha, get your ebook here.

Anyway, time for me to go! Good luck :)