Tear of Hope

Tear of Hope ... which we can shed in unity and with empathy ... for so much and for so many.

In the past, poetry expressed what my mind wanted to say.

Today, it is a drawing, in which to reflect.

Progress - Bunyola Log

A collage showing the progress of drawing Bunyola Log. It was so easy to become totally immersed and at one with the log so that I felt a part of It.

Ink Drawings

These are my two ink drawings using different planes, different perspectives.

These predate my charcoal drawings and is when the inspiration for using planes and perspectives emerged.

Their titles

Environment

Vision 

Tree

Different planes, different perspectives.

The composition crept into my mind with the desire to fill this large space.

It captured my vision of a tree filling the environment with its form, its shadows, past and present.

A Welcome Return

 

The Bunyola Log is completed. I have it captured in charcoal pencil. Sadly, when I returned to the hillside on which I found it, it had been chopped up.

I have thought much about how trees have always been an integral part of my life, my thinking. How we are rooted, grow, branch out.

I will share more tree art in my next blog.

Spring

The Swallowtails have returned to the garden and are enjoying the Valerian

... and the orchids have blossomed.

Creating Snowflake Symphony

Snowflake Symphony is my first novel and was written, mostly, in this rear part of our garden.

It is special, not as it is my first but as it gathered momentum over the years. An idea that I supposed, when it first came to me, would not come to fruition. The idea of a symphony, which I could never write, musically, could perhaps become a symphony in words, in the future.

One day, as it is in life, the words began to form. They appeared effortlessly, in a complex manner involving a mind which temporarily splits. One part undergoes its own journey - a journey of the subconscious mind - and is the character Spindel, who encounters his muse, Segment, along the way.

Sentinel, whose sub-conscience it is which has split, without his fully realising, has a journey of his own to complete with Maggie, who is on her own wayward journey.

The stages of these journeys provide for the composition of the symphony, which as the journeys fuse can begin.

The writing style of Spindel's journey is more poetic, whilst the journeys of Sentinel and Maggie are written in the prose of a novel.

I knew, as Snowflake Symphony drew to a conclusion, that I had arrived at what I had hoped to achieve. I would not describe the concept and style as usual but, from those readers to whom the novel speaks,  has come uplifting feedback. Thank you to those people!

Time to sit in the garden and to reflect on my writing.

It is seven years since I published my first book. I have completed five books to date and the sixth is on its way. About two thirds to go!

A while back, I realised that I have not ever read my books as a reader. There was all the editing, of course, but I was too close to the writing process at that time. So, 'begin at the beginning' I said to myself, and took out 'Violet Jelly', the first book in the trilogy by the same name. These three are children's books about a series of adventures in Cyberspace. I enjoyed creating zany characters and odd, sometimes menacing, situations.

I expected to cringe as I read and wish that I had written it slightly differently, but I really enjoyed the experience and found myself, unexpectedly,  to be happy engaging with the characters and the story as if I had chosen the book from a shelf in a bookstore. This is different from saying that it is the most wonderful book ever written. I was reading for reader satisfaction. At the end, I felt ready to begin the second book, Violet and Lavender'.

Still in Cyberspace, with slightly zany characters and somewhat bizarre situations, this book has a more environmental bent. This too, left me with reader satisfaction. I needed to complete the trilogy.

'Discovering Jasmine T' takes the reader to Florida and is set partly there and partly in Cyberspace. The story draws the reader to the discovery of where the characters originated and I was happy that this happened at the end of the trilogy - a 'to be revealed' factor - rather than explaining their origins at the beginning of the trilogy. Children enjoy mystery and my thought was that they would enjoy the characters and the adventures but maintain curiosity as to how they arrived in Cyberspace.

Here I am - back home and posting!

Yes. I am back from a fantastic holiday in Gulfport and will share some photographs with you. We spent our time marvelling at the wildlife, chilling out and playing music.

A young Anhinga in the early morning ...

... and a trio of Wood Storks

One man and his dog, passing

An afternoon's jamming session outside Hannah's Harmony (music related gift store)

A Snowy Egret wading in a pastel sea

And after the sun goes down ...

... let the music begin! At Little Tommy's Tiki, even the dogs listen!

Funky neighbourhood!

If you have enjoyed these views, I will share some more. Also, remember to check out 'Impression of a Dilemma' as the festive season approaches and you are looking for gifts - see the excerpt in my last post. Thank you for following!

Impression of a Dilemma

This is the cover for my latest book 'Impression of a Dilemma.

I will leave you with  three extracts, as I head off on holiday ... and hope to return with many photographs!

Andrew

'If I could - just ... squeeze ... through this crack.'
'Why? I would be free. Of what?'
I am slumped against the wall, white and grainy. The crack
is sealing. 'Is it? Or is it that I have let go of pursuing that
outcome?' Here, I remain. Oblivion has eluded me.
I sleep where I sit. In sleep, I dream. 'Or is it inward
thinking - dredging the subconscious and aligning it with
recent events and thoughts?' The recent, having passed, is
not present but close enough so as not to be in the past. On
the edge, about to tip into the category of past; maybe a
limbo - if limbo exists.

Aladdin

Aladdin paused, rag in hand, in his buffing of the
gentleman's shoes, acknowledged Andrew as he left the
hotel on his lunch break. Cheerily, he returned to the task.
'Beautiful shoes,' he noted with satisfaction. 'A shoe worth
having. A shoe worth taking care of.'
He began to whistle. The customer glared. Aladdin beamed
an apology. The man relaxed; regarded his shoes and a
faint smile crossed his face.
'Treat them with care and they'll come back.'
His father had been a cobbler until his untimely death,
leaving debt on the business, meaning that it could not pass
on to Aladdin. His mother had to sell to clear the debt and
now they lived, the two of them, in the flat above that had
always been his home. Below them, now, a 'Take Away
Kebab'.

Tina

Tonight had gone well and the audience were appreciative.
Andrew and Aladdin had turned up, she noticed. You never
knew with Andrew. He was similar to a creature that is
almost tame, but takes off at the slightest change in
circumstances. 'Nice though. Not a threat. Sometimes
almost invisible.' He and Aladdin often turned up - but
Andrew never came alone. Aladdin was a sweetie. And his
photographs - 'Wow!'

The wall clock showed 1am. Tina stretched, checked the
doors and windows, left on the hall light and carried the sax
upstairs with her. Its home was in the other bedroom. She
lived alone, now that her Dad had died, and preferred to
practise there. It was his sax. Precious. A treasured
inheritance. But it had been a therapeutic influence
following the night that had been her worst experience. She
opened the case; the saxophone would dry out completely
by morning.

Make-up removed, she curled up in cosy pyjamas, beneath
the duvet, and slept.

*

These extracts introduce the three main characters, whose reactions to an incident which happens create, for them, a dilemma.

*

I have enjoyed catching upon the posts of those I follow. Blogging is such an interesting opportunity to peek into the diversity that is the lives and thoughts of others ... and to share one's own thoughts and life.

Books

Books

Click on 'Books'
View all of my books on my web site!

Sojourn in Bath

Our sojourn in Bath was brief, just a weekend to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of my husband's nephew, who normally resides in Singapore. It was an amazing gathering of cultures and ages - the entertainment delightful and the food, delicious. We were privileged as it was held in a beautiful Georgian house in Somerset Place -see the photographs - and necessitated my re reading 'Northanger Abbey' so that I could fully enter into the atmosphere.

When the house was restored, the doorways had to be heightened as people were so much shorter in those days. I let my imagination run back in time and could see myself scribbling a hasty note to a would be beau! Oh, the elegance!