Category Archives: living
Kill Me, by Alex Owens is now available on iTunes!
Finally! The first book in the new Blood Chordseries, Kill Me, is available on iTunes via the iBook store. I’d post a link directly to it, but I can’t figure out how to snag the link 
If anyone knows how to snag a direct book link from iBooks, I’d sure love to know!
Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! The Hubs, Kiddo’s and I are off to an extended weekend of relaxation in the mountains of VA! I’m going to sit by a waterfall and zone out… even if it kills me 
Source: alexmody.com via Karen on Pinterest
Cleaning Out the Cobwebs
Since moving to our new house right before Christmas, and the months-long push to get Kill Me out into the world, my mind and my dedicated office space have been suffering from a severe case of the Clutters. Tonight, after putting in a eight hours at the day job, I came home to do something about it.
I figured cleaning up my office would get my household moving in the right direction. Little did I realize it would also juice up my creative side via a trip down memory lane. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
First I want to show you my office-in-progress. It’s mostly organized and once I get all of the computer tower chords tucked away, it will be decorating time! (I have so many Pinterest ideas!) So here are the before pics and I’ll come back and post After pics at some point.
Now, about that trip down memory lane…
I organized three filing boxes into one and had to go through sooooo many files. Some of those were things I’d written up to twenty years ago. I cringed at some of my melodramatic, flowery poetry and stunted prose. It was bad. Very bad.
I also discovered that I had the bare bones, scribbled on multi-colored bits of paper and tucked in several folders, of a dozen novels that I’d completely forgotten about.
A dozen novel ideas. Some only a few paragraphs, while others had a fleshed-out synopsis, chapter outline and pages of notes. Cleaning reminded me about why I write, and just how long I’ve been at it. And it was just the kick-in-the-pants that I needed to get working on something new.
While I do that, you can enjoy (not) two of my early little ditties. Be kind, I wrote these as an impressionable teen and over-tired young mother. And I’m embarrassed enough all on my own, thank you very much!
(This was written way back yonder when I worked on greeting card scripts.)
Seasons pass, and years go by We ditched a class and learned to fly Spouses appeared and children were had We’ve reminisced on the times we were Bad So many memories, we have shared And when it mattered most, I knew you cared Storms came and went, and in the end We’ve weathered it all, because we are friends.(Then there is this… not sure what else to say about that.)
When the question is posed to me- at my job, online, in a bar- Who am I? What Am I? What singular word describes the Who of Me? I speak, I type, I slur- one word, on compulsion (a habit I don’t recall forming) It falls out of my mouth like errant food. dropped on my blouse A stain to wear all through the day Like a badge, a dull cookie-crusted badge of reproductive capabilities Who Am I? What am I? I am a Mother.(That’s all Folks!)
Winning, Wrecks and Witches
Whew, it’s been a killer month. NaNoWrimo has kicked my butt, I’ll have to admit first and foremost. I have probably broken that coveted 50k word goal, but it’s been spread out over 4 different works in progress (including one spanking new baby that seems to be about past lives and why people aren’t supposed to rememeber them!) so unless I wanna be a NaNo cheater I won’t be getting my banner this year
Besides all that holiday madness and NaNo, I had house guests for the first two weeks of the month. Of the manly-hunting variety. I’m just now recovering from the Camo overload. Then, my husband had the misfortune of wrecking his truck. Or rather, some random guy crashed into Hubby and had no license, insurance etc. So we’ve been dealing with that and trying to find a suitable replacement truck. (Here’s his mangled deer-hauler. How sad is that?)
And of course, I’m busting my hump to get BLOOD CHORD ready for publication sometime this month. I will beat the holiday rush, dag-nabbit. You can enjoy the tentative cover for that while I procrastinate via blogging.
Lastly, the third book in what has become my favorite series as-of-late, A Reckless Witch by Debora Geary has finally been released! I’m so excited about it that I can’t wait to find a couple of hours to read it. (You may remember I’ve reviewed the first two books in the series previously.) If anyone beats me to it– NO SPOILERS! I mean it!
Related articles
- Book Review- Witches on Parole: Unlocked by Debora Geary (quirkygurl.com)
That’s it. I’m off to finish editing my novel Blood Chord so it can be born, grow up, and move out of my house already!
Book Review – Happier Than a Billionaire by Nadine Hays Pisani
After seeing this author and book on various sites for writers and indie authors, I went on a mission to track it down over on Amazon. My journey was not in vain.
Happier Than A Billionaire is one womans story of chucking it all and moving to Costa Rica. I mean, come on, who hasn’t considering doing something equally zany? I certainly have, though lately it’s become something more of an obsession than a crazy notion.
Let me just say, I adore this author, who writes with moments of clarity and wit, bracketed by comedic timing. She spins an entertaining tale, while calling out others to reconsider the way they are living. If something makes you miserable, why on earth would you continue to do it? Exactly.
Even if you’re not considering a move to a tropical locale, I’d still reccomend Happier Than A Billionaire to just about anybody. It’s quirky, fun, and well worth the tiny price tag!
I Should Be Writing (a new form of procrastination!)
So I’ve developed another method to avoiding all that I should be doing. It’s addictive. It’s amazing. It let’s you snag all your favorite things from around the net and organize them into cute little pin boards for your viewing pleasure. It lets you gather idea for the upcoming holidays, remodeling jobs, organization, fashion, or whatever else interests you.
What am I talking about? Why, Pinterest of course! You can see my profile here
If I could figure out how to grab a screen shot of it, I’d post one here just to show you how Fab it is.
My little Mock-Up will have to do:
But I’m burning daylight here and I’ve got 1,235, 998 projects calling my name. Ciao’
Weirdness Warning: Photoshop, True Blood and Arabian Horses
Life, as usual, has been getting in my creative way lately. I’ve been busy working on more post for you guys, crafting a story collection, finishing up a novel that I’m very excited about (as well as about five other literary projects) and then there’s the non-writing time-sucks:
1. Photoshop: In addition to gearing up for a Maternity photoshoot this weekend (love me some pregger’s bellies!) and a Senior portrait session with Firetrucks after that, I also have gotten some design work done.
While I do spend a fair amount of time on these things, it’s not all wasted minutes. Crafting cover art (like the mock-up below) allows me to focus a story more tightly, and often gives me the kick-in-the-pants that I need to complete it.
{I’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on this cover!}
2. Television: I don’t have Showtime, despite some of my favorite shows airing on that channel. Californication, Weeds, Dexter, The Real L Word… and of course, True Blood, but that goes without saying. And it’s literally killing me to not be able to watch them. Seriously. I spend hours lamenting my sad state of cable subscriptions and cooking up elaborate schemes so that I can bask in the glow that radiates from Eric Northman. I wish I was joking.
3. Parenting Lethargy: I spend so much time trying to accomplish things that sometimes it is overwhelming. Then all at once, I’m bombarded by the things I should be teaching/ doing/ sharing with my children and I want to poke June Cleaver in the eye with rusty scissors for making me feel like a crappy mom. Case-in-point: My daughter has mentioned numerous times that she wants to take horseback riding lessons.
Now, I totally understand. I felt the same at her age and thanks to my own Mother-on-a-pedestal, I rode and showed horses competitively right up until I got married and moved away. I think about getting back into it, but who has the time?
(My horse-days were before the digital era, but my Egyptian Arabian “Clyde” looked like the above.)
But back to my daughter and her equine interest. I’m scared (she’s extremely accident prone- she broke and lacerated her finger WHILE getting a school physical at the Dr’s office!), I’m not rich (lessons and attire and tack, oh my!) and I’m busy enough as it is. So I put it off, and then I feel like crud for not doing it for her. I really need to get on that, and the million other things on my lost To-Do list.
But I can’t start now. It’s late and I’m going to bed.
Until next time!
~K.
Renaissance Woman
I was reminded of the movie, Renaissance Man, and that led me to ponder (which I’m randomly inclined to do anyway) the origination of the phrase. This from smattering of explanations from Dictionary.com
Renaissance man
n. a modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests; a scholar during the Renaissance who (because knowledge was limited) could know almost everything about many topics
n. An outstandingly versatile, well-rounded person. The expression alludes to such Renaissance figures as Leonardo da Vinci, who performed brilliantly in many different fields.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third EditionCopyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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This loosely defines how I feel about myself as a person, which in turn shapes the way I perceive my shortcomings and failures. Let me explain.
As a student, I had so many interests, that I couldn’t even begin to pare things down into an actual career field. I wasn’t one of those children who said “I’m going to be a Doctor when I grow up” and actually stuck to it.
I love the arts (both the doing and the studying of), I love science and took many classes that could have easily led to a degree in Biology or medicine. I spent years as an Animal ER nurse, and people still call me to ask advice on a sick or injured pet. I am interested in aspects of design. I am hopelessly addicted to CSI and anything that combines using science and logic to figure things out. I cycle through stints of writing, and the longer ones have led to enough success that a sane person would have kept at it– and had the book advance to celebrate with.
All of my career choices weren’t actual choices. They have been things that I fell into, at points in my life when I was cosmically open to change. I feel like a dabbler of sorts, and on bad days, this seems the root of my unrest. I haven’t dedicated myself to any one thing. I sometimes feel as though I have no purpose.
On good days, however, I see that I am not a dabbler, rather, I am a modern day Renaissance Woman, eager to soak up the wide open world around me. Why settle for a narrow view of the word, when you can have kalideoscopic vision chock-full of interesting people, places and things?
There seems to be a balance between the Renaissance woman or man, and just being a jack-of-all-trades (…and a master of none). I don’t want to be Jack, that fun as he may be, most often doesn’t know jack-shit. I want to be well rounded, well versed and general, well, just well. And I hope that my kids will follow suit.
Mobile Multi-tasking for the creative lady
I’ll be the first to admit, life has gotten away from me before, but somehow the past few months have been complete chaos. Following a series of electronic malfunctions, I found a tiny answer to my prayers for organization.
Three days before Christmas my Kindle died. Of course it was too late to hope that Santa would bring me a replacement. I pined over the loss of my literary friend. I even tried to download the Kindle app to my mac laptop– but of course my operating system wasn’t new enough. Then the laptop itself died. Obviously I’d ticked off a toaster in a past life or something.
Without something to read on, and without my internet browsing ability I flopped around the house aimlessly. I couldn’t afford to replace both devices, and I was torn between what to get first. And then I had a brain storm- I’d get an ipad and have the functionality of both devices neatly rolled into one!
Now I can read at a moments notice and search till my hearts content. But that’s not all that my little ipad had helped me with. I can blog from it– which I’m doing right now. WordPress has a free ipad app, and while I am using it right now I will probably upgrade to one of the paid third party apps soon as the free version is pretty buggy.
As a busy working mother, keeping current on what’s happening in the world is hardly a priority. Then I downloaded the free Huffington Post ipad app, and it has quickly become one of my go-to daily apps. It’s chock full of current events, news stories, reviews, op-ed pieces and interesting slideshows.
As an avid reader, I’ve downloaded three apps, and I switch between them all willy-nilly. It’s my right as a woman to be fickle While the Kindle ipad app is the main one I use, I also have Apple’s iBook, and the Barnes and Noble Nook app.
To occupy my children during long waits at the doctor’s office, I’ve got a nifty white-board drawing app from Ms Oprah herself called SketchBook O. My children also love tickling the ivories on the virtual piano app Virtuoso.
Evernote, StoryTracker and Index Card are all terrific apps that I’m now using to organize my thoughts and to (hopefully) get my writing-butt back into gear.
Dropbox is another free app that has been a blessing for me, since it lets me sync files and folders between my ipad and my desktop computer. It has helped me out a lot with my photography business, and coupled with the great apps Easy Release (digital, email-able release contracts), Square (allows me to take credit cards right from my ipad or iphone!) and Paypal my workflow has become more fluid and productive.
Am I an ipad fan. Yes, and no. I’m not a fan because of the “brand” craze or snobbish peacocking. I am a fan because of all the helpful, organized, productive, and creative things that my ipad lets me do.
I’d love to hear about any other great apps you guys know of as well!
Living with Creative Purpose
I am trying to do this,I swear. It’s a struggle, but one that pays out in dividends if you can manage to pull it off.
So what am I talking about? Go back to the title, re-read it if you have to. Ahh! There.
Now, allow me to explain. I’ve discovered, through months, if not years, of cycling through “dry” non-creative periods and “overflowing” creative times, that life is so much more worth living when one can look at it through the eye of an artist. Instead of the depressing winter landscape, one sees a time of dramatic beauty, hard lines and complex moods. Instead of feeling the oppressive heat of summer, ones takes a moment to sit against the bark of a tree, feeling the kiss of filtered sunlight while birds and squirrels chase each other around the branches above you.
Am I making any sense? If not, I mean to say that by becoming more creative, you can alter your entire life. I know this is true, but still, keeping my artistic vision isn’t easy. Life, as it often does, will get in the way. Kids will get sick, and of course, then I get sick.
Knowing how my creative juices permeate the rest of my life, I must make an effort to keep stirring the pot. And I will, now that I know what I know. Forget Prozac,just give me some oils and a canvas, or even a camera.
I’ll leave you with a few parting shots, of some of my favorite shots:
All of these, and more, can be seen at my Fine Art America Page… you can find the link up on the right hand side.
Unique? Odd? Weird?
No matter how you phrase it, anything out of the norm (whatever that is) earns you one of many similar monikers.
Here, that is not a curse. Being odd has no negative conotations in my world. Nor should it in yours.
If anything, differences highlight the very essence of our human condition. A room full of wire-haired, sallow scientists may come up with a way to clone my body, but all those things that define me can never be replicated.
This blog is dedicated to the off-beat, absurd, and quirky women who could care less about being normal, and instead, strive to just be uniquely themselves. Comfortable in our own skins, we seek to connect with other odd-balls, not in attempt to create a new conformity, but rather to relish in our differences.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a call to arms or a guide to being different for-the-sake-of-being-different. This is just about me, letting myself think, act, and feel how I want to feel without my inner-critic shouting “that’s not normal!” If you wish to join me, so be it. If not, you are welcome to stand on the sideline and mock me, if that’s what you really want to do
Karen
