Holy Hearts and Shamrocks, Batman! It’s March!
Life’s been lifin’, so it’s been a while, kids. I think I’ll start with our latest museum visit and promise to catch up on reading, watching, and places we’ve been in posts I’ll get out to you soon.
I’m looking out the window right now and the trees are swaying and dancing, like fans at a Springsteen concert! It’s uber windy out there, so no walking at the park today. We did some miles on the treadmill at the gym this morning.
Yesterday morning, we managed to get out to our first writer’s meeting of the year (we were sick in January, then a downtown parade blocked our path in February ~ yes, we might have gotten there through back streets but… we didn’t 😊). So glad we got there today. Elle Jauffret, former lawyer and current mystery writer, gave an excellent talk on finding the “spine” of your book (the dramatic question that must be answered), how to keep that question top of mind throughout the story, and how to integrate different genres together organically.
I bought her first book, Threads of Deception, and she was delightful to talk to as she signed it. Then I came home and bought the ebook (on sale for $1.99 right now!) of the second in her trilogy, Cosplayed to Death.
After the beta reader critiques of the book I’m working on that I mentioned in my last post, I decided I had to write an origin story for my main character, Sugar. I needed to know the reason she waited until she was 33 to engage with Seekers ~ spirits who approached her for help ~ so that I could deepen her character and, also help readers understand why she’s undertaking the challenge of solving a murder. It’s taken me from October til now to write twelve pages… As I said, life been lifin’, and that’s part of it, but a bigger part is that it’s always been scary for me when people have been positive about my work, which they were. In addition to the imposter syndrome that set off, I also know that this, hopefully, final revision is going to be complicated and time-consuming. Some writers love the rewriting stage. I’m not one of them ~ LOL!
Our latest museum visit took us to The Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton, CA. Their current exhibit is mixed media art inspired by Peanuts, executed by Tom Everhart, an artist who worked with Charles Schultz and was granted license to use the Peanuts characters in his art. The Muckenthaler mansion has been an exhibit space for decades and several rooms in the museum area still retain original fixtures and furnishings. The Peanuts Collection will be on display through May 1.
Here are some highlights:
Couldn’t we all use a hug!
The first of two amazing fireplaces. PS It was me that was off kilter, not the floor, LOL!
Another fireplace.
A vintage high chair.
Below one of my favorite artworks is a niche in the wall holding another piece of art ~ I’m thinking that’s a permanent little quirk of the mansion.
I’m including a couple of close-ups of this piece because I thought the techniques were very cool.
This close up looks like a skeleton overlay on the gown.
The technique used for the leaf-like splotches is reminiscent of a vintage spin art machine I had as a kid.
Dramatic Husband.
Happy Wife.
A beautiful original stained glass window from the mansion.
The original concept of Snoopy.
What have you all been up to? Let us know in the comments.
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