Merry Christmas!

Greetings! I am still heavily engrossed in my novel writing endeavor. It’s become sort of a mixed media project. When I get stuck writing I try something else. I have an art journal specifically for the book where I put character bios and photos and things that remind me of my characters.

Heh, that’s the boy that has taken over my mind. I imagine Jinx looks like this photo of Robert Mapplethorpe…gorgeous.

Another character’s page. I made (bad) photo copies of tarot cards that represented each character and stuck them in the book. This character is a warrior who passes along his courage by giving the other characters feathers. Okay, that probably doesn’t make sense to anyone but me right now. But the feather is a physical reminder for me of a person who does not exist. I am basically making a scrapbook for my imaginary friends. Quite fun.

Other tools I’ve been using:
Big stack of ATCs: I use these like little index cards to write notes or to map out plot points. I label the cards with every major plot point, then lay them out and shuffle them around as needed.
Thesaurus and Baby Name Book: for replacing overused words and naming characters.
Moleskine: notes, sketches, whatever! It’s a moleskine!
Tarot Cards: also great for inspiration because basically each tarot card has a situation depicted on it. If I get stuck for ideas, I grab a random card and imagine what my characters would do in the situation shown on the card.
Kindle: if I think a passage I’ve written is half-way decent, I convert it and read it on my Kindle so I feel like I’m reading a real book and not just some mess I’ve typed up on my iPad. It makes my errors more obvious for some reason.
Lynda Barry’s book What It Is: a great resource for help with writing imagery and setting a scene for your characters.

Okay, I just went off on a tangent there, but I really just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays! Last week I bought a new art journal for 2012 and I’m looking forward to filling it and showing it off to you! See you soon!

How AEDM Turned into NaNoWriMo

There is something about November that makes me go completely insane. I think it has something to do with working in retail. I have to find a creative outlet in November or I will lose my mind. One year I taught myself to knit. Another year I made a really bad zine. The past two years, of course, it’s been art journaling. And this year…it turned into novel writing. About a week ago, I Stumbled Upon a web article about the snowflake method for writing a novel and I thought, hey I wanna try. It is NaNoWriMo, after all. Five hours later I realized I hadn’t moved from the couch. And it’s been like that ever since. So, I’m sorry, but I think AEDM is off for now (although, I think writing could be considered an art). Anyway, I don’t know if my novel will ever be fit for human consumption, but I am enjoying myself tremendously! First of all, I have been getting to sleep at a decent hour every night so I can get up early and write. It’s sort of a strange experience, though. It has completely changed the way I interact with the (real) world. I have trouble concentrating at work, because I’m thinking about my plot. I have conversations with my characters in my car. I smile to myself on my lunch break when I think of something funny one of them has done. The downside is that I do not want to hang out with my buddies and my family. I have to tear myself away from my iPad! My house is a disaster!
Okay, so despite my crazy and antisocial behavioral issues, I find working on a novel to be one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had in my adult life. It’s a bit like being handed a few pieces of a puzzle and being told to make up the rest. First, I thought of a general idea and a few characters and I’ve been slowly working out the reasons why these people ended up together. One of the characters is very real to me in a strange way. He even managed to tell me I’d gotten his name wrong! After I got his name right, it seems like he just won’t shut up! I get pieces of dialogue from him all the time!
I’m really shy about my work. The only person I’ve told that I’m writing is my husband…about ten minutes ago. He asked me what I’ve been doing all day, so I mumbled something about writing a novel and he was pretty unconvinced. So, I said, “No, I have seriously been writing a novel.” He didn’t harass me too much about it, so I’m thinking about announcing it to my Facebook friends next.
I suppose you might want to know a bit about what I’m writing, but my inner critic is in my ear telling me how dumb it all sounds. Especially since I haven’t gotten it all figured out. So, I will just tell you a couple of things. It has a title! Bird and Vine. It’s probably going to be YA, because that’s what I like to read, but I suppose it could end up being for adults. It’s also Fantasy, which I never imagined myself writing, but the ability to build my own world was too much to resist. And that character I love so much? His name is Jinx!

Current Word Count (8 days in): 15,236. I told you I’ve gone insane!

AEDM Day 16: Image Transfer Two

Here is my finished image transfer. It didn’t turn out very well, and I started to do a paint-over, but then I realized I don’t have any darker flesh tone for shading. Poo! I’ll have to pick up some tomorrow.

Day 15: Image Transfer

Another 5-minute art journaling session tonight. I grabbed a magazine, flipped through, and found a photo I liked. I applied some glue to the image and stuck it face down in my journal. Tomorrow I’ll peel off the back and have a pretty photo in my journal!

Day 14: Stamping

Wow, I didn’t get much done today either! I made sure to sit down with my journal, if only for 5 minutes. I grabbed a few stamps and stamped all over one of my painted backgrounds. Hopefully I’ll have more free time tomorrow.

AEDM Day 13: A Lazy Day

I am having a particularly lazy day today. I have barely moved from the couch. I did a little painting in my journal this morning, but really I have been daydreaming all day about wizards. I am kind of obsessed with Howl’s Moving Castle. I think next year I might actually try NaNoWriMo! How was your Sunday?

AEDM Day 12: Kit

Tonight I’m putting together something new for my shop–an art journal kit. I figure it can be for a new art journaler or used as a travel kit. The journal included is an upcycled board book. And I’m gathering all kinds of goodies to go with it. A set of craft paints, a container of gesso, an envelope full of papers and collage items, a stamp pad and a small alphabet stamp set, a large stencil, a travel watercolor set… It’s gonna be pretty sweet. I’ll be sure to post a link to the finished product tomorrow.

AEDM Day 11: Brainstorm!

This morning I didn’t have much time before work, so I just grabbed a notebook and did a bit of brainstorming. A scribbly notebook isn’t much to look at, though. So how about a photo of the kittens that have been hanging out in my yard?

Sooooo cute! Happy 11.11.11 day!

AEDM Day 10: Shrine

I woke up this morning and was playing around on my iPad when I came across a shrine someone had made inside a matchbox. I have always wanted to make a shrine, so I decided that today was the day.

Actually, I think what I made is technically a triptych gothic arch card. It’s the thing on the right.

Inside is a shrine to Courtney Love. A real rock goddess. I used photos from the Internet and photocopies of pages from her book Dirty Blonde, which is essentially an art journal. It’s hard to photograph the entire inside of the shrine, so I’ll be sure to show it off in my next journal flip video. Okay, now I’m going to snuggle on the couch and watch Howl’s Moving Castle. I finished the book last night and it was amazing!

AEDM Day 9: The Shoes

I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on my shoes. Nice! The only problem is that when I pulled the masking tape off the heel and a big chunk of glitter came off with it. So, they are probably not the sturdiest shoes in the world. Dang!