So this sign was the result of my determination to add something to my office at the beginning of the academic year that would help me set the tone. One dollar store trip and a little acrylic paint later I had my cloudy sky inspired sign. I’m also pretty proud of my planter which I made with my husband’s help from an old kitchen canister set.
I take lots of pictures of trees. It’s one of my favorite parts about living in the Pacific Northwest. Trees also have a good reputation in literature – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Giving Tree, “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer – plus the paper in my books comes from trees. So being a book lover and a tree lover makes sense, I guess.
This is the third acrylic painting I’ve done with this striped technique – and I think it turns out kinda fun
For a long time I dreamed of having a job with a real office. Now that I have one it’s been fun to add creative touches. Plus, it gives me another place to put all the various stuff that I and my husband make. I added this little guy to the bookshelf today.
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I posted to the blog. I had such momentum in October 2020 – I thought I was ready to publish only to find out that I’d lost the newest, most edited version of my manuscript… over a year later I’m still working through it again.
I do love being creative. I’ve continued to write, and paint, and take pictures, but making anything official out of it was more energy than I could summon apparently. And I can’t say that I can commit to anything more than this one post. But one post is a start.
And here’s a gallery of photos and one painting from this last year.
I feel confident enough in to officially announce that my novel Rell is going to be available as an ebook through Amazon in November 2020! Yay!
You can click here to see the ebook cover and read the book description. In addition, starting next week I will have the first two chapters available for free.
Just writing this makes me 51 percent excited and 49 percent terrified!
I love my job – it’s fulfilling and worthwhile and even in the COVID-19 madness I still enjoy it. But…
It can be pretty consuming. It’s just creative enough to use my creative energies and demands just enough writing that it uses up my writing energy and at the end of the day I often just want to watch superhero movies and drool into my nap in order to recover.
That might be why things like photography have taken a front seat as opposed to novel writing over the last couple years. I just need to summon a few minutes of that creative spark.
At some point, my job is supposed to get less time consuming, until then I’ll try to keep finding a way to keep the creative life going.
So I wanted to start playing with photos and Photoshop just isn’t in the budget right now. My husband told me about a free photo editing program. The problem is that when I get into it I just end up playing with all the toys and not actually learning how to edit photos. So instead of perfectly cropped and edited photos I end up with things like this instead.
Wrote this a few years ago on my first fall visit to the Pacific Northwest Coast. Now that I live here I’m even more aware that this part of the world can be beautiful any time of year. Now, if we can just get these fires and smoke to calm down….
“And Yet I Think My Love As Rare”
Not a postcard today.
The wind whipping me
Crazy haired and chapped.
Poor shells bashed to bits
In the gritty foam.
This is no brochure
“See the Oregon Coast”
Grey surf, grey sky,
Sneaker waves soaking my frozen feet.
And yet,
I will crawl inside this echo
When my world is truly bleak and truly cold.
Letting this pale ocean
Soften sharp blues.
Jenel Alan 