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.
There’s always more than one way to get there.
In thinking about this phrase the other day- “They can’t see the forest for the trees”-it occurred to me that you can’t actually see the forest without seeing the trees. So yes, the big picture is important, but individual details and people are the key to understanding the whole.
I think that’s why picking the right details for every character and setting is so crucial and challenging.
I’m nervous about putting my work out into the world. What if everyone hates it? What if they think it’s stupid? What if I offend someone? Well lucky for me the only thing that makes me more anxious than all of that is how I’m going to feel if I look back at my life and realize I made decisions based on fear.
I know what I look like.
A fourth car has slowed down, it’s a Lexus this time. A blonde driver with dark red lipstick stares through the rain spotted window. They don’t get a lot of pedestrians here.
I pull out my phone and try the power button again, but the screen is remorselessly black beneath the fissured glass.
There’s another road sign ahead and I legitimately pray, “God, please let it be familiar. Amen.”
Every street in this place seems to be named after a tree – and Lyla’s address, typed carefully into my phone last night, wasn’t a tree street. I remember that much at least.
It’s possible that the bus driver didn’t understand me. Or that he nodded so I’d leave him alone. I hadn’t considered that at the time. But now, after thirty-five minutes of walking it seems possible. This could be the wrong neighborhood, the wrong part of the city.
So I’m still pondering cover design … maybe this as a background instead of the photo? In some ways I know it’s more important just to get the book published, but until it’s done I’ll probably keep pondering options.
So when we moved a couple of years ago I decided I wanted some abstract water-ish looking paintings to hang in our living room, but I was too cheap to buy them at the store and wondered if I could do it myself. That thought led to a new hobby that I’m thoroughly enjoying. I put an audiobook on pull out some brushes, acrylic paint, and a canvas or acrylic paper and have a lot of fun. If I don’t like what I painted I paint over it and try again. If it happens to turn into something I like – fabulous. If not, no harm done, I enjoyed myself and listened to a good book. When it comes to my writing I admit I’m striving for quality, but in painting I’m just having fun. It’s nice to have a creative outlet where I don’t put any pressure on myself.
I love a good book about writing, especially one with great exercises. I’m currently working my way through Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. It’s got contributions from different writers who provide a small essay about writing followed by suggested exercises. Not every exercise is interesting or helpful, but I constantly find myself either genuinely prompted or at least noting an exercise to try again later.
Some of my other favorites:
Page After Page by Heather Sellers
Take Joy by Jane Yolen
Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
Jenel Alan 