Blog

Braai

Still battling the funk, though things are getting better. I managed a whole paragraph of real words that did not have to do with my day job, and ideas for art are slowly starting to form. There is an end to the funk tunnel, and I can sorta see it if I squint! Whoot! To…… Continue reading Braai

Stew

I’ve been in a little bit of a funk lately with all the craziness going on in the world and at work. I’ve learned over the years that the Funk is my body is telling me I need to slow down and recharge my positivity meter. Normally I have a billion ideas I’m dying to…… Continue reading Stew

Cuttle-Fest

Happy Autumnal Equinox, and welcome to Port Liberty’s Cuttle-Fest! Cuttle-Fest is one of two annual festivals that take place on the pier of Sparky’s Boardwalk (named, of course after famous dimensional explorer Sparky Dottendash). Port Libs hold one festival on each Equinox to celebrate each of Port Liberty’s resident Kaiju. Yup, there are two Kaiju.…… Continue reading Cuttle-Fest

Multiverse

When I was a kid, I loved those crossover episodes of TV shows where a character in one show would turn up on another show one week, and then the other character would return the favor the following week. The characters would have to work together to solve a two-episode plot. My favorite was the…… Continue reading Multiverse

Praise

Happy Friday! I’ve completed another “main character voice” exercise for Jo Lee Reilly, the sleuth for Port Liberty Mysteries. This one was interesting to play with. I wanted to bring out the fact that Jo Lee spent her early years working as an analyst. Being one myself, I know I have problems with vague instructions.…… Continue reading Praise

Enough

I mentioned in the last post, Introductions, that I’m working through the voice exercises in Hallie Ephron’s Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel. One of the takeaways for me is that every hero needs a flaw, a chink in the armor, a button to push. Something to overcome. This was hard for me. I normally write…… Continue reading Enough

Introductions

Number five on the Dalai Lama’s rules for living is “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” Since this is my first foray into mystery, and mystery is one of those genres with lots of rules, I needed help learning them so I can be on my merry with breaking them…… Continue reading Introductions

Grout

Walking videos have been a great thing during the lockdown. Basically, a walking video is a person that walks around whatever city with a camera and films as he goes. Some are thirty minutes, and some are hours long. It’s great white noise for writing, and when you look up, there’s pretty scenery on the…… Continue reading Grout

Mosaics

Lantern Bridge Mosaic Thinking organically when creating art is hard for me. I’m an analyst. I take my hammer (or my head), smash it into a problem to bash it down to its tiniest parts and then fit the pieces together in dozens of different ways until I solve it. Hard to smash a piece…… Continue reading Mosaics