Back from Taiwan!

And what a trip it was. Here's a photo of me in the Taroko Gorge area, about halfway through  our 12-day journey. I chose this one out of all my 893 pics because I thought it summed up my day-by-day existence pretty well: happy as a clam and having the time of my life whilst overcoming my reluctance to stand too close to the edge. (P.S. I did get right up close by the end of the day. In fact, I don't think I'll ever be afraid of heights again.) 

As you can see, we had to wear helmets in this particular section, but to be perfectly honest I should have been required to keep mine on my head until I got home. My head was always in the clouds (giving our wonderful tour guide a constant source of worry with the repeated refrain of: "Valerie, watch OUT!"). And that's because:

Taiwan was . . . incredible; one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited. I am so grateful to artist Ming Franz for giving us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel with her to her home country in such a personal and insightful way. Any expectations I may have held in advance were far exceeded; both from a cultural and a tourist point of view. My sole job every day was to have my luggage ready for collection in the morning, get on the bus, and be prepared for adventure. The perfect way to travel! 

Traveling light!

Our magic flying bus.

Because the trip meant I had to miss participating in this year's April A-Z blogging challenge, I thought I would make up for lost time by writing several posts about the trip over the next couple of weeks. Don't worry--they won't be long or too exhaustive. As much as I would love to share every single second with you, I also realize how easily travel stories can become a big snooze, so I'll keep everything down to the highlights. 

Something I wanted to mention before my next post though, is to remind everyone that my primary reasons for taking the trip (besides having lots of fun, traveling with Ming, and meeting new friends) were to, a) learn more about Asian and Chinese art, which I certainly did, and b) to sketch with a free heart and without my Inner Critic (I think I threw her off at the Gorge somewhere). In order to achieve the right state of mind for these goals, one book that really helped me ahead of time was  The Tao of Sketching by Qui Lei Lei. I found his timetable/chart for sketching invaluable, e.g. "2-3 minutes, just use pen or pencil and go for quick lines," as well as his sage advice, "Never give up," (draw or paint in whatever circumstances you find yourself, which for me was drawing on the bus with all its bumps, sudden turns, and spilled water galore) and, "Capture what 'punctures your heart.' ” 

Taiwan punctured my heart. But more of that in my next post: Travel Days 1 and 2. Right now I'm going to eat a yummy preserved kumquat, one of the treats I brought home from this amazing place, The National Center for Traditional Arts. Oh, how I wish I was still there!

Tip of the Day: Besides drawing, I also did a little bit of writing in the form of listing 12 items to remember every day. It was a good system as it saved me from the pressure of “having to journal” when I was too tired to do anything but smile. Best of all, the ensuing 144  are right at my fingertips, easy to transcribe into another form, e.g. this blog, without having to search through pages and pages of rambling observations and inner musings.

Getting Ready for Taiwan: Art Pack

I'm leaving for Taiwan in the morning! I’m pretty much all packed, ready to go, and have even shopped for, and prepared, a dozen meals for my husband to eat while I’m gone.  In other words, just put me on the plane. 

It seems like I’ve been getting ready for this trip for months, concentrating mainly on choosing and gathering the right art supplies. My dithering had a lot to do with the fact that I’ve never been a big fan of plein air sketching or painting. Past experiences of trying to sketch outdoors usually include me being (in no particular order): too hot, too cold, too thirsty, hungry, under attack from various evil insects, struggling to keep my paper flat and dirt-free from a wind that never stops blowing, and then by the time I've got everything under control I desperately need to find the restroom. I’m hoping this trip will be different, or at least teach me some better survival skills. 

Another big factor in choosing my supplies is they had to fit in my travel purse without being too heavy or bulky. So what I've narrowed the kit down to is:

• A Stillman and Birn Epsilon 6"x 8” sketchbook. After weeks of experimenting with various papers, this seemed to be the very best book for both dry and wet media, as well as giving me plenty of pages for journaling. The paper has a lovely smooth finish and suits me well.
• A large striped rubber band to keep my sketchbook closed and the pages protected from all the other stuff in my purse (and the wind once I'm outside). This one is from Smash products and has a nice jaunty flair, don't you think?
• A zippered pencil case to carry:
• 1 Caran d’Ache techno B pencil.
• 1 Caran d’Ache watersoluble graphite B pencil.
• 1 mechanical Bic pencil with rubber grip and extra leads inside the pencil.
• 1 Caran d’Ache red watercolor pencil.
• 6 Faber and Castell watercolor Art Grip pencils (yellow, blue, brown, violet, and 2 greens because I couldn’t decide which green I liked best).
• 1 waterbrush--this one has a large-size tip, but a short handle, perfect for packing.
• 1 black gel pen (from my favorite coffee store: Moon’s Tea and Coffee here in ABQ).
• 1 Uniball BLX Siglo pen in green ink (for journaling).
• 1 glue stick (for collaging).
• 1 double pencil sharpener.
• 1 kneaded eraser.

And that’s it! I figure if there’s anything else I’ll need, I can purchase it there, but I think this should cover all possibilities and sudden inspirations. Thanks for visiting; see you in a couple of weeks!

Tip of the Day:  Travel light--it's so easy to be tempted into carrying an entire art studio's worth of supplies for a day of sketching or even writing. In the last few weeks as part of my travel-prep I've been sketching with a black ballpoint pen--and I loved the results. Sometimes simple really can be better.

Barcelona Beads

I leave for Taiwan in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! My head is swimming with lists: mosquito repellent, buy currency, don't forget bathing suit. Don't forget PASSPORT! I've been having nightmares about missing the flight, being captured en route by the Japanese Royal Family (seriously, this is true), and forgetting just about every item I plan to take with me. 

The only thing that has kept me relatively sane these last few days has been taking the time to play with my bead collection. And I'm pretty happy with the results, starting with a necklace that I made with beads I bought during my 2013 vacation to Barcelona. The loose beads have been sitting in a drawer all this time, waiting for me to finally get my beading tools, but here they are now ready for Spring 2015.

Following my plan to title each of my necklaces as I make them, this one is called "Barcelona Morning Stroll." Here's another view against a black background. (Unfortunately, I'm not a very good photographer so the pics aren't capturing the light the way I'd like to share.)

Remembering my trip and the store where I bought the beads in the city's Gothic Quarter will always make them special to me, but more than that is the way the finished necklace just looks like Barcelona. The colors and shapes remind me of the intricate Gaudi and art nouveau architecture; the beaches; the prolific mosaic-work; the colorful and imaginative graffiti, and all of it steeped in such intense and magical sunlight.

Beading for me has turned out to be a great way to relax and stay focused. It's also helping me with my artwork in general, giving me a chance to play with composition, design, color choices, and finding my favorite palettes. Another nice thing I'm learning about the beading world is the sense of comfort and ease. Unlike writing, which can seem to take forever to see a piece in print, or visual artwork where the true value lies too often in the eye of the beholder, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are so straightforward. Once they're finished, they're finished. Of course you can always un-string them and start over with a new idea or design, but that seems awfully compulsive to me when there's such a huge variety of new beads out there for fresh exploration.

Which is one of the ways I want to use my time in Taiwan: looking for new beads to string! High on my shopping itinerary is discovering a great bead store featuring jade, pearls, and all kinds of unique little Asian charms and findings. Until then, however, I'm staying calm-ish by working on a new piece using beads I bought right here in town and that  I've titled "Albuquerque Sunrise." 

Okay, now to check that I really, really do have my passport . . .  yes, here it is, okay . . . deep breath . . . Taiwan in two weeks . . . 

Tip of the Day: It's fun to search out a specific item while traveling, but unless you're good at time management, it can quickly turn into a nightmare. I remember one trip I took with several other women to Frankfurt, Germany when one member of our party had her heart set on finding a certain type of ceramic cookware. We must have gone to every store in the city until we found it at the last store open before the end of the day. I was astonished at how badly she wanted it, how boring it was to look for it, and how heavy and awkward the covered clay dish was to pack and take home. 

Although I want to find beads in Taiwan, I'm not going to go out of my way (or comfort zone) to purchase them, and I'm certainly not bringing home more than I can carry. It may turn out that the best I can do is to simply sketch some designs based on my travels and use them as patterns for beads I can buy here in Albuquerque. In other words, travel light--it's the memories that make a trip, not the "stuff."

Happy 20th Birthday to The Essential Guide for New Writers!

Celebrating!

February 2015 marks the 20th Anniversary of 

The Essential Guide for New Writers. 

20 Years!! 

I'm so proud of this book--a true case of "the little engine that could"; a book originally written for my fledgling creative writing classes way back in Carrollton, Georgia, yet has continued to sell year after year, month after month. 

The Essential Guide has been used in so many places: prison creative writing programs, university MFA programs, homeschool seminars, and in such a variety of writers' groups it's mind-boggling: from New Zealand to India to California and back, The Essential Guide has accomplished everything I ever wanted for it. Thank you to all those who have purchased the book (and thank you for the fan mail), and welcome new readers if you're investigating the pages for the first time!

Basically the book is a streamlined "how to" manual designed to establish and maintain your everyday writing habits. It cuts right to the essence of what makes a good story, listing the main building blocks all publishable writing, both fiction and nonfiction, should include. 

Some of the things you'll find inside:

• Getting your ideas right where you want them--on paper.
• What editors are looking for, and how to get the to look at you.
• Creative conflict--the driving force behind character, goal, and plot.
• Narrative hooks--grab your reader and don't let go.
• Setting and dialogue: "I really felt I was there!"
• Turning your ides into scenes, and your scenes into fully finished manuscripts.
• Desire, visualization, and commitment--the three key ingredients to selling your work.
• Writing the right query letter and book proposal.

Writing exercises at the end of every chapter, too! Take a peek at the trailer:

Wow. It's been a journey, friends. May the next 20 years be just as exciting, or more!

Tip of the Day: To celebrate The Essential Guide's birthday, I'm having a special price at my website--just $5.95 from now until March 20, 2015. The price includes free domestic shipping to anywhere within the USA. You can't go wrong--get your copy today!

Trust Your Manuscript; Trust Yourself

Several years ago when I started this blog, one of the early posts I wrote was titled It's All About Trust. This morning I woke up realizing it still is--creative work really is all about trusting your gut, your instincts, your ability, and especially the work itself.

For the last twelve months I've been avidly editing and preparing my new novel The Abyssal Plain for submission. I'm now in the beginning of those first submissions and initial contacts. There's just been one problem: an irritating, exasperating, and very worrisome question I've had about one of the manuscript's plot points. Midway in the story, one of my female characters suddenly becomes antagonistic toward one of the male characters. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why, but it seemed the natural way for the narrative to go, so I let it ride. 

That said, I didn't really like the way I left this thing dangling. I couldn't understand why my character became mean, then meaner, then almost unbearable in her hostility toward this other character. I tried to blame it on her moodiness, but that just seemed so unfair to her as well as the poor male character who had to bear the brunt of her anger. Oh, well, I thought. No one will notice (fingers crossed). Keep calm and submit the manuscript anyway. An answer will come. Strangely enough, it did!

This morning I woke up with the answer so loud and clear it made me not only laugh in sheer relief, but sent me running to my office to write down what is basically a small paragraph of insight and explanation that clarifies everything. How, I kept asking myself as I scribbled away, could I not see what the conflict was? After all, it was right there in the manuscript waiting to be seized and expanded upon.

In other words, I'd already done the groundwork, I was just too caught up in other manuscript concerns to see or appreciate it. Thank goodness for my subconscious. Thank goodness for sleep. Because all I had to do was be present, agree to work on the manuscript no matter what, and believe an answer would appear, which it did--in glowing (and logical) technicolor. Having this answer appear at this exact moment has changed my entire attitude toward both the manuscript and submitting it. Let's just call it "increased confidence." Whew.

A few of the things I've learned from this experience are:

• Whenever you're stuck on a plot-glitch or other irritating problem, just keep working past whatever it is. Don't stop and don't give up. Keep moving forward!
• Learn to be comfortable with mystery. If the answer doesn't appear right away, or even a few months later--trust that it will, somehow, somewhere. You may have to wait for some outside help, such as a critique partner or an editor asking, "What does this mean?" Or, "Why is this event happening?" But that could be the perfect time to receive your best and most true answer. 
• Don't be afraid of the extra work weaving your answer into the manuscript may entail. In my case it's just going to take a new paragraph or two, and then some additional dialogue lines and tags. But it also means changing my pagination, printing out new manuscript copy, fresh proofreading, etc. And that's okay--this new info helps my story to make sense and will encourage a reader to keep reading without having to stop and figure out what's going on. (And then forget all about reading my story while they pick up something more coherent to read.)

The next time you're stuck in a manuscript, or any other type of creative endeavor--artwork, beading, house-renovating included--concentrate on trust rather than worry. You'll find a way. I can trust it.

Tip of the Day: "Sleeping on a problem" really does work! I might not have been thoroughly aware of how much I wanted an answer to my manuscript question, but it must have been in my psyche somewhere, ready to appear. 

One good tip I'm reminded of is to write down any question you might have about any life situation, creative or otherwise, and put it under your pillow. Then forget all about it. People who've tried this tell me they wake up with the answer as vividly as I did today. How about you? Any tips on the subject to share? Let me know! Happy dreaming/problem-solving.