Thanksgiving-- last Thursday of November in US

 

images from Stencil

Next Thursday in the United States is Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November-- officially since Abraham Lincoln declared it so, though it had been celebrated earlier. It has some typical traditions, which are often ignored. 

The idea is a day of being thankful, eating a lot of food, and gathering with loved ones. Its traditional basis was supposed to be the first European arrivals being gifted with a feast by their Native American hosts (wanted or not). In the US, it's gotten to be a bit controversial with some feeling it should not be celebrated but rather embarrassed by the effect of the new migrants taking Native lands and killing to do it.

But the concept to me, of a day to think about the good in life, is positive, no matter its history. In my life it was a major celebration with extended family when I was young and then family and friends as I got my own home and began cooking it.

Today for Ranch Boss and me, it's a day of diminished results but good memories. We do not live close to family; so it's just us. We don't have the friends we had in Oregon, as when we decided to live longer in Arizona, was right when Covid hit. We hunkered down as did many. Now I have some physical limitations that play a role in just a few nearby friends, who are great but have their own families for such celebrations.

Some years, we'd fix a full turkey with the trimmings. This year we just bought a turkey breast with plans for some limited trimmings. Overeating when elderly does not feel good. The pumpkin pie will come from the grocery store's bakery and not made by me. I've done them though using a whole pumpkin to start. That's really good but not worth the work for just two people. No more fixing cranberries, the whole berry way, as neither of us care for it. We won't overeat (due to above reason) and will have leftovers. 

I got curious about how others celebrate a Thanksgiving or if they do. Turns out France does not, but here is a link to those who do, not on our date but one of their own.

Thanksgiving Around the World 

What is a Dark Angel?

 

The blog  title asks a question. What is a dark angel? Well, in this book, it's not a supernatural being, but rather what the heroine has come to call the hero. Dark for what he seems like he might be, dangerous, a life on the edge, but angel for what he looks like and what she believes is under the cover of the dark side.

The story begins in Reno, when a young, wealthy, widow, Katy Brown, has come to help her uncle, while her small daughters are at a summer camp. She can organize his business's books, which appear in disarray. She also wants to clean up the office, as clutter bothers her. When her dark angel comes in, Dill Delaney is not pleased at all to see her there, which adds to her suspicions about Uncle John's business partner or is he?

While Katy has no interest in the Reno night life, it's where Dill lives, in a tiny apartment with his adopted feral cat, McGee. What makes Dill's life
even more dicey is he's been forced into working undercover for the federal government to nail a crime boss. Dill hates every part of what he has to do to accomplish this, but he's trapped in it as a way to protect John O'Brian, who he has come to love. 

Worried about Katy getting caught in what is about to go down, Dill does all he can to get her and Johnny out of Reno. He didn't need the warning of his errant father, Finn Delaney. He knows danger is ahead with no real help from the government.

Thus, begins the book when Dill and Katy come together with a strong attraction, which both know they should ignore. I don't want to tell more about what's coming, which could ruin the suspense, but due to the violence, Dill's near death experience, Katy gets her father's private jet to take them to Portland (along with McGee and Dill's motorcycle), where waits a specialist, her home where Leah and Jesse will soon return.

When Dill finally realizes what's happened to him, it's more than just ending up in Portland. There is a lot involving family (a totally

disapproving mother-in-law), friends, unknown enemies, and some black swans. 

If people love each other, they can overcome so much that will end up making them even closer. I could say would they overcome it, but this is, after all, a romance. It's how it all comes together where the fun of writing and reading Her Dark Angel will be found.

Dill has to fit into a wealthy family, where he has known nothing like it. There is that and a hidden enemy.  Fitting in with the wealthy set is challenging to him as much as the world he's been more used to with danger outside his door.

------ 

Available exclusively at Amazon as this will be the first of my contemporary 7 books in KU, which means for readers having subscribed. You can though read the blurb, free sample, or buy the book also at that link:

Her Dark Angel

Bannister's Way -- contemporary romance

 If you read Desert Inferno, you will know that its hero, Jake Donovan, was sure Rachel O'Brian would fall for the handsome federal agent, sent to help shut down an important, smuggling operation on the border. David Bannister is handsome, blond, smooth, and brave as he tries to protect Jake from an enemy determined to kill him. That effort leads to the federal agent nearly being killed.

Bannister now shows up as a hero in his own book, Bannister's Way, where his assignment, now working for a private detective agency, is to solve a murder in a prestigious liberal arts university, just outside of Portland, Oregon. The local police have found no evidence. An important political man wants this crime solved.

 The book opens when David confronts his ex-wife where he'll be the model for her life drawing class in that university. This has been set up for him by his partner, Richard Vance, as his way to get inside to find evidence of the killer. Karen, who now calls herself Raven, is infuriated as they did not part on good terms. David, wants her back, hence, he has two purposes in taking the assignment and solving the murder is not highest on the list. 

However, he has no idea that a life drawing class involves nudes. He and his partner have enjoyed playing pranks on each other. David does not find this one humorous, but the only way out of doing it would be to give up this long-shot chance to get back with his ex, as well as find the motive of the killer-- a way to solve the crime with no physical evidence left behind. 

As with many books in the contemporary series, Romance with an Edge, a few characters pop up from an earlier book. This book though has many elements in it, all part of how life can be complicated -- to say the least.

Because I had taken art as a minor in college, I was familiar with life drawing classes. I also, have had an interest in art history, for how forgeries complicate that world. Having been a sculptor myself, with a lot of fired clay figures in my life as evidence, writing about a heroine, who did that work, added to the fun (the image alongside here is my digital painting with one of my sculptures being worked on Raven's stand).

Writing about a long-estranged couple, but where the sparks were still there added to this creation, which is fiction as is the fine art college. That house on the river though, that was real as I stayed in one like it when I was a kid and swam in that river. 

I'd mention all the tropes, which they say can attract readers (like friendship between two bros), and there are many, most off the lists, but I think are relevant to how detective work happens, art is created, people are treated or should be, and finally the beauty of that part of Oregon.

Since one reviewer at Amazon didn't care for the title, I should mention here that it fit David, who was known as a headstrong, risk taker--- one of the things Raven had disliked about him was a belief, it all had to be his way. David has emotionally grown since those early years, but his stubborn determination to do what he sees as right is still part of him and again could cost him his life-- hence the title that could not be changed. :) 

Check out the link to the book where you can read a free sample as well as an extended blurb. 

Bannister's Way 

 

Desert Inferno -- contemporary romance

image we took in 2011 on one of our desert hikes. The rattler is not in the book, but it is a symbol of the danger that is.

 

Next in my series, Romances with an Edge, is a contemporary romance where I wrote the first draft in the 1990's for the sheer satisfaction of creating it. I didn't think whether it was salable as back then, I wrote a lot of my contemporaries because I had read others; then wondered what would I write if I did them.

Desert Inferno broke one cardinal rule I had seen in most romance novels of that time. The hero was not handsome, not in his eyes or in those of many he arrested. Jake Donovan was a border patrolman and worked the desert along the rugged land between Arizona and Mexico to arrest those committing crimes and turn back those with no right to enter the United States. 

Even then, it was not popular with many people, but he had come from a difficult upbringing and chose this as his way to contribute. As backstory, his brother was in prison when this story begins. He chose the other way, and Jake had helped put him there for his crimes.

Back to writing, when the option to be an indie writer arose, the books took some changes to fit the time (communicating had changed a lot in those years. I brought out the first in 2012, it was Desert Inferno, which opens with the heroine, Rachel O'Brian, a successful artist with a career painting Southwest landscapes, many of her works in prestigious galleries.

The reader meets her when she has gone out from her family's ranch on the border, to do a plein air painting-- alone on the desert with her paints and her faithful truck, who she has named Matilda, (I by the way, never have named a vehicle, but I knew some did).

Action begins when she sees movement, believes it might be a person in trouble. She grabs a canteen, her gun, and walks out to see if help is needed.  She does know the dangers of this land. Assistance might have been earlier, but now the man is dying and soon dead. The desert can be deadly for the unaware.

Back at her ranch, she notifies the police that she needs someone to come out. The one who gets the notice is already on the border and shows up to assess what happened. It is Jake Donovan. This is the beginning of a beauty and the beast type story, though she does not see her beast as he sees himself or even as others see him.

Click on the link to get the free sample of how this begins and the flavor or the book.

The problem with this book, once I wanted to bring it out, was a cover. There were simply no male models that fit what I saw Jake as. Easy to get the beauty of the story in an image, but not the kind of man without perfect features and yet who has charisma, power, and the kind of energy that was attractive to many others, especially women.

I finally solved the cover problem with this image that does not show his face, but does that body she admires so much. It hints at the violence with the lightning.

Desert Inferno at Amazon

 With their very different upbringings, figuring out what would work for a relationship, where only one wants it, takes some time. Meanwhile, Jake has an enemy out to destroy him-- an enemy not safe for Rachel either. The ranch she has been raised on with her single father was in earlier historic romances in Winds of Change.

There is a lot of the desert in the book because of my love of it, not ignoring the dangers it can present, especially in wilderness. I also called Border office in Nogales, Arizona, to make sure I was keeping that part accurate for its time 2000. Being a painter myself, Rachel's part was easy to write. 

With twists and turns in the story, it kept the book interesting for me to see all this couple went through to get a happily ever after (you know, with romances, that's part of the deal for readers-- unlike how life too often works out...). 

Because I enjoy writing more than a couple, other characters crop up, including family, but always the romance is central-- again part of the deal with this genre. 

Heading Down the Road -- Or Not

Looking down my list of issues, one of them is very important, perhaps the most important for the difference between our two American parties, and probably the parties in other countries. Immigration. 

Every nation on the earth, with a few small exceptions, was at one time or another, populated by immigrants in one form or the other. Yes, there are peoples who believe they came different ways, like up through a hole in the earth, but they didn't. Those are popular mythologies but reality is adventurers, explorers, and migrants traveled from their homelands to what they regarded as a more hospitable place. 

The exception would be those who evolved where they ended up. There are several of those locations based on archaeology, but most of them also headed elsewhere when the wanderlust overcame them or their current life became undesirable. We don't generally leave places without a reason.

At a certain point, to avoid wars, countries established borders. It gave clear dimensions to a nation and rules for entering, dependent on each country's concerns. This gave stability and a system possible for governing depending on that country's values. Which, is where we are today.

Before I go into the present on immigration issues, here is my history where this is concerned. The Trueax side of my family came long ago to what was known as the New World. They came out of religious persecution.  I don't know when the first on my mother's family came but it was way back to East Coast communities. Way down the lineage, the last immigrants, my great grandparents came from Germany and Scotland. 

When people came, they wanted to be part of this building nation, speak the language, or at least have their children speak it. They wanted to be part of its future. That's what was needed back then for the many diverse directions from which people came. Of course, I know not all originally came because they wanted to be Americans. Some came as slaves. Some to work before going back from where they had come, and others as indentured servants due to debts or crimes.

Personal immigration seems a good place to share a recent photo of myself. I always like to know what the writers I read look like,  so I took this one during my 81st birthday week. This is in our desert house, sitting at my desk. One more picture is coming, after I've written about our modern immigration problem. 

One more thought, off the topic. Aging is what it is and nobody, who is fortunate enough to live to be old, avoids it even if surgeries may seem as though they fool for a while-- not worth it for me. They won't change the things that matter most in life. Nevertheless, not many savor looking old. lol It is what it is, and the old better find other things that matter more, and there are plenty. Someday I'll write about aging but today is for something else.

The issue here on immigration is only about those who did not come in legally. Immigrants can acquire legal status through the government. The US allows in, with a path to citizenship, almost 600,000 immigrants from various countries and walks of life. Yearly, we also have over 300,000 students, and another number yearly, coming in with green cards to work. The latter two generally go home eventually. I got the numbers from this link: https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-immigrants-are-coming-to-the-us/

The problem is not them but the ones coming illegally, by boat sometimes, but most especially across our southern border. Some claim they are refugees, which they have to prove in a court hearing-- except, not all come back for it. Hence, the country has no idea from where they came, what their skills are, nor do we know if they truly want to be residents. What if their desire is to overthrow the country either by sheer numbers or violence? When you don't know, nobody can guarantee these arrivals are safe-- although it's likely most are.

Another complication is for some reason those here illegally get to cities that claim to be refugee spots and they are given hotel rooms, money, and maybe even jobs of some sort. This is all not for US citizens to know... 

When we have so many already homeless people, with no such comfortable rooms, might not citizens wonder what's really going on with tax revenues. Especially regarding our large homeless problem with people in tents, sleeping with a blanket in parks or on the streets. For those interested in the homeless problem in the US, (most recently, the number  was 653,104)  here are some statistics: https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends and https://www.statista.com/chart/24642/total-number-of-homeless-people-in-the-us-by-year/ 

You might wonder why suddenly I am posting links. It's because I read someone saying they wanted to know from where writers got their numbers. I usually said research it like I did, but not that hard to add the sites.

Here is a group that looks at the number of undocumented people living in the United States. It makes clear how much confusion there is figuring it out: https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/how-many-million-immigrants-america-illegal/

That is the problem, but here is the concern regardless of the numbers. Say we have 11 million here without papers, who are they? Some have worked hard since they got here, took jobs no one wanted, have established families, and value what this country stands for. They are not wanting to overturn the nation. 

As one man said when Victor Davis Hanson asked him at a grocery store, when the professor recognized he was an immigrant, Why did I come here? Well, it wasn't to have it be like Mexico from where I came. That answer said he wanted a stable system without rampant gang activity.

Also most of those who favor open borders don't live in the communities impacted by them with cheaper wages for workers and less housing. The violence is also more of an issue in some areas than others. Most know  about that too.

If you pay attention, you know that gangs from other countries have moved through the US to settle in many communities, including small ones, probably most for drug sales. A lot of their violence is directed at their own communities; so you don't experience that as those people do.

By allowing people to work as undocumented, they often not only get less wages, but so do those competing with them. If an employer can pay someone less and even avoid taxes, there are those who will do it

What is the answer for immigration? In my opinion it is send home the ones who recently breached the system, build a good border fence and have enough agents to protect it. Pay those agents good wages as it's a very tough job.  Then increase the number of people coming in legally to help with the needed work. Keep them fair, not under the table. 

Try to bring in those who value from where this country came, want to keep its best parts, and help improve those parts where it needs work. Encouraging immigrants to learn English, our language, is a good start. They also can, as many have, keep their original languages, but if you don't speak English here, you will have a harder time working for those who don't speak Spanish, etc. and can end up being cheated on wages by some.

So, more legal immigrants on a path to citizenship and way less illegal who we have no idea of their background or intentions. Sending back the ones who cheated in the line might be part of what it takes. Since many of them are being put up at fancy hotels, at government expense, it could save federal and states money.

Do not send back those who have been here a long time with families, having committed no violent crimes, and who have solid jobs. The ones here 10 years or more need to also be on a path to citizenship for their sake and the country's.

Well, I did say one more picture. This is my husband with me taken a few hours after the above one. We celebrated our 60th anniversary in September and both are 81. So far the marriage seems to still be working out well (with, as usual, a few glitches along the way). At our age, we talk a little more about health issues or what about after death-- cremation for both of us. When you get to 80, it feels different than any earlier decades as obviously more likely will go wrong. We try to be positive and both have our strong interests to keep at least our minds alert. *s*

 

More than you might think

Image we photographed at the Arizona State Museum

When I wrote the original eight Arizona historical romances, they came widely spread apart in years, some closer to one story or another, but not ever together even though they share characters.

Forced to re-edit them, I did it over a year, which meant I saw elements in them that fit together in a cohesive sense. There are, of course, the themes, but there were other aspects that were a key part of what made them work for me and hopefully for readers.

One of those big elements was how important family was in all the books. Now, that can be in a negative sense, with parenting fails, but also in a positive on where family helped everything to work for the characters. 

Looking then at my Oregon historical romances and I saw the same importance of family as key to the stories.

Some might think romances are all about a couple, but that's not the case with  the best stories out there where it's family, friends, couple, and yes, setting that make the stories work.

Maybe, I put that in those books because I've felt family is important in my life, that who my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even ancestors, which I might never have known, were part of how I became who I am.

But, that led me to look at my own contemporary romances. There I see less of the family element and more of strong friendships, which have also been important in my life. I think that with families so often apart over jobs or even personality elements, modern Americans may rely more on strong friendships, which can be as close as blood kin. 

What this led me to recognize in the books I have written, how much I consider community, in one form or another, as key to our satisfactory personal life. 

When I put something in my books, it's because I see it as important as something that goes beyond the romance, which is, of course, central, to the rest of what life is about. 

spring and an important holiday

 

Although I had two possible blogs lined up, when I thought about this being Easter week, I delayed them for a week and then two because this is a holy week for more than just Christianity and the resurrection of the Christ. Passover is also this week. This historic celebration began April 5th and ends the 13th. It's not all that is right now. Ramadan began March 22nd and ends 30 days later. It is a time of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. As for religions without Abrahamic origins, check it out online as most have interesting stories and some coincide with each other.

 

I thought this article-- 7 Pagan Festivals we still celebrate was interesting for some of the origins of our own traditions. I know, we tend to think it's all about us, but studying history of spiritual traditions says it's not. It is a season of rebirth like you see in the photo below with the dove feeding her babies.

 

For my life, I've known many ways to celebrate Easter from Easter egg hunts for the family on farm where I grew up, decorating eggs, attending Mass, celebration at the cemetery above the country church at dawn, and as it is for me today-- very simple quiet, often with ham and deviled eggs.

Today, flowers and the time of warmer weather and longer days is a big part of it for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. It's a good time to be considering growth and new beginnings.  

 

However you celebrate tomorrow or whether you have other traditions important to your life, I hope you enjoy this time.

an important date

 by Rain Trueax

Well, it's come around again-- our anniversary. This time it happens on a Saturday, which was the same 56 years ago. I remember a lot of the preparations that day. It was very much a family operation with flowers done by aunts-- except my bouquet, which my grandmother insisted on buying. The groom paid for my wedding gown as well as contact lenses so I could actually see my wedding. I did my own hair (as you can probably tell). Our attendants were two-- my cousin. She and i went shopping for her dress that she'd be able to use for her high school dances. I had no color requirement and she chose a soft green.

My brother was the best man, something that made him never want a wedding with all the trimmings. My mom sang before the service. Afterward, my father-in-law took the photos, except the one he was in. We had the reception back at my parents' small home with again family serving cake, coffee and punch-- no liquor as this was not a drinking family, and I wasn't 21 yet anyway.

 

seasonal changes

by Rain Trueax

November 29th-- moon setting with the sun from our desert home, Casa Espiritu

How can it already be December with another year nearly gone? Where did this year go? In terms of my writing, I published nothing in 2019. I did write a book but the decision of when

to bring it out kept getting changed. It will be a pre-release, which I'll write more about another time with a firm date set in January 2020-- making it come out before Imbolc, when the story is set. I did not intend to have nothing new for over a year, but it just worked out that way. 

Because of the aftermath of travel, we had debated having a Thanksgiving dinner but ended up doing it with turkey and all the trimmings. This is the holiday season; but after getting the farm ready to leave and then the long drive, I am having to work to get into the mood. 

kismet

by Rain Trueax

This week, I got to thinking about how much of life is about luck and timing. Those two items can go either way for whether we consider them good or not so much. In my own experience, timing has sometimes been amazing how a series of events leads to one result. 

life issues of the aging

by Rain Trueax

When you reach a certain age, which could vary for any of us, the idea of end of life comes into play. I mean at 75, I obviously have a lot less years ahead than I've lived. What does that make for my choices, how I spend my money, home, pets, livelihood, etc.? How do I arrange for what I leave behind? How do I want to spend those years?

Joy and Sorrow of Being a Prolific Painter in a Small Space

Interestingly my studio has all paintings that satisfy me and the rest of the house has more unfinished work that I  like seeing from many different angles and lighting before making changes.
I feel satisfaction and contentment and joy when I surround myself with work that satisfies me as comfortably completed. It need not be perfect. I like looking at work that over a long period time never says to me every time I walk by, "Psst, as soon as you have a moment, I need to be  touched up with a face lift. 

Being as prolific as I am, I  could quickly fill our home with art giving me the feeling that I am caught in an uncomfortable web. I  learned to withstand the sadness of destroying some of my work. 

Happy am I since I almost always keep space open.

To make space for both my husband and I to live comfortably, and welcome visitors, downsizing my collection of my own art is necessary even if it is like pulling teeth.  I go through my archives over and over again.

We need to keep space open for both of us to work and play. Conscious effort is made to display my art work,  improve storage. We keep only the stuff of everyday living that we need in addition to retiring some of my older work.  So various methods are helpful in reducing both excessive duplication in everything that surrounds us. Over the years I am always bagging stuff to donate. Many trips to the grocery store include dropping off a bag of donations. Last year I was lax and now I am back on track on donating.
Just working at  tackling  a little at a time giving me a feeling of accomplishment with each little step.  Happy am I that I have a few paintings that from the start all the variables fall in place.

Even if others do not like some of my alla prima paintings, they are among the ones that worked for me and I am fondest of them because I remember every time I look at them the experience of painting them.

Painted on a pea green background every color I put on was working with the whole right from the first stroke.  I kept the added patches of color open with the green threading through the entire painting.  Then just a few lines drawn  more from a muscle memory of a dance than thought out beforehand.  With the lines I decided the abstract was pulled together.

Hart Lake Creek  on a 1971 pack trip on our way to Lake Chelan, a sentimental painting! I treasure remembering our trips every time I look at these paintings. I do not care that some art critics would say this painting is two paintings, one being the tree trunks and the other being the creek.

 

I am a sentimentalist so my permanent collection is a diary of my life memories.

My answer to “How do I make time for painting?”

How I make time to paint is such an interesting question,  I wonder why it never occurred to me.

This is an excellent question for all of you beginning for the first time  as well as those painters with busy schedules.

The flip side of making time to paint is how I make time for taking care of myself, quality time with family, being a friend. Writing a blog to me is an outreach to creative friends.

 Of course there are the everyday chores I  make into art experiences. When it is time to vacuum, the first thing to do is rearrange the art on my walls so while doing repetitive chores, my mind is busy seeing new relationships between my paintings.

My patient, supportive husband deserves a great deal of credit.  He shares grocery shopping,  house and yard work as well as helping me prepare the paintings to be hung. The whole house is a staging area for my half finished paintings and sometimes when my husband and I are together, I am as though far away looking at my paintings.

The number one thing I have in common with those just beginning to paint is finding a medium that is best suited to my lifestyle. I am still looking for ways to increase the quality of my painting time. Cooking is creative and enjoyable to me but cleaning up afterwards not so much. The day before yesterday I purchased an Oster 12" electric fry pan with a ceramic surface. It heats fast and cleans with a simple wipe with a wet towel.  It holds promise for a variety of cooking methods so for some jobs step aside Instant Pot. I will have more creative time now.

Very important is having work areas that can be easily setup and put away quickly. I carry an on the go bag for travels whether I am going from my studio to the patio or to just pick up groceries or a larger bag for vacations.

 Just this week I found that 2 small pocket Van Gogh palettes half filled with pan watercolors are working the best with dilute gloss medium in the adjacent empty wells. The Van Gogh palettes have the right amount of paint and mixing surfaces  for the 11X14 inch canvas boards. These boards are fine to carry in a suitcase.

The prepared plywood boards take considerable work to prepare for painting and I don't like the rough feel. I will continue adding more coats of gesso and plaster. The translucency and wetting ability of  the paint respond so interestingly to customized surfaces, I don't want to go back to unmodified machine made surfaces.
 

The next most important suggestion is immersing myself in seeing. Even when not actually painting I think how I would in response to what I see.  I enjoy looking with painting in mind every day and plan the next painting series.

Please take a minute or two to vote on topics that would be useful to you on making time to paint.Answer in comments but if you prefer I will be happy to get your email at dondianewenzel@msn.com

1) A series of blogs about my on the go painting paraphernalia.

2) Inspirational books and web sites to jump start painting.

3) More about my progress in finding a way to work outside doing watercolors that are durably finished, ready to hang without frame and glass.

4) My remedies when a laps of time has occurred when I couldn't paint and I find it hard to start again.

5) Do I have to paint every day to consider myself an artist?

seasonal changes

by Rain Trueax

What does Christmas mean to you? In my life, it has changed from the beginning, the first time I was told what it was, to today. I have had times where Santa Claus was what was important. Those were the years, when Santa came Christmas Eve. We would be sent to our bedroom because Santa was coming. Then, the excitement was to come out and see what had been left under the tree. No matter how great the gifts were, Christmas Day meant the whole Trueax family gathering for a big dinner, more gifts, and much cousin fun.

Holidays change their meaning through a lifetime. My own is an example of that. From childhood, to parenthood, to empty nest, and old age what Christmas means to me has changed. Is there one right thing for it to mean? If someone looks at it religiously, probably there is.

Religiously, I could have reincarnated multiple times for the different ways I have seen Christmas. Most years when I was young, it did not mean going to church. When I reached young adulthood, I became a Catholic and Christmas meant a midnight Mass. I loved the ritual of the Catholic Church at Christmas. I loved the procession of the priest down the aisle, the candles, the nativity, the smell of candles and incense, the beauty of being there with all the fragrances and age-old rituals.

Religiously, I also experienced what being in a small rural community meant for Christmas. When we first moved to this farm, 40 years ago, our children went to a two-room schoolhouse, where the Christmas program meant a nativity. Having come from a city school, where it was a 'holiday' not Christmas, this was exciting. Christmas out here was very traditional.

We also became involved in the local church, where adults and children put on a Christmas program for the congregation, with music and small scenes. That meant December was about Christmas practices. Such fun to plan what it would be each year, what music, what skits.

The most vivid one in my memory was a mix of that and tragedy. We were inside, practicing, when we heard the crash of an automobile outside the church. We kept the children inside, all the men, including Ranch Boss, ran outside to see what had happened. Power lines were down, as a car had crashed into the only power pole that could have stopped its momentum short of the church. Determining those lines were live and the person inside was not moving, they waited for the police to arrive. Later we learned that the young man, who had been drag racing his brother on our narrow country road, had been killed. Tragedy and ritual side by side.

Through my lifetime, Christmas meant parties, dinners, luminaries, dinners that required three tables, family/friend gatherings, church, rarely snow, and now today it's mostly just Ranch Boss and me. Sometimes it has been spent on the road between our Oregon farm and Tucson house.

What we do for the day has changed a lot. I do not send out cards (economics and the dwindling reason to do so). I only sparsely decorate. This is from a woman who has a sizable Christmas Village. Who used to decorate the whole house with greens and a big Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments that went back to my and Ranch Boss' childhoods. It makes no sense to decorate since nobody comes to see them. I don't feel sad about that but just an acknowledgement of what is and changing times.

Life changes and I feel, given my age, in my seventies, that is okay. I remember all those earlier years but have had to release them, not dwell on them, be glad I had them, to avoid ruining what is. Would I like all my family under one roof for Christmas Day? Yes, I would, such is not my choice. Those days are gone. I can feel nostalgia for what was and release it for what is yet to be. All images from Stencil

Thanksgiving Thank You for the Support I Enjoy as an Artist

“East Indian Dancers”, my mother, Margaret Widler's egg tempera.

I am thankful for my family for many reasons. Their support of my creative journey whether thay understand my art or not is very valuable to me. An art teacher in high school and various other rejections through out the years makes me even more appreciative. My family support started with my parents who shared their creative interests with me. They took me to the the San Francisco Art Museum and lifted me up to adult eye level so I could see too. Then after I graduated from Portland State College with a degree in Drawing and Painting, mother helped to market my art for a number of years. My sweetheart husband, Don, volunteered as he always does to engineer aspects of making and exhibiting my work. Just this week we were considering yet another box, travel easel. My daughters also value my work and hang it in their homes as do my brother and sister-in-laws.

I feel the past 60 years was a charmed time period inwhich I had the leisure to develop my creative path.

Sweethearts of the West

by Rain Trueax

When I made the decision to become an indie author, I was 68 years old. I had been writing books since I was in my teens. I've often joked that when I wrote the first draft of what became Round the Bend, I was the age of the heroine. When I made the decision to publish it, I was the age of what would have been her grandmother. The book went through as many metamorphoses in the intervening nearly fifty years as I had. During that time I never quit writing love stories with the Western ethos, set in the land I love and know best. Writing and what came later with publishing has led me down many paths.

This fall, when I was invited to join a group blog called Sweethearts of the West, I had to consider whether I had anything to offer. I read the articles by its other authors, liked the mix of history, Western Americana, and travel through the land west of the Mississippi River. With a diverse group of authors, you never know what will turn up, and every two days, it is something new.

In joining it, I left another group blog, Smart Girls Read Romance. I liked it also but had less feeling for what I could offer. Sweethearts is easier for me due to my love of western history, traveling Western states, and my own books. The big thing about joining a blog, for me, is feeling I have something to contribute.

One thing, if you are a writer, you learn that you have to write what comes to you. Okay, there are some writers, who write to the market, many because it's the support of their family, but for most, they try to blend that with what they love. A writer feels joy when writing to their core beliefs and loves-- as well as what they know best. This works for blogs as well as books. 

For my first piece there, I wrote a bit about my childhood and how that influences what I write. Where I've written more about my life today, I've written less about those growing and learning years. Some of that is because of what I wrote last week-- I don't think on those years much. Seeing how it mattered, how it was still a factor in who I am, I made myself go back there. Even more, I came to see how it still influences my books. Here is a snippet from that blog.

 A WWII baby, as I became a child, the United States was coming off a major war, and we were under the threat of a nuclear holocaust. If we could forget that, our schools had bomb shelters where we were supposed to go in the event of an attack (exactly what those were supposed to benefit us, I'm not sure as we all knew about the dangers of radiation).  Despite the Cold War and a soon to be hot one in Korea, I consider it a rich time in which to grow up.

So, head on over to the link where I did what I rarely do-- looked back at what influenced the woman I am today, the life I lead, and what I write. If you are interested in Western Americana, I think you'll like this group blog and learn something or have your memories refreshed by the articles.

Sweethearts of the West

A special day-- October 18th will always be

by Rain Trueax

Some many years ago, on this day, I became a mother thanks to my daughter's arrival. There are some moments in life that a person always remembers and for me this day is definitely one of them. I had no idea then how much I'd love her, how that love would never lessen, that I'd always worry if something wasn't going well with her, that I'd always be thrilled when she had a success. Being a mother was life changing for me-- but I went into it without a clue lol

 Photos taken on the way to hospital

 he didn't understand why I wanted these photos but you humor a lady in labor.

 first Christmas as a family. She was 2 months old :)

various options for filtering

by Rain Trueax

My research into Dreamscope is ongoing as I try to figure out how the upgrade would work. Would I be paying $9.99 a month with no easy way out when I couldn't use it in a busy month? If I cancelled, would I lose the whole app? If I got the upgrade, would I like the images as much? More detailed isn't always better. So far as I can tell, there is no big drawback to the little ones unless I wanted to print them onto canvas. That currently is not something I'd do but not impossible for the future.

Of course, I wanted to see how the Oil Pastel filter would work for the photos that are in my albums in family folders. The first image I tried was one of my profile pictures, which I shared a few blogs back. When I had time, I began to fool with some out of the past and randomly picked different images from 1967 up to 2010. I'll share them and what I learned below.

You can probably see what worked and did not. Small faces can get turned quite weird. That does not have to be bad especially if a person wants images that don't quite look like the people. In this blog, I have not shared family photos out of consideration for their privacy and my understanding that my blog is an open door to people I don't know. I do that for myself but not others without permission. The family stays separate from this blog, but it's not because I am not incredibly proud of them.

To show how this filter worked with a family shot from 2010, you can also see how faces can be distorted-- not just unrecognizable, but even turned weird.

It is possible that some faces are easier for the filter to capture. It enlarges some features and in ways that aren't always good. Still, it's fun to try things out. It's a nice toy as a break between writing scenes.

Dreamscope has many filters as well as a custom option. I tried the Seaside filter on this photo from 2008 at the Oregon coast. It turned it very painterly. I think for each photo, it's trying out different filters to get the 'other' look that a person wants.

The next one is where I chose two of my photos with one the image and the other the background. It turned it very dreamlike which could be useful in a book trailer.
 

Maybe when the current book is finished, I'll give more a try and get that upgrade to see what it does. I don't mind paying for services I value. Nothing really is free-- or if it is, not for long.