Something waits

With a new book out and my mind turning toward what will be the fifth in the Hemstreet Witches series, I thought I'd post the newest link here. I've written now six paranormals (one of them, Diablo Canyon, is alternatively available as three novellas). 

Natural born witch, Torre Hemstreet feels lost as her third sister marries—the youngest no less. After years being the four musketeers, she’s on her own. More upsetting yet, the boy she fell in love with in high school, the boy who left without a word, is back. Like she needs more upset.

Marsh Logan has had more success with his music career than he ever expected when he left Tucson. He’s  winding up that career ten years later to return to the woman he could never forget—if she’ll have him when she learns his secret and if he survives whoever appears out to get him.

Beginning in Tucson, traveling north to the Navajo Nation, Marsh must find peace with himself, gain Torre’s forgiveness, and find his hidden enemy before he can destroy him. Marsh has never thought of himself as a warrior, had no idea he was in love with a witch, but he’s got a lot to learn-- fast.

Gnomes, shapeshifting, witches, and skinwalkers move through this 71,500 word paranormal romance, the fourth in the Hemstreet Witches series. All the books stand alone but the love stories and adventures begin with Denali, go onto Elke, to Devi and now it’s Torre’s turn—whether she’s ready or not. Spicy romance with speculative spirituality. All paranormal romances are exclusively at Amazon and available to borrow for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Something Waits

 

Projects in process

by Rain Trueax

On a personal level, about the only exciting news for this week is we saw the first of the wildflowers. This is not supposed to be a spectacular wildflower season due to not enough rain in the fall. We will take them in whatever small quantities they appear.

The project for the week, besides getting my fourth in the Hemstreet Witches series ready to be published, involved the arrival of the last pieces for the king-sized bed (frame, head and baseboard, mattress, etc.). This was good but also complicated. The house has three bedrooms but one has been a den for Ranch Boss's engineer consulting and publishing work when here (he is my editor and publisher). 

The original goal was turning the shop (outside the living room wall and under the same roof as the house) into a den/library. We would then have three bedrooms with two having queen beds. The king was for our master bedroom (not very master sized but it has a second, tiny bathroom off it). It would be a nice addition but still keep it a small home with maybe 1600sqft or so.

We just got the estimated cost for the addition. Way over our budget. Except, now what do we do with that extra queen bed? After much work for Ranch Boss in disassembling it, it's stacked in the second bedroom but that can't stay that way (although one of the cats likes its elevation for her sleeping). 

Our time here has been one project in progress after another (as a writer I am used to those). This one may take another year to get it to fruition.

One problem with spending more to do the addition than we had intended is that it'd not be a good investment, as either a rental or sale, unless we intend to make this our permanent home (that has not been ruled out eventually). The

United States has some areas (Oregon is one) where housing costs are skyrocketing. Tucson is not in that situation. With so many homes being built, more desert scraped off for developments every time we get down here, it keeps housing cheaper comparatively. There are some ritzy areas, of course; but even the more expensive sections in the Santa Cruz river valley (Tucson has several rivers and streams but most only flow after storms) are far less than they'd be in parts of California. 

Our home is in a nice little suburban feeling area where homes were built in the '70s on an acre or two of desert. It has a covenant protecting it to stay as it is. The reason we have so much wildlife is this isn't where they scraped off the desert, as they too often do today. These homes were set into their desert. Wildlife in Tucson has less and less of these places. 

Another reason for more wildlife here is we aren't far from the La Cañada Wash, which comes out of the nearby mountains. Fortunately, washes are places that they don't allow development due to flash floods after storms. That leaves them also conduits for the critters that many desert lovers don't desire or respect-- sadly. 

A lot of those who come to Tucson only want the golf, swimming, shopping, restaurants, bicycling, hiking, and endless sunshine. Nothing wrong with those activities, but it leaves the original residents just in the way-- unless being viewed in a zoo...

The photos of the bed being put together are because of how a process like this amazes me as to what Ranch Boss knows how to do. If he didn't, we'd have to pay someone who did, as no way could I do it. These projects are never without glitches. The end result though is a very nice bed with room for us and four cats if they so desire :). Through the window, you can see where we store our vacation trailer when we are here.

View out the bedroom window. We do have a wall that is mandated around the pool (does not keep out rabbits or birds). This one is to fence our cats in and let the wildlife have the rest. There is a neighbor at the back of our acre that we can see their porch light at night. The little sculpture garden is new with herbs being added. I don't how they'll do when we are not here, but we are hopeful the drip system can keep them growing. Having an herb garden off the kitchen is one of the many sensual pleasure that this place provides.

Another new addition this year is a hummingbird and loose seed feeders on poles. In the past, we only put out quail blocks but this year we decided to add seed intended to bring in cardinals. It has along with many other songbirds we hadn't regularly seen. When we are gone, the summer has more lushness for them to get feed and some, of course, migrate north to avoid the extreme heat-- snowbirds ;).

Painting a wedding at Waiailea Beach in Hapuna Park, Big Island Hawaii

At the West Hawaii Plein Air Painters event, 9:30 AM, Friday, February 3, Cindy had been painting for almost two hours. Cindy is not in the painting just on my left on the other side of the log from me.  I was also a little early and just starting this painting and Richard had just arrived and was set up to paint. Then the mother of the groom appeared. She wanted us to all move because her son was getting married there in half an hour.

Richard who facilitates the group said there are no reservations on the site and we would not move. 

To make the lady happier, I offered to paint the wedding and give the painting to her. She said she had photographers and never came to look at my painting luckily because it was in a very dull state after three hours. I have put in many hours on it since.

If she changes her mind and finds me, and demonstrates real appreciation, the wedding painting would still be a gift to her.

The 12 x 16 inch painting is over an acrylic painting on canvas that I covered with absorbent ground that accepts watercolor and mixed media. Then I sprayed it with gloss UVprotective Krylon before making changes with acrylics. With the Krylon protection I could remove the acrylic and preserve the under-painting.

The old recycled surface was intended as a warm up painting before the real effort of the day. When the wedding happened, I decided that the iron wood trees made an excellent symbolic frame for the ceremony of joining of two family trees of life.

 My most memorable paintings outdoors are when I am moved by what happens while I am painting. Most paintings include more than one period of time. This painting depicts the father walking the bride and then he was consoling the sister. The bride was painted twice.

The wedding painting is not finished yet. I am working on the expressiveness of the gestures and relationships between the members of the wedding party and how the eye is directed to the wedding.

What's around us

by Rain Trueax

It is hard to believe it's already March, and, we've been in Tucson two months. Where did the time go? The lambing and calving are going as usual in Oregon-- except, there are others taking care of them and feeding out the hay. As cold as it's been, there has been a need for more hay. We've had some losses, but that' happens whether we are there or not. One of the men who has always looked after the place has been sick; so lucky we had two backups (one is our son).

a character from Something Waits

Down here, after I finished the rough draft for 'Something Waits,' it went off to editor, beta readers and then back to me for final corrections. I took out a subscription in Dreamscope to do work on its trailer. On the editing, I am going slow with it for assorted reasons. Having done about 1/3 of it using Speech Recognition, there are some odd mistakes, places where the computer doubled up on what I had just written. It's taking a lot to find all the places that speech recognition used a different word or spelling than I intended.

Wherever I am, I always take a few minutes when I first wake to remember any dreams from the night. Sometimes that helps with a book element. Sometimes, it's mundane and filled with daily frustrations or ordinary events. Dreams are important to me though and I pay attention to them. Once in a while, there will be a symbol that isn't part of anything I can connect to me and then I go to an online site i like for dream interpretation.

Whether in Oregon or Arizona, we are up before first light. The cats get fed (3 black and one orange). I read the papers, hope nothing bad happened, write, eat breakfast (which my husband cooks). With the essential repairs to the house out of the way, we are concentrating on figuring out what exactly we can get done, before we have to leave, on what had hoped to be an addition. That may not happen. 

We had an odd happening involving the house where we got a letter to someone else but at our address. By the time, Ranch Boss traced it down, it turned out the title company had goofed two owners back. So far, it looks like more of a nuisance than major problem *fingers crossed*. It involves a lot-line adjustment that let that owner build a

swimming pool. It appears the title company has responsibility to get it right. The assessors office said it's common in this area of older homes and irregular lots. It's not all settled yet but very good we were here to get that letter.

One thing about this house is it's more nature oriented than our Oregon home, which is more ranch oriented. In Oregon, there are fences around the immediate house that allow the sheep and cattle to be down around the house and still have flowers and keep the cats from roaming. Here, every window looks out at desert with the potential to also see the bobcats, coyotes, hawks, bunnies, quail, and a myriad of birds. Sometimes I see nothing, the next time a roadrunner might pass by. A fence again keeps the cats safe from what lurks beyond.

The book I am hoping to have out early next week has shamans and witches as the primary characters-- good and bad. I realized as I looked around the house that Casa Espiritu looks like the home of a shaman. Some of what is in it has long been owned by us. Some was acquired by us for this home. It has touches of various spiritual traditions without one dominating the other.

I write paranormals, even when they have not been particularly successful for me. If I was writing what has sold the best, it'd be historical romances. I like them but right now my heart is into the mysteries of life. What is really around us? Do we see what we expect to see or what is? Once upon a time, I thought I knew. Now I don't but I write books that let me explore  mystery. Maybe someday those books will be wanted by others. A writer though has to write what comes to them or it becomes craft. There is a place for craft, of course. :)

Three weeks mixed media painting stuff in a carry-on suitcase

Setting up painting stuff

I spent three weeks assembling  mixed media in preparation for a new painting process for me to play with for three weeks in Hawaii. Almost all of my art stuff fit in a carry-on size suitcase with most of my personal clothing, snorkel,  trekking poles, personal care products, two hats, sandals, spare pair of athletic shoes, and book.
 Also above are the paintings that I started in February in Kailua Kona , the big island, Hawaii. The two white boards made a table and painting support. The bag for carrying stuff from our Jeep to a location also worked as a weight to stabalize the easel.  The painting of a light house is by another artist but it might have influenced my more realistic painting this time..

When I packed, I wasn’t sure the pocket sized Winsor Newton watercolors would be enough, so I took a set of tube watercolors and gouache white. I only supplemented the pocket palette with the tube of white gouache and a tube of Winsor yellow. The heavy cardboard packing for Acquarello hot press paper is unnecessary weight.  The extra clamps were not necessary because the easel was strong enough to hold the table. Also not needed was accordion folded watercolor paper books.  I didn’t carry them on tours or walks because in Hawaii roots and sharp lava require all of my attention to be safe.

In Kailua Kona there is a very complete art store. At Akiani Art Supply I purchased Absorbent Ground White 8 ozs.,  Gloss Varnish UV archival, and Saw Tooth Hanger Adhesive, opening up the possibility of finishing the work to give away.  I gave away the absorbent ground and the spray can of varnish to an artist friend who lives in Hawaii.

Coming home my suitcase weighed 34 pounds. Next time I can reduce the weight. No snorkel unless I have snorkeling companions!  I will reduce the amount of paper and leave home most tube paints. Planning ahead my brushes, mixed media supplies and paper are stored in my suitcase so packing for the next trip will be faster. I became too attached to a painting I thought I would give away. Maybe later after I live with it for awhile.

Making watercolor permanent: An alternate to glass on watercolor presentation

Before

After

There is little change after brushing on one coat of Liquitex Gloss Medium. Only the multiple layers of French ultramarine wanted to pick up and spread as well as the charcoal black line.. To regain the spots on the Damsel Fish I soaked up the layer of ultramarine with a Q-tip.

There is a spray special for finishing watercolors for a presentation without glass, but it contains hazardous chemicals so I do not use it even though there would be no pick up smearing of paint.
 

Next when the gloss medium is dry, I will brush on more medium. I can still work on the eye that got mushed on the first coating. Then I plan to glue this canvas board to a small box and attach a wire for hanging.  When hung on the wall it will appear to float in front of the wall. The gloss finish and the appearance of floating out from the wall both suit the abstracted underwater ocean-scape subject.

the little things

by Rain Trueax

For some people, joy is found in a nice restaurant, fancy hotel, big vacation, going to a show, etc. etc. It's found in big things and changes from their daily routine; for some it can be thinking they are experiencing a world other than their own.

For me, joy is found in small things and almost always where I live. It's in observing the little creatures that share my land. They are the wild ones, the ones who live without a fence or even a boundary other than where they can find food.

The little ones are at the bottom of the food chain and hence have to be wary of what is around them as death can come from the sky or the land. When here, we see the predators-- Harris hawks, bobcats, and coyotes. Sometime I'll do a blog on them as they are not the bad guys. They kill because their lives depend on doing so. Even the javelina will kill on occasion even as they eat prickly pear cactus and other plant matter.

Observing these little ones at the bottom of the food chain, its easy to see how their knowledge of what also lives here influences their behavior. They don't stay somewhere for long. They cannot though hide from the rest of the world as, other than when they are babies, food does not come to them. They go to it.

Below are a few of those who share our little piece of Arizona desert. Sitting on the patio and just watching them, with no expectations, that's my joy especially when the other world, the one I can't avoid, seems too much. Connecting with them, hearing the music they make, that changes my blood pressure and slows my pulse rate. I can go outside, feeling pressured, like a weight is on my chest but soon I am grounded and feeling it all lift away. Sure I'll pick those burdens back up but be better able to handle them when I do.

These little guys are aware of us as we are of them. We could also be a risk. They have to assess that. It's the nature of their existence. All the photos were taken with a telephoto.

cardinal because black around face

To use photo inspiration or not.

In my paintings I will  not borrow the color arrangement in these photographic compositions. I will not reproduce the detail that is recognizably in these pictures. Turneffe Flats Adventure Guide, Abel Coe, gave those of us who he took snorkeling permission to publish his pictures on the internet or publish them in a book if we give him a copy. Yet copying his pictures in paint is plagiarism. And also important is the split second  exposure makes a picture frozen in time unlike how I am experienced it.

Cause and Effect

Yes, I try to stay off serious issues here, the kinds of things that are controversial and where all the sides are angry at each other over them. I had a post about life and being positive all written and ready to go for today-- and then Valentine's Day and Florida happened.

Well, I just can't do it today; so if you have a hard time with such, come on back Wednesday and next Saturday where we'll return to regular programming. But I am mad about this.

immature Harris hawk in our Tucson backyard

Diane Widler Wenzel Rotating Paintings in our Dining Area - a step in the painting processs

When I rotate paintings, I ask, "What if?"
Most of the work done on a painting is looking at it and making choices. Some choices are thought of before I roll back the table cloth and paint. I like to see the changes in season and lighting as they change the way the painting strikes me. Changing paintings can be a valentine to myself because it makes me feel good.

Happy Valentines enjoy rotating art

 
 

 


Several days after working on the color scheme of the large painting  I replaced the painting just to the left to an earlier painting with similar colors but different subject - Waterloo Park, Oregon.

What if I put a closeup of the foreground like the painting of Waterloo Park?   Maybe put the electric and phone wires in  with one bluebird on the wire and one scouting out a bird house? What if I increase the value contrast to have the same range in both paintings?  Instead of increasing the contrast, I could increase the misty atmosphere.  To make it my experience and feelings in a nostalgic painting I could put more animals we see out back.

The process of making the painting sentimental is fine with me as I also seek to hook a want to be rancher family to continue ranching.  Small farms within city limits is a good idea to uplift a neighborhood to be in closer contact with the earth and life values.

After two months when the ranch painting was facing the wall and I didn't look at it, I pulled it out thinking I might hang it up and think about it before deciding if I should take a new direction or continue to add more animals and details.

I decided to put it back against the wall and continue the series of abstracts from memories of snorkeling.

Changes-- I got changes

by Rain Trueax

Not just indie writers sometimes change their book title or cover. It's, of course, easier for an indie because you only have to please yourself. I have a couple of books where the covers have never changed, titles worked from the get-go. Others just seem not to gel even though I had thought I had them right when I brought them out. The right title is a keystone-- those few words can kill sales or lead a potential reader to explore further. It matters even more that it depict what is in the book.

What was wrong with my book titled Enchantress' Secret was the meaning of the word enchantress. I had thought of it originally as connected to being a witch but also a beguiling woman. My heroine was both. The thing was-- she was not an enchantress, a rather negative word for those who are aware of paranormal meanings

"a woman who uses magic or sorcery, especially to put someone or something under a spell. Synonyms: witch, sorceress, magician, fairy, Circe, siren-- 'the enchantress put a curse on all the young men of Underwood Village'"

The business, of putting a curse or spell on someone, is not the nature of the Hemstreet Witches. They use energy and natural-born and supernatural gifts but only to do good. Sirens are another of those titles that many don't think of as evil but in the mythology, they were. 

"In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli."

Some might say I am splitting hairs, as aren't witches also bad creatures. There are indeed, many ways of seeing witchcraft, from those who don't believe it exists, to those who see it as Satan worship and intended for evil. It's never been my understanding of witches. When women were killed as witches in the dark ages, they were often natural practitioners using herbs and helping women birth babies. I thought this was a pretty good piece on how witches can be seen-- [What is a witch?]

Paranormal books are different than fantasies. Paranormals are set in a real world, our world, with those who have special powers. They share this world with other supposedly fantasy beings, many invisible to those who choose or are told not to see. A paranormal novel will have ordinary people sometimes caught up in a world they were told does not exist. 

In my Hemstreet Witches series, the women are human, with a natural life span, but born with special powers to use energy in ways most cannot. They have been taught to use it to keep the street safe for the ordinary folks, who might stumble across something that could hurt them. To be an enchantress would be regarded as evil and not remotely part of their charter. So how could I let the book be called Enchantress' Secret? What though could I use as a title that would let the reader know they would be stepping into a different world? 

In my paranormals, I try to put truths about the 'other' side that I have been told exist from those with more powers than I certainly have. To many humans, those other elements are illusions or are they? Are we just not aware of what shares our world? Many religions do believe in the supernatural world also, like angels and a god who intervenes with prayer. What we believe often is based on what we have been taught and which words make us comfortable.

One collage led me to doing another

My abstract memory painting goal was to focus on organic patterns in movement of the algae and coral. Paper I made in a slurry has the random dispersion I remember from my snorkeling experience in Turneffe Flats.

Amelia C. Adams -- guest author

While writing has always been in my life, it wasn't until I brought out my first books as an indie author that I met others who wrote in my genre. It's been one of the bonuses along with my opportunity to bring some of the authors here when they are bringing out a new book. 

Amelia C. Adams is the author of the bestselling Kansas Crossroads series, as well as a contributor to River's End Ranch and Mail Order Mounties. She lives in Idaho, is a wife, a mother, a taco eater, and a taker of naps. She spends her days dreaming up stories and her nights writing them down. Her biggest hero is her husband, and you might just see bits and pieces of him as you read her novels.

Below is the cover, blurb and link to her next book, the first in a new series, Brody Hotel. Involving itself with an old hotel, renovations and decorating, this contemporary romance sounds like its extras are right my alley for books I enjoy the most.

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079GZBJY1

Generations: Brody Hotel Book One 

by Amelia C. Adams

Andrew Brody, investment banker and self-made millionaire, has just lost his father, but gained an estate. Along with inheriting stocks, bonds, racehorses, and undeveloped land, he learns that he is now the owner of a hotel that has been in the family since 1875 and should probably just be torn down.

Marissa Clark needs a new challenge - staging homes to sell and rearranging pictures on walls isn't what she dreamed of doing when she became an interior designer. When she gets a call asking her to help renovate a historical building, she leaps at the change - what a great way to use both her love of texture and fabric and her love of history.

They believe they're just taking an old building and giving it a second chance at life . . . but they have no idea that they're getting a second chance too.

Amelia C. Adams, author of the bestselling historical Kansas Crossroads series, brings us this romantic spin-off featuring the same location, but 140 years later.  You can learn more about Amelia at www.ameliacadams.com

**

Amelia C. Adams

Author of sweet Western romance

www.ameliacadams.com