Painting With Light

I’ve been watching it rain today.

Big deal, you say.

Actually, it is. There hasn’t been much rain here lately, so the soaking we got today was very welcome. It also gave me the perfect excuse to take a summer weekend day and spend it indoors.

I try to write a little every single day, but it doesn’t feel so much like wasting summer when it’s pouring rain outside.

Did I get a lot done? Yes and no.

I did advance some of my own next novel. Made quite a bit of progress, actually.

The thing that’s got me excited, however, is helping a friend get her book ready, and it doesn’t involve writing a damn thing. I’ve been designing book covers.

I don’t want to mention the name of the book. That’s for the author to announce when she’s ready. I’m delighted to be able to help. It’s also interesting to discover again that the old design sense hasn’t left me.

Graphic design and publishing was my life for many years. I got away from it, but really enjoy working in that realm when I have the chance. I do it for my own books, but that’s different somehow.

It’s the part of the nine-to-whenever world that I miss the most. That opportunity to be creative … it’s followed closely by some of the great friends I made. I miss the conversations with them, too.

That’s probably why I delight in some of the writing conferences and writers’ group meetings I go to. The opportunity to talk with others who enjoy writing … or want to learn more about the business.

I think writing … particularly good fiction … is a beautiful art form. I also believe art, whether visual or written, is important to civilization. There’s a precondition for the creation of art … called understanding.

I heard an interesting line about communication in a recent lecture my son was listening to: “We are the custodians of the destiny of this planet … yet we still tend to communicate with small mouth noises mediated by ignorance and hate.”

What a powerful image that conjures.

It’s probably the single dominant reason I don’t like to listen to what passes for news these days.

**********

My books have all garnered some terrific reviews and you can see the ones I have available by using the Amazon link below. Look for them. Better yet, buy one and read it. You just might like it.

You’re invited to visit my web site, BROKEN GLASS, or
like my Book of Face page. You can find me on Goodreads, or follow
some of my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.

**********

Comments posted below will be read, greatly appreciated and perhaps even answered.

Tags: award-winning author, storytelling

This entry was posted on July 24, 2016 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Award-Winning Fiction, Storytelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.