I disabled several and cleared up the problem, but now I'm weary to restart the cross-posting. Maybe the cross-posting isn't even a good idea or necessary. I seem to be getting plenty of feedback just from my main website.
So for now, if you are looking for me you can find me on my website or twitter @amandamakepeace.
- Mood:
amused
Blue Dawn, 11 x 16.5 inches, mixed media
Blue Dawn is one of those paintings that began as one thing and ended up something completely different. I created this mixed media painting during my time living in London, from 2004-2006. Living in London, and newly married at the time, I was at the peak of my inspiration. I was also as yet undiagnosed and not nearly in as much pain as I am today.
I plucked up the courage to apply to a Visual Arts course at Kensington & Chelsea College. It was a serious admission process with an interview and portfolio viewing, something I had never experienced, but I wanted to be able to say I did it. My BA from the University of Georgia is not in Art because I chickened out, so this was a huge step for me.
The program's instructor accepted me into the year long course and the rest is history. I learned a lot, though there is still a lot I'm lacking in when it comes to art terminology and technique. I've never been able to shed my self-taught ways, and honestly why should I even try?
This piece, created during the course, was based on a still-life set up in the classroom. My painting focuses on the main parts of the still-life: a black, female dress form, draped lace shawl, and an exotic, paper umbrella.
It was only later, after returning to the USA in 2008, that I noticed what could be achieved if I turned the image 90 degrees counterclockwise.
The painting is available to purchase in my Etsy shop for $25.00. I've also entered it in the EBSQ "Deconstructed" Show.
| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
artistic
Currently, the bookmarks are about half-way complete. The details have been added in pen and the next step is watercolor. Each bookmark measures 6 x 2 inches and is created on Strathmore Windpower watercolor paper.
| Originally published at Amanda Makepeace. |
Suvudu has new free ebooks! :-D These blurbs are taken from suvudu.com
Changelings by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
They are Ronan Born for Water Shongili and Murel Monster Slayer Shongili. Twin brother and sister. Children of Yana and Sean. Children of Petaybee. As such, theirs is a destiny deeply intertwined with the sentient planet that is their home. For Ronan and Murel are more than human. Like their father, each can transform into a seal and converse telepathically with the planet's creaturessuch as the friendly otter whose life they save one day from a pack of ravenous wolves.
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur
A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne's Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races-and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office workeruntil her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn't be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming...
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to nonenot even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.
New Competition News:
Love Vampires has a Night Runner Giveaway on now till the 24 of September.
| Originally published at my website. |
In 2003 I embarked on a set of abstract paintings I called the Connections series. The paintings were special at the time because they were all watercolor on watercolor canvas, a fairly new canvas at the time produced by Fredrix. I fell in love with this canvas! I would buy rolls of the canvas to cut and stretch my own sizes to paint upon. The painting sizes ranged from 20 x 24 to 28 x 30 inches. Two are still in my possession today and have a permanent place in my mother's art collection.
The painting pictured above was the last painting I did for this series. I painted Perchance to Dream soon after moving to London in 2004. It had been months since I painted a synaptic watercolor, but I couldn't resist doing one more, and to be honest anytime I look at these paintings I'm pulled to paint more of them. It's not something I can explain wel--when I see them there is a need to continue the spark.
This painting, as the title denotes, is about the dream state of our minds. The synapses cover the canvas, and float in a sea of blue clouds, just as our dreams float in and out through our conscious minds. To me, it almost seems to glow.
You can see the complete Connections series here.
| Originally published at my website. |
Here's where I stand on my writing projects. I will update this on Friday to see how much I was able to achieve.
| Originally published at my website. |
I won another book!! Strange Brew was up for grabs at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review and I snagged a copy. :-) Some of my favorite authors contributed to this collection of short stories. I'm thrilled! My daughter, on the other hand, is annoyed by the fact that I'm not winning any books for her. In other news, I've been on the hunt for a new Rheumatologist. Looks like I will have to see one in Atlanta; which I'm not thrilled about, since that is over an hour away but I don't see what other choice I have. My PCP isn't comfortable prescribing my MCTD/Lupus meds so I have to sort this out if I'm to stop taking the other medication. I've been ill in other ways for the last two weeks, which may be a virus. My PCP is concerned because my blood pressure and heart rate have been consistently elevated lately. If I am sick with a bug my blood pressure may go up higher once I'm well. With any luck this will be a temporary issue. As for my writing pursuits this week, I finished another short story for the writers forum MWC. Though writing these stories takes away time from my novel I do believe they are worth the time and effort, as they help me grow further in my writing. Every story I write helps me expand my mind and my skills. This story is 900+ words and I will be sure to share it once the challenge is finished. The last thing I hope to complete this week is my entry for the EBSQ Pet Portrait Swap. I'm paired up with Tracey Allyn Greene, who was also my partner in the Ripped Off Show last month. With some hard work this afternoon I should have her pet portrait completed and uploaded to the show by tomorrow. 
Just as I was finishing this post I discovered I had won another contest! I came in second place over at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews and won a Winds of Dune string bag. :-D I'm still hoping to win the book at a few other blogs, fingers crossed! :-D In other giveaway news: A Journey of Books has a great giveaway just starting today. You could win a copy of Laced with Magic by Barbara Bretton. Check it out! Laced with Magic Giveaway| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
contemplative
Well Traveled Memories, 14 x 14 inches, acrylic on gallery wrap canvas, 2009
Two of the four years I lived in the UK were spent in Dorset, or more specifically Upton, a small village 10 minutes outside Poole. Apart from trips to Poole Harbour and the Hamworthy beaches, my favorite place was Upton Country Park. My favorite pastime was to wander the gardens and shorelines, taking photographs and collecting pebbles and other natural objects.
Not far from the Peacock Tearooms and Art Gallery there is a pebbled path and off to the side of the path stands a Ginkgo tree. I have fond memories of pointing this tree out to my daughter and discussing it's unique leaves.
I returned to the USA in 2008 but Upton and all of Dorset remains in my heart. Well Traveled Memories is a tribute to Dorset and a reminder of my time spent living in such a beautiful place.
This painting is available to purchase for $99.00 in my Etsy shop - Nature's Charms.
| Originally published at my website. |
This particular meme's origins sprung from Martcibe or Jude the Obtuse. I'm not much for tagging either, but I will take a shot at answering the questions.
1. Which words do you use too much in your writing?
Every and everything, it and was--though I'm sure there are others.
2. Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
said, had, could
3. Whats your favourite piece of writing by you?
I wrote a poem in my early twenties about a homeless girl called Corduroy Sea. I would share it, but it's packed away in a mountain of boxes.
4. What are your other favorite blogs?
Coffee with Kate
SciFiGuy
Et in arcaedia, ego
EBSQ: Art Meets Blog 2.0
5. Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadnt written?
There are things in my life that I wish were different, but I don't have any regrets.
6. How has your writing made a difference? What do you consider your most important piece of writing?
I'm a young writer, meaning I've only just taken up the pen again after many years away, experiencing life, so I can't say that it's made a difference to anyone other than myself. Writing has opened up a piece of my soul, or personality, that had been locked away. The most important piece would be my in-progress novel that I began writing in Spring 2009.
7. Name three favorite words.
Craptastic, interesante, evolution
8. And three words youre not so keen on.
Ma'm, Cancer, Beets (I know the last two are "things" but I don't like the words too.)
9. Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
I consider every author whose books I read a sort of mentor.
10. Whats your writing ambition?
Finishing my novel is my ultimate ambition and then I'll see where that takes me next.
11. Plug alert! List any work you would like to tell your readers about.
Give me another couple months and I might have something to plug! In the meantime, I will say that some of my favorite authors have some new releases I'd die for: Kat Richardson, Jay Lake, and Caitlin Kiernan.
Okay, I did it! That wasn't too painful. ;-)
| Originally published at Amanda Makepeace. |
The book was coming all the way from London, and having lived there myself I knew how long it could take, so I sat back and waited patiently for my prize to arrive. :-)
At last the day came, Saturday, but ironically I didn't check the post box till Sunday! LOL
I have a lot of books on my reading list right now, but I couldn't resist reading the first story in this great anthology. Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney takes us into the world of Moth, a vampire who will forever be 18 years old. While this story has some of the typical blood and desire of popular vampire tales, it also touches on the less appealing aspects.
Moth has lost the life she once had and now even her family too. Her mother has died, she is estranged from her older sister and now her father is convinced she's evil and forbids her from returning. The only person she has left is her maker, Theo. In my opinion this sort of conflict brings the story closer to reality. The life of a teenage vampire isn't always the romantic version we see in movies, but the emotions do run deep!
I better not give anymore away!!
Thank you Karen. It was well worth the wait!! :-D
I'm looking forward to delving into the other stories in this anthology. Maybe a story a night? ;-)
| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
grateful
1. You can now order custom bookmarks from my Etsy shop. The images shown are just examples, the design is up to you. They are still only $6.00 each.
2. I really, really, really want to win a copy of The Winds of Dune. Yes, I have entered a few contests and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
3. Sadly, I did not meet my writing goal this week. But I guess that's to be expected with the medical madness going on in my life. I'm going to keep the same goal for next week and see if I fare any better.
4. Re: Medical Madness, turns out the medication to help my autoimmune illness may be causing my neuromuscular problems, hair loss and who knows what other problems. Isn't life grand?
5. Have a great weekend, but don't end up like this: ;-)
| Originally published at my website. |
This is where I currently stand on my projects:
More Than Human
Untitled Short Story
Let the writing begin. . .
| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
tired
Here are just a few links to free books on the web.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - This is available as a PDF for a limited time. You need a US Zip Code to download.
Suvudu Free Book Library - Suvudu is one of my favorite sites. They have several free ebooks, with new titles each month. Books are available in different formats too, even Kindle.
Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake - On the same page you can download his short story, The Soul Bottles, a first look at the world in which Trial of Flowers takes place.
The Celestial Omnibus - Okay so this is a collection of short stories by E.M. Forrester, one of my favorite authors. Use this link as a starting point to see what you can find at FeedBooks.
SFSignal - Has daily posts on Free Fiction. Mostly short stories but sometimes there is a novel in the mix.
ManyBooks.Net - Again, use this link as a starting point.
B&N eBook Store - When you download their eReader (for Free) you get 6 free ebooks.
Free eBooks come and go. If and when I happen upon a new link I will try to remember to share the treasure.
| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
cheerful
The internet isn't a requirement for working on my novel, so life will go on. :-)
However, I did want to remind everyone that voting ends on Saturday for the EBSQ Ripped Off Show. If you haven't voted yet what are you waiting for? Here's my entry for the show:
| Originally published at Amanda Makepeace. |
Certain portions of my website, mainly the galleries, are running off Website Baker. It is the best CMS for simple galleries, and easy to use too. You will know you are in that area of my website when the banner image changes to the dark moons.
Feel free to let me know about any dead links. I will be combing the site over the next few days updating links and text, but I'm sure I will miss something.
Have a great day!
http://amandamakepeace.com
| Originally published at my website. |
- Mood:
accomplished
Nathan Bransford - A literary agent for Curtis Brown Ltd. has a great blog featuring all the how to's from a writing query letter, to synopses, and how to format your manuscript. I also enjoy reading his weekly post This Week in Publishing.
Et in arcaedia, ego. - Blog of Jennifer Jackson, an Agent for Donald Maass Literary Agency. I can see myself sending a query her way, one day. Her weekly post titled, letters from the query wars, offers insights and outlooks on the growing stack of query letter in her inbox.
BookEnds, LLC - Another Literary Agency's blog with what seems like a bottomless pit of valuable information. Also provides market news and general topics on writing and books.
Query Shark - A brutal but honest look at query letters. What works and what doesn't, and where some people just went completely wrong.
SF Signal - I love this website! Everything SciFi, including daily free fiction links, reviews and news. I follow them on twitter too @sfsignal.
SciFiGuy.ca - There are a lot of fiction review sites on the web. When it comes to SciFi reviews I personally always turn to Doug Knipe's blog. He also takes a first look at new cover art and conducts author interviews.
Occasionally I will click on links through twitter. These are some of the sites I frequent, most of which are authors.
Deadline Dames - A group blog of nine authors.
Cherie Priest - Looking forward to her book The Boneshaker.
Ramblin' Phyl - I won an ARC for her new novel, Enigma.
Jay Lake - He has blessed me by responded to my tweet
Lilith Saintcrow - I started reading her blog after seeing a post on Writers and Social Media.
Neil Gaiman - If you don't know who he is, shame on you. :-)
Kat Richardson - Author of the Greywalker series. I recently one an autographed copy from her twitter contest.
Karen Mahoney - British Author I've had the pleasuring of tweeting with and winning a copy of Eternal Kiss, a compilation of vampires stories from some of my favorite authors.
Kelley Armstrong - Love her werewolf novels and eagerly awaiting the new one, Frostbitten!!
Well, that is some list.
- Mood: cheerful
For those of you that don't know, my daughter and I live with my Mother. We have since returning to the USA. I'm not fond of admitting it, but my health has been a struggle for several years now. In 2006 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Doctors have debated and thrown words around like Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder and Lupus. I don't really care what I have, I just want my life back. Most days I struggle with intense pain in my joints. On top of that I've recently found that I have 4 herniations in my cervical vertebrae and several more in my lumbar vertebrae. Today is one of those days my lower back is seizing!
New symptoms have arisen in the past year that have me more worried than ever. I seem to be losing function of my legs. My muscles feel weak and my legs often give out from under me. I stumble around, trying to force my legs to work properly, but I only ended up walking with an abnormal gait. More recently I've been getting little "stutters" in my walk and my upper body - like a vinyl record skipping. If I'm stressed, tired or too hot it worsens.
We had hoped, my Doctor and I, that this was because of my herniations pinching the spinal cord. But a Neurosurgeon as ruled that out. Next we ran blood tests to check my thyroid and other levels, but it all came back normal. So the next step is to see a Neurologist. I always knew it would boil down to my brain. :-)
Have I also mentioned that my hair is falling out, so much so, I'm reminded of the months of Chemotherapy I had as a teenager. Yes, I am a Cancer survivor too.
Life has thrown a lot at me over the years, but I'm still kicking. Don't get me wrong. I have my moments--the ones with tears, depression and anger. I do wish things could have turned out differently, but it's also made me all the more determined to make something in my life work.
After the move I will be returning to work on my novel, with the goal of finishing it by this time next year. And then I will edit and revise and I will find someone who will want to take a chance and publish my story.
As a treat, here is a tidbit from my novel, More than Human. As always, this is a draft.
A drop of water landed on Leila's eyelid bringing her back to the present. The rain began to saturate her clothes, but she had no desire to leave yet. Trying to clear her thoughts, she stared at the rain drops as they displaced the soil on top of the grave. As each droplet of water landed a miniature cascading river formed. Carving out its own path and smoothing the surface of the channel, it made its way to some unknown destination. The water took the easiest, most clear route, without any regard and when it reached the end was absorbed, becoming a part of everything. She wondered if it had any sense of this or any choice as well, or maybe it was commanded by some unknown force.
- Mood:
determined
Since I won it's my responsibility to come up with the theme for the next challenge. So here it is. . .Anthropomorphism. Specifically for animals. I used the examples of Orwell's Animal Farm and White's Charlotte's Web. You can see the details for Challenge #53 here:
Short Story Challenge #53
In other news:
1. We are preparing to move house, so quiet time required for writing my novel has been hard to find. But life should be back to normal soon enough.
2. I won another book! This time from the lovely
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kaz_mahoney :-) In the near future she will be sending me The Eternal Kiss, an anthology of Vampire tales, which includes her own story. I can't wait!!3. I'm toying with the idea of doing a few illustrations for Lil' Red in the next month or two. Then I will republish it on my website for free download.
- Mood:
content
Joining the group is one of the best things I've ever done. Every week I send off a portion of my novel to a member of the group and I receive in return a piece from a different member. The experience is helping me grow as a writer. If by some miracle this book ever gets published I guess I know one thing to put in the acknowledgements.
If you are an aspiring author I highly recommend finding a critique group. Critique forums are nice, but a personal, small group is the best.
Other things:
1. My family and I are preparing to move, so blog posts will be a bit thin till August.
2. I received the ARC for Enigma, courtesy of
ramblin_phyl . It is on the top of my "to read" list once this move takes place.3. Did I mention that I also won a copy of
katatomic 's Greywalker!? - Mood:
hopeful
Please be aware that the story does contain a reference to child abuse, but nothing too specific. In the end the abuser gets his due!
I still consider this a rough draft of sorts, only meant for fun. So any errors you find you'll have to live with. :-D
********************************
Lorra stood motionless in front of the mirror, assessing last night’s damages. The bruises on her face were hideous, and the make-up she’d bought at the local shop wasn’t worth a dime. Her deep emerald eyes still looked like her own, but the dark circles under them she could do without. The only thing untouched, perfect, were the fiery curls atop her head.
Last night could have been a lot worse. Who knew family get-togethers could be so rough? But she wouldn’t have missed it for the world. She’d been waiting for that night since she could remember.
Lorra ran her delicate fingers over the tiny ridges on the back of her neck. The scars were barely visible now. She smiled, ignoring the pain that spread through her cheeks. For the first time in her life she felt alive.
*********************************
- Mood: cheerful
