Merrie Halloween

quote: "Don't work too hard. Fool around a bit. Be lazy. Life is forever." (Henry Miller)

I know it's been a while......

Imagining

I am imagining you into the future as authentic, gloriously happy, and thrilled to be you.

Luckily, the world is all your imagination, so you, too, can imagine wonderful things into your life. You don’t even have to go for the big things, little happy imaginings perk up your life just fine, snippet by snippet, till you’re having a delicious time…no matter what is happening in the world around you.

Luckily, you can ignore the world at large and concentrate on the part you have the most say over—your own personal zone. You, for instance. You can jump into magic today or twirl around in a storm of creativity, or you can nap yourself into a fantastic dream.

I am imagining you into the future, happy, whole and deliciously content, wildly alive, the most you can be.

Merry day and make it so.

Other than lots of Tiger work of painting Christmas cards and calendars, I have a new print book out, Miss Kitty Mystery # 7 "Art & Apparitions". The youngest Sinister Fate refers a client to Sazzy and she feels she must take the case, even though it is wrapped in legends and 525 years old.

 Happy Halloween

Merrie Samhain

New Ebook

A quick note to say Miss Kitty Mystery # 4, Havoc & Hussies is available at Smashwords, anyway. They seem to have a problem with the cover, which happens to be the size they said to make it, so I don't know what else to do about it...Make it the wrong size???

Anyway, you can download 20% free to check out the story.

Sazzy goes to the ball with the Prince, but it isn't all that much fun, after all: Lady Witshard dies on her toes. Of course Sazzy has to investigate.

Sara The Writer: I stalled out on Miss Kitty Mystery # 11. I came to the part I don't want to write. So I zipped over to Beacon and began writing on 'Beacon Winter Wild' instead--which continues Joy Merry's, Cie's, and Chandry's story.

Otherwise I am madly painting calendar pictures and Christmas and Yule cards...

I haven't started the writing blog yet because I stalled out on a name. All the ones I think of are dorky, or used so far...sometimes both, ha-ha!

Merry September! Have a fun Labor Day weekend,
Sara Tiger Ryan

Dream Words

 Quote: The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. (Chinese proverb)

Superstition: Green is an unlucky color, especially for brides. It is the color of fairies and the little people. Other countries see green as lucky because it is associated with trees and they hand green branches over their doors to keep misfortune away.

Everyday Omen: A rake in the road. Yipe! This I guess is a really Big fork in the road...especially since the tines were pointed up. Luckily I saw it in time to get it between my tires!  So I guess I make the Big fork in the road change without getting so tired I feel flat.

We have the sign of Leo right now (soon to be Virgo). Leo's colors are yellow, orange, scarlet, and gold. Their gems are cat's eyes, rubies, and diamonds. Their metal is gold. Leo trees are any citrus trees, bay, walnut, and palm. Their flower is a sunflower, of course! Their spice is cinnamon.

Dream Words: Going along with the starting quote.... My dreams have been featuring words. The latest one is conclictions (the 'c' is hard). It means conflict and conclusions combined. So. with this word, you can draw conflicting conclusions, both--or all--of which are true.

Another dream had the same word over and over and over. The word stayed mostly the same, the meaning morphed. Or the word morphed and the meaning took on subtle shades of other intentions. Or the word morphed and the meaning morphed, but it was always the same word.

Your cards for the week: Choose a number between one and three.
I choose three Tarot cards to go with those numbers. They are:

1) Eight of Wands

2)

Temperance

3) King of Cups

If you chose 1, the Eight of Wands, you are going to have a busy, rushed week, with lots of things happening. It might be stressful, but things will happen and you can get a lot done.

If you chose 2, Temperance, your week is about weighing things and people that are in your life. Two priorities are leaving you trying to go in two different directions at once. Temper your comings and doings with goings and restings.

If you chose 3, the King of Cups, your week will feel emotionally satisfying. You have creative things to do, charming people to encounter, and you are on top of your emotional state.

Sara, The Writer: The next Miss Kitty Mystery is nearing the end of the middle...getting to the part of each story where I usually stall...so I won't have to end the story I am having fun writing. (I also don't feel like tying up loose ends right now, since I've done so much editing lately.)
According to the 350 page mystery checkpoints, the end of the story starts about page 250 (I am on 240). Grim, my inner Critique (I try to keep his Editor's Badge on him, but he sneaks in sometimes and makes snide remarks while I'm writing. Such as lately, he has decided I write too much dialogue...So I am getting the yank on my creative energy as I try to write. Even if I ignore Grim, his fussing gets in my way. So I had to stop and say, "If you don't shut up, I'll write dialogue and absolutely nothing else forever and ever!"
He goes sulking off, knowing he's right and that I am going to stab myself in the back no matter how helpful he tries to be...
Phew, now I can write again.

Sara, The Artist: Paint, paint, paint! Yup, it paint the calendars pictures and Christmas and Yule card time. I also have three pictures to detail for Byran's 5th book...which my guess right now is that it will be released late, since I've been pushing myself, meaning the Inner Kid is getting ornery and is ready to refuse to do anything but eat cookies! (Especially since I didn't buy her the extra bag of cookies last week. (She had a whole unopened bag, but she wanted another one just in case...)

In case not everyone is interested in my bookmaking, I'm going to start a separate blog with my wiring ideas in it, thinking at least writers will be amused by bookmaking. This is scheduled to start maybe next week.

Merry day!
August 22 is Angel Day.
August 23 Honor Nemesis, the Roman goddess of destiny

Farewell June & Random Kitty

quote:  When I was the stream, when I was the forest, when I was still the field, when I was every hook, foot, fin, and wing. There was nothing I could not love. (Meister Eckhar)

superstition: rings through the earlobe are supposed to keep the Evil Eye away. Except in the case of sailors, who believed they would give them better eyesight. (Linda Spenser/ Knock On Wood...)

everyday omen: I go out to get into the car and this is when I miss Random Magic kitty cat who used to escort me to the car. I say aloud how unhappy I am and how I miss him. A second later, I look down and there is a perfect blue jay feather on the ground where Random usually would stand. This happened twice. (I had never found a blue jay feather in the yard before, and not since.) Thanks for the message, Random Magic, I love you, too.)

tidbits:
There are over 300,000 books written about Napoleon. (Science magazine)

Several studies have been done regarding reading on screen. They say that it is 25% slower to read on screen and makes a person more tired. High resolution helps some.

I am reading "Show Your Work!" by Austin Kleon. Cool! The book puts a new light on "getting out there".  Getting out there is an onerous task. Sharing my work, not so much.  Hey, I learned sharing in 'Show and Tell' in grammar school...
But I have a not so great track record of choosing what people might like. For instance, the design I liked best of my 2015 Christmas and Yule card designs this year (and last) came in last place. Sigh! The one I didn't think anyone would like came in the top five. By the way, the top design by customer vote is "A Purrrfect Holiday". (Oops, this doesn't take the file format I have the image in...)

Back to the book. You might check it out if you want to cultivate a new attitude towards getting your work out for people to admire--or make faces at, whatever...

Sara, The Writer
Phew, I'm done the last edit on Byran 5, now it is going to Word (R) for it's tweak edit where I make sure I've followed through on all the story threads and so forth. But not just yet. Right now I'm burnt out on that story.
I am writing on the next Miss Kitty Mystery. Dance! Dance! I am a much easier person to live with when I am writing. I am at about 50 pages as of June 20th.
I started bookmaking (my version of outlining) and suddenly I wondered why I hadn't thought to make a Series Bookmaking document before. Who knows why, I rarely write something that is a stand alone.
Anyway, in case you are curious, here is the start of the series and the series bookmaking document:

Bookmaking A Series
Is this going to be a series? Yup.
If yes, what is the Series Title?  Jump Hunters
Series Idea: Relays... Darn! What was that idea I had? Oh, the Relays turn into being like the Jinn Cousins, always Family,, as long as they have the talent.
I don't want it to be another private spy series. What are they going to do? Chase down missing people maybe. Getting missing people or rescuing people from hard to get to or in places? I guess they can rescue cats and dogs and some creatures, too... or maybe only one of them will do that.
Series Type: open-ended, standalone sequential stories
What is the Series Tie? The characters, there is a group, but Kappin, a young male unofficial Jump Hunter is the focus character; Relaying (This is a magic talent in the world I write in, where a person can 'jump' from one place to another by magic.)
Theme of the Series: I decided on Rescues, but they don't start the series knowing that.
Series quest object: success, acclaim would be nice, a solid business.

Sara, The Artist
Yippee! I got all the pictures for the Tiger's large planner sketched, inked, scanned, and tweaked and, just now printed, even though the printer took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to print them tonight. Where do all the dots and smears come from? They aren't in my inks!
I am painting Christmas and Yule cards. (Nope, it's not too early for me to start, I have lots of them to paint this year.) I am avoiding painting calendar pictures. There are lots of those to paint, too, but not so many.

Happy Summer as of Sunday June 21.
June 25, 1951 was the 1st color TV broadcast (by CBS).
On June 23, the first typewriter in America. In 1868 by Luther Sholes.

Hello June 4

 This picture is Niki Sian, the next print book to come out, June 21, is the 3rd book in The Relays Series and features him and his twin sister. He's holding a scrying disc.

quote: Everything we call real is made up of things that cannot be regarded as real. Niel Bohr

superstition: to keep nightmares away: use garnets, a dream catcher, or put cold iron next to your bed.

everyday omen: Okay, four toe stubs in a week must mean something, especially if it is the same toe. Obviously I am not catching this one. I open Louise Hay's 'Healing Your Body A-Z' for pointers. She says toes represent the minor details of the future. I'm still confused. I find somewhere else that toes as a omen called sabotaging oneself. That might be. Oh, there's the phrase stepping on one's toes. (Recently demonstrated...) That also might be.

The Celtic Tree Month of Oak starts June 10. Oaks stand for strength, security, and long life. Oak is a masculine moon, my source says, dealing with purpose, magic for men, and fidelity.
 
Possibly interesting tidbits:
> In the 1600's thermostats were filled with brandy rather than mercury.
> The first postcards were sent in Hungary in 1869. (That caught my attention because I have a postcard newsletter I'm procrastinating on...)
> James Ayscough invented sunglasses for someone to thank for those no longer blinded by the light.

thoughts: I am being tormented by a premonition--whatever it is.  One that feels dire (to me) and is likely personal. (I guess it is about one of my cats, big unhappiness.) So far, I could bypass June and go directly into October, which I usually like better.

Sara, The Writer: I can do this. I don't want to. I am slogging through Byran book 5 still. I finally got through the 9 million new tweaks and my editing self had better not find any more, I'm over them!

Whoopee! I started writing the next Miss Kitty Mystery, Portals & Poison, book 11.  Fun, fun, fun. Grim, The Evil Inner Editor says, "It's no good. There's too much conversation. You don't know where you're going. You are off on a tangent." (Most of that isn't actually true.)

Zip, I get side tracked and start bookmaking a new series that has been rolling around in my mind for awhile. Maybe something will come of it. It's about the Jump Hunters in the Miss Kitty Mysteries.
In the middle of that, I tangented into the thought: Why have I never set up a bookmaking document to address the fact that I usually write in a series? That way I can lay some tracks so I know right away where I want the series to go. For instance the main character in a series needs a long arc of growth that covers all the books (assuming she or he is going to change. I know they all don't, some mystery characters stay the same book to book. (Mine is already growing each book.)

Why do I read? I read stories for enjoyment and escape. Why do you read? What are the common threads in the stories that you enjoy reading? Aren't they in your stories as well?
I want to leave my readers hopeful and feeling complete, with warm fuzzies at the end of my stories. Those are the kind I like to read as well. What about you?

Sara, The Artist
I am painting the outside of my house. Does that count???
I painted on my tapestry of Ganesha and now I like how he is coming along. Putting in eyes helped a lot. If I don't feel hopeful about my art coming out a way I like, I avoid it and grump at it as I walk by...
I started painting the calendar pictures for the 2016 Sara Ryan Limited Edition Wall Calendar...after all that lead in, I only have 2 painted so far... Below is a copy of the January 2016 calendar picture.

New Ebook Up, Bits & Things

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the other end of the telescope.” Dr. Seuss


everyday omen: a piece of bark stuck in my car door. The bark is worse than the bite? Barking up the wrong tree? Yup, often it is a cliché or a pun…

gemstone: lapis lazuli. A favorite of mine is said to bring wisdom, understanding, and esoteric knowledge. It also attunes one to the creative source.

"If you're a writer, ideas flock around the inside of your mind like bats.” (words by Mark Haddon) (I first read this as: "If you're an artist, ideas flock around the inside of your head like gnats"...which makes room for a whole lot more swarming ideas!

tidbits: Issac Asimov wrote 500 books, more books than most people read in a lifetime.

Which brings me to: How many books do you read a year? month? week?
I read a book about every couple days (not counting editing my own!) So that's, gee, only 121 books a year about. (Okay, so I'm not counting the times I've read 2 books in one day...so maybe a few more. And you?

Mystery and romance lovers /readers make up for more than 85% of the books sold (2000). I like books that combine these two genres (Like Jayne Anne Krentz.)

John William Polidir was a contemporary of Mary Shelly, he wrote the 1st vampire story, called, 'The Vampyre".

thought: Suppose you were actually living in your novel/ Who would you be?
In my Miss Kitty Mysteries, I'm not the main character, I'm one of the artists living on Easlyn Lane, down the street from Dusty.

Sara, The Artist:
An artist hits the moment where it looks as if nothing will ever come together. The story, the painting, the sculpture, the composition is ashambles. It looks horrid and is fighting to become even more of a mess. This is not the time to give up (even when your stupid pen runs out of ink like mine just did writing this out!)
That is where my latest (large tapestry) painting (of Ganesha) has been for...a while. Okay, I found in a journal that I had started it last year. Time flies when you are wishing the painting would just come together by itself magically...


An awake: One night I was wandering about with my head hurting and I asked aloud (not really expecting an answer), "What can I take for my headache?" Spirit answered, "A chocolate." It was a surprising answer to me and it worked and tasted way better than aspirin!
(An awake, to me, is like a dream (in that it is a piece of life that has extra meaning.) only you are walking around thinking you are awake and aware in the physical world, rather than asleep and dreaming.)


Sara, The Writer: Yipeee!!! I started writing again (rather than the endless editing in various stages that I've been doing for it seems like ever). I got 7 pages done on the next Miss Kitty Mystery (#11, Portals & Poisons).
Not that I can stop editing, I have Byran's book 5 to edit through again. With even more loose ends! How come they keep multiplying when I'm not looking!? Can I just say: Byran didn't bother with that, end of story???

Oh, I am putting the 3rd Miss Kitty Mystery up on Smashwords in ebook form today, if all goes well. It is $ 3. If you love cozy mysteries and cats, this has lots of cats, the requisite dead body, and some handsome live ones to perk Sazzy's day up, oh, and even more cats (and a few dogs in case you like those).

Kittens & Kilts:
Someone is kidnapping cats
and Miss Kitty's Private Spy Agency
seems like the best place to go for help
to get the furry darlings back.
The client, in his kilt and vest, is decorative enough to snag Sazzy's attention long enough for Dusty to say, "Yes, she'll take the case."

Merrie Days:
Happy birthday to the Greek God Apollo (one source at least) on the 22nd. Happy birth anniversary to Clay, May 21. Happy day to Y, May 23. Happy birth anniversary to Aunt Nancy, May 25. And a merrie, magical day to you!

Merrie May!

This is a picture of Chay, the Youngest Sinister Fate

 

quote: Slayer of dragons, matador of time and space, rightful heir to heaven and earth, it's time to begin living the life of your dreams. (Mike Dooley)

superstition: Coffee drinkers: if bubbles flat towards you, money is on the way. But if you stir your coffee (or any other drink) with a knife, you'll get a stomach ache.

everyday omen: I have two this time, both found in a parking lot. One was a tiny feather. This reminds me of two things: "It isn't the feather, it's you who can fly" (from Dumbo); and Richard Bach's book Illusions, where a feather is the answer to: Prove I can I manifest anything. Looking at them together, I think the message is basically the same. Believe in my talent and abilities.
Second everyday omen, a package of salt. Salt of the earth. Salt is protection. Being below or above the salt is status. The salt was at my foot as I stepped out of my car, so I'll go with status. I am at the salt. This reminds me of a dream I took as confirmation of having made a major change I didn't think I could ever make. (The dream image was teeth coming out in a set of four, then, in the dream, I still had all my teeth, too.)

writer tidbits from various sources:
..South American writer, Kathleen Lindsey wrote 904! novels between 1903 and 1973. Yipe!
..If you think that is high, Maria del Socorro Tellado Lopaz published more than 4000 novels between 1927 and 2009 (Most of that time is precomputer, people!)
..Earle Stanley Gardner sometimes worked on as much as 7 novels at once...but he only put out 104 books. (And those were rather short.)
..For Issac Asimov I have two numbers. One source says he wrote 200 books, another says 400. I don't what the discrepancy is. Someone couldn't count? Or someone only counted one type of book?
..Crime writers sell, on an average, about 1500-10,000 soft cover mysteries per book.
The most borrowed genres in fiction, from libraries are: Romance, Historical, Fantasy, and Crime, in that order. (9 out of 10 borrowers are women.)

Thoughts: I am considering putting a novel in process up serial on this blog. What do you think? Any suggestions of what series? I am working on a Miss Kitty, Beacon Book, and a Younger Fates Entire story next. Or, I suppose it could be nonfiction, I have a sort your life out self-help book I am wrestling with.

Sara, The Artist: I got all my calendar pictures done, draft printed and painted...so I can make corrections. I have one I don't like enough to redraw it. My art energy has been low. I took time off. It is still low. Time to find some encouragement!

Sara, The Writer: What is with Byran's last story? If it isn't a computer problem, it's a backup not there after all problem, and Monday last it was an electric company shut power off just as I was getting ready to close down. I lost the document and the backup. Argh. I had the day before's back up in plain text at least. I am editing so I only lost a day's editing work...but adding that to the other lost work days, I wonder again: What is with this story!
Other than that, I am getting one book (one in the Beacon series, The Horns of Dilemma, which is Megan's story) ready to send to my outside reader, and one (Miss Kitty Mystery # 10, Races & Rogues) I am printing my first paper copy to slash and dice...
This all means, I haven't been writing...only editing. Dare I say, the less I write, the less sane I am???


Did I say that Wishing is up on Smashwords and Barnes & Noble? And Byran's book 4 (Byran Spiritsong) is out in the print version.

Happy May 17, the Festival of Roses honoring Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers...of which my yard is full: fire crackers, jasmine, plumbago, hibiscus. No roses, I don't do plants that need any kind of real care.
Merry May, hope the last of your spring is full of cheer!