Alice Artwork

In honor of the winners of my "Favorite Character from Alice in Wonderland" survey, here are my watercolor tributes.

It was a three-way tie between Red Queen, Alice, and the Cheshire Cat!

Below are the finished paintings...sorry that they're a little blurry. One of these days I'll get a scanner, which would be much better than trying to photograph the pieces. I'm really enjoying doing watercolors lately. I use the watercolor pencils, which is a really easy way to start watercoloring...espeically if, like me, you're mainly a sketcher.

Hope you enjoy these!

Red Queen

Mmmmm...Corn-Dog-a-Licious!

I forgot to mention that Dave and I went to the Fair on Friday, as a reward for making progress on the unending soul-sucking filing project.

I met this cute bunny who was about to be judged by the 4-H people. I told him (her?) that no matter what, he was a WINNER! But, being a bunny, it had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to convey my appreciation for its cuteness by touching his little foot through the cage. He didn't really like that, though, so I finally just stopped harrassing him...but not until after we took this photo together.

Otherwise we did everything we always do at the Fair. I suppose that's the joy of the Fair...the joy of repetition and familiarity. The International Bazaar changed, which was new! But despite the big changes...it still somehow seemed exactly the same. Same vendors. Same layout. The Fair can't change for real. It can only kinda change. It may change some on the outside once in a great while, but its kitschy heart will always be full of art glass, tractors, sheep shearing, misshapen people, and the smell of things frying. May it always remain so.

Favorite moment? We saw a chick hatch at the Miracle of Birth barn. There was a little boy in front of us with his very-pregnant mother. When he saw the chick push its way out of the egg he was enraptured...but then a cloud passed over his face and he looked over at his mom's belly with an expression of alarm.

What was your favorite Fair moment?

Why is There so Much to Do?

Oh, hi again!

First of all, I have not been writing. I've been thinking about writing, and I did that partial-chapter revision I already wrote about in my last post. But right now time is not on my side. The new school year is standing at the front door clearing its throat and getting ready to knock, which means I'm spending all my time doing the dozens of last-minute tasks I need to feel prepared for the long plunge. It's like getting ready to die. That sounds like a horrible way to describe things, but I think it's pretty true. It's the "death of free time." Especially this coming semester, with my crazy life as a combination of staff-faculty-graduate student. Goodbye, friends! Goodbye, social life! Luckily, all the things I'm busy with are important to me, so I won't complain anymore.

So, where does that leave HP? Poor little HP, always pushed to the sidelines. If only I could take a few months off from all my obligations and just focus on finishing the novel. I've been writing it for three years....and yet, that's not three solid years. I've only been able to write it for a few months at a time, during semesters when I'm not teaching. So when just counting the months I've had to devote to it, it hasn't even quite had a full year of attention. And even during those limited "writing months," it still only gets my time every other weekend or so, since the full-time job and normal chores fill up much of my time. All told, I think I've only been able to spend about 500 hours on the book...which sounds like a lot, but is only equivalent to about three months of full-time work. If I'd had 3-4 solid months of just writing 40 hours a week, I would be where I am now, after 3 years of trying to fit this in during my sparse free time. That's sad to me. I mean, I'm glad I continue to work on it despite these obstacles...and I guess I'm not willing to quit teaching...and I need to work...so this is how it has to be. But I feel bad that HP has such a tenuous claim to my time. Therefore, I'm going to try to fit in some writing each week...even if only for an hour or two. That's the plan ~ to at least keep stirring the pot, regardless of what else I have going on. Then hopefully when January arrives I'll be able to spend a great deal more time on it again. And once I look into the copywrite issues, I'll perhaps start posting the revised chapters here in case people want to start reading it.

Next post will feature my watercolor tribute to the winners of the Favorite Alice in Wonderland Character contest. I have Alice and the Cheshire Cat done, but then The Queen of Hearts snuck up to make it a three-way tie. So to be fair I'll need to do her watercolor as well.

Busy Times

Hi Reader,

It's been a busy few weeks. I've been spending almost all my free time (including my lunch hours at work) preparing for the fall semester. My first class starts September 4, and I do all the prep work I possibly can prior to that first day. I plan each class period, write all my assignments for the whole semester, do all my research, proof everything a number of times (I can't be expecting my students to do this if I don't!), and this Thursday after work I'll makes copies of everything I need for the whole semester. I then organize all this into folders, each folder representing a different unit. It's a lot of work...probably about 15-20 hours a week for the last three weeks. But the good thing is that when the semester finally starts, I only need to focus on teaching and grading. I won't have to do all the other class prep that fills the "free" time of teachers. That's important to me, since I also work full-time during the semester and will additionally be a student mysef...I'm taking a graduate class on e-learning. The good news is that after this week I should be finished with all my prep work, and can hopefully relax a little before the new school year starts up.

Oddly enough, I did manage to fit in some writing time this weekend. I almost finished my revisions for the first chapter in the "scary middle part" of HP. I made more changes than initially intended. I changed some of the prose into dialogue and added a scene between my main character Ana and her soon-to-be antagonist Elly. But right now they're kind of friends. All the better to pit them against each other later on! I ended my revision right at the moment when Ana first realizes that something is very wrong with her cubicle. Nothing major...she just notices the window in her cube open when it shouldn't be and has a weird feeling of being watched.

Other things that happened this weekend: my husband spent some time preparing for his new job, which starts today; had dinner with our delightful friend Joanna and her magical cats; saw this crazy documentary called Man On Wire about the Frenchman who in the early '70s tightrope walked between the World Trade Center towers (in a weird coincidence, this tightrope-walker's name is Phillipe...just like our cement mime!); went to the Joke Joint to see my brother's girfriend perform her comedy routine. We also worked on our enormous unending soul-sucking filing project. I finished a thoroughly-satisfying vampire novel called The Companion (sent to me from England by my friend April). We watched a bizarre documentary on Mary Shelley that was part biography, part travelogue, and part nature program. And, finally, we got our lifetime fill of Michael Phelps.

So, a little bit of writing and a lot of other stuff. Sounds like a lot to cram into a weekend, but I ended up taking a vacation day from work in order to do it all. And now if I finish everything this week I can celebrate by going to the fair on Friday!

Bunny Wins the Day!

In the "What is your favorite woodlands animal" poll, the BUNNY wins...followed closely by owl. Deer and Chipmunk each got 1 vote.

Congratulations, Bunny! You win a trip to the beautiful island of Jamaica for you and all twelve members of your family. You will enjoy luxury all-inclusive accomodations at Sandals Resort, where you may participate in a wide variety of watersports, snorkeling, horseback riding, or just hopping along the beach. Sandals resort has two 4-star restaurants, featuring fresh seafood and (perhaps more up your road) an extensive salad bar. Enjoy this well-deserved award, Bunny! I'll leave your plane tickets and itinerary right under that big chrysanthemum in the garden.

Happy Days

All kinds of good things have happened since my last post. Here are the highlights:

1. Husband signed a contract for an AWES-OME teaching position, which starts in a matter of weeks and pays pretty-dern-well, considering he's a relatively new teacher. Now he can stop wearing that pickle-barrel and begging for food on the street corner!

2. I got two raises...one for my own teaching position and one in my normal job. Not huge raises, but still.

3. I finished revising/rewriting all my chapter cards for the "middle passage" of HP...now I can move forward on the nuts-n-bolts revising.

4. My lovely friend JoJo and her equally lovely family were in town this weekend from their hometown in Chelmsford, England. We delighted over the marvels of Grand Avenue, Como Park, and Porky's drive-in. They also got to visit with Phillipe, the cement mime (pictures will surely follow at some point).

5. I went to the dentist for my cleaning/check-up and for the first time in something like 4 years I do not need any crowns, fillings, fillings replaced, or wisdom teeth pulled. They simply said "try to floss more" and let me go my own way without further harassment.

6. Husband got me another birthday gift, which is a small (very small) piece of land on the Kincavel estate in Scotland. It's only about enough land to stand on, but it's enough to effectively make me a Laird. Or, rather, a Lady. So now everyone should call me Lady of Kincavel. Now I have to go to Scotland, find my square foot of land, and build a fence around it.

Now the next phase of work begins...preparing for new jobs, new school years, more writing, and of course flossing.