Published on Kindle

I finally completed the formatting of my poetry book and it is available through Amazon.  This is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KKRUOF4

The poetry in this book is from a very turbulent period in my life, 1979-1985, when I was at the end of my marriage.  By clicking on the link on Amazon, you can read the introduction and first few poems.  The full ebook is $2.99.  I also have an excerpt available there for $.99.

The cover artwork reflects my time living in Belgium (1969-1974). The words come from one of my poems when I was in a reflective mood, thinking about that time.  The original is an acrylic painting, 11" X 14".

Catalpa Blossoms

The finished painting as it looks on my website. I'm happy with the way it turned out. It was fun working on gessobord instead of canvas and I'll probably do this again in the future.  You can buy cards or prints of any of my designs directly from my website.

Poetry Excerpt on Kindle

Excerpt - this link will take you to the Amazon site where you can buy the book (on Kindle)

I have spent some time this week learning how to convert my text to a format for an e-book.  I decided to put up an excerpt first since the original book (from 1990) is quite long and out of print. I did a presentation recently to a high school group on my journey to creativity and included a poetry reading as well as talking about my earlier life.  I showed the students my paintings and spoke about turning negatives into positive actions and the effect of choices on life.

I took some books out of the library on e-book publishing but did not find them that helpful. I bought the book "Publishing E-Books for Dummies" by Ali Luke and that inspired me to take action myself.  Now that I have the book excerpt on Kindle (my first goal), I will continue with making it available on Nook and in other formats.

Eventually I hope to convert the full book to e-book form as well as my chapbook. I found the formatting to take more time than I expected.  I kept finding little glitches that the conversion software did not get right.  I'm glad I know some HTML code so I could see what was going on. (It did not like hyphens and copyright symbols.)

While my original book and chapbook contain poetry from many years ago, I plan on compiling the more recent poems into small collections and making them available on e-book as well. Meanwhile, I worked a bit more on my painting of the catalpa blossoms (last post) and hope to have it finished for the next one. I'm not sure what I'll start on next, but the ideas are flowing . . .

The painting on the cover is my acrylic painting of a canal in Leuven, Belgium. The title of the collection is from one of my poems that is a reflection of my time living there (1969-1974).

On my easel today

Catalpa Blossoms on Webster Street

This was a fun exercise and is almost done. I bought an 8" X 10" piece of gessobord (which is a prepared board that has gesso on it already and is not canvas). I decided to work with my acrylic paints in a watercolor fashion.  First I did negative painting of the leaves in a light green (ultramarine blue plus yellow). When that dried, I painted the flowers. Then I darkened up the leaves and background. (I used sap green and yellow for that.) I am almost finished. I'm letting the paint dry, then I'll do a little more with contrasting values.

I looked in my tree book and this tree is listed as "Southern Catalpa".  I'm not sure what it's doing in New Hampshire, but it has lovely leaves and flowers.  I took a photo, then cropped it and focused in on the blossoms.

I have paintings up in two exhibits this month in Manchester and Bedford (NH). My paintings are part of a group exhibit at City Hall Gallery (first floor hallways at City Hall).  We have ten artists/photographers exhibiting from my group Friends of Art Manchester.  The artwork is in all different styles, both representational and abstract.

I also have some of my paintings on exhibit at the Bedford (NH) Library, lower level.  That is part of a group exhibit too, from Manchester Artists Association.

Spring is very slow getting here this year. I have been out on my bike twice now.  I'm really enjoying learning how to ride again and the mountain bike is more fun than the city bike since I like being in the woods.  I bought a used bike, then decided to turn it in for a new one. Waiting for better weather to try it out.  Photo below taken on the rail trail by Lake Massabesic (Auburn/Manchester, NH).  That was my first ride. I fell in the mud, did not get hurt, and was happy to be out on the trail.