Friday, November 29, 2013

Mirror Image Published



Jessie *

I'm excited because I just got a story published in Stone Canoe.  The story is 4 and a half pages long, and I have included the first page here, along with a link to the rest.


Mirror Image
We were all invisible then, each in a different way. If I’d known what was going to happen, I’d have paid more attention. Or, perhaps,I’d have at least tried harder. I should have been better at it. I’d just read “Our Town” again, for my college lit class. I’d read it in highschool, too. I kept saying to Jesse and Jesse, “Look at me, Mother. Please, just look at me.” And they would look, glazed, and maybe giggling, or sober, or half-crocked, and then we would all laugh. Or be spooked. Or turn away, tired of the game. But I did not see. I was too burnt and too hidden inside myself, and it would get worse before it got better.
It wouldn’t get better for a long time. 

We lived in the stone house at the bottom of the park. When I think
of it now, it seems at is if opened into the park, bright and airy yet
somehow shadowed, but that’s a dream fragment from the mixed up
dreams I have about the place. In some of the dreams, it is me who
dies of AIDS and I see everything as if I were watching from above.
Or I am killing Jesse Peters, or maybe Jesse French. In the dream, I
pull the trigger.
The real apartment opened away from the park. We lived in the
basement. To get to the park, we walked up around the house and
through the wild locusts and the grove of tree-lilacs. Up and up and
up to the brick water tower at the top of the hill where the whole
city spread below. And in the winter, down the great hill on sleds at
breakneck speeds.
Because the house was built on a hill, the back of our stone-house
apartment was below ground, but the front, downhill corner was
above ground. It faced south and had large leaded glass windows in
the front that filled the basement living room with sparkly light and
rainbows.
We three Jesses looked almost as if we were siblings. We each
had shoulder length wavy auburn hair, with varying degrees of red,
and freckles. Jesse Peters was tall, lean, loose limbed and always
looked a little out of focus, at least in my memory. He was highly
freckled, fuzzy and slightly unkempt. Jesse French was the best looking. He was more compact, more handsome. Shorter. More coiffed.  His face looked almost like a movie star’s, except for the long waving auburn hair. He had the fewest freckles. And then there was me . . .   to continue reading, click here

© 2013 Stone Canoe Journal - http://www.stonecanoejournal.org

*Image of Jessie adapted from Ami with Crow, a gouache painting by me.

This story is fiction but based in part on real events.  I have fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with the formatting and cannot get it right.  I truly tried, I apologize.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

NaNoWriMo Winner





One of the things that's been keeping me really busy is writing a brand new novel for NaNoWriMo, National Novel-Writing Month.  And, I just won.  Just now!  YAY! Understand that winning simply means I've reached 50,000 words--50,151 to be exact.  I haven't finished the novel yet.  And when I finish the first draft, it will be just that, a first draft.  But I am still very excited.

I started crying--they were all cheering and blowing whistles.  I had to turn them off--my husband was asleep.  Maybe I can listen tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Doing Art with a Friend

I haven't been around much lately! So much has been going on in my life.  Among other things, I've been traveling, and on my travels, I did art with my friend Hennie Mavis.

Cardinal Dream, by Hennie Mavis, scan
Click this and all images to view larger

Here is a scan of Hennie Mavis's Cardinal Dream. I totally love both the dream and the art!  Do click on it to see it larger.  We spent a wonderful couple days together in Syracuse, NY, where neither of us live any more, hiking and doing art.  As soon as I can, I will complete the collaboration and post it; I've been absurdly busy.  Confession:  On top of all the other problems and commitments, I am also trying to do NaNoWriMo this month.

Braid by Hennie Mavis on Banana paper
I have a sketchbook  made of all nature fibers.  The paper is made largely of banana skins.  It is very lightweight, but responds differently than other paper.  hennie did this picture of my braid as a collaboration for me to complete.

Biker Buddy, for Andrea's pocket
Here is a portrait of Biker buddy in water color for Andrea's pocket. I did it last night. We had ML over for dinner, keith's Mom, And I worked hard making a fairly elborate dinner, so then I rested doing art. YAY art.
In the Garden, for Andrea's pocket
When I was with Hennie doing art at the motel, I finished one picture and started this, which I finished when I got home. I did without the benefit of anything to look at, and I also didn't sketch it ahead, just painted directly on the paper out of my head.

Three Poppies, banana paper
This is the painting that I did on the banana paper while Hennie was doing the cardinals and before she did the braid.

a bit of silliness
at the motel
doing art at the motel
Hiking with Hennie and Scott (by Keith)