I am reposting this entry from the very early days of Journal Jane. The film PENELOPE is still my favorite film and favorite go-to re-set button. If you haven't seen it, enjoy.

There are times... when I hit a wall, the well runs dry, the ink runs out, I'm outta gas and even the cliches aren't flowing. And then there are times when simply hanging out with the wrong sort of people can splinter me into so many fragments I can't think straight let alone work. 

Luckily, I have a cure and it's name is PENELOPE. I have viewed this film (filmed in 2006, released in 2008) so many times my family threatened to hide it. Never fear. I foiled them. I bought a back-up DVD and they don't know where it is.

So what is it about PENELOPE that sets me straight and gets me all inspired to write and paint once again? Watching PENELOPE is like taking a walk inside my head when I'm in full-on creative mode.

Penelope's room looks exactly like my interior mindscape, full of paint, art, puppets, birds, bell-jar terrariums, butterflies, a swing, a tricycle, and a fake red tree. I should know, I spend a lot of time in here. 

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin that boasts stately old houses filled with dark wood, attics, and endless mysterious potential. Penelope's room reminds of the way I felt when inside these old homes.

This film is chock full of goodness that makes me squeal with delight. Let's start with the cast:

James McAvoy - 'nuff said.


Christina Ricci - always wonderful. And it's worth noting she can play a house-bound, virginal, pig-faced girl and then switch to a nymphomaniac in Black Snake Moan. Now that's versatility.


Catherine O'Hara and Richard E. Grant - LOVE them both. 

And this was the first film I saw Peter Dinklage in, and he makes this movie. Ronni Ancona and Simon Woods are also great.

This is the film that introduced me to funny man Russell Brand. He has a cameo that prompted me to look up his work. The man is hilarious and intelligent. 

Mark Palansky directed, and I adore his attention to detail. Leslie Caveny wrote the screenplay for this delicious Beauty and the Beast reversal. Amanda McArthur is the production designer who re-created the inside of my brain on film. I thank her. And I am grateful to Reese Witherspoon for producing this movie-of-her-heart, even though it didn't do that well at the box office. 

I'm in earnest, folks. All I need do is watch PENELOPE and I am myself again. What did I do before PENELOPE? I can't remember, but I have a vague notion it wasn't pretty. So I shall share with you images of things I adore from this wondrous film. 

Mark Ryden is one of my favorite artists and his work appears in the film. As an interesting aside, he had previously used Christina Ricci as artistic inspiration.

Image copyright Mark Ryden.

Sigur Ros!  Their song Hoppipolla provides a perfect transcendant ending.


Other great tunes in the film come from Devotchka, Schuyler Fisk, and The Little Ones. (Cha-Cha-Cha was used in the scene with the incredible copper bath-tub. I am a big fan of baths and bathtubs, especially in relation to creativity and giving birth to new ideas.)

If you haven't yet seen PENELOPE, it's wonderful, and holds up to, ahem, multiple viewings.

Do you have a creative re-set button? Let me know!
All movie images are copyright Summit Entertainment

Dear Interwebs, it has been months since my last post. I am thinking a lot, and plotting, and...cleaning up my Twitter feed!

I believe Twitter is the single most agile and POWERFUL social media available to us at this time. In fact, I think that if we were to have some kind of national crisis, Twitter would be shut down, if not immediately then soon thereafter. Twitter is a wonderful tool for swiftly spreading information, connection, and fun. That is why I am horribly dismayed when I scroll through my Twitter feed only to find a horde of authors spamming me with white buy-my-book-noise. I am guilty of Tweeting a bit about my work when there's a giveaway or a sale etc, that's normal. However, if you look at my Home page, those tweets aren't numerous. And I DO NOT schedule automatic tweets! It's difficult to have an exchange if no one is home.

I don't know how this type of markting became so popular, because I believe it's wholly ineffective. Lately, I've become allergic to my Twitter feed. And yes, I have made a curated List, but it's a hassle, and more importantly feels disingenuous to me. And this falseness is the heart of the matter.

I call myself "equally twee and evil" and that is quite true, but mostly I am a genuine person. Like Mr. Darcy (the character, not my cat who is also wonderful but much more Bingley-esque) disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. 
My Twitter feed is approaching 1000 followers! I should be figuring out what I should do to celebrate. When I reached 500 Followers I dressed up my toes as clowns. Good times. Mr. Darcy, the character, would likely disapprove of toe clowns, but he would agree that costumes are not disguises. 
Mr. Darcy, the cat, wholly approved of toe clowns.

It is clear most of those nearly 1000 followers are only following me to plump up their numbers. Apparently literary agents and the like are impressed by the number of one's Twitter Followers. A platform is a platform, however rickety. I don't buy it. Never bought a book based on the basis of a Tweet, either. Recently I've seen the tactic used where writers (and others) will gather as many Follows as they can and then they dump most of them, relying on people's inattention to keep their numbers up. Oy with the poodles already.

I have tended to follow back fellow writers in hopes of community and a few witty exchanges, and I HAVE met some absolute GEMS of persons. Sadly though, my stream has become mostly a mess of insincere ballyhoo. I have reached the conclusion that I would rather have only those folks Following me who are actually interested in whatever weirdness comes out the tips of my fingers. 
True fun, true community, true Twitter.

My Twitter stream, like my art, like my books, needs to be an accurate reflection of me. Sometimes I'm a mess, but I'm an honest mess. So instead of celebrating all those Followers, I'm going to be doing a lot of Unfollowing instead.  Once I'm done, maybe I'll make a silly clown video for fun, and this time dress up my face and not my toes.

PLEASE, If I Unfollow you and you have a genuine interest in staying connected to me, LET ME KNOW! 

This is an arcane little post with high potential of being of little interest to anyone. So why post it? Because, perversely, it is sometimes those tiny details that end up being useful in some fashion, to someone, somewhere.

I am speaking of the Publishing Industry Terms I (up until quite recently) used to define my book categories on my website:

MAINSTREAM BOOKS - Okay, so this is a term that comprises most mid-list novels. It's fine for boardrooms and bookstore buyers. But why the heck would I describe my books that way to my READERS. Especially since I am an Indie writer and publisher? Mainstream equates to boring, middle of the road, BLAH. I must have been high. I have since changed the Title and Page Tag to BOOKS. 

Phew. That works.

YOUNG ADULT BOOKS - Or YA this and YA that. YA is quite its own subculture. and accounts for a good chunk of book sales. And now the industry and others hoping to jump that marketing train are espousing a separate term for those readers that are no longer on the cusp of adulthood but have entered that first phase of their independence: NEW ADULT. Readers of all ages read books that are labeled YOUNG ADULT and NEW ADULT, but that doesn't stop the labeling machine.

My experience is that in using the term YOUNG ADULT on two pages of my website, I received over 300 hits daily. Success! I am SO savvy in attracting my readership. Woot! Except that my site stats say that most of those hits came from RUSSIAN PORN SITES. (And oh, am I going to pay for typing those words on the interwebs.) So, I have since changed the Title and Page Tag to BOOKS FOR TEEN READERS.

Phew. That works. I hope.

And for ANY someones, somewheres, (except the RP sites, boo, go away) who read this whole thing, here's a reward:

I have a bunch of new projects I'm tackling. First in the queue is a middle grade fantasy about a nature sprite enslaved as a house drudge by a society-matron witch. My intention is to send it to a particular literary agent I have in mind. Since that can be a lengthy process, this project takes priority.

This past weekend I headed out for a walk/jog down Shell Ridge in Walnut Creek, CA, and I stayed on the lower trail that runs near the stream. I kept a lookout for any bit of nature that might inspire my story. Here's what I found:

In the NOT SO SPRITELY department, I got a little carried away with the nice weather and pulled something in my heel while running up a hill. This will help keep me tied to my desk so I GET THE BOOK DONE.

Thought you might enjoy some of the music I listened to while creating my young adult fantasy novel, The Daring Young Man.

I wanted to post Devotchka's song Ruthless, but I couldn't find it on YouTube, so here's their The Clockwise Witness, which fits the bill too!

For Markie Thuthis, here's Last Night at the Jetty by Panda Bear.

Yay - the day I've worked so hard for is here. Dante Delgado is out in the world and off to live his life.

Now you can read all about Dante's adventures (and misadventures) with The Mumbo Jumbo Circus!

Available in ebook and paperback.

Amazon 
B&N
Kobo

Paperback

If you're new to The Mumbo Jumbo Circus, the ebook of The Mumbo Jumbo Circus Volume 1, is on sale now for $0.99 at all the above locations!

Get started reading about the fantastical goings on beneath the magical Ringmaster's Big Top.

Amazon B&N Kobo

Do you remember back in May when I designed sets and props for a local ballet production of Alice in Wonderland? Well I've indulged in a bit of set-designing again, this time for Contra Costa Ballet's Story of the Nutcracker. They needed to replace an aging backdrop for Act Two and asked me to help.

This beloved long-running production is narrated and is geared toward small children. My challenges were to produce a design that melded with the existing design for Act One and all of the costumes as well as appeal to little kids.

Here is my design at 1/4" to 1' scale.

Here is the actual drop in production.
The colors are more intense than in my painting, but the kids in the audience loved it. There were many oohs and ahhs when the curtain went up.

The drop was 60'wide, too big to be painted on the stretchers, so it was done on the floor of one of the theaters.

Here it is finished at dress rehearsal with the candy cane legs.The show was wonderful as always.

And last but not least, here is my little sugarplum in a costume appearance for San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker at opening night. She's a student at the San Francisco Ballet School and was recently laid up with a stress fracture. She's back to work now and was eager to be a part of the show in whatever way she could. The highlight of her evening was when a little girl asked, "Are you a princess?" Her fellow dancer answered, "Yes. Yes, she is."

Do you have plans to see a traditional holiday show this season?

In anticipation of the December 10 release of THE DARING YOUNG MAN - Mumbo Jumbo Circus Book Two, the first volume in the series, THE MUMBO JUMBO CIRCUS will be ON SALE for the surprising sum of 99 CENTS from now through the end of December.

If you were thinking of reading it and haven't yet, now is a really good time! 

(Purchase links are in the sidebar.)

And then on December 10, continue the fun with THE DARING YOUNG MAN.

Once, sixteen year-old Dante Delgado dreamed of being one of the few trapecistas able to do a quadruple somersault in the air. Then a tragic accident took his parents, their circus, and his ability to fly. 

Circus is one big family all over the world, and Dante hates everything to do with it.

But to survive, he must choose between joining the ranks of the tiny yet magical Mumbo Jumbo Circus or its nemesis, the Las Vegas spectacular, Cirque Patron. And it doesn't help that two very different girls are confusing the situation. 

If he makes the wrong choice, he won't have a future to worry about.

A pivotal scene in my soon-to-be released (12/10) title, The Daring Young Man, takes place during Dia de los Muertos in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, Mexico.
I am fortunate to have a friend who hails from nearby Uruapan. He has been helping me with details and both the Spanish and Purepecha words in the book. He recently posted these pics to my Facebook wall. I wanted to share them with you.

"In colloquial language, we call death, La Calaca, the bony siriquisiaca death, the friend who does not discriminate. His prescence is always associated with the eternal feminine as well as the symbol of life is associated with the feminine. Usually the image of death is only a skeleton covered with a mantle and wielding a scythe in his hand. But in November during the festival of the dead, his image becomes festive, funny, smart or sophisticated, droll, grotesque image of politicians, Rulers and institutions. There is a town in Michoacan called Capula. the people are masters of the art of modeling clay. They produce images of death each year modeled in clay of the region and decorated with great imagination. All those little mud fihuras are popular with the population but perhaps the most popular of all are The catrinas. These figurines are elegantly dressed and death somehow glamorous. Yesterday in Morelia Capula artisans presented their annual exibition Capula skulls."