image via The Graphics fairy Dear World, beloved readers, and darling friends, I am headed into the writing cave for the month of July. It has become obvious to me that I must bolster and protect my Magic Writing Mojo from the evil esteem-stomping trolls of stats and reviews. I must also hereby relinquish my crown as the Princess of Procrastination. I'm thinking of this sabbatical as a lovely vacation away from my worst tendencies. If this means I must sequester myself away with only my keyboard, my kitties, and my copy of Penelope, then so be it. If you see me on Facebook or Twitter, please throw flaming shitballs of shame in my general direction. That goes double for GoodReads. So, Goodbye Lovely World. I will be locked in my imagination until August. At least. Productivity ahoy! Who knows what wonders may come about? Are you a creative person? How do you protect your Magic Mojo? All Rights Touchstone Pictures. Much like Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas, I have emerged--jazzed and rejuvenated for my own work--after taking on an insane project. As a board member of the Contra Costa Ballet Foundation, I offered my skills to design/produce sets and props in order to offset the onerous costs of a brand-new production of Alice in Wonderland, choreographed and directed by rising choreographer Robert Dekkers of Post:Ballet. Crazy, right? There really should be an anti-volunteering cuff you could buy that would attach your hand to your pants and prevent its being raised. But crazy was just what the doctor ordered. After the manic, collaborative episode that was Alice took over my life, now that the show's done I'm ready to once again embrace my books (and the nutty world of publishing) with renewed fervor. Below are pics from the production process. Click on each to read the captions or view as a slideshow. HUGE shout-outs go to Dan Sweeney of Stuf Inc, who built the flats, mushroom, table and swing. And to Katherine Mattson and Glynn Bartlett of the UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. We quite literally could not have done this without them.
I know my photography leaves something to be desired. When I get actual performance photos, I will post them. To Celebrate the One Year Anniversary of my grand publishing adventure - - - The Mumbo Jumbo Circus is available for FREE DOWNLOAD APRIL 6 - 10 on Amazon. Despair not if you don't own a Kindle (I don't, yet), here is a link to download FREE KINDLE APPS for PCs, Macs and phones. Come one, come all, join the fun! Welcome to the world between worlds that is The Mumbo Jumbo Circus! Yay! The contest is live. Go ahead and sign up with a click below. Goodreads Book GiveawayEnter to winIf you want a sure thing and don't want to wait, here are the links for Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
The paperback edition of X-It, my novel set in punk era NYC, should be available the first week of April on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I'll post as soon as it's up! I'm also giving away 10 copies on GoodReads from April 1-30. As soon as the contest is live, I'll post a link to enter here on the blog. The eBook editions will follow as soon as I tackle and master the formatting. I am determined to do this one myself. Hope I still have some hair left when it's all over. And I will send jellybeans to anyone who has already read X-It (on its journey to publication) and leaves a review on Amazon, B&N & GoodReads. If you are interested in reading X-It for review, contact me via the Contact Form on the Home page and I will send you a pdf file in exchange for an honest review. If you get a book and don't post a review to the sites above, black jellybeans for you. NOTE: X-IT is NOT a YA novel, the protagonist is eighteen, but so was Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. The book deals with mature subject matter. Also, if you've been interested in reading my YA fantasy, The Mumbo Jumbo Circus, but haven't gotten around to it yet, the Kindle eBook edition will be FREE on Amazon from April 6-10. I'll be sending out reminders. After that promo, the eBook will again be available on Nook, and soon afterward on Smashwords, Kobo, and iPad. This is all in preparation for the launch of The Daring Young Man! Which will happen in early summer, I promise. You want it to be good, don't you? And I will soon be devoting all my time to writing again as my set design commitments for Contra Costa Ballet's Alice in Wonderland will be finished in mid-May. I shall post pics, because the show is going to be incredible. Read a synopsis and excerpt HERE. To be released as soon as the final edit and formatting are complete. In other words, pretty soon!
Enter to win a paperback of The Mumbo Jumbo Circus and other novels for teens & kids in this month's YABC Giveaway Contest. Plus some Harry Potter swag! Just follow the contest rules at: Good Luck!
Here's an advertisement I painted and designed for an exciting new ballet of Alice in Wonderland. I'll post more about the show in upcoming months. Right now I'm trying to balance writing work and illustrative work as I'm also designing sets and a backdrop. And you can see from the performance dates I don't have a lot of time. Anyways, this was an opportunity not to be missed. As they say in ballet, "Merde!"
Run. Catzilla! The HOLIDAY SALE for The Mumbo Jumbo Circus has finally come to an end. The price is back to normal. We're now well into 2012 and the holidays have also come to an end. Even the twelve-drummers-drumming day has passed. I'm as back to normal as I get. The Yule tree and house decorations are tucked away again. All except for Santa's Village, which continues to be terrorized by catzillas. I think they like the fuzzy fake snow to nap on, and the elves are fun to bat around. Responsibility for Santa's Village comes under the auspices of the teenage daughter. I hope she rides to their rescue soon. |
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