Last night at dinner, Mark and I were discussing cities we would like to visit in the future. Mark has done extensive traveling throughout his life, I have not. We would like to take one real vacation each year (in addition to "staycations" which I also like), and I'm a planner, so…
Some on our brainstorming list: Edinburgh, Scotland; San Juan, Puerto Rico (again); Buenos Aires, Argentina (again for him, first time for me); Washington DC (again); Atlanta (again, Mark lived there for a while); San Francisco (neither of us have been to California, how can that be!); somewhere in Ireland; London (again for Mark), and also our regular trip each year to Philadelphia and a nod to NYC where we have visited separately and together in the past.
So, we were talking about the pros and cons of various places and how we would like to spend our time while away. I said I would like to visit the National Gallery of Art again as well as the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires (they just had a 15 million dollar rennovation) and also the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
I got to thinking about the museums I've visited and photos taken, and thought it would be fun to share them with you. (I always ask for permission, or a definition of the museum's rules, before taking photos.) I'm sorry I don't know the artist or date on some of these pieces, but perhaps you will enjoy seeing them anyway.
One afternoon last week, Mark said there was a katydid on the sliding glass door in his office. Well, it took no convincing at all for me to leave the fascinating world of small publishing to investigate a large bug that masquerades as a green leaf. Little did I know, how endearing this little creature would seem to be.
I grabbed my "big" camera, a Canon EOS Digital Rebel (nothing fancy to you photographers out there, I'm sure, but the best camera I've ever owned…I am in love with it), and scuttled into "Shakes, Shivers, and Dithers' " domain, parking myself on the floor in front of the glass.
Katydid had no idea she was there to teach me the finer points of the "M" setting on my camera and how to use f-stop and ISO more effectively, without losing my cool. There was no way to get what I wanted without fussing extensively with the settings, and then when I did get the light right (what did people do before digital cameras?) I had issues with the focus. And then I remembered the manual focus switch near the lens, which my son, Jesse, had shown me on his last visit. (I wish I'd remembered that a week earlier when trying to get a good shot of a spider web…)
(Photo 1) Here you can see Katydid and her (or his?) shadow. I like how you can see her wings and how much they resemble a green leaf. From what I've read, I think this is a young katydid because the back legs are not that long in relationship to the length of her body. Maybe this is why she was not at all afraid of me…I continued to snap photos...
(Photo 2) When I figured out the right setting, I got the background (above) dark and I started to see the incredible detail in Katydid's underside.
(Photo 3) Later, I took one of the full body shots and enlarged it on my computer. Voila, a portrait!
(Photo 4) When I saw the photo above on my monitor, I thought Katydid definitely shows some talent for acting. This looks like a pose from "A Chorus Line."
(Photo 5) This is my very favorite photo of all…. the happy katydid.
I ended up taking 76 photos in all, over a period of about 15-25 minutes (I lost track of time). Twelve of them came out pretty well. (see settings below)
The most incredible part of this surprise experience, to me, was how I felt…as if this creature was happy to connect with me, to show me her stuff, to stay there while I looked at her, a big black camera in front of my own face; while her's was so open and friendly.
The next morning, I woke up early as usual and went into the family room and there on the wall, near the ceiling, was a katydid. "How did you get in here?" I asked. She was still sleeping.
I left the light off and the two little dogs snoring happily on the couch; then after the sun rose, grabbed a plastic container and transported my favorite bug outside. "You need to be out here with all the trees," I said, as she flew out and floated to the ground. I hope she found her way back into the woods.
I purchased a children's book: "The Secret Lives of Backyard Bugs" by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards. Here's what I learned:
Grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets are all members of the same order of insects: Orthoptera.
Insects in this order go through "incomplete metamorphasis."
Adult katydids can fly and jump, like grasshoppers, but also they can sing the unmistakable Katy-did-Katy-didn't song (during summer months).
On this, the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States, I wish I had a poem or essay or something intelligent to say on the matter. But, all I am today is feeling…feeling the sound, the ash, the shock, the grief--of families forever ruptured and touched by grief.
I think of a hymn that goes "…but other lands, have sunlight to and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine. Oh hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine."
So, while I have nothing to offer about the events of 66 years ago, I can offer this…
This past March, after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I wrote this song while driving in my car through the flat farmland and rolling forests of Ohio. Later, I picked up my guitar for the first time in 15 years or so, grabbed my laptop, and made a recording. It is very rough (I haven't sung in 15 years either) and will likely stay that way for, wisely, I gave up any ambitions of being a singer long ago. Still, it meant a lot to me to work through my feelings via musicand I appreciate your listening. (Note: this appeared on Lucky Press's blog in March, but I hadn't put it here yet.)
Photos: All but four of the photos (two stormy sea photos, one with the silhouette of a bird flying, and one with clouds and tiny birds flying high, which are from a stock photo agency) were taken by me.
Please consider a contribution to a reputable charity to help the people of Japan. You can find a list on Charity Navigator at THIS LINK.
When I see beautiful flowers adorning a neighbor's yard...or my yard as luck would have it…here is what I remember: kneeling down in the cool northeastern Ohio grass next to my "aunt" Wanda. She was really my cousin, hence the quotations, but I was about five and she was about 45 so to me she was my aunt. I can clearly remember one day, kneeling next to her, putting those bulbs in the ground. Then we went for a walk down the street with my favorite toy, a stuffed monkey I'd named Joe. Each of us holding one of Joe's plastic hands. I am sure there was lemonade and cookies involved at some point.
Below is a photo from 1970 (photographers of photo at left and below, unknown.) Aunt Wanda is sharing a blanket with me, with my parents on the right. When my children were born in 1981 and 1983, Aunt Wanda was there to be a part of their childhood memories as well. A registered nurse, Wanda once told me her dream job would have been to be an editor.
Here are some photos for you today. Some of these were taken in Mark's and my yard and some were taken at a friend's yard. I work out of a home office, so it is great to be able to take a short break, pick up the camera, and go outside and shoot when the light is just right.
There was some interest in a previous blog I wrote on creating the book cover for Melissa Kline's young adult sci-fi novel, My Beginning. So, I decided to repost this article, which originally appeared on Lucky Press's blog.
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I love creating illustrations for book covers, but there are some interesting common moments that happen in nearly every case. First, I have a vague idea of what the cover might look like. This idea germinates with the input of the publisher and author (In this case, Lucky Press is the publisher, so I wore two hats, publisher and designer. Cynthia Neale's input regarding historical costume and Norah's personality was vital.)
Second, I am sure that implementing that vision will be too difficult for me to accomplish. Three, I figure out (well, okay, I wake up one morning and have a good guess) how I might be able to create the cover. Four, I begin the process and worry again that it's not what I want it to be. Five, everything clicks and I finish it (which usually coincides with arrival of deadline).
1. You can read a synopsis of Norah at this link, but basically it is about an Irish immigrant, Norah McCabe, whose family lives in Five Points in New York City in the second half of the 1800s. Norah is in her early twenties, strong-minded and creative. She owns her own used-clothing shop, and takes cast-offs from wealthy women and resells them. She also dreams of being a journalist -- there is no stopping Norah from reaching her dreams.
We wanted a cover that would capture Norah's strength, her love of fine clothes, and the "feeling" of that period in NYC's history. I asked the author, Cynthia Neale, to send me any documentation she might have on dresses Norah might have worn (though Norah is a fictional character, accurate historical details were most important to the author as she wrote her book). Cynthia sent me a book of historical costumes, noting the images correlating to Norah's generation; I also found some costume images, from museums, online (see photo at left).
2. In the meantime, I also looked at photographs available from stock photo agencies. There was one photo that I liked very much, but the woman's face was not right for Norah. I also looked at images of women in period costumes, but they all looked very posed. Here are some images we came across (available from Superstock Images):
3. I did come up with an idea using one of the images from Superstock, but, again, the author did not feel the image was quite right and, after all, she knows her character best!
Here is an early idea for the cover.
4. Also, I needed to familiarize myself with Five Points; so I visited websites and came across these photos.
5. I played around with using an image of a woman plus an image of Five Points…
Above is a rough "sketch," but I wanted to see how the cover might look with a city view behind it.
6. We also looked at a lot of covers on Amazon, noting what appealed to us. I was surprised to find how many bookcovers do not show the woman's face!
7. Eventually, though, we decided to see what an original drawing might look like. I decided to use Cynthia's costume images as the basis for an illustration. The dress I referred to was yellow, and had roses on it, but no shamrocks. I decided to change the design of the pattern on the dress and add shamrocks. I also altered the details of the dress slightly. I drew the dress in pencil, then did the lines in ink with a Micro Pen, .005 and .01 thickness nib. I then added watercolors to the drawing, which was done on smooth Bristol paper. (Yes, I am a cover designer as well as the founder and publisher of Lucky Press. This allows me to be involved in the production process of a title in a wonderful way, and I love this opportunity to design a cover. If a cover is not quite right for my skills, then I engage the services of another designer. We all have different strengths and areas of focus.)
This shows the drawing as it originally was created. Although I didn't think we'd use Norah's face, I wanted to draw it. The author noticed the chin "wasn't quite right" (and I agreed). I altered the chin/jawline slightly. Also, as you see below, I cropped the illustration and flipped it.
8. I didn't want the cover to appear "pastel" though, because the book is gritty, dark in some places, and while there are some romance, love, and light moments, it really is a struggle for Norah to find her way and she is surrounded by people with ulterior motives. I didn't want the book cover to indicate a light romance. I wanted it to be strong. So, the illustration was imported into Photoshop and treated with art filters.
Here is the drawing, scanned and imported into Photoshop, and treated with filters.
9. When I was satisfied with the look of the drawing, I then turned toward the title, subtitle, and author's name. There was some tweaking of the fonts and voila! a book cover for Norah!
Norah is available from online booksellers and through your local chain or independent bookstore. If you love Ireland and/or stories of strong women characters, you will love Cynthia Neale's Norah.
10. Still to be done before printing: adding a hyphen in "19th Century"... But this is a small thing. Next, we will work on the back cover and spine, as well as adding in a snippet of this wonderful review from Feathered Quill:
"This is not a tame, peaceful read. Although there are certainly beautiful scenes of corseted females in their finery traversing the streets of New York City, those same streets are also filled with vicious, violent people desperately trying to feed their families. Norah's life is upsetting in many ways and the twists and turns that happen to her do, indeed, include angry people who are truly out for themselves. However, this story is filled with so much intrigue, mystery, and beauty, that you'll cling to every word while watching Norah grow into a strong, courageous, and brilliant woman, who ends up truly proud of her Irish blood."
