On Stephen King, HORROR & cool creative artists

I've been thinking about the horror genre lately, as I'm polishing my psychological contemporary YA horror novel. Recently I've read a few good posts on the topic, including this one in The Guardian with Stephen King, talking about his new book Doctor Sleep (Sequel to The Shining), and his revelations about his alcoholism and former drinking days. King says that it's still not exactly the second golden age of horror, though some authors think we're headed there.

Here are more posts on horror that I found on Kristen Lamb's informative blog. They're written by horror author, Kevin Lucia, and are quite fun and helpful to anyone writing horror, or a blend thereof.
Why is Horror Important-Part 1
Why is Horror Important-Part 2
Why Writing Horror is-SHOULD BE-Hard, Part 1
Why Writing Horror is--SHOULD BE-Hard, Part 2

TC Steele, oil on canvas

TC Steele, oil on canvas

TC Steele's porch, the set
for some of his paintings

I find that I'm inspired by not only authors who are writing in my genre, but many types of creative thinkers. I just got back from a trip to Indiana, where we visited the TC Steele Museum, and saw his former studio and home. He was a prominent painter of landscape in the late 1800's and he inspired other artists of the time to travel to Nashville, Indiana and set up a thriving artist colony. It is a

TC Steele, studio table

gorgeous setting--up in the forested hills, surrounded by cornfields and other crops. I was struck by his easel setup that still had his oils in cigar boxes, and even had the cigars he smoked while painting!

Gustave Baumann, woodcut

Gustave Baumann, woodcut

Gustave Baumann, one of the artists in the colony, was my favorite. He did detailed woodcuts that are like jewels. He eventually moved to Santa Fe, which, as most people know, became another popular artist colony. Anyone who lives and breathes the creative life, day by day, I find terrifically inspiring, don't you? Who are your most inspiring mentors? Artists? Authors? Musicians?

One final thing, I've gotten some great reviews for Ruby's Fire, and this blog, Eating Kids' Media, is worth checking out. Also, here's my guest post on creating worlds for The Artist Unleashed!

Rebel Writers' Creed-Take the Pledge!

SA Larsen over at her blog Writers' Ally is a constant source of wisdom and inspiration. Today, she's written her first official post of the new year. BTW, Happy New Year, all! 
She wrote a post about the Rebel Writers' Creed 2013 Pledge.
What's that? It's a series of promises below, about writing and living.

Want to take the pledge? Click here to add your name and grab the banner for your blog. In addition to Sheri's list, I have a few of my own that are important to me:

Cultivate and fully use my imagination.
Always write with my heart and soul engaged.
Write the specific stories I was born to write.
Connect with my readers and fellow writers.
Jump in, no excuses, no hesitation!

What pledge(s) are you making to yourself this year?

Adventure Mantra 2011

Soon it will be 2011, an entire decade from the maelstrom of 9/11. The creator of facebook has been crowned man of the year. Email is rendered uncool, as it's all about texting, apps and iPads. The economy is creaking uphill, and the book industry is in a chaotic swirl. As Vampire lit is trending out, Aronofsky's luminous film, Black Swan cements the trending in of magic realism, and the subsequent blending of horror and magical realism. Conan's back, and his holiday set has been designed by a freaky New Agey guy living in the California desert and sporting a beard and a shalwar kameez.
Life in the good ole US of A. Weirdness, color and adventure.

Which brings me to thinking about dreams and wishes for 2011. I'm not really interested in New Year's resolutions, as they tend to be dropped after a couple of weeks. I'm thinking more along the lines of an overarching dream.

Adventure! Go places that fire up your imagination and inspire your writing. For me, that's traveling to places less familiar to Americans. For me, it was India, Russia, and now China. In 2011 it may be Istanbul. Take a notebook and fill it with sketches, ramblings, observations.

Pamper yourself between stints of hard work. Go for that massage, that spa visit, a day hike, a leisurely bike ride with friends.

Make a new writer friend. Have lunch, dinner, or a cuppa joe. Establish a pen-pal back and forth. Exchange ideas!

Subscribe to a foreign online paper. The Shanghai Daily? The Guardian? Expand your tight circle of where you get your info.

Make a gratitude list of all of your accomplishments of 2010. Don't fall into the trap of thinking about what you didn't accomplish. For a warning on this, check out Kelly Hashway's great post on Finding Balance: http://www.kellyhashway.com/apps/blog/show/5663079-finding-balance

Above all, don't take yourself so darn seriously! Have fun with what you do.

Seek adventure, take calculated risks, and more adventure! That's my mantra of 2011.
What's yours?

I'll think of you all fondly when I'm standing on the Great Wall of China, and freezing my ___ off as the Mongolian wind roars over the mountains. Cheerio!

BOY, THOSE KIDS ARE SMART & INSPIRING!

I did a presentation last week for 4th and 5th graders. Instead of reading them something of mine that was already published, I decided to read a couple of chapters from a work-in-progress and show them my illustrations that go along with it.

This is a project that I'd put away for months following a random publishing professional's comment that she was looking for middle grade material a la WIMPY KID, and I replied that I had something along those lines but it was fantasy and probably young middle grade. She responded with a tone of disdain. "No one's looking for any younger middle grade than WIMPY KID." After which, I put my project in a closet and didn't do any more pictures for it. Maybe she was right.

But my intuition told me otherwise. I was wondering what she'd think of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, and FERGUS CRANE, and the amazing HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, all aimed for a slightly younger middle grade audience than WIMPY KID.

I kept arguing with her in my head. But I wasn't sure enough of myself to get the darn project, which had been my joy, off of the dusty shelf. Until...

Until I did that school visit last week and read my three chapters... and realized that the kids were eating it up and wanting more. And loved the illustrations.

Not only that, but they had inspiring answers to my questions about the project.

I took a poll; "How many want a scary ending?"

A few hands shot up.

"How many want a funny ending?" A few different hands went up.

"How many kids want a funny AND scary answer?"

Every hand shot up and the kids cheered.

It's a no-brainer. Deliver that funny-scary ending (Which I already have!).

So, now I have my sketchpad back out, and my inking pens and the white gouache that renders all of those wiggly, blotchy lines super-sharp. Hey, I even installed Creative Suite 4 (Which I bought last December!) so that I can import the illustrations into Photoshop and make 'em sparkle with wacky backgrounds and airbrush shading. I know, I know, Creative Suite 5 is already out. No problem, I'll upgrade soon.

The moral of the story? Don't let one person sway you off your dream project. Especially if you've gotten great feedback from a lot of other people--and from a set of cheering 4th graders who are whip-smart and full of hilarious suggestions, like "Put some spikes on that rat's leather jacket!"