Well at this exact moment I just finished processing this photo I took of the Flatiron Building in New York City. It’s only 10:49 a.m. and I’m ready for a nap.
We set our alarms for 5:30 and headed out at 6 a.m. emerging from the Subway just at daybreak. The Flatiron Building was so pretty at this hour.
Flatiron Building New York City
I may not just be a small-town contemporary romance writer because the next book in the trilogy about the Cruz sisters has a bit of suspense and doesn’t take place in a small town. But I do love that sub-genre. I am reading Virgin River by Robyn Carr as part of a reading challenge for a romance genre Goodreads group called For the Challenge Impaired. We get to read at our own pace, which really suits me.
This is the first time I’ve been active in a Goodreads challenge group, and I’m really enjoying getting to share the experience of a book with other readers. Spoilers are hidden but we can discuss things in general. Once I’m through the first book, I want to delve into the spoilers and see what people think. After a bit of a slow start, I’m loving Virgin River, a small-town contemporary romance set in Northern California. I am inspired.
Being a tourist and on vacation in New York is lovely. For one thing I could take photos of people hurrying to their jobs. These two women were similarly attired and I thought tan and black was a nice color combo for work.
Workers in New YorkFlatiron Building New York City
I’m starting to think about visual branding. I hadn’t heard that term before but recently I did. I immediately locked onto it. Anything having to do with branding and marketing captures my attention. Visual branding is a great term to know because it turns up informative articles in Google. I’m starting to get clear about what I want to do. How to do it is another matter! Stay tuned.
With writing, I receive a lot of help from my critique partners. Not only do they tell me what’s not working about a book, but they suggest how I might fix it. They also tell me what is working, so that I am careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Then I receive more help from my editor because I am lucky enough to have one! Good editing is key.
There are so many elements of writing craft: understanding and showing the characters’ goal, motivation (why they have the goal and why they think and act the way they do), and conflict (what stands between them and achieving their goal, both internal and external obstacles). Then there’s character arc (how they change and develop), and story structure, which has its own set of elements. Setting, dialog tags versus character movement, point of view, deep point of view, and so on. I think any writer who has been a member of Romance Writers of America for a while could jump on any of these when critiquing a writer’s work. With all those elements, many things can go wrong, but assuming you have those things right, well then it comes down to artistic choices among multiple right choices. Even at the sentence level, there are multiple ways of saying the same thing. One writer is going to choose to arrange a sentence one way and another will choose another way.
For me, getting to the artistic-choice stage is incredibly rewarding and exhilarating. Getting to choose is worth all the work and frustration involved in learning to write and in producing books.
I went out with a group of four photographers yesterday in New York City, all of them professional. I have been learning all kinds of technical tricks with my camera and some artistic suggestions, but ultimately the choices I make are my own. When I get home and look at my photos, which ones do I like? How do I want to develop them? I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere near mastering the craft, so some things are “wrong,” but each of us who posts photos is making choices, and even for amateurs, that is fun and interesting.
Some of the images below are not perfect, I know that, but I still like them. That’s what I find interesting–why did I choose these images?
The first one reminds me of the famous painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. My photo is not very much like that painting, but for some reason, the scene reminded me of it. Our brains are so individual–we are reminded of or pleased by different things. I like the people sitting inside plus I like the colors, textures, lines, curves and that the scene looks three dimensional. This is my favorite photo in today’s group.
Grand Central StationAn old-fashioned info booth with modern displays, Grand Central StationPhone booths in the public libraryThe Chrysler BuildingGrand Central EntranceBryant Park by the library
The next one is another favorite of mine. I like seeing people reading, looking at their smartphones, and talking, a slice-of-life moment in New York City.
Bryant ParkView from Bryant Park
Who doesn’t like a carousel? These are always so beautiful. The bunny was pointed out by two of the other photographers. It’s fun to see what artists notice. When I went up to take the photo, I was captured by the words on the horse’s saddle, Granny’s Folly, so I included that in the foreground.
Bryant Park carousel
I had to cut off the day early because I have a cold, but I made it out to our deck for a sunset photo.
Nightfall at the apartment, photo from the deck
Well those are my artistic choices for the day. Do you enjoy getting to make choices in whatever your specialty is? Whether it’s choosing a recipe, an outfit, how you will approach a work project, or choosing how you will tell a story, it all reflects your uniqueness.
I’m eagerly awaiting word on the next step for Third Strike’s the Charm, hoping for a contract.
I had to fill out a form, which I did. After not hearing back from my editor, I decided yesterday to be a pest and make sure she received it. No, she didn’t!
I thought I sent the form four days ago, but she never received it. (The form is for the Lobster Cove series, which is a fictional small town on the Maine coast. Many authors are writing books set in this small town, so we all have to coordinate the setting and characters. We have a reference spreadsheet that is our “bible.” When we submit a manuscript, we fill out a form identifying the shared information we’ve used, things like street names, minor characters, major buildings, land marks, weather events, newsworthy events, and the physical characteristics of the main characters. The editor who is managing this series makes sure all that information goes into the spreadsheet.)
I checked my Sent Items folder in Yahoo mail. Somehow I managed to email the form to myself! Well, I could have been waiting a very long time! I now understand that if I don’t hear back from my editor confirming that she has received an email, to follow up. At least the clock has started now, plus I also learned more about working with my editor. She said she’s always there and will always send confirmation. We had a laugh about me sending the form to myself.
Have you found that your communications are getting mixed up lately? Apparently it’s in the air, so if you don’t hear back, double check.
I have a confession to make though. If I don’t get my first round of edits until October, that would work out well for my vacation. I am in New York. I wandered around the city today. Here are a collection of photographs. I read recently about photographic voice and making one’s own stamp on pictures. I was excited about these concepts in theory, but in reality, I found myself not sure what to photograph! My friend said just shoot everything. That I can do. These were my favorite today.
Newspaper vendor outside Penn StationUS Post OfficeMy husband worked in this building many years ago.A kasha knish at 2nd Avenue Deli (now on 33rd Street)Penn StationPenn StationPenn Station
I wanted to be a writer since I was about eight years old. That’s when I started to keep a journal. One of the first things I wrote about in the journal was how I wanted to be an animal behaviorist. I was torn. Such a momentous decision for an eight-year-old!
Now, thanks to the Internet, we have blogging. Thanks to digital photography, we can take photos of animals and learn about them.
I love how sea lions bask in the sun. They keep their eyes closed a lot. I noticed this because I wanted a photo of this guy with his eyes open. My theory is that their eyes are meant for seeing under water where it’s relatively dark, so the bright sunlight is painful.
I notice they really like to hang out together, too. They seem sociable.
These pelicans were hunting as a pair, which also seemed sociable.
This bird was resting by herself, though.
This sea lion was the only one I saw working today.
All of the above photos were taken outside in the wild. Inside the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a glorious place, they had these birds, which were injured. They can’t survive in the wild but have found a wonderful home.
This exhibit shows animals who wait for food to come to them.
I love how animals are masters at the art of allowing what they need to be provided.
I was also pretty thrilled with the soft pastel colors of these ones, especially compared to the bold colors of the ones above.
These were very difficult to photograph in low light because they are constantly moving, sort of the opposite of the stationary creatures above.
The jelly fish are the “wow” exhibit. Actually, there’s a lot of competition for that name, but this show was truly exceptional.
Another hard working, constantly moving, yet playful animal, the sea otters were nearly impossible to photography and equally impossible not to love.
Tomorrow I head to New Jersey to visit friends in a completely different environment. I hope to do as well as these animals at enjoying camaraderie and sunshine.
May your weekend be filled with warmth and friendship.
As you know I’ve submitted a manuscript recently to my publisher. I have to wait a while to see if they say they want this book, which is a bit different from the first book. The tone is more serious because of what is going on in the characters’ lives. At first I started the book with a humorous first chapter. I was trying to make the main character a reformed party animal, but she is pretty serious. I mean, she’s getting her MBA. I have three close writing friends (we call each other critique partners) and they let me know that Cara wasn’t really what I was trying to make her be. Isn’t that strange?
Do you write stories and do you sometimes find that the characters evolve into something completely different than how you conceived of them? Although the departure from my plans resulted in a lot of work, I loved how the book came together in the end.
I’m really hoping that the publishing house (The Wild Rose Press) agrees and offers me a contract. The themes are more serious in this book, and I really like it.
The great thing is that I had a vacation scheduled for September, and the timing worked out well, at least so far. I’m actually hoping not to hear back until I’m done with my vacation! Because I had the vacation planned, I am not sitting around stressing about the book, which is great. This morning I was in Yosemite and took these photos around sunup. I won’t say sunrise because you can’t really see the sunrise in Yosemite Valley, but you can get up early and take photos of the changing light.
The whole experience was thrilling.
This is Stoneman Bridge, which is right near Curry Village, where we stayed.
I have to say that some of these woodsy shots were the most enjoyable, just standing in the woods being in nature.
You’ll notice smoke in some of these photos. There was a sign at the entrance to Yosemite saying there was a controlled lightning fire and not to report it.
I thought the smoke was interesting to photograph.
While I was taking this photo there was a squirrel making a racket in one of the trees across the stream. I think he was fighting for territory against a blue jay or something. Things would fall out of the tree and fall in the water. I never saw the animals, but it was fun to be part of their world for a moment.
This is a picture I took of my lens cap. I thought it came out kind of well.
Coming home tonight and working on these photos, especially choosing my favorites, was a lot of fun and a great way to end a very nurturing day.
I’d love to know if you write, whether fiction or nonfiction, and if you have had the experience of the work going in a different direction than you expected it to go?
Today we rode the aerial tram to the top of the mountain in Squaw Valley. This is a different tram than the one I rode growing up. It’s smaller and doesn’t swing as much when it goes over the towers, which is great. I guess they thought it was time to stop sending people sprawling. I never saw that happen, but it must have sometimes.
The top of the tram is called High Camp.
There were a lot of people because today it’s Labor Day weekend. People were walking along the trails enjoying the amazing views and somewhat hazy mountain air.
We saw a few variety of bees on the wildflowers.
Here is one shot of Lake Tahoe I took from High Camp. Tomorrow we’ll take some close ups of Lake Tahoe.
I’m having a blast with my Australian photographer friend who is visiting, so even though I like tomato and she likes tomahto, we’re definitely calling the calling off off. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m quoting this song.)
Not only is my husband a foodie and a great cook, he’s passionate about growing food. His garden suffered this year from our being a little too tight with watering because of the drought restrictions. It’s tricky to get that drip watering to come out just right. We think the veggie garden needed a bit more. While we didn’t get the bumper crop that we had last year, we did get enough to can some tomatoes to be enjoyed this winter.
You have to look closely at the jar on the right, but if you do, you can see the bubbles rising. That jar just came out of the pressure cooker. It was hot! I needed to set it on a pot holder.
Tonight we are going to enjoy some zucchini. Again, not the usual bumper crop, but the plant has come back to life and delivered a couple nice squash. Eggplant thrived this year, so we’ll have plenty of those tonight.
I know Saturday isn’t one of my blogging days, but I might be doing more posts over the next month as I’m on an extended photography and travel blitz with my friend. We’ll consider Monday, Wednesday, Friday the minimum I’ll blog. There will be a lot of extra credit because I’m excited to share photos with you as I process them.
I’ve learned some about composing pictures during a photo shoot and after, in Lightroom. I’ve bitten the bullet and subscribed to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, having learned that Lightroom is very good for someone like me who doesn’t have much time to devote to processing pictures. (I took a Photoshop class, which I loved, but haven’t had time to practice much.)
One of the things I am learning from my new and old photographer friends is how fun and nurturing this hobby is. I am finding that it is a great way to help me reduce the stress from writing. Yes, writing causes me stress. I know that sounds weird, that my passion would cause stress, but sometimes it does.
Photography, by contrast, is pure joy. I’m so excited to realize it’s good for me and to embrace the hobby. I’ve always taken zillions of photos, as you know, but what will be new is taking the time to play with developing photos, to learn more, to go out on photo shoots, and to meet up with other photographers.
Thankfully, I already have a blog where I can post my photos. I really appreciate your time and interest in taking a look. Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Yesterday I had a great time enjoying photography and being outdoors with other photographers. I don’t consider myself a photographer. I resist this idea a lot. But I took two or three amazing photos over the last two days, and now I think I’m going to open my camera manual and try to sort out a few more things.
The shots that amazed me and a few loyal friends were night and twilight shots. I learned a couple things about how to do those.
Monterey California
Okay, what thrilled me about the above photo was the smoky effect on the water. That was a lot of fun to take the photo and then see it on my camera’s display screen.
I was also startled to discover that I could do this:
The Bay Bridge, San Francisco
(I’m working on my watermark, sorry it’s so intense.) Turns out that my camera can do quite a lot. I think I need to upgrade the memory card, though, because it takes a really long time for the camera to process the long-exposure photos. I can see it getting kind of old to have to wait a couple minutes for each of these night photos to write to the card. There are a couple of minor things I need to purchase to help me with my next baby steps into photography.
Moving along to the sea lions, which is what this post was really supposed to be about.
Sea lion in Santa Cruz stretching
I thought he was so sweet. Tourists can peer at these sea lions sleeping on the rafters through square viewing portals built into the Santa Cruz pier. And the best part is getting to write pier and peer in the same sentence.
Buddies or spouses? Sea lions of Santa Cruz.
Not really, the best part was getting to enjoy seeing wild animals being themselves and enjoying life.
I really enjoyed watching this one lolling in the beautiful green sea and sunshine.
Sea lion in the water
May you enjoy your weekend like a sea lion, hanging with your loved ones, sleeping, and absorbing some sunshine.
The air was a bit smoky around Lake Tahoe and around the San Francisco bay area because of all the forest fires in California this summer.
When I was a child, forests called to me. Fortunately I grew up near Lake Tahoe and was allowed to hike all day alone with my dog, so I could fulfill this powerful urge.
My parents would drive to New Jersey every summer for grandparent visits, and whenever we reached Pennsylvania, my nose would be pressed to the window staring at the forest. I longed to be able to wander in the mysterious shadows, but I could see it would be difficult to move between the trunks. The trees grow much more densely there than in Tahoe National Forest, as thick as broccoli bunches, thick enough you could build a house on top of them.
To this day, feeling the soil beneath my sneakers, listening to wildlife, and soaking up the quiet presence of trees, is comforting and satisfying.
The way light falls in the forest draws the eye, particularly when there is something reflective, like water or tree trunks rubbed white by time.
Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino, California
As much as thick forests attracted me as a child, as an adult, I like the more scattered forests of the high Sierra. The separation among the trees happens I think because of the rugged climate and also perhaps because not many things can grow in a pine-needle carpet.
Tahoe National Forest
Walking through a stretch of forest like the last photo gives a satisfying crunch as your sneakers come down on the twigs…but nowadays, I stick more to the trails.
Perhaps my spirit is not as drawn to mystery any more. The cost of becoming an adult, I suppose. But at least I can still enjoy walking in the woods.
Okay, it’s sad. The Truckee River is empty. But not entirely! We did get a little rain over the summer, so the river has small pools of water feeding a bit of life. Here are the photos of our stroll along the side of the Truckee River and in the river bed.
I love this one. The flowers look like they’re floating.
Wildflowers by the Truckee River
I like the yellow against the grays, greens and black.
Wildflowers, Truckee River, CaliforniaA great big plant, not sure what
A few years ago, we rafted down this river with our family.
The Truckee River Bed
This water has collected from runoff from summer rain.
Truckee River bedRunoff water in the Truckee River
Water is so pretty, even when there’s just a little.
Nicci Carrera 