Happy New Year! May it be as lovely and beautiful as a flower. Cheers to my first blog of 2021.
I enjoy hard work, challenges, and love learning new skills, even flower growing. My neighbor, Janet, gave me the most beautiful Amaryllis, here, that I watched grow from a seedling, and my older orchid bloomed the loveliest velvet flower, here. It’s fascinating to watch the plants grow. I have a new Christmas cactus, red, and it has thorns. I never had one of those with thorns, that I discovered picking it up. Ouch!!!
After five years I got my rights back for Indigo Sky from my publisher. The book belongs to me now.
Did you know when a publisher publishes your book, they own it. I’m not free to do anything. I had to ask permission for ads, for re-writes, for distribution, and so on.
Now I own the book and making a lot of changes that I knew I wanted to make. I’m re-writing Indigo Sky. And it’s lots of fun.
Some say to change the title, some say don’t bother to change the title. I had to change the cover though because the existing cover art belonged to the publisher. I have my new cover ready to go and will share it with you here soon. I’m more than halfway through the re-write. I’ll put out a request for updates on the reviews and in return, I’ll provide a free copy of the book.
I’m done writing my brother’s memoirs, he’s working on finishing, which gives me time to go back to writing mine.
I’m busy, so in order to get my memoirs written without distractions I signed up for a memoir workshop. Part of the requirements is to write at least fifteen pages every week for eight weeks, which will get me on a roll. I’m writing each chapter as an essay. I have a page full of subjects.
Over the last twenty years or so, my friends have encouraged me to write about my life, about how I found the Lord, and how I managed my careers–music, art and design, writing, and teaching.
I’m all ears to hear what you have to say.
Gail Ingis Claus is an author, artist/painter, and interior designer.
It’s my pleasure to introduce Author Rebecca Heflin as my guest today. Rebecca captured my heart with her dedication to help others, to help organize the blogs for Soul Mate Publishing, and read on for the other million things about this amazing working woman.
Author Rebecca Heflin
This time last year I was making my holiday preparations, which included the honor of presiding over the marriage of my nephew and his fiancée on Christmas Day—a truly joyous way to spend the holiday. This time last year, I was looking forward to a new year, fresh with the promise of a new start. Which meant, this time last year, I was blissfully ignorant of what was to come. Instead, I was naively planning two international trips, a local canoe and camping trip, several charity events, two weddings, countless family and social gatherings, and the celebration of my 25th wedding anniversary.
Who could have imagined it wouldn’t be long before the world would be living the plot of some sci-fi thriller?
January and February bumped along as normal, with work, exercise classes, dinners with friends, and preparations for the release of my 10th novel. By the end of February, the dark edges of the coming storm were visible.
The first weekend in March was my birthday. I celebrated it that Friday with dinner out and a show at our local performing arts center. There was also an out of town wedding that Saturday, which my husband and I attended. Looking back, being in those very public venues probably wasn’t the smartest decision on our part, but the tidal wave had not yet hit our area. March 17th was my last day in the office, as the university I work for shut down and sent its employees home to work remotely. It would be only a day or two later when the entire state would go under lockdown. Again, in my naiveté, I thought things would be back to normal in a month or so. Silly me.
Zoom meetings would become a regular occurrence in my daily life, and the next few months were a blur of fear and adjustments, as my husband and I created new routines for ourselves. We limited our grocery shopping to once a week. If we didn’t pick up an item during that weekly visit, we just lived without until the following week. Toilet paper (when the store had it) was priced at roughly the equivalent of a gram of gold. Preparing for grocery shopping felt a little like preparing to enter a contaminated laboratory: masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes at the ready. After returning home, it felt like entering a decontamination unit: washing hands, wiping down groceries, and disinfecting everything we touched.
We watched in horror as the numbers rose and people died—many of them frontline workers. I obsessed over the daily case counts, horrified when we hit 1 million cases in the U.S., not even considering that we would reach double-digit case counts in a few short months.
It wasn’t all bad, however. We also watched the world come together in a common experience. Music and voices rose from city terraces. Drive-by birthday, anniversary, and graduation ceremonies became a thing with horns beeping, lights flashing, and signs waiving. Humanity found a way to celebrate life’s milestones even amid a pandemic.
For me, working from home meant no commute. This freed up time for other things. And the lack of social engagements and other commitments meant time for jigsaw puzzles, minor home improvements, and gardening. Not to mention more quality time with my husband. We had a beautiful spring—cooler than average temperatures, and beautiful low-humidity days—which gave us the opportunity for more outdoor activities like corn-hole games, bike rides, and long walks. Life slowed down, and I couldn’t complain about that.
2020
As we learned more about how the virus was spread, and businesses opened up again, we developed a routine that gave us a little more flexibility. Masked and otherwise following the public health guidelines, we gradually began to leave our sterile cocoon. We had friends over for outdoor socially-distanced dinners (BYOF). We began supporting our local restaurants with take-out or delivery, eventually feeling comfortable dining outside at our favorites.
In May, my husband and I celebrated a quiet, but romantic 25th wedding anniversary—not exactly how we had imagined, but nice just the same.
We took three short driving vacations, 2 to the mountains of North Carolina, and 1 to the beach in the Florida panhandle. The change of scenery provided a welcome respite to the sameness of the daily routines.
After working remotely for 6 months, I returned to my office, but still isolated from my co-workers. I only see them masked and walking in the hallway or on Zoom. It was surreal when I entered my office in September to see the calendar still on March.
Here we are again with Christmas past and New Year’s fast-approaching. There is a light, in the form of vaccines, at the end of this long dark tunnel that is 2020. It will take some time, and more patience is necessary, but we will get there. We will overcome this. The world did it in 1918-1919, and we will do it in 2020-2021.
But will the world ever be the same again? I, for one, won’t be. I am forever changed by this experience. I will never again be blissfully ignorant. I have lost my innocence.
Even so, not all the changes are bad. I have come to appreciate so many things I took for granted: my health, my family, freedom of movement, hugs and kisses shared among family and friends, big gatherings and shared social experiences. And my good fortune. Throughout it all, I have wanted for none of life’s necessities. I can’t ask for more than that from the crappy year that was 2020.
Rebecca Heflin is a best-selling, award-winning author who has dreamed of writing romantic fiction since she was fifteen and her older sister sneaked a copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s Shanna to her and told her to read it. Rebecca writes women’s fiction and contemporary romance. When not passionately pursuing her dream, Rebecca is busy with her day-job at a large state university.
Rebecca is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), Florida Romance Writers, RWA Contemporary Romance, and Florida Writers Association. She and her mountain-climbing husband live at sea level in sunny Florida.
Who doesn’t love to spend time with family and friends to celebrate the holidays? This year’s parties are off our go-to lists. We’ll be hunkered down in our bubbles. Let’s seek the best holiday cards to shout our cheer, celebrate with virtual games and dress in our finest.
Check out my list below for this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas (and one more).
Suggestions?
Email me: gailingisclaus@gmail.com.
Twelve heartfelt challenges and one more!
Bring a plate of cookies to your neighbors.
Make a batch of goodies for doctors and nurses and drop them off at the hospital.
It’s a scary time out there for all of us, especially those of us in our golden years. We’ve been through a lot in our time, war, unemployment, illness, divorce, death of loved ones, but we continue to march on because that’s what we do. We are the generation who have learned to make the most out of every day we have. And these days, it’s even more important. Like everyone else, we want to do our part and stay healthy and not overburden the medical system. We’ve done all our shopping and stocking up on supplies. Although it’s tempting to get take-out food from restaurants, it’s probably better to cook at home. Except we couldn’t help getting our breakfast “to-go” this morning from our favorite eatery: Duchess Diner in Fairfield, CT.
Breakfast Duchess-style: Eggs over easy, sausage, home fries very well-done, and whole wheat bread. We get one order and split. He gets the bigger portion. SO GOOD! – Duchess Diner in Fairfield, CT.
We will keep going on our morning walks, and we decided to have some alternate fun beginning in the garden on those almost warm and sunny days, maybe take out our favorite swing. The plan is to give our little Honda Insight a fresh waxing and make it sparkle.
Happy Birthday, Ed! That’s his granddaughter Carley. She’s hanging out with him for a while.
Runners and walkers love to come to our neighborhood to enjoy the views and the ever-changing spectacular designs of God. We also get visits from foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and packs of deer, eight of them were on Ed’s lawn the other morning. I guess they heard it was Ed’s ninety-fifth birthday and came to offer good wishes. Maybe they were the ones who tied the birthday balloons to the lamp post? (Psst…actually it was Diane, who lives down the street.) Ed is made of sturdy stuff too! He was a navy man in WWII and he walks every morning, our inspiration.
I’ve done a few things in my life too. In 2009 I decided I wanted to write the love story about the artist, Albert Bierstadt. And I did, not before taking enough workshops and courses that would have given me a Masters in writing. I’m eighty-four and I’ve written two historical romance novels (yes even us old folks remember what it’s like to fall in love). And, now, I’m writing my memoir. What a trip down memory lane. Some of it is fun, some not so fun. But that’s the thing about life, you take every day as it comes. Yes, Tom and I are holding hands and are doing well.
I did mention we were going to do something funt? Today was Hat Day! I wish you all good health and happiness in these coming months. May this time bring us closer together and may we make some good memories pitching in to do our part.
I’ve got two historical romance books under my belt, Indigo Sky and The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin, but that doesn’t mean I’m a grammar expert. Nope. I’m still learning and honing my craft. In 2015, after my first book, Indigo Sky, was published by Soul Mate Publishing, I decided to dive into the wonderful world of grammar so that I could improve my writing.
I never understood grammar in the third grade and I finally became annoyed enough that I embarked on a new learning adventure, with author and teacher Elizabeth O’Brien. She wrote the book, Sentence Diagramming Reference Manual: Hot to Diagram Anything. She basically teaches you how to break down the parts of a sentence. Her advice has taken my emails by storm (pardon the cliche). I spend time with Elizabeth every day and I tell you, I’m learning more now than I did back in the third grade!
Editing, editing, editing
How can anyone be a writer if all they know is what a noun and a verb is – oops, I mean – are? I didn’t know the difference between an adverb and an adjective when I began this journey, and if it’s not visual, forget it, I’m an artist after all. So, how did I manage to write Indigo Sky in 2015? I had lots of advice and help along with a little paper crumpling, file deleting, and even some foot-stomping. A lot has happened since then. I’m more comfortable with adjectives, verbs, nouns, and the combination thereof.
Here’s a shocker: If you think that adverbs only modify verbs – think again – they can also modify adjectives. We all know this stuff because we use it every day, but the point is that many of us, myself included, don’t know how to break it down and explain it. So given that I’m a life-long learner, I decided to add “grammarian” to my to-do list. That’s why I ordered Elizabeth O’Brien’s book with the hopes that grammar would become my friend and serve as my road map to becoming a better writer. A writer who can write . . . anything. Uh, oh, there are those elusive ellipses. Hmm, maybe I should have used an em dash? Sigh . . .
And don’t holler at me if I forgot a comma somewhere, Grammarly didn’t help me with this post, and that’s probably the reason.
Thanks for reading – and remember: I before E except after C and in words that sound like neighbor and weigh.
Indigo Sky and The Unforgettable Miss Baldwinare both available on Amazon. Please remember to write a review – like everything else – folks only buy after they’ve read the reviews. Reviews are easy, they only need one or two lines, a title and of course, you probably know that 5-star is the best.
Dear Artist, and to all my wonderful friends in the arts:
In Canada, doctors are prescribing museum visits with the cost of admission covered by universal healthcare. “We know that art stimulates neural activity,” says Montreal Museum of Fine Arts director general and chief curator, Nathalie Bondil. The program, piloted last year, is an extension of the museum’s work with their existing Art and Health Committee, where they participate in clinical trials studying the effects of art on people with eating disorders, cancer, epilepsy, mental illness, and Alzheimer’s disease. This “museum as hospital” idea also has legs for older people, the physically disabled, and others with mobility issues. Because looking at art bumps cortisol and serotonin levels in the brain, it produces an effect in the body similar to exercise.
Mike Kelley 1 (2007) at the Cleveland Clinic by Jennifer Steinkamp (b. 1958)
Steve Travarca photo
This past Wednesday, the British Medical Journal published a longitudinal study tracking the correlation between arts engagement and mortality. It turns out that hitting a museum just once or twice a year can lower your early death rate by 14%. Culture vultures fare even better at 31%. On top of this, studies from Denmark and Great Britain have found that paintings — especially abstracts — in hospitals improves patient satisfaction, health outcome, length of stay, and pain tolerance.
While experts hammer out what kind of art heals best, the big hospitals are hiring their own curators to test the notion of “hospital as museum”.
“We set out to try and change the paradigm of what it’s like to be in a healthcare setting — that in some way, it might be inviting and enriching when you come to the hospital for whatever reason, whether you’re working there, a visitor, or a patient,” says Joanne Cohen, executive director, and in-house curator at the Cleveland Clinic. And while some scholars fear that abstraction is too ambiguous for patients experiencing states of unfamiliarity, vulnerability and stress, Danish architecture and design professor Michael Mullins says that size and placement of work, color, contrast, shapes, and movement are factors just as important. While working on a recent project for a hospital in New York, the only request I received from the gallery was, “no green, no red.”
Pumpkin (2014) at the Cleveland Clinic by Yayoi Kusama (b.1929)
Steve Travarca photo
PS: “I am convinced that in the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century.” (Nathalie Bondil)
Esoterica: When I was about 20, the hospital in which I was born purchased some paintings for their palliative care floor. At the time, my work featured cloudless, gradated color field skies, with kids floating and flying dreamlike above a thin strip of flat, white snow. For some time, I wondered if the paintings would be helpful or upsetting to those in the hospital facing the end of life, especially when I seemed to be at the beginning of mine. Years later, I received a letter from someone who had spent many months with my paintings while saying goodbye to their loved one. Their words left me grateful and connected and honored to be a part of such an important time. “Hopefully, it comforts.” (Joanne Cohen)
Recovery College (2016) in collaboration with Hospital Rooms and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS
by Tim A. Shaw (b. 1982)
Thank you to: Sara Genn
The Letters: Vol. 1 and 2, narrated by Dave Genn, are available for download on Amazon, here. Proceeds of sales contribute to the production of The Painter’s Keys.
“Imagination is not a talent of some men, but is the health of every man.”
The Letters: Vol. 1 and 2, narrated by Dave Genn, are available for download on Amazon, here. Proceeds of sales contribute to the production of The Painter’s Keys.
“Imagination is not a talent of some men, but is the health of every man.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
What’s that mean? Per-order dessert, that what I like to do, eat dessert first. Raise your hand if you agree. Then you won’t eat as much. I’m not really talking about dessert here, I’m talking about my latest book, The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin: the Gilded Age Heiresses.
If you pre-order the book, I will make an education donation to Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk, CT. The donation will help to support the wonderful winning educational and cultural programs that the museum offers. The programs are for everyone. This mansion was the first of its kind in the country, twenty years before the cottages of Newport, RI. Visitors come from all over the world. The Titanic exhibitions attracted folks from England, France and other countries. At the moment, we are celebrating the Nineteenth Amendment, for the woman’s vote. Did you know that women had been fighting for the right to vote from 1840, maybe even longer?
Allie at the window
Imagine having tea on a Sunday with lady friends, all wearing their fascinators and day-dresses. The museum replicates a day in the life of the society ladies. And then everyone gets to dress in their finest and have a tour of this gorgeous sixty-two-room mansion built in 1863.
Fascinator hat
The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin shouts about woman suffrage and slavery of women. Yes, all those years ago women were enslaved in marriage, raising children, and wifely duties. Any wealth that she brought to the marriage belonged to her husband. If she wanted a divorce, she was forced to make an announcement in the newspapers. Not the man, only the woman. Imagine?
Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution with the exhibition, “From Corsets to Suffrage: Victorian Women Trailblazers”, May 16-Nov. 3, 2019, 12-4 p.m. Opening Reception on May 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $5 for members; $10 for non-members.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM A National Registered Historic Landmark in Norwalk CT A National Historic Landmark since 1971, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is regarded as one of the earliest and most significant Second Empire Style country houses in the United States.
Opposites attract in this historical romance when a young suffragette foregoes the obedience of marriage until a handsome detective is hired to protect her from harm.
It’s not that she doesn’t want to marry…
Allie Baldwin is a gilded age heiress—also a journalist at The New York Sentinel. She’s tired of writing about the latest fashions for the society column and wants to write something more meaningful. Attending a rally at City Hall, planning to interview some of the speakers at the event, a situation ensues with Allie barely escaping. Enough is enough — to protect Allie from making poor decisions while fighting for freedom, her parents force a security agent upon her. Not just any agent, but a dangerous and delectable man…one that taunts her decision never to marry.
He’s not ready for marriage…
The dashing debonair Peter Harrison runs Harrison’s Detective Agency, handed down to him by his father. Much to his chagrin, he finds himself following in his father’s footsteps confirming why he’ll never marry until he’s older — because he’ll never do to his family what his father did to him. But when a gorgeous red-haired vixen runs right into him at an event his agency is working, he can’t help but enjoy the possibilities until she runs away leaving him without a trace. When the publisher of the city’s top newspaper hires him to protect his daughters on a short trip, he never imagined one of the ladies would be just who he was looking for.
But as luck would have it, his job is to keep order–she wants the right to vote… but maybe they can meet halfway—without losing their hearts.
“Educational donation to Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum for each book pre-ordered.”
*Gilded Age Heiresses: The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin (She lives across from Central Park, spends lots of time there and that’s where she and Captyn are in the photo.)
Opposites attract in this historical romance when a young suffragette foregoes the obedience of marriage until a handsome detective is hired to protect her from harm.
Gilded Age Heiresses: Unforgettable Miss Baldwin
“The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin is an intelligent, fast-paced romance, brimming with sensuality and spiced with mystery.” – Sue Grimshaw, Edits by Sue
It’s not that she doesn’t want to marry… Allie Baldwin is a gilded age heiress—also a journalist at the New York Sentinel. She’s tired of writing about the latest fashions for the society column and wants to write something more meaningful. Attending a rally at City Hall, planning to interview some of the speakers at the event, a situation ensues with Allie barely escaping. Enough is enough — to protect Allie from making rash decisions while fighting for freedom, her parents force a security agent upon her; not just any agent, but a dangerous and delectable man…one that taunts her decision never to marry.
He’s not ready for marriage… Peter Harrison, the dashing debonair, runs Harrison’s Detective Agency handed down to him by his father. Much to his chagrin, he finds himself following in his father’s footsteps confirming why he’ll never marry until he’s older — because he’ll never do to his family what his father did to him. But when a gorgeous red-haired vixen runs right into him at an event his agency is working, he can’t help but enjoy the possibilities until she runs away leaving him without a trace. When the publisher of the city’s top newspaper hires him to protect his daughters on a short trip, he never imagined one of the ladies would be just who he was looking for.
But as luck would have it, his job is to keep order–she wants the right to vote… but maybe they can meet halfway—without losing their hearts.
A young woman writer’s confidence is shaken by death threats in this stunning first book of a series from historical romance author, Gail Ingis. Marian Lanouette, author of the Jake Carrington thriller series, hails Ingis’s work, “Solid page-turner, exquisite details painted in every scene.”
**Don’t miss this standalone, Gail’s first book, published in 2015 with Soul Mate Publishing: In author Gail Ingis’s dazzling historical romance debut, Indigo Sky, a young heiress must stay in her abusive marriage… until a handsome artist attempts to shelter her from a life of misery…
About the Author
Gail Ingis is the author of historical romance. As a historian, Ingis vividly describes the historic scenes within the period of her writing.
Her goals in life are simple—to remember to indulge her twelve grandchildren, and their parents, her impossibly amazing and terrific hubby and partner, and to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can, and spend lots of time in Coney Island, on the tennis courts and ballroom dancing. Please visit her online at gailingis.com.
Gail Ingis never thought about writing a book. She’s an artist. It wasn’t until 2009, inspired by Albert Bierstadt’s painting, Domes of Yosemite that once hung in Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. She wrote Indigo Sky loosely based on the artist’s life. After studying fiction, her romance book was published by Soul Mate Publishing in 2015. Story done, so was she, until the bug bit her again and now she’s about to self publish her new book, Gilded Age Heiresses: The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin. Launch date is Tuesday, September 10, 2019. She writes historical romance, loves history, and gets caught up in the past. “It’s fun and fascinating.”
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Ingis graduated NYSID with a BFA in Interior Architecture and Design and her master’s studies in Architecture and Design Criticism at Parsons New School. She worked in the field and founded a school of Interior Design in 1981, collected national accreditation, then sold the school ten years later. She resides in Connecticut with her retired scientist husband. Currently, she sits on Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum Board of Trustees and serves as the curator of art exhibitions.
Before her debut as an author, she illustrated a book for Deborah Galiley, “Seeking Paradise” on Amazon. As a professional artist, her paintings are extensions of her design illustration work. Gail spent her youth dallying in Coney Island that inspired her paintings of the island. She is a professional member of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID, and member of the Connecticut Chapter of Romance Writers of America. (RWA)
**Gail Ingis’s new book first of a series, Gilded Age Heiresses: The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin will launch Tuesday, September 10, 2019.
Opposites attract in this historical romance when a young suffragette foregoes the obedience of marriage until a handsome detective is hired to protect her from harm.
The importance of REVIEWS: Did you know that the most critical in publishing any book is to get reviews that you post on the day my book will launch, Tuesday, September 10th. Amazon is the most popular 70% of all ebooks is sold on Amazon, so that’s a good choice for posting. That’s how people find you. An author must have a minimum of fifty, one-hundred is even better. So, I’m asking for volunteers for honest reviews and in turn I will give you a FREE copy of my new book, Unforgettable Miss Baldwin when all editing is done. Probably by the end of July. It’s critical, as well, to post your review the day of the launch! Again, Tuesday, September 10th.
I included the back cover copy at the opening of the blog.* Scroll back up and look for the asterisk.*
And then there my debut book from 2015:
“Ingis has crafted a masterpiece in her debut book with the perfect amount of adventure and thrilling romance.” Joy Smith, author of: Green Fire, Seagulls Don’t Eat Worms, Hear Me Roar, and Sea Lust
“A young woman’s faith is shaken by an abusive marriage in this stunning debut from historical romance author, Gail Ingis. Patti Cavaliere, author of Looking for Leo, hails Ingis’s work, “Exquisite details painted in every scene.”
I 95 South–day before Thanksgiving (no one was hurt)
Claus and Franklin family at the Thanksgiving table.
The day before Thanksgiving, on our ride to Raleigh, this wasn’t the only incident causing a mega traffic mess. There were other accidents, and thousands of cars and trucks going south. We were in the middle, our muddle, should have left before sunup. Our kids, coming from Atlanta had similar traffic. Never before have I seen such a mess, and never again. I will always leave before the sun has risen. We passed a billboard that said, Would you rather fly?
Nah, flying isn’t the answer. The airports have their own messes. My best, stay home, at least on the biggest travel days of the year. Home is our favorite vacation spot. Like right now, by a cozy fire, roasting marshmallows, and
Grandma’s veggie soup specialty
delicious hot soup on the stove filling the house with aromas to make your mouth water, me writing my book and Tom writing science. It’s toasty in this place. A perfect place to be.
Our Thanksgiving home away, the Raleigh Renaissance Hotel, is surrounded by high-end shopping. Just walk out the hotel door, and you have scads of shopping choices, even Target, in the middle of all these gorgeous shops and boutiques. We saved the shopping for the day after Thanksgiving, which couldn’t come soon enough. I have some of the shopping in pictures.
We found a delightful men’s shop that’s also right here in Greenwich, Bonobos. Anthony was adorable while helping us, he fell in love with my green bling jacket, and here he is modeling it. Everyone in the store stopped and stared. Now showing off his bling shoes, me hiding behind. Anyone know where we can find Anthony a bling jacket?
Anthony showing off his bling shoes and Gail in her bling jacket
Below is one of the Genn letters. They are always informative, challenging and progressive. There’s an analogy between writing and painting. I say that because I am both, writers work from a blank page, artists from a blank canvas. The current letter is unchanged from their posting. As a writer, at the moment, I’m rewriting my second book. The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin.
From the Genn family:
Like the novel or memoir many of us feel we have lurking inside but will probably never put to paper, there is undoubtedly a painting or two that simmers in the arm and hand of all creative beings. More primal than writing, mark-making begins in early childhood, to be perverted later into a messy and inconvenient activity where the exception to do it in adulthood is made only when it serves an industry. A lawyer friend once invited me to his basement to show me an appealing, sort-of pointillist portrait in cheery colours. “Can you help me get a show?” he asked. An unfinished second one was leaning in the corner. “Was it fun?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. “How much did you enjoy the second painting?” I inquired. He replied, “Not as much as the first.”
“The Abbey in the Oak Wood” 1808-10
oil on canvas
by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
In her 2001 lecture series at Cambridge University, Margaret Atwood explained the difference between writing and being a writer: “Everyone can dig a hole in a cemetery, but not everyone is a grave digger,” she said. “The latter takes a good deal more stamina and persistence. It is also, because of the nature of the activity, a deeply symbolic role. As a grave digger, you are not just a person who excavates. You carry upon your shoulders the weight of other people’s projections, of their fears and fantasies and anxieties and superstitions.”
“Wanderer above a Sea of Fog”
oil painting
by Caspar David Friedrich
I drove home from the studio visit and picked up my brush, thinking it was perhaps easier to be certifiably unemployable than to have a choice about being a painter. Enjoyable or not, the digging would continue until I became a grave digger. I remembered my parents discussing whether we, their children, should have something to fall back on, should we fail as artists. My mum insisted we all take a turn at summer work. I was, for three weeks, the dessert-cart-girl at the Black Forest Restaurant. Soon, the manager relegated me to drawing on the specials board. My dad, as if he knew the secret to never holding a real job, suggested we spend our summers daydreaming and sticking to independent projects.
Atwood recalled, “There were no films or theatres in the North, and the radio didn’t work very well. But there were always books.” She said she became a writer one day when she wrote a poem in her head, while walking across a field. “I didn’t know that this poem of mine wasn’t at all good, and if I had known, I probably wouldn’t have cared. It wasn’t the result but the experience that had hooked me: it was the electricity. My transition from not being a writer to being one was instantaneous, like the change from docile bank clerk to fanged monster in ‘B’ movies.”
“Monastery Graveyard in the Snow” 1817-19
oil painting
by Caspar David Friedrich
Sincerely,
Sara
PS: “Any form of human creativity is a process of doing it and getting better at it. You become a writer by writing, there is no other way. So do it, do it more, do it better. Fail. Fail better.” (Margaret Atwood)
Esoterica: Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario to a forest entomologist father and a mother who had been a dietician. Because of her father’s research, Atwood spent her childhood commuting with her family between Toronto, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and the Quebec wilderness. She didn’t enroll in full-time school until she was eight and read Grimm’s fairytales and Dell pocketbook mysteries, animal stories and comic books. “I learned to read early, was an avid reader and read everything I could get my hands on — no one ever told me I couldn’t read a book. My mother liked quietness in children, and a child who is reading is very quiet.”
Gail Ingis Claus is an author, artist/painter and interior designer. Her upcoming romance The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin is in revision. Her current historical romance, Indigo Sky can be purchased on amazon.
Gail Ingis is the author of historical romance. As a historian, Ingis vividly describes the historic scenes within the period of her writing.
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