Achy Breaky Art

I have an art show coming up the end of September, it's a Sci-Fi/Horror show and I'm sooo looking forward to it. BUT, I have to make some new art pieces because, well, I haven't made anything new since March of this year for the Alice in Wonderland Art Show. I've been so busy with my writing deadlines and now, even though i'm working on something underwraps right now, I have that little bit of extra time to create some new pieces. Yay!

So last night I bought paper clay and decided to try my hand at bringing my characters to life. You know, the super big eyes, straight noses, sorta creepy looking but loveable. How perfect for the upcoming show, right? I could totally creepify them even more. Well, I started small and I'll have more pics to share later, but the first thing I made (and don't laugh--this is my first time ever using paper clay and trying to sculpt!)-- is the head of an art doll of one of my characters. The picture is just the actual clay, it still needs to be painted and have hair and everything, but this is the first stage. I have a hole at the top where I will put in a ribbon so this one can be hung. I will make some kind of ghostly, transparent dress that will flow around her body, adding arms and legs as well. I will probably paint her skin all white and give her some freakishly out of control frizzy bed head for hair. I want her, in the end, to have a "haunted" look. So, this is my before and  by next week I'll post the "after" pics and we shall see if she lives up to her expectations.

Here are some other art pics I drew from early on, showing the before/after and some of the stages. You can see my other post, Don't Have An Art Attack, where I show some others.

THE GARDEN Ink drawing on cardstock

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (before) Ink sketch
 (after) charcoal & oil pastel on 8x8 panel

WHY ME? (before) pencil sketch (after) charcoal & ink
decoupaged onto wood and handmade paper (Sold)

TOASTED (before) Pencil & Ink Sketch

TOASTED (after) Framed, Charcoal & Ink 11x14 (Sold)

Bigfoot Sightings!

Bigfoot-Real or just a real hairy man?

I'm back from vacation! I didn't think I would actually be able to stay away from the computer that whole time, but it was easier than I thought. Not saying that I would ever do that again though (unless I go on vacation again next year).

On our way up to Washington State, we stopped at Mount St. Helens. I've heard of this mountain/volcano, but didn't know so much about it's history so it was awesome to learn about it. The volcano is still active blows out ash at times. It even has a VolcanoCam on the website.

What we didn't know is how rampant the Bigfoot Sightings are up there. Seriously, everywhere you look you see signs, statues, etc. and the stories that go with it are crazy!  It is said that you will smell Bigfoot before you see him. While we were driving along the twisty and windy roads, I swore we were going to have our very own Bigfoot encounter. But then I realized it was just one of my boys who took their shoes & socks off. Sigh.

Once I got home I had a few great things waiting for me.

Great Thing #1:
My Candyland Team tee arrived in the mail, yay!

Great Thing #2:
The contract for my second book, RUMORS FROM THE BOYS ROOM, which was just needing my signature on all four copies! Even though I've already written the book and submitted to my editor (minus the illustrations) that gives you an idea of how time moves in the publishing world.

Great Thing #3:
I received an email from my editor saying that some of my ARCs for GOSSIP have arrived!! And I'll be getting my hands on them SOON! like this week or maybe beginning of next. I. Can't. Wait. This is what I've been waiting for--to have a book in my hands on a book that I actually wrote. I'm going to be calling my husband a million times a day from work asking "is it there yet?" until he finally says yes. And then I'll make it very clear to NOT OPEN the package. Becaues I want to open it. I want to see it for the very first time. Otherwise, I'll come home from work to see the kids running around with my books and i'll be like, "oh, so you saw it, huh?" even though my two year old won't know it's any different from the other books he wrinkles up.

Which leads me to my next idea...I need to do an ARC giveway!! But not just with the ARC, I want to do it complete with a swag pack. But I need to think of a really cool and different contest to do for this. Any ideas?

Unusual Phobias

First, the winners of the query critiques are...........

MARADETH HOUSTON & JEN DAIKER!

Email me your queries at email (at) Rose-Cooper (dot) com.  

Thank you to everyone who read my query and commented and a huge thank you to Matthew Rush for giving his crit and posting on his blog. You're awesome!

I'm going out of state (taking a vacation woo-hoo!) to WA and leaving tomorrow morning, so this will be my last post until probably next Wednesday. I hope you are all still here when I get back!! Maradeth and Jen, I will get to your queries next too, promise!

Since so many of you got a laugh out of the Painfully Obvious, I will leave you with this little list i've put together.

Did you realize there are three defined types of phobias:

1. Specific or simple phobias--fear of an object or situation
2. Social phobias--fear of embarrassment or humiliation in social settings
3. Agoraphobia--fear of being away from a safe place.

Almost everyone is afraid of something. Some of the more common fears would include arachnophobia (spiders), aviophobia (flying) or even Acrophobia(heights).

Then you have the fears that are really rare, that maybe one in a million people share. Maybe you have Anuptaphobia (fear of staying single) or Apotemnophobia (fear of people with amputations).

So, see which fear you suffer from, and begin the healing process!

Macrophobia: fear of long waits.  I have this one every time I go to the store *shudders*

Rhytiphobia: fear of getting wrinkles.   Most celebrities and people in Hollywood have this.

Ephebiphobia: fear of teenagers.   EVERY parent has this fear!

Arachibutyrophobia: Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.   Got Milk? Not if you have lactophobia.

Chionophobia:  fear of snow.

Xanthophobia.: fear of the color yellow.   So, would Chinoxanthophobia be the phobia of yellow snow?

Peladophobia:   Fear of bald people.   

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: Fear of long words.  So, people with this fear can’t even write the word for their phobia? Can you call it Hippo for short?

Chrometophobia or Chrematophobia: Fear of money.   I definitely don’t have this! In fact, anyone who does have this, PLEASE contact me. I am more than willing to help you out.

Botanophobia: Fear of plants. I have this one. Wait, no. I have fear of watering plants. Nevermind.

Geliophobia: Fear of laughter.  Obviously you know you don't have this fear or else you wouldn't be reading this. Right? RIGHT?

Helmintophobia: Fear of being infested with worms. Corpses may have this fear, but they deal.

Phobophobia: Fear of fear.  Um..what..huh?

Taphephobia: fear of being buried alive.  Yes, I admit. I have this. I'm constantly thinking someone will throw me in a cemetary hole and shovel piles of dirt.
Clinophobia: Fear of going to bed.  Yes, my kids. This explains so much.

Lachanophobia: Fear of vegetables.  Hmm, this too.

*Note-I have some phobias (not mentioned here) in my book, GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM, and it has illustrations to go along with them. I have to be honest, they are super funny with images. What? You want to pre-order my book now? Ah, okay, go ahead. I don't mind. Just click on the tab at the top of the page that says "MY BOOKS" and you can order from your favorite online bookstore. See how helpful I am?

Marriage is Murder

Me and the Hubs went to see a play over the weekend called....wait for it.......Marriage is Murder. In a nutshell, the play was about Polly and Paul (ex-spouses) who write murder mysteries together. They act out the crimes in their apartment: poisoned chocolates and lethal martinis, alibis and fingerprints, bodies in a trunk and bodies all tied up, daggers, guns and even an axe. Nobody actually gets hurt (although I wanted to strangle them somewhere in the middle of all of this) but their egos take some hits as they find that their marriage was mixed up with their work. There are many fast paced comic twists as they attempt to outdo and surprise each other.

Spoiler: They end up happily ever after. You know how I wish it ended? With one or both of them dead. Now that would have been a clever twist and a memorable ending! The more I thought about this, the more I realize that most books/movies end this way too (unless you've seen War of the Roses?). Do you prefer your Happpily Ever After endings or do you like to see something more happen at the end, even if it's traggic?

I just finished reading Breaking Dawn last week and I loved that book, but how great would it have been for something bad to have happened to at least one of the Cullens instead of everyone coming out unscathed? Don't get me wrong, I was just as invested in those characters as the next person, but we all knew that was the last book. A big ending shocker would have made a bigger impact, don't you think?

As a reader I think it would be nice to NOT know what to expect once in a while. That's just my two cents.

Winner of Art Giveaway!

I chose the winner through Random.org and the winning number was 59 which is....

Cruella Collett!

Yay Cruella! Email me with your address and what print you would like sent to you.

Okay, and I couldn't help it. You guys were all so great that I had to choose one runner up. Not for an art print, but to receive a mystery envelope with something "artsy" from me to you. And that winner is....

Casey from Musings of an Overly-Unique Teen! 

Email me, Casey, with your address!

Thanks for all your support! I love doing art giveaways so i'm sure i'll be doing another one in the near future. In the meantime, if you haven't heard I'm holding a Query Critique Contest that you have until August 3rd to enter!


So to end this Monday off, head over to the blog of one of my great friends and a terrific writer, Amie Borst, who is debuting her complete blog makeover by the fabulous Crissy (who did my blog/site design too!) and doing a fabulous giveaway to celebrate! Hint: Mockingjay!