Follow Up Reports

* Since I did my post on the art of Mary Wright, other people have taken notice. The Ravenous Monster Horror site did an interview with her recently. Mary Wright told me privately that she does not believe her art belongs in this genre, but I have to disagree! I think she belongs there, and I think that's wonderful. Best quote from the interview [about Barbie]: "Barbie, the quintessential American icon of beauty and the unobtainable role model for almost every little girl in the country, myself included, is the perfect spring board for these glorified Day of the Dead-inspired skulls. The hours I spent staring at her as a child, dreaming of being like her someday. She did give me hours of happiness as a girl, along with a life-long subconscious feeling of inadequacy."
"One Day" by Mary Wright

* Remember that painting I did for the book cover? Well, the book came out today! It's called Mother of Darkness and it's by Christina McMullen. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I will be reviewing it here, once I have. She changed the colors in the painting to match the other two books in the series:

She gave me free copy of the book. Thank you! She also paid me for the work, but let me keep the original. She only wanted a digital copy. So now I can have my cake and eat it, too. The painting is hanging in my bathroom.

* And then there was that underwater portrait session. Remember that? I did actually show up. I dieted for the entire two weeks and lost all of two pounds! But my weight didn't matter. The problem was just that I can barely open my eyes underwater, much less smile. I tried to smile and unintentionally discovered my evil grimace. I was like Inspector Clouseau trying to say "Hamburger".
How could something so easy be so difficult? Here is the best one they could get of me, after trying ten or twelve times:

Trying to drown my daughter, apparently. We ended up buying a picture of Little Z swimming alone. Which looks beautiful, actually.

* And what about Exhaust(ed), the great book that wasn't a book but was a good story and appeared here as a serial? I'm writing an epilogue. The epilogue will get tagged onto the end of the book and I'm going to offer it for sale, probably in ebook form on Amazon. I will most likely also delete Exhaust(ed) from the blog- so if you haven't read it, you might want to do it now. I've gotten some insanely wonderful comments from people about it. Honestly. I'm humbled. I think I will donate some of the proceeds to The Sun magazine, for teaching me how to write. Here's a sneak peak of the cover art:


* And then what about the Dinosaur on the Moon song? Wheatbread Johnson and friends have actually formed a band called "Dinosaurs On The Moon"! They are working on their first album. How cool is that? This is the album cover:

Look familiar?

I highly recommend "Liking" them on Facebook- if you do that sort of thing. Right now, if you follow this link, you can hear a little sample of their music. They may take the sample down as they complete more songs.

I'm so happy. Not only did a band name themselves after my painting, but a good band named their band after my painting.

* What else... ? Oh, yes, we are all dead, because it is so terribly cold. Except for the sheep. The sheep are fine. As always.