Getting Things Done
Updated: Jun 9, 2022
Line by line, word by word, I am focused on assembling this little book and getting it published out into the world.
I've ordered a large dry erase white board on wheels, convinced it will be the key to laying out the books structure. And it's better than writing on the walls. LOL
But 'The Amazing Madame Chardonnay' is done and that is worth celebrating!
I have recently heard from my very charming Editor, who remains hospitalized in Scotland, that her condition is slowly improving and perhaps she will be allowed to return home in a week or two. I look forward to her complete recovery and I want to thank my readers and friends who remembered to keep her in their prayers.
The other day I received in the mail a collection of ephemera (I love ephemera) and among the bits and bobs was this little Rabbit stamp - I was so charmed by it I scanned it at 600 dpi - and thought I'd share it with you here-
Per my usual, I'm 7 years behind in popular book reading - I'm currently reading 'Big Magic' by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is the antithesis of "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Maybe too much so, as parts of her book just seem to wax a bit overly optimistic, saccharin and sticky for me. I do get her point that we need to stop equating creativity with suffering, but I feel she may have swung her pendulum a bit too far in the opposite direction.
I feel I have a pretty good relationship with my Muse and that I honor her in my work - but it isn't 24/7 love, joy and peace - let's all join hands and sing, 'Kumbaya'.
Creating illustrations and writing clever snippets of prose is work. It is actual work. These elements don't magically appear when I sit at my desk or drawing table. I have to produce them, with the help of my Muse, to birth them from nebulous ideas into real-life forms.
15 years ago (2007), when I wrote my first children's book, I recall listening to an audiotape by Thomas Moore entitled "On Creativity", in which he compared working creatively to an old cobbler making shoes. You just show up every day and you do your work. It's really that simple.
Show up.
Do your work.
No fancy psychobabble. Nothing extra special about it. Just show up and do your damn work.
So much has changed about the world since 2007. But I find his simple words ring true and remain my touchstone when it comes to my own creative practice.
Until next time ...