CreativeLife update: Novel November, Treasure Trovember, and other creative things

 Hey there fellow creative!

One of my Inktober favourites

It's been a minute, but I've been busy and when that happens life simply gets away
from me without my notice. October had been crazy with Inktober and Zentangle Inktober and I did both. I tried to also do the puzzle, but could only get the fourth piece before I started to fall behind. Completing two challenges, however, made up for it though.

November is Novel November and Treasure Trovember time. But I have also enrolled in Effy Wild's Art Journaling practice, and the Block Printing Fest. Of course I have no time to do everything even if I wanted to. By enrolling in all of these, despite my lack of time, does not mean I am doing the daily exercises. I watch the videos to get ideas and inspiration for later.

I have been contemplating joining The Drawing Guild for a while, and finally took the plunge at the end of October. I love drawing and thought that it was about time to get involved. So there might be another blog post or two coming, focused more on drawing. I will let you know if that happens.

Work delivered a few surprises too. One of my professors from my Masters degree contacted me to assist with a project. They will have a meeting soon then I will know what it entails. It has been at least 10 years since I completed my Masters.

I need to get back to my word count for Novel November, it's been a struggle to keep up with everything going on. I don't write in December, so there will be a bit more time to share the art projects I want to work on, and all these challenges that I have enrolled in for ideas and inspiration.

Until then, stay creative!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

CreativeLife update: Novel Summer Camp, painting, and organising my studio...again

 Hey there creative friend!

   With watercolourmonth and Novel Summer Camp in July, it was a bit of a juggle to get the paintings for The Deckle Edge competition done. The closing date is only at the end of the month, but I didn't want to wait until the last moment. Things invariably go wrong when it comes to time, if I do that. You can see my submissions on my Instagram. Although a like or comment would be welcome, it doesn't contribute to the outcome of the competition.

My writing badges at the end of Day 1

  I do have to start a large and complex job tomorrow, so that will be keeping me busy for the next few weeks. Hence the urgency to finish the paintings for the competition. It always happens: I have several jobs on my todo list at the lab, but have to wait for the information I need to start. At once one client replies, they all do within a day of each other. Murphy's law of the life of a certification engineer. LOL!

My writing badges at the end of Day 5

  The studio organising was only a tiny bit, but once July is over, I need to get stuck in and clear away the chaos of June and July's projects so that I can have a clean place for the next paintings.

The Smashwords Summer/Winter sale is still on and you will find a stack of bargains and new authors in many genres until the end of the month.

Not much else to mention right now, so I will see you next time!

Stay creative!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

Book Review: Murder as a Working Hypothesis by RJ Beynon

Hey there creative friend!

It's been a while since I have read a book to review it, but I love my amateur sleuths so couldn't say no to this one. And having met the author, there was an added incentive 😉

And no, I don't get anything in return for the review. A short review will also be available on Goodreads.

Buy the book Amazon (Available from 15 July 2026)

Linzé's impressions   ★★★★

The story: James and Inky Clatterbridge live on a houseboat in Abbey Marina. A horror fiction writer, James becomes intrigued by the case when his wife discovers a dead man in their allotment.

Having a theory of his own, he starts to ask questions, but things don't turn out way he thought. Even narrowly missing a jail cell of his own in the process.

But persistence, and a following a few not so obvious clues, he might just identify the killer before he gets killed himself.

My thoughts: The characters are well developed and despite the number of suspects and neighbours, it was not difficult to keep track of where the story was going. Geese, ducks, and dogs, notwithstanding.

I liked James and Inky and the way the author handled James' mobility issues. The background story flowed around the characters as James and Inky went about their lives, and dealt with the police and their gathering of information.

The story in general reminded me of the old mysteries: the sleuth worked on the case, but also kept it low-key to gather the evidence to find the killer.

My only criticism of the story is that, unlike modern amateur sleuth stories, the main characters have no history. There is no background about who they are, and why they live on the houseboat or if they had any other living arrangements before that. Something else that took me a while to notice was the interaction between James and Inky: while you learn that they are married, their relationship feels more intellectual than a relationship between husband and wife. It is not a romance novel, but the relationship didn't feel like that of a married couple.

Overall impression: I liked the story and recommend it for lovers of the amateur sleuth genre.

CreativeLife update: shameless self-promo, and upcoming book review

Hey there creative friend!

It seems that I am back online again...the question is just for how long before it happens again? The whole long tirade is on my Substack, but I am not going to bore you again with that saga.

Just popping in to mention that I will have a book review coming soon. I don't review books very often, but thought to do that for one of my favourite genres, amateur sleuth mysteries. If this is a genre that you love, please keep any eye out for a new author (although an old hand in the world of writing) to keep us entertained.

Until then!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

FROM 1 JULY 2026
Now is your best chance to find my
entire ebook collection for a
promotional price at @Smashwords
as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale!
You can find all my on-sale books at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LinzeBrandon.

CreativeLife update: reflections on the 100 day project, a new month, and Zen(tangles)

 Hey there fellow creative!

Did you had take part in the 100 day project? Congratulations and well done if you had stuck it out to the end. Finding time to create can be a challenge, but doing it 100 days in a row..now THAT takes courage and commitment.

This year I had a plan, well a better one than last year. It didn't make the commitment easy, it just helped to make it manageable which I think is the more important thing. While I did finish last year, the struggle was less this time around and a win in my book. With a book that needed final editing, proofreading and then all the stuff for publication, the plan had helped to manage that with a daily drawing slash painting to do as well.

Would I do it again next year? Absolutely. 😀

June is also the time for a few local art competitions - deadlines on the 30th - so the fun is not stopping. I take part because of the challenge and the deadlines. As I am writing this post Hubs is printing the details of one of the comps for me so that I can get started. I am thinking gouache, but haven't made up my mind yet.

With the book out, you might think that I would be taking a break from writing, and normally I would, but not this time. I am itching to finish the prequel to the 3rd Lords of the High Council book, so that I can tackle the second book in this sub-series. As I told a friend the other day, once the bug got me it hasn't let go of me yet!

At least I am over the cold. I do still cough when it gets particularly cold. It is winter here, but I suspect it is the dry air that taxes my lungs rather than the temperature.

With watercolour month coming soon, I picked an alcohol marker project for my art group this month - with Zentangles. I love drawing the tangles, and discovered a lovely YouTuber in May who did 21 demo videos to do a garden with floral Zentangles. You can have a look a Kelli's channel here. So why not have a look and join in the fun?

If the bug bites, there are many Zentangle channels and many more designs than you might like to learn too.

I have two competition paintings to do and not a lot of time to do them. So I wish you a creative week ahead.

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

CreativeLife update: reflections on the A-to-Z challenge, the 100 day project, and life

 Hi there creative friend!

This post was planned for last Sunday, but I got sick and writing a blog post was the last thing on my mind. To honest the only things I could think about were tissues, and when can I go back to bed?

I did spend most of Monday in bed, and as the week progressed I went from 70% on the feeling crap scale, back to 100%. Although today, Saturday, I would say I am at the 50% level. Hopefully this is an indication that the fourteen day suffering is close to the end. As someone who almost never gets sick, this is as much a frustration, as time of feeling crap.

With that complaining now out of the way, let's get down to business. The A-to-Z blog challenge had been fun, and I even got a shoutout from the captain of the team which was absolutely kind of him - Thanks Lenni!

On the non-blogging side of life, the 100 day project is getting close to Day 100. This post will go live on Day 85 of the challenge. As with a challenge of this length, some days were easier than others, and getting sick did not help either. But keeping it small, did help so I am still on track.

Before another coughing fit completely overtakes my ability to write a sentence, I will say goodbye for now.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

PS: Guardian of Dreams will be released on 21 May, so only a few days left before the price goes up if you want to take advantage of the preorder/presale special.

A to Z Blog Challenge: Z is for...

Zentangle

 I don't follow the 'official' zentangle designs, but like to incorporate some of them in some doodling art. It is fun and something I like doing while waiting for food in a restaurant.

I carry a small sketchbook and two sizes of ink drawing pens for exactly that reason.

The drawing here was also done with pen, one black, and one dark blue. I used a sketchbook that I bound myself for this type of drawing.

Since this is the last letter of the alphabet and the last post of this year's A-to-Z challenge, I just want to say thank you to everyone that visited and left a comment.

It was a fun challenge, but now it's time to return to the normal schedule.

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé