The CreativeLife in review - reading, painting, and coffee

 Hello Creative Friend!

    This week's post is truly a mix of stuff, and I am sure that you are well aware that life happens the way it does, and all we can do sometimes is to go with the flow. I had that experience the past few weeks, and several days it was not easy to cope with. That is what coffee is for, right? We deal as best we can in the best way we can.

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I am reading Life by Julian Baggini & Antonia Macaro

Once you have developed the capacity to be stimulated by your own

thoughts, experiences and reflections, you will never be bored and life will

never be without interest. The inner life is thus a source of remarkable self sufficiency. 

You learn that your happiness need not depend as much on

others as you might have believed, and you might find yourself thinking, as

Rousseau did, that ‘These hours of solitude and meditation are the only ones in the day when I am completely myself and my own master.’ 

~ Life by Julian Baggini & Antonia Macaro 

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    To be honest, I had so much coffee that I had to stock up earlier in the month than usual. But that's life.

    The 2nd week of the exhibition starts on Wednesday, so if you're interested you can find the details here. Entrance is free, but booking a ticket is helpful for the gallery to manage the numbers.

    With the end of the month coming up, I had two paintings to finish. They are part of the Artkula challenge for May 2023. I was hesitant with both because I don't like painting portraits (the Photo Challenge) nor do I like repainting the same image (the Themed Challenge). While neither will win any awards, I learned a few things along the way which to my mind is what taking part in these challenge are the most important thing.

🇿🇦 💜 Learning on YouTube this week - sketching with ink to improve my skills 💜 🇿🇦

   The next few weeks will be interesting work wise since I have two vastly different products to test. One of them is a whole system which we tackle in parts, and it is going to be a challenge. I love a challenge so I am looking forward to that one.

   In our art group we are busy do a drawing with charcoal. It is our second drawing of Big Ben as part of the buildings, and architecture does add some challenging details to the project. Despite the mess, I am enjoying it. With the paintings done, I will probably spend the rest of the day working on the charcoal project. After making myself a cup of coffee that is. 😏

Wishing you a creative week.

Until next time!

🇿🇦 💜 Linzé

PS: Keep an eye out for the next book feature - it might scare your pants off! 😁

BOOK FEATURE: FLAWED by Shilpa Suraj

 

Why would anyone want perfection when they could have Vaani Jaishankar instead?

Aditya Khamankar was a chartered accountant who built his life on a bedrock of numbers. For no matter what happened, numbers and math never let you down. They stayed the same. And that fundamental fact defined many of his choices. He was the obedient son, the diligent student, the overachieving employee, the reliable friend. All he wanted in his life was routine and sensible discourse. All he craved in that same life was peace and quiet. And then his senior partner’s flighty daughter came home. And life as he knew it was never the same again…

Reality television villain and tabloid fodder, Vaani Jaishankar lived for the arclights. The notoriety, the glamour, the larger than life noise that came with it held her in thrall. Until the industry she loved and the people she trusted used and abandoned her. And now, she was back home. Darkening the doorstep of her childhood home, something she’d sworn she’d never do and working in her father’s accountancy firm…Could God just take her now already? And then there was her father’s business partner…

What happens when Perfection meets Flawed? Do the cracks beneath his façade show? Or is it as well hidden as the foundation of grit and ambition her shiny polish conceals?

When attraction wars with common sense and love burns a fiery rope that ties them together, Aditya and Vaani need to decide if this is enough…If they are enough for each other? For the world doesn’t believe they are and the world isn’t done with them yet…

Book Links:
Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com

Read an excerpt from Flawed

Shravan Uncle and he were still discussing their plans and action points when they strode into the office together. They came to an abrupt halt when they saw her perched on a tabletop chatting with their intern, Rama. She was swinging one ripped-jean-clad leg as she bent low over his system to look at something on his screen. Rama on the other hand was looking right down her flimsy crop top.

“Vaani!” Shravan Uncle’s voice cracked like a whip through the office space. 

Their entire staff jumped at the same time. So basically, three people were startled. Vaani, Rama and Aditya himself because that was currently their entire staff. 

“You are here to work,” Shravan Uncle continued his harangue. “Not to distract everybody else and stop them from working.” 

“Who is this mysterious them?” She made a show of looking all around their empty desks. “I can only see sweet Rama here. And he was showing me how to use your boring accounting software. You should be happy that I am taking initiative, no?”

Fear swam through Aditya at the thought of her accessing their software and fiddling with their client’s accounts. 

“You’re not going to be working on that,” he said, his voice coming out gruff and angry. 

“Oh?” She stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. “What am I going to be working on then?” 

His brain froze. What would she work on? He scrambled for something, anything that he could use when Shravan Uncle said, “You can start by keeping the office clean.”

Her mouth dropped open in outrage. “Of all the sexist things to say, Appa,” she seethed. “Just because I am a woman, I am in charge of housekeeping, is it?” 

“No. It’s because you are the only one here who has not sat for any accountancy exams,” her father said bluntly. “Also, you failed math in school.” 

Aditya cleared his throat, pity clearing out the chaos in his brain. Vaani’s mortification was obvious for everyone to see.

“Actually, there is something else you can do,” he said. 

“Don’t say bring everyone coffee,” she warned. 

The pity disappeared beneath a swell of irritation. 

“We just landed a large contract,” he snapped. “We’re going to need new employees. You can find them for us. Consider yourself our very first Human Resources professional.”

About the Author:

A published author with Harlequin India – Mills & Boon India Collection and Juggernaut, Shilpa Suraj’s books have hit both the Hot New Releases and Bestseller lists on Amazon. Her next novel, tentatively titled ‘Wrong,’ has been contracted by Rupa Publications and will release later this year. She is also part of the Flipped Anthology by Harper Collins and had an audiobook book Insta Reddy release with Storytel.

She is, amongst other things, currently working on ‘Frazzled and Fabulous,’ a humorous, true-to-life parenting story that is part memoir and part nonfiction.

An avid reader with a passion for creative writing and storytelling saw her participating in writing competitions at school and dabbling in copy writing for an ad agency as a teenager. Twenty years in the corporate space, including a stint in Corporate Communications for Google, India, and a spell at entrepreneurship all hold her in good stead for her multiple current roles of author, mother and Head of Human Resources & Public Relations at an architecture and interior design firm.

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