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.

🇿🇦 💜 🇿🇦

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 

🇿🇦 💜 🇿🇦

    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! 😁

The CreativeLife in review - BuJo, art exhibition, and water

 Hello Creative friend!

This post covers about two weeks, but I am sure that you will appreciate it more for me keeping (or trying to) it short and not bore you with the minutiae.

Living in the beautiful country of South Africa does come with serious challenges these days. I am sure that my fellow countrymen and women are just as frustrated as I am with the constant problems with our power network. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that we resorted to installing a solar power system at home. While lack of power can and do create a lot of frustration there has always been another problem that bothered me more: no water.

Living in an urban area means we are dependent on our water to be pumped to reservoirs from rivers and dams via purification plants. For that to happen, we need power for those pumps (and they are power-hungry monsters). We have load-shedding schedules (which we can use for planning) to help with those power cuts. When there are multiple failures in the generation plants, we often find ourselves without power between 8 to 12 hours per day - for days on end.

No power at home also means no power to pump water. And then recently something seriously went wrong in the water supply network and we were without water for 4 days. In some areas, people didn't have water for almost a week. I never thought myself to suffer from anxiety, as a practising Stoic resilience training helps a lot, but being without water created a level of anxiety that I didn't expect...at all!

It also made no sense. I have about 20 litres of water in reserve for filtering our drinking water. Nothing to do with a crisis, I happen to have space for the four 5-litre bottles that I rotate for daily use. We catch rainwater in two large tanks outside, which we use to flush the toilets. Since it rained a few days before the water crisis, I knew those tanks were full. So it was only water for showering. So no rational reason for my anxiety, but rational thought notwithstanding, I was not myself for those four days. I think it has to do with control. With power outages no longer a problem in my home, water became the issue. Something to think about for the future.

My podcast listening this week Rafi and Klee

You might be familiar with Bullet Journaling (or BuJo for short) with all those YouTube creators and their hours of creating beautiful setups. I tried a BuJo a few years ago and didn't like it. Recently I have reread the book and decided to try it again. When I looked at my planner, I noticed that despite not being a formal “BuJo” I have been using the basic concepts anyway. So I got myself a dot grid journal and set it up to use from July. My current planner ends in June.

With the upcoming art exhibition and my book projects, my current planner didn't have enough space to plan and organise everything that I have on my plate this year. And no, no pretty pictures and drawings within sight. I used a bit of washi tape or a water-based marker to underline a heading or two, but this is the extent of the creativity I added. I would rather spend time drawing or painting than decorating a planner. My journal will remain separate, but if you read Ryder Caroll's book, you can also use the BuJo for long-form journaling. I am not.

Connect with me on Substack

I did transfer the ideas from my Ideas Journal to my BuJo. It made sense that is why I did it. So one less journal to keep up to date. I had already used some of those ideas, I just never bothered to update the Ideas Journal, so it had to go.

The new paintings I planned for the exhibition are making slow progress. Too slow in many aspects and irritates me to no end. I am tired and find it difficult to stand for even a short time to paint. I have not lost interest in the paintings in fact, I am excited to see how they will look, so I am hopeful my energy levels will improve soon so I can get back to painting.

I have been working on an abstract portrait graphite drawing and it is looking good so far. I had not planned to put it in the exhibition but if I can get it done I might do that.

I think this post is getting too long, and I need to wrap it up before you fall asleep. LOL!

Wishing you a creative week.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife in review - books, paintings, and living with pain

Hello Creative friend!

I wrote this post over several days.

Did March really go by that fast? It was like here and then gone before I could blink. I did get a lot done, I have to say and perhaps that is the reason I didn't notice the date change. Work is slow, and that is a bit of a concern, but I do have some things to test this week, so things could be picking up again.

I cleaned my gouache palette 😂

April is difficult because we have 3 short weeks in the month. For most people that is great, and it used to be for me as well when I was employed full-time. Since changing to self-employment, fewer workdays in a month can be difficult - this month it will be, as this year has been so far.

You may have seen the Blog Challenge logo here on my blog, but I had a change of heart. Sometimes it is necessary to decide where you have to spend your time, and prioritise that before what you think you can fit in. Since making that decision, I stopped worrying about it and focused my writing energy on a novel I am trying to finish. To help keep me motivated, I am taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo.

Past experiences have shown me that the writing challenge is useful to help me finish a book; at least the first draft of it anyway. At 79k words, I am close but there is something about to happen in the story that might push it over 100k. Because it is a novel in my fantasy series, the word count does not bother me. It will bother my pocket when it comes to editing time, but that is a problem for later. Right now my priority is to get the book finished.

Today is Good Friday, and the end of an eventful week. I hope you are enjoying a Blessed Easter.

For the past few weeks my right shoulder have been acting up a bit. Not painful exactly, but more a sensation of discomfort when I moved it. I don't know what caused it, or perhaps I forgot. On Wednesday morning I woke up with such excruciation pain in my shoulder that I could barely move my arm. Yes, that was a surprise - and not a good one.

One of the SBR2023 ink and
wash paintings I made

Since I could move my hand ie, no difficulties below the elbow, and could at least finish the report I had to write for work and managed the words I had planned for Camp NaNoWriMo. I just had to take it really easy I thought. But it was not enough.

One of the SBR2023 ink and
wash paintings I made

After a sleepless night, and a potent painkiller, yesterday morning started with my husband having to help me get dressed. He leaves for work at 5am, so it was an early start for me too, but it couldn't be helped. Yes, I hated that because it made me feel like a child. But pain is a horrible thing on the best of days, right? 

I made an appointment to see my doctor, but he was only available in the afternoon. There was some work to do, but I decided to go out for breakfast mostly because I was a bit too lazy (and in too much pain) make it myself. My local Wimpy is close to my home, but the drive told me that my shoulder didn't like the trip. Driving really hurt, even though I took care as best I could.

While enjoying my breakfast, my doctor's receptionist called to move my appointment earlier. I was grateful to accept the option. Two hours later I had a cortisone injection, and prescription for potent anti-inflammatories to take for a week. My shoulder it would seem was badly inflamed.

My Podcast listening this week ArtJuice: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/3jFtwBciHeEPlNF5Gf411T

This morning there was no pain, amazing, so after a lovely breakfast with Hubs and my father-in-law, I decided to work on some of the paintings for the exhibition. It was fun to push texture paste around with a palette knife. Since I practically plastered the stuff it will take a day or so before I can paint the textured sections.

I am taking it easy the rest of today, even though my shoulder might feel better I don't think for a moment that it is healed yet.

And on that note I think it an appropriate ending to this post.

Wishing you a creative week!

💜🇿🇦Linzé

The CreativeLife in review - change, art, and loadshedding

Hello creative friend!

It's been a while since I chatted with you, and of course it is my fault for not keeping to the Sunday schedule. But that is going to change. My Sundays seem to be filled with so many activities, even though I seldom plan my day that way. It also impacts my blog, which makes me sad for not getting to write it like I want to. So I am going to make a change - and experiment with a few different weekdays. It may also vary from week to week, but let's see how it goes.

My books and many more at https://buff.ly/3xLi8UH
from March 5-11!

February has been a difficult month. We decided that we had enough of the problems of loadshedding, and installed a solar power system at home. It helped to resolve one concern created by the constant loadshedding...saving my poor fridge. When it took me 20 minutes to get the fridge to start the compressor (the previous few times it took about 10 minutes) I called Hubs and told him, that's it. We cannot afford to replace appliances that we need. I don't care if the TV is damaged, or if we needed to replace a microwave (for example) but replacing food storage appliances could have huge financial financial implications. You might think that such losses could be claimed from our insurance, but since loadshedding have gotten worse, the insurance companies have been refusing to payout such claims.

The second thing remains a problem, but we are managing it for now. At first the service technician said it was because of loadshedding, while we disagreed. Well, it is still a problem even without the power going out anymore. So will have to see.

The first of the planned stories for publication is with my editor and I am working as fast as I can to finish the 6th novel in the Nations of Peace series. I am struggling however to make the story flow at this point. It happens and it is a pain in the butt. But I keep going. Editing will probably delete a lot of these words, but if I stop the book won't get done. Onward it is then!

Another art exhibition is also coming up and I am working on a new series of paintings. At least they are progressing without a struggle, and I am having a lot of fun in the process.

Some of my paintings are now featured in the Wild Baobab online gallery if you want to take a look. Yes, it's me, Linzé is my pen name. I avoid using both my real name and pen name on social media. Aside from being confusing, it makes life easier for me.

And on that note it is time to wish you a creative week.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife in review - planning, time management, and the creative life

 Hey there, creative friend!

It's been a week or more since my last post but mostly because I have been taking time to do other things. Work was a bit slow, but that will change tomorrow. More on that a bit later. I have not been working, or making art - what I have been doing is reading. Not only books on my to-read list, but also a few of my own unfinished manuscripts. I do that for the simple reason to find inspiration to work on my current novel-in-process. I feel a bit stuck.

I know the next major scene involves a kidnapping, but what is bugging my creative brain is making that happen in a way that will actually work. It is one thing to kidnap someone, but making it happen in a story is a different matter altogether. The solution has not yet presented itself, so in the meantime, I found an interesting book well worth reading until my creative brain cells figure out what I need to write.

The book is called Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. It is an interesting take on time management. I have only progressed about 25% into the text, but I am enjoying learning a few things.

Ballysaggartmore towers ink and wash

Back to the work thing. Tomorrow I have to start testing several industrial pieces of equipment coming in to the lab one after the other. This type of equipment is a huge challenge (which I thoroughly enjoy, mind you) but they also take a lot longer to test than the multi-media and high-tech equipment that we normally test.

I am not anticipating problems, but I feel that it is important to be prepared for the feeling of being overwhelmed which will invariably happen along the way. If you have been reading my musings for a while, you will know that I have a game plan in place for when that happens. This time around, I think that perhaps an adjustment to the game plan might be in order to anticipate the situation and work with it before the feeling hits me head-on. Because once I feel overwhelmed it can often be difficult to recognise the feeling and then sit down to work on resolving it. And this book might be helpful for that. It is too early to tell, but I have a feeling that using the 12 Weeks Year planning I am implementing this year, along with Four Thousand Weeks, I might be able to live a productive and creative life in 2023 without pushing myself too hard.

I do have an ambitious list of goals for sure, but what I have put in place with that list is to prioritise those goals. It does not only help me figure out where to put my time when things get busy at the lab, but it will also help me focus on the things that I feel are a higher priority.

Prioritising goals might seem weird, but I love what I do in my work life and my creative endeavours, so it is a win-win situation as long as I remember to take care of my health and well-being too.

One of my creative goals this year is to work on improving my skills with oil pastels and oil paint. Oil pastels have always been a difficult medium for me, but I am finding it more fun the more I use them to create drawings. In the Artkula group, there are two challenges every month, and I find doing at least one of them with oil pastels to be an enjoyable way to improve my skills.

Oil painting remains difficult. My sketchbooks do not lend themselves to oil painting, so I purchased a sketchbook purposely designed for oil painting. Since I am still a pure novice with oil paint, it takes time for me to do an oil painting. To this effect, I have done an outline of a self-portrait during the past week on this new paper. I finally made my own Mahl stick, set the pad on one of my easels, and I am ready to start painting.

There are a few things on the to-do list this week that needs to be done for the solar power installation in our home, but if that happens quickly then I will have a bit of time to start work on the portrait, otherwise, it will be early next week. Am I worried about the potential delay? To be honest, I was worried, but I decided to let things happen as they should, then there will be less pressure on myself to do stuff. Since I am prepared to start the painting, it won't be such an issue if there is time available earlier than anticipated.

Organising my studio remains a thorn in my side. I found a small bookshelf at a really reasonable price that will help to organise one area in my studio that has been annoying me to no end. I ordered two of them. That corner in my studio is used to store items I use for journaling and mixed media, so if they are better organised, it will be easier to find what I need when I want it. I will post a few before and after pics when I got that done.

An exciting week ahead for me, and I wish you a creative week with time for loads of fun time too!

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife week 1 and 2 - planning my CreativeLife

 Already halfway through January and it was barely yesterday when we started the new year.

Hello creative friend! I trust your 2023 is off to a creative start and that all your creative hours this year will be satisfying and fun!

I am sure like me you have already set your goals for the year and cannot wait to work on them. Did you remember to plan time to rest and time to rellect? I had to remind myself to do that too and deliberately spent the past week focusing on that even though I did do some work too.

The lab is back to work already, but I will only get stuck in this coming week. We have big industrial pieces of equipment coming in for testing and I will probably start on those within the next month. They require more time and energy so it will be a busy time for the safety section for the upcoming three to four months.

My creative goals for this year include the publication of three more books. Two shorter stories, and then the 6th novel in my Nations of Peace series. The book is entitled, Prime Prey, which is the first of the Protector sub-series.

The shorter stories are almost ready for professional editing, and I have already spoken to my friend Vanessa Wright, who is the editor of an award winning children's book. Well done, my friend! You are an awesome editor and soon children in many schools in South Africa will know your name too.

Portrait of a lady in Panpastel
and coloured pencil

Vanessa has edited multiple of my books in the past, so it will be yet another great year to work with her again. More details on release dates in future posts, so keep an eye out!

Goals for my 2023 artistic journey will be a bit different than the past few years. For one, I am not going to take part in Inktober52. The prompts were becoming less inspiring and frustrating. I will say however, that taking part has siginificantly contributed to my drawing skills. Inktober in October? Will see when the time comes.

Since joining the ArtKula community I have been more inclined to rather take part in their monthly challenges, so those will be my focus for this year. I have laso decided to focus more on the oil mediums (oil pastels and oil paint) this year to work on improving my skills in using these mediums. I also plan to continue my study of my favourite artist's work, Wassily Kandinsky. I have a book, but my study will include copying more of his work so that I can learn more about abstract work.

Our art group is already actively busy with our projects this year, starting with experimenting with expressive abstracts (in sketchbooks for now), and a large fantasy style acrylic painting. This coming week we will start work on an ink and watercolour painting of an Irish castle. Definitely a challenge because of all the details. But we need to challenge ourselves as artists too, otherwise how are we going to improve our skills while having fun?

While all these projects may sound like a lot, and they are, I have decided to include one session per month in my creative planning to just do anything I am in the mood for. The group will have the same choice: do something other than a group project, catch up on a project, or just relax. Our Lifebook project will be an excellent choice for this free time. It is our third year doing a Lifebook, and for me it has been worth it on so many levels. My journal is for writing, but my Lifebook has the added element of art with little to no writing, but it is still a record of me and my life, only expressed in a more visual way.

This post is already taking up a lot of your time. Thank you for reading and let me know in the comments what your creative goals are for 2023.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

Join the creative conversation on Instagram or Twitter.

The CreativeLife - weeks 46, 47, and 48 in review

Hello creative friend,

 I need to drink a lot of water because of the diuretic effect of some prescription meds. So on Tuesday I left my home office to refill my water, when I stepped into poop. Yup, right in front of my office. Inside my house. At first I thought there is a gecko running around, because they sometimes sneak in. I don't mind them, they are cute, but they are quiet. And the noise I was hearing told me it wasn't a gecko.

Following the sound, I found a bird in the area where I have the laundry on drying racks. And a lot of bird poop on the floor. And a frightened bird. It was a pied starling. It was either chased by one of the dogs into the house, I leave the backdoor open when I am at home during the day, or it flew in because it was curious. Either way, I had a scared bird on my hands and clean laundry which I was not in the mood to wash again.

Since there was only one exit, I had to get it back into the kitchen but it was not cooperating. Instead it flew into the living room making me cringe at the though of bird poop on the couches.

A bit of thought went into coming up with a solution. I closed the beaded curtain hanging in the passage to my office so it couldn't fly that way. I know it is a bit boho to have a beaded curtain, it usually serves another purpose, but it kept a bird where I could try and redirect it outside.

Inktober52 Prompt #45

It flew everywhere, pooped again, and thank goodness only the floors, except a spot on a curtain but I wasn't too boothered about that. Then I got an idea. Since it was avoiding the kitchen, I think the dogs were scaring it, I had to open the patio door. This door is difficult to open, but I managed.

Back to the bird. It saw the new bright light and flew right at it. I was holding my breath when it landed on a drying rack - with Hubs' work pants. Then it landed in a gap of the security gate. And flew away. Yay! No bird was injured in the process, but my mood was sour for sure. I have so much work to do, and now I had to wash the floors.

Oh well, it all turned out all right in the end, and the house had clean floors too.

I might have mentioned that I had decided to not keep up with the Inktober52 prompts during November to focus on NaNoWriMo. The idea was to catch up in December, and I did. Four drawings in two days - not too bad I think. Since I am up to date with the challenge, I can relax because I really don't like falling behind on challenges.

The priority is now to get all the work done before the lab closes for the holidays. While our group art sessions continue on Thursday evenings, I will not have time for anything creative for a while. I don't mind because the thought of the break, is really motivating despite year-end exhaustion.

I have also been contemplating my blog for next year. No major changes, just a few thoughts that may or may not be used.

Thank you if you had bought a copy of my latest novel, I really appreciate it. If you haven't grabbed yourself a copy yet, there is still a few days left. The rest of the series will be in the Smashwords end-of-year sale at 50% off from 15 December if you want to grab yourself a few more books to read this holiday season.

Thank you for reading, and I will chat again soon!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife weeks 44 and 45 in review

 Hello creative friend,

The past two weeks have seen the end of Inktober and the start of NaNoWriMo. Both challenges that I take part in for my own benefit. This year my energy levels are taxed to the limit, and some days are more difficult than others to achieve the daily word count target of 1667 words.

https://qkt.io/yVOXtZ  <- Click the link to book your FREE ticket to the art show

As usual I get started with a bang and the words flow with ease and without too much thought. I am a pantser at heart, but this novel, Jarod's Choice (working title only) has been brewing in my head for a while now. Before the start of NaNoWriMo I had already written about 12,000 words to get the story started. So it was not as if I was staring at a blank page on the first day. But then the notorious second week arrived and the struggle set in.

It was hard. Harder than every attempt at NaNoWriMo I have had before. Just writing 1700 words barely takes me two hours, but this time it took me nearly a day, everyday. I had my personal computer next to me on my desk while I was working and typed a few words here and there when taking breaks from work. It was difficult to say the least. Then Friday morning arrived and I decided that a change of scenery was called for. So I waited until load shedding was over, packed my stuff, donned a waterproof jacket because it was raining, and moved my butt to a local Wimpy.

Since I had already had breakfast, I ordered coffee, a slice of their decadent triple chocolate cake and got to work. Whether it was the coffee (I had two mugs) or the chocolate cake, or both, but the words came easily and fast. I could hardly keep up with my characters.

If these words will remain during the editing process is a concern for another day but writing more than 2000 words in an hour and a half does not often happen to me. Definitely grateful to the writer's muse who showed up when I was at the keyboard. The words have continued their flow since and I think my characters are happy with me, otherwise they would just make me struggle some more. LOL!

When the words were tough, I spent the time to work through the edits of the last chapters of Keeper of the Dragon Key. I still have to proofread the whole manuscript again, but I have set some time aside for that after I finish NaNoWriMo.

So it is back to writing now.

Thank you for reading.

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜Linzé

The CreativeLife week 43 in review

 Hello creative friend,

If you are feeling like me on this Sunday evening, then you are both tired and grateful. Tired because of an additional daily challenge, and grateful that I managed the time and completed all the prompts on time. October is Inktober month in my life - not only the prompts themselves, but also making the time to draw every day.

I posted my drawings on Instagram, as the challenge requires, but also in a group called ArtKula.com. The group was founded by Phil Davies (the ArtTutor). He is a skilled instructor and like many others I have learned a lot from him over the years.

I was quite happy to get the invitation to join ArtKula, but getting involved in a new group is a challenge for me. I left many Facebook groups over the years because they grew so big that it became too overwhelming to try and have a decent conversation with anyone. ArtKula is different.

Pre-order available now
https://bit.ly/3zqXIle

It still has a huge number of members, over 13,000, but people have the opportunity to join smaller groups where similar minds can find common ground. Groups like watercolour, mixed media, and pen and ink. I belong to all three, but that is not what this blog post is about. I want to talk about community.

Artists that run online classes often have thousands and thousands of people doing their courses, and then their student join their Facebook groups and they love to call these groups a tribe or a community. To me that is not even remotely close to being a community. How can you form connections with 45,000 people? It is physically impossible in the real world, and I don't buy that social media can make it happen. What makes it happen is a smaller group of people who support each other. A small group of people who share things about their life and art and how the two impact the other. Because life and art are not separate things. People that find connection because they are willing to do the work.

While I spend a lot of time drawing and painting, even teaching art, I don't always share my art online, except Inktober and Inktober52. And now we get to the point of this post.

ArtKula also has a monthly challenge, where the members can explore different mediums as their own interpretation of the theme. October was Inktober month on ArtKula too. So it was with trepidation that I posted my first drawing for Inktober. I don't know if I was the first to post a drawing for Inktober, but it wasn't too long before more and more people started to post.

Artists of various skill levels. But one thing stood out above everything else: people were supportive. No negative comments that I could see. Of course, the group has moderators to keep us all in check, but I only had a positive vibe throughout the whole month.

Prompts elicited discussions, and laughs, and inspiration, and sympathetic comments like I have never seen in any other group before. It was fun chatting about the difficulties of finding time to draw, complaining about the prompts that we didn't like, and cheering the amazing drawings that many people made.

With NaNoWriMo starting on Tuesday, the finalisation of Keeper of the Dragon Key still on my to do list, and the art exhibition, I don't think I will have time to do much art. But one thing I do know: come December I will be back to take part in the ArtKula monthly challenge and to chat and learn from the amazing people I had met in October in this group.

If you are taking part in NaNoWriMo, I wish you all the best with your writing endeavours. May your target challenge you to achieve something new. If you are a veteran, may the 50,000 words be the next milestone on your writing journey.

Thank you for reading!

Until next time,

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

The CreativeLive weeks 41 and 42 in review

Hello creative friend!

I hope your October has been a creative one so far. Mine certainly has with inktober on my daily to do list. A few of these prompts were definitely a challenge and some of them felt like they were picked by a child. Maybe they were? Hmm...

On a more adult note: I had applied to take part in a curated Christmas art market show at the end of November. Applying was a lot of work, and I decided that whether or not I got in, would make no difference. I decided to put my work out there and that to me was a victory in itself.

Dates and times of the art show in
Pretoria, South Africa.
Gallery address to come.

A few days later I got a weird WhatsApp message: I was added to a group by an unknown person. Upon further investigation it turned out to be the host of the show. Five minutes later the emails popped into my inbox: my paintings had been accepted. Good thing I was sitting down at this point because my first thought was how on earth was I going to deal with this on top of everything else?

I have a book to finish and publish. I have lots of work already on my plate and more coming in, and now an art show? A slight feeling of panic set in. I recognised this feeling because I have been there - it is the feeling of being overwhelmed. At this point I was tempted to say no, but decided to take a day and reassess my schedule against my to do list

I am only committed to take part in the show when I pay the small fee for which I still have a few more days until the deadline.

As I sit here writing this post, the feeling of helpless overwhelm has receded. The first time I felt this way I had no idea how to deal with it. In fact I was so out of my depth that I simply took a few days off and did nothing except to watch YouTube videos or series on Netflix. It hadn't helped, because the reason for the feeling had still been there.

Since that first time, I have realised that not doing anything is not a solution. For some things like mental or physical exhaustion it might be a good time to step back from work and other commitments, but this time there is no such need: I simply have too much to do and no time to do it in. Or do I?

That question made me pause to think about it. Nothing on my todo list was due tomorrow, except one thing. Neither was everything due this coming week. I have one thing to finish this week: the book. Even my work load is light this coming week. Sure the art show fee is due, but what do I have to do for that takes any more effort than authorising a payment which takes less than two minutes? It was the decision that needed the “task” to be done.

Then it hit me: take some time, and it doesn't have to be hours, and sit down to look at my calendar for the next 8 weeks. I don't usually have my tasks planned that far in advance, but what can it hurt to do it this one time?

I am still working on that planning but I know when which things are due for the show, the organiser was very clear about deadlines. Deadlines are good. Art show? Check.

The book's editing is very nearly done. And I will finish the last chapter this coming week. So that is a check, or soon will be. The next step is to work through the edits from my editor, and I have already started doing that. The cover is done, and I am very happy with the result. No, I didn't use my painting, it turned out to be too dark for what I had in mind. Maybe next time. Cover? Check.

When I made a list of all the deadlines ahead, and the tasks I have to make those deadlines happen, I knew I could make them work. If I couldn't have? My first priority would have been the book, but now I can do both and I am satisfied that there is enough time to do what I want without sacrificing any sleep, or letting my engineering clients down.

It is late in the year and tiredness do start to set in, but that is not unexpected. I still have December and about three weeks of rest to look forward to anyway. So I am not too worried about that happening because of the added work for the show.

I was reminded of the quote that says something in the order of - if you don't have a plan, you plan to fail. Since no one plans to fail, having some kind of plan in place can only help you to succeed. I have my plan, and that helped to deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed.

I hope that you plan to succeed in the coming weeks.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife weeks 39 and 40 in review

 Hello creative friend,

  If you are immersed in the drawing challenges of October, you are doing a great thing for yourself. So many artists on YouTube and other sites constantly all say that they need to improve their drawing skills. And what better opportunity than Inktober?

  Of course, keeping up can be a challenge given all of our daily responsibilities, but doing whatever you can does contribute to improving your skills. Because it is about the practice, right?

  I love drawing and taking part in the weekly challenge of Inktober52 is also a good way to practice. You can see all the drawings I have done so far on Instagram.  Likes and comments notwithstanding, my favourite is the Gargoyle so far. The gold detail was a challenge to draw because I didn't have a thin nibbed metallic pen. I have since bought one, because gold details could appear on any drawing at any time. 😆

  My biggest challenge remain editing my next book. I managed to finish Chapter 16 on Friday, and am nearly done with Chapter 17. Will see how far I can get tonight. Maybe my editor will get two chapters in her inbox tomorrow morning.

  We had a heatwave badgering us the last two weeks, making it particularly difficult for me to work when we have load-shedding. I have taken to making a little siesta time after lunch, to recoup some of the energy drained away by the heat. I can't say if it really helped, but at least I felt better late afternoon. The heat is not unusual for this part of the country, but the lack of rain is not helping. Neither is the water restrictions that were imposed last week. Tough times indeed.

  I have experimented a bit with the background I want to paint for the cover of the book. I liked the result, but have now changed my mind on the style of background I want. LOL! My workload is still a huge challenge, but I will see what I can do this week, especially if I can finish editing Chapter 18 tonight. With only two Chapters left after that, I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is still hard to see the book ready for publication in December, but I am feeling a bit more optimistic. Pre-orders for the ebook will most likely be available from the end of October, so keep an eye out if you liked the first four books, or like adult fantasy stories.

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

The CreativeLife week 38 in review

 Hi there,

What a week! As anticipated my workload was huge and there is little chance of it letting up soon. The pains and pleasures of being self-employed, so I am not complaining. The bills are not waiting and the current situation is getting worse on an almost monthly basis. Load-shedding every day between 6 and 12 hours? Yup, it is not fun at all and then our electricity provider keeps on raising the costs of a service that they are clearly not delivering.

Maybe it is time for us to go off-grid too. If only it wasn't so expensive we might have done so already. Not an easy decision to make, I can tell you.

I bought these sunflowers to use as
reference in a future painting.
Hubs took the photo for me.

Work and life challenges aside, I managed to finish three more chapters of Keeper of the Dragon Key. I will send the third to my editor tomorrow morning. The end is not yet in sight, so I need to continue working on it as much as I can to stand a chance of making the publishing deadline in December. Holding thumbs!

With Inktober coming soon, I have to start preparing for that on top of everything else. I really like the challenge so it is a good time to pull our my planner for the upcoming month. Oh, and Stoic Week is coming in October too. Fortunately, later in the month but still another thing that I want to spend time doing. Definitely time to do some serious planning.

With everything on my plate for October and November (NaNoWriMo) the art group will not have new projects to tackle. I need to finish a small painting I started during the week, and then I am free to use my time to draw. If you want to see my upcoming Inktober drawings, and all the Inktober52 drawings I have done so far, check out my Insta @LinzeBrandon. If I remember, the drawings are also shared on Twitter, but the challenge mainly runs on Instagram where you can see the awesome drawings made by some many other artists.

Since it is Sunday afternoon, and I still have a few things to do for the week ahead, I will say goodbye until next time.

Have a productive and creative week!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

The CreativeLife week 37 in review

 Hello there!

  Just a short post this week because work was again taking up most of my time. But I am happy to report progress on my editing of the Keeper of the Dragon Key.

  I also got all the cover graphics I want, and spoke to my husband about doing the Photoshop edits of the design I want. I have no idea how to use Photoshop and to be honest have little motivation to learn, but he is brilliant with it. As a photographer it is not even an option, so for me it is a benefit that he does.

  I can explain what I want, and then he creates the cover design I see in my mind. Perhaps I explain it well, or he is just that good. Trust me it is the latter. I have also used some of his photographs for previous covers, but this time I had to get the graphics online - from free sites of course. Infringing copyright is not something I am comfortable with at all.

  So here is the cover teaser 😋 and hopefully soon I can share what the real cover will look like.

 Since the editing is progressing a lot more smoothly than my last post, I better get back to it - while the iron is still hot, as they say.

All the best with your week ahead!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

On my wishlist this week:

Couture Creations Alcohol Ink Blending Solution

Rosies Studio Celebrate You Paper Pack

Jackson's Ceramic Palette - 3.5 x 4" with Lid

The CreativeLife week 36 in review

 Hi there!

Like many of you I was shocked to hear about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. One of the art group friend's mom was kind enough to let us know. She was a person for whom I had a lot of respect for. RIP Your Majesty. 🇬🇧

It's been another crazy busy week where I did two jobs which would normally take a week each. Long hours for sure, which made the weekend that much more welcome. I finished my page for our art group's monthly challenge and the image was inspired by Michelle the Painter. Check out her channel if you would like to learn how to paint some interesting subjects in acrylics.

I plan to bind a few sketchbooks, but with limited time and a lot of creative projects also on the go, it has not happened yet. I was looking for something in my studio when I found a stack of small papers that I had been saving, They were the obvious inspiration to make a tiny book. It is not finished yet, but once done I will share a few pictures to show you. It is 46mm high by 32mm wide with a 5mm thick text block. The pages are blank and a bit heavier than printer paper, which makes it suitable for drawing with dry mediums.

Editing my book is making slow progress but as promised you will find an excerpt from it this week. The cover is still a concept in my brain, but it is no longer a vague thought of maybes.

Enjoy the sneak preview of the book, and I will see you again soon!

💜🇿🇦  Linzé

As promised here is the Prologue of Keeper of the Dragon Key, coming (hopefully 🙄) in December. Enjoy!

The Dragon Masters: Keeper of the Dragon Key

by Linzé Brandon

Prologue

Daérini Crea sighed in satisfaction as her body relaxed after being pleasured by her mate. She dropped her head to his chest while his hands caressed her back.

“Hmm,” she purred deeply in her throat.

Adrian smiled at his mate's reaction. He still had a hard time believing how he happy he was with her in his life.

She closed her eyes and felt sleep claiming her mind under his stroking hands. He relaxed too and closed his eyes.

The couple had barely dozed off when another future being appeared.

“Li! What the hell?”

Adrian sat up as well and frowned at his brother-of-joining's rude entrance into their bedroom. He glanced at his mate, scowling at their visitor. At least she held the bedsheet up to her throat. Future beings had little concern about each other's natural state, but he appreciated that she respected his feelings on the subject.

Li bowed with a solemn face and Adrian got a bad feeling. “I am really sorry for barging in like this, but we have a serious problem.”

Before either could reply, Daérini's body shivered and slumped against her mate's chest. Adrian held her gently as they waited for the vision to pass. He glanced at Li and the bad feeling got worse when he spotted the way Li wrung his hands together. They waited in silence since he could only see her visions if they were touching before it started.

A few more seconds passed before Daérini opened her eyes. “You saw it too?” she asked in a horrified whisper.

Li nodded. “We need to go and talk to Dad. This is a disaster.”

Adrian's eyes widened, but Daérini just nodded. “Give us a few minutes please?”

Li obliged and left them alone, closing the bedroom door behind him.

Conscious of their earlier activities, the couple shared a shower and Daérini brought him up to speed at the same time.

They dried off, got dressed and tied their wet hair into ponytails – warrior style. No time to lose, not even to dry their manes with magic.

Five minutes after he left them alone, they appeared again. “Let's go,” Li said and they all jumped to the fourth dimension.

“Alu'Adr''Erinia,” they all said as they arrived in the fourth dimension to see the leader of the Order of the Future Beings – and Daérini and Li's father.

He bowed his head in acknowledgement. “Always good to see the children,” he replied with a smile, until he realised their sombre demeanours. “What have you seen?”

Daérini explained the vision and Alu's frown deepened.

“Mother,” the younger people said and smiled at the newcomer.

Alu turned to Eri'Adr''Erinia. “This is distressing news,” he replied taking her hand.

“What could have caused them to suddenly target the bridge again?” Alu asked to no one in particular.

“Or who?” Adrian added, and the faces around him got more worried.

Alu and Eri shared a look. “I will go and talk to the High Lords. I don't think it's Lucian, but it’s better to make sure,” Alu said.

Daérini nodded. The rogue High Lord was causing havoc in the third dimension, but as far as they knew, he wasn’t able to dimension jump. As Alu said, it would be better to find out.

Li looked at his sister. “We need the Future Warriors to help to restore the bridge.”

“Future Warriors?” Adrian asked looking down at his mate.

“They are our cousins,” she replied. “Three women, powerful warrior-magicians who have to protect the man with the Dragon Key.”

“The Dragon Key will choose to which future warrior to give the key. She uses this key to restore the link to the fourth dimension. They are the White Warrior for Peace, the Red Warrior for perfect Balance, and the Black Warrior for absolute Power,” Eri added quietly.

Adrian nodded. “So, what do we have to do?”

Li looked at his sister. “You need to activate their magic. I cannot help you.”

“Why?”

Daérini sighed at Adrian's question. He was not going to like this at all. “I will explain later, but now I know what we have to do.”

Adrian pressed his lips together, but did not argue as they said goodbye to their future family and returned to their own home in Sera on the planet of Xa'an.

* * *

Adrian scowled as Daérini explained to him that the future warriors' magic was activated by sharing pleasure with them and that they had to do it. “Like you did for me, when we shared pleasure the first time.”

“What?!” he exclaimed. “Daérini,” he sighed taking her hands, “I have no intention of pleasuring another woman. I love only you, and the thought of touching another woman is making me really uncomfortable.”

She stepped closer and put her arms around his waist. “I love you too, but there is no other way. We will help each other.”

“How?”

“The white warrior's magic is activated with a kiss from another woman,” she explained to his still frowning gaze. “The red and black warriors require both of us.”

She shrugged a little. “I will be with you and you with me. You are the one with the experience as I have not been with another man or woman before you.”

He wasn't happy. It was true that he was an experienced lover, but that was before Daérini and he never thought she would want him to break his joining vows to her. Looking into her aquamarine eyes with their silver rings he saw that she wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of sharing him with another woman. “Are you sure this is the only way?”

She nodded, biting her lip. “There is something else.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What?”

“You cannot tell anyone what kind of magic my cousins practice. Their magic is not like anyone else's in the third dimension. It may also create problems for other future beings if it becomes known that their magic is different.”

“Hmm,” he replied thoughtfully. “Do we need to speak to Grandmaster Géra about this?”

It was her turn to look thoughtful. “I don't know. There is nothing that he or anyone else from this dimension can do to help.”

Adrian's eyes widened. “And me? Us?”

Hugging him was no longer enough, and she pushed her body as tightly to his as she could. He tightened his arms in return.

“I don't know,” she whispered. “But I am going to pray that my cousins will be successful, because I don't want to think of the possibility of us—”

His kiss interrupted her words, because he didn't want to hear the words that would destroy the reason he had found the love he held in his arms.

********************************