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.

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