New: Writer's Corner

I've added a new Writer's Corner.  It will feature original short stories by me and excerpts from my novels.  You'll find the link in the side bar to the right.  Just click on "Ink Well Writer's Corner" under the title Writer's Corner to take you right to it.  I hope you all enjoy the new addition.

New Art Gallery!

Please check out my new Art Gallery blog: Brush Strokes.  Just click the link in the sidebar to view a few of my art pieces.  More will be coming later so check back soon.

Fall

I love the fall.  It's my favorite season and though it doesn't officially end until December 22, October is the month that best encompasses the season.  The leaves change color to a vibrant display of orange, red and yellow.  Fall festivals feature treats like fresh cider, caramel apples and apple pie.  If you live in Ohio like I do, it's the one time of year when you can get sauerkraut pizza, sauerkraut fudge, and sauerkraut ice cream.  Neighborhood homes are decorated with pumpkins, corn stalks, scarecrows, and ghouls.  While some keep the fall decorations up until Thanksgiving, most around here take them down and start putting up Christmas decorations right after Halloween.  Fall seems to evaporate as we hop from one holiday to the next, but I try to hang on to it for as long as I can.

I'm never in a hurry to see fall's temperate weather go.  The cooler temperatures are perfect for taking long walks outdoors.  That little nip in the air gets my creative juices flowing and I've come up with some great ideas for stories and paintings in the fall.  I started walking through old cemeteries last year and got some spectacular pictures of the fall foliage.  I took the photograph above at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati last fall and I plan to go back again this year.

So appreciate the season while it's here.  Find a festival or take a drive to a park or through the country on the weekends to look at the colors.  Enjoy yourself and don't forget the camera.

Cover Art

Cover art has been a hot topic off and on my favorite writer's forum (AQ Connect) for a while now.  As a writer and an artist I have a particular interest in cover art trends.  My art has never appeared on any covers, but I know a few artist whose work has.  Personally, I love to browse the shelves at the bookstore and look at the cover art.  When something catches my eye, I pick up the book and read the cover blurb to see if it's something I would like to buy.  I think most of us are the same way.  In fact, I  started reading my favorite book series because I loved the cover art.  I fell in love with the story with that first book and now it's a highly rated television series.  Since the series aired, the books are being re-released with new covers featuring the stars of the show.  I hate to say it, but the new covers just don't have the same appeal for me as the original cover art.  The photographic covers are beautifully done but have a plain, black background that simply doesn't attract my eye.  If the original covers had been like that, I doubt I would have noticed them on the shelf at all.  If I had, I don't know that I would have been interested enough to pick up the book and read the blurb.  In either case, I probably wouldn't have bought the entire series.  I realize that black, or white, covers are probably less expensive to produce, but the publishers need to remember that we are visual creatures.  Add a few bright colors to the cover, or at least the title, to draw our attention or the volumes begin to merge into one long, monochromatic blur and we walk away empty handed, as I have done many times.

I love books.  I prefer to buy my books so I can keep them forever and read them over and over again.  I love the look of rows of books in my book cases, their colorful spines turned out waiting for me to pick them up again, or for the first time since I bought them.  Nearly all of them are there because the cover art caught my attention first.  They say you can't judge a book by it's cover and this is true.  I've read some very bad books with great cover art.  But I bought the books, good or bad, because they stood out from the other books on the shelves.  I'm a writer myself and I hope to be published some day.  I just hope I get a great cover.  Maybe they'll let me do my own. 

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my site.  This site is brand new and I'm still setting it up and getting the hang of how to organize it, so bear with me.  I will be posting samples of my writing and art work in the near future so check back soon to see how things evolve here.  I'm an obsessive tinkerer so you'll probably see something new almost everyday.