CPSpring

The March/April 2015 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors was so chock full of excellent new ideas for journaling and book making that I've already picked three to try out:

Modern cartes de visite by Gabriela Domville Dondisch: Back in the nineteenth century, people would mount small photos of themselves on cards and use them to share with friends and family or even use them as the next generation of calling cards. Gabriela's short article covers how to simply make some modern versions, which would be a very cool promo item for authors to hand out with their backlist, contact info, appearance schedule, etc. (theme your cards with your genre, and steampunk writers, this project was practically made for you guys.)

My Story to Tell by Kristen Robinson: if you've ever wanted to try to make a mixed-media book or journal, this is the project for you. The artist uses a lot of recycled materials and offers a very simple two-hole binding technique that anyone can manage.

Dip It! by Ann St. Martin Stout: You know those little sample jars of latex paint at the home improvement stores that always tempt you? Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, in this article Ann tells you how to use that paint to decorate the spine plus bind a small book, and uses this really cool marbling technique that is also practically a no-brainer.

At the end of the issue there are also five reader challenge winning projects that show you what you might sculpt out of old unwanted books, plus lots of other articles with fun ideas for your art. Definitely recommend checking out this issue.

Heart the Paper

When I heard that the folks at Cloth Paper Scissors magazine would be branching out with a new venture, I Heart Paper, I made a point to watch for the first issue to hit the shelves. And while I'm definitely more of a cloth gal at heart, the premiere edition did not disappoint.

I Heart Paper really is all about paper, and how to transform it into primarily 3-D projects like bracelets, sculptures, ornaments, wreaths, etc. There are 32 projects in this issue of the magazine for you paper fanatics, many of which use handmade and recycled papers and some very fun techniques. Some, like this paper topiary, are utterly gorgeous. If you've ever wanted to sculpt a book, fold flowers or form a hat or wreath from paper, this is a mag you don't want to miss.

Collage lovers will find a lot in this issue to inspire them as well. Artist Annie Simcoe's article on how she makes her own paper pairs nicely with instructions on making a decorative collage of the same, and Mary Rork-Watson shows you how to collect found papers and use them to compile artful strip-collage pieces for hanging around the house (I'm thinking of doing the same with all the fabric selvages I've saved over the years.) The magazine is also divided into several themed sections, so if you have some paper fanatic pals you can use this issue to inspire a creative get-together.

Skill levels required for the I Heart Paper projects range from easy to advanced, and while most of the ideas are primarily decorative there are a few that are very writer-friendly. I really liked Catherine Anderson's Photos-in-the-Box collection, which shows you how to creatively show off a bunch of themed photos and/or create an inspirational gift for an artistic friend. I also liked this project for making fortune cookies out of paper (easy plus no calories; a terrific party favor idea.)

If you're bored with scrapbooking, curious about how to creatively recycle variously types of paper, or simply want to take your paper art to the next level, I recommend I Heart Paper as a solid investment and a neat source of new inspiration.

Three Mags

Since I haven't bought any writer mags in a while I thought I'd invest in a couple and see if they'd gotten any better or worse.

The March/April 2012 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine features a guide to writers retreats, how to choose the best residency, expert application advice, writing adventures and inspirational destinations. If you're lit and into it I imagine it's a great issue; I don't travel so it was wasted on me. I did find a bigger selection of no-fee sub ops (the best of which I posted yesterday) and there is an excellent article by author Maura Kelly on writer envy that should be required reading for anyone who can't kill their green-eyed monsters.

The April 2012 issue of The Writer Magazine had more appeal for the working writer with a section called The Fiction Answer Book that had some good advice, particularly for new writers. I also liked an excellent article featuring twenty ways to get instant writing motivation by Luc Reid; I may try some of these myself the next time I'm feeling like dodging my writing space. I was disappointed to see the Markets section had been devoted to conferences and workshops and offered sub op info for only four food magazine markets. There were also far too many first-person/my writing journey pieces packed in one issue.

I haven't bought an issue of Writer's Digest in fifteen years; this because back when I was unpubbed and clueless I responded to one of their ads that resulted in me nearly being swindled by Edit Ink. Their March/April 2012 issue reassured me that I have not missed much. Charles J. Shields has some decent advice on how to research like a pro, and the tri-authored "Mastering Voice" section was interesting even while I didn't agree with most of it (granted, voice is probably the toughest topic in the writing world to nail down.) I also enjoyed reading the long interview with author Mary Kay Andrews, enough that now I'll probably buy one of her books now. The rest of the content was either shilling Writer's Digest products, promoting Writer's Digest contests, or peddling the same old content dressed up with the same old carnival barker hoopla(Learn from the Pros! Secrets of Success! Transform Your Fiction!) Tiresome, really.

I think I'll look around the internet for some decent low- or no-cost e-zines. Does anyone subscribe to or hang out at any place online that they can recommend as a decent market/info/how-to resource for working writers? Please let us know in comments.

Butterfly People

Another of my rewards for crossing the novel finish line was a nice big stack of art magazines (pretty much everything Somerset Studio publishes, plus a few on quilting and sewing.) I parked them on the porch table so I could get my fix whenever the dogs and I came out to hang with the birds.

I admit, I am kind of addicted to ArtMag world. It's an amazing, beautiful place. On this planet (populated entirely by the nicest women you'll never meet) everyone talks about the creative life as a journey of self-discovery. No one ever gets angry or annoyed or has a bad day. While they're effortlessly throwing together the most astonishing projects, they're also finding enlightenment or artistic validation or having some other kind of continuous spiritual orgasm.

In almost every issue there is someone who works exclusively in shades of white, or transforms plastic grocery bags into designer purses, or turns old watches into steampunk cuffs and pendants (which they claim they wear in public. I'm dying to see that.) Their friends are amazingly gifted artists who only want to inspire each other to greater creative heights. Their homes smell of cookies and lavender and baby powder. They have more Victorian art scattered around than Queen Victoria did. They listen to classical music 24/7. There don't seem to be any men in ArtMag World, but there's always a punched copper pie safe in the kitchen, a claw-footed tub in the bathroom, and somewhere near a window a mason jar tied with raffia and filled with sea glass and a single sunflower that never dies.

I want to go to this planet someday, and crash an ephemera exchange tea party so the hostess has to whip up in five seconds a place card for me out of old Valentines and Scrabble tiles. I want to gobble an entire cracked porcelain platter of those perfect chocolate raspberry scones dusted with powder sugar through a doily and sprinkled with edible flower petals. I want to tie bouquets of fresh violets gathered with vintage lace and old rhinestone brooches to the handles of coffee mugs and then watch people try to drink from them without putting out an eye. After we collage the contents of a hope chest into a 5 X 7 shadow box with the word DREAM stamped crookedly on a white-washed Barbie's head, I want to talk about the creative life in words that in our world are most often used to describe scented fabric softener, women's winged sanitary products, and extra-plush toilet paper.

Most of all I want to meet these women -- these fabulous, ethereal, gossamer creatures who evidently don't have jobs, spouses, weight problems, body odor, bills, etc. Apparently they never walk the floors at 3 a.m., sweaty and pissed off because they're having hot flashes or can't turn off their brains. Their lovely white cats sit in windowsills all day instead of hawking up hairballs and sharpening their claws on the furniture. I never see one of these artistic types perspiring as they plow through a six pound stack of their art while their peach tea goes cold and the ant bites on their right foot itch like the devil. They certainly don't seem to get hate-mail from disgruntled folks who decide they've forced their art on the world, and for whatever reason it offends justifies the audience bitch-slapping the artist with partially-starred expletives. No, I think they just shimmer all day as they flit around on translucent jewel-toned wings, like butterfly people.

Maybe this is why so many creative souls fear they're not legit; because they don't live on ArtMag world. They don't sprout wings the minute they rise from their not-so-snowy sheets. When they look at themselves in the mirror, they realize their T-shirt and shorts don't match, or their bra is giving them a uniboob, or they haven't shaved their legs in two months. They go out to drink the coffee they got on sale out of a chipped Garfield mug, and pet their scrawny tabby cat, which has shown its love by depositing an eviscerated lizard on the seat of the spouse's favorite armchair. The mail doesn't arrive in envelopes covered with calligraphy tied together with an ombre silk ribbon. Friends call only to bitch about their bad marriages or ask some insanely inconvenient favor. The tea parties in this world are run by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.

I know I'll never live in an ArtMag world. Writing is not especially pretty. Most of the time it's very hard, exhausting work that seems to take forever and can't be accomplished by gathering a list of supplies and following half a page of instructions. Our results are always and forever a stack of printed pages and that's it. You can dress that up with as many rhinestone brooches and dew-spangled violet bouquets as you want, but underneath all the ephemera you pile atop it the work remains work.

To be honest, I don't think ArtMag world exists. I think the all-white artist has a house that smells like chlorine and chalk, and the baker just burned her latest batch of scones because her mother called and distracted her, and the steampunk jewelry maker has to get a tetanus shot because she sliced her finger open while dissecting that rusty old watch. They live in the real world, just like the rest of us poor slobs, and while you'll never see the bleach bottles, burnt offerings or bloodstains in a magazine, they're still there, just beyond the butterfly wings.

3 Mags

The Feb/Mar/Apr 2011 issue of Artful Blogging is not only visually gorgeous -- the cover art made me want to immediately go and dye a batch of Easter eggs -- but also has an impressive collection of motivational articles by art bloggers. I always like the photographers who write for this one, as they regularly prod me into trying more things with my camera. This month Pink Picket Fence proprietor Chris Carleton has me taking my Canon off auto-mode and again trying some of the other settings I wasn't as comfortable with (so I can blame her for all the blurry pics I will likely be snapping. At least for the first week.)

This magazine is a great spirit booster when you feel mired down by the negative energy that so often spreads like a bleak plague around the online writing community. Whether you're an artist or a writer or knitter or whatever, making the choice to focus on your art and go Renaissance with your creative life can make your work better, richer, more meaningful and definitely so much more fulfilling. And why bother? Well, Angela J. Reed, whose blog is called Parisienne FarmGirl, sums it all up with two lines: You cannot turn off a creative brain. You simply can't. Amen, homegirl.

For those of you who are handy with a needle or sewing machine, the Winter 2011 Sew Somerset issue is chock full of mixed-media creative sewing projects, from themed journals to scrap bookmarks. I know, it's all about the e-readers these days, but you can get a lot of satisfaction out of hand making your own books and journals. These are skills which might also come in handy if we ever get hit with a massive cosmic EMP that turns all the electronic gadgets and machinery in the world into useless junk. Hey, it could happen.

I thought Connie Freedman's how-to article A Bundle of Bindles was particularly cool, and has me thinking of ways I can translate one of my poems that way (a bindle used to be that knotted cloth sack on the end of a stick sported by hobos and runaway children in cartoons; in this incarnation it's a little cloth pocket in which you put a small necessity or treasure. Connie made a small bindle sewing kit themed to the song Do-Re-Mi.) I'm also wondering if there's someway I make a set of bindle bookmarks or ATCs. I like the projects published by Sew Somerset because they're usually pretty simple and small-scale. That means you won't spend weeks or months working on a single project while attempting to master difficult techniques and investing in a lot of pricey supplies you'll never use again.

I'm fond of creative projects that incorporate recycling and repurposing, which is also the theme of my quilting guild challenge this year, so I've been keeping an eye out for the Spring 2011 issue of GreenCraft. (Warning: if you're a arts/crafts snob this mag will probably seem hokey to you, but then, it's really not written for your end of the market.)

Jeannine Stein, the author of Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials and the upcoming Adventures in Bookbinding: Handcrafting Mixed-Media Books also has an article in this issue: Repurposed Paper: Stitched that shows a couple of different, neat notebooks you can make from stuff you probably have sitting around the house. One of her photos of a gift wrapped in an old dressmaking pattern sheet made me feel vindicated, as recycled gift wrap is one of my latest obsessions (do you want to know how many Simplicity patterns from the sixties and seventies that I've saved that I never used, or will never use again? No, you really don't.)

BAM Ten

Ever wonder what writers do with those bookstore gift cards? Here are:

Ten Things I Bought with Mine at Books-a-Million



Blank Books:

1. Piccadilly spiral-bound blank journal (butterfly front, discounted.) I picked this up on impulse; the cover is fetching and it's large enough to make into a daily art journal.

2. Write Ideas "Dance Floor" large flex journal. I don't like the cover on this one, but it's huge, the page lining is nice and wide, and it has a pocket and a ribbon marker. I'll probably redo the cover with an interesting fabric.

Bookmarks:

3.& 4. "Go with all your heart" and 5. "The Spirit of Flight." Two are to give away and one is a replacement for me (I gave my original to a friend.)

Fiction:

6. Angel at Dawn by Emma Holly; second in her latest Upyr trilogy. The first one in this trio was terrific, and I think this installment continues the protagonists' story, which is even better.

7. My Immortal Assassin by Carolyn Jewel. I'm pretty sure this is the third in her paranormal romance series; definitely the newest. It's been a while since I read the last one so I may have to go back and reread the early novels to pick up the story again.

Magazines:

8. Quilting Arts Magazine Dec/Jan issue. This is not for me; I'm taking it to a quilter friend who is recovering from back surgery and can't get out to the store. Looking forward to bickering with her over adding metal to quilts (she's dead set against it; I'm all for it as long as the quilts aren't to be used for bedding or handled by children.)

9. Somerset Studio Gallery Magazine Winter '2011 issue. I tried to walk past it, really I did, but Angela Cartwright has an article in this one about watercolor photo art, and that I couldn't resist.

Nonfiction:

10. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I've never read it, and since I'm into Zen anything, thought it was about time I did.

(the above list is thanks to my guy, and the gift card he never forgets to give me every Christmas)

Advizine

Aside from the market and agent listings in the back pages, the October issue of The Writer was pretty much another waste of dime. Short version: Vampires are over, zombies are the next big thing; craft way-cool characters with only 4, count 'em, 4 steps; self-publishing's all right for nonfic or niche; bitching over the worth of writer blogs; plus the usual roundup of successful Names to tantalize us with their success. Right. Thank you.

My issues with this issue: Vampires have been over for what, two, three years now? And zombies, well, if you're the author of a how-to on writing zombies, sure, you'd want them to be the next big thing (I want genetically-enhanced superhumans to be the next big thing; should I write an article saying they are?) And apparently there is zombie erotica out there, and I need that phrase soldered out of my brain, immediately. Seriously, I say write whatever makes your readers happy, but if reanimated rotting corpses getting it on truly are the next big thing, then PBW is going back to ghost writing. Or maybe ghosts will be the next big thing. Somebody, go check with Jennifer Crusie, see what she thinks.

Know what? I'm tired of the next big thing. I say let's figure out what the next little thing is going to be. Or the next weird thing. Or the thing that has no buzzword. That would make a cool opening pitch line, wouldn't it? "Enclosed please find my proposal for The Vampire Brotherhood vs. The Promiscuous Zombie Chicks, which I believe will be the next thing. What that thing is, I can't really say. It's a closely-guarded secret. You understand."

But I digress.

I regret to say that in my experience (which is fairly extensive) it generally takes more than four steps to create a decent character. I've never counted but I think it takes somewhere around 4,967 steps. Maybe 4,968. On a good day. And sure, there is promo and platform and fanbasing in blogging, and of course, there are a gazillion blogs and there is no money in blogging. Evidently there is money in writing generic articles about the pros and cons of writer blogs, but I'll guess the market is glutted now.

Naturally I could be wrong, but then again, I just do this for a living. I do know that when I find myself arguing out loud with the articles I'm reading, it usually means I must stop renewing the subscription (or, in this case, quit picking it up from the newstand.)

You guys reading any writing advice 'zines out there lately that aren't leaving your eyes blinking in disbelief?