Wishing everyone the best of the season, whatever that means to you: relaxing, socializing, walks in the snow, fun at the beach, cooking, eating, reading, or even writing. Felicitous combinations of good things to all!

Here is a lovely review of She Who Returns, by fellow writer JF Kaufmann.
The next in my series of Christmas reviews is the closing book of Audrey Driscoll’s Herbert West series, She Who Returns. I’ve read and reviewed the previous installment, She Who Comes Forth and I want to touch on this one, too.
The final book in the series is a well-plotted and fast-paced story full of thrilling twists and turns. Audrey Driscoll’s writing is quite elegant, smooth and atmospheric. I absolutely love the supernatural elements coiled within the story and I can’t help but notice the thorough research in Ancient Egypt mythology, language and history she must have done. Although not unexpected (where else would you find them if not in Egypt?) the paranormal components are original and intelligent.
What is really impressive in this novel is the setting, both in terms of time and location — Egypt in the early 1960s.
I can’t personally vouch for the time period, but…
View original post 349 more words
Here is a really useful element for creating images: fractals.
What are fractals? Well, here’s what Wikipedia says (among other things): “…fractal is a term used to describe geometric shapes containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales.”
From that comes fractal art, which “…is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still digital images, animations, and media.” There’s lots more in the Wikipedia article.
If you go to Pixabay and key in “fractal,” you will be rewarded with a wealth of shapes and patterns. Some are beautiful, like the featured image. Some are weird. Many can be combined with other design elements to produce something unique, or at least make an ordinary image interesting.
Here are a couple of fractals I haven’t incorporated into anything as yet, but I couldn’t resist downloading them from Pixabay.
I upload the fractal images to Canva and use it to assemble and adjust. (Canva also includes fractals in its photo library.) I do some cropping to size and fiddle with the degree of transparency. That’s one of the nice things about Canva–you can easily layer images and change transparency to make abstract shapes like these fractals into backgrounds or nearly transparent foregrounds.
A word of warning, though: messing around with images can eat up a lot of time.
Tree
Where is she?
Who stood beneath my greening boughs
With bluebells at her feet
Where has she gone?
Stone
Where is she?
Who embraced me
And sought within
For my stories and my songs
Where has she gone?
Land
Fear not, I hold her safe
Her substance cradled on my breast.
The hills are clothed in purple heather,
Bright streams bejewel them.
She is home.
Sky
Fear not,
Her spirit has returned to Light.
Star Bright, she shines
Forever in the hearts of those who knew her.
In memory of
Sue Vincent
1958-2021
In mid-October we spent nearly a week near Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This visit was originally scheduled for March, but we postponed it when everything shut down.
The autumn weather was a delightful mix of mist, fog, a bit of drizzle, a little rain, and a couple of glorious sunny days. Perfect for walking on sandy beaches, exploring sea-worn rocks, and immersive forest bathing.
I’ve realized that trying to take pictures during a walk often spoils the walk. I’m too taken up finding good picture opportunities to appreciate the overall scene. So I took almost no photos until the last full day of our stay, when I raced around some photogenic rock formations near where we were staying. The combination of mussel- and barnacle-encrusted bedrock, rounded boulders, smooth sand, eroding mussel shells, and plants making their living on the edge was irresistible.
And here are three phone photos from a coastal rainforest boardwalk loop trail in Pacific Rim National Park. It’s one of my favourites (although Nelly the Newfoundland wasn’t too keen on all the stairs!)
I love Tofino!
Somewhere in the process of becoming an indie author, I discovered I enjoy messing around with images. I’m not talking about the photos of my garden I post on the blog. I hardly ever do any post-processing on those.
But ever since I found out about Canva, an easy-to-use graphic design tool, I’ve been creating images to represent my writings. Often, I complete one or more long before I finish writing the novel or story to which they belong. The image-designing process must use different parts of the brain than whatever it is that transforms ideas into words.
When I published four of the stories in Tales from the Annexe as separate ebooks in 2016, I made cover images for them, and I designed the cover image for the collection years before I needed it. More recently, while writing the the new stories that completed the set, I created an image for each of them as well. I didn’t need cover images for these stories, but I did need regular breaks from writing them.
My first idea was to include all these images in the book, but I didn’t want to swell the ebook’s file size to the point it incurred a hefty delivery fee. Moreover, not all e-readers display images in colour. I decided to feature them here on my blog instead.
Below are the images for the first seven stories, which are by-products, off-cuts, spinoffs, or supplements (I haven’t found a congenial word for this concept) to the four novels of my Herbert West Series.
They appear in “chronological” order, i.e., the first three happen during the time period covered by the first novel. The fourth, fifth, and sixth happen between Books 3 and 4 of the series. The last story of this group takes place decades later, following She Who Comes Forth, the novel that’s a kind of sequel to the series.
Available at a special pre-order price of $0.99 USD (or equivalent) from these Amazon outlets
US UK CA AU DE
The Blog about everything and nothing and it's all done in the best possible taste!
History, Photography, and Travel in Western Canada
Reflections by Helen De Cruz
Crafting Magic through Prose & Poetry
Mental meanderings of philosophical provocateurs
Maker of fine handcrafted novels!
On the Massachusetts North Shore
Blog magazine for lovers of health, food, books, music, humour and life in general
Adventures and mishaps in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery
Becky Ross Michael: author & editor
Ice Ages, river gods and the rise of civilisations
SteveTanham - writing, mysticism, photography, poetry, friends
Books & Poetry
A HUMANE SOLUTION TO HUMAN-DEER CONFLICT
The musings of a Londoner, now living in Norfolk
Dreams, Horror and Religion in Popular Culture
Passionate Teacher and Future Children's Author
Celebrating what makes Brittany unique
reflections on living, singing and managing
Seeking the magic and light in life's journeys
A writer influenced by her Swedish heritage and Yorkshire upbringing
Poetry of a changing Earth. The grief is real--so is the hope.
Writing Magic, Myth and Mystery
Growing Community
Organic gardening in the Rogue River Valley
Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Personal commentary on political and social issues in western Canada.
Exploring the World of Fiction
Reviews of books...and occasional other stuff.
We are all just babes in the woods.
Fiction Writer in Poet's Clothing
Short essays about novels and other fictional works
A great WordPress.com site
Drift among the scribbles of writer Janet Gogerty
Writing to know what I think.
mostly poetry, miscellany
When nothing is certain anything is possible
Loves cats, writes mysteries.
Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire
Ripping News and Cutting Satire Since 1888
A harmony of hues, melodies, aromas, flavours and textures that underlies our existence!
Welcome to my world: digging, harvesting and other stuff
A tour of the natural rock and gem beauty British Columbia has to offer
Writing writing and more writing
Life is make believe, fantasy given form