I’ve got a couple more new pieces I'm excited about... except that they’re going to be illustrations in my upcoming book Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns, so I’m saving the whole posts about them until spring when I’ll be promoting the new book… (By the way, I’ll be turning off the Late Pledges feature on my Kickstarter campaign by the end of the month, so if you missed the campaign back in September you still have one last chance to check it out and get the various nifty pledge rewards.)
This weekend I’ll be doing my once-a-year Holiday Sale schedule of two shows in two days: complete set-up, sale, and take-down two days in a row, with restocking all evening between. It’s brutal, but the Holiday Sales are when they are, so if I’m going to participate I don’t have a choice. On Saturday I’ll be at the Arts Wayland Holiday Marketplace, and on Sunday I’ll be at the Celebrate Newton Holiday Craft Fair. Needless to say, I’d love to see you if you’re in the area!
And of course I’ll be carving new blocks while sitting in my booth each day. I’ve got one block half-carved from the last sale, plus another prepped, plus a small third which I was hoping to use as the demo at my Printmaking Workshop on Dec. 13… But I fear that I’ll need to start it this weekend unless I get inspiration for another block TODAY. Inspiration on demand is the hardest job in preparing for shows. Yes, I make myself lists of ideas throughout the year in the hope of being able to grab an idea off the shelf when I need one… but sometimes nothing seems to entice me, and while I can brainstorm, I can’t force excitement. So yeah, I hope I don’t run out of carving! Any ideas for another block I should prepare to carve this weekend?
December 13 will also be back-to-back events: first the aforementioned Block Printmaking Workshop at the library, after which I’ll rush home and jump right onto the Strong Women-Strange Worlds zoom for their annual Holiday Extravaganza. It’s six whole hours of bookish fun with authors of speculative fiction. There are MadLibs, Improv Storytelling, and more. I’ll be participating once again in Speed-Date a Book, in which Bitterweetness & Light will try to win a date with readers. It’s free, it’s available to anyone in the world with a zoom connection, and you can attend for as much or as little as you want. Plus, the Digital Swag Bag includes a brand new Round Robin anthology, a new Small Bites collection of flash fiction, poetry, art, and recipes, and downloads including coupon codes, ebooks, postcards, and coloring pages… And I’ve contributed to all of them!
Meanwhile you should check out my most recent poem… which isn’t really my poem, because it’s crowd-sourced from contributions by 90 people in my town. I took all the bits and pieces people contributed, came up with the organizing principle and some connective tissue, and wove everyone’s words together into another poem for the town: “The Sidewalks of Needham.” You can read it here.
And as soon as my December art activities are over, it will be time to clean the house for holiday guests! But for now, one step at a time. So I ask again: any ideas for another block I should prepare to carve this weekend?
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