Publisher's Notes

On Friday, I released chapter three of my book Paint Chips.  I am thrilled with the response, it is so much fun to hear from Readers especially when they tell you "hurry up with chapter four!"     Life has begun to heat up for the painting class ladies in the book, and just wait until you see how much it heats up.....    okay, that is all I'm saying for now, you will have to read it for yourselves to see how things unfold.  I am considering releasing the chapters every two weeks, we will see how that works out.

Last week I was contacted about designing something for a publication!   This is unbelievably exciting for me!    I have been wanting to work with other companies but just haven't gone out of my way to approach them.   I can't give you too much information until the design is done and accepted, but I can tell you that it is a BIG surface - 17 1/2 x 24 inches long and it is a Summer/Americana theme.   It is a short deadline so I'll be hybernating again until it is finished.  I will let you know when it is being released once I am able to.   SO excited.....

Yesterday I made a molten chocolate cake that you eat as soon as it comes out of the oven with vanilla ice cream on it.   OH MAN was it good!   There is a cake layer and then gooey chocolate runs out and the ice cream melts all over.  I will pay for that one tomorrow when I go to my cardio class but I was craving chocolate and that really did the trick!    AND I didn't get any complaints from Vic either (until he walked around holding his stomach and saying how sick he was from eating too much.)  Good stuff in the middle of a dreary winter.  

Time to get painting, so that's all for now.  Have a great week....................Tracy

In 2008, during my time of publsihing TPR as a newspaper, I had written and publsihed a story about an artist from Texas named Marty Caldwell.  She had won the Delta Creative Challenge and that was how I came to learn about her. 



We had conducted our interview over the phone because of logistics, (Marty was in Texas and I was in NH) but really enjoyed our conversation together.   That summer Vic and I went to the HOOT convention and we met Marty in person there.

    

(Tracy is on the left and Marty is on the right)

Marty is a very friendly woman and an extremely talented artist...just a lot of fun to be around.   We have kept in touch through email since then.  In November of 2009 Marty and her husband came to Massachusetts and Vic and I went into Boston and met them for dinner.  We had a really good time and it felt like we had been friends forever.   Decorative Painting has allowed me to meet great people that I probably wouldn't have met if it weren't for conventions and classes and such.

    Hobbies connect us with others and allow us some common ground to make new friends.   In classes we sit next to others and conversations start up.   Sometimes the common ground is poking fun at ourselves for not being able to get a technique quite right..... In one convention class my friend Leesa and I tried a new technique and found that it really wasn't for us.  We enjoyed ourselves just fine but laughed through the class at our inability to master the new method of painting.   (BUT we didn't blame the teacher).   In other classes we may make friends by being able to help the person sitting next to us or it may be that they help us.   I have seen people become friends just by discussing thier tools.  One woman had a brush that she loved and she let her neighbor try it out and before long they were going to lunch together.   One year I went out to a National convention alone.   I got off the plane in a foreign city without knowing another person.  Later during the trip I met some other ladies and was invited along to dinner and shopping with them. 



I hope your hobby brings new friendships into your future.     Tracy

Week two of January and it is FREEZING here!   And from watching the news around the nation, it seens that most of you are in the extreme cold too. 

I'm happy to say that my office/studio is back in order.  What a great feeling!   It had become such a mess over the past three months that I couldn't do another thing until I took time out and sorted, cleaned, organized and started over.  So I did just that.    Things are back in the places that they belong, lost orders are shipped out and my desk has been rearranged to a more efficient set-up.   (I love a fresh start)  

The experience of ending THE PAINTING RAG as a newspaper was an unpleasant one.  I had to remain positive and move forward with the new Club and continue with writing and painting.  If you think that creativity easily flows when you feel low, I can testify that it doesn't.  It took everything in me to push through the feeling of failure and disappointment.   I pushed myself harder than I ever have and found strength that I really shouldn't have had (thank you God).   But working on the Paint Chips book kept me focused on something fun and positive and the response to my Club has been WONDERFUL!   The reason that I bring this up is because last week a friend of mine sent me an email and told me to read an article titled "10 Things Not To Buy in 2010" by Smartmoney.com.   One of the things listed was newspaper subscriptions.  Here is an excerpt from the article

"In 2008, newspaper advertising revenues declined by 17.7%, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Meanwhile, average daily circulation at 379 newspapers fell 10.6% from April through September 2009, compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Magazines haven’t fared any better. In 2009, more than 360 magazines shut down. During the first half of 2009, ad pages fell 27.9% when compared to the same period in 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau."

to read more, visit  http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/budgeting/10-things-not-to-buy-in-2010/

Life as we know it is changing.  But that doesn’t have to mean for the worse.  Learning new things is good for all of us and if we push ourselves to overcome change and disappointment, we just may find out that things can turn out even better than before.   I’m a believer………Tracy

It’s over…. 2009 is over. 

For some it was a year that they are glad to leave behind and for others it was a year that they wish would last forever.  I don’t know where you fall with those categories, but turning a new year over on the calendar does feel like a new start, just like Cheryl felt, a character in my new book, Paint Chips.  (Join my email Club to read it.)

I like to look at the New Year and feel anticipation for GREAT things.  You see, I don’t know what this year will bring so there isn’t any reason to think that there won’t be great things ahead.

I have enjoyed all the writing that I have been doing and just love sharing it with my website readers. 

And I’ve been painting too.  Some of my best work ever…. I do believe (oh, if I’m allowed to say that)

I feel a little like a recluse lately because all I want to do is stay home and work….and the weather has been accommodating me with that too.  We have had so much snow, wind and cold since December began, it makes it real easy to stay home.  Besides, when I stay home I don’t spend money..Haha.   

Today Church was cancelled because of the snow, so we took down our Christmas tree and decorations and packed everything away.  (I miss the warmth of the lights already.)  Then I sat and watched movies on TV.  You’ve got Mail was on, I love that movie!!  I’ve seen it dozens of times and although I know the ending, I still find myself hoping that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan get together.  And then I cry at the end…of course.  (Sap) 

My email Club is a hit!   Members are joining every day, which is just wonderful!    And for three months now I have had the chance to give prizes away….so fun.

I encourage you to look over both TPR’s website and my website; I’m changing things on them all the time.  I know I haven’t been so good at updating this blog regularly but my New goal is to post an entry every week.   Yikes!  I’m going to do it, and I’ll let you hold me to it.  ….hey, with this entry I already have the first week of January done.

Be cool, stay warm and keep happy.   Tracy