Publisher's Notes

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