Pizzaface Time

Biscuit     Oil on Canvas,  by Mix Hart

This is Biscuit. He's a yellow-bellied marmot and a character in my middle years fiction novel. He  makes an appearance in all three novels of the Peter Not- Pizzaface series. He is the pet of a character named Hippy. The novels are fantasy, action, adventure and humour. They take place in the wondrous and thrilling, BC wilderness. The protagonist is an eleven year old boy and the other main characters are strong girls and women.

I've had a crazy month of writing day and night and attending writing conferences, meeting with agents etc. My literary novel, Queen of the Godforsaken is finished. So now I am moving on to self-editing my middle years novels.

I am not using my paintings in my middle years novels. However,  I painted portraits of a few of the characters to breathe life into the fantasy world I've created. The portraits are painted in black and white (for possible publishing).

Life is about selling myself, lately. I am selling my talents, my novels, my Club Zen class.
I am going to reward myself with time to paint again soon too. Once my middle years series are edited, I am completing my picture book,  A Pug Named Pru. It is a very beautiful picture book with elaborate, oil painting illustrations (by moi).  All of my children's books have themes of the sacredness of nature, human kindness, feminism and adventure throughout them.
As hard as it is, I love this whole writing world. I'm really enjoying the process. 

Christmas Concert Collage

A few pics from the numerous Christmas concerts we attended these past few weeks.

Have had little time to blog this week. I am on twitter and facebook and blogger so my social media time is split.

Must meet with ethics board on Monday and fight for my study. They said no--too much deception. But it is because it is so new and ground breaking that no one understands the online social research and I must educate them. Will come prepared for the meeting with APA online guidelines. 

All I can say is I am insanely busy with my darling children and my thesis work. Decided I have a long way to go on my MA so am putting off conferences until next fall. Except for the grad student conference--I can present my thesis in process so I will do that this spring. I am loving academic life though. Seriously considering a PhD. I really want to be involved in the global literacy of women and I believe a PhD will give me the platform to make a difference and get involved in a larger level with some big literacy international orgs. Will see though. Baby steps. MA first then if I do a Ph.D. it will be in creative writing. As I love to write! The thing that I find the most difficult about a full time painting career is the social isolation. I am so social--I need to feel connected--all day alone in a studio spells HELL to me. I love to paint but on a smaller scale. I LOVE people too much.

Barefoot Salsa Running

Fernando and Pip.

Stop the press. I am rewriting the entire Queen. Looked at it yesterday and I was hooked. I love writing it. All I want to do is lock myself in my office from dawn to dusk. If I were a man--no doubt I would. But I am a woman and I just cannot do that. It is a good thing because that life style would really mess with my body and brain. My children keep me grounded.
My mom is up the street looking after Miranda's girls while M & J are away with work.
I already have been sent a syllabus to my next class--looks like a lot of research writing. I'd forgotten how good it felt to be done all of my classes for my MA.
Weekend trips to Kamloops and Nelson ahead--before school starts. So much to do--must sign myself and my girls up for our fall lessons: skating, choir, tap and latin dance.

Oh...this is SOOO cute!  Fernando is waiting outside my office door for me at the moment, and looking out the floor length window. Mist and Pip just came down here and said that a baby chipmunk was sitting on the other side of the window and looking in at Fernando as he looked out. It ran when it saw my girls.

Beach day today and then "The Return of Nanny McFee" tonight with my little gals.
Feeling better today. Just got back from a morning run with 'Nando and my ipod. I felt so happy to be out running in the sunshine, listening to my music that I was literally running with a smile on my face and doing the odd little salsa step while 'Nando watered the trees..

Sweet September Summer

Bear Creek hike with my gals and Fernando.
Both Mist and Tabs are home today. Tabs has a wee temp and feels cold. Mist is battling a double ear infection and chest cough post flu.
I am off to collect a ceramic pink poodle from the 1950's that I won at a silent auction. I bid very little and was surprised and delighted to have won.
Then it is work. More thesis planning, lit review and starting my first paper for class.
Pip told me last night, "I Love school mom!" She is so dear. My heart melts every time I look at her. And her little conversations with Artemis are too precious! The sincerity, earnestness of it all...I am a puddle again.
Up  before dawn to hike the back of the mountain with M and Fernando. It is a satisfyingly exhausting hike.
My foot is infected after I stepped on a thistle. After two weeks of pain I finally did my own surgery and extracted a thistle this morning. But the foot still hurts, so I am thinking that there are more. I always go everywhere in the yard, neighborhood in bare feet, so I guess this is to be expected.
I'm going to attend a new Buddhist meditation this Thursday evening with a new monk. I am always open to finding the right fit.
I discovered the Perfect PhD program at the U of Calgary, the only one in Canada to offer an English creative dissertation program, and the more info I find out about it, the more perfect it is for me--now I just have to get into it somehow! And when to do it? Ideally I'd start next Sept, but that might be pushing it. I'm not ready to apply yet--I need my master's dissertation for that step!