Updates and Good Reads

Good afternoon friends. I hope that this is finding you all doing well, happy and healthy. It's been a bit since my last post...I am sorry for that. Up until yesterday, I am not afraid to say that I have been struggling a bit. It's been a difficult road for me to put the events of the last month behind me. I just have not been able to find a way to let go of my sadness over my Dads passing, but something clicked yesterday. I am actually not sure what it was, however, I am feeling better. This is not over by a long shot, I know. My Mom reminded me that this is all very fresh and we all grieve in different ways. I have found that to be true in the last few days. I haven't been alright...not by a long shot. Having said that, I really haven't told anyone that except for a small group of people. By small, I mean, 3. So, I am sure that I have looked odd to most in the past few weeks.

I actually shut myself in the house for the past 2 days. I have backed away from friends. It was so bad on Tuesday night, that I actually had to take matters into my own hands. I knew I had to find a way to get past this part in the grieving process. So, I wrote all my feelings out. Everything...out there. It seemed to help. I woke up yesterday and felt lighter. Today, much lighter and I came up with a plan. I have to do something to pull myself up and out. Besides going to work every day which is just basically going through the motions, I have to expand on my art. I have to find new projects, plan new shoots, work on new photos, finish my own edits on my 2nd manuscript. I have to.

So, I am beginning today. I have ordered a new camera and I am going to be offering a special on mini sessions. I will post those details soon. I have plans to work on my edits starting next week and I have started working on photos again. I know that I will never get over this, but then neither will my family or my Mother. I have faith that it will get better though. I am posting some photos below that I have been working on. Let me know what you think. Also, my book was added to Good Reads. This  is a great place to share your love of reading and books. It's a great place to rate, review and recommend books to your friends and others on the site. So, check it out!

I will sign off for now, but keep your comments and emails coming. I would love to hear all about your goings on...how you are enjoying fall. Even if its to tell me how much you love pumpkin spice anything, lol. Life is short my friends. Connecting to our fellow human is what keeps us alive. Enjoying new experiences. I have found that shutting ones self off, starts to kill your soul. So, lets connect! The topic is fall anything :) Go!

Have a wonderful evening!
Anna
Artfully Odd

Brace Yourselves...Fall is On it's Way!

As the popular meme says, "Brace yourselves...Pumpkin flavored everything is coming!" This makes me giggle. Like really giggle. You know that kind of giggle where you actually snort and then, surprised by said snort, you begin to giggle all over again. The reason for the laughter is mostly because I am one of those people who loves most pumpkin anything. I will have pumpkin coffee, tea, late, cake, pie...heck, even my car air freshener will be pumpkin spice! Raise your hands if you belong to the club. Don't try to hide...you there, in the back...you have pumpkin on your face! Raise your hand.

So, what is it about fall that brings out our never ending craving for the large gourd? (Or is it a fruit? I have never been clear on that. I could look it up, but I figure that those of you who actually read this, will do it for me and inform us all.) And while we are at it, don't you think it's strange that once September and October are gone, the craving disappears only to come back in spurts here and there? That is one sneaky gourd! (Again, see above. Come on people, don't let me down!) All I know is that once I see one yellow or red leaf, I am a pumpkin goner!

Now, I should clarify...I only want to devour pumpkin foods and the occasional car freshener. Place a pumpkin candle on my table, light it and I could very well vomit. Seems a bit extreme right? I think that every time the revulsion rolls off of me and I have no plausible explanation. To any doctors out there that may be reading this...thoughts?

But I digress...Fall is also one of the best and my most favorite time to shoot landscapes. There is something magical about all the reds, golds and oranges that sway in the breeze and dance in the sun. My camera will be glued to my side in a week or so. Thoughts of having it surgically attached to me so that it can be ready at all times, crosses my mind...but then I think, nah, better not, lol! I am not wishing summer away, (Winter=Boo), but I can't wait to get out there and capture some of natures beauty. So, what are we waiting for?

Oh yea...Mother Nature. She's so beautiful, so who minds the wait!

AMP
Artfully Odd

Fall Things & Synopsis for New Manuscript

Hello and happy almost Halloween to you all! I hope that this fall season is making you all feel right at home. We have certainly been getting the most of the season, especially with Buzz's vacation. Headed to Vermont on Saturday and I am super excited about that as I have never been before. Hoping to get in some of the local culture as well as getting some covered bridges photographed. What I could do without though are the increasingly colder temps. I am not ready to let winter in, but I had better get used to it quick. They say it will come to us earlier, like November earlier!!! Just in case, I have gotten all my sweaters out of storage and I just finished all of my winter shopping this past week. So, I think I might be ready. How about you?

Anyway, if you follow me on FB, you know that I recently finished my second manuscript last month. It was quite a milestone for me, as my last manuscript was written with a friend. While that was an amazing experience in itself, this was just lil' ole me! It was requested by some folks interested in it, that I write a synopsis. I am posting that below so you can see what I have been up to and hopefully you will like it. I have often said that writing is such a personal thing to me, (to all writers I know), and having your work well received is an amazing feeling. So, I hope this peaks your interest a bit. Should have some news on it soon. I have also begun the start of a new manuscript and have 6 chapters into it so far. I am enjoying the feeling of accomplishment that I get from writing and sharing it with you is awesome. Oh yea, I still don't have a title yet. Any thoughts?  Ok, enough of that....

Again, I hope that your fall is a warm one. I hope that your dreams are coming true and if not, that's ok my friends. There's always tomorrow :) Sometimes it's hard to keep on moving forward, sometimes it's hard to have hope and on those days, give yourself a break. No one is perfect, (this is something that I am learning now, lol) and things don't happen overnight, as much as we would like them too. But one day, you will get there...no matter what your goal is. Here's to dreams my friends!!!!

Synopsis of

Serena Blaine, free-lance history writer, raven haired beauty is an average girl living a single life in Phoenix AZ and she is looking for love. Not just a one night stand kind of love and not her all-consuming shoe lust kind of love…the kind of love that steals her breath away and has her begging for more. The kind of love that she has been unlucky with her whole dating life. She knows it’s out there somewhere, it just doesn’t know her address.

Forming crushes on her current assignments tends to be the norm for her. She can always find something romanticize about them, but there is always one exception. THE father of the American Revolution.  You know, that guy…George Washington…Love him! As her assignment on him for History and Times magazine drags on, weird things start to happen. Serena starts to believe that she has traveled to the past and actually met the man. In her travels, they start a passionate affair that brings her quest for love to an end. She finds that all-consuming love that she has been searching for and a man who is a very sexy and in charge lover. His very touch brings a response from her body that she has never known before. Not at all what history books have written about him.  Becoming his confidant, his soul mate, she helps him with insights to the war that come with her knowledge of the future.

Then suddenly, proof of her love surfaces in the present and her whole world is turned upside down. The pull of the past proves too strong when her single girl life in the present is halted due to a car accident. In a deep coma surrounded by family in the future, will she decide to stay in the present or return to her love in the past? Is she in the reality that history has taught her or has she transported to an alternate reality where her life with the dashing General is an accepted one? 

Anna
Artfully Odd Photos