February 16th through 22nd, 2014
Note (3/13/14): The formatting problem in this post has been fixed!
Week eight was a week of worrying, experimentation and a bit of the same old but fun stuff.
Crafting a query letter is stressful and invigorating and can cause heaps of anxiety. I've been working on the pitch for the first series of query letters for my third manuscript, and it does not get any easier no matter how often I do this. I am so thankful that the internet is replete with examples of published authors' query letters, as well as advice and workshops about how to write a decent pitch. I try to follow their advice, but there's ultimately no way of knowing what'll work until I send out the queries and wait for responses. In the meantime, I obsess over every word and turn of phrase. What if that sentence was too vague? What if that sentence gave away too much? What if that phrase needed more dynamic modifiers? What if names and pronouns are used too often and I should have trimmed them down or cut them out? What if my entire pitch is boring? What if I should have phrased all of it in some other way?
In other news, I'll be attending the Spring Arts and Crafts Festival at the Shadows-on-the-Teche, New Iberia, Louisiana on March 8th. I'll be sharing a booth with two artists. Natalie Bourque makes homemade soaps, body sprays and flea shampoo for pets, while Dawn Darbonne makes quilts, table runners, handbags, messenger bags and other bags.
I've been working on more necklace designs that can be done in different custom colors. Sometimes, those color options are available in the bead thread colors; other times, the beads themselves can be substituted for similar beads in other colors.
I've been working on a good fleur-de-lys bead design for rings. I've spent a lot of time in Photoshop creating one square stitch design after another. I've also been learning about ring sizes, and I've discovered that other countries have very different ideas of how to label those sizes. Thankfully, many online suppliers simplify matters by sticking with millimeter measurements. I did some shopping on Etsy and found rings in a few different sizes, and I placed an order for some of them, so I'll soon have a good inventory of beaded rings.
The only thing I did on the blog during week eight was my week-in-review post for week seven, in which I talk more about beading projects, custom jewelry designs, and new prints I've made available on DeviantArt. Speaking of DeviantArt, I posted a few more photo prints and pictures of beaded pieces over there during week eight.
"Puff" is the name I've come up with for the magnesite pendant previously shown in my very first photo journal. Check out the photo journal to see how I made the pendant.
"Poppies" and "Poppies - 2" show two ways to wear a necklace comprised of a couple of one-bobbin pendants. Both pendants originally appeared in a necklace with three pendants.
"Branching Paths" is the newest beaded jewelry piece out of the group posted on DeviantArt. Made earlier this month out of glass and nickel, it is my third beaded ring.
As for photographs, I posted "St. John's Belltower", another of my favorite shots of the cathedral in Lafayette, Louisiana. "Steeple in the Clouds" offers a view of a chapel, also found in Lafayette, against a background of the sky. I also decided to post some views of the Seine waterfront that I'd debated posting for a while: "Napoleon's Bridge - 2" shows the uncropped photo, "Napoleon's Bridge" shows the cropped edit I prefer, and "Parisian" is a cropped version of a second photo taken of the same view.
Note (3/13/14): The formatting problem in this post has been fixed!
Week eight was a week of worrying, experimentation and a bit of the same old but fun stuff.
Crafting a query letter is stressful and invigorating and can cause heaps of anxiety. I've been working on the pitch for the first series of query letters for my third manuscript, and it does not get any easier no matter how often I do this. I am so thankful that the internet is replete with examples of published authors' query letters, as well as advice and workshops about how to write a decent pitch. I try to follow their advice, but there's ultimately no way of knowing what'll work until I send out the queries and wait for responses. In the meantime, I obsess over every word and turn of phrase. What if that sentence was too vague? What if that sentence gave away too much? What if that phrase needed more dynamic modifiers? What if names and pronouns are used too often and I should have trimmed them down or cut them out? What if my entire pitch is boring? What if I should have phrased all of it in some other way?
In other news, I'll be attending the Spring Arts and Crafts Festival at the Shadows-on-the-Teche, New Iberia, Louisiana on March 8th. I'll be sharing a booth with two artists. Natalie Bourque makes homemade soaps, body sprays and flea shampoo for pets, while Dawn Darbonne makes quilts, table runners, handbags, messenger bags and other bags.
I've been working on more necklace designs that can be done in different custom colors. Sometimes, those color options are available in the bead thread colors; other times, the beads themselves can be substituted for similar beads in other colors.
I've been working on a good fleur-de-lys bead design for rings. I've spent a lot of time in Photoshop creating one square stitch design after another. I've also been learning about ring sizes, and I've discovered that other countries have very different ideas of how to label those sizes. Thankfully, many online suppliers simplify matters by sticking with millimeter measurements. I did some shopping on Etsy and found rings in a few different sizes, and I placed an order for some of them, so I'll soon have a good inventory of beaded rings.
The only thing I did on the blog during week eight was my week-in-review post for week seven, in which I talk more about beading projects, custom jewelry designs, and new prints I've made available on DeviantArt. Speaking of DeviantArt, I posted a few more photo prints and pictures of beaded pieces over there during week eight.
"Puff" is the name I've come up with for the magnesite pendant previously shown in my very first photo journal. Check out the photo journal to see how I made the pendant.
"Poppies" and "Poppies - 2" show two ways to wear a necklace comprised of a couple of one-bobbin pendants. Both pendants originally appeared in a necklace with three pendants.
"Branching Paths" is the newest beaded jewelry piece out of the group posted on DeviantArt. Made earlier this month out of glass and nickel, it is my third beaded ring.
As for photographs, I posted "St. John's Belltower", another of my favorite shots of the cathedral in Lafayette, Louisiana. "Steeple in the Clouds" offers a view of a chapel, also found in Lafayette, against a background of the sky. I also decided to post some views of the Seine waterfront that I'd debated posting for a while: "Napoleon's Bridge - 2" shows the uncropped photo, "Napoleon's Bridge" shows the cropped edit I prefer, and "Parisian" is a cropped version of a second photo taken of the same view.
Comments
Post a Comment