ROSES ARE PLANTED, NOW THE BABYING BEGINS, THE BACK PORCH, BACK TO THE HANGMAN, OIL PAINTING

Well, I have to admit, thanks to my wonderful nephew, all the rose bushes have been planted.  I ended up with five bushes in the flower bed next to the house.  I have a variety of colors, a deep red at the south corner of the house, then a gold, a pure white, a lavender and last near the entrance another yellow/gold bush.  I ended up buying three climbing rose bushes.  Just inside the chain linked fence pink roses grow tall and each stem has multiply flowers on it.  To the east and in the middle of the fence my nephew planted the deep red climber.  On the fence next to road and the west, a white climber was planted.  I think it will look nice to go from the red to the pink and the white.  The other red climber was planted near the fence across from the front door.  I think I went a little crazy with the roses, but I do love them.  They will add beautiful color to the front yard and smell great, but not overwhelming, I hope.

The Forsythias were planted by the new fence area in the back yard to give it some bight color next to the beautiful lilac bushes for spring.  I have two shady flower beds to plant with something that will bloom all summer.  i do love flowers.  It is a work in progress.  And now we have snow predicted for this weekend.

I cleaned off the back porch today.  Arranged the chairs and enjoyed the fresh air.  Thanks to my wonderful nephew, the backyard is now secure and I can let the pups out without a leash.  They love to chase each other in the yard, then run to the porch for a break.  I have my flower care schedule on my calendar to make sure I don’t forget.  I am looking forward to the first new growth and the appearance of rose buds.  I do love to paint roses, ladybugs and most anything.

Now that the plants are in the ground, back to work on The Hangman and getting it finished this month.  I take a few hours break and complete the ladybug I’ve been working on.  I have so many novels to write and paintings to paint, I need more hours in my day.  Isn’t that the way it goes though, when you have multiple things you love to do.

Well folks, needless to say I am tired and it is late here at the foot of Pike’s Peak.  So it is off to bed.  Everyone have a great Friday and weekend.  If it snows, stay in, sit by the fireplace and have a hot toddy.  Stay safe.

Dreamah

 

A NEW YEAR, SETTING GOALS, OIL PAINTING, FUR BABIES

It is hard to believe there are only two days left in 2015.  It was a year of discovery for me.  I learned so much about perfecting my craft of writing and oil painting.  Patience.  That word applies especially in writing and even more so in oil painting.  In writing, we always want to get to the end of the story.  Sometimes that doesn’t work so well.  It was evident with my novel THE STONE KILLER.  Yes, the original story I felt was good, but I left out important information.  The revised edition is a better novel.  Redoing THE STONE KILLER bit into my work time for THE HANGMAN.  With this novel, I’m taking it slow and making sure each step of the investigation is completed.  Also I’m revealing more about my characters.  Or anyway, I hope I have.  If I haven’t I do want you, the reader, to let me know.  Send me an e-mail and tell me what you want to learn about my characters.  I’m slowly whittle away at my stack of novel outlines for the Jonas Black series.  I have so many murder and mayhem stories to write as well as a pile of romantic suspense stories I want to tell.  I just don’t have enough hours in a day to get everything done I want to do.  Those are some of my goals for 2016.

Also I want to complete enough painting to have a show somewhere here in Colorado Springs.  I finished my painting of the ladybug.  Right now I’m working to complete a beautiful dragonfly.  I know, I like bugs.  Certain insects are beautiful to me, especially butterflies and dragonflies.  I do like to paint flowers with some type of critter in the painting.  My sister, who asked me to paint her blue morning glories, made me promise not to put a bug in her painting.  I kept my word.  But boy was I tempted to add an ant on the trellis.  I have a stack of photos I want to paint of birds, flower, mountain scenes, seascapes and too many to list.    Like I said, not enough hour for me to get it all done and take care of the fur babies, the house, the laundry and too many other things to list.  My fur babies are #1 on that list.  They’re my kids and mean the world to me.

Well everyone have a great day and stay safe.  Set reasonable goals for 2016, ones you can achieve, one step at a time.

Dreamah

THE HANGMAN, OIL PAINTING, BEING EX-MILITARY, BEING A WORKAHOLIC, BEING A WRITING

Well, Jonas Black and Morgan Jansen have a new killer to find in THE HANGMAN.  Of course, I can’t leave out the ghost of Marilyn, I’ve become very fond of that bad girl.  The storyline is coming along nicely, but as with any novel, I always have a lot of research to do.  You can only take so much literary license with the facts before it become obvious you didn’t do your homework.  I like to do my homework and meet the people representing the work my characters do.

 

As you all are aware, I took time off to work on an oil painting of Cooper, the beloved deceased dog of my nephew and his wife.  It is finished and delivered.  Now I was asked by my friend Shirley to finish the painting her husband started before he was killed in a motorcycle accident.  I am working to preserved the work that Bill did on the painting and only add the necessary shadows and highlights to complete it.  It will always be Bill’s painting and have his name on the canvas.  He did 85% of the painting and he deserves the credit for his work.  He would have been an outstanding artist.  I will always miss him.  I was so lucky to meet and get to know Shirley and Bill.  I just wish we could have had more time.  I guess God needed a good man in heaven.

Having served almost five years in the USAF, I am thankful for the training I received in the military.  Serving in the military gave me solid work ethics to the point that I guess I’m almost a workaholic.  Okay, Okay!  I am a workaholic.  I enjoy working at things I love to do, writing, painting, meeting friends and having long afternoon discussions, research and learning something new.  Yesterday, I took off and spent most of the day with my friends.  We had lunch at the Country Buffet and then drove to the west side to have coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts.  Then we remembered that catty-cornered to my friend’s house is this nice coffee shop where we could have gone.  Oh well, next time.

My workaholic ways serves me well as a writer.  There are days that will work from early morning until late afternoon.  I have worked at writing staring at the computer screen until my eyeballs hurt but I got a lot of writing done.  Hopefully being a workaholic will help me to get THE HANGMAN finished that much sooner.

Well folks, back to work.  Everyone have a great day and stay safe.

Dreamah

THE STONE KILLER, OIL PAINTING, NEARING COMPLETION, SNOW ON THE PEAK, CHILLY WEATHER

I would ask everyone who has purchased THE STONE KILLER, if you like the story, please write a review on Amazon.com.  And thank you for buying our novel.

 

 

 

I am working on the next book in the series, THE HANGMAN.  I guess killing off bad people on paper is my niche.  Anyway, that is the attitude of my killer in THE HANGMAN.  He hates injustice and decides to do something about it.  His life was hell for a long time and he is haunted by what happen in his past and all that he lost.   He feels he should dish out the justice he was never given.

I

 

I am happy to say that I am in the final stages on my oil painting.  Once is it completed, I will post a photo of it.  I have so many to finish, but they will be completed.  My next work will be on a landscape for my dear friend, Shirley.  Then on to all the painting that need finished, one by one until they are done.

Well, we had snow on top of Pike’s Peak today.  Not a lot, but enough to show.  A cold front is moving through this evening and the temperature is dropping into the thirties tonight.  I feed a little outside stray that I’ve been trying to get to come into the house.  She isn’t ready yet and I worry she will get too cold.  I’ll keep trying to coax her inside.  I hope to get her into the house before it snows.

I hope all of you have a great evening and a better tomorrow.  Remember, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER.  And yes, I know the saying is from the movie Galaxy Quest, as someone just had to point out to me.  It is still a great motto and I have adopted it as my own.  Keep writing folks.

Don’t forget to give our novel, THE STONE KILLER a read.  I think you will like it.

The best to you all.

Dreamah

OIL PAINTING, ODORLESS MEDIUM, WRITING, HEADACHES,

I’m sure I’ve blogged or posted on Facebook that I’m working on an oil painting of an animal.  Later on, I want to finish the head of a lion from a picture I found somewhere.   The picture to the left is of the start of the painting which I began some time ago.  Also is the picture of my duck which my art teacher bought right off my easel before it was dry.   If you’ve ever tried to paint animal fur, it is done one hair at a time, first the dark colors are applied all over the animal.  You have what looks like a big blotchy mess on your canvas that looks like a child’s attempt at painting.  Maybe a child could do it better.  Anyway, you work from dark to the lightest light, one stroke at a time.  I have a few brushed that are designed for painting hair or fur, but I find laying in one hair at a time, while time-consuming, is the best method.  And, believe me, if your art studio is on the smaller side, mine has a bed and nightstand in it, you use an odorless turpentine or medium to work with.  If you don’t, I feel sorry for you.  Even listed as odorless, it still has a faint smell to it.  I am glad I have a window to open in my studio.  Everything is organized for easy painting in my studio and I love it.

Laying in your dark colors first in an oil painting, building house, or any project, is like writing a novel.  You have to have a good foundation to build on to make the painting or a story work.  The two are similar in many ways.

I haven’t done much writing over this past week due to continual headaches.  My doctor tells me it is caused by my clenching my teeth at night and during the day which is inflaming my TMJ joints.  I don’t even realize I’m doing it.  So tonight, I’m taking  a muscle relaxer to see if it will help.  So since Titan is pacing the floor wanting me to go to bed, I’m headed in that direction.

Don’t forget folks, THE STONE KILLER is available on amazon.com/dp/B00NBB8SZO  as an e-book or in paperback.   Give it a read and let us know what you think.  We’d appreciate it.

Everyone take care and stay safe.

Dreamah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY MOTTO, OIL PAINTING, MARKETING IDEAS, THE OVERWHELMING TASK, MURDER AND MAYHEM

I have preached my motto, never give up, never surrender,  to you all since we uploaded our first novel, A CIRCLE OF MURDERS.  I firmly believe in that motto, and will continue to believe as I continue to work to succeed as an author.  But being a writer is a daunting task in the effort for all self published authors to market of our books.  Sometimes coming up with ideas to promote THE STONE KILLER and our other novels leaves me too mentally exhausted to even look at my computer screen.  I have read most blogs and suggestions on the Internet from others how to market.  I have contacted newspapers, television stations, book stores about book signings and emailed everyone I know and some I didn’t know telling where to buy the book and what it is about.   And if they buy it, and enjoy the story, please tell your friends about it and to buy it.

Why is it when you say you are a self published author that some people automatically think, “well, she couldn’t find a traditional publisher so her book can’t be very good”.  I see it in the expression on people’s faces and it pisses me off.  Granted there are poorly written books out there, but for God’s sake, don’t put a person down because they self publish before you read their work.  Even the poorly written book deserve acknowledgement for that writer’s effort.  I will not give anyone a bad review.  If you don’t like an author’s work, keep your mouth shut and let us decide for ourselves.

There are a great number of outstanding authors out there who self publish.  They do it because traditional publishers take forever to get a book out on the market, don’t want to spend the money to promote a book and don’t want to give an author a decent percentage of sales.   It doesn’t mean we can’t write.  It only means we want a decent pay for our efforts.  And yes, I hope I can consider myself a good authors who tells a riveting story.

Literary agents are missing the boat by not considering self published authors.  All they have to do is look inside the book on Amazon or any of the other sites to discover how well an author can write.  They should buy it, they might like it.  How well a book sell on self publishing sites is only indicative of how much marketing has been done.

Anyway, I’m off my soapbox for the evening.

Our books are about murder and mayhem, Jonas Black hunts down the evil wrecking havoc in his town and tried to give justice to those who have been wronged.  On my computer, I have outlined and started four more of the Jonas Black books in the series, THE HANGMAN, THE SNATCHER, THE ADVENGER, THE GARDNER plus brief sketches of others stories.

I have been working most of the day on an oil painting. The painting at the left is on a 30 x 48 canvas and was created for a Christmas contest where I used to work.  It is of Billie from the Polar Express movie and now hangs on the wall at my sister’s house in Kentucky.  It was a gift to my sister’s husband because he liked the painting so much and watches the Polar Express every Christmas.

Creating a painting gives my mind a break from keeping track of all the minute details in the storyline of a novel.  It is relaxing and tiring at the same time.  Most of my photographs for painting I want to do are loaded onto my tablet.  I worked so long today, I ran the battery down.  I hope to have this painting finished by Monday at the latest.  There is a lot of detail work that has to be applied in layers.  When it is finished, before I deliver it to the person it’s for, I’ll take a picture and post it in a blog.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Have a great Sunday and stay safe.  Keep writing,  NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER.

Dreamah

 

 

 

OIL PAINTING, NEW BOOK COVER FOR THE HANGMAN, SADNESS, TOO MANY GONE,

First, my oil painting is coming along great.  Second, here is the new cover for the next book in the Jonas Black series, THE HANGMAN.  We were going to call the book THE RECKONING, but since we named the first one after the killer, we decided to continue the practice.  Please let us know your opinion on the title and on the book cover.  It was this cover or one of a man descending into the fires of hell.  We like this one, but we do value your opinion.

As we have always maintained, the name Dreamah H. Lockwood is a pseudonym for my sister and I.  We write under that name in memory of our sister Dreamah who died on September 13, 2012.  Maybe that is why I have felt so sad most of the day.  Tomorrow or today, depending on where you live, is the anniversary of her death.  I hate that she is gone.  But too many of my family have died.  Most of the months of the year are marked by the death of someone we have loved and lost. Years ago, in March, we lost our father.  April was for me the loss of a dear friend and coworker.  2005 was a hell of a year on us.  May took our mother, June a longtime friend, July a niece and the following July, a beloved nephew, August, is the anniversary of our youngest sister’s death, she died some time ago, September was the father of my great nephews.  October , we got a reprieve from death.  But November 2005, death claimed another sister as well as a friend.  December claimed my dog, and a brother-in-law.  And so this year in July, the loss of another dear friend in a motorcycle accident.  Sometimes I feel as if my heart will break it has so many holes in it.

We put a lot of emotional experiences into our novels.  If you read any of our books, we try to fill them with the hope of the lost finding their way home, justice for the victims, or our family overcoming death by letting us know they still watch over us.

I know my mother and sisters still watch over me.  When I am ill or down in the dumps, I can smell my one’s sister’s cigarettes.  She chain smoked and it eventually killed her.  When I have the odor of cigarettes, mixed with the scent of my mother’s White Shoulders cologne and I am not feeling well, you guessed it, the combination makes me feel worse.  Sometimes, I can smell Dreamah’s perfume; she only used L’Air du Temps.  It is light and airy and smells wonderful.  I don’t use cologne or perfumes.  Everything I use is unscented because I worked in a hospital and cologne and scented creams can make a patient feel sicker as well as your co-workers.

Anyway, I wouldn’t ask them not to come and watch over me no matter how much their perfumes or cigarette odor makes me feel.    These odors are a comfort to me when I feel rotten and down.  So keep haunting me mom and sisters.  Always let me know you are still with me.  I miss you all so very much.

Don’t let anyone tell you that time will heal the loss of a loved one.  That wound is always there, all time does is help us learn to cope.  There are still tears that get shed and that missing piece of our heart doesn’t heal, it only scars over.  Tears are healthy so let them flow.  Know that our loved ones are always around and watching over us.  Believe it, I do.

Everyone, have a great weekend, keep writing and stay safe.

Dreamah

FORMATTING, THE STONE KILLER, WRITING, EYEBALLS HURT, OIL PAINTING, CLEANING AND LAUNDRY, COLD WEATHER

Don’t you just love it when you’re in the process of formatting a book to upload and you keep screwing it up.  That’s what has been happening with me in formatting THE STONE KILLER to upload to CreateSpace.  It’s just a matter of completing this simple task and the book will be ready to be available a paperback.  I think I’ve been pushing myself so hard to get things done, my brain needs a break.  I know I have worked staring at this computer screen until my eyeballs actually hurt.  Time to back off for a day.

Well, I went into my art studio to work on an oil painting that is close to being finished.  I thought I needed to dust.  I have three cats and it’s so much fun to be working on a painting and find cat hairs in your oil paint.  The dusting led to the floor, which led to cleaning the bedroom, the bathroom, the office, living room, kitchen and doing the laundry.  By the time I finished, I’d cleaned the entire house and done all the laundry, even my critter’s beds.  They love their beds fresh and clean and smelling of lavender.  By that time, I had to shower and put on clean clothes before collapsing in my recliner, too tired to even thing of picking up a paint brush.  As the old saying goes, the best laid plan of mice and men somehow go astray.   Mine did, but I have a clean house and all my laundry is done.

Don’t forget folks, THE STONE KILLER is available on Amazon.com in the Kindle edition for the moment until I can upload the paperback edition.

I can’t believe that we have a cold front on the way to Colorado for Friday.  It was chilly this morning, in the forties.  The low tonight is predicted to be in the thirties.  I guess I need to turn on the heat for tonight.  The high for tomorrow is to be fifty.  Chilly, but not bad.  Some areas have a prediction of snow flurries.  This is September.  It’s too early for snow at this time of year.  Oh, well, the ski resorts will love it.

Everyone have a great day and stay safe.

Dreamah

 

 

FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE, COLD, COLORADO BLUE SKY, CHARACTERS, THE STONE KILLER

Well it was another beautiful day here in Colorado Springs.  The mountains were clear and the sky was that gorgeous turquoise blue.  The temperature was close to 50, and possibly hit 50 today.  It was warm enough to go out without a coat.  Of course, I always keep an extra coat in the car.  I drove to a Mexican restaurant and had Chicken Enchiladas.  They were good, not the best I’ve eaten, but good,

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I am also an artist.  I work in oil paint so a run to Michaels for odorless turpentine was in order.  I haven’t completed a painting since my return to Colorado.  I’ve started a winter scene, but it is not finished.  My focus has been on completing my novels.  I plan to pick one day a week to work on my paintings.  I have several works that need to be completed.  The rest of my time will be devoted to writing.  The cherry blossoms painting is one of mine.  The photograph is not that great.

I did write almost 900 words last night.  So the book is progressing and the characters are talking to me again.  The one thing I have learned as a writer is that you can’t predict how many pages or how many words a novel will be.  We write until the story is complete.  So I set a goal of so many words to write per day and continue until the novel is done.  So I will continue on.

I guess that cold/flu(?) still has me feeling tired.  So I am off to bed.  This is a short post tonight.  So everyone take care of yourselves and stay safe.

Until we talk again, I wish you the best.