Another Brilliant Idea Crushed by Reality

I had this grandiose plan to make my own silicone stamps for my planner. I knew exactly what I wanted and all I needed was time to sit down with my graphics program and make the images.

I'd found a video on YouTube about how to do it, so I was set. Piece of cake.

Yeah. Right.

Sadly, my graphics skills failed me. They're rudimentary at best, but trying to put together the check-ins I was looking for was beyond me. I tried. And tried. And I failed.

I went with a different plan and bought rubber stamps with the icons I wanted. I would have preferred self-inking stamps because I seriously have trouble with inking, but those were $10 per stamp. The rubber ones were slightly over $2. Big difference, especially when I was looking at about half a dozen.

So disappointing, but I've had a new brainstorm. I'm going to make my own stamps for my book journal! Those would just be words, not images, and I'm sure I can type them successfully in my graphics program. The only problem will be getting the size right. I figure printing them out will solve that issue, so I should be able to handle this.

But this is a project for future me. Stay tuned.

Phone Wallpaper

I'm easily bored and I'm frequently changing the wallpaper on my phone's lock screen. It was endlessly frustrating to search online because I was frequently disappointed with what I found.

So (and my regular readers know where this is going) I thought I can make my own!

I had some quotes on my white board that I liked, and I created a few images that I use on my phone. Then, while I was searching for blog topics, my friends suggested I share my phone wallpaper. And I thought, hey, why not?

First caveat: I am unable to provide tech support.

Second caveat: Do not sell these in any way. If you want to share it with someone else, please give them the link to this blog, rather than sending the file.

I think all you should need to do is tap the image to open it full size and then save it to your phone. Then do whatever you normally do with your wallpaper. I have an iPhone and have no clue what Android users do. ::shrug::

Anyway, the first one is my Gen X favorite. The other two are quotes. I think the first one, about the brick walls, is from a talk given by a professor who was dying of cancer. I can't think of his name right now and that means I can't link to the YouTube video of his lecture. The second quote? I have no idea where I saw/heard that, but it really resonated for me. It's my current wallpaper.

Images

When I write, I hear words, but I don't necessarily have a clear picture of setting. I like to be grounded as I draft out a scene and so I search online for pictures that fit what I'm writing. I'll keep that image up until my characters leave the location. I've shared some of these pictures on my Facebook author page.

I wish I could see scenes in my head. That I could block how and where my characters move within the location, but I don't get movies. Some authors do. What I get is words--not only dialogue, but also a character's interior monologue as well.

There are pictures for characters, too. I usually have a sense of what they look like and search online until I find the right image to represent them. This can take days, even weeks, of scrolling through modeling sites.

Sometimes they surprise me. For example Ryder Pienkowski from Wicked Obsession. He's obviously Polish, so that's the guy I'm looking for. Hours and hours over days of searching and I stumble across this Italian model. That's when he let's me know he's half Italian. Really? You couldn't share this with me before I wasted all these evenings scrolling through pictures? Luckily for me, I found Langley's inspiration image quickly.

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Since Finn's story (Wicked Intention) was supposed to be the first in the series, I'd already had images of him and his heroine. Those remained the same, but after writing Wicked Obsession and getting a better grasp on the characters, I had to go looking for pictures again for the hero of Wicked Salvation. (That's the story after Finn.) Found him! (He's hot!)

But it's the place locations where I really, really need images. The algorithms on Google Image Search must be so confused by my search history. :-)

The Work In Progress

I have created a pin board for the Work In Progress (WIP). I'm calling it The Proposal In Progress because that's a bit more accurate at this point. I haven't put pictures of my hero or heroine up on the board yet, but I do have setting pictures up and an outfit (including cute boots) that my heroine will be wearing when the story opens (I think. I'm still struggling with a beginning.)

As I work my way through this story, I'll add more pictures to the board. I usually only look as I need things and I never know what I'm going to want until I'm about ready to write it.

Pinned!

I'm on Pinterest now!  For those of you unfamiliar with it, Pinterest is like a cyber bulletin board where you can pin pictures you find online and share them with others.

I'd heard about Pinterest shortly after they started, but I didn't sign up then. I suspected that I might find it addicting, and as it turns out, I was right. Sharing pictures is fun, but it's also so much fun to see what other people are sharing. It's allowed me to discover things I might not have stumbled across on my own.

One of the reasons why I decided I wanted to join Pinterest was so that I could share the pictures I use while I write my stories. I started out just finding pictures for the hero and heroine, but as time went on (and after I got high speed internet) I started using more and more pictures. I've always wanted to post them somewhere so that readers who were interested could see what I was envisioning as I wrote, but I didn't think I could do it without violating copyright. Pinterest finally allows me to share and it links back to the original site.

The first thing I did was put up a board with all my characters.Then I started adding other things I liked. Right now I'm doing a board for each book so (if you're interested) you can see not just the characters, but their furniture and homes and other settings or clothes or whatever. This is a work in progress and I'm only about halfway.

If you're on Pinterest, feel free to friend me over there, and everyone is welcome to come on over and check out my boards.