While others are stuffing themselves with pumpkin pie here in the States, I’m off for a week-long writer’s retreat. My destination this time: Washington DC. My goal: to untangle the final third of THE LILY MAID for public consumption.

As you can read in my last blog post, it’s no secret that the past month of my life has been devoted to all things domestic. So I’m eager to reacquaint myself with the twists and turns of my novel. Most importantly, I want to finish roughing out for revision what remains of the book—I have just over two months before my agent is expecting to see the next draft . I know how everything ends (and, trust me, it’s a great ending), but I’m still fuzzy on how I’ll get there from everything I’ve so carefully set up with my first 80,000 words.

As I’ve learned too well while writing THE LILY MAID, writing fiction is a much more mysterious process than writing nonfiction. The above pictures give you a sense of the scope of what I’m dealing with: the notes, the research, the just plain muddling through-it-ness of it all. I know it’s a cliche, but characters really do take on a life of their own, determining plot, theme, and story arc. Often the only way to figure it all out is to go someplace quiet enough to listen to them.

So I’m listening. And I’m writing.

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Upon my return to Brooklyn next week, another major transition awaits me: Setting up my new work studio. Though it’s only four blocks away from my current Brooklyn studio location, the new Art and Words will be situated on the top floor of my new home—a more private location for musing and making art. Fortunately, I have a month of overlap because I have my current storefront-studio until the end of the year. But I’m not deluding myself—it’s still going to be a major amount of work.

(Yes, all this on top of finishing a novel and setting up a new household as well as being a mom to the most adorable six-year-old ever and other Life Stuff.)

Despite everything going on, we’ll be having a last public salon before I close the storefront on Sunday, December 18th. If you’ve never visited the studio, this is your last chance to do so before I move to my new space. I hope to see you there!

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/11/creativity-friday-a-retreat-to-write/feed/ 0 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/09/a-gentle-reminder-today-is-the-last-chance-to/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/09/a-gentle-reminder-today-is-the-last-chance-to/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:01:48 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1737 … To register for author Tisha Morris’s Feng Shui Workshop at the reduced rate! The exclusive workshop takes place September 17th at the gallery. Learn more or register here.

…To purchase the Goddess Tarot Android app at half price for $1.99 (regular price $3.99). The app has been designed to work on phone and tablets—a two-for-one app! Download now.

And in other news, Thea went back to school yesterday. Though the end of summer is bittersweet, I must admit that I’m eager to get back to a regular work schedule. The muses definitely concur!

1. Saturday, September 17, 2-4 pm: FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE WORKSHOP
With author Tisha Morris

Last chance to register at discounted rate! Bring balance to your mind, body, and home! Please join us for a special hands-on workshop with Tisha Morris, author of the new book FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE. She’ll be visiting the gallery all the way from Nashville to teach us how to put the “om” back into home with simple and practical feng shui techniques:

-Discover feng shui techniques that can quickly transform the energy in your home without spending a dime.
-Identify how areas in your home correlate with areas in your life.
-Discover energy portals in your home that you can use to bring about change in your life.
-Leave with a specific Action List to transform at least one room or area of your home.

Autographed books will be available for purchase. Please bring a notebook and writing materials. Registration required.

early registration discount:
$25 before September 9; $30 afterward

2. Saturday, September 17, 1-6 pm: MADE IN BROOKLYN ART RETROSPECTIVE – ARTIST RECEPTION
With artist Zane Treimanis

My friend and neighbor Zane Treimanis‘ art is created primarily with wood, assembling pieces that have been chopped, sawn, nailed and glued. After acquiring a band saw and other tools, Zane began to cut her own shapes and started to develop a personal vocabulary of abstract contours suggested by the human form, as well as forms in nature. “Made in Brooklyn” weaves together several decades of Treimanis’ work. Her most recent work explores the “bare bones” of wood, taking advantage of its natural color and texture.

This exhibit takes place at the BWAC Gallery located at 499 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231. The artist will be at the exhibit every weekend 1-6 PM to greet you and offer a personal tour. Can’t make the opening reception? The exhibit is up September 17 through October 16, 2011. Gallery is open weekends 1-6 PM.

For more information, visit Zane’s website at ZaneTreimanis.com.

3. Saturday, September 17, 6-9 pm: FLATBUSH ARTIST STUDIO TOUR AT WHISK
Opening reception and grand opening

The Flatbush Artists Studio Tour, or FAST, will have an opening reception for a collective exhibit at the Whisk Bakery Cafe located at 1119 Newkirk Avenue on the corner of Westminster Road.  The FAST exhibit will be on view through October 11. This reception will coincide with the Whisk Bakery Cafe’s Grand Opening scheduled for that weekend.  FAST is a group of local artists interested in showcasing the work of Visual Artists living and working in the Victorian Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. It should be a fun time!

]]> http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/09/live-in-nyc-what-are-you-doing-september-17th/feed/ 0 http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/06/gallery-events-this-weekend-creative-womens-salon-and-childrens-art-show-closing/ http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/2011/06/gallery-events-this-weekend-creative-womens-salon-and-childrens-art-show-closing/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:44:15 +0000 kriswaldherr http://kriswaldherr.com/blog/?p=1666 This is a busy weekend at my studio gallery! We have two great events planned. If you live in the NYC area, I hope you’ll join us!

Friday, June 10, 7-9:30 pm
CREATIVE WOMEN’S NETWORKING SALON
Suggested donation for refreshments: $5.

As featured on Brooklyn Independent Television! Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation, inspiration, and wine. At our previous gatherings, we were joined by photographers, crafters, publishing people, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. Watch a television clip about this event.

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Sunday, June 12, 1-4 pm
CLOSING RECEPTION:
THE ART OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS:
Inspiration to Illustration
free admission – children welcome

Please join us for the closing of this wonderful exhibit. We’ll have cookies and other kid-friendly goodies. Also available: autographed books and prints for sale!

About this exhibit: Everyone has a favorite picture book from their childhood. But have you ever wondered at how the art for these gorgeous books are created? The Art of Children’s Books: Inspiration to Illustration offers a behind-the-scenes look at the art, design, and production of illustrated books. It presents a wide variety of art techniques and styles—from the witty digital art of Sara Varon to the soft classicism of Donna Diamond, and beyond.

Butterfly Inkblot art: © Margaret Peot.

SAW will be a informal, intensive school dedicated to cartooning and sequential art. Tom Hart has ten years teaching experience at New York City’s School of Visual Arts and has been nominated for the Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz Awards. Leela Corman has illustrated for dozens of clients and illustrated a dozen books. Her graphic novel Unterzakhn will be coming out from Pantheon in Spring 2012.

To help SAW surmount the initial big hurdle of securing a space for their school and other legalities, they’ve announced a fundraiser with some amazing thank you gifts starting at five dollars—a great way to get that warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting arts education while scoring something cool. All donations are tax-deductible.

For more about the school in depth, visit SAW’s official website at SequentialArtistsWorkshop.org. Prefer social media? SAW is also on Facebook and Twitter.

Friday, May 6, 7-9:30 pm
Creative Women’s Networking Salon

Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation, inspiration, and wine. At previous salons, we were joined by photographers, crafters, editors, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. $5 suggested donation for refreshments.

This event takes place at:

Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue
entrance on Marlborough Road across from Rite Aid
Brooklyn, NY 11226
directions

In the meantime, here are photos* from our last gallery event, a wonderful children’s art workshop by INKBLOTS author Margaret Peot. The kids had a wonderful time! Several of Margaret’s beautiful pieces are featured in our current exhibition, The Art of Children’s Books: Inspiration to Illustration. The exhibition is up through May. I hope those of you in the New York City area will stop by to see it!

*Photographs courtesy and copyright Bernadette Ayers. Thank you!

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As you may have noticed from this blog, things have gotten beyond busy here at the studio. This spring, I’m attempting to finish up a number of projects—not including the current draft of THE LILY MAID and the long-aborning Sacred World Oracle—as well as some book and web design jobs. I’m also going to be traveling to San Diego for the Historical Novel Society’s annual conference, and partaking in workshops for professional development.

To give me the space to do all this and more, for the time being I’m going to be ramping back a bit on gallery events. Our next tarot salon probably won’t be until this autumn, after I have a chance to catch my breath on all these deadlines. Ditto for publishing and art workshops. However, the gallery will still be open on Saturday afternoons, during special events on Fridays nights, and by appointment or by chance.

So, if you’re planning to come by to visit, I hope to see you then—and if I seem a little distracted and the studio a bit messier than usual, you’ll understand why.

In the midst of this, mucho activity is going on at the gallery. The big news is that our current exhibit, On the Road of Bones: Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway is closing tomorrow. I hope you’ll join us for a last look at this stunning exhibit! The curator will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about the coldest place on earth. We’ll also have refreshments. Here are the details:

Saturday, March 5th, 1 – 4 pm
CLOSING RECEPTION: ON THE ROAD OF BONES
Children welcome. Free admission.

About this exhibit: Through photography and mixed media, this exhibition reveals the secret history and natural beauty of Kolyma, formerly the land of Soviet labor camps and the coldest inhabited region in the world. Stunning new works by young native Siberian photographers Bolot Bochkarev, Nastya Borisova, and Ajar Varlamov trace the remains of the vast highway built across the taiga, tundra, and permafrost of North Asia by Stalin’s prisoners. “On the Road of Bones” juxtaposes the events of the hidden past with the power of the frozen landscape and the contemporary lives of people in the far north. Learn more at OntheRoadofBones.com.

This event takes place at:
Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road, across from Rite Aid)
http://www.artandwords.com/events.html
directions

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Our next exhibit opens the following Saturday! Here’s the poster for it:

More information to come very very soon—as soon as I get this long-aborning proposal off my desk!

Friday, February 25, 7 – 9:30 pm
CREATIVE WOMEN’S NETWORKING SALON

Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation, inspiration, and wine! At our previous gatherings, we were joined by photographers, crafters, editors, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. We also had a lot of fun. $5 suggested donation for refreshments. Directions and address.

Hope to see you there!

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In other creativity-related news, Thea’s been home from school this past week. We’ve had some delightful adventures including a road trip to the fabulous Eric Carle Museum. Their bookstore there is one of the best I’ve ever been to — I definitely broke the bank buying books for myself and Thea. But now I’m very backlogged with work, alas, and am dealing with the perpetual struggle to balance everything. Here’s what’s going on here:

~ Preparing for the new children’s book illustration show. I have five wonderful illustrators lined up, but think I need one more. The show opens in mid-March, so time is getting tight!

~ Finishing up the long-aborning book proposal for the DOOMED QUEENS follow up, which is about (drum roll) princesses. It’s probably the most design-intense job I’ve done since my iPhone apps.

~ Revising the next part of THE LILY MAID for a novel-writing workshop I’m taking in April at the Sackett Street Writers. It’s the first writers’ workshop I’ve taken since (gulp) college. I’m excited but anxious.

~ Research, research, and more research for both THE LILY MAID and the princess proposal! I have a tall pile of books that I’m wading through — great stuff! They range from books on the history of fairy tales to Victorian sexual obsessions and nineteenth century medical history and Wilhelm Wundt and early anthropology and science of the Enlightenment and more. Gotta love my job!

~ On top of that, I’ve gotten in several design jobs — websites to cd design to book trailer videos. The cd design is for composer Robert Patterson, who’s written a chamber music suite inspired by my BOOK OF GODDESSES. It was debuted last summer—it’s wonderful. I feel so thrilled and honored to be involved.

~ Plus I’m in the midst of publicizing Art and Words Editions, my new e-book imprint. I’m about half-way through my “to-do” list with that — I want to get my authors’ books out there as much as possible.

~ And more, believe it or not. Thea’s sixth birthday is coming up in March, so there’s much to celebrate.

It’s all good. But it’s also a bit overwhelming. And with that, I should get to work!

In time for Valentine’s Day, our most popular gallery event returns! As featured in Time Out New York, the Village Voice, Brooklyn Based, the New York Post and more. Here are the details:

Friday, February 11, 7-9:30 pm
TAROT SALON – VALENTINE’S DAY EDITION
Free admission and refreshments.

Have a love or relationship question? Or just looking to gain inspiration and insight? Treat yourself to a tarot reading on the question of your choice! Readings available at a variety of prices from urban shaman Mama Donna Henes and Lover’s Path Tarot creator Kris Waldherr. Feeling stressed? Fran Dunston of Fusion Therapy Spa will offer massages at $1 a minute.

We’ll also have an array of last minute Valentine’s Day gifts available for purchase: romantic books by local authors and artists, gorgeous prints, card decks, and more. So come have a glass of wine and unwind!

This event takes place at
KRIS WALDHERR ART AND WORDS
1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road, across from Rite Aid)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811

Click here for additional directions.

(Psst: Because of Kris’s book deadlines, our next tarot salon won’t return until later in the spring. So hope to see you there!)

Friday, November 19, 7-9:30 pm
Creative Women’s Networking Salon

Are you an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur and practioner? Come out and meet other like-minded women for conversation, inspiration, and wine. At previous salons, we were joined by photographers, crafters, publishing people, designers, artists, writers, and illustrators. Suggested donation: $5 for refreshments.

This event takes place at:
Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue
entrance on Marlborough Road across from Rite Aid
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811

Hope to see you there!

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In other news, I’m off to London on Tuesday (yes, this coming Tuesday!) for just under a week. Though the primary purpose of my trip is to research THE LILY MAID and the long-aborning DOOMED QUEENS follow up, I have another important task to take care of: I’m bringing my grandmother’s ashes “home.”

My grandmother, Doris Ivy Prince, was born in Kent, England but migrated to the United States as a young woman with my mother. Nana passed away two years ago at the very ripe age of 92—I know she always wanted to return back to noble Albion.

I plan to scatter her ashes in a lovely field outside the Anglican church where she worshiped so many years ago. Here’s hoping for a lovely day, or at the least, one without a heavy downfall. Having lived in the UK for a year, I’m too aware of the capricious quality of English weather.

On the research side, I have a very full plate! I plan to visit:

The V & A (research and inspiration)

The Tate Gallery (to visit Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott and Rossetti’s Beata Beatrice)

Primrose Hill (an important character in THE LILY MAID lives there)

Royal Academy of Art (a scene takes place during a Royal Academy vernissage)

The Museum of the City of London (to research Victorian London)

Oxford (another key scene in my novel takes place there)

Highgate Cemetery (to visit the grave of Elizabeth Siddal, Rossetti’s tragic muse)

Liberty of London’s (inspiration and retail therapy)

and much more. My hotel (in South Kensington, natch!) has wifi—will do my best to update while I’m there.