Creativity Friday: FOR THE KING giveaway winner!

Drumroll please! Congratulations to DAKOTA—I’ll be sending you an e-mail shortly with information on how to claim your copy of Catherine Delors’ historical fiction book FOR THE KING.I hope you will enjoy it!

More posts coming soon! There is just so much going on here that I haven’t had a moment to spare:

1. The first draft of my novel THE LILY MAID has been turned in. I’m awaiting feedback from my agent any moment now….. (gnaws knuckles). in the meantime, I’m immersing myself in research for the next go ’round. My reading material includes biographies of two famous Pre-Raphaelite muses, Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris—my main character in THE LILY MAID becomes a muse to an influential artist during 1880s’ England.

2. We’re in the midst of designing and hanging a new show at the gallery which is being curated by my husband, anthropologist Thomas Ross Miller. It’s entitled ON THE ROAD OF BONES. This haunting art exhibit will feature native Siberian and American photographers documenting Russia’s Old Kolyma Highway, built by prisoners of Stalin’s infamous gulag.

3. I’m finalizing several e-books for the iPad. These include SACRED ANIMALS and an old picture book favorite, RAPUNZEL.

4. And so much more—and all before we leave on vacation in mid-August.

And how is your summer shaping up?

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, creativity, new projects, publications, publishing, studio and gallery, the art world | 2 Responses

Authors at the Gallery: Sharon Lerner reading on June 4, 7pm

Reminder: Tomorrow night is journalist Sharon Lerner’s reading for her new book, THE WAR ON MOMS: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation. Sharon is a fellow mom in my neighborhood, so I can testify from personal experience that she walks the walk as well as talks the talk. Her book has been garnering much attention — this is a hot button issue for many. I’m so pleased to be having Sharon at the gallery!

More about Sharon’s book: THE WAR ON MOMS is battlefield reporting on the widespread, brutal realities facing most American women today: the lack of paid maternity leave, the dearth of decent part-time work options, and the shortage of good, affordable childcare options. While there are many recent books about high-earning professionals mothers, this book focuses instead on the vast majority of women who can’t buy their way out of these dilemmas. It tells the truth that overworked, stressed-out American moms need to hear: that they’re not alone — and they’re not to blame.

Praise for THE WAR ON MOMS:

“A stinging account of how public policy and private businesses have failed to adapt to working mothers. Read it and weep at European family-friendly policies, like Sweden’s guarantee that parents can work reduced hours until their child is 8. Or read it and be grateful, perhaps, that you have it a lot easier than many others.”
— Jennifer Ludden, National Correspondent, NPR

“Sharon Lerner has turned her guns on the futility of the swanky “Mommy Wars” to reveal that the real war on mommies has little to do with wealthy women who opt-out or the quest for the perfect au pair…. Every mom who worries about managing a workload, a home, and a family needs to read this book. The laundry can wait.”
— Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor, Slate

Live in the NYC area? Here’s the info to attend the reading:

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7 pm
AUTHORS AT THE GALLERY: Sharon Lerner
Book Event and Author Q&A
Free admission. Refreshments provided.

Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811
subway to Newkirk Avenue: Q 0r B train
street parking is available.

If you don’t live in NYC, we’ll be livestreaming this event starting at 7:15 pm EST at this link. We’ll be able to take your comments and questions for Sharon on this important and sometimes polarizing subject.

As a mother of a small child who struggles to balance everything myself, I’m excited that my gallery will be providing a forum for Sharon’s book.

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Creativity Friday: Inspiring a Novel*, part 3 ~ and book giveaway winner!

First off, congratulations to Robyn Crosa! She’s won Stephanie Cowell’s CLAUDE & CAMILLE book giveaway. I’ve contacted you by e-mail with instructions on how to claim it. If you don’t receive the e-mail, please leave me a comment on this post. (If you haven’t read my interview with Stephanie yet, you can do so here. It’s especially filled with wonderful inspiration for writers.)

On a related note, we have other author events coming up online and at the gallery. Journalist Sharon Lerner (THE WAR ON MOMS) will visit the gallery June 4th for the next installation of our Authors at the Gallery series. Don’t live in the NYC area? This event will be livestreamed and archived. In July, we’ll have a blog interview and book giveaway with Catherine Delors, author of the upcoming novel FOR THE KING which is already garnering rave reviews. I’m really looking forward to hosting Sharon and Catherine.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, The Novel now has a title, THE LILY MAID. Since it’s set in 1880’s Victorian England during the Aesthetics Movement, I’m having a lot of fun describing the clothes. How did Aesthetic (also known as Artistic) dress differ from the rest of Victorian society? Think of an upholstered sofa and the many permutations they can take on.

You can have this:

Or this:

Now translate these into women’s clothing. Here’s the typical 1880’s Victorian woman’s silhouette, complete with bustle and corset:

And her Aesthetic dress companion:

Costume photographs © Victoria and Albert Museum.

Note the lack of corsets and stays, the loose hair. Imagine how freeing — and transgressive — this must have felt to ladies of that era! They could breathe and move! In many ways Aesthetic clothing was a predecessor to the Rational Dress Society, though the two movements do overlap in time. Interestingly, another inspiration for Aesthetic dress was the Italian Renaissance, which also fed the imagery of the Pre-Raphaelites. Note the high waistline, the drape of the sleeve.

In Victorian England, the foremost purveyors of Aesthetic-style clothing was Liberty & Co, now still in business as Liberty of London. I was deeply amused to recently come across ready-to-wear Liberty of London dresses at Target; I immediately snapped up two of them so I could dress in character as I write. How could I resist?

Here’s a description of Aesthetic dress from THE LILY MAID:

[The gowns] were all cut in the loose, quasi-medieval Aesthetic manner without stays or bustle, like many of the clothes I’d gaped at from afar at Liberty & Co. They were a revelation; I felt as though I could breathe and move unconstrained. Two were decorated with embroidery, mainly of a floral nature. Another bore beading around the necklines and elaborately smocked cuffs. As I viewed myself in the mirror, I felt transformed into another milieu, another class. I felt strange and was mildly embarrassed at my display – I looked more akin to those peacock feathers she kept in a vase than myself.

…. Several ladies ceased their conversation to stare at us. We stared back. Compared to myself and Nessa’s aesthetic-style dress, these women looked like upholstered sofas, tucked and draped and padded from their generous bustles to leg o’ mutton sleeves.”

Next weekend, I’ll be off on a writer’s retreat in an attempt to tie up the remainder of THE LILY MAID’s first draft. I don’t know how successful I’ll be, but I’m excited to try. Wish me luck!

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* This is part of an ongoing occasional series of posts about inspiration for the two books I’m working on right now. The first is THE LILY MAID, a novel. The second book is a nonfiction follow up to DOOMED QUEENS. Read previous posts here, here, and here.

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Creative Women’s Networking Salon 5/14

We all need creative community! I love our Creative Women’s Networking Salons at my studio-gallery — I’ve met so many fascinating women at them. It seems like every month they get larger and more fun. If you live in the NYC area, they’re also easy to get to since we’re located around the corner from the Newkirk Avenue subway station for the Q and B.

Maybe I’ll see you there tomorrow?

Here’s the information:

Friday, May 14, 7-9:30 pm
CREATIVE WOMEN’S NETWORKING SALON
Suggested admission $5. Refreshments provided.

Our fourth 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.

This event takes place at:
Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio-gallery
1501 Newkirk Avenue
(entrance on Marlborough Road, across from the Rite Aid)
347-406-5811
http://www.artandwords.com/events.html

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PS: The CLAUDE & CAMILLE giveaway has been extended for another week! You can enter to win a copy of this wonderful novel by Stephanie Cowell here.

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We’re in Time Out New York – and Tarot Salon reminder

There’s a nice write up of my little studio-gallery in this week’s Time Out New York. It’s part of their “Great Walks/Own This City” issue — they’ve included my ‘hood Ditmas Park (aka Victorian Brooklyn). Here’s what they wrote:

Look for a small blue sign that points you to Kris Waldherr Art and Words (1501 Newkirk Ave at Marlborough Rd; 347-406-5811, artandwords.com). Waldherr—an author, illustrator and designer—turns her studio into an open gallery on Fridays (5–8pm) and Saturdays (1–5pm), when she also hosts tarot salons, publishing workshops and art-themed activities for kids (suggested donation $5). Passersby are welcome to stop in during open gallery hours and peruse Waldherr’s book art and photography exhibits free of charge. While the focus here is on literature and illustration, Waldherr boasts some techie cred, too: Ask her about Goddess Tarot, the application she developed for the iPhone.”

Read the rest of the article here. I’m pleased that they included many places that I frequent myself — from the Castello Plan to Vox Pop, my favorite coffeehouse. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you there one day myself.
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Speaking of tarot salons, tomorrow is the last Friday of the month*, which means it’s tarot salon time! This month,  I’ll be joined by tarot reading/Body Love Wellness founder Golda Poretsky and Fusion Spa’s Fran Dunston (the best masseuse ever). Here’s the deets:

Friday, April 30, 7 – 9:30 pm
TAROT SALON – SPRING EDITION
Free admission and refreshments.

1501 Newkirk Avenue (entrance on Marlborough Road)
Brooklyn, NY 11226 | 347-406-5811
Subway: Q or B to Newkirk Avenue; gallery is around the corner from station.
Street parking is available.

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Final notice: The DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL giveaway continues! Today is the last chance to enter since the giveaway ends at midnight. To enter, all you need to do is comment here. There’s also a wonderful interview by author Mary Sharratt about her creation of the novel.

*Not sure if we’ll be having a tarot salon in May because of the holiday weekend that month. If so, we’ll be returning on the last Friday of the month in June. Promise.

• Filed under art and words, events, giveaways and raffles, reviews + press, studio and gallery, tarot and oracles | No Comments