Frosty Leaves

Upcoming Signings & Events For Jack The Healing Cat

I enjoyed meeting with everyone who attended our presentation for UT Library's Series Writer's in the Library. It is always good to hear feedback from readers, admirers, future illustrators, and to share some small tidbit of what I've learned along the way. I hope it was informative and entertaining for you.

Marilyn and I will be at Carpe Librum Books on Saturday, December 8th at 11:30 am reading "Jack the Healing Cat" and signing books.

On December 10th Midday DJ, Jennifer Alexander, of B97.5 radio will be highlighting our book on "Jennifer's Favorite Things" between 10am and 3pm. Tune in for your chance to win a fabulous basket filled with children's reading materials, including "Jack".



Sandi and Marilyn enjoying a beautiful day at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville

Arabella Comes to Live with Us

One morning in mid-September I opened the door to greet my dad. As he started to step across the threshold I halted him. I was looking at him through the gauzy fiber of a lovely web. I looked up and in the corner of the door way was this most beautiful orb-weaver spider. Dad leaned over and came inside. The web had been attached to the door near the handle and my opening it had disturbed the lower area of the web.

I had a discussion with the spider. I told her she could live there, but she must not attach her web to the door. She is still on the porch and she never attached her web to the door again. She remained in the upper right hand corner of the doorway until she laid her egg sac. She then moved the the left side of the door under one of the coach lights. I named her Arabella.

Needless to say most people think I'm nuts to leave a spider, especially a large and scary-looking spider on my front porch. I have a tendency to greatly respect the natural world around me and will live with them as long as they don't bring disease (mice, rats, roaches, etc) or are poisonous and dangerous (brown recluse, rattlesnakes, etc) or cause damage to structures (termites). Other than that I perfectly happy sharing my small part of the world with nature. So let those that can't abide Mother Nature think I'm that crazy woman living in the woods.

As a rule I don't use insecticides, or chemicals. As a result I've been rewarded with a daily show of nature and the circle of life. My trees (and I have many) are filled with sap-suckers, woodpeckers, owls, crows, Coopers hawks, and many songbirds. I have rabbits all over the place. A groundhog (whistle-pig) lives under my garden shed and has not been destructive in my garden. I have field mice, chipmunks and moles which the owls and other birds of prey feast upon. There has also been a cat hunting daily on the property. I watch as she goes trotting through the woods with a mole dangling from her mouth.

It is like a small paradise and I adore it. Everything has its role to play and here it gets played out without chemical interference. Humans are killing themselves and everything around us with chemicals. We've become hyper-sensitive to how nature takes care of itself. We will turn on tv to watch autopsies and grotesque putrid remains being found and identified, but let one owl carry off a shrieking mouse or let one cat hunt for it's dinner or one spider who chooses to live close by and we're all ready to bring in the guys spewing poisons.

As for me, I'll continue to let spiders reside here as long as they play well with others. Arabella has proven to be a great addition to my front porch. She is gracious and eats the pestier insects in a balance that doesn't irradicate them or us in the process. I created this image for my desktop. So I can always remember the importance of spiders in our daily lives.

Annual Spider Ball

Once upon a time...
...a little burg named Wandifor existed and all the inhabitants (human and otherwise) eagerly awaited their invitations to the Annual Spider's Ball. Every creature, great or small, attended this much anticipated autumn soiree. They were there to see all the newest trends, to ahh over the most exquisitely dressed, and to poo-poo the most hideously dressed. They arrived famished in hopes of sating their hunger with the finest delicacies in the land. There are still vestiges of Wandifor, and places like it, left for us to explore. They reside in our imaginations. So Come One, Come All...

HALLOWEEN! My Favorite Holiday

It is Halloween! The most magical time of the year. I know Christmas is magical, but in a very different way. This is the time of year when we can let our imaginations be free. We get to dress up and play. I know Halloween gets a bad rap in today's society. Hollywood has a lot to do with the image we associate with Halloween. Read some historical literature. Study religion and religious sects. Don't just blindly accept it is a devil's holiday. It isn't. Never has been.

Nevertheless, it is a magical day for me. It is also my wedding anniversary. I love October for it's vibrant beauty, the crispness of the evenings, the light at both dawn and dusk. And yes, it does seem as if anything is possible. Mix a little mist in with that and voila!-imaginations can run wildly amuck.

So enjoy today and this evening. Watch a couple of great Halloween movies. Being an artist I'm always drawn to the works of Tim Burton, ie "Nightmare Before Christmas" or "Hocus Pocus" or "HalloweenTown" Disney's saucy witches and dress-up fests. If you want the scarier versions, there are lots of them out there. Just remember, they are movies. But Halloween? Halloween is real and anything can happen.

Writer's In the Library Series

We will be presenting a panel discussion on "Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing a Children's Book". If you live in the Knoxville area and have been interested in the subject of children's books, please join us. We will be signing books.

Sketchbook Musings

More sketches from my "Rip Van Winkle" rework. These are graphite drawings as I was working through the characters. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do more realistic characters or caricatures. I'm still not sure. These are the caricature versions.

Rip is kinda loveable, dopey, dreamy. All he wants to do is hunt and play games with his children. Dame Van Winkle is a forceful, hardworking woman who does not have time for frivolity. She is probably bitter because she would like to tromp through the fields flying kites with her offspring, but can not because there is food to cook, nappies to change, and dogs to chase from the hearthside. Poor Rip. This is what keeps him roaming the mountainsides. For the record, we Van Winkle womenfolk are nothing like Dame Van Winkle. We have learned to let sleeping dogs lie. Berating our menfolk gets us nothing.