DJ Geribo's Art Apart Newsletter
Spring 2019
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Welcome!

Spring Has Sprung


The days are warming up,  the trees are all budding, and the perennials are pushing up from underground as the sun warms the earth. One of my favorite things about spring is when the birds come back to the neighborhood to nest and raise their young. On those nights when I can't sleep, the singing begins at 4:30am or so when first light begins to brighten my room. 

Spring.

Certainly not the time when I want to sit in my office and get my head into one of my short stories or a novel. Now, along with the birds, some of my Florida friends have come back to their northern homes to escape the dreadful southern heat. This is the time we go shopping and out to lunch or dinner. We all want to shed our outer layers, like the deer passing through our property, and get outside to play. Biking, boating, sunning, and hiking, the hours quickly pass by. I always feel like the warmer months have far fewer hours in each day than in the winter months. But seriously, I'm not noticing that difference as much any more. Winter is as fleeting as every other season. 

Scheduling time to write, I believe, is still the best solution to finishing stories and novels.I schedule working out with weights or doing cardio everyday so scheduling writing should work as well. And like any habit we start, it takes just a few weeks until it is a habit, a commitment, to what is important to us. And if it is that important, it will fit into your lifestyle easily. You can still meet with friends and enjoy outdoor activities. Like writing (and painting, if you're like me), you schedule each of those activities, also. I am meeting almost weekly with a friend to paint so I am feeling successful in that area of my life. 

 (Photo of our resident bear, actually there are two of them, just looking for the bird seeds. See feeder behind him - he hasn't even destroyed any feeders either! Such good manners!)                                 
 
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Writings & Musings

Blogging vs Emailing vs Every Other Kind of Online Marketing Tool That Is Out There

 

I spend more than a regular amount of time thinking about where to spend my precious time to build my author/artist audience. There are a ton of books written on the subject as well and I wonder which one should I read (I have downloaded several as ebooks as well as having actual books, too).

The books I'm talking about suggest 'building your email list'. Ok. How do I do that? Just take everyone I know and add them to my email and then start sending them unsolicited emails requesting that they sign up for my newsletters? I guess I don't know that many people. I've asked on my Facebook page but have had no new sign-ups. So frustrating.



Link to DJ Geribo's Blog





I have been blogging for years now. I have a great website but again, I have no idea how to get people to follow my blog. And my blog gets posted to my Twitter page and also my Facebook page. 

I've signed up with so-called 'marketing gurus' to help promote my books but found that their process works mostly with non-fiction books. I'm spending most of my time writing fiction so a lot of their suggestions wouldn't work for my writing. 

And again, I always come back to, where is the most effective place to spend my time when I'm promoting my books and trying to build an audience? The internet is world-wide; my book can reach people in other countries! That is amazing to me. The question is, how do I do that? How do I stand out among the millions of other emails everyone receives daily? 

Back to the blogging/emailing/marketing books!

 

The bad news is, I haven't completed any new paintings. The good news is, I've started several paintings that are in various stages of completion! This was a quick study in oils that I painted when visiting my friend Shirley. I often feel like I'm painting too thick so she told me about mixing turpentine with linseed oil and Damar varnish and then covering the canvas with this mixture before I start the painting. The paints will go on a lot smoother and are much easier to control. So now I'm doing this study in a full size canvas (7"x14"). It should be completed by my next newsletter, as will the other two fruit and veggie paintings below.

Another still life with veggies, also painted in acrylics. I have several of these little paintings all over my kitchen walls now, too. Both of these paintings are incomplete.
If you've been following my newsletter you'll know that I love painting fruits and veggies. These are all painted in acrylics, my favorite fast-drying medium!

To see more of my artwork, go to my Gallery.
My Books

 
The most important thing about writing is writing. If you are a writer, you need to write. Since I'm not feeling it for some of the books I'm working on, and there are at least 4 at this time, I am still writing pretty much everyday. Sometimes it is just in my nightly journal recording the events of the day. Sometimes I take a prompt (Writer's Digest daily calendar was in my stocking this year - it is full of wise quotes from authors, publishers, etc., and also a weekly prompt) and just go with it for about 500 words or so. This is a lot of fun and helps sharpen my writing skills.

As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, I did have an aggressive list of books I wanted to finish this year. To get even half of the books completed by year's end, I have to get serious about completing my books and put the time and effort into writing that is needed. But with summer just starting, this is going to take a certain amount of will power and, here's that word again, focus. 



To order your copy of my latest book "Seven Storied Houses" go to  www.BBDPublishing.com.




My books are also now on Amazon!


I recently came across a quote on my Writer's Digest daily calendar that was by David Baldacci in the September 2015 issue. I found the article in the magazine and was impressed and inspired by how prolific he is - 36 books in 19 years. Of course, I always have to remember when I read about a man who has written so many books that he usually has a wife. I'll bet he doesn't do the dishes, laundry, food shopping, or clean the house. Still I can do better. I don't need to compete with DB.

Another quote on the same calendar just a few days earlier was most inspiring. It was by Orson Scott Card: "Ideas come from everywhere, provided that you're thinking about everything that happens to you as a potential story. I like to think that the differences between storytellers and nonstorytellers is that we storytellers, like fishermen, are constantly dragging an "idea net" along with us. Other people pass through their lives and never notice how many stories are going on all around them; we, however, think of everything as a potential story."

I am, indeed, a storyteller. I don't go anywhere without a notebook somewhere in my possession that I fill with people, situations, or events that happen around me or that people tell me has happened to them.. 


“Never say 'I do not know this, therefore it is false.' You must study to know, you must know to understand, you must understand to judge."
                            — Narada
                                            Ancient Hindu Philosopher

Although this is a quote that is from neither an artist nor an author, I just read it this weekend and thought it was more than worthy and so very important that I wanted it to be part of my newsletter.  And they are words I hope to commit to memory.                              
Story in 6
 
"Smarter Than You Think"

A woman is hanging her clothes out on the line that is attached from her porch to the closest tree. She loves the spring-fresh smell the outdoors gives her clothes. As she breathes in the fresh air she notices a couple of crows at the top of the tree watching her. Concerned they might soil the clean clothes she debates about bringing them back in and hanging them out later. She smiles to herself, thinking the birds can’t be that smart and continues hanging the laundry. As she finishes up and turns to go back into the house, the two crows sweep down, sit on the line, do their business, and then fly off cawing as they go.

Authistpreneur

author/artist/entrepreneur

Someone who is an author, an artist, and an entrepreneur.  Any person who writes or has a published novel, who paints fine art/illustrations, and also has established businesses using the combination of artistic talents.
                                                                - DJ Geribo

 

What I'm Reading


I have not been reading as much as I usually do. Part of my problem is focus, which applies to my reading as well as my writing. I have been making steady progress on the Shirley Jackson collection of stories I've been reading (on Kindle) and did finally finish that book. But I am constantly distracted by all the books I find on Kindle and also at the swap shop in my town where I find book treasures that I will,  someday, read.


   Just an Ordinary Day - This extensive collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson were gathered and published posthumously by her children. Many of the 53 stories in the collection would appear to be not completed or perhaps need another edit and were therefore, never before published. About half of them were previously published in magazines in the 1950's. As I mention in my review (soon to be posted on my website) the stories are full of love, magic, and humor and although much as changed since those times, they can be just as relevant today as they were then because people and their life situations are often similar throughout history. 

     Anthem - Ayn Rand is an icon in the world of authors who have written classic novels, such as Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. My first Ayn Rand novel, this was a short one but gave me an inkling of the focus in all her novels: the individual as separate from the masses.  A futuristic world, humans are no longer 'I' but the collective 'we'. There is no individuality. When one escapes the anonymity of this robotic life, he finds a past world and discovers himself as a separate being. 

   

Go to My Blog to See What I'm Reading

I hope you enjoyed my newsletter. If you did, please share on Facebook, Twitter, or Forward to a friend. I welcome your comments!
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