Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry

When a potter friend and I used to sit together with our wares at the local farmer's market, she invariably used to sell more than I did, so to make it up to me, she would sing a little jewelry sales chant under her breath: jewelry, jewelry, jewelry. (Set to whatever music suits your fancy.)

Later, we went on to found The Artisans' Guild shop together, which is where most of my jewelry ends up these days. I used to make it all the time (and do lots of craft shows, and had pieces in shops around the area), but most of my time and energy is now taken up by writing. Which basically means that about a month before Black Friday, I sat up and said, "OH NO, I need to make jewelry!"

Luckily, that happened to coincide with a rare lull in the writing push, so I've been madly stringing beads almost every day, singing the jewelry chant under my breath. Folks have asked me to post some pictures here, and not just on Facebook, so here's another bunch of finished pieces. [Any day now, in theory, I'm going to get a few of these up on Etsy, but in case I don't, just yell if there is something that catches your eye.]

Amethyst and hematite

malachite

aventurine and Venetian glass

aventurine stars

picture jasper stars

Long, large turquoise and black stone necklace

One of my favorites--black onyx and silver collar

black onyx and silver with a very cool face

black onyx and garnet with a dragon!

the dragon reminds me of Chudo-Yudo :-)

black onyx and snowflake obsidian, with a very cool agate slice that has a crystal in the middle

So tell me--which is your favorite?

Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry

Sometimes it is hard to remember that I have a life outside publishing...but now that Wickedly Dangerous is out in the world and managing more-or-less on its own, I am taking a brief break from writing to catch up with my OTHER side job, jewelry making.

Here's a glimpse at what I've been doing, in case you're curious...

Ryolite, also known as Rainforest Jasper

Poppy Jasper--perfect colors for fall

more Poppy Jasper

Snowflake Obsidian stars--an unusual stone I can't often get, but I love it!

Blue Onyx with neat ceramic beads

Sodalite -- like Lapis, but without the gold flecks (good for healing and peace)

What do you think? Do you have a favorite?

Today I'm going to be working with carnelian, which is one of mine...

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Okay--it isn't technically summer, and three days isn't actually a vacation, but it is likely to be as close to one as I get this year, so here's what I did over the three-day Memorial Day weekend...

Saturday was Work Day. First I cleaned the house (including the upstairs cat room, which doesn't get much attention over the winter when it is cold up there). I always clean on Saturday mornings, but I did a deeper job than usual this time and managed to get some of those "clutter spots" cleared up too. I'm getting ready to start work on a new novel, and I do my best work when the house is clean and free of too much clutter (it is never perfect). Then I went to the locally-owned garden center and picked up the last of the plants for the garden, including tomatoes to replace the tomato plants that got walloped by a late frost (BOO), along with some herbs.

With my friend Ellen's help, I got the last of the garden in (except for the broom corn seeds and some flower seeds, which I still have to figure out placement for).

And I discovered about a gazillion pollywogs in my garden pond!

Sunday was another work day. I finished writing up a Mystery Proposal for a New and Different Project. (I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you.) I can't go into specifics until I find out if the proposal is accepted or not, but I can tell you that it is for something I have never done before, and I'm kind of excited by the possibility...

Then I went outside to rescue the front flower beds from the weeds. Here's the large bed on the right, after it got cleared out. (If you look closely, you can see my supervisor sitting in the window.)

 Here's the smaller bed on the left (which, ironically, actually has a lot more real plants in it, although a lot of that greenery is weeds, too). I ran out of steam, so that one is still waiting for me. Oh, the joy.

Here's a close-up of Angus, doing the tough job of keeping an eye on me while I work.

The rest of Sunday was spent making jewelry, since I wanted to get a bunch of new items in for the summer before I dive into the writing.

Freshwater pearls, mixed gemstones, fluorite with a chaorite dangle, sugalite, rose quartz & cloisonne

Fluorite chunks, aventurine, lapis, and lots of lapis earrings

It probably doesn't look like much, but that's about ten hours of work there. (A little bit of it got done Monday night.)

Monday was mostly a fun and relax day. I did take care of a few small tasks in the morning, but then I went over to my friend John's house and he cooked us up an amazing BBQ (he's a great cook--can I just say "bacon-wrapped onion rings"?) and we both ate WAY too much. The weather was just perfect; sunny and high 70's with a little breeze, and it felt wonderful to sit outside and enjoy it after the long, bitter winter. The we went inside to digest and watch Frozen, which he's seen  multiple times and I hadn't gotten around to yet. It really was a lovely as everyone had been telling me.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Yes, I worked my butt off for much of it, but a) many of the things I worked at were things I enjoy doing and b) I was able to tick some pretty major items off my "to do" list, which means I feel way less overwhelmed. I got to spend time with friends, and be outside. All in all, I have no complaints.

I hope you had a nice weekend too (whether or not it was a holiday where you live). Tell me, what did you do this weekend?

Holy Crap It's December!

Seriously...how did it get to be December? Wasn't it just Halloween last week? I am now officially Behind on All The Things.

Well, I'm a little ahead on the Llewellyn book, which is done except for the guest author contributions, and off to my editor for what they call a Vision meeting [which is where they decide A) if it sucks or not and B) then envision how it will end up looking and being marketed--gulp]. But there are all sorts of other writing tasks I should be working on, including follow-up nudges to all the lovely guest authors, and starting to brainstorm the Baba Yaga novella, which is due Jan 15.

But mostly, I am making jewelry to sell at the shop (and maybe put a few pieces up on Etsy, although I'm not sure it is worth the trouble, since I rarely sell anything there). You know--the jewelry I should have FINISHED making weeks ago. Sigh.

On the bright side, we had a reasonably good Black Friday and Small Business Saturday at the shop, and for the moment, it has stopped being Horribly Cold here. And I had a lovely, albeit brief, visit from author pal Nancy Holzner on Sunday, as she passed through town on her way back home from her family's Thanksgiving.

I have a couple of blog posts planned (you know, that I'm also behind on), including one explaining how I came to use the Baba Yaga as a character. Maybe tomorrow, if you're all good.

So, what are you all up to now that it is somehow FREAKING DECEMBER?

A Few Cool Things and Switching Gears

Sorry I haven't been around much--I've been working overtime on the newest Llewellyn book (Lessons from the Pagan Path...which isn't going to be called that when it comes out). I'll explain why in a minute.

In the  meanwhile, two Very Cool things happened this week. I had a great back-and-forth email discussion with  my fabulous Berkley editor, Leis, and we've figured out the back cover copy and a tagline for Wickedly Dangerous, the first Baba Yaga book. (The tagline will probably be used for the second book too.)

What do you think of this?
"Who says wicked can't be good?" 

In other news, book sales (contracts) are announced on a website called Publisher's Marketplace, which is viewed by all sorts of publishing professionals. The announcements themselves often come out some time after the initial contract, due to delays in writing up contracts, etc. But it is always kind of a heart-fluttery moment to see your name up their all official like.

Someone on Twitter commented that she'd seen my announcement, and sent her congratulations. So I asked Elaine, my lovely agent, to grab a screen shot of it for me (since I don't subscribe to the paid full version, which lists all the sales, just an abbreviated "important publishing news" version). This is what she sent me:

 

 How cool is that??? It's almost as though I was an honest-to-goddess professional author :-)

Anyway, back here in the not quite as cool real world, the holiday season is rapidly approaching. This means two things to me--the shop is going to get busier, and I need to get my arse in gear and make some jewelry to sell!

So I've been working extra hard on the Llewellyn book, to get it done (except for some guest author contributions, which I'll tell you about another time, if you're interested). It has actually come along nicely, and I hope to be finished by the end of this week! And then, jewelry, jewelry, jewelry!

What did you think of the tagline? I was going for something intriguing...do you think I nailed it, or did I miss the mark?

And which kinds of gemstones are your favorites to wear as necklaces or earrings? Inquiring minds want to know...

Oh, and someone on Facebook asked me the other day how I came up with the idea for using Baba Yaga in a book series. Is that something other people would want to know the answer to?