Author/Artist for August: Mysti Parker, Oil Painter

I have a LOT of crafting hobbies, but I've never really tried painting. Maybe it's because my grandfather was an artist. We (my mom, brothers, and I) have his paintings up in our homes and I've always known I could never come close to his skill. But Mysti Parker, author of all types of romance, often posts pictures of her projects, so I asked her to share a bit about her passion.

A Writer’s Not-So-Daunting Hobby

By Mysti Parker

Once upon a time, I would often think about taking up oil painting, only to toss the notion aside. It seemed so daunting when I thought about all the materials I would need to get started. For years, I’ve consoled myself by watching Bob Ross videos. It may have been his soothing voice as he painted “happy little trees,” but to me, it just looked so relaxing to swipe those colors on a canvas and end up with something beautiful.

As an author, I do this daily with the words I write. Starting from a blank page, I can create magical worlds, poignant romance, comedy that will make you snort out your tea, and historical settings that take you back in time. Visualizing plot and settings is something most creative writers do as their stories unfold.  An interesting study in Germany revealed that writers use many parts of their brains as they work, including the vision-processing regions.

We’re naturally a creative lot, but every writer gets burned out now and then. All work and no play makes…you know how it goes. Ask any writer what they do in their downtime, and many of them will probably say they enjoy some other creative art. I know writers who paint, draw, knit, sew, and play musical instruments. We do enjoy our creative side, so we tend to use it in order to relax. Doing other creative arts activates different areas of the brain and gives our writing neurons a break.

So, in the hopes of finding a new way to both relax and enjoy my creative side, I finally decided to take up oil painting this summer. The materials needed still seemed daunting, but I researched many options. Traditional oil paints require paint thinners and solvents that can be harmful. Since I knew I would be doing some painting with at least one of my kids, I wanted a safer option.

That’s when I found water-mixable oil paints. No paint thinners or solvents needed. After a friend’s suggestion, I went online to Jerry’s Artarama and ordered a starter set of ten Lucas Berlin water-mixable oil colors. What surprised me most was how affordable it was. They had a great sale going and a free shipping offer, so I also ordered some tabletop easels. I bought brushes and canvases at Walmart and at Michael’s using an in-store coupon. We were set.

But, would they truly work as well as traditional oils? The answer is yes. You can thin them with water or oil and they still have the smooth consistency of traditional paints. A side note: If you thin with oil (we used lavender essential oil), you can also use your traditional oil paints with them. Plus, the lavender oil smells awesome and is soothing in itself.

My goal with painting isn’t to sell them or have them displayed in museums or anything like that. We’re just hanging them around the house for cheap and unique décor. When your goal is to simply have fun and relax, that takes away all the stress. Plus, it’s a great way to have quality me time and quality time with my middle child, Zoe. She’s creative-minded like me, so we’ve painted a few pictures together. Our latest is the two-canvas fish. I love how it turned out. My husband will be hanging it over his big fish tank when it’s dry. A side note: I get my painting ideas and techniques from Pinterest and painting tutorials on YouTube.

A bonus benefit to my new hobby is that it gives the writer portions of my brain a much-needed break, which is particularly helpful when I’m suffering from writer’s block or simple burnout. After a fun painting session, I’m usually ready to jump back into my work-in-progress. If I’d known it would be fun, relaxing and motivational, I’d have started much sooner! 

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You can find Mysti on Facebook as well as her website, and on Twitter and Pinterest.

Mysti's is the author The Ghost of January, soon to be released at Eskape Press:

Against her father's wishes, twenty-year-old January Cooper elopes with her high school sweetheart and leaves for a fairytale honeymoon in Europe. Two weeks later, she's a widow, abandoned by her husband's family and too ashamed to contact hers. She works her way across the continent, scared, but determined to make it on her own.

Renowned food and travel blogger Diederik DeVries arrives in his native Amsterdam and hears rumors of a Ghost Lover who has supposedly left a trail of broken hearts all over Europe. A chance encounter with an American girl named Jan leaves him wondering if she could be this elusive legend.

Despite her fears of falling in love again, January is just as intrigued with the charming and handsome Diederik. Though he is determined to discover her true identity, she refuses to tell him anything about her past. All he wants is to break down the walls of her hidden heartache to find the real woman within. But will the ghosts of January's past take her away from him before he ever gets that chance?

New Release: The Road to Escape

I’m so pleased to announce the release of my newest book, The Road to Escape! This is the first in a multi-author series from Eskape Press called The Reunion. The series features the Cooper family from Escape, Indiana. Tom Cooper, an attorney-turned-rancher, is the patriarch of the family, and I took on his story.

Blurb:

Tom Cooper left his high-pressure law practice in Indianapolis for life on an alpaca farm in the tiny northwest Indiana town of Escape. Though he continued to practice law, the farm provided a good life for him, his wife, and their five children. But when his wife died, grief consumed him. His withdrawal into himself damaged his relationship with his children, and they’ve all left. He’s resigned to taking care of the farm alone, but a disturbing medical diagnosis could change things.

Laurie Matthews left her nursing job in shame. The town of Escape has welcomed her, and she now owns the local diner. She’s attracted to the handsome widower who comes in for coffee and a hot meal but keeps her distance. Everyone she’s ever loved has died — her grandparents, her parents, her husband, and one other — one she still can’t bear to think about.

A romantic relationship isn’t on the agenda for either of them, but when the diner falls on hard times, Tom steps in to help, paving the way for them both to escape the loneliness in their lives.

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--> The Road to Escape is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. It will soon be available at Kobo and iTunes. 

New Box Set: The Starlight Chronicles by Lisa Orchard

Fellow West Michigan author Lisa Orchard has been busy the last few years! She has two popular young adult series going and still manages to smile at everyone she sees. Recently, the three books in her Starlight Chronicles series were combined into a box set that’s available for only 99 cents! If you’ve got a teen (or like to read about them), read on!

Blurb:

Lark Singer is seventeen years old and already on the way to a brilliant music career. But as she and her band, Starlight, gear up for a competition, life seems to be throwing her a few curve balls. The mysteries of her past seem to be unraveling, and she’s no longer certain she wants to know those answers or how knowing about her past will affect her difficult relationship with her mother. And when her best friend, Bean, changes things between them, all her plans for a musical future are placed in jeopardy. How can she balance her complicated personal life to keep her musical goals on track?

BOX SET CONTAINS ALL THREE BOOKS IN THE STARLIGHT SERIES:

Gideon Lee

Lark Singer

Starlight

You can get this awesome set on Amazon.

About Lisa:

Lisa Orchard grew up loving books. She was hooked on books by the fifth grade and even wrote a few of her own. She knew she wanted to be a writer even then. Her first published works are the “Super Spies Series.” These stories revolve around a group of friends who form their own detective squad and the cases they solve. “The Starlight Chronicles,” is the next series that Lisa created with musical misfit, Lark Singer as her main character.

Lisa resides in Michigan with her husband, Steve, and two wonderful boys. Currently, she’s working on the next book in the Starlight Chronicles Series along with a few new ideas that may turn into stand-alone novels. When she’s not writing she enjoys spending time with her family, running, hiking, and reading.

You can find Lisa on Facebook, Twitter, and on her website.

  

Hitting the Big Time

Have you ever had a spotlight shine on you unexpectedly? Or had a microphone handed over to you when you had absolutely nothing to say? Or been called on to speak in a meeting? That’s sort of the feeling I got last month when the gorgeous cover for my novella Searching for Lady Luck won the Crème de la Cover Contest at In D’Tale Magazine. Though I was thrilled to win simply for the recognition, the prize included a quarter page ad for winning the weekly contest, and a full-page ad for winning the monthly contest!

After the initial excitement, I started to panic. How on earth was I going to come up with two ads? I do a little bit of digital image manipulation, but nothing that people are going to look at in a magazine. I felt like I’d walked into the wrong party and everyone was looking at me. Knowing I wouldn't be able to do this alone, I asked my daughter for help, since she took a lot of computer courses in college, and she agreed to work with me.

But then I decided to gift the full page ad to my publisher (you  know, to thank them for putting my books out there) and in return she paid the cover artist to create my ad for me! Today I got the finished product. I am so thrilled, I wanted to share it with you.

What do you think?