Posted in photography, Revenants Abroad, sunrise, writing

New Locations Now Open

With all the talk of Twitter moving to an algorithmic system that promotes “popular” posts (read: things that make the company more money) I’m preparing to either abandon it, or use it less. In any event, I’ve started a Tumblog which can be found here. Not much there yet since I just started it today. I expect it will evolve as these things do.

I also resuscitated my Ello site, just barely, but it has a pulse now. I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing over there. But if you happen to be on either of those services, let’s connect. If you’re on Facebook I’m there as well (also here) but I don’t log in often.

Don’t be a stranger!

Feb 5, 2016 sunrise

2-5-16 pond2

Posted in astronomy, Birds, clouds, commute, daffodils, Moon, morning, Oregon, photography, sunrise, writing

Early January Photos

Just a few recent pics.

Moon and Venus, 7AM, Jan. 6, 2016

1-6-15 Moon Venus

Sunrise over Farksolia, Jan. 6, 2016. The roads were total ice, so traffic was doing about 20mph through this stretch.

1-6-16 Sunrise Farksolia

And without the wires

1-6-16 sunrise no wires

Snow earlier in the week (January 3) so I got to work from home that Monday (Jan. 4). It didn’t amount to much, only about an inch and a half, but it stuck around in my area for several days. My backyard was still snowy on Thursday (the 7th) when it was gone from just about everywhere else in the area. The hills of course had it worse.

1-4-16 Varied Thrush

1-3-16 snow on grass

 

1-3-16 snowy grasses

 

1-3-16 snowy road

Daffodils aren’t afraid of a little snow.

1-3-16 daffodils snow

 

 

 

Posted in astronomy, autumn, Birds, clouds, fall, geese, morning, Oregon, photography, Planets, Space, sunrise

Sunrise Colors

Breaktaking colors this morning, and a shot of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in the eastern sky just before daybreak. Venus is the top, brightest one, then little Mars, and Jupiter.

 

 

Posted in autumn, clouds, commute, fall, morning, old buildings, Oregon, photography, Portland, rainbows, sunrise, trees, writing

Rain + Sun = Rainbow

Rainbow
Left side

Right side
Right side

Just a few shots from my morning commute. There was a double but I just couldn’t fit it all in the image. I kept wanting to stop and take pictures on the way in but didn’t have time! Grrrr. Hence some lousy framing and road signs.

Double rainbow

I love the sun on the green trees with the dark clouds behind. It’s so dramatic. These are completely unretouched except for a little cropping and compression.

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Sunrise
Posted in Birds, books, clouds, ebooks, flowers, fog, morning, Oregon, photography, Revenants Abroad, self-publishing, writing

‘Cause I Just Don’t Have Enough To Do

So my latest thing is I’m thinking about doing a newsletter focusing on my book and the upcoming sequel as well as other writing, and offering some exclusive content (backstory on characters, new stuff related to the Revenants series and other projects), contests and giveaways. Yeah I know, like I don’t have enough to do already, right?

If you’d like to sign up you can do so here. Unfortunately with WordPress.com sites you can’t embed the forms so I have to have an off-site page for it. I’ll be moving the blog to a self-hosted site soon, though. I’m not sure when I’ll start sending out the newsletter, and it will be monthly if I can keep up. Otherwise maybe every other month, so you won’t be inundated with stuff every week.

The white flowers below are Oregon’s state flower, the trillium. It’s protected, so don’t pick them if you see them.

We’re still getting a lot of fog in the mornings, as you can see.

Posted in cherry blossoms, daffodils, flowers, photography, Revenants Abroad, spring, sunrise, Vampires, writing

Oregon Spring

I’ve been taking loads of pictures lately, just no time to post. Here’s a selection the last week or so. Some of the dates are wrong, typos, ya know. But just in case spring is late in your part of the world, enjoy these pictures.

Not much else going on. Still working with CreateSpace to try to get the cover image for Revenants Abroad printed right. They’ve sent me two proof copies and both were so dark you could hardly see the details and colors in the background. I’m very frustrated. It’s not brain surgery, it shouldn’t be this hard. Let’s hope third time’s the charm.

Posted in barn, clouds, commute, fantasy, fiction, fog, morning, Oregon, photography, rainbows, sunrise, writing

Imaginary Worlds

These pictures feel like a fairytale world. I need to write a fantasy set in this place. Gotta come up with a name for it. Amazing how it’s never the same two days in a row.

When I look at these pictures I keep wanting to label them “Farksolia.” But I need to think up my own name if I want to create an imaginary world. For those not familiar with Farksolia, it was an imaginary planet invented by Barbara Follett, a ‘child prodigy’ who wrote an acclaimed novel at the age of 12, in 1925. She even created a language for the inhabitants, Farksoo. She disappeared mysteriously in 1939, and I like to think she created a new life for herself somewhere, changed her name, and kept writing. She would have been 101 on March 4. I somehow stumbled across Farksolia years ago, no doubt following one link, then another, and have never forgotten about Barbara.

Anyway the whole thing is giving me ideas for different blog formats, and creating a little world of my own. I owe you for that, Barbara.