Wording and Arting...maybe Crafting is the right word?—My Novel Freshman Experience

Words have power...that was the premise of my Everything But books.  I think it's true.  

I rarely refer to myself as an author. It feels too pretentious a word. I'm a writer.  As a working writer, I write for food not some higher purpose.  Okay, sometimes I write for a bit of a higher purpose, but mainly because my kids like to eat.

Basically, I play with words for a living.

For years I've joked that I'm not writing...I'm Wording.

So I guess that means, now that I've gone back to school, when I go to the studio I'm Arting.

I don't know, arting sounds too high falutin for what I do in ceramics class.  I'm a novice.  This term, I gave myself permission to simply experiment.  To see what I can do in clay.  But more than that, I'm experimenting with glazes.  They are such a mystery.  What they do on one project won't necessarily hold true for the next.  (Those pieces up above are for a "quilt" I'm making. It was a great way to play with a lot of glaze.)

I picked the theme Folk Art for the term.  No, we didn't have to pick a theme, but it really worked well for the things I'm arting...nope, that still doesn't seem to fit.  Crafting.  Yeah, I like that.  And it fits for both arting and wording.  I'm crafting art or stories.  

Crafting.  I think I might stick with that.

I have a friend on Facebook who calls  Renaissance Woman because I do a lot of weird things.  I'll confess, I do try a lot of stuff.  From splitting wood, to making beer and bread, to ceramics, to writing...

I've made baskets, quilts, afghans, and embroidered projects...

But here's the thing, I like trying new things.  I like figuring out how things work.  I like...crafting.

And I like knowing little bits about lots of stuff.  I really does help with my books.  Speaking of which, I'm working on a new idea that combines both wording-crafting and arting-crafting.  I'll share more on that later.  

Holly

PS. My love of crafting shows through in so many of my books.  Here's a few:
Spoons (I carved the spoons on the cover)
Just One Thing
Carry Her Heart
Once Upon a Valentine's