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
