Pirate Owl Card by Cheryl Wright

 

Click here for an Excerpt 

Last month I shared an owl card I had made for my fourteen year old granddaughter's birthday. 

I also made one for her twin brother, but naturally this one needed to be more masculine. 

Here's what I came up with:

This was a more complicated card than his sister's. I sponged the bottom half of the card with blue ink to represent the ocean. Then using a stencil, I made 'waves'. 

Using the Stampin' Up! Owl Punch, I made an owl and decorated him up to be a pirate. The hat was made by punching out another owl body, this one black, and cutting it in half. (Not my idea!!) 

I'd picked up the pirate ribbon at a department store at a bargain price a while back, but had never used it. It was perfect for this card.

 I wanted my pirate owl to stand on a boat, but didn't have anything suitable in my vast stamp collection. So I took a piece of black cardstock, and cut it to a boat shape. But it needed more. 

I cut a piece of twine, and tied a small knot each end, then glued it across the front of the boat. 

The stamps (including the flag) are all from Inspired by Stamping, and worked perfectly for this card. 

When I was about to put it all together, I realised pirates need peg legs! So I chopped of his leg and replaced it with a peg leg I made from some cardstock scrap.

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!

Links:

My website:  www.cheryl-wright.com 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cherylwrightauthor 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/writercheryl
BWL website: http://bookswelove.net/authors/wright-cheryl/ 

Why Does a Writer HAVE to Write: The Answer Found in the Petrified Forest National Park

Deadly Undertaking

A handsome detective,
a shadow man,
and a murder victim
kill Lauren’s plan for a simple life.
Available at Amazon

Hello and welcome to the Books We Love Insiders Blog, an author written blog sharing personal stories, research updates, writing tips and interesting gossip and details of the writing life. I'm J. Q. Rose. Today it's my privilege to take a turn.

* * *

A writer’s compulsion to write is a puzzlement to most people.  Ask an author why she writes and you will most likely get the answer, “because I have to.” Ideas for stories swirl around in the writer’s brain and will not go away until the idea is fixed on paper or screen.

This drive is not a new behavior for human beings. Cave men expressed their ideas on the walls of caves. This summer my husband and I visited the Southwest region of the USA. Signs of ancestral native people who lived in this harsh environment left their drawings on rocks in the desert. I don’t mean rocks the size of a stone you can skip across the lake. These are enormous ROCKS with identifiable pictures of water birds and faces of what scientists believe symbolize the spirits the people worshiped. The drawings are called petroglyphs.

Petroglyph --Faces of spirits of the Ancestral Pueblo culture

Petroglyph--Water bird drawing in the Petrified Forest National Park

Evidence of the desire by ancient people to leave a record of their lives are scattered throughout the Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona. 

Rocks, “varnished” by Mother Nature by the clay minerals and sand collected on the surface of the rock, make the perfect canvas/background for the prehistoric man to scratch out recognizable shapes and figures about their existence. The latest Ancient Puebloan drawings are believed to be from around 900 A.D. to 1100 A.D. 

The Painted Desert located in the Petrified Forest National Park

I felt strangely connected with these primitive efforts at sharing the artist/writer's ideas with others, as if the artist was reaching out across the centuries to assure me it's okay to have that drive to express my ideas through my writing. 

I wonder if any of our e-books and print books will exist 1000 years from now for future scientists to discover!
Photos by J.Q. Rose

* * *

Connect online with J.Q. Rose, author of the romantic suspense, Deadly Undertaking.

Author J.Q. Rose

Click here on the J.Q.Rose blog to learn more about the Petrified Forest National Park.

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J.Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page 

Phobias by Stuart R. West

Phobias are a funny thing. Everyone suffers one.

If you look up the word "phobia," it's categorized as an anxiety disorder; a fear of a situation or object blown way out of proportion to the actual threat. Try telling that to the phobia sufferer.

I have a friend who's deathly afraid of clowns. Why? Dunno. But I suppose it makes sense to him, his mind working overtime to try and persuade logic to over-take the irrational fear. Granted, serial killer/clown John Wayne Gacy didn't do too much to promote clown good-will, but I hardly think clowns generally pose a threat. Even so, there's even a name for it: Coulrophobia. The fact the fear is predominant enough to earn its own name implies its more widespread than I thought.

My phobia? Heights, aka Acrophobia. Which is strange. It didn't happen until later in life. As a youth, I'd recklessly climb aboard the most rickety-looking, splintery old roller-coasters with wild abandon. Absolutely fearless. But sometime, somehow things changed. I didn't even realize it until my daughter and I visited a (supposedly haunted) lighthouse in Florida. It wasn't the thought of ghosts that inspired my fear. At the top of the tower, I hugged the walls, too terrified to look down while other tourists found me very amusing. How do phobias build later in life? Is it like hair-loss?

The most outrageous case of phobia I've ever seen is my wife's (thank God she doesn't read this blog). A medical professional, she doesn't flinch at anything, even discussing gory details with a blase attitude over dinner. But...spiders. Yep, arachnophobia. The eight legged varmints turn my strong soldier of a wife into a quivering pile of jello. When she was in college, she took parachuting lessons. On the day of her big jump, she spotted a spider in the airplane. The instructor had to physically restrain her from jumping out early. Once, on a busy street, she jumped out of her car, leaving the passenger inside to deal with it. Anything to get away from the dreaded critters. At home, her screams are legendary. I'm used to the tiny, startled "eeks." Those are categorized as "Be there in a second, honey!" But the full-on, blood-curdling shrieks when she spots an arachnid? That hits the "Code Red! Jump over any obstacles to get there ASAP!" category.

There's a phobia for nearly everything and a correlating name to go along with it. Fear of hair (Chaetophobia), fear of cooking (Mageirocophobia), fear of smells (Olfactophobia), fear of long words (Sesquipedalophobia--which I think is kinda ironic, really), the list goes on and on. It's quite fascinating, really. If you're truly interested, look up The Phobia List.

I suppose everyone's allowed a phobia. And only the sufferer truly understands their own fears, even if they're at a loss for words how to describe it. And I have to say, a lot of times I write about some of my own fears in my books, I suppose as a form of therapy. Yep, even danger at heights!

What say you, folks? Let's hear about some interesting phobias.

Click Here For Many Phobias: Ghosts, Greed, Evil, Buried Alive, Moving Shadows & More!

Books We Love's Tantalizing Talent ~ Author Betty Ann Harris

When I was a young teenager I became an avid reader. My favorite books were Nancy Drew mysteries and I adored Agatha Christie books. I developed a passion for words and the thoughts and emotions they could convey. I started my own writing career as a poet.

For years, I had this story in my mind and I would add to it sometimes. One day I realized the story finally had a conclusion. Now what? I told a few close friends about this story. They all agreed it sounded like it was a good idea for a book. That became my first written romantic suspense thriller, Eureka Point. From romantic suspense I became interested in paranormal romance and wrote Possessing Prudence.

As my writing career continues, I plan on adding to my Protected Heart Series, of which Eureka Point was the first book. Moonlight Cove will be the second book in that series.

List of books with BWL:   

Eureka Point, romantic suspense

Danger in Paradise, romantic suspense

A Very Special Agent, romantic suspense

Possessing Prudence, romantic paranormal

  

http://ladylizzie1.wix.com/authorbettyannharris

http://bookswelove.net/authors/harris-betty-ann/

A Very Special Agent

Amazon

Best-selling romance author, Maggie Tyler, is being stalked and threatened by a psychotic fan. Alone and afraid, she must turn to the FBI for protection. 

Stephen O’Leary is the tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome FBI Special Agent who is assigned to protect her. Upon meeting Maggie, Stephen is totally smitten by this widowed beauty, a woman who possesses a kind heart and deep passions that match his own burning desires.

Amidst danger, mystery, and the villain’s overwhelming compulsion to have Maggie all to himself, she and Stephen fall madly in love. But by doing so are they unknowingly sparking jealousy and a dangerous obsession the stalker has to have Maggie all to himself?     

Amazon

Possessing Prudence 

The scenic seaport town of Mystic Port is steeped in history. Prudence Trivit, the town’s historian, is on a mission to find out the truth about her Great Aunt Alexandra Beaudicort, who was accused and found guilty of murdering her husband, who was the mayor of Mystic Port back in 1897. Prudence, known as Prudy, is certain of her great aunt’s innocence.

A handsome young journalist, Dylan Monroe, is sent to Mystic Port to interview Prudy in advance of the town’s 250th anniversary celebration. Dylan immediately notices Prudy’s uncanny resemblance to her great aunt in the huge portrait of Alexandra that hangs in the museum. Stunned by her beauty and so intrigued by the story of Alexandra, Dylan falls for Prudy, and together they investigate to find out the truth about the murder. But uncovering the truth comes with mishaps and mayhem. As the spirit of Alexandra points them in the right direction, the opposing spirits try to dissuade them.    

Crazy July by Nancy M Bell

This has been a year of opposites so far. The late winter and spring was very dry here in southern Alberta. So dry that by the end of June the pasture still crackled under my feet when I walked the fence line. Then July hit and down came the rain. In torrential downpours. We had 5 tornadoes touch down in 4 days! Like holy cow, what's with that. Even with all the rain if you dig down four inches in the garden you can find dry earth. Crazy!

Once again this July I was fortunate enough to be invited to read my poetry at Stephansson House just west of Red Deer, Alberta. This is the homestead of Stephan G Stephansson, an Icelandic poet who came to live in Alberta in the late 1800's. The site is an Alberta Historical Site and is very well preserved. The house is wonderful to wander through and the surrounding area is kept much as it was during Stephan's life. It should be on everyone's list if they visit this part of the country. Eight poets read their work, the theme this year was Nature and it was exciting to hear what everyone offered.

Getting back to the rain. Last week was Calgary Stampede when the whole city shuts down and parties. It all began on Friday July 8 with the Stampede Parade where thousands of people lined the streets of downtown Calgary to watch marching bands, horses, tons of floats and the always spectacular showing of the Treaty 7 tribes of the First Nations. This year they have representatives of the seven tribes doing an exhibition during the opening ceremonies of the rodeo each day. Each tribe has different ways of painting their faces and bodies as well as their mounts, the stories and meanings behind each colour and symbol are amazing.

The crops are progressing well with the prairies turning bright gold under the blooming canola while fields of wheat and barley wave in the wind like a sea of grass. There has been some attempts to grow drought resistant corn without much success. Here in Alberta corn is happy only in the south country down by Taber where sugar beets also thrive. A true sign that summer has reached the tipping point and is slipping toward autumn is the appearance of pick up trucks selling Taber corn out of the bed, ears of corn piled on the tail gate.

I have been busy working on the third book in the Longview Romance series tentatively titled Wedding Interrupted. If you want to catch up on what Cale and Michelle have been up to since the end of Storm's Refuge be sure to pick up Come Hell or High Water. It fits right into the theme of my blog this month as it features action at the Calgary Stampede and the Half a Mile of Hell which is the chuck wagon races as well as touching on the floods that inundated Calgary and surrounding area in 2013. Click on the cover to get your copy.

Until next month, stay happy, stay well.

Weekly Winner ~ Get Fired Up For Summer Contest

Jennifer Hansen wins a copy of Rough Business by Randall Sawka.

Jennifer, please email bookswelove@telus.net 

to claim your prize. 

Congratulations!

Books We Love

Find the contest details here

 

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Books We Love!

Birthdays - Janet Lane Walters

 Some people wonder why I chose to do my blogs here on the 17th of each month. That's because my birthday falls in that day so the date is easy to remember. Remembering things easier is a blessing when the years begin to creep up on you. Actually, they don't really creep. They hit like a frieght train and all those little things you used to do become difficult and even impossible.

I do try to avoid this by telling people I'm only a day older than I was yesterday. Works for me but leaves them scratching their heads.

So here I am another day older. Next time I'm back, I'll write something about creating worlds either contemporary, historical or fantasy. After all we're writers and are in the business of drawing readers
into other worlds