Artist Spotlight: Warwick Goble

Gah! It’s been ages since I put together an artist spotlight. Today, I decided to showcase Warwick Goble. I’ve seen plenty of his pictures, especially around Pinterest, but didn’t get curious about the man himself until a few days ago. Here are the stats…

Born: November 22, 1862 in Dalton, north London.

Studied: At the City of London School and Westminster School of Art.

Illustrated: Children’s books with titles like The Book of Fairy Poetry and Tod of the Fens. You can’t get much better than that.

Known for: An interest in Indian and Japanese fairy tales.

Died: January 22, 1943 in Surrey, England.

…And here are the pictures. Enjoy!

The Water Babies (1909)

From The Book of Fairy Poetry (1920)

The Frog Prince

Folk Tales of Bengal (1912)

Urashima Taro

Taking Stock: June

Reading: The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Surviving the Applewhites, Guards! Guards!

Making: Collages on my journal pages. All you need is a pair of scissors, some Scotch tape, and magazines to rip apart.

Wishing: To go to the beach. I miss the ocean.

Listening: To the Tarzan soundtrack. I love all Disney soundtracks, but this one just made it into my top three favorites (the other two are Hercules and Treasure Planet).

Watching: The Walking Dead, Raising Hope, Parks and Recreation.

Enjoying: Less-than-scorching-hot weather. I’ve been outside a grand total of two times in the past two days, but still….

Wanting: A desktop like this.

Wondering: If I should start knitting again. I made hats, washcloths, gauntlets, cup cozies, baby blankets, scarves, and purses before I quit two years ago. I've been wondering if I should start again ever since.

Drooling: Over candied strawberries. I had them at a friend’s birthday and they were beyond amazing.

Writing: Notes and story ideas and more notes.

Praying: I’ll get a first draft of something finished before the end of summer.

Needing: To read more.

Admiring: Tasha Tudor. I’ve mentioned her on the blog before. There’s something incredibly inspiring about living your life exactly as you want to live it, even if that includes corsets and wood-burning stoves.

Waiting: For my copy of Onyx, the newest issue of White Ash Literary Magazine. One of my stories will be printed in it!

Loving: Warwick Goble’s fairy tale illustrations. He might be the subject of my next Artist Spotlight. What do you think? 

All pictures via Pinterest

My 4 Greatest Writing Weaknesses

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    Hey guys! A while back I wrote a post on the eight essentials to my writing process. I thought another writing-related list would be fun, and, honestly, I’m at a point where I could do with a good, cleansing rant about EVERYTHING that’s wrong with the way I write. I decided to go with my four greatest weaknesses, but this obviously isn’t a complete list :) 

1. Motivation

 I’m lazy. Really, really lazy. Motivating myself to finish a first draft is hard enough, but once I get to the last page—if I get to the last page—my will power to actually fix the thing is pretty much shot. I know lots of writers prefer editing to writing the first draft, but at least during the first draft I don’t have to worry about whether it’s any good or not….
 
2.  Fear
I can’t write without constantly worrying—I’ve screwed up way too many stories for that. When I’m not worrying about my writing ability, I worry about my ideas, and when I’m not worrying about my ideas, I worry about the kind of pens and paper I’m using (really!). How-to books and websites are pure poison right before I start drafting; I stress over inciting incidents and original concepts until my inspiration is completely sapped.  
 

3.   Routine
 I used to make sure to write two pages of each of my projects every day after school. This was when I first started writing semi-seriously, and even though all of those projects sucked, I was productive and happy. I haven’t had much of a regular writing routine since. It’s something I’d like to start again but never have.
 
4. Comparison
 I compare myself to every other writer I meet and secretly think they’re so much happier/more talented/more productive/more likely to get published than I am. Truth is, I’m pretty sure we all feel terrible. 

   

   Misery loves company! What are your biggest writing weaknesses?

Odds & Ends

Reading

Honestly, I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately, which I’m trying to combat by rereading a bunch of old favorites, starting with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Pure comedy GOLD, I tell you. I think the best are the first three (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules, and The Last Straw), but any of them are hilarious and guaranteed to put you in a good mood.

Researching

One of my current WIPs is about pirates (as in, the much more romantic idea of pirates, but still) so I've had to force myself to do some research. She Captains by Joan Druett has been my favorite resource so far—it’s chock full of fascinating details and fun reading to boot.

Getting Outside

I’m one of the biggest couch potatoes ever, so this more of a goal than something I'm doing a lot of…I live in the suburbs, which aren't exactly conductive to long nature walks. Still, I’d rather not grow into my desk chair.

Music

Mumford & Sons, Bob Dylan, Imagine Dragons, and Johnny Cash. In other words, no wonder I’m in a slump.

How has May been treating you?

Story Ideas & Color Palettes

   So, today I was talking to my sister, who also writes, and we discovered that we both like to think of color palettes for our stories. We’re both really visual (the hardest part of writing is actually putting the story into words), so figuring out the color scheme helps a TON with moods and settings.

Exhibit A:

   WIP #1 will (hopefully) be a sci-fi/space opera-type adventure. I borrowed a lot of the colors from the movies Treasure Planet and Peter Pan—deep, rich, storybook colors. Lots of oranges, dark blues, and purples.

Exhibit B:

   My sister’s story, which is basically Mary Poppins meets traditional fairy lore, is set in the pseudo-Edwardian countryside during spring and early summer. The colors are natural, with plenty of greens, yellows, pinks, and oranges. There’s a bit of red and some brighter colors, but nothing too loud or artificial.

Exhibit C:

   WIP #2 is about pirates—the good old-fashioned, jolly roger-flying, incredibly romanticized kind. So I've got blues, greens, blacks, reds, yellows, and browns. Anything bold or bright works.

   I’d really love to know if you guys use color palettes or something similar for your projects. They’re very helpful when it comes to pinning down the exact mood of your story. 

All pictures via Pinterest

Publication News: "The Girl Who Fell to Earth"

   

 
    Just a quick note to say that one of my short stories,"The Girl Who Fell to Earth", has been published in 308 Words!
    
   308 Words is a collection of flash fiction stories (308 words long, minus the title) published on Tumblr by 308 Press. You can find more about it here and here; it's an incredibly cool new press and I couldn't be happier to see my story up there. 

   "The Girl Who Fell to Earth" is a flash fiction fairy tale with a bit of magical realism thrown in. I carried the basic idea around for a long time before pounding it out in one afternoon--less because I was hit with some huge surge of creativity and more because I felt like I'd go crazy if I didn't write something. It's a pinch of astronomy mixed with a bunch of weirdness, and I hope you'll enjoy it.