A most useful book for authors of any genre. Are you an author ready to publish your book? Have no idea what to do and what to avoid? Check out The Author’s Checklist: An Agent’s Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript by Elizabeth Kracht, a literary agent and book editor. The review and giveaway of The Author’s Checklist is on my other blog. If you are reading this between March 6 and 13, 2020, the book might be yours. See you over on the other blog!     ..read more

When you travel a lot (and I do), hotel rugs, wallpaper and art become interesting. Also, a great way to know that you left one city and are in another. Hotel rug, blooming happily away. This rug, with huge florals, is compelling. I wouldn’t want it in my house, but for a hotel rug, it’s cheerful, hides dirt and doesn’t show wear. It’s also nice that the pattern doesn’t repeat. Since the even-numbered doors aren’t numbered where you can see them from the elevator exit, it helps to remember which flower is yours! The sadder news is that I have stayed in three of this brand of hotel and I have ..read more

Phoenix is well-known for its colorful and fascinating murals. I’ve walked by this one for years, but never turned around to see it. A few days ago, I walked a different way and came across it. The wings are huge, but the artist left enough room in the center for people to stand and have their picture taken. An interactive mural, creating angels in Phoenix ..read more

While I generally put only my art on this blog, I am running a book giveaway on my professional website, and thought you might find the interesting enough to enter the giveaway. (I’ll announce the winner on July 12, 2019.) The book, Steve O’Keefe’s Set the Page on Fire: Secrets of Successful Writers, is a short book with big advice. He interviewed hundreds of authors to compile the tips. Read the review here and enter the giveaway ..read more

Tomorrow is Sunday. Mother’s Day. Maybe you feel guilty, or sad, or just wonder what other people were so sentimental about. Mother’s Day. The day when no praise is extravagant enough, no card kitschy enough, no sentiment sweet enough. And you aren’t feeling it. At all. Collage: “Flight” ©Quinn McDonald, 2014 If your childhood was happy and you had a mother who gave you everything you needed and no card can express the love and admiration you feel,  today’s blog is not for you. It’s for the others. You know who you are. This is for those who  never really had the mother you needed ..read more

When I saw the Sephora bag being packed in the store, I thought, “this could be a journal.” (This is what happened when I got too eager and didn’t plan enough.) Accidentally, I spoke that out loud. The sales associate lit up. “How would you do that?” she asked. I folded the bag to show her. Photograph © Quinn McDonald, 2018 “That would be so cute!” she gushed. “And you could sell them on Etsy and make a lot of money and be a real artist!” There was so much in that comment to understand and come to grips with. In real life, I smiled, took my purchase and left the store. In my head, I began to ..read more

When I saw the Sephora bag, I knew that it would make a cute hand-made journal.  The bump in the road—I haven’t hand made a journal in more than a year—didn’t bother me. Hey, I knew how. The secret to producing anything decent is practice. But psssssh, I’ve made dozens of journals. Sure, I can still do it. Easily. Right? Maybe not. Without practice, the skill dulls. It doesn’t vanish, and I may know the steps, but the skill element dulls. The Sephora bag, ready to be worked on. Until I cut my finger. So does the knife blade. After I decided how to cut the bag, I pulled out my cutting kn ..read more

Is being creative the same as being different? In a world of “there are many ways, but only one right way,” and “it’s either wrong or right,” the word “creative” has taken a beating. There were the go-getters who tried to make “disruptive” a synonym for “creative.” The connotation of disruptive is often negative–an idea barging in, taking over, crashing the status quo.  But the disrupters were mostly being different, and not necessarily creative, which has the connotation of being visually interesting, but not necessarily practical. Being different can mean standing alone. Being creative ..read more

We’d had a nice dinner, my friend and I. She had offered to help me with videos for a class I’m developing for the Invisible, Visible World book. She is a generous soul— something we all need more of in our life—generosity. Giving and getting. I’m combining my creative site with my professional site for a new look and new ideas. (This site will remain right here.) But I want people who hire me to train their employees in writing or critical thinking or problem solving to know that I’m not the “read the PowerPoint” kind of instructor, that in my class, everyone speaks, everyone questions, every ..read more

Artists and writers are always pushing ahead–pushing their boundaries, pushing themselves to learn a new technique. That’s growth. But there is also a time for being an expert and sticking to what you know. First, sketch the raven. Then, cut out words and letters about ravens and glue them in place, using tweezers. Tiny, fiddly steps. There is no worthwhile project that doesn’t require time, attention, and practice. © Quinn McDonald, 2018 I’m learning how to create and run an online class. I’ve been teaching for many years,but it’s always been face-to-face. Online is a new medium for me, and ..read more