Tag: artist

The Magic of Creativity: Why the Tarya books are about all artists

The Magic of Creativity: Why the Tarya books are about all artists

Photo by Ivandrei Pretorius, from Pexels

Tarya, the mystical otherworld of the Tales of Tarya series, is a place of magic and creativity. It is a place reached in those moments when we become absorbed in what we are creating, whether that is a novel, a painting or a song. When author Laura Goodin recently launched Columbine’s Tale, she talked about why creatives know Tarya and its magic so well. I was so thrilled with the way she had captured the central premise of the book that I asked if I could include her speech on my blog. Read on to understand what lies at the heart of the books Harlequin’s Riddle and Columbine’s Tale.

When creatives get together…

One night a few years ago, our apartment was filled with actors, musicians, and techies. They had just closed a successful run of The Merry Wives of Windsor (in which my husband had had a role).  As is the way of theatre people after closing night, they were boisterous, roisterous, and rowdy.  The windows were rattling; the light fixtures were swinging; people were bouncing off the walls.

Our daughter, also a theatre person, was in high school at the time.  She’d brought a friend over for the evening:  a quiet and pensive young woman who was by nature a scientist.  Our daughter, of course, was completely at her ease, but her friend sat stiffly, hands clenched together in her lap, shoulders drawn in, looking uneasily around the room.  My husband, himself an exuberant bear of a man, bounded over to the sofa where the two sat, flung out his arm in an expansive gesture to indicate the chaos around us, and cried jubilantly, “This is what we have instead of money!”

Tarya is magic

What was the “this” he was talking about? What had we chosen above security, above money, above society’s approval? It was Tarya:  the wonderful realm of magic and mastery and exhilaration that we artists enter when we create – if we’re lucky.  It’s not a sure thing.  But once you manage to find it, you spend the rest of your life trying to get back there.  When you’re in Tarya, you are aligned with something huge, irresistible, and utterly glorious, like a needle aligned with the massive magnetic forces of the earth.  You are doing what you were born to do, buzzing and ringing with the elemental power of the universe.  Who wouldn’t give anything for that?

Tarya can be dangerous

The characters in Columbine’s Tale have been to Tarya, and, yes, they’ll do anything – absolutely anything – to protect their access to it.  At the same time, Mina, herself no stranger to Tarya, knows what this access costs, and she’ll do absolutely anything to stop the other characters from wreaking yet more damage, ruining yet more lives.  And here is the kernel of this fabulous story:  the irresistible force meets the immovable object.  She must stop them, but she can’t stop them.  She must stop them.  Yet she can’t stop them.  These characters want what they want with a mighty wanting, which makes them vibrant, complex, and entirely alive.  They face terrible consequences whichever way the plot resolves, and they act within a complex and richly described world that imposes genuine constraints on their choices and actions, which makes the story both riveting and deeply emotional.

Tarya is a compulsion

This book is written not just with craft, but with heart.  The idea of Tarya is not just a clever plot device or facile metaphor for artistic creativity.  Instead, it’s a focus for yearning, for the compulsion to create, for the demands that art places on the artist – demands that we leap to fulfill, for we can do nothing else.  We have been there.  The question Columbine’s Tale asks is an uncomfortable one:  will we, too, do anything to get back?  Anything? Are we greater or lesser artists if we, like Mina, hesitate?

Why we need slow art

Why we need slow art

Living fast – or slow

In the developed world levels of stress and mental illness are rising rapidly. There are various contributors to this: feelings of inadequacy that arise from comparing yourself to others on social media; the unexpressed grief caused by the mammoth in the room that is climate change; and the ever-increasing pace of life that demands everyone do more but get paid less.

In reaction, there has been a growth in social movements that promote a more considered pace of life. The slow food movement encourages the appreciation of real food, cooked in a considered way that takes time to draw out maximum flavour and nutrition. Slow living has come to the fore as part of voluntary simplicity, encouraging a lifestyle based on returning to more traditional ways of doing things, such as baking your own bread or making your clothes. Another movement that could sit side by side with these, that is desperately needed, is a return to slow art.

Churning through life

The pace of life has been carefully sculpted by large societal forces: Capitalism and social media. Social media works on principles identified by Pavlov. Every like and smiley face is positive reinforcement that keeps us scrolling. Each new piece of information keeps us hooked to our feed. We get a little dopamine hit every time we get something new, so we have become attuned to needing constant input. This results in churning. There always has to be something fresh to catch our attention.

Capitalism reinforces this. Capitalism only works if everyone keeps shopping, which requires a constant flow of new products. After all, people won’t buy things they have already bought. This is noticeable in the book industry. The time a book spends in a book shop has been getting less and less over the years. New books now are given very little time to make an impact (ie sales) before they are removed, returned and pulped. When I was told this by a bookseller, that time had shifted from three months to one month. It could be less now. New authors get very little opportunity to be noticed – the briefest window before everyone moves on to the next big thing.

The Netflix effect

The other thing that works against slow is the Netflix effect. Being able to binge-watch a show means people no longer want to wait for the next instalment. This is true of books too. I have spoken to authors who are under pressure (and contract) to get the next book in a series out as quickly as possible. Otherwise the readers’ attention and dollars might go elsewhere. The industry seems to believe readers don’t have the patience to wait, and sometimes they don’t. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Patrick Rothfuss, author of the Kingkiller Chronicle, a marvellous fantasy series. The third and final book has been a long time coming, and Rothfuss has been subjected to significant online abuse for keeping people waiting.

Why this is a problem for art

Is this just how the world works now? Should we just accept it? I don’t think so. Because art takes time. Art is the expression of a human life. Through art a soul is bared on canvas or on the page or through a dress design. The creative process isn’t just the moment when paint is applied or words are written. It is the research that allows a piece to have depth and substance. It is the many hours spent developing technique. And it is that magical, alchemical time when the creative imagination is allowed to daydream and wander, transforming experiences and inspiration a creation that will reach out to others.

Why slow art matters

According to Celtic tradition, the Poets who guard the fountain of knowledge, known as the Aois Dana, give the gift of insight and creativity to artists, poets, story tellers and bards. These people are chosen so they can imbue their art with the memories and wisdom of their culture*. Artists create works that express the soul, that speak of what it is to be human, that provide connection and meaning to those who experience them. But art that is thoughtful and beautiful, and says important things, takes time. It must be nurtured carefully so that it emerges in the best form to express its truth.

We live in an era where truth is fragile and meaning is reduced to marketing catch-phrases. More than ever we need art that speaks to us, reminding us of the wisdom that is missing from so many public conversations. The greatest gift we can give the artists and creators is time. Time to research, time to dream, and time to create art that will speak to us.

 

* See the wonderful Celtic Folk Soul: Art, Myth and Symbol, by Jen Delyth

Creating Harlequin: Developing a Book Cover

Creating Harlequin: Developing a Book Cover

The book cover for Harlequin’s Riddle receives a lot of compliments. I’ve had people tell me they read the e book first, then had to go and buy a paper copy because they wanted the cover on their bookshelf. It’s a stunning image. But how did it come about? In this post I’ll take you on the journey of development that led to the cover. I don’t think it typically works this way, but this is Harlequin’s story…

Step One: Approaching an Artist

By the middle of 2016 Harlequin’s Riddle had been rejected by all the ‘big’ Australian publishers that I could get access to (which wasn’t many since I didn’t have an agent). Although I had received personal, detailed feedback from a few, which is unusual, it was ‘close, but not close enough’. I decided I’d look at self-publishing. To do that I’d need a cover, and I had come across the work of an incredible artist called Nadia Turner who lived close to me, and who painted gypsy wagons and pictures that had a real storytelling feel blended with folkloric elements. I already owned one of her prints because I loved her art so much, and I thought her style and themes would suit my book perfectly, so I made contact with her. She agreed to read Harlequin’s Riddle. Fortunately for me, she felt inspired by it and agreed to do the cover. I did a HUGE happy dance, I can tell you. We negotiated cost and timeframes, and talked about possibilities for images. We both agreed that book one had to feature Harlequin.

Step Two: Choosing a Design

Nadia came back to me with pencil sketches for several different designs. I thought they were all marvellous, but there was one that stood out. These are the designs I didn’t choose (below). I loved them all but felt they weren’t quite right. In the first one, Harlequin was a bit too noble. He’s a trickster who causes a few problems now and then (no spoilers…) so he needed a bit more ‘edge’ to him. A similar image (the one I ended up choosing) also had him on the other side of the cover, with the wagons and castle off to the left, so they would show on the back of the book. This felt like a better reflection of the long journey the travelling players take. The second cover has a glorious mask and beautiful embellishments, but wouldn’t show well as a thumbnail sketch on Amazon. The final one is striking, but doesn’t give a sense of story – and story telling is key to Mina’s abilities.

 

Interlude: Finding a Publisher

Once I had chosen the design, Nadia went off to do a colour rough, so we could work out the best colour palette. Around the same time my writing angel, Wendy Dunn, encouraged me to try a few small publishers, so I sent Harlequin to Odyssey books, and finally received that wonderful email all writers dream of: “we love it and want to publish it”. Odyssey is well known for having stunning covers that sit alongside the best of the big publishers, so I was a little bit nervous to say to my publisher – by the way, I’ve got this book cover design…

Step Three: The Colour Rough

While I was building up my courage to mention the book cover artwork to my brand new publisher, Nadia got back to me with the colour ‘rough’. As far as I was concerned there was nothing ‘rough’ about it. I thought the colours were perfect – not too bright, a beautiful tonal palette. My husband, who does a lot of photoshopping for me, will tell you I’m pretty fussy when it comes to design, but in this case all I asked for was a little more gold to lift the brown. As a result, the flowers now have gold centres, and Harlequin’s cloak pin is outlined in gold.  I also asked for the scroll design to be separate. That way I had the option of using or not using it.

Step Four: A Final Image… and the Design Process Begins…

When Nadia told me the painting was done it was like a whole bunch of Christmases all coming at once. When I picked it up it was sandwiched between boards and taped up, and I had a long way to travel, so I didn’t untape it. But I was twitching to have a look. That was one of the longest train journeys I’ve ever taken! Finally I got to open it up and I was SO thrilled with the final image. Fortunately, to my huge relief, I showed the image to my publisher and she loved it to.

Step Five: The Words

My husband, Jamie, is a whiz in Photoshop so my publisher agreed that he would do the lettering. By this stage, looking at the final image, we both thought the scroll wasn’t necessary. It would cover up the artwork and wouldn’t be able to fit much anyway. Book cover titles and author names need to be easy to read. So the scroll went. I hunted around for fonts for the title and found one called Fairy Dust. We got permission from the font designer to use it, then played around with placement, colour and size. I pretty much drove my husband mad at this stage. We discovered that Harlequin was a little too close to the top of the image to fit the word ‘Harlequin’ comfortably, so Jamie photoshopped some extra sky in with Nadia’s permission. Finally, after many cups of tea and a great deal of ‘no, a little more to the right’, ‘can you make it two points larger?’, and ‘can you add a drop shadow?’, we had a book cover. I sent it to Odyssey for final tweaks – my publisher did the back cover blurb and interior design, including stunning embellishments. In a master stroke, she chose to print the books on matte stock.

Afterword: My Precious….

It was beyond exciting to receive my author copies and to see the final cover on a real book. I was thrilled to be able to give Nadia a copy.

I’ve been told an author should buy themselves a special gift to commemorate publication day. What I did was to frame the original artwork. Now, as I sit and write, I can look up and see Harlequin, the wagons and Mina’s journey, which lies at the heart of Harlequin’s Riddle.

Want to see more of Nadia’s amazing artwork? Go to Wayward Harper. Or to by prints, necklaces and other Wayward Harper goodies, visit Leaf Studios in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges.

Want to be one of the first people to see the cover for the second book? Sign up to my quarterly email newsletter (below) for a sneak peak…