Fine Arts

I completed the above charcoal drawing of my nephew, Thanh, about a year ago. My niece, Danielle, about six months later, and this is a pastel. I really wish I could spend more time working with my drawings. I hope to finish an oil painting of a landscape soon. It is an old barn nested in a field of mustard weeds with two horses grazing nearby. I hope to add more to this section soon.

Photography

I normally take scene photos, such as the one above I took at DeSoto Bend, Iowa. Recently, I've been struggling with portraits. The photo below is of my niece, Ashley, which I can see, I will have to adjust my lights.



I'll keep working on it until I get it right. My camera is a Canon EOS Rebel, and since this is my first digital, I'm still learning how to use it.

I'm Working

My novel, TO FIND A KILLER, is in its second printing and available on Amazon.com. I thought the price a little expensive, but everything has gone up in value.

SEARCHING FOR HARPIES will be edited this month and I hope will be available next month, at least before Christmas. The editor who is working on my books is very busy, and I should be patient, but I have two more manuscripts in this Bob Norris series to be edited.

In the meantime, I am working on a young adult book, BURNING ROSES. A small farming community of southwest Iowa is populated by all witches. Spirits of a lost Indian tribe attempts to reclaim the ground, and the 13 year old protagonist with the help of two ghost faces the Native Americans.

The weekend of October 4 & 5, 2008, I attended the Nebraska Writers Guild Conference in North Platte, Nebraska. Since I am Vice-President of the Guild, I had no other choice. I was supposed to have made the Retreat at Maloney State Park on October 11 & 12, 2008, but a little virus kept me at home. I found staying at home is difficult, since Shane, my son needs to do teenage stuff.

I am still trying to work on my oil painting I started six months ago, but the writing has kept me busy. I will have the landscape done someday.

These two books of mine are also published through the Fiction Works, www.fictionworks.com. FIND THE SECRETS can be purchased on www.amazon.com, but WAVE OF DEATH is not printed, you can order it from the Fiction Works on a disc.

FIND THE SECRETS is a Bell Ringer series. I had written the Mystery section, and a good friend, Sally Walker, did the Western. The book is for adult reading, but at a third grade reading level.