Christmas Books and Art Shows Fill the Holiday Season

My latest book, Evening of the Dragonfly, will not be available until 2015, and that's a good thing. The holiday season is filled with many events, and I already have two Christmas-themed novels that are available on Amazon as print and as Kindle books. Daddy's Christmas Angel and A Rainbow for Christmas are both sweet romance stories that anyone in the family can enjoy. I just checked Amazon and discovered that those two books are priced at $2.99 each in Kindle for the holiday season. Both books are also available for sale in my gallery at Crossroads Art Center.

©Mary Montague Sikes

If you visit Crossroads, please go by and see the Metropolitan Richmond Artists Association show in Gallery One. My painting, "Dancing in the Trees", won third place in the juried exhibition. I used pastels, charcoal, and acrylics to create this painting on canvas board. Since I prefer working on stretched canvas, this is an unusual piece for me. It's also an unusual size, 30" x 15".

On December 13 and 14, Mary Jane Tolley, a dear friend of mine, is hosting an Art Open House in her home, featuring my paintings. Saturday, I will also create "Soul Song" paintings and poetry there for interested individuals. Anyone who would like an invitation to this special Art Open House event, please contact me by email.

 This is an especially busy art week. On Wednesday, I am teaching a workshop, "Creating with Texture and Color", for Arts Alive at the West Point Pamunkey Regional Library. I keep hoping that a building will suddenly materialize in our town where artists can gather once or twice a month to paint or craft together. We have a workshop at the library almost every month which is wonderful. But, in addition, having a chance to work locally with other artists in a dedicated studio space would be a real joy.

Imagine a Time Without Good Restaurants and Clean Hotels

"St. Louis Union Station Hotel" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Suppose you could travel back in time to 1869 and have your automobile instead of a covered wagon to journey cross country from St. Louis, then Independence, Missouri and on to Denver, Colorado. Even without the problems associated with the small wooden wagon, pulled probably by oxen, the trip would still be difficult by today's standards. After all, the road was rugged. There were no real bridges to cross rivers and streams. There were no motels or hotels and few places to find food of any kind.

I thought about my heroine Meg from A Rainbow for Christmas and wondered if her journey would have been difficult even in a car. Of course, there would be no gasoline, so that imaginary trip would have been impossible. Still, it would be fun today to follow along one of those wagon trails and imagine what the journey was like in 1869.

When the rails were laid for train tracks, things changed in a big way. It's wonderful and exciting to visit amazing old hotels today and realize they came along with the emerging railroad system. The El Tovar on the edge of the Grand Canyon, the Hotel Del Coronado across from San Diego, California, the Brown Palace in Denver, Colorado. These elaborate hotels and many more grew from the needs of railroad passengers, and they helped change our way of travel. They were constructed around the turn of the 20th Century, not that many years later than Meg's journey.

One of my favorite hotels is the one built around the old St. Louis Union Station. The railroad station dates back to the late 1800s. Trains fascinate me still, but I'm very glad people no longer travel by covered wagon.

Radio Broadcast
On December 9 at 8:05, I will be the radio guest of Neal Steele, XTRA 99.1 and will discuss A Rainbow for Christmas. A podcast of the live show will be available at the Chesapeake Bay Writers web site .

What Inspires a Writer Years Down the Road?

Phoenix Gold Mine

A few years ago, we were exploring an area of Colorado we had not visited before. In Idaho Springs, we came across the Phoenix Gold Mine and met the co-owner, Al Mosch, who gave us a tour we will never forget. Besides sharing his story of an eye-to-eye encounter with a mountain lion, Mosch related other mining tales and gave me a piece of gold-flecked ore from the mine. Because of this unusual character, I will never forget our mine visit. Not only did I include the Phoenix Gold Mine as a side trip for the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver when I wrote Hotels to Remember, but I also used some of what I learned that day in my novel, A Rainbow for Christmas.

That novel was also inspired by books I found on that same Colorado trip that were written by women who crossed the plains from Missouri traveling by wagon train. In museums, I saw items from some of those journeys. I also viewed actual wagons from those trains and stared in wonderment, amazed at how small they actually were.

Using inspiration years down the road is one of the things that especially excites me as a writer. I keep notebooks, take photos everywhere, and put everything together in my "gathering books". You never know when you'll have a chance to use some of that information.

What inspires you?

A Rainbow for Christmas and Daddy's Christmas Angel are two of the books I'll be signing on Friday, November 22 at the William and Mary Barnes and Noble on Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg, Virginia from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. I will also feature A Rainbow for Christmas on the Neal Steele radio show, 8:15 a.m., Monday, December 9.

Weekend News-- Snow, Books, Art, and Giclees

We have the coldest weather in Virginia that we've had for the last couple of years or more. Late this afternoon, snow came down in a rush and made the roads super slick. I'm glad we don't have to go out tonight.

Jacquie Rogers of Romancing the West has me for her guest this week. I'm discussing my novel, A Rainbow for Christmas and much more.

On the Romancing the West site, I'm also talking about the exhibit of work by Lillian Wilhelm Smith, the illustrator of the Zane Grey books. We saw this show at the Sedona Art Center while we were there last November. I loved reading the Zane Grey books and dreaming about the Old West and was especially interested in the paintings that were part of her work.

Next week, I'm one of five artists putting up work for the February show at the Art Education Center Gallery of This Century Art Gallery in Williamsburg. Twelve of my original paintings from the Hotels to Remember project will be featured in this exhibit. It will be exciting to see the pieces together again. All of the paintings in the book have been reproduced as Giclees. Five of those will be part of this exhibition.

What are Giclees? many of you are asking. The word was created over two decades ago by a printmaker named Jack Duganne who wanted to depict prints made with an inkjet printer in a very positive manner. Giclees are made by carefully matching all the colors in a piece of art using high quality archival inks that will last over 100 years (if kept out of direct sunlight). The pastel reproductions are beautiful and much easier to frame than the originals that must be handled very carefully.

The art exhibit at 110 Westover Avenue will feature Elaine Abbott, Jason Hillegas, Devon Rawson, Juliet Kirby, and me . The opening reception will be Friday, February 1, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Authors' Book Fair Features Civil War Theme

At West Point Authors' Book Fair 2012

This year's West Point Authors' Book Fair featured a Civil War theme, probably because several of the featured writers have books set during that tragic point in time. I don't. However, I do have two books that relate to the Civil War era. During the authors' presentation talks, I spoke briefly about those books.

A Rainbow for Christmas is set in 1869 on a wagon train heading west. Cade Russell, the wagon master lost both his wife and young daughter to illness caused by conditions in the South following the war. To overcome the pain and guilt about his loss, he now travels back and forth across the plains, leading the western pioneers to their destinations.

Hilltop House: A Snapshot in Time features a once-popular hotel in historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Site of a battle in September 1862, the town is not far from Antietam, where the "bloodiest day in American history took place." Not long after the war, Harpers Ferry was a component of the counties removed from Virginia and made part of the state of West Virginia.

"Civil War, A Nation Divided" by MMSikes

I note in the Hilltop House book that the Civil War had a big impact on my childhood. Not only did I attend an elementary school with floors bloodstained from use as a hospital during the war, but I lived about a block from Sunken Road and Marye's Heights where a furious and deadly battle took place in 1862.

"Even today, I still recall the terrible depressing sensation I felt while walking along old Sunken Road," I read from my book to those attending the talk.

My mixed media painting, "Civil War, A Nation Divided," is among the illustrations in the book. This painting is part of my "Will There Be Peace Anywhere?" series of work.

We always seem to be a world at war. Why that is I do not know. I suppose the Civil War is a very suitable, yet sad theme for an authors' book fair.

--Mary Montague Sikes

Rainbow for Christmas Wins First Place

Although I didn't get to attend the Virginia Press Women Conference in person, I was thrilled to learn that A Rainbow for Christmas won first place in Young Adult Fiction.  I was one of 39 members of Virginia Press Women who received awards in the 2012 Communications Contest in a ceremony held during the Spring Conference in Harrisonburg. Categories such as newspaper writing, public relations, advertising, photo journalism, Internet and magazine writing, and books were judged by 11 experienced journalists and public relations professionals. Entries that received first place advance to the National Federation of Press Women contest.

 “The author brings history to life for YA readers! The thoughts and fears of these very real characters are timeless, which gives readers something they can relate to as they are transported back in time to experience a unique perspective about the hardships and injustices in the west and what it might have been like for a girl to travel toward uncertainty in a covered wagon.” 

What a lovely comment from the judge! 

My other novel published in 2011, an adventure story, Jungle Jeopardy, won honorable mention in fiction, novel. “The fast moving plot pulled the reader along, and the details about Maya culture and archeology were interesting,” the judge noted.

Another nice comment!

Congratulations to all the Virginia Press Women winners.

Guest Blogging with Morgan Mandel

Today, and for the rest of the week, I'm a guest on Morgan Mandel's Sweet Not Spicy blog. I'm discussing my latest book, A Rainbow for Christmas. Thank you, Morgan, for having me.

It's refreshing to see how others handle their blogs. I enjoy reading comments from new people I haven't met before on the Internet. One commenter mentioned keeping a notebook next to her bed, so she can jot down thoughts and ideas that come to her in the night. That jogged my brain, and I remembered keeping a notebook there, so I could write down the dreams I can never recall in the morning. I don't know what happened, but I no longer have a notebook there. I'm going to get a new one and leave it nearby.

Do you keep a notebook near your bed? Have you gotten good ideas from it?

Please visit Morgan's blog and leave a comment if you can!

Exciting News!

I just learned from my publisher that A Rainbow for Christmas is now available as a Kindle book from Amazon. That's exciting news for me because I made five resolutions for 2012, and the first one is about marketing e-books. Here's my list:

1. Study the market for e-books. Look at results for Kindle, Nook Books, and more.
    I now have seven books available on Kindle, so the e-book market is growing ever more important for me in my marketing plans.

2. Make a plan and follow it. Spend 30 minutes a day, twice a week, checking out leads for marketing.  
    I wonder how many of you are doing that. An hour a week is not a lot of time. I suspect most of you are spending more time than that.

3. Keep a book with records of marketing leads. Record what works.
    Having a little book I can pick up, hold in my hands and check out what I've done or plan to do, contact names and numbers, and much more is extremely important. Each book needs its own section separated with colored Post-its. It doesn't hurt if the record book is red or another bright color that stands out. I haven't started that book yet, but I plan to begin later this week.

4. Blog about marketing and promotion one day a week.
    This is a worthy goal because what you learn can help others. Networking is essential in a good marketing plan.

5. Work on a new book with the e-book market in mind.
    So many of the folks I follow are self-publishing new e-books. I'm watching and learning from them. Since e-books can be any length, they don't take forever to write. For those, like me, who are technically challenged, this may not be as easy as it sounds.

Do you have New Year's resolutions that involve marketing? If you do, please post links to your plans. It's exciting to consider all the possibilities!

Art Show

I'll be one of the Virginia artists in a group show hosted by John Paxton of Claris Financial for their Third Anniversary Open House Party, Thursday, January 12, 2012 from 4-7 p.m. If you're in the area, please come by for hors d' oeuvres, music, and socializing at 4551 Cox Road, Suite 220 Glen Allen, VA.

Busy, Crazy, Insane Weekend and a New Book

Holiday Marketplace at Tides Inn

Combining a book signing with an art event is trying, cumbersome, and exhilarating. For as long as I can remember my first love has been both, and try as I might I can't seem to change that. The love of color and form is far too strong to separate myself from art, and my love of words is equally compelling. It has reached the point that when I didn't still have the painting that became the cover art for Jungle Jeopardy, I had to create a new painting to show with my book. There it is, far left, in the photograph.

Earlier this week, I received the first copies of my latest book, A Rainbow for Christmas. This is my first western. It's a sweet romance set in 1869 on a wagon train traveling from Missouri to Denver, Colorado. During my research I read the dairies of many women who experienced the hardships of crossing the prairie amidst all types of challenges. I was intrigued and lost in the journey of my heroine as she careened along a rough wagon train trail learning to drive a team of oxen along the way. It was thrilling to sign the first copies of my book in the middle of a festive room at Tides Inn filled with artisans of all kinds, including jewelry-makers, painters, potters, and two writers.

Crazy, busy! I love the excitement. Art and writing. I live for the confusing mixture of the two!