Branding for Promotion

A few years ago, I met with a marketing specialist who filled me with many ideas for branding. My first book was out, but nothing I had done brought together a unified image that might help me promote myself and my future books.

"Wear a hat to all your book-related events," I urged myself.

I wore several different hats and the unique look made me stand out at signings. An Aussie-style hat worked especially well when my Indiana Jones-type book came out. It helped me sell books. Branding worked, but I wasn't doing a thorough job of creating an overall image. Just the hat was not enough. I needed then and need now to tie everything together.

Since I have always loved to travel, that seemed to be the link that could bring the branding to its full potential. As a child, my only travel consisted of visiting nearby relatives. Books carried me where I wanted to go, visiting the tombs of Egypt, unknown jungles, the highest mountains, the widest seas, and much more. In college, I had the opportunity to tour Europe and to stay for a summer in Linz, Austria with a United Methodist Church work camp group. What a thrill and learning experience.

Soon after our marriage, my husband and I crossed the country and returned on a Greyhound Bus special journey that took us to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and more. Thus the stories for Hotels to Remember and my travel writing career began. Later, we traveled many miles by air to the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, Hawaii, and many other places.

The "Passenger to Paradise" was born. She loves to travel just as I do. She loves the excitement of new destinations complete with exotic scenery. She is the brand I am looking to develop and expand now. She has led me to countless new places, including the island of Jamaica and Sedona, Arizona, locations of two extraordinary novels, Hearts Across Forever and Eagle Rising.

Believe in Your Dreams

Beneath the monitor of my computer, I have a motto card with two angels on a glittery, sparkly lavender background. The message reads, "Believe in your Dreams!"

"Over the Caribbean Sea" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Sometimes I wonder about dreams. I had many as a child and teenager growing up. One of my dreams was to become a journalist. I also sometimes wished I were a boy and could grow up to be a baseball player in the "Big Leagues".

But more than anything, I longed to travel. Books set in Egypt in ancient times intrigued me. I recall a second or third grade book called, Stories Near and Far. I read and reread every one of those little stories with their exotic settings.I got lost in books. I dreamed of becoming Nancy Drew. I didn't. But I did become a freelance journalist and got the opportunity to cover meetings and events of all types. I wrote hundreds of published feature articles and took thousands of photographs to go with them.

Travel still captured my imagination. As we visited the Caribbean, Europe, and beautiful locations in our own country, I took copious notes and hundreds of photographs. Travel articles and painting series resulted. Dreams became reality. Eventually, they grew into books, both fiction and non-fiction.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to write about some of the dreams that became books and some that became paintings. It will be a learning series.

Do you believe in your dreams? Along what kinds of journeys have your dreams led you?

Yellowstone Lake Hotel is an Historic Convenience for Travelers

"Yellowstone Lake Lodge" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"Yellowstone Lake Lodge 2" ©Mary Montague Sikes

The Lake Hotel opened in Yellowstone National Park in 1891. Its convenient location provides visitors with an excellent base from which to start daily explorations of the massive park. We stayed at the hotel for a week in 2006, enjoying lovely views of the lake from our room windows and excellent meals each night in the large main dining room. I especially liked watching the work of the park resident artist as work in progress changed each day.

In 1903, the hotel was redesigned and expanded by architect Robert Reamer who also designed the park's famous Old Faithful Inn. The Yellowstone Lake Hotel is a rather plain clapboard structure with two large porticoes that face the lake. The original building was three-stories high. The 1903, 1922-23, and 1928 re-modelings added an eastward extension with a third portico, a two-story west wing, a dining room expansion, and a solarium. More renovations took place in 1984 and 1990. The most recent renovations occurred in 2012 and 2013-14.

"Buffalo Roam" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Although the hotel has an austere appearance from the outside, the lobby was cozy and inviting during our stay there. I especially enjoyed the art on display, and in the evening, buffalo were sometimes seen roaming along the lake front.

The buffalo often stopped traffic along the road that led to and from the hotel. Warning signs were posted throughout the park about the danger of the animals goring tourists, so most people were wise enough to stay inside their vehicles while taking photographs.

If we return to Yellowstone, I would like to once again stay in the Lake Hotel. However, I do not believe the resident artist program is still in place there. I will miss that feature.

Yellowstone National Park - One Visit is Not Enough

"Yellowstone Lake" ©Mary Montague Sikes

One visit is never enough when traveling to and in Yellowstone National Park. It is amazing to realize that when Yellowstone was established in 1872, the United States was not yet 100 years old and the park was the first national one in the world. Located mostly in Wyoming, it extends into Montana and Idaho as well. When we spent almost two weeks there in 2006, we flew into Bozeman, MT which is an interesting town to visit and a good place to begin a visit to Yellowstone.

The park was everything I hoped it might be. I loved the rugged landscape, the wild animals, especially the buffalo, that lumbered across the roadway, halting the passage of all traffic. The mudpots were astonishing, like paintings on the surface of the land.

Can you believe the Yellowstone Lake is over the center of the super volcano that has been in the news a lot in recent weeks? How dramatic it must have been for early settlers to stumble across the fantastic scenery of Yellowstone.

"Yellowstone Falls"©Mary Montague Sikes

For Week Two of my journey through some of the National Parks, I will add more about Yellowstone. I haven't begun my paintings
 and will post them here when I do.

Glacier National Park - Memories from a Summer Visit

During our visit to Glacier National Park last summer, our family discovered that one week is not nearly enough time to explore all the possibilities that exist in this glorious and foreboding natural landscape. To investigate the west side of the park, we stayed in Kalispell, about 45 minutes away. From this location, we were able to visit Apgar, Lake McDonald, Logan's pass, the town of Whitefish, and much more. On a future trip, I would like to stay in a town on the east side of the park, near the Blackfeet Reservation and closer to the Canadian border. That way, we could not only explore the other side of Glacier, but we could cross over into Canada and travel around Waterton Lakes National Park.

Our first day of exploration at Glacier took us through the west entrance to Apgar, then on to Lake McDonald to visit the historic lodge that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2014. The lodge overlooks the lake and is located on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Our goal was to drive over Logan Pass and along Going-to-the-Sun Road to the east entrance to the park. Along the way, the road was as treacherous and as beautiful as we expected.

"Boardwalk to Hidden Lake" ©Mary Montague Sikes

The following day, we took a ranger-led excursion along a nature trail at Apgar, then we headed back to the Lake McDonald Lodge where we boarded a cruise boat to see the lake with its crystal clear waters and dramatic mountain views. Later, we went to Avalanche Creek for the short trail walk through spectacular woods filled with ancient trees. A beautifully designed watercolor sign said these

"Boardwalk Through the Forest" ©Mary Montague Sikes

trees were there when Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence. For the first time, we used the free Jammer shuttle.

We spent most of the next day in Whitefish, first going to the Whitefish Mountain Resort that features a variety of lifts. I was excited to discover many little art galleries in the town, including one featuring almost all encaustics by artist Karen Minton.

Our next excursion into Glacier National Park started at the Apgar Transit Center where we parked

"Jammer" ©Mary Montague Sikes

our car and boarded one of the free shuttles. We found we should have started out a little earlier because by mid-morning there was a considerable wait period to catch a shuttle. While it was convenient not to drive and park a car, killing time awaiting the arrival of shuttle required a great deal of patience.

The last day of our trip inside the park, we visited Discovery Cabin which was built in 1925. We returned to McDonald Lake via a Jammer, the driver of which passed around a journal book with an handcrafted stitchery cover for passengers to sign. Turned out that most of the shuttle drivers are also school bus drivers during the school year.

We flew home, glad for an unique journey into a major National Park and longing for a return visit. Our trip left us with many memories and lots of photographs that made us thankful for the digital age.

Mary Montague Sikes

Longing to Travel

On a recent trip, I met a young lady who confided, "I've never been out of the state of Arizona." I felt a little heart tug because she reminded me of myself when I was about her age. During my childhood we would visit aunts and uncles who lived in towns and in the country not too far away. While I enjoyed playing with my cousins, I still longed to go somewhere--to journey far away.

"Sunset Anywhere" ©Mary Montague Sikes

I remember a little book named Journeys Near and Far. It told stories of places with exotic towers and buildings. Those tales took me to distant places I could only dream of visiting. They made me create little stories about my adventures inside my imagination.

Sometimes on nice summer days, I would lie on my back in the grass and stare up at the clouds. I would imagine what it would be like to travel above those clouds in one of the shiny aircraft that sometimes flew overhead. I wondered what might lie hidden inside those clouds. I wondered if people inside those airplanes could see things drifting in the clouds. After all, I saw those fluffy puffs of cotton only from below and their shapes were forever changing. I made up little stories about the clouds.

"Storm Clouds" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Even now the clouds intrigue me. When I have a window seat in an airplane, I keep a camera close by and take many pictures of the ever-changing cloud formations. It surprises me how many people pull down the window shades and never look out.

I still long to travel and usually have a special destination as a setting for a novel.

What about you? Do you long to travel places you've never been? Where?

My Bag Is Always Packed - A Visit to Glacier

My bag is always packed and ready to go. I enjoy travel and would like to see as many places as possible and revisit often those destinations I've grown to love.

We just returned from a week in Montana--a family vacation planned by our daughter, Allison. She loves the National Parks and selected Glacier for this year's exploration.

McDonald Lake at Glacier National Park ©Mary Montague Sikes

The scenery was spectacular--a photo op in every direction. We quickly learned that a week is not enough time to explore this park. While we saw a lot of the western side, we did not actually visit the eastern section. However, when our daughter, Alicia, drove us over the Going to the Sun road, we viewed parts of the east side of Glacier. My digital camera amazes me with its ability to capture photos through a car window while traveling along a roadway. Because of that feature, I have some pictures from the eastern section.

"Through the Window - East Glacier" ©Mary Montague Sikes

We flew into the Glacier Park International Airport from Chicago. Because of a tight connection, we had a 15-minute run/walk to a terminal far distant from the gate where our plane from Richmond landed. We were thankful to have daughter, Amy, to lead the way through crowded O'Hare. The Kalispell airport is a nice size and easy to reach. A local resident told us the airport was discovered about 10 years ago by celebrities, including some movie stars, who use the facility for their private jets.

©Alicia Sikes

 Do you enjoy travel? Is there a season of the year when you most like to explore someplace you've never been?

I always learn something new, especially when visiting the National Parks. I'll keep my bag packed and look forward to the next time...

The Grand Canyon Stirs the Imagination of Artists and Writers

"Canyon!" acrylic on stretched canvas ©Mary Montague Sikes

"Canyon", 4' by 7', was the largest painting I had on display at Petersburg Regional Art Center. It was the last piece of art we piled on top of our final van load as we cleared out two studios and several walls from the Center over the weekend. Right now, it's sitting on the floor in front of a brick fireplace not far from where we watch television. The grand vista opens up a new dimension in that room.

As I studied the painting I hadn't viewed for a long while, I thought about the thousands of artists and writers who've been immensely inspired by this glorious and unique place. So many paintings. Artists working en plein air. Writers imagining what might happen if one of those folks posing on the canyon's edge might slip, might be pushed to their deaths far below. I wonder at the daring of the tightrope walker crossing a piece of the canyon.

Starting when our two oldest daughters were very young, we've visited the Grand Canyon many times. I worried then as they played near the canyon's edge. I always love the view from the spacious dining room of the El Tovar where one can watch the changing colors of light playing across the canyon walls.

In this painting, I used my imagination with many of the colors I chose, but I love the effect that resulted. Hidden away in archival drawers, I suspect I have some long-forgotten pastel drawings of the canyon. Color slides taken along roads and trails lie concealed inside carousel trays awaiting a show with the projector. I hope they will keep a few more years.

Our last visit to the Grand Canyon came last November. Already, the artist and the writer in me is longing to return.

Resurrecting a Book that Never Got Promoted

A silent resolution I've made for this year is to promote my book, Night Watch. For many reasons, this mystery/adventure/ romance never got promoted when it was released more than two years ago. The major lesson I learned from this failure is that it is always up to the author to create the necessary promotion for every book. It is the author's responsibility unless he/she is with a major publishing house with a huge budget for marketing.

Night Watch came about because of a trip my husband and I took to Trinidad a few years ago. Before we left, I connected this island nation off the coast of South America with the old movie, Casablanca, starring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. Of course, this World War II era movie was set in North Africa, so I'm not sure why I made that connection. But I did.

I began thinking about the glamorous Ms. Bergman and how she dressed in that movie. Wouldn't she travel in a white suit to her destination? Of course, she would. I bought a white pantsuit for our trip and wore it for our airplane trip. The suit was fine for that part of our travels. However, I hadn't counted on what happened after we arrived at the airport.

We were met by two not so well-groomed men who threw our luggage into a very beat up old car. We were booked in a timeshare resort located on a small island off the coast of Trinidad. These men were wearing T-shirts with the name of that resort emblazoned on them. That fact was the only semblance of confidence I had that we were not being kidnapped.

In this ramshackle old car, we flew down a dark and bumpy highway. From time to time, one of the men stuck his hand-held radio out the car window, calling "Gasper Two to Gasper One". It got a little creepy.

Eventually, we reached the waterfront where we saw a small rowboat with a motor on the back arriving at the dock. The two occupants, both wearing yellow slickers, met us, a flashlight in the hand of one. As we motored past huge ocean-going vessels, it was evident my white suit was a very poor choice for travel attire.That was especially true as water began filling the bottom of the boat, and they started bailing it out using tin cans.

We spent a week at this Trinidad island resort and every moment was an adventure. Night Watch was born from things we actually say that happened. I embellished all the facts with my imagination. Because of a relationship with art theft, I used the title of a Rembrandt painting for the title of my book. I wish now I had made the title, Night Watch: A Case of Mistaken Identity. Two many books and other things bear the title, Night Watch, which also caused a problem with promotion.

Promoting this book is a resolution I intend to keep.

--Mary Montague Sikes

Around the World in 30 Days -- Canadian Rockies

"Rocky Mountain High" oil painting, 5' x8' - MMSikes

Around the World in 30 Days with the Passenger to Paradise hits Day 3 and C with the Canadian Rockies as the chosen destination. Visiting those rugged Rockies is a journey the Passenger has dreamed about for many years. While she was in graduate school in the painting department at Virginia Commonwealth University, she created a master's thesis exhibition of large paintings focusing on the Rocky Mountains. One painting, "Rocky Mountain High," is reproduced here. Photographs and slides she took in and of those mountains were the reference materials for her paintings.

However, she has never seen the Canadian Rockies. Her hope and dream is to someday take a train trip through the mountains, creating a series of photographs along the way.

Have you visited the Canadian Rockies? How are they different from the Rockies of our western states?

Around the World in 30 Days with the Passenger to Paradise

Well, the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2012 starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's blog starting with the next blogger behind me. I thought I was signing up early, but discovered I was actually number 411! When I last looked, I saw that 1550 bloggers had signed up for the challenge. Of course, it will be impossible to get to all those blogs, but I'll visit as many as I can. Hopefully, I'll meet some great new people along the way.

Since I love travel and just about anything related to it, I've chosen "Around the World in 30 Days with the Passenger to Paradise" for this year's theme. The Passenger won't necessarily have visited every place, but the destinations will be ones she's dreamed about seeing.

See you along the way!