Tides Inn Makes an Inspiring Setting for Art and Writing

Monti painting at Tides Inn

The setting at Tides Inn on the Chesapeake Bay is serene, scenic, and inspiring for both artists and writers. Throughout the year, the Inn has Art Shows three different times--Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Christmas season (usually the first Saturday of December). The Memorial Day and Labor Day events are two days each--the Saturday and Sunday preceding the Monday holiday.

During this year's Memorial Day event, I watched the many jewelry-makers who participate put their time to good use by creating bracelets and necklaces during times when few people were inside browsing. I was envious and considered becoming a jewelry-maker, not that I need something else to do.

When I got the invitation to participate in the Labor Day Art Show, I considered not going. After all I wasn't ready to make jewelry and I wanted to do something productive while I was there. Then, it struck me. I did some plein air painting in Williamsburg one day last September, enjoyed it, and produced two paintings that I really like. So I suggested painting at Tides Inn. However, they were concerned that I wanted to use water media including acrylic paints. Then I thought about my pastels, a dry medium I love and have used for years. To my delight, pastel painting met with approval.

Since I like to stand and work on an easel, I gessoed two canvas panels ahead of time and experimented from there. Over the weekend, people stopped to watch me work. Some of the jewelry-makers and other artisans watched, too. It was fun and productive. I wound up with two virtually completed paintings.

Boats at Tides Inn - MMSikes

As a writer and photographer as well as an artist, two days at Tides Inn is time well spent. People come in from their boats. I love to chat with them and tell them about my books, many of which are set on islands they may have visited. Although I hoped for some book sales, I didn't make many. I was encouraged when I learned from a manager that jewelry sales were the first to go down when the recession hit. Now those sales have been the first to come back. The jewelry-makers did well at the show. I learned a lot, enjoyed the delicious free ice cream on Sunday afternoon, and I created two new works of art.

As an added bonus, I used a photograph I took at Tides Inn on Memorial Day weekend as the source material for one of the paintings. The dramatic setting on the Chesapeake Bay is indeed inspiring for both art and writing.

Mary Montague Sikes

Traveling Along the Mississippi

Mississippi River bridge at La Crosse, Wisconsin - MMSikes

The mighty Mississippi. I can understand why Mark Twain was beguiled by this river.

American Lotus and duck weed - MMSikes

We recently visited a few towns in Wisconsin and Minnesota that stand along its banks and have long histories with the river. While in La Crosse, we took a riverboat tour on the "Mississippi Explorer." This is the only one of the riverboats located there that leaves the main channel to navigate some of the inlets. The nation's first interstate highway, the Mississippi is a working river as well as a wild river, the naturalist guide on board told us.




The American lotus was in full bloom all along the river. The boat captain guided the vessel in so we could get close up views of this showy water plant that is the largest wildflower in the United States, blooming in July and August.

Barges under the bridge - MMSikes

The river is forever changing. Great lines of barges passed by as we dined along the river bank. How very important this river is and always has been. Paddle wheel boats, steamers, timber floats... So much history lies along the mighty Mississippi--the nation's first interstate highway.

Creating the Right Logline for Your Work

What is a logline?

A logline can be defined as a brief summary of your story that provides a synopsis of the plot and offers a hook for interest. It can be a tool to attract readers to your book. If you are in the market for an agent or publisher, the logline can be an essential selling device.

Writing a logline sounds easy, but it's not. At least, it's not easy for me!

Recently, one of the lists I follow has worked on creating the perfect logline for some authors' books. That project started me thinking about what words would work best in loglines for mine.

Here is a logline I developed for Eagle Rising, the book I discussed on my blog earlier this week: "Recovering from the tragic death of her fiance, a young woman travels to Sedona, Arizona where New Age adventures, dangerous plots, and a frightening new love evolve among the mystic Red Rocks."
The logline should be 25 words or under. Mine is 32 words, so obviously it needs some work.

 What about a logline for another book, Night Watch? "Death on the high seas--how is the murder of a NPR reporter on the English Channel connected to a young woman kidnapped by gunrunners in Trinidad?" This is 27 words--better, but still not 25 or under.

Here's one for Secrets by the Sea: "Diaries, ghosts, and a house by the sea confound a young woman seeking to uncover her grandfather's murderer. Is her unconventional neighbor the dark killer or her true love?" This one is 29 words, so it, too, needs some work to make it shorter.

Working on these loglines might be more fun than I thought. Do you have loglines for each of your books? Do you find them difficult to write? Do you consider them an essential selling tool?

Mary Montague Sikes

Touching an Eagle in Sedona Inspires a Novel, Eagle Rising

Author touches a bronze eagle created by sculptor Lloyd Pinay

 From the moment I first saw those dramatic red rocks rising from the arid land that surrounds Sedona, Arizona, I was hooked. No wonder so many artists and writers have come for a visit and never wanted to leave. I first traveled to Sedona in the mid-1990s and since have returned again and again.

Onyx obelisk centers medicine wheel --MM Sikes

 Not only the terrain intrigues me but so does the spirituality that embraces the town and its inhabitants. Many of the shops are dedicated to New Age materials. One store, located across from the entrance to the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village in Sedona, features a garden in the back complete with medicine wheel and onyx obelisk. The little garden overlooks picturesque Oak Creek.

An artist workshop and New Age seminars gave even more inspiration for my book, Eagle Rising. What if my heroine, Rachael Barker, witnesses the tragic death of her fiance in an airshow crash and comes to Sedona hoping to find recovery? My own jeep ride through the desert inspired some of the scenes in the book. The medicine wheels I found on journeys to the vortexes are part of the story. And then there is the eagle...

Here are reviews of Eagle Rising:

 Journalist Rachael Barker is sent to Sedona, Arizona by her editor in North Carolina to interview enigmatic novelist Arch Adamson and cover a lecture series he is conducting there in the red rock country. With little enthusiasm for the assignment and facing difficulties with Adamson, she does find stories to write and subjects to photograph while there. Former businessman Derek Ryder is in the area in search of a gold mine left him by his deceased grandfather and looking for a new life after a failed family relationship. As their paths cross after a chance meeting, emotions and responses of these seemingly regular people to extraordinary circumstances fascinate and hold the reader. Dreams, danger and adventure combine to keep the pages turning. Even though neither had been looking for a relationship, Barker or Derek become characters in this love story for the 21st century. This is a book not to miss by Mary Montague Sikes. -- --Jane Gerring, Richmond, Va. Author

"What delightful fun to pick up local writer and artist Mary "Monti" Montague Sikes's book, "Eagle Rising" and partake in  what I call a "good read." This prolific Tidewater, Virginia writer not only has written five books and many interesting articles that have appeared in local periodicals and magazines on the interesting lives of regional people, but she is also a very fine painter. The "eagle rising" thus becomes not only just the new title for her satisfying romantic mystery set in the American southwest, but symbolizes the creative spirit that rushes forth so naturally and in so many forms from this highly diversified artist."

Mary Wakefield Buxton

Urbanna

 

  Eagle Rising - Bargain Purchase from Oak Tree Books - Please scroll down. Books are listed alphabetically by title.
Available in print and e-book versions.

Has someplace especially inspired a piece of your writing? Do you have notes stashed away intending to use them for a book?

I love Sedona and am happy for the inspiration I gain with each new visit.

The "Old Days" Are Not That Long Ago

Today on one of the morning shows, a young male guest mentioned promotion of his work to his following on social media. I was late tuning in and don't know if he was a singer, writer, or whatever. It doesn't really matter because he sent me into shock when he said he didn't know what people did to promote in the "old days". They probably had a couple of posters to friends to hang up in some distant city.

Wow! The "old days" aren't that long ago, are they? Actually, I sort of still like to see a pretty poster hanging to promote an event. I hope that doesn't mean I'm too attached to the "old days" and am becoming an old fogy (fogey).

He is, of course, quite right about the immediacy of promotion on the many arms of social media including Facebook and Twitter. It is an especially wonderful tool for creative folks. The world has become a very small place. We can reach out to people and places all over the world in just a minute or two. It provides a great opportunity for promotion of all sorts, but it is a dangerous place as well. What you say cannot be taken back, so more care with our words is needed than ever before.

I love the Internet and getting to know people I would never have known existed in the "old days". The "old days" were a simpler period when we spent more time talking with the people in our own little towns.

For many years, in the "old days", I wrote on a typewriter. A young man on another recent TV show said when he first saw an old typewriter he thought it was a new invention. I was taken aback because until then I hadn't really thought about how many things we grew up with that children today have never seen.

What do you think about the "old days"? Would you want them back? Sometimes? Never?

"Hibiscus" MM Sikes

 At least the flowers I grew up loving are still around. The hibiscus bush pictured here is the prettiest one we've ever had. And, strangely, this one bush has two different colored flowers blooming on it. While most are peach, a few of the blossoms are bright red.

Maybe that's a sign of something good!


--Mary Montague Sikes