Taking The Long Way Home

I've been saying it for years - I'm going to write a book . I've started and stalled many times, but I always knew I'd get one done eventually. Now I've done it! OK, technically I sort of  drew a book rather than wrote a book. But there are words in it too. Two full pages! And the back cover! And a couple of well thought out paragraphs. Yes indeed, I wrote a book. With pictures. And here it is! That's right - it's a coloring book! And it's beautiful! And it gets even more beautiful when you color it! Inside are 19 of my hand drawn mandalas, a page of bookmarks, and even a draw-your-own-mandala in the back. I had it printed single-side, so the pages can be removed from the book and framed once you've added your coloring magic to them. Coloring is hot right now, especially for adults. It takes zero art skill, it's portable, fun, relaxing, even meditative, and all you need is a handful of colored pencils or markers. You can order the Mostly ...

Is it wrong to use my own blog for shameless self promotion? Well, gee... I don't think so. What I do and make and present to the world is part of what makes my life my life. Separate business from not-business? Impossible in my world. And that's a good thing, because it means I'm making a life by doing things I love to do. I wish that for everyone I know, although most people don't even know it's possible. With the help of SendOwl , I've sorted out how to put my drawings in PDF format, post them on my website , and have them instantly delivered to buyers all over the world, who then print them and color them. The technology is wonderful. The first five Mandalas to color are listed on my website now. The plan is to leave them there for a week, then bump them down the page next week and add a few more. The following week, the first five will go away and make room for the next batch. Essentially, all of them will be up for a limited time of about two weeks...

I've been somewhat obsessively drawing mandalas lately. Thinking of myself as someone who doesn't draw, it surprises me to suddenly have a growing stash of fancy sketch books and pens. I take them along with me everywhere I go, and in any free moment, with Rick or a cappuccino or a glass of wine for company, I pull out my book and pen and start drawing in circles. I have dozens of them already, and told myself at first to wait to see what they want to do until I have at least thirty of them. As I passed that number, and just kept going, the idea came to me to offer them as coloring pages, so that's what I'm about to do. Have you noticed that coloring books for grown-ups are hot these days? I have no interest in a project like putting together a book. I'm more into draw, share, draw, share. That's enough. Besides, I'm kind of late to the adult coloring book party. There's a growing number of them out there, and what I like about that is that i...