About the sketches

Frankly, I do not expect that many people will read this blog or be interested in my sketches, but I do know of a few who will want to read what I have to say. I had made some friends (correspondence) on the web thanks to these discussions about Louis XIV and Alexander. They may or may not want to read my blog, but I will make it available to them.

I admit to being a very poor artist at times, but there are some few that are quite good. I dabbled in oil paintings and acrylic paintings years ago and found that I can do portraits fairly well in those mediums. I have tried crayon, and basically, I can do caricature type drawings with that. I enjoy painting. Like writing, and I am sure that it is true in music as well, I believe that there is some inner force, some inner spirit, that actually works from within.

Once I begin to write a story, I can become quite immersed in it, and I had for a time, taken a correspondence course from the Institute of Children's Literature, and had had connections. Mostly, they want to have you write, and pay for it, and I eventually learned that my instructor was not much help to me. I did learn a few things about children's literature through her comments, but mostly, that I had given more time as a teacher to my student's efforts than she had done for me. I know that fiction writers use pseudonyms and I know that she wrote under a variety of names, but I decided not to continue with the correspondence course after that one introductory period. I have kept all my writings from that time period til now.

I liked them for one thing only: how to write query letter, and the lists of magazines and publishers with whom to do business. The actual critiques were of no benefit to me at all. But I did try my hand at writing a novel to see if I am a bulldog or not. A bulldog is someone who finishes the novel. I did finish it. It was inspired by Nancy Drew and Carolyn Keene, and that is passe for today's children. But I learned a lot from it that has always made me think....after I found the stables at the Versailles.

I had no idea that the Versailles even existed then when I was taking this course. Europe had never appealed to me. I was too fundamentally American. What a difference learning of a past lifetime can make to one. It changed my attitude totally about travel and about Europe.

I live in the southwest now, and there are stories of America that would make your blood boil if you knew the truth about them. The story of America itself is a fascinating one. I had to study Edna Ferber in my senior year and as a Jewess she wrote about the matriarchal society of America. She is a great writer and made a fortune on her books through films.

I have thought about the idea of taking a scene from my memories and then writing stories around it. So far, it is still in the sperm cell aspect. I have not yet penetrated an ova to create it thus far...