Foreign Service Fridays: Lima: First Impressions

I FINALLY got around to blogging! I talk a little about our first impressions of our new home, Lima, Peru, over at Most Eligible Family.

I'm hoping to get back to a regular blogging schedule in the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Writing Wednesdays: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A couple of months ago, when I was in the throes of revision misery, some Pitch Wars friends mentioned they were commissioning artists to illustrate scenes from their novels. I'm a very visual person and loved the idea of seeing my work brought to life, plus I thought it would be a good distraction while I waited to hear back from my agent.

My main character is half-Japanese-American and loves manga, so I knew I wanted a manga feel to my picture. I scoured DeviantArt until I found an artist whose work I loved who also took commissions. Then I described one of the opening scenes of my novel and let her go to work. I finally got the piece the other day, and I think it looks pretty fabulous!

If anyone is looking for a new way to get inspired by their work, I totally recommend doing something like this! It really was a great distraction, and I plan to feature the piece on my author blog some day.