Life Outside the Goldfish Bowl

Some random musings.

First of all,
Sorry for the dearth of posts these days. I attribute that to 2 things:

1. Something is wrong with my camera or its cable. Until I locate and fix the problem, I can't upload any fresh pics. Bummer!

2. I was busy finishing up novel #2, which I did a few days ago (Feb 2nd). Hooray! Now I'm working on the rewrites. This is the fun part for me. I love fleshing out my story skeleton. One aspect of the filling-in process is visiting the locations where different scenes take place. Peter and I will motorcycle to the farther reaches of Chios and Evvia Islands in early summer. Tomorrow, in the name of research :) we plan to have coffee at a Starbucks in the center of the city, and then ride up to the summit of Mt. Hymettus. Sounds like a fun thing to do on a Saturday, right?

For a shy gal like me, asserting myself for the sake of my stories has been a good experience. Yesterday, I walked into the Athens Hilton and asked an executive there to show me around their meeting rooms. I explained that I was a novelist, researching a setting, but for some reason he expected I would actually book a convention there in the future! Well, you never know. Maybe my novel will hit it big and I'll need a place to hold a press conference. A girl can dream, can't she? Anyway, Mr. K. the Hilton exec was very patient, answering my questions and waiting for me to scribble down descriptions of the rooms. I ended my tour in the hotel's famed Byzantine Restaurant, where my two characters eat lunch. Here's the difference between fact and fiction: My characters eat a meal; I could only afford iced tea.

About the photo above: No, I didn't paint it, although I wish I had. Goldfish was painted by one of my favorite artists, Henri Matisse. His cut paper work especially inspired me. You can see his influence in one of my silkscreens, Taverna Chairs with Cat. A reproduction of Goldfish hangs in my living room. I chose the print because the colors match my decor, but mainly because it's fun to look at.