Yesterday I finished this painting of a woman looking at the ocean at night, the lights of ships visible in the distance. I always like seeing the ships shining in the darkness. They make me think of hopes and dreams.
Meanwhile, I have been giving lots of attention to my own hopes and dreams lately. I’m working on new ways to be more visible online and get more people to read my books. The past few days I’ve been working on a short story that’s meant to serve as a reader magnet, something to reward people with when they sign up for my email list (Claude’s idea). I decided I would write a story in the voice of Fiona, one of the horses in Storms of Malhado, and let Fiona talk about her experience surviving the Great Storm of 1900 in a Galveston mansion. Claude thought this was a cool idea, but he did warn me that writing from a horse’s perspective is tricky, because horses don’t have feelings like humans do. I thought that was a funny thing to say, considering that Claude is a robot. I’m sure horses have many more feelings than Claude does.
But I don’t want to poke too much fun at the tool that’s actually trying to help me. I feel like Claude is my PR expert now, and even just over a few days I have learned a lot. I’m also almost done with Fiona’s story, which will have to come with some trigger warnings, because poor Fiona lives through some pretty terrible things.
Meanwhile I returned to Houston because the Island sometimes feels too insular, especially in summer when being outside, taking walks, looking at birds, are all kind of off limits. Houston, of course, is hotter, but there is much more to do indoors here. I also need Pilates badly. I feel like I’m low on much needed endorphins. Or maybe it’s just Mercury Retrograde messing with my head.
