JO. B. CREATIVE

Author & Multi-Disciplinary Artist

Sunday, 31 August 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: ARTIST & WRITER VISITS BOTH AN ART DEGREE SHOW & A...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: ARTIST & WRITER VISITS BOTH AN ART DEGREE SHOW & A...: The vibe transcended pure energy. Wild. Electric. Adventurous, experimental, inspiring, exciting! All of that. An atmosphere of ...
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Saturday, 23 August 2025

ARTIST & WRITER VISITS BOTH AN ART DEGREE SHOW & A SCIENCE SHOW



The vibe transcended pure energy. Wild. Electric. Adventurous, experimental, inspiring, exciting! All of that. An atmosphere of celebration. It was everything I love, everything I did at art school. Hubby felt the same, although his college days were somewhat different because he's an engineer. But the feeling of student life was similar.

I need breaks from working on the editing of Book 3 of  Alias Jeannie Delaney (details below), and just to show I have a life beyond that we'd popped into the art degree show at Farnham College of the Creative Arts with a friend and toured the various exhibitions and showpieces. The students and tutors - youthful and mature - were showpieces in themselves. Colourful, noisy, vocal. Their clothes declared 'art student'! Students are fabulous! 

Some were costume-like in appearance, others wore street clothes and sported colourful hair. Art tutors wandered among them and looked just as inspiring as the students. Many were gathered in a warm, sunny quadrangle, and a DJ played music up on a stage. The entire ambience was one big beach party. 

We perused the artwork - amazing and questionable alike, and I peered into the printing room. A huge emotion grabbed me. I missed this - the whole vibe. During the early seventies I did a foundation art course followed by various art studio jobs, and in the early eighties I took a three-year illustration course before my kids were born. My intentions had been to go freelance as a graphic designer and artist, and possibly earn dosh as a freelance writer. None of this happened due to post natal depression. However, I published anecdotal articles in UK periodicals and the first two novels of my trilogy on Amazon. 

But yes, I'd experienced college life, and what an amazing experience that is! 😄




In complete vivid contrast, enough to make your head spin, a week later with our friend we visited a different exhibition. This time in London. This one explored quantum physics. Ooohh...  
This too was incredible in its own way. 

The exhibition took place at 9 Carlton Terrace, in Westminster, which is home of the Royal Society, the independent science academy of the UK. Tres posh. 



The subjects they covered included quantum entanglement, don't you know. I'm vaguely aware that the term quantum equals matter and energy. And yes, I'm fascinated by science, including physics, and I'm very willing to learn. 

The moment we entered the extremely posh white painted Regency building, we were faced with a wall of coloured lights on a board, operated by playing around with what looked like bed springs embedded in the display. The results were pretty spectacular as the colours spread and melded together every time you fiddled with the springs. Everyone had a go, mostly for the resultant effects, although some were intrigued as to the why and how the lights behaved. 
  
One thing intrigued me - two groups of Muslim girls, all dressed in black - a few wearing full face covers - watched us. We - men and women, dressed casually - played around with the display, chuckled and chatted. Was that envy that I detected in those girls' expressions as they watched us? Just before we moved on, a couple of them began playing with the lights and springs. Brave? Maybe. I don't know. 

We moved into the next room and stalls had been set up, each one demonstrating and explaining the latest scientific and technological discoveries. The majority of the information zoomed over my head, but hubby and friend listened to the various students explaining their research, discoveries and revolutionary products that are being launched into the world, much of it connected to medicine. Hubby would later explain to me in Janet and John style what he'd learned. What fascinated me were the displays around the walls, among other scientific stories, of discoveries made by women over the centuries and the advancements of women in science. 

Husband exchanged stories with one of the students, a Chinese girl who was doing a degree course at imperial college in London, hubby's old college. She discussed the technology being developed for the diagnosis of specific strains of cancer. What a brilliant and gobsmacking thought. 

The vibe of the exhibition was parallel to that of the art degree show. We were surrounded by students and tutors and their energy and ideas - crazy or otherwise. All the rooms of 9 Carlton Terrace, at that moment, contained some of the hottest young minds in London. All those synapses whizz popping around myriad brains thinking and reaching conclusions and possibly doing something with them. Incredible. 

On a side note about 9 Carlton Terrace...  I often look up the history of interesting places I've visited. 9 Carlton Terrace is one of a row of bright white 1820 buildings. During the 1890s the building was the Prussian Embassy. Quite interesting, but the following event blew my mind. On this spot, in 1787, stood Carlton House, which had been demolished to make way for Carlton Terrace (I wondered why?). On 9th April of that 
year, a fencing duel took place in the presence of the Prince Regent. The duel was between an illegitimate black noble man, Monsieur de Saint-Georges, and the gender bending Chevalier d'Eon, dressed as a woman. The idea was the Prince Regent's to stage a spectacle in order to draw an audience. He did just that! An engraving was made of the event. That curious bit of history certainly grabbed my attention! 



Those two events were youthful and fabulous, stirring the imagination and optimism. We need more of it!










ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! & BOOK 2 - THE OUTLAW'S RETURN, APPEARED IN THESE BLOGS & ON YOUTUBE:



        ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY -  THE STORYLINE     

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 





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Sunday, 17 August 2025

MY HERO APPROACH BRINGS OUT THE BIG BLACK DOG WITHIN ME

MY HERO APPROACH BRINGS OUT
 THE ANIMALS IN ME 



FROM OKAY TO SAD


HELLO, GODZILA




In other words... 

Author Burnout is Goddamn Real & Painful

If, every time you sit down at your keyboard and start going through the editing process with your editing partner/PA husband and you burst into tears despite the fact that you're doing good stuff - well, that's burnout. 

And...  simultaneously you're doing your solo hero editing approach and you're well ahead of your team work and fixing later chapters. You're rearranging sentences so that they sound better and replacing words with more refined words, and it's going well. You're appreciating what you're doing but you still feel crap and depression creeps its spidery fingers all over you - that's burnout. 

And you wake up every morning feeling depressed...

F**k all that for a game of soldiers. (Funny old term, eh? Very British, except that we said 'sod' and not f***k). 

Our push to get Book 3 of  Alias Jeannie Delaney out this month wasn't working. Even if I do finish editing this month, there's the final editing stage with my designated reader, the formatting stage and the cover design. I think I've got a title so that's good. But just because Book 1 - Go West, Girl! and Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return were launched in August two years and one year ago, doesn't mean it's cast in concrete and that the same must apply to Book 3, much as I and my PA would like it. When you're suffering from burnout, trying to get your story to the best possible standard you can, well, you're onto a loser and it ain't pretty, I can tell you. 

My animal within is trying to protect me. 

If I'm editing, my animal (hamster in his wheel) doesn't like it and he's running his little legs like a demented - well, hamster - making my brain's frontal emotion-governing hippocampus 

overload, turning to scrambled egg and making me deeply depressed. 

I'll call my hamster Squeaker cuz I had a hamster with that moniker once upon a time when I was a kid. So Squeaker is trying to beat up the Big Black Dog. I'll call the dog Godzilla.



It's my hamster's ploy to get me to leave whatever I'm doing because it's happening again. My hamster in my hero approach to editing has bitten me on the rear with its teeny tiny pointy fangs and reminded me that, no - stop!  You can't carry on doing this. He's trying to protect my psyche. 

The issues 'wot done it' have been burnout due to trying to unleash Book 3 on an unsuspecting public, health problems and the change in plot for a much more exciting big bang ending. It has all indeed 'done it.' Despite the new ending being a much, much more satisfying conclusion, I was still depressed, and being depressed when you're predisposed towards depression ain't good. Also hubby and I hadn't really been out and about much recently. Got to get the book out - got to get the book out. No you ain't, not when it's doing your head in. 

We've been through this before but never really attacked it properly. Now we must. 

To save our sanities we took off yesterday for Hayling Island in Hampshire, for the first time in two years (I can't believe that!). So glad we did. The weather was okay. Not swimming weather, although people were swimming and boating, but we had coffee on the beach followed by a good walk to a creek that leads to a brilliant outlook over the sea towards the Hampshire mainland, Emsworth and Langstone. Lovely. 



A RATHER MUGGY LOOKING CREEK 
ON HAYLING ISLAND


Then we walked hard and fast to get back to the car before our parking fee ran out and because it began spitting with rain, and thunder and lightning had threatened. We got back to the car with five minutes to spare on the parking fee and the rain held off until we were moving. That walk assured me that my physical health is pretty damn good. 

So - we asked AI for advice on author burnout and we received it. Extremely good advice and an excellent timetable. I've now got to read it through and apply what's applicable. The depression is receding and I hope it stays that way. So I'm doing nothing editing related for two weeks and be artistically creative. Doctor AI told me! Seems a very sensible idea. 

One of the issues is that I'm self employed. If you're an employee, if you get ill, you take time off. When you're self employed, you don't. The other factor is that mental struggles aren't acknowledged to be an illness. You can't take time off - you look fine. But you're not. If you had the flu or broken your leg, you give yourself time off. The same should apply to mental issues, but currently they don't and it's not considered. Bad, not good. 

So, all is not lost. I must read my AI proposal, act on it, and hopefully I will have recovered to a certain extent by September. 

In the meantime - art! Get cracking, woman!

















                                                                                        

A WORK IN PROGRESS (WHAT THE ***** IS THAT?)
IT'S A CARDBOARD ARMATURE - A BASE FOR A PLASTER SCULPTURE.
I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE A MOUNTAIN RANGE





                                 
                                            

THE AUTHOR IN A REASONABLE MOOD


If you've read my mental health story, I would suggest you move on, but if you haven't, here it is.

I'm an artist, writer & renaissance soul & I've suffered depression most of my adult life, certainly since post natal depression hit me. I started writing my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney as a result of my emotionally neglected upbringing - Jeannie is the individual I wanted to be to prove to my parents & siblings the person I could be. I also wanted to create a female protagonist in the mold of a traditional western hero because there were none during the sixties & seventies, when I began evolving as a UK wild western woman. So those were my two overarching goals, and will remain so.





BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! & BOOK 2 - THE OUTLAW'S RETURN, HAVE 
APPEARED IN THESE BLOGS & ON YOUTUBE:





ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - 

THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 









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Wednesday, 23 July 2025

ITS THE FINAL CHAPTER...



(The figure of Jeannie is mine, the background is ai)

I've reached the final chapter of Book 3. 

And I've blubbed. Got really emotional. That's what I do. It's a bloody pain in my ass but it's what I do. I was born so super sensitive I gush at the sight of kittens. 

This post is more for the benefit of those who have read Books 1 &/or 2 of Alias Jeannie Delaney and are waiting in line for Book 3. The writing of this socking great tome has sometimes been torture, sometimes satisfying, but mostly incredibly intense. 

The story is a right ol' rollercoaster of highs and lows, life and death, gunfights, fist fights, sex, blood, sometimes funny, drugs an' rock an' roll. Just kidding - omit the drugs an' rock an' roll. 

I've spent the last forty years - give or take, and intermittently - writing, researching, editing, self-publishing and marketing the first two novels of Alias Jeannie Delaney. My visual artistry has been largely neglected in my impassioned longing to introduce my heroic western protagonist Jeannie Morgan out into the world. She's my OTT charismatic, scary and funny tomboy-beautiful pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun west of the Mississippi and a magnificent lover to both men and women. 

She's me. Apparently. I was told. The character I created back in my teens during the late 1960s into the 70s. The individual I craved to be in response to my emotionally neglected upbringing.  Plus, I was becoming a budding UK wild west gal  re-enacting my western persona Kitty Le Roy, who was frustrated with the lousy roles for women in westerns. I wanted to help correct that. So I wrote the story I wanted to read. And Jeannie was and still is ahead of her time. I'm told that this is very appropriate timing for her to be released.

So, as you can see, my heart and soul have gone into this story. 

I've reached the end before, in previous editing, but since publishing Books 1 and 2, PA hubby suggested tentatively, in case I blew his head off, that ideally, the ending should blow readers'  heads off with dynamite. Western style, you understand. 

Therefore I had to change the original ending because it was 'nice' 'Nice' ain't good. 'Nice' don't hack it and have you blubbing into your coffee mug around the chuckwagon. It made you smile like a mule on opium, but smiling don't hack it either. I needed that ending to leave the reader, if not wrung out and suicidal, certainly bawling their heads off into their whiskey. 

So I've changed it thanks to PA hubby. (Yes, he will get the credit). I've woven in a extra piece of plotting to end on a non- opium induced high - a big bang grand finale. Now I've almost done it. I reached the final chapter last night and I just couldn't edit it. I grew sad, emotional and tearful. F**k. I hate that. This is a good thing. I think it means I've done it. I hope so. I hope I've achieved what I set out to do. I'll only know when hubby can barely read out that chapter during the second stage of editing and have to be fortified with his own favourite brand of whiskey. 

So I'm writing this post as a necessary pause in editing before returning to that final chapter. To get my head around it. To gather my emotional reserves in order to tackle that finale. I'm nervous. I read once that J. K. Rowling killed someone off and became miserable as hell. Her husband suggested that she didn't have to do that, but of course she went right ahead and wrote it because she had to. Being a writer sucks. It can f*****g hurt. But if it's a good or even a great piece of writing, you'll bawl into your glass of sarsaparilla or whiskey, wipe your tears and mosey on. That's what I've got to do. 

So, hold onto yer hats, I'm fixin' to dive right in... 😱🤠




THE AUTHOR
LOOKING SUITABLY SCARY
WITH HER WINCHESTER RIFLE 



ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - 

THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 






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Saturday, 28 June 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE WRITING OF AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY & THE BIG B...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE WRITING OF AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY & THE BIG B...: THE WRITING OF AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY  & A BIG BANG ENDING OF BOOK 3 ...  ... with the brainstormed help of AI. If anyone h...
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Wednesday, 25 June 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS

JO. B. CREATIVE!: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS  Plot bunny hubby loves my ending for Book 3 of my epic western trilogy  Alias Jeannie Delaney ! He's my em...
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Tuesday, 24 June 2025

A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS

A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS 


Plot bunny hubby loves my ending for Book 3 of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney! He's my emotion meter. If he loves it, it's good. We did a plot bunny session over coffee in the cafe today and we both grew emotional and laughed a lot. 

It's a challenge. The original ending was... nice. Nice ain't good, is it? It won't hack it. It's got to be a big bang ending or not at all. So I've got a big bang ending. I'm weaving it into the current story and I've only got ten chapters to go. 

I also have fans. One of them lives next door and another lives at the end of my road. Yet another couple of them are our son's best friends who live in town. Mark, next door, said: "Congratulations on..." He'd just read about a major event in my protagonist Jeannie's life. He didn't mention her name. "You what - ?" I said, then it clicked. "Ah, yes - thank you!" 

Alias Jeannie Delaney is one hell of an emotional, supercharged ride. 



While working through it with my 'plot bunny' PA husband, I could tell when he had been grabbed by the story, apart from his ownership of it through working on it alongside his spouse (me). He'd go quiet and swallow if it was an emotive moment. He'd chuckle if it was funny. If it was a hot blooded sexy moment his voice would change again (I can't describe that one suitably!). When something deeply emotional and sad happened we blubbed. I was concerned that I wouldn't recover (I did). 

Throughout the writing I was thoroughly excited if the narrative worked, particularly when Jeannie was caught up in what would be a pivotal moment traditionally played by a heroic western hero. I could see her in my head as I was writing it, so I knew that that instant was a good 'un. 

Back when I was a young mum and writing the story for the first time, I trembled with emotion, so I had a suspicion that I was forging something good, but precisely how good I had no idea. So I ploughed onwards. The old heart strings were plucked something chronic and I was never bored in the writing. If a scene wasn't working, I'd sense it and deal with it, by changing it somehow or by deleting it altogether. So harsh.

I have several role model movies right from the start, but only one role model for Jeannie herself. I started with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid in 1969. I loved the characters (played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford), and the injection of humour. I wanted Alias Jeannie Delaney to have its fair share of funny as a respite from the no quarters held violence. Alias Smith and Jones was a firm favourite. Plenty of humour and a simple plot involving our heroes being constantly on the run because they need to be officially wanted men until they've been offered an official amnesty. The High Chaparral was another fun one back then. 





Calamity Jane, made in 1953 (the year of my birth, coincidentally) was great fun and cheeky. I loved Doris Day's rendering. As a result I wanted Jeannie to dance and sing and be the centre of attention (she's the centre of attention just by being somewhere!), but I felt the story would become a parody if I wasn't careful. Jeannie can indeed dance a jig and play the mouth organ but she doesn't sing, although I see her as a contemporary electric guitar playing rock star belting out emotion in a sensual, slightly husky, androgenous voice. (Now you know my night imaginings). Referring back to Doris Day's Calamity Jane, the ending, when Jane is dolled up in a wedding dress and driven away by Wild Bill is hateful. Arrgh! Tamed. Let's not go there. 




Further, contemporary influences are Brokeback Mountain, written by Annie Prouix and a film directed by Ang Lee. The story starts in 1963 and ends in 1983 and features two young cowboys who fall in love with one another. The story dealt with LGBTQ, a subject that's gradually becoming acceptable in films and books. Last but by no means least, Sharon Stone's female gun slingin' gal in The Quick and the Dead, released in 1995, was a very strong role model. The closest yet to influence me. Other movie influences have been no quarters held and gritty such as Quentin Tarantino movies, which is a bit of a conundrum considering I also wanted humour in my story. 




I was depressed much of the time, such was the state of my mental health, but when I was really struggling, we knew it was the story that was affecting me. "I want to get Jeannie out into the world. I want to get her out." Because there was no other woman in literature that was anything like her, let alone in a western. I had nobody else's boots to fill. Just mine. A very niche market. I suffered burnout from trying too hard. 

But would anyone see her as I did? This dynamic, mesmeric and charismatic individual, who boasts devastating tomboy looks, now graces (not certain if that's the right word for Jeannie!) my pages in such a powerful way that she's extraordinary. As I wrote her story I thought: "Oh God - she's so OTT."  But try as I might I couldn't make her less than she was. Less beautiful, less charismatic, less ...  She was having none of it! She is what she is and for that reason she's made for an irresistible and compelling story. So I've been told. I can't ask for more than that! 

My editor was the first professional to love the story - she called it 24 carat writing. I'm so grateful to her. So fortunate that I chose her to edit Books 1 and 2. Book 3 should be launched this year with any luck, and there will be further stories of Jeannie's exploits. I've spent the majority of my teens and adult life thinking about her - damn her! - so I can't just leave her behind. No chance. 

Meanwhile, I'm making a bad job of attempting to return to visual artistry as a complete break from her. No chance there, either. Many years ago, I created illustrations of her, so I'm using those on Canva to create promotional material. So there's no escaping her! On the other hand I'm rather pleased that I've become adept at computer graphics, and I rather enjoy that. Makes a change from crafting emotional, funny, graphic gun fights, but whatever I do, she's there, in my head...  Damn her! 

I can't complain, however - I've accrued well over one thousand three hundred readers and approaching fifty 5 star ratings and reviews. I'll end on an Ee-hah! (Seems appropriate). 





THE 1ST TWO BOOKS HAVE APPEARED IN THESE BLOGS & ON YOUTUBE:



Facebook Jo Ballantyne


ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi, but when she discovers that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 and strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. However, her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun go against her and before long people are calling for her dismissal and even her death. How will she survive? Will she survive? Or will those very qualities see her through to a charismatic conclusion?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!












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