JO. B. CREATIVE!: GOTTA USE MY PLEASANTLY QUIRKY

JO. B. CREATIVE!: GOTTA USE MY PLEASANTLY QUIRKY: USING MY PLEASANTLY QUIRKY How d'you like my graphic? I was inspired by a creativity website I came across recently, so I decided to use...

GOTTA USE MY PLEASANTLY QUIRKY

USING MY PLEASANTLY QUIRKY

How d'you like my graphic? I was inspired by a creativity website I came across recently, so I decided to use it on posts other than those that talk about Alias Jeannie Delaney. Very not relevant, that would be, using this on a western. 

But this post? I must use my quirky. Why not, eh? 

Weird? Unconventional maybe. Pleasantly eccentric I've been told (by hubby's ex-boss's wife). Slightly to the left, according to my doctor when we discussed my mental health issues with depression. (or was it right? No, definitely left). 

I'm extremely creative. I'm an artist and writer, which speaks for itself when it comes to the oddness department. I've always not done what's expected of one. Not cuz I'm rebelling (although I like that too) but because I'm like that anyway. I like weird, odd, offbeat, unconventional, oddball. I don't think I'm crazy and zany - that sounds too exhausting. I'll stick to pleasantly eccentric/quirky if you don't mind. Much more relaxing. 

I suppose being determined to take flying lessons while I was still at school, aged sixteen, is classed as offbeat. "Why can't you learn to drive like everybody else?" Some boy asked me. Fair point.

And, during a 1970s summer,  my equally eccentric Italian landlord Tony invited me to tread grapes on the roof of his Edwardian terrace house in Surrey for wine making purposes. How could I not? (The wine was disgusting, according to my wine loving and making parents, whereas I'm bereft of tastebuds so wouldn't know. And how come Tony became winemaker of the year shortly afterwards if he was that bad?).

I had a pale blue painted bedsit, and above my door lintel was mounted a pair of antlers. "That's mine!" I announced on seeing them for the first time. I loved that light blue house, complete with its grape vine entwined on a trellis in place of a roof over Tony's red Fiat. And the goat and chickens that lived in the back garden and the exotic birds that lived in the greenhouse attached to my room (I could see the birds through my engrained with whatever-it-was window). When I'd pass the open kitchen door on my way to work, Tony would be standing over the sink in the process of wringing a chicken's neck - my mum used to do that when dad was a farm worker in Devon. Tony would ask if I'd like a chicken for dinner, and I'd wishy washily smile and shake my head. That man was an angel - he worked as a nurse for the mentally handicapped kids. When I became ill with flu, he brought soup to me in my little cupboard bedroom. "Here is some chick-en -" of course "- soup forrr you, Jo-anna. You like?". I loved. (Not sure that he talked like that...).

I had another very eccentric friend years ago. He was bonkers and nuts and travelled the world and had a zillion friends who were girls. He was Gordon, and my surname was Bennett. You can see where I'm going with that. He joked about it often. "Hey - if we got married I'd be Gordon Bennett!" He was a genius on the pianoforte and a potter, and was by trade a horticulturalist. He was tending plants in an upstairs office in London when an IRA bomb went off downstairs during the seventies. That was a shock. He ended up apparently becoming a diplomat and travelling more of the world. No-one was more shocked than me. Gordon? A diplomat? *snort*. Him travelling the world was normal, but being a diplomat? That's questionable. A friend of mine said that was questionable. Made me think. His sweet mum wanted us to marry and my folks would have loved that, but no - he was brother material, no more. He was a bit too nuts. I lost touch with him after that and I'm a bit sorry, but hubby, who met him after Gordon drove me to the flat warming party where hubby and I collided, lost patience with him. A bit too silly for hubby. Understandable. 

I worked in art studios between the typing jobs I didn't mind doing because they enabled me to travel, but one of my jobs was as a messenger at Kew Gardens in the herbarium. I liked that a lot. I wore a uniform and worked with two men on the verge of retirement. One was small, sweet, kind and funny, the other was big and grumpy. I delivered mail - often pressed plants - to the botanists within, who were usually heads down, one eye glued to their microscopes. A bell sounded when it was lunchtime or time to go home. They'd never have left otherwise. That was such an out there job and I made some lovely friends. I loved Kew. 

After marriage and children I determined to write what turned into a trilogy. My western story which follows the life of a dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and a magnificent lover to both men and women. That's not the subject matter that's usually expected of a mother and wife, is it? 

I have umpteen zillion hobbies and interests. Art, writing and the wild west thing being uppermost, above travel and exploration, boating, the paranormal, architecture, archaeology.... I'm fascinated by early photography.  Space travel intrigues me, as does medicine. I'm a not bad archer and I've rowed since I was a kid, brought up by the River Thames as I was. 

I'm a renaissance soul. I want to be eclectic when it comes to my art. Multidisciplinary, if you will. Not asking much, am I?

I humbly apologise if I seem to be repeating myself if you've bravely decided to follow me (really? - I'm honestly so grateful it's a bit embarrassing), but this business of opening up as a creative artist, writer and all round explorer of life, in my endeavours to get myself 'out there' as they say - so be it. Answer: skim the bits you've read before. I won't mind. 

The only issue with being slightly to the left, pleasantly eccentric, renaissance soulish etc etc is the propensity to suffer from depression, which I do, a lot. Just plain nasty. My emotionally neglected upbringing contributed big time. Hence the development of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney. The woman I wanted to be, so that I could prove myself. Thankfully my soulmate hubby is an amazing man who understands the whole business of it. We share the same schoolkid humour which often involves stink bombs and blowing things up and stuffed pigs and monkeys that talk (they do). They saved my sanity. 

On that questionable note... Ta ta. Speak soon. Love you all. X

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And yes - this quirky so-and-so UK Granny did write the following gritty western with a twist. Fancy!

THIS WAS CREATED USING ART I MADE 
      MANY YEARS AGO! 

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE       

          

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is tomboy beautiful and the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. Her extraordinary sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey, and men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.

Jeannie must navigate the grit and sweat of the wild frontier and face her desires and identity through deadly confrontations as she seeks acceptance in this big, bad world and kill or be killed. She takes on roles deemed only suitable for men, but her powerful persona and lethal gun make her the perfect candidate. Will she find what she seeks - acknowledgement and acceptance? Or will her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun finally be the death of her?

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!

Alias Jeannie Delaney - 

Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return

MY COVER DESIGNER & I COLLABORATED ON THE IMAGES. THEY'RE  BASED ON ARTWORK I'D MADE MANY YEARS AGO! 

MY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF     JEANNIE. AS AN ARTIST I'VE   UTILISED CANVA FOR THE JOB

                         

  MY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF 
   JEANNIE. AS AN ARTIST I'VE 
 UTILISED CANVA FOR THE JOB

            

CHAPTER SAMPLE BOOK 1

BOOK 2

JO. B. CREATIVE!: ARTISTICALLY GENIUS OR RUBBISH

JO. B. CREATIVE!: ARTISTICALLY GENIUS OR RUBBISH: ARTISTICALLY GENIUS OR RUBBISH  According to hubby I'm either capable of being a genius artistically or I'm equally adept at produci...

ARTISTICALLY GENIUS OR RUBBISH

ARTISTICALLY GENIUS OR RUBBISH 

According to hubby I'm either capable of being a genius artistically or I'm equally adept at producing rubbish when experimenting. 

I concur. 

The genius accolade arrives unexpectedly when I'm creating art, whether it be a pastel drawing or an acrylic painting. And it usually heads off in an abstract-ish direction. 

GENIUS OR RUBBISH?! 😄

NOT CERTAIN IT'S GENIUS,
BUT I LOVED CREATING THIS!

I'd love to experiment, artistically. I used to be what I'd call a 'safe' artist, and I was considered clever as a creative. That's nice - excellent. My safe work was pretty conventional back then - I'd create 'realistic' characters in oils, pencil or gouache - pirates, cowboys and girls (my wild west thing was evolving), Victorian women or otherwise, usually using magazine photographs for reference. Or psychedelia (bearing in mind that this was the swinging sixties). I didn't want to create pretty landscapes, flowers or portraits. Stuff that actually sells. 

FROM A MAGAZINE AD - AN OIL PAINTING
CREATED WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, 
PEPPED UP RECENTLY USING
A CANVA FRAME

AN ABSTRACT PASTEL LANDSCAPE

A STYLISED ACRYLIC WOMAN

ACRYLIC PAINTED TWIGS ON BOARD

I attended a foundation art year after school in the early seventies that gave you the basics of various artistic disciplines - life drawing (you should have seen some of the models - maybe not), sculpture, photography, printing (I never got to grips with it), graphic design, followed by jobs in advertising studios. 

Before I had kids I did a three-year illustration course and earned myself a Diploma in Art and Design SIAD (Society of Illustrators, Artists and Designers.). Now I'm just showing off. Several years later I did a correspondence art course with the Open College of Creative Arts which was brilliant and opened up my mind to all kinds of creativity. 

From that I began to expand my repertoire with still lives, abstracts, inks, charcoal, stylised, collage, 2D, sculpture...

A COLLAGE & A CANVA FRAME

A SELECTION OF ART USING CANVA 

Hubby and I joined a local art group which was enormous fun. When our lovely, somewhat eccentric tutor moved to the Isle of Wight, that was very sad. We'd lost our eclectic, fun-loving group. The essential spark had vanished and we haven't found anything to replace it. My ideal group would be happy to explore and experiment, perhaps go mad painting BIG, perhaps from different angles like lying on the floor or from the top of a cupboard! Be an art student again. 😍 

I've been studying multidisciplinary and eclectic art practices, and they're so inspiring! Incorporating video, sculpture, fashion, travel, murals  ... you name it, into one's art practice. I love it and I'd love to do that. One artist's words stuck in my head. He said: 'My art styles look like they've been done by ten different artists.' I loved that! I know they say that if an artist produces too many different styles and disciplines, they're hard to market, but there's always a way to manage that.

I've always have creative studio areas in our house - but actually using them and actually creating art has proved very hard, and, in the past, depressing. I've been so intent on writing, editing, publishing and marketing Alias Jeannie Delaney my epic western trilogy, that visual creativity barely had a look in. I say 'had', because marketing the story has made me create visual promotional material on Canva, and for that I'm very pleased.  

I've suffered depression for years, all through writing the trilogy. Since having my kids, essentially, and I'm aware that art can be a great therapy for depression. Sadly I have to be upbeat and not depressed to create art. *Sigh and bugger*. 

Eh, well. So, where am I now? 

My ambition is for the trilogy to become a best seller (and why not, I ask myself?), and to become a well known, selling artist. Again - why not? 

Just to finish off, here's some more 'stuff' with a couple of western inspired pieces, including Jeannie, my Alias Jeannie Delaney protagonist, at the bottom. Hope you like it. 😊I'm rather pleased with it. Thankyou Canva!

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THIS WAS CREATED USING ART I MADE 
MANY YEARS AGO! 

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE       

                 

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is tomboy beautiful and the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. Her extraordinary sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey, and men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.

Jeannie must navigate the grit and sweat of the wild frontier and face her desires and identity through deadly confrontations as she seeks acceptance in this big, bad world and kill or be killed. She takes on roles deemed only suitable for men, but her powerful persona and lethal gun make her the perfect candidate. Will she find what she seeks - acknowledgement and acceptance? Or will her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun finally be the death of her?

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!

Alias Jeannie Delaney - 

Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

Book 2 The Outlaw's Return

MY COVER DESIGNER & I COLLABORATED ON THE IMAGES. 

THEY'RE  BASED ON ARTWORK I'D MADE MANY YEARS AGO! 

MY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF     JEANNIE. AS AN ARTIST I'VE   UTILISED CANVA FOR THE JOB

                                    

CHAPTER SAMPLE BOOK 1

BOOK 2

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROT...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROT...: THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROTE A GRITTY WESTERN  Some folk may say that anyone from the UK, let  alone a granny, co...

THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROTE A GRITTY WESTERN

THE CUTE, WILD WEST, FUN LOVIN' UK GRANNY WHO WROTE A GRITTY WESTERN 

Some folk may say that anyone from the UK, let  alone a granny, couldn't possibly want to write a gritty, no holds barred western in which the hero is a woman. Well, I wanted to and I had to. The story is very exciting, and the story of the story is convoluted and lengthy. Simply put, during my teens I was evolving a fascination for the wild west, particularly the gun totin', cheroot chompin' wild westerner women. As I say, rather intriguing for a cute UK granny, wouldn't you say? It must be in my genes/jeans. I was also growing irritated and frustrated by the lack of decent roles for women in westerns at the time - the 1960s - so I created my own. Jeannie Morgan was well ahead of her time then, and almost as much now, although films such as Sharon Stone's The Quick and the Dead are becoming more popular. She's my closest role model by the way.

I began writing Jeannie's story after my daughter was born, forty years ago. Yes, it's been a looong, looong time in the writing. I wanted to get the plot right - reasonably credible, Jeannie herself right, and descriptive passages right. 

Eventually I discovered I'd written a trilogy! We hired an editor, who was the first professional to assure me that my writing was quality - 24 carat writing she said. We hired a cover designer and I collaborated with him to produce covers 1 and 2, based on images I'd created years ago. 

It's been a couple of years since publishing  Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! on Amazon two summers ago. A year later we launched Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return.  Book 3 will be launched this year. I've accrued well over one thousand, three hundred readers and five star ratings and reviews, plus many readers on Kindle Unlimited steam through Book 1 like a railroad train then immediately order Book 2. 

Just to prove the cute and fun lovin' aspect of this granny, however, I shared this post after a Cobbles & Clogs Steampunk event at Basingstoke's Milestones Museum in Hampshire UK. Enormous fun! Loads of stalls, music and everyone dressed wild west steampunk, fairies, military, medieval, you-name-it... 

Hubby and I dressed to the proverbial nines - hubby as a military sergeant in frilled shirt, peaked cap, medals and goggles and me as glam pirate Kitty Le Roy complete with small flintlock pistol. When I'm not Kitty Le Roy I'm that gun totin', cheroot chompin' wild westerner woman. 

Milestones Museum is an indoor Victorian town open to customers all year to wander shop and factory settings. One of the pavements boasts 

'chalked' hopscotch squares. Naturally we have to hop. Hubby is tall and drainpipe skinny, and he's good at hopping. I ain't. I used to be slim and beautiful but now I'm Rubenesque and beautiful. I've never hopped well although I'm great on a bike and striding briskly. So I sorta hopped on and off, huffing and puffing. Hubby hopped like a good 'un, and we videod one another. Brilliant. Hop scotching steampunk style. As you do.

                               

Now, if you want to see the thing being done properly, here you are:

                              

                                  DRIVING OUR NARROWBOAT 

                                                                DOTTEREL OUT 

                                                        OF A LOCK NEAR RUGBY

And yes, I love tillering our narrowboat. I was born next to water, so learned to row as soon as I could utter 'Land ahoy!. We also own a traditional Canadian canoe which lies on our back lawn. 

  

TO PROVE EVEN MORE
MY CUTENESS,
HERE ARE PIG AND MONKEY -
THEY KEEP HUBBY & ME SANE

                                  

So this fun loving, hopscotching cute Gran (so my teenage granddaughters say, and who am I to dispute that?) wrote that gritty, sometimes dark and violent western trilogy? There are humorous sides to the story to add a bit of texture and to tone down the dark side.  

There are two sides of me. The dark side who suffers from depression and the goofy, creative side. The goofy artistic side is dominant, thank goodness, but the dark side, when the mood strikes, comes crashing in. 

Jeannie herself is powerful. Magnetic. Charismatic, funny, scary. Terrifying. The fastest gun. A great fighter. Tremendously dapper in male clothing. Sexy as hell. Tomboy beautiful. OTT. Irresistible. She's bisexual. All things to everyone. I was horrendously embarrassed about her during the years I was developing her, which made things even harder. Toning her down didn't work, so finding just how much people appreciate her has been a huge relief, and sharing illustrations and stories about her no longer terrifies me. 

I wanted to be like her to make up for my largely alone, neglected and unappreciated position within my biological family. Having children made matters harder and my mental health, exacerbated by childbirth and post-natal depression, suffered, along with the drip-drip of biological family pressures and opinions.  

That's why I wanted to be Jeannie. That's why I needed to write her story and 'get her out there'. That's why I have two sides. 😄

Finally, here's Jeannie's storyline:

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE       

                 

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is tomboy beautiful and the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. Her extraordinary sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey, and men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.

Jeannie must navigate the grit and sweat of the wild frontier and face her desires and identity through deadly confrontations as she seeks acceptance in this big, bad world and kill or be killed. She takes on roles deemed only suitable for men, but her powerful persona and lethal gun make her the perfect candidate. Will she find what she seeks - acknowledgement and acceptance? Or will her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun finally be the death of her?

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!

                           

THE (CUTE) AUTHOR

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Alias Jeannie Delaney - 

Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

Book 2 The Outlaw's Return

MY COVER DESIGNER & I COLLABORATED ON THE IMAGES. THEY'RE  BASED ON ARTWORK I'D MADE MANY YEARS AGO! 

MY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF     JEANNIE. AS AN ARTIST I'VE   UTILISED CANVA FOR THE JOB

                                    

CHAPTER SAMPLE BOOK 1

BOOK 2

JO. B. CREATIVE!: AI RESPONSE TO BUGGER MY BIG BLACK DOG

JO. B. CREATIVE!: AI RESPONSE TO BUGGER MY BIG BLACK DOG: BUGGER THIS  BIG BLACK DOG OF MINE...  AN AI RESPONSE.                       If you know me, you'll be aware of the fact that I'm an...