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!

Facebook Jo Ballantyne Facebook Kit Mackenzie Author Page Kit Mackenzie Author Website Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Jo.B.Creative Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin   Pinterest  Instagram YouTube

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

A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH TO MY MENTAL HEALTH!

 A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH!

FLOW NEUROSCIENCE HEADSET

I have to admit that it looks really potty wearing this thing and one feels a lot like Frankenstein's monster in his lab. You clean and clear your forehead and then, using a blue tooth app on your phone which has to remain nearby, you place saline soaked pads against your forehead. Then your phone goes to selfie mode in order to check the placement of the pads. You scream because you look like your mum/dad and that's scary. Hubby has taken to looking at my phone and seeing himself and screaming so I don't have to (I've got used to attaching it in the right place). This home based treatment lasts for half an hour every day for the first three weeks. After that it's every weekend. 

You're warned that it may feel itchy, or even burn a little, but most patients adjust to it pretty quickly. I certainly did. There was a definite slightly burning sensation, then an itch, and on the second night, it itched like bonkers. I couldn't wait for it to finish, then I scratched my forehead like mad, but that hasn't happened again. Now it's a mild fizzy sensation and it's helping my mental help enormously. 

To start at the beginning, where I should have started anyway...

I've suffered depression for well over forty years, on and off, ever since the births of my two kids. I wasn't made for motherhood, and they've survived despite me. I'm a creative artist, writer and adventurous minded bod who's fascinated by the wild west and the paranormal among many other subjects (I'm a renaissance soul in other words - Leonardo Di Vinci is my hero). 

I've self-published the first two novels of my epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! & Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return. I wanted to write it - I had to write it - I had no choice. I didn't know it at the time but I was writing about who I wanted to be to prove myself to my emotionally neglectful parents and siblings. But it literally did my head in. I've been on anti-depressants ever since, and most of them really helped.  

Recently, however, in my desperation to 'get Jeannie (my protagonist) out there', wherever 'out there' is, most days in recent times I was pretty tearful. I wanted her 'out there' to show readers that women could be the hero in traditional westerns too, since my fascination for the wild west evolved when I was young, particularly the roles played by the wilder, cheroot chompin', gun totin' gals. 

Going back two years ago I came across the Flow Neuroscience Headset, but at the time we passed it over as possible quackery. This time, however, I saw it again last autumn. It had been backed by the NHS, and the patient recovery rate was 77%. I was impressed and showed it to science-minded husband. This time, although the NHS no longer prescribed it here in Hampshire, but will do so in five years (too long to wait), we decided it was worth a try. It costs £400 but that's nothing if you can afford it and it gives you improved mental health. 

The headset works by sending a gentle electrical charge through the pads into your mood-controlling Hippocampus, which sits at the front of your brain. A gentle stimulation helps to restore healthy brain activity. The headset is backed by over 30 years of research and clinical evidence to show it is safe and effective.

It won't work immediately - these things take time, and it won't work for everybody, but I can honestly say that I feel better and calmer than I've felt for a very long time. Hubby says I don't shout at him so much. I jolly well hope not! So yes, it does work. The great thing about it is that there are no drugs involved, nothing taken internally, nothing injected, no nasty side effects. Just a simple, gentle electrical charge. I would say it's a game-changer for those who suffer depression. Let's hope so. 

ME!

Facebook Jo Ballantyne

Facebook Kit Mackenzie Author Page

Kit Mackenzie Author Website

Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group

Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

Jo.B.Creative

Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin   Pinterest  Instagram YouTube

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - 

AN EPIC WESTERN  TRILOGY

Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan was born in New Orleans and grows up in Wyoming. She's tomboy beautiful and notorious as the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. To make matters even more intriguing her extraordinary sexuality - a shocking revelation - is as fluid as a miner's whiskey. Men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.

Will her powerful persona, her tomboy beauty and her lethal gun ultimately be the death of her?

IF YOU ENJOYED SHARON STONE STARRING IN THE QUICK & THE DEAD OR ANG LEE'S BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, YOU MIGHT LIKE ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY BOOKS 1 & 2!  

IF YOU ENJOY MY BOOKS, I'D BE GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH! 

Alias Jeannie Delaney - 

Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return

MY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 

              OF JEANNIE

SAMPLE BOOK 1 -
GO WEST, GIRL!

SAMPLES BOOK 2 -
THE OUTLAW'S RETURN

I'M A PANSTER!

When it came to crafting Alias Jeannie Delaney, I pantsed my way through it. 

Plotters are just that - they're the polar opposite. Some plan their novels to the 'nth' degree and have white boards on their walls and black felt tip pens and draw up their fictional family trees and biographies for their characters. Some even begin doing that before they've typed 'Once upon a time...'. 

Mine grew organically to the 'nth' degree. You might know of some of my story. I had an idea for a story and had created loads of illustrations of Jeannie when no-one was looking. I was sooo embarrassed about the whole idea - you know, all that violence, blood, gore and juicy adult scenes you wouldn't want to show your mother. 

I got to the point, after I married my soulmate, when I needed to show someone what I had done and was thinking, gritted my teeth and told hubby all about it. He demanded to see my illustrations. I blushed to the shade of old beetroot, shoved the illustrations under his nose and retreated to the bedroom and hid under a pillow. 

I emerged from under the pillow and hubby called me back. My knees trembled and I felt hot and bothered as he stated: 'Jeannie's sexy - you've got to write her story! Get on with it.' My relief was beyond description. He liked it! Yay!

So get on with it I did. When my daughter was born in 1985, I bottle fed her one-handed and began typing with my other hand. That was the start. 

The story grew organically in fits and starts. An exciting image would pop into my head and I'd weave it into the story. Then there'd be long gaps between writing and not writing. There came a point when I decided that the story had to be finished, by the proverbial hook or by crook. I managed to finish it and typed 'End' at the end. As good a place as any.

Of course I felt pleased with myself, but I never felt ecstatic about it like Kathleen Turner did as Joan Wilder, sobbing with joy when she typed 'The End' in Romancing the Stone. 

I read a lot about writing and learned about pansters and planners. My writing improved as time wore on. It has always been said that your first novel is the one you practice on. Then you chuck it into the back of a drawer and start the next. 

Mine is my first-second-third novel and it's been one huge learning curve and one huge novel. When I looked back to the beginning after I'd typed 'End' for the umpteenth time, I realized just how much my writing had grown. This had been my practice novel once, and now it ended up being the novel. 

I've mentioned many times that I wanted/needed to write this novel, which turned into three. I had no choice. I was really excited about the subject matter and Jeannie. I felt she was OTT (over the top) but I couldn't stop writing her story. I woke up one morning, noticed the cat jumping on top of the laundry basket and blearily croaked out: 'Jeannie - get off the basket.'! 

Yes, Jeannie is OTT, but what the hell! That's part of the story. Her over the top-ness, and I couldn't make her less beautiful, less charismatic, less devastating. If I had, she wouldn't have been Jeannie and folks wouldn't have been jealous of her or fancied her like mad. 

That's her story.

The nuisance part of being a panster is the part where I haven't noted - on white boards or anywhere - details about some of the characters who appear regularly in the novel. 

F'instance, in Book 2, which I've started editing, Jeannie has left town because she's had enough of the treatment she's received while growing up. 'Her gang' - the boys who allied with her and accumulated around her, follow her and join her on her trail. I know who three of them are, but I'm confused over the other two. Who are they? What are their backgrounds? Families? Interests? What do they look like? Something I should have sorted out during the writing, as a planner would have done. But, I'm told, you are where you are and you write as you write. Don't angst over it too much. 

This is where pantstering is a pain. Eh well, as they say, if you're a panster, you're a panster. But hell - I could have done with being a planner! *Grumble* 😣

Facebook Jo Ballantyne
Facebook Kit MacKenzie Author Page
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

Jo.B.Creative

Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin   Pinterest  Instagram

ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY IS A WESTERN!

Oy, you lovely lot -  follow Kit Mackenzie's Author Page! Chop chop. 😄! 

Said in the friendliest mode because you're a lovely bunch and I'm very lucky to have you. And tell all your friends (and enemies) about me and my novel and what a stonking story it is. It is stonking because it's huge. I won't say great because not everyone will like it and some will positively hate/dislike it. As Oscar Wilde said: "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Alias Jeannie Delaney is a western. I think we've got a grip on that now. It's epic. A story told in three novels about half my protagonist's life. That's forty-five years, from 1865 to  1910. That's a heck of a lot of story, and not everyone has the time to read all that, and not everyone likes westerns. Many folk are lukewarm about them. Can take them or leave them. 

I'm just emphasizing these facts for potential readers as a warning. The three books cover my protagonist Jeannie's life from birth in New Orleans to her position as a powerful Wyoming rancher and her second inauguration as an equally powerful town mayor aged forty-five. 

I read through it and I'm excited by the story and can't wait to get it out! My editor loved the first book and said: 'Wow!' and helped me tweak and fix my words. She wasn't just saying that because she was after the work, because she had the work anyway. I'm always excited when people respond like that. Well, who wouldn't be?

I love my cover - my designer took my original artwork and design ideas and transformed them into a polished, beautiful front cover. I'm posting it here again - yes, again - for the benefit of those of you who may not have seen it. 

So - it's quite some story. Both the story itself and the story of the story. I'm really proud of both, I think, because it's the novel

I wanted/needed/had to write - I had no choice because no-one had written it, and there are complicated psychological reasons why I was compelled to write it which I didn't appreciate at the time but will enlarge upon in the future. I'm also proud of the fact that the front cover is the result of the collaboration between me and my designer. 

Not everyone will like the story for various reasons, including they don't like westerns, they won't like the occasional sexy, juicy subject matter bits within some chapters, and they don't like non-traditional westerns. Fair enough. Don't read it. There's room enough for all of us. 

So, to all of you who are kindly saying that you can't wait to read it - there's no guarantee that you'll enjoy it, and please don't read it just out of kindness and because you said you would. There's an awful lot of it. I found it hard enough to get through! 

Three novels for Gawds sake... ! What was I thinking?!

Facebook Jo Ballantyne
Facebook Kit MacKenzie Author Page
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

Jo.B.Creative

Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin   Pinterest  Instagram

THE BIG COVER REVEAL!

Here it it! My Jeannie Delaney e-novel cover in all its glory, plus the blurb about the story. 

'Devastating and legendary deputy sheriff Jeannie Morgan snaps a hand towards her holstered Colt. Her draw is blurred and blistering, shattering her opponent's hand. He screams and clutches his hand to his chest...'

'She'd started life in New Orleans but her father wanted to travel west and Jeannie becomes a cowgirl on his ranch. Here she finds her true western self, but she can't fit in. She grows strong and has a phenomenally fast gun hand which she relishes, causing men to hate her and for the fear she instills in them when she outdraws them.

She's developed into a stunning tomboy beauty and she knows it. Men – and women – desire her, but her sexuality has turned into something no-one understands.

She's killed twice in self defence, and now she's desperate to kill again for revenge. What will be the outcome of her actions? What will she become? And will her charismatic power and sexuality be the death of her?'

Book One of this crack shot trilogy, 'Go West, Girl!', introduces us to a girl who becomes devastating, tough as a miner's old boots, and owns a gaze which can kill just by looking at you.

My novel's audacious protagonist Jeannie was ahead of her time in 1985 when I began her story. I remember typing my first words on my electric typewriter one-handed while bottle feeding my baby. Over thirty years later, it's time to liberate Jeannie's story...

Alias Jeannie Delaney will be launched on Amazon in July, at which point I'll share the links.

Do visit my Facebook Kit MacKenzie Author Page. Here I'm posting regularly about my journey to self-publication. A long and - mostly - interesting one! 

Facebook Jo Bennett
Facebook Kit MacKenzie Author Page
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

Jo.B.Creative

Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin   Pinterest  Instagram