Archive | February 2018

Straighten? Or at an Angle?

brown and orange moth or skipper or butterlfy at an angle 1000 014

I think sometimes taking a picture at an angle is much more interesting. Not all the time, but sometimes.

I know I’ve identified the above butterflies/moths, but I couldn’t the ones I have labeled and I couldn’t find them on the internet. All I found were people asking: what is the brown and orange moth? Butterfly? Maybe a skipper? I don’t know. 🙂 And I was sitting on the floor to take pictures of baby. She found a new fun place to play. Under the coffee table. Yep, kids can have fun without all the fancy play toys in the world. My kids used to play for hours in the refrigerator size boxes my stuffing (for bears) used to come in. Now they just plastic wrap it. 🙁 No fun at all.

I wrote 4,000 words yesterday!! Had drama, which always helps me write. 🙂 Pulled grass and weeds, and took a few bird pictures this morning. And finished getting my tax paperwork together. You know, I don’t set New Year’s Goals, per se, just writing goals, but they’re every day. Every year I think, I need to get my tax stuff together in January! However, I usually don’t get all my tax stuff until Feb, and sometimes not even then. And then I have to chase it down. That’s just one thing that’s been hanging over my head. So I’ll be glad to finish that up! But I think this is the earliest I’ve ever had it done.

Okay, it’s time to get to writing! My goal is always 2,000 a day, except for baby days. Sometimes I manage a little writing once she goes home. Other times, not. Hope to get more today. I’m at 30,000 now, 50K to go. It always seems insurmountable when I’m staring at that first page that has only a title and my name, and the chapter 1 heading, but it’s doable, if I don’t let babies and puppies and birds and weeds and taxes and anything else distract me. 🙂 <3

Have a super fun day! I’ve left my book at a cliff hanger. Oh, no! What do I do next????? Or, I should say my characters… I don’t know. They know. I’ll follow their lead.

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
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Storm Clouds

Feb17

I love storm clouds. They’re moody, change the world, artistic, and beautiful.

Off to write!

Have a lovely Saturday! 🙂

Flying Fur! Mushrooms! And Spring is on its Way!

Feb16

Havanese in play. Dianthus blooming now. I put them in last year. love it when I can plant perennials that will come back and be more beautiful every year. Orange mushrooms in the fairy garden.

Baby is here, so got to run. 🙂 <3

25,000 word count yesterday!

Have a fun day!!!

Goldfinch and Cropping Photos

Feb15

I was outside when a bright little male goldfinch was on the feeder. I was fortunate that I could take the dogs in–normally they scare the birds off because they think the birdseed is theirs–and return with the camera, and get a little closer. I usually shoot out the window.

I never know where I should crop though on photos. No cropping gives you more of the picture. How small he is. That he’s sitting on top of the “mountain” of seeds. But getting closer gives you more of a bird’s eye view of him. 🙂 <3

I’m off to grocery shop. Baby will be here tomorrow, and Tuesday she tossed all her food on the floor, for the most part. She loves mozzarella cheese sticks and little sizzler pork sausages. Usually, she loves boiled potatoes, carrots, etc, but she was in a mood, I guess. I’m going to try some different things–apple sauce, peaches, pears, etc.

Then it’s back to writing. Have a super, lovely day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Feb14

I love tabby cats! This is not mine, but he is the friendliest little guy. My dogs were having a fit about him. He was cool and collected, knowing they couldn’t reach him up on the fence. Once I put them in the house and went out with my camera, he stood still for only a moment. He wanted to come down and greet me, talking all the time.

The composite is a combination of a background I bought, the cat on top of the rocks and the crown, also purchased.

The cat down below is this cat when he was trying to figure out how to jump down from the neighbor’s roof. I used oil paint in photoshop to give him more of a painted look. I’d like to be able to do the same like the cat on top, but I’m not sure I could ever get there. The rocks and lily pads, reeds were all of a picture I took at the Dallas arboretum. The two lilies I photographed at a castle garden in Scotland. Now how cool is that? Bringing the world together in one picture.

Yesterday, when baby was here, every kind of bird was at the feeder from the chickadee, blackbirds, blue jays, cardinals, red-bellied-woodpecker, to goldfinches, sparrows, and doves. I wanted to take pictures of all of them, but I can’t with taking care of baby. So I talked to her about all the different birds while we watched them instead. She’s fascinated by them, and by the squirrels.

Okay, so I’m off to get to writing. Reached 21,000, 59,000 to go!

Hope your Valentine’s is special!!!

Have a great day!

Happy Valentine’s Day Eve!

Feb13

Happy Val;entines balloons purple3

Baby’s here, so that means I’m super busy. Trying to work on taxes. I’d rather be writing!! That’s why I missed posting a blog yesterday, trying to get word count and work on the taxes. I did manage to get 21,000, so 59,000 to go! 🙂 <3

Have a great day!

Unicorns, Babies, Fairy Worlds and the Real World

Feb11

Sometimes my mind drifts to fairy worlds. I’ve got to get back to the real world of jaguar and wolf shifters.

In the one photo where baby is sitting by the unicorn, I changed the overall colors, added the foreground flowers and butterflies, painted the light rays and colors on the unicorn’s mane and tail and horn. On the second one, I loved the way the unicorn background was, so I added baby and a rainbow. My main effort is attempting to make baby appear to be part of the picture. She was actually sitting on the rocking horse when I took this picture. Momma was holding onto her, of course!

Oh and I reached 15,000 words, 65,000 to go! Woohoo!

Cold again! Have a great day!!!

The Trouble with Portraits…

Feb10

This is baby nearly a year ago and one I shot yesterday. I don’t normally take people pictures. She was two days old. I love wildlife and landscapes, but when baby was coming, I took a lot of maternity photos and then baby photos. My problem? I didn’t know how to do manual, and I had a lot of grain with high ISO, AND I had terrible lighting. So I’ve gotten better, but now that baby is moving so much more, it’s harder!!!! Again. I can’t use a tripod because she moves too much. and if I raise the ISO, more problem with grain again. The first one was shot at my daughter’s home with what lighting I had. Even with all the windows open, she has no overhead light and just one small lamp. So I must have upped the ISO to compensate.

Some might say my daughter should have her pictures professionally done. But she wouldn’t anyway, and these are MUCH better than the ones I took of the kids with my really poor camera years and years and years ago. 🙂

In the new picture I shot yesterday, I took a ton while baby was sitting in a box, well, trying to climb out of said box, and so I only got a few shots where her features were in focus. It was warm out, overcast, and I opened the back door to let the dogs out, and the light helped to give a lovely natural color to her photo. I had all the window blinds open, but it wasn’t enough. I had considered taking her outside in the box, so I might try that later. I need a taller box so she doesn’t climb out. I need a captive, immovable audience. This box has a hinged lid and I normally use it to store fur, so I used the lid to drape the fur fabric behind her. The bears in the purple baby picture are the ones made out of the fur she was sitting in yesterday.

I edited jaguar a little bit last night, but between playing with baby all day and eating out at a restaurant last night, I wasn’t able to do much more.

And I received a great review from Booklist!

Booklist Online Exclusive: February 7, 2018

Flight of the White Wolf.

Spear, Terry (Author)

Mar 2018. 352 p. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paperback, $7.99. (9781492655787).

Spear (Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas, 2017) revives her Heart of the White Wolf series with this suspenseful tale. Die-hard werewolf fans will enjoy the tangled wolf politics.

Tangling with a White Wolf―Best Christmas Ever, or Real Trouble?

Romance writer Candice Mayfair never missed a deadline in her life―until an accidental bite from a werewolf puppy turns her into an Arctic wolf shifter. She’s forced to isolate herself in the wilderness to cope with her unpredictable shifting while she works on her deadlines. After all, for Candice, Christmas is just another day.

Enter private investigator Owen Nottingham, a wolf shifter hired to find Candice so she can collect her inheritance. They have a real problem: she must arrive home in human form, and that’s not happening during the full moon. Besides, Owen has a new mission: to convince the pretty she-wolf her best move is to join his pack in time for Christmas…and to prove he’s the only wolf for her.

White Wolf series:

Legend of the White Wolf

Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas (Book 1)
Flight of the White Wolf (Book 2)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-White-Christmas-Terry-Spear/dp/1492645176

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dreaming-of-a-white-wolf-christmas-terry-spear/1125526072?ean=9781492645184

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dreaming-of-a-white-wolf-christmas/id1202348414?mt=11

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Terry_Spear_Dreaming_of_a_White_Wolf_Christmas?id=KHwFDgAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dreaming-of-a-white-wolf-christmas

Indio: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/dreaming-of-a-white-wolf/9781492645177

Today, it’s pouring out. We’re supposed to have severe thunderstorms. Love storms. Maybe I should add one to the story.

I’m hoping to get my word count of 2,000 and more. It just depends on how stuck I get on the story. So far, I have 69,000 words to go! See, just keep after it and before you know it, it’s done!

Have a super, duper day!!! I’m raring to write!

Jaguars Thinking of Each Other

Feb9

I have to get into the mindset for my writing and sometimes playing with photos that help me to capture the feeling help. The first one is a combination of renderosity black jaguar and a fantasy background, and butterfly overlays from etsy. The second is a jaguar photo I took at the Omaha zoo and the background is from renderosity also.

jaguar head resting on branch Valentine's Day 900 565

11,000 done, 69K to go!

Okay, baby should be here any minute. Tanner’s driving me nuts in anticipation of her arrival. I hope to walk her to the park today, if she’s not fussing like when I took her for a walk on Tuesday. It’s supposed to be a high of 70 today, high of 49 on Sunday–see why everyone is getting sick? No time to adjust to the constant swings in weather.

Have a super great big cat day!!!

Ready for Valentine’s?

Feb8

I was playing around with curves and such to change a picture I had taken of a peach rose into a lighter more pastel color. This rose has many colors naturally, pinks and peaches and yellows. 🙂

I write about love and HEA, so I’m always ready for the hearts and flowers! But more than that. The love that abounds every day. Because one day isn’t enough to say I love you.

Okay, off to write!!!

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Terry Spear's Shifters

"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."