Ten Things Learned in August (Plus What I Did on my “Vacation”)

Because we don’t have drawing lessons in July or August, sometimes my students say, “Have a nice vacation!” (One sings to me, “See you, in September. . .”)

“Vacation”? Fall down laughing. This is what I did workwise in July and August:

  • Framed (or repaired) all the pencil drawings in Around Here (my solo art show in Tulare)
  • Framed almost all the plein air paintings done on panels
  • Finished a colored pencil drawing of a stellar jay, because I wanted to try out a new brand of colored pencils.
  • Went through an old box of photos from an artist friend who assumed room temperature about 10 years ago. They were at the gallery in case my students needed reference material, but no one has looked at them for many years. So, they got redistributed, mostly into the round file.
  • Finished all the pieces for the 2026 calendar and got it ordered in time to receive a large enough discount that the price doesn’t need to increase over the 2025 calendar.
  • Got ready for the solo show, including delivering, hanging (I helped the director and her granddaughter), attending the reception, returning to visit the show with a couple of special friends, and finally, returning to retrieve the unsold pieces.
  1. I continued learning to be comfortable driving an automatic. Sort of. I am comfortable with a 6 cylinder engine, the car has a cool built-in spot for sunglasses, a button that opens my gate (but won’t open the garage), and the CD player holds SIX CDs!

2. The library’s card catalog stopped working online after the last “maintenance” session. I spent awhile on the phone with a librarian, who told me how to email the IT department directly. Then he talked me through downloading the library’s app on my phone. Ugh. I don’t want more apps. It is much more convenient to order books on the laptop, but this is better than not being able to order books at all.

3. I visited the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for the first time in my life.

4. I saw my first skate, which I’d never heard of before.

5. I tried to solve Super Sudoku—guess I’m not as analytical as I thought. These things are impossible.

6. The SS Palo Alto was completely new to me—a ship used solely for entertainment, attached to the pier at Rio Del Mar California State Beach—fascinating!

7. I don’t really enjoy playing games, but it was fun with Mrs. Texas and her family. We played two games I’d never heard of before: Code Names, and Shut the Box. (Nope, I don’t want to own either one; don’t put those on a list for me, okay?)

8. How did I not know that Reba McEntire’s entire band died in a plane crash in 1991? I thoroughly enjoy country music, but until Trail Guy and I discovered a new station called The Legend (105.5 in Fresno), I hadn’t listened for a couple of decades, so this tragedy was new information to me.

9. A pattern is emerging that has taken me awhile to become aware of: I love to read books based on island or ocean locales. Most recently finished Alexander McCall Smith’s The Winds from Further West, Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, currently reading The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr. Anything based in Ireland—I’m on it!

“Salt and Light” or “Reading Rabbit”, 11×14” oil painting by Jana Botkin

10. In a random conversation with someone, I learned that non-compete contracts are not legal in California because they interfere with people’s ability to earn a living. So you can work for two competing print shops at the same time, or medical clinics, or restaurants, for example. But I still think that you can’t sell a business and then open one just like it across the street! This is what I found online:

California has banned non-compete agreements in employment contracts, making them generally unenforceable. This law, effective from January 1, 2024, requires employers to notify employees that any existing non-compete clauses are void.

A Day with Oil Paint

There really are only so many potential titles to a repetitive blog topic. This could be “A Day at the Easels”, but I chose to paint flat on the table, or holding the canvas in my hand. It could be “A Day with an Audio Book”, but then I’d have to make a book report.

Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Paintings are selling steadily at the Silver City Store; the main subjects are the Crowley cabin with Farewell Gap in the background, the Honeymoon Cabin, and Sawtooth. I wanted to paint something DIFFERENT, and after my recent hike to White Chief, it was an easy choice.

This isn’t White Chief but it is the trail to White Chief. I took a nice photo of Trail Guy with three cabin neighbors as he led them to White Chief (they haven’t spent much time at their family cabin—as a result, they needed a guide*). Because I don’t know them very well, it seemed prudent to keep their faces off of the World Wide Web. However, I thought the trail was quite nice in and of itself.

Break time! Oh look, there’s my favorite cat, Tucker, “hiding” in the tall grass.

This may look finished to most folks, but it wants another layer and more detail to satisfy your Central California Artist. (It is 8×10” in case you are wondering how I got so far in half a day of painting.)

Now, it’s time to paint White Chief. This is not how it looked in early July, although it could be how it looked in early July of a wet year. Can’t remember. . . I’ve slept since then. Besides, Trail Guy took my reference photo for this 8×10” painting, so I wasn’t there.

Yeppers, right on schedule, Jackson showed up and meowed at me. When I didn’t respond, he was fixin’ to bite me, so I hauled his 20+ lb. self onto my lap for a bit. He pretended to enjoy it, but put his claws in me** so I would just feed him already.

Like the trail painting, this requires another layer and more detail.

It was an altogether satisfying day of painting, one that flew by with that audio book. (Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate, in case you are curious.)

*They could have simply followed the trail but they would have missed out on a wealth of information.

**Not mean-like, just that thing cats do when they purr. He isn’t mean when he bites, only insistent and bossy. Downright domineering, actually.

Only the Living

Only the Living? What is that?

So glad you asked!

Only the Living is the title of my most recent book publishing effort*. This is a novel by my dear friend, Louise Jackson, author of many books, our third project together. We began working on this one last summer, and now it is ready for purchase.

Based on a true story that takes place in the Western United States during the tumultuous nineteen thirties, Only the Living is centered on Teresa Wei Ramirez, a young girl of Mexican-Chinese heritage. Thrust from a stable family life as a child in Arizona into a life of migratory field work, Teresa’s life evolves into one of fear, longing, and dreams of escape as her labor crew migrates through agricultural fields up and down the Pacific Coast states.

Teresa’s dreams of escaping become reality after she survives being beaten and abandoned in the fields of California’s Central Valley farmlands and is taken to a welcoming home and family in the Tulare County town of Farmington.  There she finds acceptance, love and hope for her future, yet holds a continuing fear of the life she’s left behind. 

Her interactions with those who have created her fears, love, marriage, parenthood, reunification with family, labor union struggles, and lifestyle choices, all contribute to Teresa’s struggle for belonging in diverse
multicultural communities of complex, multifaceted individuals.

The story takes place in a decade of change and uncertainty between two world wars, a time of massive immigrations, migrations, depression, social upheavals, prejudice and fear. A time also, of opportunity, new freedoms, changing technologies and values. A time not unlike today.

WHERE CAN YOU BUY ONLY THE LIVING?

So glad you asked! Right here, at Lulu Publishing.

Why yes, that is my painting on the cover! Thank you for noticing. Louise insisted, and I am completelyhelpless in the face of her requests.

*I help local authors by editing, proofreading, formatting, designing covers, and submitting manuscripts to assisted-self-publishing companies. This is my first novel. Nope, I don’t do marketing, other than putting the purchasing info on my blog.

Tales of TB: White Plague of the North

In 2017, I met Bill, who came to me for some illustrations for a book he was writing on the old tuberculosis hospital in Springville, which is in the southern part of Tulare County (above Porterville).

This is a topic that really interests me. I’ve been curious about that place since I first saw it on the way to Scicon* for a day trip as a 5th grader.

You may recall that helping local authors get books published is a sideline of mine**—I edit, proofread, photo-edit, format, do a little cover design (but not much because all my covers look alike), and get books to a printer. (Most are out of print because they are very short runs for limited audiences).

This was the preliminary cover design which we submitted to the printer and asked them to improve on it.

Bill hired me to draw three pictures and then to be his editor, or more accurately, his book shepherd. He loves research more than any other book task, and the scope of the book continued to expand until we realized that he was no longer writing about Springville. The subject became tuberculosis, as it was documented by writers, poets, and other well-known literary (and literate) folks through the years when it was a disease that was feared, and not understood.

TALES OF TB: WHITE PLAGUE OF THE NORTH

Seven years of research, learning, writing, rewriting, finding photos, fighting computers, working together and becoming friends have finally culminated in the book, which Bill received a few bound copies of last week.

Bill chose to have the printer, BookBaby, handle the distribution, which they will eventually do through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Until it gets up on those giant sites, you may order directly through BookBaby by clicking on this link: Tales of TB: White Plague of the North. (You might be able to order from BookBaby after it is up on those giant sites. This is a new experience for me, because most my previous authors have sold their books themselves.)

    This is the improved cover put together by BookBaby’s cover designers. (Don’t tell me if you like my version better because it is TOO LATE.)

    Here is the official description:

    Though all but forgotten in affluent regions, tuberculosis is an ancient pandemic that presently kills 1.5 million people yearly. It was rampant in the England of 1800 and accepted that 1% of the population succumbed each year to the wasting disease—consumption—a grim reaper that would one day be known as tuberculosis, or more dramatically, “The White Plague.” Seven well-known people of a not-so-distant past left detailed accounts of their tuberculous lives—in their various letters, essays, poems, and biographies. Their surnames are Barrett-Moulton, Keats, Bronte, Poe, Browning, Trudeau, and Stevenson. Although it was most often a disease of poverty, no one was safe from the White Plague. The stories of these talented writers, poets, and their doctors are explored here and portray the variations of the disease and the personalities of its victims. Beginning with the subject in the well-loved painting “Pinkie” by Thomas Lawrence in 1794 through Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island fame, the book moves into the sanatorium era of the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century. In 1950, medical science came up with several semi-miraculous medications that amazingly cured the worst types of tuberculosis. However, the White Plague has soldiered on, and there have been unexpected happenings that play a role in maintaining mortality: (1) the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (2) drug resistant tuberculosis (3) the Covid-19 pandemic, which has severely damaged tuberculosis control and reduced access to medication in the less privileged regions of the world. Will tuberculosis always be with us as a “forever” pandemic?

    Currently I am working on two new books for 2 other authors, and still eagerly waiting for the book on the Springville TB Hospital to get written. (Yes, I am still painting, drawing, and teaching drawing lessons!)

    *Clemmie Gill School of Science and Conservation, where 5th graders go for a day, 6th graders go for a week, and high school juniors and seniors can go as a counselor. Maybe. That’s the way it was in the 1970s.

    **I am able to do this because I learned how while working on the Cabins of Wilsonia.

    Seven New Things Learned in July

    1. When my friend who loves to bake uses crushed graham crackers in a recipe, instead of smashing them with a rolling pin, she double-bags the crackers and then runs over them with her car!

    2. What in the world? I’ve never heard of this brand of vehicle. (The name sounds like a made up woman’s moniker.) I got closer to look, and the Farmer said, “Better not touch that—it is about $100,000”. FOR A CAR?? WHAT’S IT MADE OUT OF?? And why in the world would someone bring something that fancy up the exceedingly rough Mineral King Road??

    3. Somewhere I heard about the novelist Michelle Huneven and her book called Off Course. I checked it out of the library because the description said it was based in the Sierra. Sure enough it was, and I loved figuring out where the places were (because most of the names were changed except for a few mentions of Visalia, Fresno, or Bakersfield, and one mention of Mineral King.) It was a disheartening story of adultery, and the main theme is that it never turns out well. In spite of being a subject that I usually don’t choose to read about, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, probably because of the familiarity of the location. She does write very well, with completely believable characters. (HOWEVER, she made a mistake when she confused Jeffrey and Ponderosa pine cones.)

    4. Did you know that if you use scotch tape on tomatoes, they will last longer out of the fridge? Cover the place where the stem was, and supposedly the tomatoes won’t go bad as quickly. I’ve read that wrapping the stem ends of bananas in saran wrap slows deterioration, so maybe plastic wrap, bags, and tape are magical for produce.

    5. Did you know that when someone gets commissioned as an officer in the United States Marines, they can choose the location for the ceremony? I had the privilege of attending such a ceremony for a friend in Exeter, right in front of the B17 mural on the side of the ambulance building, in the parking lot of Monarch Ford. CONGRATULATIONS, AMM!! (and thank you for the invitation)

    6. 50% of people who have peripheral neuropathy never learn the cause; the state of “pre-diabetes” can cause it; if you aren’t low in B vitamins, there is no point in taking them to “cure” it; electronic pads, compression socks, red light therapy, herbal cures, acupuncture—don’t waste your money; nerve damage does not heal. (I traveled a long distance to learn all this.)

    7. Your Car Says a Lot About Who You Are made me laugh on YouTube. It’s on a channel called Dry Bar Comedy, and it was clean! (Heard about it from Dave Ramsey)

    Writing, Editing, Publishing, Chapter Four

    If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

    . . .Selling

    Selling is the most difficult part of writing a book. There are entire blogs and websites devoted to this topic, and it is as individual as the stories and the authors. I have no answers, no tricks, no proven method. A friend told me (in reference to The Cabins of Wilsonia) “The worn spot in the sink was made drip by drip by drip”.

    Here is a list of You Cans:

    1. Ask some place to host a book signing, such as a local book shop or gift shop or museum or gallery.
    2. Host your own book signing at your house or a friend’s house or your church or your service club.
    3. Use the Book of Faces or other (anti)social media.
    4. Send a press release to your local paper (if there is one).
    5. Keep books with you at all times.
    6. Write a newsletter about the book and send it to everyone you know.
    7. Send emails to everyone you know.
    8. Give a book every time someone asks for a donation to a fundraiser.
    9. Look for local businesses to sell the book.
    10. Pay your publisher to list the book on their site.
    11. Pay the publisher to list the book on that big online store.
    12. Start a blog and do all the publicity ideas above to get the word out.

    There are many other ways to sell, but this is enough for now.

    Indeed. I believe our Reading Rabbit has expired from exhaustion.

    Writing, Editing, Publishing, Chapter Three

    If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

    As promised yesterday, today we continue The List of tasks in writing a book. (This ought to be numbers 15-29, but I can’t get the blog to obey me.)

    Today’s list begins with finding someone to write the foreword. IT IS NOT A “FORWARD”. Got that? One of the quickest ways to tell if a book is self-published by someone without experience (or money to hire experience) is if their word at the front of the book (FOREWORD) is self-written and is titled “Forward”. This is what my old friend Jennifer referred to as “loving hands at home”, and it was not a compliment.

    Shall we proceed?

    1. Find someone to write the foreword (optional).
    2. Write a conclusion or an afterword (optional).
    3. Decide who to dedicate the book to (optional).
    4. Decide what type of publisher you need: full service, printing only, or a choose-your-own combination of services.
    5. Decide if you want hardcover, softcover, e-book, Print-On-Demand, or a combination.
    6. Hire a formatter (or use the publisher’s formatter).
    7. Proofread again.
    8. Find an indexer (if your book would be enhanced by an index).
    9. Proofread the index.
    10. Send the index to the formatter to add to the book.
    11. Get the cover designed.
    12. Buy an ISBN and a bar code (unless you choose that service from the publishing company).
    13. Decide how many books you want.
    14. Keep writing lots of checks.
    15. FINALLY, when you have the book in hand, start the hardest part which is. . .

    . . . to be continued tomorrow

    As Solomon wrote “. . .Of making many books there is no end. . .” Ecclesiastes 11:10

    Writing, Editing, Publishing, Chapter Two

     

    As promised yesterday, today we begin the list of tasks involved in writing a book. Brace yourself!

    The List

    1. Write the book.
    2. Hire an editor.
    3. Rewrite the book.
    4. Title the chapters.
    5. Proofread.
    6. Choose a title.
    7. Find the illustrations.
    8. Get permission to use the illustrations.
    9. Have the illustrations prepared for printing.
    10. Caption the illustrations.
    11. Write the back blurb.
    12. Get a a photo of yourself.
    13. Write your short biography.
    14. Write the acknowledgements (optional).

    Tomorrow, we shall continue The List. Reading Rabbit is raring to go.

     

     

    Writing, Editing, Publishing, Chapter One

    Today’s blog post contains an experiment. If you receive these posts in email, and read the email on your iPhone or iPad, and if the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. Then PLEASE let me know what happens, because this is a mystery I would like to solve.

    Books

    Writing, editing, and publishing are skills I have learned and practiced through the years. It began with The Cabins of Mineral King, under the guidance of my cabin neighbor, Jane Coughran. Many years passed before I took on The Cabins of Wilsonia. During those years of 1998-2011, everything about the publishing process changed.

    This time I did all the book design myself, which is called “formatting”. I had to buy a laptop, a scanner, Photoshop, and InDesign, and learn to use them all. I hired an editor, hired a publishing consultant, recruited several proofreaders, and found a printer. It took four years.

    That process taught me skills that I used for other books, some mine, some other people’s: Trail of Promises, The Visalia Electric Railroad, Mineral King Wildflowers, Adventures in Boy Scouting, Oil Town Teacher, six coloring books, and currently, White Plague: When TB was Called Consumption (the working title).

    Who Cares?

    You might care, especially if you or someone you know has written or plans to write a book. Let this serve as a short tutorial (or perhaps a warning).

    Writing the book is only one tiny little piece of the process.

    Tomorrow, I will begin The List.

     

     

    Ten Excellent Books I Recently Read

    I read a lot. It’s my favorite thing. Always has been. 

    The publishing company BookBaby recently posted an interesting (REALLY REALLY INTERESTING TO ME!) article about the different reading habits among 5 generations of Americans. (Turns out that although I am in the Boomers, my fiction preferences match the X-ers and nonfiction match the Silents.)

    Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″, Not for sale

    I keep track of most of what I’ve been reading on GoodReads, which I joined (it’s free) in 2013 (WHAT??? TEN YEARS AGO??) It is a great place to learn about books, to see what people you follow are reading and what they think about it. (It also has the unthinking quick rude opinions like much of social media, but you can skip that part.)

    You can see how other people rate the books and you can also rate them from one to five stars. Because I know how enormously difficult it is to write a book, much less get it published, I have stopped rating books unless I have very strong reasons to give one star or if I really loved it and give it four or five stars. (I am difficult to please, and the fives are few.) 

    Here is a list of books that I have rated four or five in the past several months, with links to their descriptions on GoodReads. I don’t think you have to be a member (with yet another dreaded user name and password) in order to see book descriptions.

    All of these were library books except for #6.

    1. We are Called to Rise, Laura McBride. This is a novel with complete and believable characters that grabbed me in the heart. It’s one with individual stories of different people who all get tied together at the end.
    2. Kinsey and Me: Stories, Sue Grafton. I loved all the Kinsey books, the alphabetic mystery series with the main character you just wanted to hang out with. Sue died before finishing the alphabet, so I was thrilled to find anything at all that reconnected me with my fictional BFF.
    3. When Your Mother Doesn’t, Jill Kelly. This is another novel that grabbed me in the heart, where you just root for all you are worth for a happy ending. (Read it yourself—I’m not telling!)
    4. Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings, Crysta Bilton. Memoir is my favorite genre of nonfiction, and this is a strange strange story.
    5. How to Think, Alan Jacobs. Well written, thought provoking (duh), little glimpses of humor.
    6. Aging Faithfully, Alice Fryling. This one is deep enough that I had to write notes all throughout and read it twice. I also emailed the author to learn what her number is on the Enneagram (she counsels in this personality typing system) and her age when she wrote it so I could better understand her perspective. She replied! 
    7. The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. This is a kid’s fiction book (Young Adult?) based during WWII in England. It also has a sequel.
    8. As Bright As Heaven, Susan Meissner. A novel about the flu epidemic of 1918, published in 2018 BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS! I love Susan Meissner’s novels, almost as much as Maeve Binchy. (Susan is alive and still writing.)
    9. Caroline: Little House Revisited, Sarah Miller. As a kid, I loved and reread Little House books. They were a guaranteed bookish escape when I couldn’t find anything new in the Ivanhoe Library in the kids section. This book shows another side to the Ingalls family adventures and characters, giving a more complete picture of their story. I gave this book 5 stars (but since the hourglass of my life is more empty than full, won’t be rereading it.)
    10. The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, Neil Pasricha. (This is the man who writes the blog 1000 Awesome Things.) He helps to simplify big thoughts, and the book is full of practical charts that he calls “scribbles” which help you figure out things like how to make fewer decisions. I bought it so that I can write inside.

    Do you have any book recommendations for me? Do you want to be “friends” on GoodReads? (Hi Donna. 😎)