The Crossroads has a lot of interesting places, though this shoot didn’t include the ones I’m more familiar with. Still, it was fun and Kevin was onto and over stuff for shots.

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Metainfo

Quite by accident, or through random tweeting, I came across various blog posts listing YA authors on Twitter. It’s a great idea, and seeing as there was no YA Twitter directory, I decided to make one. Introducing ReadWriteTweet, a Twitter catalog of agents and all things YA.

Updated 7/25/09: Current listing totals are: Agents (80), Info (9), YA Authors (241), YA Characters (13), YA News (10), YA Reviewers (28).

RWT also has its own Twitter account, and an online form where you can add to the directory.
Happy tweeting!

Metainfo

In sculpture, a theory persists that the statue is already inside the stone – the sculptor just needs to chip away the unnecessary bits. I have a similar theory (but more involved and weirder, since I do most of my work on a computer). I believe design creation is a fluid puzzle with talking pieces. Sometimes they sing about how they fit together, they whisper in the details, and before I any conscious thought into it, the finished work is floating happy on the screen.

In photography, the pieces are the hinted emotions – the lines and colors, the overall feel that I want to emphasize or downplay.
In web design, they’re the style and theme, dictating how the text shows up and which points are emphasized. When the pieces are chatty, the design process simply flows – smooth, uncomplicated, fast, fun.
In writing, the pieces are my characters. They have definitive ideas on everything. If you know your people, your scenes will write themselves. In any given situation, there’s only so many things a character will do if he remains true to himself.

This is all well and good, until the pieces go off to have a smoke and flat out refuse to show up. They can be fickle that way.

Metainfo

Welcome to the fifth version of And Anything! Had some time yesterday and decided to put it to good use. To celebrate, here’s the sweetheart shoot of Christian and Vicky:

I look forward to doing Vicky’s site and the cover art for their next cd. (She’s a pianist, he plays the violin.) For the poster, I wanted to focus on the upcoming cd release.

(Read more…)

Metainfo

I had five downloads left over for April, out of fifty. However on the plus side, I discovered a new love – Metric. Their sound is perfect, or maybe perfect for my mood. But then, I’m partial to rock bands with female vocals.

EDIT: Apparently Metric is huge in Canada, seriously big. I found them through emusic, thinking they were a good but unknown indie band and they turn out to be the top dogs of rock. So, does that mean I have excellent taste? Or am just utterly clueless? I’ll go with the former.

Metric – Grow Up And Blow Away, and Fantasies. I love Fantasies, especially “Gimme Sympathy,” “Blindness,” and…well, the entire album. It’s the new staple on my playlists.

Stars – Set Yourself On Fire. Very interesting band. I’ve very attracted to some of their songs, and as truly cannot stand others. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and the good is very good.

Solo – “Songs ‘N Sounds.” A good song, but didn’t find much else on the album I wanted to keep.

Julianna Barwick – Florine. No lyrics, few instruments. She layers her voice, deeper and higher, in an ethereal mix of voice and light. Very different.

DJ Keri – “Ocean Blue.” A great, soothing electronic piece.

Years – “Kids Toy Love Affair.” Another different, instrumental number. Sounds like the soundtrack to an off-beat/fantasy indie film.

Cut Copy – “Midnight Runner,” “Out There on the Ice,” and “Feel the Love.” Emusic totes Cut Copy as “Killer dance punk from Down Under.” I don’t entirely agree. The songs I chose are more poppy, airy, with a semi-electronic, sometimes almost old school feel. I really enjoy these songs, though didn’t find enough in the album to burn my last five downloads on.

Metainfo