What Can I Do to Get My Artwork Seen?

Okay, so you're a starving artist. We don't make much money, but what really makes us happy in life is our expression of creativity on the canvas, camera, or computer (or all of the above). As a graphic designer with an avid artist for a boyfriend, I learned several creative ways to get your work seen - and get some extra cash in the meantime!

It's not the easiest thing in the world to sell a large canvas of art - possible, but not the easiest. And sales are here and there - nowhere near as consistent as you hope. But there is hope!

Have you ever thought My photo/art is WAY better than that puzzle? No? Maybe you should. Because there are a lot of people in this world who enjoy putting together puzzles. I've met people who have MASSIVE puzzle collections, one of my friends even gets a new puzzle to work every week. Why not turn your work into an on-demand puzzle? You can totally do that with Zazzle. Or even Shutterfly.

How about some calendars with some epic artwork? What better way to get your artwork seen than to show a different-yet-awesome design every single month of the year? I don't know about you, but I totally dig calendars. And they're easy to make! You can use Zazzle, Overnight Prints, and Shutterfly.

These are just two examples. Explore the three websites mentioned to see the many possibilities. T-shirts, shoes, posters, flyers - use your imagination! If you're looking for somewhere to continuously display your work, I recommend Zazzle. It's slightly pricy, but if a customer likes it enough, they will buy it. Trust me. If you're looking to make some products and sell them in person, I recommend Overnight  Prints - they are very reasonable, fast, and high quality in what they do. I have never been disappointed in their products and I swear by them.

Good luck in your artful endeavors!

Bioshock 2

I just added a new game to my collection and delved into the crazy world of Bioshock 2. It's a great game so far, I just barely began to play the game and made it through the intro. I have never played any of the Bioshock games before this one, and I plan on finishing it later this month, so I'm hoping to finish the game by the end of this month, at which point, I'll write a follow-up post. For now, I was so excited I couldn't wait to write this.
My favorite part of Bioshock 2 is that you get a gun or weapon on the right hand and an ability on the left-hand. It makes for a very free-flowing combative game play. There's no waiting or delay in reloading the next weapon - which has annoyed me to no end with previous games. The graphics are as good as any PlayStation game, and the sound is amazing with my gaming headset, some parts are down-right creepy. What really draws me in, is the amazing storyline surrounding this game, it's very much like Final Fantasy in that aspect, but the way the players are wired, it reminds me more of a fantasy version of Call of Duty.
The only thing that has really bothered me so far is how fast the fuel runs out for the drill - so a word of caution to use sparingly. The gun choices are awesome, and the different tools and powers you have are imaginative. As far as enemies go, the splicers (strange people who run at you and try to murder you). I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy shooting them in the head and then yell out, "head shot"! The "little sisters" are supposed to be creepy and evil, but I think they're pretty neat and a big part of what makes the story-line so good. So far it gets 4 solid stars from me.

http://www.amazon.com/Bioshock-2-Playstation-3/dp/B001NIP3EG

Prepare for... Super Bowl 2015!

I'm not a football fan. Heck, I'm not even a sports fan. I love to play sports, but I can never seem to sit down and watch other people have all the fun. But when there is a reason to celebrate, you can absolutely find me there. I love get-togethers, parties, food, music - and Super Bowl is a reason to celebrate.

I really do get into Super Bowl. But it's not for the football, it's for the food, it's for the environment. The game is the "music" for this party, and I kind of like it. I like betting on which team will win, and I like it when the active observers suddenly yell out for no reason. Do I actually know the concept of football? No. I have no idea what's going on, though it's pretty cool when the guys stretch pre-game. It's cool. It's fun.

So now that I have my guilty pleasure announced and out of the way, I want to share with you the different ways you can prepare for and celebrate this event from the comfort of your own home with some simple Dos and Don'ts. Whether your boyfriend is the reason you're *forced* to watch the game or whatever your motivation, if Super Bowl will be happening in your house, you'll need this list.

DO Purchase and prepare food!
- Try preparing this super awesome, easy, and not-so-healthy, but still very tasty party platter from Sunshine and Sippy Cups.
- Made a New Years Resolution to be healthy? Let's not break it. Check out these Super Bowl approved, healthy finger food alternatives on Heath.com. CNN also has a good set of healthy alternatives too.
- If you're looking to make something unique and eye-catching, Huffington Post has a great list of amazingly unique - and healthy recipes.
- For your desert needs (and possibly post-game celebrations), Food Network has a great list of decadent and easy desserts.
- How about fancy drink ideas? GetCreativeJuice has an epic idea for your drink cups!

DO set up a party game based on teams!
- Printyourbracket.com has plenty of printables to keep you and your guests entertained all night! This list even includes a drinking game for those of us over the legal age.
- Devine Dinner Party has some amazing, cheap, and easy games as well.

DO NOT host your party in a cramped up location! Keep it out of the garage, unless you have an amazing garage like this one on Houzz.

DO NOT buy or rent a big screen TV just specifically for this event. A TV can be a big purchase - especially one large enough and good enough quality to watch your game on. A big purchase like this is not a good way to start out the new year and deserves careful planning and budgeting.

If you're hosting a party with/for a die-hard football fan - or anyone who takes football seriously DO NOT say the commercials are better than the game. Be a good host and don't talk down about the game. The game is what brings the food. Not the commercials. If we were celebrating the commercials, we would have a constant party. So behave.

Oh and by the way, Super Bowl is on February 1st this year, so if you didn't already know that. Now you do.

Do you have any super bowl ideas? Post them below, feel free to link-back to your blog or website, I'd love to hear them!

How to Write an Eyecatching Query Letter

Query letters are important if you're going to even think about sending your work anywhere, be it novel or other. Writing a query letter is actually quite easy, you may be surprised.

I've been around the web and have seen many different ways and different guides to writing a query letter. So anyways, here's the basic layout along with all of the information you'll need to include: 

Name (not pen name)
Address

Email Address
Phone number

Title of work (in parenthesis state genre/s)

In the first paragraph give a brief summary of what the book is about. Be clever, because this is the first sample and idea of your book that agent or publisher will be reading. If it doesn't grab his or her attention, they likely won't keep reading. This is quite possibly the hardest part of the query letter that you are writing.

In this next paragraph you are going to include the following information: Target audience (Young Adult, Middle Grade, Adult, etc.), note if the book will be made into a series, and if so list a brief synopsis (2 - 3 sentences at most) of entire series, list the length of the book (how many words is it?).

Note if you'll be needing an illustrator or not.

In the next paragraph include a bit about your background in writing, list anything that qualifies you to be writing, any experience, etc. You may not have much to put here, so just do the best with what you have. I had no writing experience other than writing novels for personal reason and I still was able to get my first novel accepted by my publisher, so don't freak out if you don't have any experience.

Next, note what your marketing and promotion plan is. If you don't have a marketing plan yet, then you shouldn't be writing a query letter so soon in the game anyways. We'll be going more into marketing plans later.

Now this is your brief closing sentence, I usually put something here like "thank you for your time and consideration" be creative, and be "professionally sweet".

Then you'll put: Sincerely,

Your Name

TA-DA! You've just written an awesome query letter! It all should be able to fit on your basic 8 x 10 piece of paper, keep that in mind.

Alright, so after you write your query letter, make sure you edit and re-edit it, that is very important. If it has errors in it, it may just be rejected just like that, because errors are a sign of laziness. It's just one page, so make sure you edit it very well. Also, be sure to read the submission guidelines, you may have to add or remove sections depending on the publisher/agent, but usually this query letter works for everything.

After you've finished it's always comforting to get a second opinion, so feel free to send it to me, and I'll be happy to critique it and let you know what I think about it.

Welcoming a New Writer to the Blog!

I have a special announcement today! If you've been reading my blog posts thus far, you know there isn't a particular rhyme or reason to many of my posts. They're just what I'm thinking about during that moment, maybe something I've been reading about and wanting to share my opinion on, maybe a skill I'd like to share.

But now, as I bring on guest authors, we're going to start seeing some clarity and more on-topic posts. The first author I'd like to officially welcome is Gamer Boy20. He's a young gamer who will be posting about trends on YouTube and general gaming stuff. He's getting ready to start his YouTube video-gaming career and wanting to blog in the mean time. So I'm sure we'll be seeing updates on his progress with that as well.
He'll be posting here exclusively on Insurgent's Notebook. I'm also looking to add a food and crafts section on Tuesdays, so look forward to that in the future.

Could I Quit My Day Job?

You've heard the common term before "Don't quit your day job." but could you actually quit your day job? The easy answer is no. As long as you owe rent and have a car payment and basic needs like food and - you know - toilet paper, it's pretty much near impossible to say, I quit my day job.

This has been a topic going through my mind quit frequently lately as I took on a line of work that I found to be less than exciting - working in a call center! Let's put this simply, answering phone calls all day long for 8 hours a day - or more - is killing my soul. With each phone call, I am feeling my heart being ripped out and watching the callers eat it alive - glad they are enjoying it! My heart, however, is not in the work. Don't get me wrong, the people I work with are amazing. Everyone is other-worldly polite, there is literally no drama. It's insanely stress-free. I'm just bored. I say my name over 200 times a day and it's just not for me. There's no challenge. So of course my mind drifts off into the wants and desires of a different job description or better yet - the beauty of being able to do whatever you desire!

The thing that makes this such a complicated question is the fact that there are so many activities you can do in this world that will create a profit. If you enjoy painting, yes, you can do what you love and make a profit. Sell a wonderful artful creation and you'll be well on your way to making a profit. If you're a writer, yes, you could publish that book and make a profit.

There are other questions that need to be asked to define this question. Why do I want to quit my day job? If your answer is what the majority of ours is - because I don't like the work. Then we can go on to the next question. Is there a "job" out there for me that I will actually enjoy? Because even though we talk about quitting our "day jobs" activities that we pursue can actually be looked at as jobs as well.

Humans are actually a strange bunch of creatures. We need to do something with our lives in order to feel a sense of achievement. We do this through creating, discovering, and even collecting. My boyfriend, for instance, I'm sure would be perfectly content to quit his day job and simply add to his DVD collection for the rest of forever and die perfectly happy and content with just that. However, we live in a world where we cannot function without the need for money. So in order for my man to build his collection, he will need his day job to make money. Or some creative way to put his collection to work - like renting out his movies or something (that's a really half-baked idea from me, don't judge me).

I can really foresee this question going around and around because when it comes down to it, there are two different answers based on how it's being asked. Could I quit my day job and use my hobby to make money? Absolutely! Could I quit my day job and live wild and free for the rest of forever? No. No you cannot.

If you could quit your day job right now and pursue any career path or monetary hobby at all, what you would do? If education, money, contacts weren't an issue, what would you do for the rest of forever?

Thanks to http://christbrogan.com for the awesome blog questions!

I Wish Someone Told Me...

When I was growing up, I was a very innocent child. I was the kind of gal who automatically trusted everyone. It wasn't a bad thing since I always had someone there to watch over me and more or less make sure I don't get hurt. Whether it was my mother, my father, or my sister. Now that I'm older and I've been working with the general public, I have a much better understanding of how cruel the world can be. I have a good idea of how people can react negatively out of nowhere and spoil someone's day.

When you're in the workforce, I learned that there isn't too much you can do about it, and it's really best to more or less "kill them with kindness". It makes you look like the bigger person and makes your boss love you that much more. I survived the craziest work places between 2012-2014 and had very many learning experiences. Oddly, one of the main ones I learned was how to speak up for myself when I'm getting trampled on.

My biggest lesson that I learned in 2014 was about when to let go of negative people in my personal life. I wish someone had told me earlier that it's okay to take negative people out of your life. It's okay to shut the book on that page. To draw the line and value yourself more than this other person. To more or less accept that your path belongs separately from this person.

A discarded many people just before the holidays and even some during the holidays last year, and it was very healthy for me. It wasn't a cruel and random discard, every discard was done for a very good reason. I usually give people many chances. That's the kind of person I am because of my innocent and accepting upbringing. But with that acceptance, brought a lot of stress into my life. Some people I realized I just wouldn't miss.

The best part is, I don't regret crossing out a single person, because if any of those people were meant to be in my life, they will return via fate one way or another. This is something I had to figure out on my own. I was always under the impression that people have an open invitation to walk in and out of your life. I waited for them to be the ones to walk out of my life, I was never the one to say enough was enough. I wish someone told me it was okay to take control and decide who was worthy of me.

I know it may sound a little stuck-up saying things like this, but it's a truth that needs to be said. It's a power that we all have over our lives, and if used with careful though, it's not a bad power. It's a necessary one. It's very empowering.