Autumn's the BEST season

Autumn is the best season. Summer's too hot, winter's too cold, spring's too wet. I took the photo above while walking through a cemetery with my Xti/Sigma 30/1.4.

Congrats to my friend Ju Honisch on the publication of her first book of short stories! Bisse was launched October 1st and published by Hexentor Verlag (Jürgen G. Hahn, Albrechtstr. 65, 12103 Berlin). It can be ordered from the publisher (EUR 10.- plus postage) or from Amazon.de (should be listed in a few weeks).



The book is in German and there's no English translation available yet, sadly. According to Ju (who kindly provided me with an English press release), the stories sound deliciously creepy:

"BISSE" (in English: "Bites") contains the everyday creepiness of life, abstruse tendencies of your nice next door neighbour, the sudden abyss found in the souls of 'perfectly normal' people, and mythical beings who - set against the average urban dweller and his idiosyncracies - lose a great deal of their scariness. The horror stories derive their suspense from the warped psychology of their protagonists and not from splatter or loosely scattered body parts. If you like stories with a twist, you will like those."

My German is absymal, but I still plan to buy a copy because I figure I'll have even more incentive to improve!

Spent last night and most of today finishing up some comics for NaNoWriMo, which begins next month, and painting pottery. I'm especially excited about the latter! My friend Luisa has been doing pottery for a while; she still considers herself an amateur but I love her work. Here's a gorgeous shaped bowl she made for us:



Anyway, she recently asked me if I was interested in collaborating on some pottery. She'd make the pottery, I'd paint it (however I wanted), and she'd glaze and fire it. Yesterday I learned two new words: bisqueware and greenware. Bisqueware is pottery that has been fired once but not glazed (I think). It's more fragile resists most water. Greenware is an unfired clay form that can be destroyed by water.

I've only painted two pieces of pottery before, and those were from a "Paint Your Own Pottery" place where you choose from already-made pottery. I made a mug and a tile for Jeff, but the paint turned out more textured than I expected though Jeff said he loved them anyway:



The guy in the photo is Mr. Grumpypants, which is Jeff's nickname sometimes. His sister taught it to me. :-)

Luisa's given me a piece of greenware and one of bisqueware.

With Luisa's pottery, I was way more nervous...she MADE these pieces by HAND, after all! I was so worried about screwing up. What if I mis-paint something? I can't Un-do or Delete Layer like I can when digitally painting! I still need way more practice. Anyway, I'll post pics of any pieces that she and I are happy with (or more realistically, are willing to have exposed to public scrutiny).

Looking forward to seeing Allison tonight! She's recording her part for a new song I've written, and I'm experimenting with a new slow cooker recipe: Beef with Chickpeas and Curry. I love my slow cooker; some brief prep, throw stuff in the cooker, then forget about it until dinnertime.

Happy birthday to my friend Andy today...






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