A Writer Goes Back to School

I signed up for a spring class last week. Another pottery class. If you're counting...my sixth. It's my third independent study (officially individualized studio) class. I'll confess, the flexibility works well with balancing the minions and the rest of the family. And I like spending a term going in my own direction. Professor H. makes a great advisor. He offers opinions and some direction, but let's me be in the driver's seat. I'm already feeling sad about spring being my last ceramic's class. Of course, by the time the class is over, I should have my own studio up and running! Yep. I've got studio glee!

But here's what being a class of one is missing...reports. Yeah, I know, some people might think that's a plus, but over the out-of-school decades I forgot how much I love doing a deep dive on a topic.  We have to do a report on a ceramic artist in a week. I did a presentation on Rob Bernard my first term. It was supposed to be five to ten minutes, but I had pages and pages of notes. Interesting facts I was sure everyone should know. (My daughter assured me that not only did the kids in class not want to know, but there was a chance my glee over reports annoyed them! If it did, they were kind enough to feign interest. LOL) I did manage to keep it to ten minutes, but would have loved to have gone longer. I left so much unsaid. This time, I'm doing a presentation on Burlon Craig. I'm trying to keep it short...but it's still hard! He's equally interesting and exciting. He is known

Holly Face Jugs

 for his face jugs in the Catawba Valley in NC (my southern roots are firmly planted just north of there).  I bought a great book, The Final Kiln Opening, about his last sale which was so cool. And I bought a book on that folk tradition, based more in Georgia called Brothers in Clay. Equally engrossing reading...alright engrossing in a totally geeky way. LOL I've got pages and pages of notes.

Ten minutes?  I have to fit all this in ten minutes? The trouble is real. LOL

To add to my condensing everything into a less than ten minute presentation, I found YouTube videos from a PBS show called Folkways. They showed Burlon in his studio and firing his kiln. You can find them at Burlon on Folkways. They were fantastic! The second video talked to other local ceramic artists who were related to, or knew, Craig. They watched him work. I wish I'd discovered him sooner and could have visited his studio as well!

I fell in love with face jugs my second term. I wrote a bit about them here.

Holly's Game of Thrones inspired Face Vase

Holly's Jug

 I've done a bunch since then. For me they're a connection to my southern roots and to be honest, I just think they're ugly cute! LOL And art inspires art. School inspires study. I've been trying my hand at some folk art painting and one of my favorites is Burlon's kiln firing. It's obviously rough, but I've done a few versions of it. I love the flames!

Holly's Burlon's kiln painting.

I've been wanting to buy a Burlon Craig face jug but they're a little rich for my blood. But I did find one of his swirl teapots. It should get here soon. I'm soooo excited! I'll post a picture when it arrives.

I don't know what I'm going to take up at school next fall. Maybe some more art classes. I'm working toward a degree...maybe. I plan to just continue taking classes that interest me, and if I get close to a degree, I'll take some of the must-take classes. At this rate, it'll be a decade from now. But hey, for me, it's not really the destination (a degree) that matters. It's the journey. And so far, I've enjoyed every step of My Novel Freshman Experience journey!

Holly

PS Just in time for Thanksgiving, another school story...this one from a PTA mom's point-of-view. Once Upon a Thanksgiving is on sale!

Christina Hollis: Happy Holidays!

My Alma Mater—Francis Close Hall at UoG

Next month I'll be returning for my second year as a mature student at the University of Gloucestershire. The terms whizzed by and the holidays passed even faster. I've gained such a lot from the experience, and had so much fun, I think everyone should try it!

I've already passed modules in Creative Studies, Genre Fiction and Phase One of the project that will become my dissertation. This coming semester I'm signed up for Research Methods. Then in the New Year I'll be studying the teaching of creative writing and starting an independent project. 

My independent project will link back to the Research Methods module. I live in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire. The area has a rich industrial past, and the local people are proud of their background. The Dean Heritage Museum is an important resource for historians and writers. It's only a few miles from my house, so I'll be a constant visitor once the academic year begins. 

Find out more at mybook.to/BristolWomen

Building on the work I did for my current release, the non-fiction book Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol, my projects will centre on the big changes in home life over the past one hundred years. I'm trying to gather as much information as I can in advance. This is where you come in! 

Do you have any memories of the long school holidays in the days before mobile phones and laptops? Over on my blog, I'm recalling the endless sunny days and the feasts of homegrown food. What did you and your friends get up to when you were let off the educational leash for weeks on end? 

Christina Hollis's first non-fiction book, Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol is published by Pen and Sword Books. You can find out more about that here, catch up with her at https://christinahollisbooks.online, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Back to School!!

My Novel Freshman Experience Reboot

I've been going over some of my first year at school blogs for kicks and giggles. It was fun going back and remembering that first class. Finding time to take two years of classes has been a challenge. Time. Frankly, I don't have much time at all. One of those early posts I talked about making time stretch. I'm still stretching my time to its well-frayed limits on a daily basis. 

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

I've now had four freshman classes and I'm about to start my fifth. Yes, they've all be ceramics.

We're building a barn at our camp and I'll have my own ceramic studio before I finish my spring term ceramic class. That'll be six classes. And there's still so much to learn and experiment with.  I'm thrilled that I'll have the opportunity to keep studying ceramics in my own studio. But the question is, what will I study next at school?

Hmm. I have a year to decide. Yes, I'll have a fall and spring ceramic class, but then I'm done. I'm sure I'll be blogging about the decision! LOL

If you want to read more of my adventures, you can see more Novel Freshman posts here.

School starts in a few weeks...and I can't wait for this next adventure!

Yep, my life is beyond exciting!! Stay tuned for more My Novel Freshman Experience (Someday there might be some My Novel Sophomore Experience blogs LOL), more Days of Beauty, more Family Treeing and more...well just me chatting at Hollyworld and here!

Holly

PS Check out my summer of Rom Com:

The Makeover

How to Catch a Groom

How to Hunt a Husband

Over the last year, I've spent a lot time on my blog, talking about  My Novel Freshman Experience. Yes, I've gone back to school and talk about learning new things (so far just about ceramics, but maybe someday soon I'll take another type of class LOL).  But here's the big thing I hope to share...learning something new doesn't

require going back to school.  This weekend Himself (my husband's online name) and I started stoning behind the woodstove at The Cottage.  That is something very new.  We've laid tile before, but this is a different process altogether.  We're hoping to finish it over the course of a few visits.

It's not just people who learn new skills.  Since we lost Ethel Merman, Ella Fitzgerald has had to learn to be an only dog.  She's been more than a little lost.  But she's getting better.  We've been trying to convince her she's a camp dog.  She's pretty sure she's not, but we're still trying.  After we finished our stoning this weekend, we headed out to the truck. I didn't bother to put Ella on her lead...she's always happy to leave camp and head back to the house.  But this time...she took off.  She found her inner-wolf and led us on a merry chase.  Well, merry on her part.  She is very fast for a small sausage dog.  

But in the end, we lured her back to the truck with a treat.  She learned that camp can be fun.  We learned that she is a dog who will continued using her lead...even if it's just a short walk to the truck.  (This picture was taken after her wild wolf run...she doesn't looked the least bit sorry, does she?)





I'm still loving ceramics, but it's led me to painting as well.  I'm enjoying that as well.  That's the thing with learning...one thing leads to another.  I'm hoping Ella's done learning about her inner-wolf, but I know I'm not done learning about pottery and painting and stoning and...  Well, I'm not done with any of it.  Wishing you something new to learn about soon!

Holly

Speaking of news...check out my new releases:

PTA Moms: the Collection

Polished Off

Closing Down Summer

Photo Courtesy: Photo by Todd DeSantis on Unsplash

I know, I know, it's still August...we haven't even hit Labor Day! But, for us, summer is basically over because school is back in session this week. And, I have to say, I'm kind of ready for summer to be over.

The past few weeks have been a little weird. I'm a serious creature of habit. I like my routines. I like have a rhythm to my day. This summer it's been impossible to find a rhythm that sticks around for more than a week or two.

June started with bebe out of school, a very early birthday party for her, family visiting, and then more family visiting, and then a couple of graduation trips, and then another family visit.

Oh, and I've been writing. I've been working on a book that is...different from anything I've written before. It's scary and its exciting and its a writing rhythm I've never done before.

Before you think I'm whining, I'm actually not. While I am a definite creature of habit and I work well within an established framework, what this summer has taught me above all else is that I can adapt - my life, my writing, my favorite summer indulgences - into whatever new schedule I need to create. Here's what I learned:

1) I found that not only can I read in a car, I can write in a car when necessary

2) Sometimes you just have to bend. I had a Kindle filled with new reads at the beginning of this summer. Most of them are still there. I think I've read about ten books. That is a looooooow reading count for me, people. I also gave up weekly pedicures because I can do the same thing with my bubble tub and a pumice stone in half the time.

3) Sometimes what you think you know about your kiddo isn't what you know. bebe took a break from swimming this year (something I never thought would happen) in favor of learning karate. Her skills have quickly developed and I think she's more excited about karate than she ever was about swimming. I don't know when (or if) she'll pick swimming up again, but seeing her grow in different ways this summer has been so rewarding!

4) New rhythms can be the best of all. No, my summer didn't have the smooth, relaxing rhythm of, say, the Little Big Town song Pontoon. At times it might felt more like a ripped up, screaming version of The Rolling Stones' Start Me Up, but that weird, cacophanous rhythm got me through the summer and now, looking at Labor Day weekend, I met my goals.

I spent a lot of time with family. I saw bebe grow in new ways every day. I'm learning a different way of writing.

What about you? How has your summer been? And, if like mine it was mad, how did you survive?

Kristina Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time swim-kid wrangler, and full-time Thin Mints enthusiast. You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.



Kristina Knight’s newest release, Perfect on Paper, is out now. Daisy MacIntosh needs a man, and any man will do. After being jilted by her ex - who is also her boss - she needs a date to the company retreat in Mexico. The only problem? Daisy doesn't have time to find a guy, and her ex is hinting that he'd like this work trip to become a reunion romance. Stepping in to become Daisy's pretend boyfriend isn't the best idea Nick Vega has had, but it's the only one he's got. But are they willing to risk their life-long friendship for a romance that might fizzle once they're back home?

One Thing Leads to Another...

I started back to school this year.  I took Ceramics I and Ceramics II.  I signed up for Ceramics Independent Study in the fall.  My first term we had assignments, but the second term was pretty much trying what interested us.  I gave myself a theme for the term...folk art.  It's the kind of art I gravitate to.  I focused on faces and nature.  Lots of trees, santas and even the quilt to your right (which was sized to fit over the electric panel at camp).

 But all the playing with textures and some underglaze painting left me wanting to know more.  I started looking at the world around me with new eyes.  I noticed textures in a way I never had.  One thing Lead to another

I started studying folk art.  My father-in-law was an artist, though he'd never have called himself that.  We have a cabinet full of santas that he carved and painted.  I tried to recreate his designs at first, but then I tried some of my own. I incorporated the trees I'd been studying with the fact I spend a lot of my summers splitting wood for the next winter and added a dash of my FIL's santas and that study of faces.  One thing leads to another.

And that idea of one thing leading to another is still playing out.  I'm going to start throwing clay on a wheel.  To date I've only hand-built my projects.  And I'd done a bit of underglazing on those, using them as paints.  So I wondered how I could make my painting better.  I'm envisioning a line of cups with rural scenes.  Now, I have no intention of being a fine art painter, but folk art...I wanted to explore that in order to add that dimension to next terms class. 
 
 I started out decorating some clementine orange boxes and then branched out to some small 8"x8" canvases.  I'm seeing some improvement and I'm hoping I can come close to replicating some aspects of these in my ceramics.







 Yes, one thing leads to another.

And this year's classes lead to an article in Romance Writers' Report, and my first workshop on Lifelong Learning, and I started a new book where this year's classes might be coming into play...

One thing lead to another.

I think it's a good way to live life.  Learn something new and then have that lead to learning something else.

I have a friend who calls me Renaissance Woman.  I will confess, I smile every time she posts something to me.  I am an expert at very few things, but I do so love learning new bits and pieces.  All of those feed into my writing.

I've wanted to take a ceramics class for a long time. You can see that yearning in Just One Thing.  Maybe that one thing lead to another and here I am.

I hope you all find something that enthralls you!

Holly

PS To all the Moms out there...Happy Mother's Day!

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In Erie, you can find my books on the shelf at Werner Books! Stop in, check them out and tell them I said hi!

Back to School with Holly Jacobs

I mentioned here before that I've gone back to school.  I'm taking a ceramics class at a local university.  When I go in to my 8 am class, I try to tone down my glee because the kids I'm in class with look more sleepy than gleeful.  I said something to that effect the other day and one of the girls laughed and said I didn't do a very good job at it.  Alas, I have leaky glee!  LOL

Really, no one should have this much fun for a grade!  I am not a pottery prodigy, but I'm learning a lot!

When you're done going back to school with me in the video, go back to school with my three PTA Moms,
Samantha in Once Upon a Thanksgiving,

Michelle in Once Upon a Christmas, 

and Carly in Once Upon a Valentine's!

I won't talk to you all over here until after Halloween! Hope you have a great one!  I talked about pottery in Just One Thing (even when I was writing it, I knew I wanted to take a ceramics class!) and my heroine, a potter, went to a Halloween party with crazy hair (which I sympathize with) round glasses and carrying a clay pot.  Yes, she was a HAIRY Potter!  (I know, I knew, leaky glee!)

Holly

Christina Hollis—Beginnings and Endings

Goodbye, summer...

September and the beginning of the new school term is always bittersweet. The peace after a summer of comings and goings is tinged with sadness at another milestone passed in the children's lives, and our own. 

This year is more poignant than most, as our son enters his last year at secondary school. It'll be final exams for him in summer 2018. A few weeks after that he'll be off into the big wide world. This is the last time I'll be doing the school run beneath dancing flocks of gathering swallows and house martins. This time next year, he'll be getting ready to fly the nest himself. 

In the meantime he's fine-tuning his skills in the kitchen, learning how to budget, and sitting at the top of the best local driving instructor's waiting list. I'm trying to step back, but it's difficult. He's got numerous health problems, but you can't keep them wrapped in cotton wool all their lives, can you? Not that it stops me worrying. 

Maybe leaving home will be the making of him. Maybe. You hear such worrying things about Generation I—the ones who live life at one remove, behind screens or via their telephones. How they're in danger of becoming Special Snowflakes because they lack the social skills we all learned in the days BC—Before Computer.  They're not so well-equipped to deal with the rough and tumble of daily working life, it seems.

...hello, autumn...

 

I'll look on the bright side. I worried about DD when she went off to university. Now she's back home and has a new career as an archaeologist. We could be toasting Son Number One's similar success in a few years' time, with wine made from our new grapevines!

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. Catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Her current release, Heart Of A Hostage, is published by The Wild Rose Press and available at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage  worldwide.

Back to School

Like the post header says, I've gone back to school!!  I'm taking a pottery class at a local university and I'm having a blast!  I know, I'm not a pottery prodigy, but really I'm learning so much!  We had to make a kiln god...I went for a kiln goddess instead.  You can see she has the basic shape of a beehive kiln.  LOL The flowers in her hair came out a bit funky, but otherwise, I'm pleased with her.  And I've made cups.  One had to be asymmetrical...I went for a heart shape. I love the other two.

Not only am I going back to school, but my books are, too!  My PTA Mom trilogy comes out in time for the holiday season!  What happens when three PTA moms miss the first meeting and get stuck on the worst committee the organization has?  Did I mention they were three SINGLE moms?  Hm, so what happens as Samantha, Michelle and Carly plan the Thanksgiving Pageant, Christmas Fair and Valentine's Dance?  Laughter, Friendship...and of course, love.

This was such a fun series to write because frankly...I've been a PTA Mom.  I planned a Thanksgiving kids' zone for years.  And yes, it's a crazy life, but I wouldn't have done it any other way.  Neither would my three moms!  Hope you'll come join them this holiday season!

Holly

Once Upon a Thanksgiving

Once Upon a Christmas

Once Upon a Valentine's

Back to School!

Orientation

I'm going back to school this fall. My first official school event was orientation. About a dozen adult students and grad students gathered and listened to the Adult Ed people talk about schedules, dates, parking...  Travis headed the team.  He asked who was nervous...no one raised their hands, but I glanced around the room and a few people did seem to fall into that category.  He talked about making sure you got the best grades you could in every class.  Scholarships and Grad programs rely on it.  I've got to confess, I wasn't nervous.  You see, I'm in this weird position.  Most of the adult/grad students are working toward a specific degree with a specific goal in mind.  I have no goal.  I'm going back to school for fun and for personal growth.  And while I'd like to get good grades, I will confess, I'm sort of ambivalent about the idea of someone else judging what I learned and accomplished in a class. I've spent my entire adult life taking classes and learning new things.  From my work advising lactating moms, to learning sign language, to beer classes, herb classes, composting class, water conservation class, basketweaving classes...and oh yeah, writing workshops.  You've seen some of my eclectic learning reflected in my books.  I covered composting in Her Second-Chance Family, sign language in Do You Hear What I Hear?...

But here's the thing, none of those learning experiences came with grades. My kids have assured me that years of working at home in a fictional world has ruined me for the real world.  I'm my own boss. I create my work environment every day.  I create my coworkers...otherwise known as my characters.  I choose my projects, set my schedules and basically learn what I need (want) to learn for fun.  And I'll confess, even though I will be graded on this first ceramics class, I'm going in with that same sense of learning for the joy of it...for the glee of it if you will.

I plan to blog the experience, so keep an eye out for my first day of class...it's almost here!

Holly

You can also keep your eye out for my newest releases:

2017 Beach Reads

Can't Find NoBODY

Confessions of a Party Crasher

The Book

Not Precisely Pregnant