It’s been quite a while since the last time I read a novel on the scale of Duma Key. At well over seven hundred pages in length, it’s not a read for the feint of heart. To tell the truth, that is about the only aspect of it that seems daunting, or perhaps even a touch terrifying. Don’t get me wrong, the story is well written with a depth to it the hints at the way a painter layers on glaze after glaze of color to bring a painting to life.

There’s a hint of Lovecraft in Duma Key, in the telling and the story’s soul. It follows three distinct time frames: the story of a little girl as she’s recovering from a head injury, the story Edgar Freemantle rebuilds his life after a debilitating accident, and the time of the narrator, who also happens to be Edgar. The first two tie together in an intertwining thread that follows Edgar and the little girl’s journey to rediscover themselves, sometimes literally, through art. But both paths move past the mundane application of shape and form into something… else. The time of the narrator foreshadows, sometimes almost too much, what is to come. Of course, this is a Stephen King novel, so any mention of something happening to a character is likely an ill portent to say the least.

Overall, I would say this is a good read and would definitely recommend it. There are definitely scarier stories out there, and more horrifying, but sometimes that’s the point.

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This started out with a picture I found over on Pixabay that seemed like it might be interesting to give a shot. There were a couple of things I tried differently here than than the last painting I did. Namely, I used a proportional divider to and charcoal to lay the image out on the canvas rather than a tracing, and used WMOs again rather than acrylic.

Incidentally, I’m reasonably certain that I don’t like Golden Open acrylics. They seem to get into this “tacky” stage that persists for a very long time and makes it very easy to mistakenly pull up previous layers of paint. I might be able to get used to them and figure out how to use them, but more than likely I’m going to stick with the oils or straight acrylics instead.

Here’s another one that I spent a huge chunk of time on:

This one turned out amazing, but took me a month of painting sessions to finish up! It will likely be a while before I do another stint quite that long on a single piece.  Still, I’m happy with the way it turned out and will hopefully be able to get this one framed pretty soon.

On to writing!

I’ve had The Erasable Man back for nearly a month now and I’m about half way through my re-read after editing. The current plan is to finish this read up and send if off for a second round of beta reads. I might look into a follow up editing via Silvia’s Reading Corner if I have the spare cash by then. We’ll just have to see.

Until next time!

Home Made Kaiser Rolls

If you’re interested in giving the recipe a try, take a look at Sourdough Home.  I’ve been doing a bit of reading from their site and have my own starter bubbling away (you can see it in the upper left corner there).