Branded

by Anita Mae Draper

I finally did it! I created a visual icon or logo, for my writing and added it to my new website and business cards. It all started when the Inkies were discussing brands and taglines and helping each other pick appropriate, attention-getting ones. Take a look at these:

• Barb Early - Faith, Fiction and the Occasional Felony
• C.J. Chase - Intrigue of the Past, Inspiration for the Present
• DeAnna Julie Dodson - Step Into Time...
• Debra E. Marvin - Dark Tales Brimming With Light
• Dina Sleiman - Dance With Passion
• Gina Welborn - be light. be love. believe.
• Jennifer AlLee - Inspirational Fiction For the Heart and Soul
• Lisa Karon Richardson - Inspired Adventures
• Niki Turner - (Hasn't decided yet, but didn't want to leave her out)
• Susanne Dietze - Romance with Nineteenth Century Charm, Timeless Heart
• Suzie Johnson - Hearts Uplifted, Hope Renewed

Until then, I'd been using the tagline, Prairie Stories to Stir Your Heart, but one of the Inkies came up with Woven Under Western Skies. I liked it right away, but felt it needed more. I mean, what was woven under the western skies? All my books contain faith and romance as well as being western based. So my tagline became Faith and Romance Woven Under Western Skies or just Woven Under Western Skies when space is at a premium.

I had the words, but I wanted a logo to match. So I started playing around aiming for simplicity.

Here's what I came up with:

#1 - I liked the flowing look which simulates the prairie wind and the curved line for Under the Western Skies, as well as the faith element, but what about the romance?

#2 - I liked the idea of the cross and heart entwined, but it didn't look right even though I tried to slant the cross and heart to simulate the windy prairie.

#3 - Uh oh. I'd gone backwards in my design. By trying to show the woven part, I lost the romance. And the overall look was too busy.

#4 - Okay, this I liked. Similar to #2, but better because the cross and heart are going in opposite directions. Not only does that balance it out, but it simulates two people from diffferent faiths, backgrounds, and walks of life. Plus, I still had it all Under the Western Skies. Perfect!

Well, not quite. The image was what I wanted, but it looked childish. I needed an artist to pull it all together and make it shine.

As it happens, God has blessed me with a friend who is a graphic artist when she's not writing or mothering. I suppose she's really an eFriend because I've never met her, but firmly believe God had a hand in bringing us together back in 2005 when I used to participate in the Writing Challenges on the Harlequin Community Forum.

Other than her exceptional writing, DebH drew my attention with her avatar. It turned out to be the image she created for her wedding invitations showing her and her fiance doing what they love doing most - scuba diving and kissing. Heh.


Deb took it one step further and used the same images to create the topper for her own wedding cake.

Naturally, when I needed help with my logo, I emailed it to Deb with the word, HELP!

Within hours, Deb sent me a reply that said, It sort of looks like you were going for a brand looking type of logo. (like a cattle brand?) Going with that line of thought, i liked logo number four - it seems more aesthetically balanced. i'm attaching a photoshop file with my interpretation of that "brand". you can turn on/off different layers to see how it looks (i put a tan background for you to see the brand "burn" i added for a subtle touch - you can turn off those layers though). i even put in a blue the same color as your name on the vista card (nice! like the sepia too).

Here's the Vistaprint business card I was thinking of ordering:

And here's what Deb came up with:

I liked the blue, but it reminded me of iced sugar cookies. Yum - I could have my brand and eat it, too. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

And here's what the back of my business card looks like, because I did go for the Premium Vistaprint ones...

And finally, Deb's 'branding iron' energized me to create this for my new website:

Not only has Deb been there to help me artistically, but she's followed my writing progress and is one of my biggest fans. I can't tell you how honored I am that someone like Deb believes in my writing ability.

Here's Deb with her son, Nathaniel aka Guppy.

Yes, she's the DebH that comments on my blogs, including here at the Inkwell where either one of us will mention Guppy, her son and Boats, her husband. Guppy is quite a suitable nickname when you look at his scuba diving parents. Oh, and did I mention that Deb got married on a dive boat at sea?

Thank you, Deb for supporting me all these years and being there when I needed you. Hugs.


Do you have a brand? Tagline? Icon? Tell us about it. And if you don't, tell us what you write and maybe we can help you create one.

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Anita Mae Draper is retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan, Canada with her hubby of 30 plus years and 2 of their 4 kids. She writes stories set on the prairies of Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Anita Mae has semi-finaled in the Historical Romance category of the ACFW's 2011 Genesis contest and finaled in the Inspirational category of the 2011 Daphne du Maurier, the 2011 Fool for Love, the 2011 Duel on the Delta and 2009 Linda Howard Award of Excellence contests. You can find her at http://www.anitamaedraper.com/

Check my new website for rules on how you can enter my Welcome Prize Package.

Praise and Worship

by Anita Mae Draper

1 Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.  Psalm 150

I thought I'd change it up today and instead of having you read words, I'm posting some music videos taken at our small, 50 member church. So sit back and listen to the words and music as members of the Church on the Hill in Glenavon, Saskatchewan praise and worship the only living God.

In this first one, my husband Nelson is accompanying our son, Nick on vocals and our daughter, Jessie on piano. Last night Nick arrived back in Canada after a 2 week Street Invaders mission trip to Cape Town, South Africa. Jessie attends Rocky Mountain Bible College in Calgary, Alberta, but whenever she's in town, she helps her dad and brother lead worship.

So here's Jessie, Nick and Nelson Draper leading worship with Lead Me To The Cross.




Another family who often leads worship is The Keller's, made up of Richard and Lorette along with their son, Clayton.

In this music video, The Keller's lead worship with Beauty For Ashes.




Finally, I have a 35 second clip of Dianne, our pastor's wife. This clip is short due to technical difficulty while I was learning how to use my new camera, but the words are so powerful they stay with me for hours after I hear them.

Here's Dianne Bonk as she leads us with How Great is Our God.




I've created a GlenavonChurch YouTube channel for all the videos I make at church. It has more than what's listed here including several from Joey Theriault, a friend from Wolseley, Saskatchewan who blessed us with his unique country gospel sound earlier this year.

So pick a video, sit back, and let the soothing sounds of praise and worship bless you. And please ignore any dischords or off key notes. The families above are made up of students, farmers and oil workers. Not a professional musician in the bunch.

Have a blessed Sunday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anita Mae Draper is retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan, Canada with her hubby of 30 plus years and 2 of their 4 kids. She writes stories set on the prairies of Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. Anita Mae has semi-finaled in the Historical Romance category of the ACFW's 2011 Genesis contest and finaled in the Inspirational category of the 2011 Daphne du Maurier, the 2011 Fool for Love, the 2011 Duel on the Delta and 2009 Linda Howard Award of Excellence contests. You can find her at http://www.anitamaedraper.com/

The Greatest Mystery Writer You've Probably Never Heard Of

by DeAnna Julie Dobson

Practically everyone knows about Agatha Christie, the multi-million-selling mystery writer. If you are a fan of the golden age of crime fiction, you're probably very familiar with her work and the work of Dorothy L. Sayers. Their creations, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Lord Peter Wimsey among others, are justly celebrated. But who today remembers there was a third, to my mind equally great, lady who was their mystery-writing contemporary in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the wonderful Margery Allingham?

Perhaps I'm the only one who missed out, but after years of enjoying Christie and Sayers, I only relatively recently discovered Allingham and her delightful creation, Albert Campion. Campion, of course, is not his real name. His noble (perhaps royal?) relations would have been shocked to have their name bandied about in the newspapers in conjunction with Albert's crime-detecting adventures, so he chose a pseudonym. One, as we come to find out, of many.

In fact, one of his most successful methods of solving cases is to hide who he is, convincing everyone around him that he is inoffensive, bland and unintelligent, hiding his sharp mind and his dogged determination to find the truth. His manservant, Magersfontien Lugg, who was a cat burglar "until he lost his figure," is a Cockney delight and well worth the price of admission all by himself.


Together, Campion and Lugg solve some of the most wonderfully plotted mysteries I've ever read. In my opinion, they surpass some of Christie's and Sayers', and are consistently excellent. And, the icing on the literary cake, eight of the twenty-one Campion novels were made into movies for the BBC. Peter Davison ("All Creatures Great and Small," "Dr. Who" and "The Last Detective") and Brian Glover (specializing, as he liked to say, in playing "bald-headed, rough-looking Yorkshireman") were pitch perfect as Campion and Lugg and, in true BBC fashion, the sets, costumes and supporting actors bring Allingham's books and the 1930s to brilliant life.

I can't recommend this series (the books and the videos) highly enough, though I haven't yet had the chance to read the last seven books (drat those deadlines!). Officially, the first book is The Crime at Black Dudley, but don't judge the series by that one. Campion is only a rather eccentric supporting character in it. He really hits his stride in the second book, Mystery Mile, and just gets better and better from there.

So, if you like an intelligent, authentic period mystery with a plot that meshes like the gears of a fine watch, check out Margery Allingham's Albert Campion. You won't be disappointed.


Have you read any of Allingham's books? Do you ever read a book because you liked the movie or watched a movie because you liked the book? Did the book do justice to the movie or the movie to the book?



DeAnna Julie Dodson has always been an avid reader and a lover of storytelling, whether on the page, the screen or the stage. This, along with her keen interest in history and her Christian faith, shows in her tales of love, forgiveness and triumph over adversity. She is the author of In Honor Bound, By Love Redeemed and To Grace Surrendered, a trilogy of medieval romances, and Letters in the Attic, a contemporary mystery. A fifth-generation Texan, she makes her home north of Dallas with four spoiled cats.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

by Niki Turner

If there's one thing (oh, that there was ONLY one thing) I  feel I've failed to learn, it's how to apply the truth in the chorus of Kenny Rogers' song "The Gambler" to day to day life.

"Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run."

I tend to be a bit stubborn. (At least, that's what other people tell me.) Stubborn can be a good trait (when you call it tenacity, or perseverance). Stubbornness (aka tenacity and perseverance) can also be destructive.

It's possible to "latch on" to something that's outwardly good - an opinion, an idea, a relationship, a job, or a vision - that has, over the course of time, become toxic. Milk, for example, is good for children. Milk forgotten in a sippy cup behind the bed for a week is still milk, but it's no longer beneficial for health.

Sometimes it's a moment by moment thing. When to get out of a conversation, when to leave a gathering, when to stop shopping (that can be challenging for those of us who are tenacious about looking for the next great deal). Or it can be figuring out when to finish an edit on your manuscript, when to stop adding brush strokes to a painting, when to realize the house is as clean as it's going to get, or when to admit that you're done with something.

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down,And a time to build up;
A time to weep,And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather
stones;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
A time to tear, And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate;
A time of war, And a time of peace.

Eccl 3:1-8 NKJV

(No matter how hard I try, I cannot read that passage without picturing Kevin Bacon in Footloose.)




It's critical when talking about what to let go and when to hold fast by faith that we be led by the Spirit of God. Our flesh is an inaccurate gauge for when something is finished, when it's time to release something. Flesh tends to get frustrated early. The stubborn among us tend to cling to things that other folks would have released long ago.

It's only by the leading of the Holy Spirit that we can know we aren't "beating a dead horse" when it comes to the things we're applying our energy and effort to. Sometimes perseverance is required (Kathryn Stockett's debut novel "The Help" was rejected by publishers 60 times), but sometimes, we need to be smart enough to set something aside and move on.

Examine your schedule, your projects, your WIPs, your relationships, your plans ...

What needs to be "held" and what needs to "fold"?

From what should you walk away, and from what should you run?