If You're Reading This, You Survived August

I'm doing an art auction for a worthy cause

Over the last four years, I've done a lot of charity art auctions to raise fund for good causes. I donate 100% of the proceeds to the charity, and I've raised thousands of dollars with your help. This fall, I'm going to be focusing on groups that help people vote. 

I'm starting with Voto Latino, a group I've supported for years. They've registered 250,000 new voters this year so far. They're good people doing important work in the Latino community.

All the paintings in my auction are starting at $9.99 on eBay, and I'm giving you, my newsletter friends, first crack at them. I hope you get in there early and find something you like. Please do feel free to share this with your friends, too--the more people who know about it, the more funds we'll raise!

In addition to some watercolors I made earlier this year, I've included five new oil paintings of cocktails, as well as four little ink, watercolor, and gouache cocktails done on pages of The Drunken Botanist. This is a bit of an experiment--I've been doing some collage and art on book pages this year already, and I thought I'd take the next logical step and paint on the pages of a book I actually wrote.

For the artists among us: the way I did this is that I glued the pages down to thin balsa wood panels from Blick with YES glue, then coated the paper with clear Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground, then drew with watercolor pencil, painted with watercolor, added a bit of gouache (including white gouache over the text just to push it into the background a bit), then added ink last. And then I sprayed it with Krylon UV Archival. It was a bit of a process! If you're going to try this, I recommend gessoed or sealed panels of some kind over the balsa panels, because those things just DRANK the glue.

If you like these, let me know, because I'm going to need some motivation if I'm going to do more of them! It's a bit of a process.

Go here to see all 15 paintings up for auction. If for some reason that link doesn't work, try this one and be sure to pick "See All Items."

Here is a charming collage project

I just love this video from Jane Davies about doing collage with paint samples, colored paper, or paper that you paint yourself. The basic idea could not be simpler, but the results are lovely. If you're having a rough day, a very good way to make yourself feel better would be to sit down with some paper, scissors, glue, and maybe some markers or colored pencils. I like to think of all of us at our kitchen tables, cutting up paper scraps to save our sanity.

Does Your Body Hurt? Maybe You Need Bob and Brad

Honestly, if there is not a single part of your body that hurts right now, I just don't know what to say to you, except, can we trade bodies?

I discovered Bob and Brad, The Most Famous Physical Therapists on the Internet, a couple years ago when I was trying to figure out what to do about this weird pain in my hip.They are a couple of Midwestern physical therapists who have, over the years, posted a bazillion videos online about every ache and pain they see in their patients. They are goofy in that way that your uncle from Wisconsin is goofy, but they also know what's wrong with your elbow. This has been a winning formula for them.

Now, of course you should go see your own doctor or your own physical therapist for real medical treatment. I pass this on purely for your own entertainment and enlightenment. 

Draw Your Drink! Draw Your Dinner!

I'd be honored if you'd consider joining me in my new online Skillshare class on drawing food and drink in a café (remember cafés?) or, well, at your kitchen table. It's fun and easy and geared for beginners, and I enjoyed making it.

Take a look at everything I'm teaching --and this link will all give you 2 months free on Skillshare, which gives you plenty of time to explore everything they have on offer, including all kinds of other classes on writing, art, cooking...whatever you might want to learn.

The Rebecca Diaries

For many months now I've been working on a series of paintings based on the Daphne du Maurier novel REBECCA. At some point I got the idea to create an imaginary archive, as if the events in Rebecca had really happened, and to work those documents into the paintings. It's a strange project and it's nowhere near finished, but you can read more about it on my blog.

Here's What's in my Podcast Rotation

Every day I go take a walk, and on that walk I listen to something that makes me feel a little better and slightly less crazy. Here's what I'm loving right now:

Art Juice:  Two funny, smart British women talking about art. I've talked about this one before. It's my favorite thing in the world.

Laura Horn Art Podcast: A funny, smart Australian woman and her charming Irish husband talking about art and the running of an art business. Episode 104, where she interviews her husband, was so touching. They are very tender with one another. Even if you don't care about art, you might enjoy hearing them talk about how they've balanced their jobs, family, and supported each other. Plus I love their accents.

The Great Women Artists Podcast: A funny, smart British woman talking about art (are you seeing a pattern here) with EXPERTS such as curators from the Tate. And OH, these are so good and interesting! Start with Episode 6 on Leonora Carrington. It made my HAIR STAND UP. If you don't love that one, this podcast is not for you.

The Michelle Obama Podcast: Imagine you had a walking buddy and y'all talked about EVERYTHING on your walks. Now imagine that walking buddy was Michelle Obama. The Aug 12 episode, about menopause and other such topics, was the very best kind of warm, intimate chat you've always dreamed of having with Michelle. (I know you dream about that.)

Own It! I have a hard time explaining exactly why I listen to this one. It's two older and often crotchety (in the best possible way) British women  who supposedly give business advice (which I'm not all that interested in) but most often talk about the bad haircut they just got, their favorite curry shop, and life's other small pleasures and displeasures (which I love). One of them is a professional housesitter, always moving from house to house around England, and the other was living in Greece until Brexit and Covid put a stop to that. I'm weridly fascinated by their day-to-day lives. It's like overhearing a conversation between two women in a pub. I honestly have no idea what they're talking about half the time. I'm not crazy about the episodes where they veer dangerously close to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, or what might be the British version of conservative politics (it's hard for me to tell, exactly), but I listen anyway. It's diverting.

Sometimes I also dip into:

Judge John Hodgman: Your favorite comic writer and actor mediates minor disputes between couples, friends, roommates, and co-workers.

The Happiness Lab: A smart, NPR-ish podcast about the science behind what actually makes us happy. Upbeat and educational.

Brene Brown's Unlocking Us: Kind of like going to therapy, but also sometimes a bit heavy (like therapy, I guess!) Try the Judd Apatow episode for an easy, lighthearted way in.

New Art in My Shop

Feel free to stop by my little art shop anytime and have a poke around. You can always see new stuff on Instagram, too.

Asked and Answered...

This was a very different sort of monthly contest! I offered some extra books to anyone who would stock their local Little Free Library with them. I got so many responses! You people are seriously into your Little Free Libraries. I knew there was a reason we got along so well.

So I picked several winners and I'm shipping off lots of books to lots of people. If you won, you've had an email from me already.

I'm going to answer some of the winning questions lightning-round style, and combine a few others that were similar.

Laurie and Victoria asked: Would I ever write a children's book? Nope. That's a whole other set of skills, and honestly I don't have kids and I'd be terrible at it. There is a young reader's version of Wicked Bugs, but I didn't young-reader-ize it.

Anna and Jackie asked about what I'm doing during the pandemic. Well, I finished up Book 7, due out next September, and then I took some time off so I've kind of had a lazy arty summer, but September is looming and I should probably start writing another book. Yes, I feel too distracted to settle down and work, but I also feel pretty useless when I'm not doing whatever I define as "real work" so back to work I must go!

Patricia asked how I learned about & researched the National Service School in Maryland for Kopp Sisters on the March. Mostly it was newspaper research. There's a bit more about it in this Q&A where I ask myself questions and then answer them.

Christy asks about a Kopp movie, and yes, there is a TV deal, but nothing's happening with it right now. Believe it or not, I too have always wanted Miranda Hart for Constance!

Noreen asks when I last visited Wyckoff: Well, I do an event at the Ridgewood library every year, but it's probably been a couple years since I've actually been to Wyckoff, apart from some virtual events with the Wyckoff Library!

Susan asks how I discovered the Kopps and Karen asked how I balance historical information with story: Answers to that and more in another one of those Q&As I do with myself.

Ellen asked whether it was easier, more fun, or more rewarding to write the Kopp novels or a nonfiction book like Drunken Botanist and honestly, every book seems like the most fun while I'm doing it but also somehow they all seem the most miserable while I'm doing them. In hindsight, though, you can't beat Drunken Botanist for great business-related travel and liquor purchases. (Although when you read Dear Miss Kopp you'll see that I did some fabulous travel to France for that one, and I truly loved that.)

Kate asks what I recommend growing in the garden/what I love to grow, and I think I'm going to save that for a longer answer next time. It's a good question.

Thanks for playing, everybody! We're back to our regular contest for September....

Ask a Question, Win a Book

Most of you know the drill by now. Ask me a question and tell me which book you'd like to win. If I pick your question to answer in the next newsletter, I'll send you the book you chose.  Please head over here to enter, and if you've entered before, ask the same question or a different one! I love all your questions and hope to get to all of them eventually.

I'm doing lots of virtual events these days

Would you like to come to one of my events, but you also don't want to get out of your pajamas or leave the house? I got you.

Aug 29 Kopp Sisters Zoom event

Oct 10 Wicked Plants Zoom event

Please tell your friends! It makes a difference if people actually turn up to these virtual events.

I'm always happy to do an online chat with a book club, but now I'm also doing actual presentations, like the sort of thing I used to do on the road in the Before Times. So if you run a lecture series or any sort of event series and you need a virtual speaker, you can go here to see four types of virtual events I'm doing now. Feel free to pass this on if you know someone who's putting on these types of events right now.

What Are You Reading?

I'm still in a bit of a reading slump and having trouble concentrating, so I went back to the delightful Nancy Mitford. Don't Tell Alfred is a lighthearted novel about a woman whose husband becomes the Paris ambassador. Mishaps occur. Another world and another time!