Getting ready for the weekend

Tonight we set up the new work for a photo session on Saturday. One of the pieces is so large we need to move things out of the living room to get a full shot. I have been wondering if we shouldn't take photos of the large sculpture outside. It's not an outdoor piece, but the grass is finally green in South Texas and the sculpture is similar a carousel animal, so I think it would work. I also need to see if anybody in SA rents out light boxes.

I have been thinking about the art scene in San Antonio and how we compare it to other cities we have lived in or visited. There is really only one shock so far; with so many colleges in the city, it's been surprising that more college-age artists and students aren't at the openings. Openings are great parties to crash when you are a young artist. You see new art, maybe meet some good people, drink free wine and get dressed up. For the rest of the gallery crowd, that youth is contagious and welcome. Where are the young college students? Perhaps we will find them. We haven't been to every gallery and from what we have seen, art and culture are found in segments in San Antonio. It's true that any city will have it's groups and cliques, but (as a complete outsider) it has been hard to find openings and art happenings throughout the city. I keep thinking I must be missing dozens a month...if I only knew where they were. Without the Web, I would have no idea.

We also have happy and encouraging news today and I should explain how we got to it. Gordon is also a novelist. He has written three novels (that I have edited) and published through Trafford Publishing. For many pre-dot-com years I tried to get the word out about our books, getting local bookstores to carry them and sending them blind to reviewers (expensive). After a while it became exhausting so I kind of gave up while we were living in Arizona. I spent as little time on a computer and as much time in the sun as possible.

Recently I joined the website GoodReads and I set up an author page for Gordon. After digging a little into the site I noticed they sponsored book giveaways by the artists and publishers. I entered a couple and won a book before I realized this was exactly what we should do with Gordon's novels. I thought it was a great way to get the word out and we had a few extra copies of the books so, what did we have to lose? The first giveaway we had two copies of The Hog Hotel and three weeks until the end of the contest. 383 people entered the contest. 383 more people now knew about our book and two would probably read it! I was encouraged enough to start another giveaway, this time for one copy of From the Painted Stick. To my surprise, with the odds less in their favor, we had more entries--758! I mailed the book out to the winner and hoped he would like it.

Today I saw the book winner's review on Amazon and was thrilled! He liked the book, reviewed it on GoodReads and was nice enough to leave a review on Amazon too. Fantastic! 1142 new active readers now know about the books and we have a great review on two websites....one of them being Amazon! Not a bad trade-off for three books, about an hour of time and 12 dollars in postage. Thank you Marc and GoodReads!