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At last, an opportunity to talk about myself. Wait for a second while I wipe away a tear, this is a big moment for me.
Okay, I've regained my composure. So ...
I'm a writer. I write young adult fiction, and it's my absolute passion. I've been writing since I could hold a pencil, although in those days it was squiggly lines that -- to me anyway -- looked like stories about little girls who got given ponies by their parents.
I'm also an artist. I work in lots of styles, from realist to cartoons and surrealist. I've put a few examples of my art at the bottom of the page. I've made my living from art for quite a while now -- I'd tell you how long, but I stopped counting the years (a bit like birthdays).
I'm also a musician. I love to listen to music (Amanda Palmer is my favorite musician) while I write, it helps set the scene. I play a host of instruments, with varying degrees of competence. Guitar is my favorite, followed by piano, pan pipes and tin whistle. There's more, but I'm too afraid someone might ask me to demonstrate, and I'm embarrassing on those. I also sing, although not while playing the pan pipes or the tin whistle -- that would be silly (and require an extra mouth). Here's a photo of me and my guitar, Daisy, the day my wonderful kids bought her for me.
Speaking of kids, I have two of those and one son-in-law-to-be, all of whom live with me. They're great research material for my writing. Oh, and I quite like them too.
And this is my dog, Ryder, who features regularly and prominently in this blog. This is because he does a lot of very blog-worthy things, regularly and prominently.
The forest is one of my favorite places in the world, and I spend a lot of time there with my daughter, her dog Phlee and Ryder.
That's about it really. Unless you're wanting to know where I live -- that's easy, New Zealand. Since I didn't have as much to say about me as I thought I would, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's some of my paintings.
First, in my cartoon style, my self portrait. It seems sort of appropriate for a page about me.
In a style I'm slightly better known for, realism, here's a portrait I did in acrylics.
And to finish, some animal paintings that should be self explanatory. If they're not, it's one big colored pencil fail, I guess.
