A Different Kind of Love

Recently divorced and looking a bit Igor-ish, I thought I'd sit this Valentine's Day out. Bah-humbug and all that. But as the day progressed, I actually forgot all about the "real" holiday. I had my own kind of holiday today!

It started with reading the following email while crunching my Golden Grahams at 11:30am. (Yes, I finally got to sleep!! Oh, heaven.)

Hey Sandy,The  books are here!  We posted them to the site and I talked about them a  bit in yesterday’s newsletter, though I did tell everyone that they were  sight-unseen for me at that point.  Having taken a few minutes to look  through yours, I wanted to let you know what a wonderful (really, really  wonderful) job you did with it.  You’ve managed to take the mystery out  of so many of the “art” elements that make Zentangles so special.   Shading?  Covered and explained.  The ways to use a pencil?  Yup, got  it.  Seeing tangles everywhere.  Yup.  How to take what you see and  create a tangle.  Yup!I think you get the point… I love this book.  Even more than Totally Tangled, which I really liked.  This  Sunday, and the next couple, I plan to spend more time talking about  the three books, now that I’ve actually seen them.  Yoga For Your Brain  will be the first because I find it so outstanding and want to be sure  that if my customers can only afford one, they choose YFYB (time for an  acronym!)Thanks,  so very much, for creating this book.  I think it fills a gap for those  people who are not confident about trying something that looks so  complicated, but of course is not.  Or for those who look at some of the  more incredible examples of Zentangle and think “I could never do that,  I’m not an artist”.  Baloney I say.  Everyone can, it’s just that they  so often don’t realize it.  The book will take care of that crisis of  confidence that I hear from so many people.  Which is the crux of what I  plan to say in this Sunday’s newsletter.  :+)

Thanks again,Barbwww.joggles.com

"Everything for the cloth doll, mixed media & textile artist"

I was glowing by the time I finished reading. I am looking forward to seeing her reviews in the Joggles Newsletters. If you have never visited her website, be sure to take a look at Joggles.com. Barbara has a great selection of art, fabric, doll and Zentangle supplies AND some very cool online classes.

I was still glowing, when I started thinking "Oh, maybe MY boxes of books will come today too!?" And even as I was thinking that, I saw the UPS truck drive up, then my friends Martha and Julia, then my mom! I was suddenly really glad that I had showered, dressed, and brushed my hair! The UPS guy had piled a gazillion boxes onto his cart and was heading for my door. Of course, I realized, there is no way I can get those boxes to the other studio to pack and ship since I am still not able to lift anything... not even my cat (although she does weigh as much as my four year old!) But Martha and Julia offered to take the books downtown and the UPS guy loaded them all into their car, but then I realized, (I am still kinda-slow), "Hey, I want to SEE the new books!" So they brought one box in for me. I gave them each a book. And not just because they were delivering the boxes - they HAD brought me chocolate after all.

After everybody had left, I sat down and read the entire book. It's pretty good! It is so strange to work on the book in pieces... pieces of paper all over my desks and floors and kids. Then scanning and layout and moving stuff around and writing stuff and on and on without every really seeing it in book form. So "Wow!" It is pretty darn exciting!

I think I packed and shipped about 25 books today and at least as many will be shipped tomorrow (plus wholesale orders)! Very cool. Then I checked on Amazon

to see if the books were shipping there, and they are. But I also saw that this book is already #4 in Papercrafts. Very cool. And then Linda Farmer at tanglepatterns.com emailed that she had posted her own review of the book! Super cool.

So by the time I got to go out for dinner... I had much better things to celebrate! I remembered my love of books and why I had wanted to be an illustrator. There is something so satisfying about holding your own book in your hands... And opening a box filled with them... it's as exciting and lovely as a bunch of fresh, dark chocolates... aahh....

And, yes, I DID have champagne with dinner!

PS - You can get the books on my Etsy site too. I have them listed for CZTs as well. Since the books are no longer pre-order the special coupon code will no longer work. Other bad news is that I am almost completely out of AlphaTangle books! Yes, I am reprinting but it will take a few weeks since they are hand assembled. But that is kind of good news too since it means that you all are buying my books! And THANK YOU for buying them. I have had a number of people suggest that I not promote Amazon since thay are a giant. And I have to agree, especially since they "lost" about 40 books I sent to them. Grumble grumble. But, on the other hand, they do make it easy for people to get the books. I would very much like to support local bookstores and other shops that sell my books. So if you sell them in a brick and mortar shop, or you would like your local shop to sell my books, please email me and let me know. Many small shops can't meet the minimum order requirements for wholesale from publishers, but I am happy to send smaller quantities directly to them. So spread the love and get your shops tangled.