Hello, Reader!

We certainly do live in interesting times, but I hope this newsletter finds you in good health and safe. Among other things, the New Year has brought a new work space into being for Artdog Studio and Weird Sisters Publishing!

Above, there's a "stereoscopic" view of the studio end of my new work space. I'm assembling the requirements for an office, too. It's behind you, if you face the studio. Weirdly enough, having an office to work in is actually making me a little more efficient!

To the left of the bookshelves pictured above is the library part of the Library. I'm still far from finished sorting, culling, and shelving my books--but I'm getting there! It's a lot more functional than it was, even a month ago!

New "Pack Portraits" from Lucy A. Synk

For the past several months, Lucy A. Synk and I have been working on a project to create character development images for my stories. I'm a visual person, and working with her on these paintings has helped me more fully flesh out my thoughts.

Lucy now has produced "full body" views and "head shots" of each XK9 in the Orangeboro Pack. I published several of the full body pictures in October's newsletter.

Because you're a newsletter subscriber, you get to see this gallery-style view of the newly-finished head shots before anyone else.

As especially the dog-lovers among my readers might imagine from looking at these, each XK9 has his or her own personality. I'm looking forward to sharing character backgrounds for each. Which ones would you like for me to introduce first?

I plan a number of uses (including advertising, publicity, use in this newsletter, and blog posts) for these images, beyond helping me visualize them for myself.

Did you see our Holiday Facebook ads?

People will tell you that the holidays are a terrible time for Indies and small presses to compete with the "big dogs" for book sales, and that Facebook ads don't sell books. Well, okay. But our ads were modestly successful, and I think they turned out pretty well. Which one do you like best?

Here are the ones I created for my sister's Deep Ellum stories.

Here are the ones I created for the XK9 Books.

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What's coming next, for Artdog and Weird Sisters?

I'm still working on final revisions for A Bone to Pick, the second book in the XK9 "Bones" Trilogy. Unfortunately, moving and setting up my office/studio, plus boring business stuff like getting up and running on QuickBooks and end/start of year planning has taken its toll on my writing time. Advance Reader Copies should be available soon! You'll be the first to know.

I had hoped to share glimpses of the maps and interior illustrations I've been working on, both for the reissue of What's Bred in the Bone, and for the new book, A Bone to Pick. I definitely hope to have sneak peaks soon!

On behalf of Weird Sisters Publishing, I also have several other initiatives in the works. The one I can talk about is first efforts to get Warren C. Norwood's Windhover Series back in print. My sister G. S. Norwood is at work on two novels and a new installment for the Deep Ellum Series, tentatively titled Death in Deep Ellum.

I also look forward to being able to start a couple of new paper sculpture series, once I've finished the interior art and the typography for the cover of A Bone to Pick.

I'll be back in February with more news!

Best wishes,

Jan

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