Schedule for June 6 - 10, 2016

Schedule for June 6 - 10, 2016

Mon., June 6 -  Jonali Karmaker's "All of Me" Blog Tour

Tues., June 7 -  Interview with Author Karen Vaughan

Wed., June 8 -   New Work from Artist Parker Kaufman

Thurs., June 9 - Loretta Laird's "The Passers" Box Set Release

Fri., June 10 -    A Dilemma for Daisy by Carol Ann Kauffman

Blog Consolidation Woes

Dear Gentle Readers,

In the month of May, I attempted to merge the two blogs, Vision and Verse on bloodspot, and my author blog on weebly. It was a dismal failure. 

Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors, gained almost five thousand page views. Vision and Verse has posts on art and artists, interviews with today's newest and brightest artists and authors, as well as cover reveals, book reviews, book promotions, and blog tours.

Carol Ann Kauffman at Weebly has articles on orchid growing and African violets, nature photos, an occasional restaurant review, photos of my dachshund KC, and a plethora of my own work. This website has lost page views in the hundreds in the last month.

So I'm separating them again. Vision and Verse will go as usual. It's very close to 100,000 page views worldwide and has it's own following of authors, artists, and readers.

The weebly site, however, is still plagued with techno-problems. And sometimes after many futile attempts at getting something posted, I have to mail it to a contributor's site and ask her to post it for me.

While I can, I'll continue to post on weekly for those of you who've read my books and like them, and have taken the time and effort to review them for me, and support me in all my writing endeavors. I'll still have posts on orchids and African violets. You'll still see my nature photos and pond pictures. And I'll still do the occasional restaurant, product, or movie review and KC's Hot Pick of the Week/Month/Whatever, but my boy KC is not feeling well and is showing his seventeen years. We have to coax him to eat and he doesn't do steps anymore so we carry him around.

Enough ramblings from this author for today. I appreciate every one of you. Thank you.

​Hugs,
Carol

BELTERRA by Carol Ann Kauffman

BELTERRA http://tinyurl.com/prnsshz

The Time After Time Series follows a pair of unlikely lovers on their adventures through life and love, this time on an alien planet divided into four tribes. When Neeka, daughter of the Lord of the Warrior Clan, was out picking lavender in their vast fields of the West, she felt him coming for her, and she was ready. When Braedon, Lord of the Soldier Clan of the East, rode into those lavender fields, searching for the woman of his dreams, he had no idea if she were even real. But there she was, standing there looking up at him, smiling. He reached his hand down to her and waited. She accepted his hand, beginning their adventures together, changing not only their lives, but the course of life and unity on their planet forever. An alien planet. Or is it?

Dear Gentle Readers,

The sequel to this book is called Dark Return, where the indigenous race resurfaces from being pushed into the ocean and wants their planet back.

Of course, Braedon and the Soldier clan think all out war is the only viable solution to the problem by eliminating the bat-like creatures, the Batrachs, once and for all.

And, of course, Neeka and her people think a peaceful settlement is the answer. However, there is more at work in the deep underworld of the Batrach caves.

Look for Dark Return in the fall.

Hugs,
Carol

Old Crimes and Nursery Rhymes by Jane Firebaugh

The Wedding Bridesmaid by Jennifer Conner

Amazon Buy Link: 
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Weddings-Fiasco-Wedding-Bridesmaid-ebook/dp/B01F4H68MW?ie=UTF8&keywords=Jennifer%20Conner&qid=1464459999&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Jennifer Conner is a best-selling author from the Northwest. She has over sixty short stories and books in print, ebook, and audiobooks. She loves to write Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance, and Erotica.

She has hit Amazon's Top Fifty Authors list. Her novel Shot in the Dark was a finalist in the Emerald City Opener Romance Writers of American contests in Cleveland and Toronto.

Jennifer is an Associate Publisher with Books To Go Now in the Seattle area. BTGN pride themselves in helping new authors get their foot in the door with well-edited manuscripts, professional covers, and platform uploads.

This talented writer lives in the  hundred year old house she grew up in. She blows glass beads with a blow torch and is a huge fan of musicals.

The Art of Jack Vettriano

 The Art of
Jack Vettriano

​

 Meet my new favorite artist, Jack Vettriano.  His biography begins "born in Fife, Scotland in 1951." Now hold on, Readers! This Italian girl recognizes an Italian last name when she hears one...see the "o"? Intrigued, I continued reading to find out this talented man had to quit school and go to work in the mining industry. 

His girlfriend bought him a set of watercolor paints for his twenty-first birthday (Thank you, dear, whoever you are, you did the world a giant favor!) and from then on he spent his free time teaching himself to paint.

       

There is something about his work that draws you into the painting.  The first one I ever saw was his The Singing Butler, which shows an elegantly dressed couple dancing on the beach in the rain with their butler with an open umbrella. Their is such a romantic aura in this beautifully done painting. Love it.

 

And then I discovered a whole plethora of paintings by Jack Vettriano as his publishing company's website

                    www.heartbreakpublishing.com

where you can browse and buy Jack Vettriano reasonably priced posters, cards, postcards, calendars, journals, as well as canvas prints.  It is a beautiful and easy to navigate website.  

   I discovered Dance Me to the End of Love, a spectacular Audrey Hepburn-like beauty in perfect ballroom dancing hold with her striking partner.

​

Jack Vettriano was born Jack Hoggan to a Scottish father and an Italian mother. When he was 36 and newly separately, he moved to Edinburgh, took his mother's maiden name, and went on to become an international success with studios in both Scotland and London.  The Singing Butler has been the best selling image in Britain and is very popular here as well.

Those who criticize his work as "too erotic" have to be those guys who prefer to look at paintings of fish or maybe still life prints of fruits and veggies. Jack's paintings show human beings being human.

Please visit Jack Vettriano - Official Jack Vettriano Page on Facebook for  news on Jack's current and upcoming gallery showings and current work.  Some other very interesting links are:



www.easyart.com/prints/jack-vettriano

www.vettriano-art.com/

www.allposters.com/-st/Jack-Vettriano-     Posters_c29036_.htm

Schedule for May 30 - June 3, 2016

Schedule for May 30 - June 3

Monday, May 30

      The Art of Jack Vettriano

Tuesday, May 31

      Wedding Bridesmaid by
            Jennifer Conner

Wednesday, June 1

      Book Review

      Old Crimes and Nursery Rhymes

           by Jane Firebaugh

Thursday, June 2

      Belterra by Carol Ann Kauffman

Friday

      African Violets

      Note from Carol about blog consolidation