Friday, September 1, 2017

The Art of Robert Koehler


Robert Koehler was born on November 28, 1850, in Hamburg, Germany. In 1884 his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 






He attended the German English Academy as a child. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and became a lithography apprentice.




In 1871 Robert traveled to have eye surgery and stayed on as a lithographer.



He was well-known in his time as a portrait artist, although he did landscapes and paintings on current social situations.






Robert Koehler died on April 23, 1917 at the age of 66 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I claim nothing here as my own. All information and photographs are rom Robert Koehler sites.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Koehler
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/koehler-robert-5kz2xin1zq
http://www.mnopedia.org/person/koehler-robert-1850-1917

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Cover Reveal: In a Dream by Ava Woods





In a Dream Cover Reveal Facebook Event - https://goo.gl/iExPhF

Amazon Preorder Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0755TYFC7/  


Emma Potter has led a tragic life, witnessing her parents' murder at the tender age of five then being swept away to the Texas Hill Country to live with her grandparents. By the time she enters college, her uncle Peter is the only relative she has left and, while he's a bit unconventional, she treasures the familial bond they have.
But that familial bond is tragically ripped away when her uncle is killed in the night and Emma mysteriously witnesses the whole thing in a dream. While she's trying to sort reality from her nightmares, she finds solace in the arms of Aiden, her unexpected knight in shining armor. But Aiden has secrets of his own.
With Emma’s tendency to put up walls and keep secrets, she is hesitant to trust. Yet Aiden persists, even when Emma continually pulls away. She’s drawn to him; to his charm, his compassion, his smile, but she’s scared. She fears that falling for Aiden will only result in heartbreak once again.
While Emma fights to find her uncle’s murderer and decode the dreams that have become a nightly nuisance in her life, she must decide if she can accept the love she spent years trying to avoid, or if she’s willing to throw it all away to hide what she envisioned In A Dream.



Prologue
Staring through her dance academy window with her hands pressed firmly against the chilled glass, Emma waited impatiently for her parents to pick her up from her lesson. Tall, brick city buildings surrounding her nearly touched the sky. Cars passed, quickly heading to their next destination, leaving gray vapor trails in their wake.
Emma peeked back at the clock on the wall in the quaint lobby, hoping her mother would arrive soon. Three months earlier, her mother taught her to tell time. Big hand on the 2. Little hand on the 6. It’s 6:10 PM. She was the only kid in her kindergarten class who could tell time. Her jet-black braid swung over her shoulder as she twirled in her tutu, thinking of how proud her mommy was when she finally told her the correct time. Her mommy usually arrived around this time so she turned her attention back to the glass, her face smashed against the windowpane. Her mommy always had trouble finding a parking spot.
“I see them, Ms. Adams,” Emma called to her instructor while running out the front door. Ms. Adams called after her, turning to get her coat, but Emma was already through the door, hurtling toward her parents. What happened next, as Emma jumped the cracks of the city sidewalk, was beyond anything her innocent young mind could comprehend. “Mommy!” she screamed, watching her parents fall to the ground.
Two figures in black hooded sweatshirts fled the scene after firing bullets into each of her parents. One shot hit her father in the head, sending him crashing to the ground next to a small puddle left from the previous night’s rain. The other bullet hit Emma’s mother in her upper back, causing her mother to gasp for air.
Ms. Adams heard the gunshots and ran to the window with Emma’s coat tucked in her hand. She saw Emma’s parents lying on the ground and two hooded forms fleeing the scene, rounding the corner and disappearing from view. Rushing outside, Ms. Adams threw her jacket over Emma’s shoulders as Emma clutched her mother. Momentarily, Ms. Adams turned her attention to Emma’s father lying stone-cold still while blood poured from his head and mingled with the water on the sidewalk. Grabbing his wrist, she checked for a pulse, but felt nothing.
Emma looked on terrified, hanging on to her mother. Rolling her over, Emma watched as her mother gasped for air, fear marring her face. “Mommy, get up!” Emma tugged frantically on her mother’s limp arm.
“Emma … I … love … you.” Each word was a staccato as it grew harder to breathe. “Go … inside.”
“No, Mommy. Not without you.” Tears welled up in Emma’s eyes as she pulled harder on her mother’s hand.
“I’m … always … with … you,” she sputtered. “Go.” With those words, her mother could hold on no longer. Her eyes rolled back in her head and closed as she breathed her last breath.
Ms. Adams pulled Emma forcefully while she clung to her mother’s motionless body. Emma’s hands ripped free from her mother as Ms. Adams carried her quivering small body inside to wait for the police, Emma softly crying, “Mommy,” all the way.




“Hi there,” a balding man, much older than most of the bar patrons, said. “Can I buy you a drink?”
The miniscule bit of confidence I’d felt from a single smile was quickly sapped from my shoulders as my head fell in annoyance. “No thanks,” I groaned, starting to inch away from the bar.
The man grabbed my arm, arguing, “Come on. Just one drink.” The alcohol heavy on his breath caught me off guard as I tried to pull away.
“No. Thank. You,” I answered through clenched teeth.
He had a pretty solid grip on me for someone who seemed so inebriated. “Come on, baby. I’m buying.”
I was staring the man in his eyes, trying to make my point clear when his stare went from determined to confused. The moment his head turned, I followed his gaze to a large hand steadily gripping the man’s bicep, the knuckles growing whiter by the second.
“I believe the lady said no.” It was the man with the gorgeous smile coming to my rescue, but his handsome smile had been ripped from his face, replaced with a menacing glare.
The bald man shucked his bicep from my white knight’s grasp and mumbled, “Whatever,” as he vacated his barstool and walked away.
My mouth hung open as I stared, completely in awe.





I spun on my stool, staring Aiden right in the face. My heart did somersaults as everything else inside of me went into panic mode. After our meeting this afternoon, I thought I had mixed emotions about seeing him again, but there was no denying what I was feeling now. As he hovered over me, offering to pay for my drinks, I felt my body instinctively lean into him. “What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t feel like being alone tonight,” he answered, nodding at Jake as he slipped away with Aiden’s card.
With looks like Aiden’s, I couldn’t even fathom the amount of women he picked up in bars. “Looking for women to fill your dance card?” I asked, trying to hide the bitter jealousy I felt imagining him with other women.
“Just one,” he replied, searing his piercing blue eyes into my emerald ones.
My thighs rubbed together as Aiden moved in infinitesimally closer. Gulping down my nerves, I breathily replied, “Well, good luck finding her.” Turning to take a sip of my beer, I struggled to get my hormones in check. This guy was my client. My blood shouldn’t be humming in my veins just from his nearness. I should be putting distance between us.




About Ava Lynn Wood:
Ava Lynn Wood is an insomniac who writes to calm the voices.  When the voices get too loud, stories are formed. 
Ava was born and raised in Texas but got to Florida as quick as she could, enjoying the fresh sea air and summer storms.  She believes there is nothing more beautiful than an evening summer light show. 
She’s married to the love of her life whom she shares two beautiful daughters and four sweet fur babies.  Their marriage is the perfect “North-meets-South” pairing. 
When she’s not writing, Ava can be found chasing her children all over the county, snapping photos of any and everything, visiting one of her local theme parks, or just spending quality time with her family.
To find out the latest about Ava Lynn Wood, go to www.avawood.net 









Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Interview with Author Barbara Best

:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:BBest My Harley Bike 10x7 72dpi.jpg
Barbara Best, Author
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.


Good morning, Barbara, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the place for Art and Authors. What have you written?
For over twenty-five years and until my retirement, I worked for the Marketing Department of a large credit union. It allowed me to develop my talents as a writer and graphic artist. During my career, I was recognized for monthly newsletters, brochures, website mastheads, advertisements and a lot of other written/visual material. This helped prepare me to write my debut novel, and when the time came, design my own book cover. Drawing from life experiences and writing about things that are near and dear to my heart, has been an exciting journey.
:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:The Lincoln Penny Cover 2017.jpg

THE LINCOLN PENNY: A Time Travel Series, Book 1 was released in 2014. THE LOVER’S EYE, Book 2 would follow in 2016, and Book 3 in my time travel series should be ready for publication sometime in 2018.


My series is about a young woman who has just hit the reset button on her life, landed her dream job, and moved to the city she loves most, Savannah, Georgia. It is the perfect place for someone with an insatiable appetite for history. But, little did Jane Peterson know, she would be living it. While participating in a reenactment at historic Fort Pulaski, she suffers the brutal consequence of an innocuous act that results in the end of her existence, as she knows it. The year 2012 abruptly becomes 1862 and Jane is thrust amid the bloodiest conflict in American history — the American Civil War.


Her ghostly appearance is a bad omen to the doomed Confederate soldiers at Fort Pulaski. During a raging battle with cannon balls raining down, and them on the losing side, Jane is forced to care for a wounded Lieutenant who is bemused by her peculiar talents and mannerisms. Among the men, she is the Mystifying Ghost Lady. In a chilling twist of fate, Jane must cross hostile enemy lines and seek shelter with strangers. Realizing the impact of her knowledge and horrors of Civil War medicine, her dream of rescue soon becomes a deep desire to save others.

Medical student Bryce McKenzie will never give up on the woman he loves. Vanished on her twenty-fourth birthday, he refuses to believe Jane Peterson is dead. They have shared a unique bond since childhood, but when did she capture his heart? With the help of Jane’s friend Sophie and only witness to her unexplained disappearance, he searches for the key to unlock an impossible mystery.


What is your favorite genre to write?
When it comes to genre, I have many on my palette — historical fiction, mystery, romance, adventure, and science fiction/fantasy. By blending these elements, I hope to give variety, surprise, and build a more engaging and satisfying reading experience. My novels reveal a genuine passion for history and innate ability to intertwine authentic detail with imaginative speculation. In addition, they are clean reads.


Favorite food?
Anything seafood.


:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:The Lover's Eye Cover 2017.jpgTea or coffee?
Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon.


Pizza or ice cream?
Definitely ice cream. Eating pizza all the time, day or night with my two kids when they were teens, killed my appetite for the decked-out flatbread and it sort of stuck. Now, guess what my grandkids order when we go out? Yep, that’s right.


Wine or beer?
Wine, when I’m traveling. Here, on my home turf, dining with an occasional margarita is enjoyable (salt, on the rocks, please).


Caption: Third trip to France, 
Notre Dame Cathedral Paris


:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:BBest Paris Travels 7x10 72dpi.jpgWhere would you like to visit?
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scotland are still on my bucket list. Can you tell I have the travel bug? I would like to see Japan again, and Africa is just a dream, but you never know.


Favorite musical artist:
Currently, I am mesmerized by the powerful singing voice of Idina Menzel and recently attended one of her concerts. She is an awesome performer.


Do you listen to music when you write? What?
Yes, if I remember to turn it on, and usually, music designed for meditation. Gentle orchestrations with sounds of the seashore and bird song in the background. I go to yoga class three times a week and this is the most relaxing for me. Although, I must admit I have become immune to the constant bleat from our television, and can tune most things out — a honed skill, still useful, and held over from motherhood.


What makes you laugh?
I usually laugh and take delight in the silly antics of animals (people’s pets). I have also been known to split my sides over a harmless prank, played on some poor unsuspecting victim to scare them half out of their wits. Some comedies, but not all, strike me funny.


Favorite work of art or sculpture:
My mouth still drops open when I think about the Sistine Chapel and having witnessed with my own eyes Michelangelo’s incredible painted ceiling. Moments later, I encountered the master’s sculpture, the Pieta, inside the Vatican. All of Rome is a work of art, a magnificent surprise at every turn.


How old were you when you started writing?
For me, self-expression began at an early age, when I took up a pencil to sketch the world around me. Soon, my pencil would begin to put thoughts and feelings to paper in the form of words. Creativeness has always been an important part of my life. It unlocks the inner me.


:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:BBest_Hubby Caribbean Cruise 7x10 72dpi.jpg
Caption: Caribbean Cruise, Barbara and her husband Bob.


Describe your perfect evening:
Hmm, I might get this question confused with a “typical” evening, where you can find me with hubby Bob on the sofa in front of the TV with our devices, a computer perched on my lap, a remote clutched in his hand. But seriously, my more perfect evening would be somewhere watching a glorious sunset over the Atlantic. I am a beach lover and have always lived close to the ocean. To expound on this topic, my favorite sunsets over water: St. Augustine and Key West, Florida, the Caribbean on a cruise, and I have caught a couple of beauties in Europe and Japan — it is enough to take your breath away, inspire the meaning of life, and form a lasting impression. Add to that, the company of a family member or good friend, which is most of the time, and I am as happy as an oyster (clam for those further north) at high water.


Caption: American Civil War reenactment in Georgia.


:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:BBest CW Reenactor 5x6 72dpi.jpgWhere do you get your inspiration?
In my novels, I write about a woman who travels back in time.  It may seem strange, but I, too, have gone back to the mid-1860s and I can tell you the transformation is amazing. As a reenactor immersed in the persona of a proper lady during the American Civil War, I know what it feels like to wake at the crack of dawn to a bugle’s razor-sharp call to Reveille, recoil from the powerful blast of cannon fire, and walk among Gothic archways in massive brick fortifications. I have danced the Virginia Reel and played period games at a soiree. Amid a sea of white canvas, I have camped in a simple A-tent on a barren hillside dotted with crackling campfires that cast an orange glow on somnolent faces and rifle stacks under a starry night sky. Sometimes it is so real you think you are there.


One night, during a Civil War reenactment at historic Fort Pulaski, Georgia, I realized I needed something from my car outside the fortification’s mighty walls. Solo and with my lantern held high, I took the walk out. On my way back, along the outer rim of the moat, over two drawbridges, and past the ancient iron gate and wooden doors of the sally port where a single Union soldier stood his post, it happened. I got this tingly, unexpected sensation that briefly befuddled my sense of reality and time. Reenactors often talk about rare déjà vu moments during events when the mind plays tricks and you suddenly feel as if you are there. This is most likely why moving from one time to another, for me, is natural. We reenactors are all time travelers, in a way.


What do you do when you get a writer's block?
I am not a disciplined writer, so I probably have had a block or two without knowing it. Usually, I write freely and have no set schedule or deadline (there was enough of that in my Marketing days). I write anytime the mood strikes and, I can honestly say, that is a lot of the time. When I do notice a break in my life’s work, I usually get a gnawing sensation in the pit of my stomach, made worse when I get a bit twisted on a storyline or lose direction. When this happens, I change things up. I switch to research or move my writing to another location or device. Thankfully, we are mobile these days. When “the block” raises its ugly head, I have also found it helps to clear my mind with a reminder “be patient, it will come . . . and it always does.”
:BLOG 2017 MaryAnne Yarde & Carol Ann Kauffman:BBest Book Signing 10x11 72dpi.jpg


Who is your favorite author?
There are so many and it varies from time to time. I am a history buff and was captivated by two remarkable writers, Jeff and Michael Shaara and their three novels of the Civil War. I am also hooked on Diana Gabaldon’s work, her authenticity and imaginative story about the journey of a woman who traveled from 1945 to 1743 Scotland. There are loads of “what ifs” when you think about suddenly living in the past that most of us have considered at one time or another.



Best book you ever read:
Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” stands out, because it is the first novel I fell totally in love with and have read several times since.


Last book you read:
Jim Fergus’ “One Thousand White Women” (The Journals of May Dodd)



What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
Writing “for a living” would be a huge stretch at this point in my life, but in the Marketing days, when writing drew a salary, my dream was to write freely and personally again. And, more importantly, why not a book? Now that I am retired and that unique privilege has come to fruition, I consider it more a serious and unique craft, a passion, if you will — an art form, like painting on canvas or playing the piano, which are other things I have done for pleasure and to fulfill my need for self-expression. I vaguely apply a business mind to my work and have the dream of every writer that I can get the words right and someone will actually take notice and be entertained by what I have done.



Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My answer is fairly predictable. My mother, for her imagination, stories and adventuresome spirit. I remember her describing a brush with death when she was a child. She grew up during America’s Great Depression, which is a sizable feat and intriguing yarn on its own, but that is for another time. As the story goes, my mother and her younger brother Bill were crossing a railroad bridge set high above a broad, swirling river. When they reached the center, she was the first to hear the whistle blow. A train was barreling down on them at a high rate of speed with no time to slow. Chillingly, there was no time for my mother or her brother to retrace their steps to safety. Neither one of them could swim. Taking young Bill by the hand, she helped him slide down under the tracks onto one of the vertical pilings and yelled for him to “hold on, don’t let go!” She did the same, briefly catching the popped eyes of the terrified conductor before she climbed out of sight and, no doubt, rescued them both from peril. My mother was always a good talker and storyteller. Even though I couldn’t have been more than five or six, I distinctively remember the visual picture it formed in my head, and the physical sensations and emotions it inspired. In hindsight, I would also like to add that my mother’s free spirit gave me the ability to try things others might not. Even now, she would say, “Why, Barbara, you surprise me!”


If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Wow! Although I am intellectually challenged in comparison, I would love to spend time with famed astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner, Carl Sagan. “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.” Sagan’s invitation to join him on a journey to understand the universe and, in the process, discover our greatness as human beings on this planet still gives me goosebumps to this day. After all, where would we be without our mind's eye? The God-given gift that allows us the freedom to go virtually anywhere and do anything. As a sidebar on space, the final frontier, I am a longtime Star Trek enthusiast (or Trekkie for those who share my appreciation for the related series, books and movies). I used to write Star Trek episodes for fun during my teenage years.


What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Read, read, read and write, write, write. My son-in-law asked me once, what made me write a book? He was curious how it happened, out of the blue, when so many people just talk about it. I think there is a writer in every one of us. We all have the tools to express ourselves, and a concept of creativity, style, courage, self-confidence, healing and spirituality within our grasp. Our ability to think and speak, and to put those thoughts and words down in the form of writing is the ultimate freedom to be oneself. Beyond that, and I cannot say it more plainly, just do it!

Do you have any links for us to follow you?
Visit the Author’s website:
Follow the Author on Amazon:
Like the Author on Facebook:
Tweet the Author on Twitter:
Find the Author on Goodreads:



Tuesday, August 29, 2017

The Art of French Post-Impressionist Edouard Cortez





Edouard Cortès



Edouard Leon Cortès was a French post-impressionist painter. He was born in 1882 in Lagny-Marne, France. 

He was of French and Spanish ancestry and was known as "Le Poet Parisien de la Peinture" or the Parisian Poet of Painting. He was famous for his cityscapes in all types of weather and his night settings.



His father, Antonio Cortès, was a painter in the Spanish Royal Court. He attended art school in Paris.  


I claim nothing here as my own. All information and photos were obtained on Edouard Cortès websites.
Links:

Monday, August 28, 2017

BLUE LAKE by Carol Ann Kauffman

BLUE LAKE

by Carol Ann Kauffman



When widowed Nicole decided to step back into life in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico with Richard, a young handsome British actor who professed his undying love and devotion to her on a daily basis, she mistook his boundless enthusiasm for her as little more than youthful impetuousness. She had no idea where their relationship would take her physically or emotionally. She would find herself in many dazzling international locations, putting her own life on hold, simply to be with him. She had no concept how strong her commitment to him would grow and to what extent she would go to protect him and ensure his safety and wellbeing. And she certainly had no idea the depth of his devotion to her, an unlikely but undeniable love that would span continents and a decade of their lives, entwining them closer and closer, while his career, their families, and other relationships pulled them farther and farther apart. BLUE LAKE is a story of the power of love.

The series, TIME AFTER TIME, follows a pair of quintessential lovers, Richard and Nicole, through their lives together, in different places, in different times, with different names and faces and sometimes even on other planets. This follows the alternative theory that the relationships we forge in this lifetime, both the good and the bad, are continued into the future, and are rooted deeply in our past. Whatever we do, whomever we love, and the good and evil deeds we do today follow us into the future. Unsettled issues will present themselves again and again, until they are ultimately resolved. Those people who have had a profound effect on us in this lifetime will find us again in the future. And although everything changes, love remains.

Books in the TIME AFTER TIME series are: BLUE LAKE, BELTERRA,The BASLICATO, BENTLEY SQUARE, WAITING FOR RICHARD, LORD OF BLAKELEY, and MacKALVEY HOUSE. They do not need to be read in order.  Another adventure, WAIT FOR ME in coming out soon.



on August 17, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition