The Cat Collier Mystery Series by Carol Ann Kauffman

This is how the Cat Collier Mystery Series begins. This is the opening paragraph from the first book, January Black Ice, where you meet the feisty redhead, Mary Catherine Collier, as she agrees to help an old hermit lawyer find out if a stranger in town is his son.

 

The short story mystery selections so far are:         

                   

                     January Black Ice

                     February White Lies

                     March Blues

                     April Yellow Moon

Amazon Link for January Black Ice:

http://tinyurl.com/zmv3jeq

American illustrator Jon Whitcomb

Jon Whitcomb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I'm Proud of You Folks Too!", US Navy poster, 1944

Jon Whitcomb (1906–1988) was an American illustrator. He was well known for his pictures of glamorous young women. He was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma and grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated from Ohio State University with a major in English. He is the brother of fashion designer and inventor Merry Hull.^[1]

Whitcomb started drawing illustrations for student publications while a student at Ohio State, and worked summers painting posters for a theater in Cleveland, Ohio. After he graduated, Jon found work making travel and theater posters and advertising illustrations. In 1934 he moved to New York City and joined with Al Cooper to found the Cooper Studio. Whitcomb was a pioneer in the switch from oil to gouache for illustrations. The different qualities of gouache compared to oil led to changes in the design of Whitcomb's illustrations. He zoomed in on people, usually pretty, young city women, and reduced the background to simple design elements. His new style of illustrations soon appeared in Collier's Weekly, Good Housekeeping and other magazines.

During World War II Whitcomb was commissioned a Lieutenant, Junior Grade in the United States Navy. After a variety of duties, he was assigned as a combat artist for the invasions of Tinian, Saipan, and Peleliu.

After the war Whitcomb produced a series of articles and sketches about Hollywood stars for Cosmopolitan, called "On Location with Jon Whitcomb". He continued to produce story illustrations and covers for magazines, including McCall's and Playboy. He wrote some short stories, two children's books, Coco, and Pom Pom's Christmas, and a book on glamour, All About Girls. He was one of the founding faculty of the Famous Artists School.

This is one of those artists whose work is recognizable, but whose name is not. Jon Whitcomb certainly captured the 1940-1950s era of glamour.

Once again, nothing here is mine I claim nothing. All information is from Wikipedia and Jon Whitcomb's online sites. 

Interview with Larada Horner-Miller

Larada Horner-Miller

Albuquerque, NM

USA

Good morning, Larada, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the place for Art and Authors. What have you written?

A Time to Grow Up:  A Daughter’s Grief Memoir, When Will Papa Get Home?, This Tumbleweed Landed, Let Me Tell You a Story and a three book cookbook series of my mom’s recipes.

What is your favorite genre to write? 

Memoir

Favorite food?

Pizza

Tea or coffee?

Coffee

Wine or beer?

Neither

Where would you like to visit?

Machu Picchu

Favorite musical artist.  

George Strait

Do you listen to music when you write? 

No

What makes you laugh?

Slapstick comedy

How old were you when you started writing?

15-16 years old

Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?

I just write.

Describe your perfect evening.

Square and round dancing with my husband.

Where do you get your inspiration?

My experiences in life and my family.

What do you do when you get a writer's block?

I have never experienced writer’s block.

Who is your favorite author?

Contemporary – Jodi Piccoult. 

Classic – Charles Dickens and Shakespeare

Best book you ever read.

Gone with the Wind

Last book you read.

The Easter Egg Mystery

What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?

Travel Photographer

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?

My mom influenced me the most because we worked through a lot of difficult issues in our relationship and she was willing at an older age to face it all and heal.

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

I would love to talk to Shakespeare and see what was his inspiration.

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?

I wrote two pieces 30+ years ago and they lay in a drawer. When I retired in 2013 I started revising one and self-published it in 2014. I self-published the second book in 2015. Don’t get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and put your dreams on a back burner. Pursue writer like it is the most important thing in your life and don’t give up.

Do you have some links for us to follow you?

Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Larada-Horner-Miller/e/B00LLQTXSM/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1506804248&sr=8-2

Web site:  https://larada.wix.com/author

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Larada.author

Tweeter:  https://twitter.com/laradah

PInterest: https://www.pinterest.com/laradahm2012

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/larada-horner-miller

Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/larada_hm

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/103131274415611764833

The British Artist Tristam Hillier

Tristam Paul Hillier was an English surrealist painter. He was born on April 11, 1905 in Peking, China. He was the four children of banker Edward Guy Hillier and his wife, Ada Everett Hillier. He was educated at Downside School. He returned to China in 1922 to study the language. He stayed until 1924, when he started college at a Catholic school in Cambridge. His first one man show was in 1931 at the Lefevre Gallery. 

Hillier was a member of Unit One, a British Modernist group of painters, sculptors, and architects founded by Paul Nash.  Unit One was active from 1933 to 1935. This group is regarded as a very influential in focusing on London as the center of the Modernist Movement in art and architecture.

During the Second World War, Tristam served with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves and the Free French. After the war he lived in France and Spain for a while before returning to England.

Tristam Hillier was married twice. He married Irene Rose Hodgkins in 1931 and they had twin sons, Jonathan and Benjamin.
The marriage ended in 1935. 

In 1937 he married Leda Millicent Hardcastle, the daughter of Sydney Hardcastle, the inventor of the First World War Hardcastle Torpedo. Together they had two daughters, Mary and Anna-Clare.

Tristam Hillier died in Bristol, England, on January 18, 1983. He remained a surrealist painter all of his life.

Lord of Blakeley by Carol Ann Kauffman

The series, TIME AFTER TIME, follows a pair of quintessential lovers, Richard and Nicole, through their many lifetimes 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. A new one is coming out in early fall called WAIT FOR ME>

Lord of Blakeley is the story of Andrew of Blakeley, a simple farm boy who lives on a primitive future planet. He is chosen by the lovely Lady Aleese to be her mate and rises to become the most powerful man on the planet. But a jealous man with access to mobile transport devices wreaks havoc on the young couple’s happiness, separating them, her on an alien rock planet and he, aboard a slave ship, and then dumping them in present-day Chicago. One day Aleese vanishes into thin air and Andrew is arrested for her murder and must stand trial. It is a story of devotion and jealousy, of loss and lunacy. And, in true Time After Time fashion, a story of love.

Amazon Buy Link:
 http://tinyurl.com/o2xqh6r