My Son David’s New Book, Art, and New Projects

David’s New Book

We had a lot of excitement in my family this week.  My youngest son David A. Tatum published his fourth novel.  it’s always a wonderful thing when a new book gets published around here.  He has his own small publishing company Fennec Fox Press, and he has assured me that he will publish my quilting books through Fennec Fox also.  His other three books are Fantasy and are wonderful.  This book is his first space opera book and is also a wonderful fun book to read.  He hired a wonderful cover artist Joel Christopher Payne, that I talked about in my last blog. He’s the same artist I bought the rights on one of his paintings to use as inspiration for a new show quilt, and no, it isn’t the same picture.  Here’s the new book cover.  You can click on it and it will take you to the Kindle version in Amazon.  The print version is not yet out, but it will be in a few weeks from now.  That takes more time.

The Merrimack Event

If you want to help a wonderful man, my son David, I would love to have you buy a copy and once you have enjoyed reading it, for I am sure you will, I ask wholeheartedly for you to go to the Amazon site and write a small review, giving it the highest number of stars you feel you can.  It doesn’t have to be long…even a single sentence is enough, but the better review you can truthfully provide, the better off he will be.  He has put a lot of himself in his writing and it is good and getting better all the time.  His writing is his career…he is a novelist.  Reviews are so important, especially in the early days after publishing.  The only money he makes is from the sales of his books, and getting people to discover his work (even know they are there) is the singly hardest thing to do in the publishing world.  His work is really wonderful, and I say that from a reader’s perspective, not a mom’s.  If you don’t believe me, buy a book and read it and see what you think.  LOL  You can see his earlier books all have 4 plus star ratings, and Amazon won’t let me write one–I’m too close to the author.  This one is so new it has no ratings at this time.  Or wait until the print copy comes out and buy it just because you love the cover art…isn’t it fabulous?  It calls out “buy me”, “buy me”….LOL

If you’d rather buy, read, and review a fantasy novel, that helps too. He has written In Treachery Forged, In Forgery Divided, and The Kitsune Stratagem, all available in both ebook format or print copy.

My New Projects

My last blog was about Joel Payne’s art that I purchased and I have already made considerable progress getting this project up and running.  I usually spend three to six months designing my own quilt.  This year I am making three quilts that the art work is already done for me—Joel’s painting, my oldest son Ken is drawing a followup to Pendragon, and then a deep space quilt based on some NASA photos.  This means I can jump right in and start making the patterns, putting me months ahead for the 2018 show season.

Yesterday I took a little time out and cut out a reversible vest and a matching quilted tote bag.  The vest will have embroidery on it that I am using from the collection that came with Gibbs, my Bernina 830 LE, that I have never used.  It’s flower designs for the front and the back. I am using different designs for each front and back, but they are all from the same collection.  I always need a project that isn’t very stressful to work on when I am making a show quilt so I can go work on that when I get stressed out over my show quilt.  It’s a nice system and it works.  Plus, I get some clothes or bags or presents for friends and family out of it. Sometimes it’s another quilt.

OK, next week I will write up my instructions for making a pattern from a painting or photograph.  So look around and find what you would like to use and I’ll tell you how I do this.  If you have either Adobe photoshop, Corel Draw, Bernina design software, or some other drawing or photo editing software, that’s what I use.

Sew happy everyone!  Let’s each make something for those in Houston or Louisiana impacted by the hurricane…cuddle quilts, pillow cases, tote bags…or make a contribution of funds, or even both.  Look around for a good organization to send them through.  I’m going to use Jenny Byer’s studio which is not too far from here. She is collecting quilts.