Welcome to my official website. Here you will find information about me and my books, along with upcoming news.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

A Pictorial Look at Black Tree - V.II, VI.II

Black Canyon City is a small town roughly twenty minutes above the Phoenix area. During drives between Phoenix and the Verde Valley, I always loved to look out at the changing landscape, so it was natural for Julia to describe this land in a couple of places, as well. Because she gives the names or at the least the general area of each place, it's easy to tell which location she is in. But did you catch all of the locations that Abigail described?


For instance, in V.II, Abigail reaches a place with "an obelisk of raw earth and rock that grew up from a sloping platform" (89). She gives no name to this place because Abigail isn't in our time, but the place that I was describing was Black Canyon City, a little spot along the highway that has always caught my eye. There are so many shapes and colors and textures to look at. Here you can see a couple of pictures I took from the car on a cloudy day this past December.


I have one more view to share with you today. In VI.II, Abigail gives a rather bloody description of the redness of a Central-to-Southern Arizona sunset. I guess you could say I took a beautiful thing and gave it a touch of the grotesque--but Abigail's description is thematic and by way of theme returns to beauty. Here we have a glimpse of a Phoenix sunset's notorious bright orange, taken a couple of weeks ago at the Desert Botanical Garden. It's a rather dark picture for a sunset shot, perhaps, but that goes well with the darkness of Abigail's description, don't you think?



Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Award Coin & New Merchandise

Remember the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition, in which I was a runner-up with Black Tree? Well, the award coins have come in, and my coin is particularly excited to be home. I've set it up on top of my display copy of the book.




Once again, I'd like to say that it's nice to get outside acknowledgement that I created something worthwhile. It's a pleasure to have individuals say that they liked your book, but it's an even further honor to have any kind of recognition from a bigger group or organization.

I'm also taking this moment to make an announcement. I've opened up a store on Zazzle where you can buy Black Tree merchandise. Shirts, tote bags, stickers, mugs, that sort of thing. Definitely let me know if you have ideas for other products or designs, or if there is maybe a quote you'd like me to use in a design. The link to the store is www.zazzle.com/deannaskaggs.