I crochet. I embroider. I write. Not necessarily in that order. Tapping my creative juices is a bit like breathing to me. If I don’t do it, I don't feel well.
Watching my grandmother crochet or embroider fascinated me. When she offered to teach me, I jumped at the chance. Grandma handed me money and strict instructions not to talk to strangers, then sent me off to Murphy’s 5 & 10 in her small town to pick out an embroidery sampler and floss. I was 8 years old. I loved picking the colors of floss that would make the flat, plain cloth come alive.
Years later, that experience became the essay “French Knots” in my memoir SEVEN THIN DIMES.
My parents were voracious readers. The apple doesn’t fall far from that tree. My nose was always in a book. My mother often pushed me to go outside and play with other kids. In our family, the tally is: readers - a lot; painters & carpenters - a few; writers - none. Just me. By the fourth grade, I was reading on an eleventh grade level, dreaming sentences and rhyming words at night or daydreaming them during the day. My parents were supportive, but Erie, PA, in the 1960’s was void of outlets to explore creative writing. I had no idea why I had such a desire to put words together or that a girl like me could grow up to be a writer one day.
Fourth grade and Mrs. Whitmore changed my life. She was like a light in the dark. She was the first, only, and last teacher who complemented me and made me feel good about my writing. So, I wrote her a poem. Mind you, I’m not even sure I understood back then that what I did was called a poem. Mrs. Whitmore told my parents I had talent. Suddenly, I saw myself in an entirely new light. She allowed me to step out of the class, while the other students were reading books at a level I’d already surpassed, and explore SRA reading assignments, write plays, and put them on, later, for the class. But where to go and what to do in a city with no options?
Ninth grade brought the excitement of a newly offered creative writing class. By mid-term all joy at finally having a chance to learn to write had deflated into misery. The teacher was not a writer, nor did he appear to know much about the craft of writing. Following my submission of an assignment, he accused me of plagiarism. Ordered to sit alone in a room while he observed, I was given a subject and told to write at the same level and in the same style as my homework submission. To add to his draconian behavior, he gave me a time limit to complete it. Imagine doing that to a terrified 15-year-old. I should have told my parents, but I thought I was “in trouble” and kept quiet. He gave me an A+ for the class but never once offered kind words or additional help.
From teachers to high school counselors, no one seemed to be able to tell me how to be a writer and also earn a living. After a couple false starts in college, I chose journalism and stuck with it. Throughout my years working low paying jobs in various fields, I wrote poetry and essays, submitted them and was rejected. I often thought I’d create wallpaper from the rejection letters - now they’d be a screensaver for my laptop! Floundering, lost with no mentor or path to take, often working two jobs, I alternately wrote and gave up on writing. But I never stopped crocheting and embroidering.
I embroidered quilts for each of my nephews when they were born, creating a family tradition I continue for my great-nephews and great-nieces. I crochet “lapghans” and afghans for people who do kind things for me, or as a donation to a craft table at the church fundraiser. Efforts to financially afford to enroll full time in an MFA program, or to pursue the degree part-time around my job, failed. Approval for flexible work hours wasn’t available, nor were online degrees plentiful, like they are today. I wanted, desperately, to learn and grow and, most of all, to validate that I was born to write…that I did have talent.
Well, now that you’ve followed me through this sad tale, you must be wondering why didn’t I quit my job and go to graduate school for a writing degree? Or maybe you’re so slogged down in this story you think if I don’t get to the point where I turned a corner, you’ll give up.
Turning that corner starts like another sad tale, but with a happy ending. Post heart-attack, my father had loads of health issues. I didn’t feel I could leave Erie. Then I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1998 and faced a tough road through strenuous chemo treatments. Yet, after every big storm there's a rainbow somewhere if you look hard enough. The advice from a cancer survivor was “write 3 things you’ll do when, not if, you beat the disease”. Top of my list was to write and publish a novel. A refrigerator magnet held that list in front of my face each morning.
Twenty-six years later, I’m an author and cancer survivor who always has a crochet or embroidery project in progress! My early novels won small local awards, giving me courage to keep going. My recent novel, WHAT LIES WE KEEP, has won five awards. Publishing under my own label, Porch Swing Publishing, LLC, I’m carving a niche brand using cybersecurity in contemporary fiction to create additional suspense - a technothriller that’s not science fiction! And I put out a monthly newsletter - One Writer’s World - to reach out to readers.
Mrs. Whitmore was right all those years ago. I do have talent. I am a writer.
NOTE: Visit Janet’s website to learn more:
[NOTE from Jan: When Rebecca recently sent me some mockups of her re-branding work to get feedback on which graphics and logos I liked best, it piqued my interest. I asked her if she’d be willing to take part in my creativity challenge and share the story of how she creates and why. She agreed. Please enjoy!]
My creative journey started when I was 17 and I was offered a partial scholarship to an art school. My stepfather would not pay for the tuition, saying girls didn’t need an education, I should just be a secretary. So, no college for me… It destroyed any confidence I had, both artistic and generally.
I married for the second time in 1983 and relocated to the UK. It was there that my creative journey started again. My husband was the only one with a work permit, so I took five years of art history classes with Cambridge University. I got to tour art galleries, museums and stately homes all over the UK, Europe and since Brock was Australian was able to visit galleries there as well.
When PageMaker and CorelDraw were first released, my lovely husband purchased both programs for me and I dived right in. He worked in IT and suggested I RTFM many times. (Translation: Read the F-ing Manual) Well, I didn't read the manual, just jumped right in. It could be very frustrating for both me and family members when I would rant about the computer ‘not doing what I want’. I can still hear Brock’s response: “It’s doing what you tell it to do.” But I got there in the end.
My first artistic love was watercolors. Yet I found myself setting such a high standard for my work that when my first efforts weren’t perfect, it was too easy to just toss them in the trash. Even today, when I pick up a brush, I’m still quite tentative. Part of what I love about being artistic on the computer is that I can hit delete, undo or just not save the creation, something that isn’t possible with brush and canvas.
My book formatting/typesetting/design journey started in 2007 when a friend asked me to help her with her memoir. We bumbled through, learning so much along the way. She was pleased, we learned together, and another memoir followed. Then a novel, poetry books, self-help, a children’s book… I was on my way.
Today I have designed 50-plus books in just about every genre there is – book covers and interiors for authors who want to self-publish their book whether it be for putting out there on Amazon or just a few copies for family. It is such a joy to turn somebody's hard work into something beautiful that people want to read. It has become my main creative outlet.
It may not look creative, but technical things like figuring out leading (space between lines), kerning (space between letters), and choosing the font style and size get my creative juices flowing.
Even though both paragraphs contain the same text in the same size font, it is easy to see how one is much easier on the eye. No one wants to read a book that gives them a headache!
My advice as a graphic designer/book formatter to a writer is: just write! It doesn’t matter if you space twice or six times; hit return once or if your cat steps on the keyboard and you get a page of returns! InDesign, one of the most widely used formatting programs, has a very steep learning curve, but it is so powerful it can delete extra spaces or returns in moments. The same applies if you decide to change the name of your main character from James to Jessica!
Book covers are the really fun part – they combine my love of art with the ability to easily hit undo or delete. Here are three of my favorites.
Please reach out if you’d like to learn more about what I do:
Website: https://brockleydesigns.com
Phone: 404 247 8269
Oh, and in case you’re curious which graphic and font I chose for my rebranding, here it is:
Thank you to Cynthia Houston ~ artist, writer, and July's guest blogger in my 2025 "Celebrating Creativity" challenge. - JHR
When I was three years old, I painted a self-portrait with watercolor paints. It depicted my face with a round sun above my head. My mother was so proud of me that she framed my painting, but she had to cut the top half of the sun off to fit it in the frame. She said I cried for days because I thought she had ruined my sunshine. When I was four, my father taught me to color within the lines in my coloring book. Art became a part of me early in life.
Art was my favorite class in school. I took a multi-medium art class in junior high and was selected to create the letterhead for our school newsletter. I thought I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, but my high school counselor directed me to take typing and shorthand classes to prepare for a career as a secretary, as it was deemed unrealistic to pursue art. My parents agreed, and the four years of art classes I had scheduled became just one multi-medium class in high school.
My favorite medium has always been pencil, and through the years I've completed many sketches, not for display but just for fun.
Above, from left: "Tree on Rocks" ~ 2006; "Left Hand" ~ 2006; "Tree on Cliff" ~ 2006.
Many of my sketches of who-knows-what are stashed away in tablets and drawing books somewhere. Others, like these all-time favorites of two of my kids (below), I know exactly where to find.
Now in retirement, I've begun to enjoy the process of creating through painting with acrylics.
In August 2022, my sister Linda flew from Idaho to Atlanta to visit for several days before we drove from my house in Georgia to see another sister in Virginia. While here, Linda expressed a desire to paint a Tuscany villa landscape together using a painting tutorial. I was intrigued and dubious but also excited, so I bought canvases, acrylic paints, and brushes. We spent all afternoon and evening for three days painting to finish the artwork before our trip, and we did it!
It was so much fun, even though I had no idea what I was doing despite following the directions of Jerry Yarnell on the tutorial DVD. Everything felt like a blur, and I was sure that what I was putting on the canvas was probably wrong. Linda was encouraging and very positive, and her own painting experience was undeniably helpful.
Now, Linda and I paint twice a week, on Mondays and Saturdays from 1:30 to 6:00 PM. We had such a good time with our first villa painting that we figured out a way to paint together while being in different states. We set up our easels with a canvas, paint palette, spritzing bottle, water cup, and brushes. Whoever is set up first calls the other, and we put our phones on speaker, our TVs on YouTube, and we paint while talking about whatever comes to mind. Sometimes we share photos to paint the same scene, and other times we paint something different.
We began by using tutorials, then followed artists painting on YouTube, and finally switched to using photos. We also tried a bit of plein air painting, which adds a lot of pressure due to the challenge of capturing the moments before the light shifts or the outdoor scene changes.
I have now been painting for almost three years, and my attitude has changed significantly. I am happy that my painting journey has begun to morph and grow into what I feel is my own style. I enjoy the fact that I can use creative license to make my paintings unique. Trying different types of paintings keeps things interesting and expands my artistic abilities, enhancing my overall experience.
To spark my creativity, I hike in the mountains and walk my dog in the park. The beauty of nature, the shapes of clouds, and the colors in the sky are all intriguing. The texture and individuality of trees, along with the hues and shapes of leaves, as well as the changing sunlight and shadows, inspire my desire to paint.
My favorite way to begin a painting is to let the sky and clouds emerge from the canvas with a variety of tints and brush strokes, often unfolding into wonderful surprises.
I feel the most creative whenever I enter my painting room and see my paintings hanging on the wall. I eat lunch and work out with my kettlebells in the same space, enjoying the opportunity to study my paintings. I recall the learning process behind each one and reflect on my emotional attachment to them, which inspires me to expand those feelings by creating new, similar experiences. Often, I feel the urge to paint while watching the mountains and scenic views in the ultra-running videos on YouTube that I enjoy.
The only thing that blocks my creativity is when I’m painting and whatever I am working on doesn’t quite look right or the colors aren’t what I envisioned. When it’s not immediately clear what I don’t like, I set the piece aside and work on a different painting. Going back to scrutinize the canvas later gives me a new perspective and fresh ideas.
I am currently looking for ways to share my paintings. I have sold one commissioned piece to a friend and have had two paintings displayed at The Art House in Acworth, where my first painting sold. The second one is currently on display. I am also planning to start my own website to showcase my work. Meanwhile, if you are interested in learning more, you can contact me at:
CynthiaHouston05@comcast.net
Painting has given me a tool to express my inner self and share more time with my sister, especially since we live so far apart. The happiness I have felt from painting is incredible. I have also learned to be patient and persistent, and to take criticism (sort of).
P.S. from Cynthia: Life is fun, fulfilling, and rewarding. Find something you love to do and make it happen.
P.S. from Jan: If YOU , dear reader, would like to share your own creative journey in a guest blog post, please contact me at jan@janheidrichrice.com. Subject line for your email: I CREATE!
