Building a Wood-Framed Panelized Yurt: the book

We have a book! Actually, we have two books. Links to purchase them are below. Color printing costs were high on a 176 page book, so we also published a black and white version. The price is about 40% less than the color version, and the photos are clear enough to illustrate the task at…

Keeping busy during the off-season.

This summer I had two book projects to complete for Rourke Educational Media, then as often happens in summer, that was it until fall work comes in. But it ain’t quittin’ time! The writing life can be sporadic when it comes to paying work, but that doesn’t mean writers should just stop writing. If we…

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.*

Today I encouraged a friend on Facebook to credit the artist when posting a copyrighted image. It’s just a little quest that I have. Yah I know you found it on a site, or another friend shared it first, but I don’t care. I located the artist and posted the link to their work. To…

Sharing Our Stuff

Some of us are old enough to remember what a lonely job this is: creating stuff while sitting in a dark attic using a single candle for light. The family occasionally tossed up a bone and told us to sell something soon or we’d all starve to death. We’d send off our latest brainstorm in…

Old dog keeps on trying new tricks

African Elephant I’m still messing about with collage and the computer. This time I wanted the line drawing (that I create with a real pencil and piece of paper) to look like a block print. Well, it looks more like stained glass, but that’s okay. I used the “cut-out” feature in Photoshop to get the…

Back to Work.

This is another collage for the nonfiction book I’ve been working on. The verse is omitted since I hope to sell the idea at some point, but this critter and the setting worked well as a subject for collage. I hope that the publisher hires me to illustrate it if it sells! But honestly, that…

Go ahead and judge my book by its cover, please!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working on publishing another ebook – a reissue of The Complete Backyard Nature Activity Book, originally published in 1998 by McGraw Hill’s Learning Triangle Press. I designed the first cover, which featured a daytime scene surrounded by a night scene. The night scene had owls, flying squirrels,…

The Complete Backyard Nature Activity Book for Kids, Part I

In 1998 I wrote and illustrated a book called The Complete Backyard Nature Activity Book for Kids. There was a subtitle, too, equally as long. Originally it was called Going Wild! but the editor thought that title could be misleading. Editors are smart about these things; that’s one reason I love them. McGraw Hill’s Learning…

Robin’s Lighted Arted Design!

This is a box of the holiday tags that I marketed in the mid-1980s. I produced gift tag sets that included six designs in each little bag, with titles like Reindeerments, Santamonium, Pandamerrium, Kitten Kaboodles, and Fun Buns. I created these little designs using pen and ink and overlays for the red bits. Hand color…

Building a Small Cable Suspension Bridge with the Cable Locking System

“It’s a beautiful little bridge and I’d be very proud of it if it were mine.” – Dr. Raymond Cook, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering: University of New Hampshire. Our new book is now available! You can buy it either on Amazon.com or through our website, http://www.cablelockingsystem.com where we provide a quantity discount. You can…