I miss the bloggers...

Yesterday, I saw somebody mention on Facebook how much they missed the blogging days before FB and Twitter.  I agree.  The connections just seemed deeper, the information more interesting. But then it seemed we were all just so busy... and still are.

Yet so much has happened over time that trying to capture it in 140 characters or less seems impossible.

I miss the days of long, thoughtful posts by Natasha Fondren, Stewart Sternberg, Charles Gramlich, Sidney Williams, Steve Malley, Edie Ramer, Avery DeBow, Wayne Sallie, Jon Zech (so very missed!), and so many others.  Granted, several people do still post to their blogs, but the days of sharing of an active blogging community appear to be behind us.

And sadly, I'm as guilty as anybody for neglecting it all. Yet reading about Randy Johnson's passing on July 12, which was also Jon Zech's birthday, has made me a little nostalgic today and caused a few tears to fall.

Yet time marches on. We run, we stumble, we fly, we fall. Then get up again and again until the day we do it for the final time.

Here's hoping we all fly at the last.

It's the little things...

So, I've decided to go back to my roots with this blog (in other words, writing about writing and life in general) rather than talk too much about the graphic design.  After all, I have plenty of other places where I share the artwork.

Since quitting my "day job" to see if I could make it on my own as a freelancer, I've started writing again. I spent most of today editing some old work that I plan on re-releasing, as well as working on some new stuff. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed that. 

So, to get ready for what I hope will be at least 4 new releases this year, I wanted to put together a website for my books.  I already had a domain name that I purchased last year and never used, and it's still good for another year. However, as I looked into various options, I decided to just keep my old friend Blogger, and point the domain name here.

Well... that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!  However, after much ado, I now have "katesterling.net" pointing right here. It was so exciting! Lol. Like I said, it's the little things in life that count. :)

In other news, I also starting working as an editor for Cobblestone Press again, in addition to creating cover artwork for them.

What's new with you?

Magical Mondays: The List

Last June, I had listened to some old Napoleon Hill recordings, and per their recommendation, made a list of some objectives as well as how I intended to pay for the things I wanted to accomplish. For a few weeks, I slept with it under my pillow, then one day moved it to a drawer and forgot about it. I found it the other day while cleaning out some things and was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the things on the list have come to pass with perhaps one exception - and even that exception is actually true at the moment (whether it will continue to be true over the next few months remains to be seen).

Here's an example of an objective/accomplishment that I had written on 6/14/14:

I wake up in the mornings feeling happy, peaceful, excited and inspired to work on whichever type of art I choose to do, and that is how I spend my "working days" - all of the effort to accomplish this feels like fun and is easy and enjoyable because I am working with my strengths and passion.

A payment example:

I will work toward my objectives every day.

There are several more, but you get the idea - and they are all true as of today.

I keep the list by my computer so I see it every morning now. It helps on those days when I have doubts (and I do have those days!) to remember that dreams do come true.

Another year, another change

So, it's been almost two years - wow! - since my last post (which was, coincidentally, about transformation) and now I'm here to talk about what a difference a year (or two) makes.  Almost two years ago, I decided to pursue more of my digital design work due to competing priorities. This met with varying success - sometimes more business than I could handle on top of too much "day job" duties made me have to put it on hiatus for a while, then started up again last year.  I hadn't been blogging much in the past few years anyway, since work and Facebook seemed to be where most of my social time was spent.

Anyway, 2014 was full of challenges and rewards. Day job was a bear as always (working 50-100 hours per week), and my part-time gig, Sterling Design Studio, was also keeping me fairly busy. Then at the beginning of October, my wonderful boss was let go and our whole department was combined with another, less worker-friendly department in an unexpected restructuring.  From then onward, I was miserable, overworked, and really not liking the way things were headed.  I'd already been having to turn business away because of work conflicts, but with the new supervisor, I was going to have to cut back or even quit the artwork altogether.

About that time I ran across three things that had a major impact:  the books "Be a Free Range Human" by Marianne Cantwell and "Escape From Cubicle Nation" by Pamela Slim, and this video of a commencement speech by Jim Carrey. 



http://www.buzzfeed.com/maycie/this-61-second-video-of-jim-carreys-commencement-speech-will?utm_term=.da6OkYAZq&sub=3324049_3121257

There's more about what transpired here (SM Freedman Blog) in an interview that I gave to S.M. Freedman, author of the "The Faithful" and one of my clients.  (Side note regarding that book: one of Oprah Winfrey's staff read it and liked it enough to give to Oprah to read, and suggested it for her book club. Congratulations to S.M. Freedman - a great writer and a wonderful person!)  

Anyway, to make a long story short:  I quit my day job. Am now a full-time artist and writer - just like I've always wanted to be. :)  Where it will lead from here, who knows... but at least I plan on enjoying the journey while I can.

So, that's my recent big news - what's up in your world that you'd like to share?