Wilsonia Book For Sale

 

the Cabins of Wilsonia

Sometimes I get emails or phone calls asking where to buy the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia.

The 2 short answers are:

  1. at Amazon
  2. From me

Amazon is self-explanatory if one shops online. Here is the link. The Cabins of Wilsonia

“From me” has options:

  1. Mail a check to my P.O. Box and I will mail a book to you. (P.O. Box 311, Three Rivers, CA 93271)
  2. Send money via Paypal to cabinart@cabinart.net, making sure to include your shipping address, and I will send you a book.
  3. See me at a show/boutique/presentation/festival/arts and crafts fair and buy the book there.
  4. Use the Paypal Add To Cart button on the Book For Sale page.
  5. Call me and I will
     tell you all the options. (559-561-7606)
  6. Encounter me by accident somewhere, and I will pull a book out of the trunk of my car for you. Checks or cash, but not plastic. (And I still drive a stick shift and don’t have a microwave either.)

The book is $81, which includes tax. I will pay the mailing costs, and no, I don’t charge a “handling fee”. (Doesn’t it bug you when a company says “free shipping” and then tacks on a “handling fee”?)

Here is another handy Paypal Add To Cart button so you don’t even have to test out any of those other methods.

True confessions of a confused artist: I can’t figure out if the Add To Cart button includes sales tax. If you get charged more than $81 when using this button, I will reimburse you. Sometimes the very technology that is supposed to simplify our lives just confounds, confuses and complicates things. Or is it just me?

 

Want to Know What is Happening to the Book Project?

What book?

pencil drawing of Wilsonia cabin

So glad you asked! It is The Cabins of Wilsonia.

I’ve proofed the book in every way that I can think of. Until every possible proofing method has been exhausted, I don’t want to send it off to the printer. Besides, it takes money before they will print, so. . .

. . .I will be pre-selling it and selling the original drawings in Wilsonia on July 5, gathering the dollars needed to pay the printer and binder and shipper.

To learn more about the proofing configurations, calisthenics and craziness, you are invited to visit my Cabins of Wilsonia site today. (It will open in a new window so you won’t lose your place here.) You are invited to visit that site any day. Did you know that?

A California Artist Visits the Pacific Northwest

I went to the Seattle area so my friend Carol could help me finalize the design on the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia. She taught me how to use Adobe Indesign almost 2 years ago and has an excellent eye for design. I get caught up in “oh, I love that cabin” and “those people were so nice” and “wow that one was challenging” and then I forget to pay attention to the design of the pages.

We worked.

We walked, always either in rain or the threat of rain.

There are some things that are just wonderful about visiting Carol, in addition to just being together.

1. The internet is SUPER CRAZY FAST at her house! Probably isn’t any different than anywhere else in a larger population than rural Three Rivers. But oh my, how thrilling to download a book from Audible in THREE MINUTES! Takes 2-3 tries overnight to get it to download at home.

2. Scarves are for warmth instead of decoration. I wore my knitted items with tremendous thankfulness while in the cold and wet.

3. Ferry travel is the best way to travel, the ultimate in getting from point A to point B. I love it! Carol said that back when she was in college, some kids would study on a ferry. They’d stake out a table and sit and ride and study all day long. Now, you are required to get off when the ferry reaches its destination. If you want back on, you buy another ticket.

Tomorrow I’ll post about some of the things we saw and did AFTER finishing the design work. It was a business trip of course. You weren’t questioning my work ethic, were you?

Happiness and Drawing a Book

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
has captivated me. She is a writer who had a flash of insight: “The days are long but the years are short”. She realized that she wasn’t enjoying her life and appreciating her blessings as she ought to, so she set out to study happiness and learn if a person can boost one’s own happiness.

Wilsonia cabin porch
Don’t you just want to sit on this porch and read “The Happiness Project”?

Normally I borrow books from the library and this was no exception. However, I wanted to underline and scribble notes in the margins, so I actually bought my own copy! (Gasp of shock, but it IS a used copy!!) You can buy one too. I am now an Amazon Associate*, so that is my recommendation of a place to get yours.

Why am I telling you this on a blog about being a California Artist?

In her month of working on more happiness at work, Gretchen lists “Enjoy Now” as one of her resolutions.

I have set a goal of drawing an entire book. It occurred to me that as someone who is motivated by completion, I am in danger of just gritting my teeth and plowing through 230 drawings with the “wake me up when it is over” mindset.

NO NO NO!! I love to draw! Sure, it gets lonely in the studio. To say “Yes” to completing this goal, I am saying “No” to every interruption, diversion and spontaneous opportunity for a year. Wah.

So? This is a self-imposed deadline. It is a well-thought out plan. Drawing is a privilege. I get to work in my home studio without commuting. I love to draw. I plan to enjoy it every step of the way.

Thank you, Gretchen Rubin!

*This means that if  you click “The Happiness Project” under “Books I Love” on the left side of my blog, and then actually buy after clicking the link, I will earn a little bit of money from Amazon.

Productive and Pathetic in Wilsonia

I spent a very productive week at a cabin in Wilsonia, a private community within Kings Canyon National Park. The idea was to talk to lots of people, to learn and write down their stories, impressions, memories and thoughts on cabin life there. I was fairly certain that I had all the photos I needed and that the design of the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, was almost cast in stone.

a cabin in wilsonia
Not the cabin where I stayed, but a very visually appealing cabin in Wilsonia that I keep photographing over and over and over. . .

But. . .

. . . While there, I finally had the opportunity to work uninterrupted on the book. (When I’m in my own studio, there is so much painting to do that the non-urgent business of the book collects dust. I want to work on the book, I really really like working on the book, I wish I could just work on the book every day! Okay, I think you believe me now.)

Redesign: Each day I walked through Wilsonia with my camera and continued to photograph things for a second and third time. OF COURSE I kept finding new things to photograph.This meant I needed to re-evalutate which were the best choices for each street, and continually redesign each section.

Rebalance: I began to realize that there was an imbalance. How many pages have I allotted to each street? (called “Lanes” in Wilsonian) How many cabins are there on each Lane? Had I given the most populated streets the greatest number of pages? This took quite awhile to discern and then to redesign.

Quote Gathering: In addition to the photography and redesign, there were many conversations with people, which was the point of the visit. It is interesting that folks assume I am compiling the history of Wilsonia. Their first response to knowing that I’d like to include quotes from the cabin community is to give me a list of previous owners of their cabins!

This is most likely due to my own inept interviewing and inadequate explanations. I’m an artist, not O’Reilly. (It probably isn’t a good idea to bark at them, “This is a no-spin zone!”) I’m now realizing that gathering quotes will take a long time, lots of conversations, lots of getting to know people gradually. When Jane Coughran and I did The Cabins of Mineral King in 1998, we simply sent forms in the mail requesting stories, and magically, they got filled out and returned. Doesn’t work that way any more.

Eating an elephant: It is time to face the fact that this book is going to take at least 2 more years to get to publication.

That’s not the pathetic part. I’ll tell you that part tomorrow.

More tomorrow about my work week in Wilsonia. . .