Welcome!

Falling into Changes

As with most things in our lives, change is inevitable. Usually change is good and I'm looking at the changes that I will be

implementing as definitely a good thing.

That change is about my website which will affect my newsletter. Right now my author and artist news exists side-by-side on one website. But as of January 2020, the one shall be separated into two.

DJGeribo.com will be exclusively for my writing and will feature my books, my book reviews, and everything related to writing. My art will then be found under DJGeribofineart.com.

And since I'm separating the two different creative arts that I love so much they will each have their own newsletters, also. I'm also changing my quarterly newsletter to bi-monthly. Both newsletters will come out the end of the following months: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Since they will come out more often they won't be as long as my current newsletter, featuring only 2 or 3 articles each.

I am using my same Mailchimp email list so I hope you continue receiving both my bi-monthly artist newsletter and my bi-monthly author newsletter. I also welcome comments on both!

As always, I appreciate and am grateful for your interest in my creative endeavors!

Add your comments to my DJGeribofineart blogs!!!

Writings & Musings

National Novel Writing Month

In 1999, Chris Baty and 20 other friends started NaNoWriMo. Since then it has grown to more than 306,000 participants in 2017. I've heard about it for years but never participated. I thought it was time and I participated, completing a novel I started that had 11,000 words and I ended with over 51,000.

So, I did it! I was inspired this year, mostly because I haven't completed a book since 2018 - coincidentally the same year we got a puppy - yes he took a lot of my time. It was often difficult trying to concentrate. And now that he is almost 2 years old, it was time to get back to serious writing. But I was having a hard time doing that. I would set up a schedule, for example, 10am - 1pm, and then 2pm - 6pm. or something like that. Following this schedule might have happened once.

Link to DJ Geribo's Blog

The premise of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words, basically a novel, in a month. That averaged out to 1667 words a day. YIKES! you might be saying. But what I found, the greatest lesson for me, was that this worked. Having a certain number of words to write daily, to be accountable, worked. Although I won't continue writing 7 days a week, I will commit to writing 10,000 words a week!

I have more than enough to keep me writing for years to come. I'm excited that I figured out what works for me. Many thanks to NaNoWriMo!!!!

My paintings all seem to be in various stages of completion with just a bit more work needed to complete them. This is one that I'm really enjoying and love the way it is coming out. Gourds are so interesting with their bumpy shapes that they present a real challenge when painting them. I particularly like the yellow one on the left with the crook neck. So, adding to my long New Year's list will be to complete all my nearly complete paintings.

To see more of my art work, visit my fine art website.

My Books
My Latest Novel

The best decision I made this year, specifically this Fall, was to participate in the NaNoWriMo event. Because of this event, I completed a novel. For some reason I have been unable to complete a novel these past couple of years. But making the decision to follow through to the end has given me the confidence to complete other novels as well.

The problem I had over the past years was scheduling the time to write. I just couldn't seem to get it together. I couldn't commit to a certain daily time schedule. It wasn't working for me. So, I found a different way, thanks to NaNoWriMo, to 'schedule' my writing. And it was by keeping a daily word count.

This worked like magic. I just had to write 1666 words a day, every day, for the month of November. I started with a novel that I had written 11,000 words for and by the 27th of November I had finished the book with just over 51,000 words. My new writing schedule will now be focused on completing 10,000 words a week, which is 2,000 words a day.

My books are also on Amazon!

Easily doable! I can write Mon-Fri or I can mix it up if I have something else going on and even write more words each day but that is my goal. At the end of the month, each month, I will have 40,000 words written.

I've also decided that since I never know what I want to work on from day-to-day and I have so many novels, non-fiction, middle-grade, and short stories that I want to finish, this schedule works just fine for me. I set up a different kind of schedule where I simply record the # of words I've written for the day.

Of course, after that comes editing, which is what is on my list right now. But with the holidays here in December I'll be finishing up this book in January. I'm excited to complete this new novel and try out my new writing schedule. The plan, then, is to complete at least 2 other books in 2020. I'm keeping a positive outlook!

To order your copy of my latest book "Seven Storied Houses" go to www.BBDPublishing.com.

"A true artist is not
one who is inspired, but who inspires others."

— Salvador Dali

Story in 6

"Book Hog"

Julie bought a book. She loved the book and read it in one day. A few days later she bought three more books. Then as she went around her town, she noticed more and more places that either gave books away or sold them, by the bag, for a couple of dollars. As time went on she couldn’t stop herself and she had soon accumulated a massive amount of books. She heard a joke and was sure it was talking about her; “I gave my books their own room; now they want the whole house.”

Authistpreneur

author/artist/entrepreneur

Someone who is an author, an artist, and an entrepreneur. Any person who writes or has a published novel, who paints fine art/illustrations, and also has established businesses using the combination of artistic talents.
- DJ Geribo

What I'm Reading

Once again, I've been lax in my reading. Of course, my excuse for November was NaNoWriMo. But
we did have three other months (no need to mention that December is all about Christmas). Somehow things are just getting busier - I don't know if it is life in general but it seems as if each day is packed with more to do. But I did manage to read a couple of books.

S*itShow - I've decided that Richard Russo is my new hero and I plan to read many more of his books, which luckily I have in my personal library.This one, a novelette, covered the gamut of relationship woes and misunderstandings. David, the main character, seems lost in his once secure and predictable world. A metaphor on the state of our country at this time, feces and smells that accompany them begin appearing in his hot tub. Russo proves his talent in a mere 45 Kindle pages.

The Destiny Thief - I bought this collection of essays at the 603 Writers Conference in NH that I went to in 2018. Richard Russo was our guest speaker and this was his latest book. He read one of the essays from it and I decided I had to have it. Plus it was autographed. This book has felt like a cup of hot cocoa on a winter's night while sitting in front of the fireplace. He speaks to me, his reader, about what he tolerated from professors when a young man. He shares, in the most honest words I've ever read, what it takes to 'get good' as a writer. He explains sincerely how a friend's sex change also changed him. He explains the flexibility when writing omniscient, which I've done and believe this is my calling. Superb writings that I know I will refer back to and read again and again.

Go to My Blog to See What I'm Reading

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