Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Beautiful things...

Birch bark, March 2010

Rotten pumpkin from last Halloween, March 2010 (maybe not so beautiful to some, but dang, I thought it was mighty cool looking anyway!)


Weed and peeling paint, March 2010

Bare Trees and mist, March 2010

Old bricks, March 2010

A pale leaf, March 2010

The Robin's Story:
I rescued this poor little fellow this morning, (I believe it is a young male from last spring.) The robins have been abundant on the acre and there was a bit of a scrappy bird war going on, and this little guy took a header right into my studio window! I looked out and saw the poor thing lying in the leaves, I feared that he was dead, but when I went outside for a closer look, I saw he was breathing and the little eye flickered open. The other robins were fussing wildly, partially still at war with one another over territory, but those in the immediate area were cussing me out for butting in. I gently scooped up the little fella, cupped in one hand and held him close, sheltering him from the wind. It's such a beautiful thing holding a fragile wild creature, feeling it's life and warmth. After a brief examination, I determined the little wings were not broken, the feathers were all aligned proper, usually they're just stunned and need a chance to come around. After a bit of time, he perked up, and the little feet grasped my fingers, I asked him if he wanted to leave, but he remained hunkered down in my hand, so I tucked him close again. A little longer, the wings fluttered and the eyes were brighter. When I felt certain that he was going to be all right, I found a safe place in the blue spruces on the north side where it was less windy, and perched him on the branches, but he wound up tumbling to the ground and hunkering down in the leaves; a bit of wavering sunshine landed across his back and he seemed content (so of course, I ran inside to get my camera!) He spent most of the day there, being quiet, getting his bearings. By this time the rest of the robin tribe seemed to have sorted out their territorial dispute and were hopping around looking for food, flying and tut-tutting. Later, during my walk with Max, he was still there, but hopping around, looking over his shoulder, watching me; hop and flutter. I called out "Hey, you, I need to make sure you can fly, go on, git!" I clapped my hands and he took off for the trees. A happy ending.

I'm up to chapter 10 in my latest proof-reading round with The Fractured Hues of White Light, I'm hoping to get past chapter 11 before the day is over...and squeeze in a little bit of painting too...

My giveaway of Dusty Waters at Library Thing wound up today, the three winners were announced, and I will be mailing out their signed copies this week, by Wednesday the latest.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Life of the Mind...what we dream of, that we are...

I spent a few minutes with our friend's old horse barn this week, and have been fiddling around with photos, these are a few of my favorites, I'm still "playing", I really love the brown tint I managed to create in this first one...

This one has a real "Boo Radley" look to it...

Haunted...
Seeing the trees grown up in front of the stall door reminds me how long it's been since Eli and Bill passed through to spend a day in the paddock. The horses are long gone, the kitten that was born in that barn is now a fat little old tabby.

I love how I was able to keep the pale blue color in the glass.

Life really beats the crap out of these old places, but this one lingers on, a sturdy testament to how well it was built... but it won't stand forever without attention...

Old paint, old boards...

Hard as nails.

I finally turned over my new changes that I want made to The Fractured Hues of White Light, I sat on them for several days, reading through them, making certain that they were sensible so when my Fred and I go into it, there's no question where they are in the manuscript proof and what I want done. I will need to read through the whole book one more time before I publish it, so I suspect we'll be well into April before I can even think of publishing...but that's fine, I want it to be right.

There are times I'm so glad to be self-published, I can take my time, there's no stress allowed. I've read enough about authors who have nightmare experiences when they lose their editor at the publisher before publication, and being assigned a new one who is not an advocate for the book, who doesn't return phone calls...I'm sure this doesn't happen all the time, but with my luck it would...it's a cluster-fuck I don't need...

I take my writing very seriously, I'm creating a book that will endure, it's not a product that will satisfy the latest craving saturating the market...I don't anticipate making a quick buck. Dear god, what's wrong with me, right? I'm an artist, I'm a writer, that's what's wrong with me. It lights up my soul to read a book that is well crafted, reading words that a writer has spend time putting together, a story that is timeless (not necessarily timely).

Today's blog title comes from an article that I recently read about Joyce Carol Oates in Smithsonian Magazine...

"—I was mesmerized by books and by what might be called “the life of the mind”: the life that was not manual labor, or housework, but seemed in its specialness to transcend these activities."
She always has such interesting things to say, follow the link if you're interested in reading more.

The life of the mind...yes. That's what I wanted to do when I grew up...my time spent in libraries, museums, art studios, theaters, wandering around in woods and meadows, the associated smells that would excite me, chasing the elusive dream ("What we dream of, that we are" - JCO) The pictures in my mind that I wanted to paint, the stories that I longed to tell...

The life of the mind. Yes. That sums up my two disciplines, art and writing...I'm always looking and digesting what I've seen, I'm always listening and absorbing what I've heard...it's an existence dependent on the senses...I feel so alive while I'm working on the latest thing... heart breaking at the same time as profound happiness...it's so beautiful.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Formations...

This was ice in a small puddle in my driveway the other day...

Lichen on an old tree stump...

This is some mossy stuff on one of the logs for our fire...


Tree branches against the sky...

The flow of water...


A sprig of a weed on a board...


Another spot in that puddle...


One of my old maple trees...

Looking at these formations... order and chaos at the same time... really pretty stuff.

Speaking of order and chaos... I just finished my latest proofreading of The Fractured Hues of White Light, it's been a month... a long long month of steady work... I started at the end of the proof and worked my way forward, bit by bit, picking out changes to make, rethinking some paragraphs that felt a bit "thin" that I took the time to improve upon. I've been working on this book since... well, 2001 I think I plunked down the first notes having to do with a curious conversation between a couple of people who had nothing to do with a book I was working on at the time... since their banter wouldn't go away I had to write it down, they were too distinct to ignore... there's order and chaos in writing. I've been working on getting this baby ready for publication for almost a year... originally I thought I could get it done by October, but that didn't happen (obviously), but thankfully, I've been taking my time, it's a better book for the extra effort and time. I figure I have one more read through before printing... I'm hoping by May she'll be ready to put into the hands of readers...

Monday, March 8, 2010

Studying Stones...

My visit to Tinker Falls last month allowed me to get behind the frozen waterfall to photograph the beautiful rock formations behind it...tho' many of my photo's turned out to be blurry because it was dark and my hand wasn't very steady... these are my favorites from that day...


I've been busy as can be working on my proof for The Fractured Hues of White Light, I have three more chapters left to proofread, I'm so relieved that it's getting closer to being ready to publish...and it's just as good as I believed it to be...


Lovely stuff... I've started printing photographs on my new printer, working out what ones are the best of the best, and tweaking images that need work...I'm impressed with how nice they print...and now I'm nearly out of ink, so I must wait for my order to arrive (unless I go to the store first and pick up more!)