Mad Geek Love
I am absolutely bewitched by Curio. And that’s before I’ve even started doing white boards on it. Heidi showed me the opaque slide which means I can make some of the images transparent on a sliding scale which means I can make faces come out of flames or water or layer landscapes over landscapes . . .I’m telling you, for a writer, the ability to layer pictures the same way you layer symbols into a text is intoxicating. And this is a ghost story, so it’s really fabulous. I still have to get in the majority of the supporting cast and then start layering in the key words and phrases, but since I have to write another book first, there’s time. And in the meantime, a book I’ve been thinking about for ten years has just taken a leap forward.
It’s just amazing how much story this process brings out as you work. It’s not an art piece, it doesn’t matter if it looks good, all that matters is that I can get down visually the way I want the book to feel so that when I look at it, I go into the world of the story automatically. But this program makes it an artistic experience, visually writing the book the way I’d write in text by moving pieces around and layering them.
I know, I’m getting boring on the subject. But I love this program. And now I have to go work on poor Zelda, starting with a collage and a white board in Curio. I love this program. Mad Geek Love.
Oh, and when you “Zoom to fit” and then hit Think to black out the rest of the screen . . .Whoa, babe.
You’re laughing at me, aren’t you? I know Bob is. Sigh.
Greatness is always misunderstood.
Addendum, Nov. 10, 2007:
Here’s the cut-and-paste collage for the same book, also still in progress, to show how the two processes result in different aspects of the same book:
I’m not laughing–I’m envious, and inspired. It is really cool to see what you can do, a whole new way of thinking about story and all that goes with it. I don’t comment often, but I appreciate so much what you’re doing in sharing your process and how it changes and then impacts further what you’re doing. It’s fun, too, to see somebody else get excited about this kind of thing.
Jenny, That is really beautiful. Really, it is. I know I’ve said before I’m visually challanged, and well, that is still true, but that is a peice of beautiful art. Even I can appriciate that.
But I can’t do it. Doesn’t work for me. It bogs down my mind…or maybe I’m just being closed minded to the process. I’ve learned so much over the last few months…maybe…just maybe. Time will tell.
Jenny, if it helps you get inspired, I’m not laughing, I’m cheering.
As SpongeBob told Patrick, “No, they’re laughing beside us.” Besides, anything that helps more Crusie books into the world is ok by me. I bet Bob thinks that, too; he just doesn’t want to emote.
It’s official. I have mac-envy now.
Wow!
Absolutely beautiful.
This is gorgeous. I want to read the book that the collage is for right now. But I will wait patiently for it. (aka checking your blog for updates every chance I get.)
Is that Drew Fuller in the collage. I fell madly in love with him when he was on Charmed. He has the prettiest eyes.
A weird question do you make your own desktop backgrounds or do you just use some random one that came with the computer? I ask because I have devloped quite a wallpaper addiction and will grab them from anywhere I can and I am insanely curious about how others choose to decorate their computers.
Thank you for showing us your gorgeous collages.
Bonnie
James Spade! Wonderful! I can’t wait.
The background is one of the standard ones that comes with the Mac and so Curio also uses them for backgrounds for their boards. My laptop backgrounds are from the Mac choices and the one on my desktop is a crop of the mantel and angel photograph from my bedroom (the one posted I posted in an earlier blog) because the angel is serene when I am not (the desktop is beside the phone, from whence much annoyance comes).
Beautimous. Someday Im getting a Mac too. You rock Jenny.
I think it IS the layering that gets you. Well, everything gets you, but being able to arrange your book pictorally or spatially or both is just such a trip. It unlocks stuff somehow. Right and left brain go into uberbrain or something.
I *knew* you’d knock the socks off this program. WTG.
I love this book already and it’s only pictures. The collage is beautiful, visually it’s very captivating. I can’t wait for it. And for Agnes. And for Zelda. And for the book that you’ve been thinking about for ten years. Is the collage for your fun book or is there another Crusie masterpiece in the pipeline?
Doesn’t it feel great to be rolling around in so much creativity and brilliant ideas?
the collage reminds me of “the skeleton key” and you said it’s going to be a ghost story….getting chills just thinking about it. And is it James Spade or Spader….anyhoo, he plays a good wack-job. Glad you’re getting your geek-on. But don’t forget about Zelda, the poor girl has been waiting for her story for SO LONG and now I am impatiently waiting for it to be published. (it always feels like an eternity to wait for a WIP to be published!) You rock as always
Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my. I love this visual. Jenny you really need to talk the powers that be into using this collage for the cover. Its way too powerful not to use it as a marketing tool. And with those colors and images, complete strangers to your books will be drawn to the shelf from across the store. Really amazing visual. I have no gift for this myself but I’m quite capable of being blown away by someone else’s.
Oh my, that’s just hauntingly beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous.
McB is right, that would be an awesome book cover. Doesn’t exactly fit with your branding, but it is just gorgeous. And fascinating. It would be a book where I might spend almost as much time looking at the outside as the inside.
Do you really believe yourself when you say it’s not an art piece? It is, you know.
I agree. That is an amazing collage. I get goosebumps just looking at it. A ghost story? I kind of wondered, because some of the images look like they are from the Omen and Poltergeist and Sixth Sense type of movies…. Way cool. I am SO jealous–gonna have to go next door and see what the neighbor thinks of the program. (Maybe next time she upgrades I can buy her old Mac from her….I want to play now too, darn it!)*grin*
This is a mindblowingly gorgeous collage. I wish I were at home, where I could play with my imaging program and try to do something similar. In the absense of real inspiration, I try imitation…
Also, I’m with Office Wench Cherry, I’m now officially waiting for this book
Cherry Boogie
I’ve been waiting for this book since grad school, which was before I knew I was going to be a writer. It’s my version of The Turn of the Screw. Only, you know, different.
I keep thinking about it but knowing I don’t have the skills to do it yet. But this collage is getting me closer so maybe after You Again. Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll know why I’ve got the chops to do it.
Oh–I remember you talking about this way back when. I know what you mean about having the skills–it is so frustrating to have a great story in your head but know that you can’t do it justice just yet… From the looks of the collage, I think you are closer to writing it than you realize.
As for skills–Jenny, you are a great writer. (Maybe you need to go over to the Forums and reaffirm that knowledge. *wink*) I believe you can write anything you put your mind to. The block you have with this story may be just some leftover insecurities from your past. You say you came up with the idea before you knew you wanted to be a writer. Well, now you are a writer and that story can only be written by you. By giving you all those lovely images, I think your muse is telling you it is time to finally write your story. Have faith. Write it. You have the skills. You are a great writer. I believe in you.
That’s so strange. Turn of the Screw popped into my head when I was looking at the collage. But for the life of me I can’t remember why–maybe the spookiness of the home, its isolation, combined with the pictures of the children.
It looks like it would be such a great book Jenny. I hope you write it.
It’s not that I don’t think I’m a good writer, it’s that I know I don’t have the chops to do this right now. Erotic horror as romantic comedy? That’s going to take some major skills. I’ll get them, I’m just not sure I’m ready to tackle it now.
Well if Jenny is going to be writing erotic horror, w/ or w/o the romantic comedy, she might want a slightly different look for the cover anyway. A sort of clue to the reader that there’s something a little different about this one.
But I’ve got to say, Jenny, that you really rock with the collage thing. Because horror and eroticism are exactly the feelings it evokes. A gift for words AND art … plus great cheek bones. Some people are just blessed by the gods.
This is amazing!
Jenny,
Bob is writing a prologue. He said so on his blog. He can already hear you screaming. I think he is doing it just to get to you. No, I’m not tattling, why do you ask?
You leave a man alone to write about manly things, and he sticks in a wimpy before-I-begin-the-real-story prologue. What are you going to do?
I thought I’d responded to this, but it’s been a confusing week or two … all about me, me, me! He he. Thank goodness that’s over.
So this is gorgeous. I love it. couldn’t do it myself, I’m a cut and paste gal. The windows are like eyes, all seeing all knowing. but, what do they see, what do they know … hmmm?
That’s probably the coolest collage I’ve ever seen!
Wow. It’s so yummy I want to lick it. Not, you know, *that* way. I’m getting a Mac this weekend so I can join in the mad geek lurve - this is just too fabulous a tool not to have.
I remember seeing this collage months ago and feel compelled to leave a comment.
Hauntingly beautiful w/ that strong umpf of the erotic that for some reason James Spader exudes.
A billion years ago, the Blockbuster manager guy recommended “Jacks Back”, at the time was an interesting, intriguing movie. One could clearly see (girl thing only?) there was something about James S. that is hard to put a finger on, a certain something for sure…He really plays to that vulnerablity thing, like he did in Sex, Lies and Videotape..