Here are some photos of folks I drew on the 25th!

Found out late Friday that my friend Bob Bass died last Sunday. Bob is part of an extensive Florida family carrying the name Bass. I learned of his death by one of his extended family members, William Morgan, during the setting up for the 2012 Pine Castle Pioneer Days. Also there were two other extended family members of both William and Bob. William and the other two had really only heard of Bob and weren't familiar with his writing or interest in Florida history. Interesting in that they, like Bob, molded Florida history in their lives. William is in charge of Pine Castle Pioneer Days and the other two ladies are historical re-enactors. History must run through the blood of the Bass Family.

Bob floored me when he showed up at First Friday in Lakeland last December 1st where I was setup for a Swampy's Florida display. He had just gotten out of one of his trips to the hospital two days before and apparently snuck out of his house to say Hello! We spoke of Florida and he passed along his newest writing about fishing. It was terrific to see him and felt honored that he came out so soon after being in the hospital, knowing he was still on he medical battlefield.

Above is a photo of him in one of The General Store's rocking chairs with his newest publication (Which he was so kind to sign and pass along to me and I have proudly in my Florida collection of autographed books), Swampy and coloring books.

I was planning to watercolor an illustration that night and was just setting up to do just that. Because of Bob passing by and his book's subject of bass, I did the illustration below.

Bob wrote on all sorts of subjects but mostly about the outdoors and more specifically about fishing and steamboats in Florida. Because of his writings he has left us with a living history of himself and his family that will help others better know the Florida he loved.

Here are a few pages from the new Swampy’s Florida Storybooks” Trilby’s Flower that I’m introducing at the 2012 Pine Castle Pioneer Days. Come out and say Hello! I’ll be drawing and painting live Saturday after 3pm and all day Sunday.

Drew lots of caricatures tonight!

Was signing and jotting some personal illustration for folks for Marguerite Cavanaugh’s book signing party.

I gave a talk yesterday at the meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society at the University of Tampa. Afterward I signed some Swampy coloring books.

It was a large group of all ages and I did my best to modify the talk to better fit the younger people there. Overall I spoke about using my library of Florida history along with my drawing abilities to create the whole Swampy business. That’s incredibly simplifying how Swampy came about, but I wanted to also get into how much I use social media to make connection with others who might enjoy learning more about our great state of Florida.

Added to the talk was a display of Florida memorabilia from my collection. I could have spoken for hours just about everything from a large Silver Springs matchbook to an action figure of the Crocket character from Miami Vice.

Of course, part of the Swampy goal is to get folks to shop locally, so I was glad that Terisa Glover was along for the talk so she could say a few words about working with local authors at her The General Store and her Authors and Illustrators Festival in Downtown Lakeland each October.

Drew at two events today. One for Hospice of Marion County and the other for a private event in Maitland.

Power Down by Ben Coes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a thrill ride! All that I read review wise of this book is true. It moves hard and fast. It also reflects much of what we are afraid of these days involving terrorists. The foundation of that is very real. Otherwise realism does have a hard time here, especially involving the financial issues dealt with. Author Coes knows a lot of details but misses some critical fundamentals that would occur due to actions in the plot of the book. Because of that and some logical issues, I’ll trim the rating a bit. Most reading wouldn’t notice the errors anyway. Despite that this is a not to be missed thriller for anyone who is a fan of those!



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Here are a few caricatures from Saturday night.

Here’s caricature I drew and painted Saturday afternoon and a few steps of getting to the finished artwork and the subject thus drawn!

The Devil’s Cook by Ellery Queen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an outstanding mystery!But first to know is that this book does not feature Ellery Quenn himself. This is one of a few books produced in the later 1960s that was ghost written. I wish i knew who the ghost writer was because I’d get more of their books, if they exist. One item that is distinctive in this book is that each character clearly has their own way to look at life. The writer does an expert job of getting that across by each having distinct dialogue. Then the individual character’s living areas and other aspects are spelled out in the narrative. With so many different characters all entwined in the murder within such a well written story adds up to a compelling, interesting and a mystery that will keep anyone guessing.



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