Here are the pencils and preparatory art for the watercolor I’m about to add to this artwork. It is a photograph and not a scan of the work. Didn’t have a scanner with me.

This is for a set of Christmas cards and prints available soon. The setting is Key Biscayne, Florida. That’s the Biscayne lighthouse in the background. The size is 11″ x 14″.

I’ll post the finished watercolor version soon.

Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is part of my Florida collection. Setting: Key West.

First, Phyllis Whitney is a tremendous writer. There is so much to point to that is so well crafted in this book. Her character development is excellent. The story is great. The turns in the story are unexpected and well presented. This book is so very unlike recent books of the past twenty years where I know who did it and what happened withing the first fifty pages. I didn’t figure any of this until the answers were revealed. I had a good idea of a plot turn, but wasn’t sure as her writing didn’t just tell the story, but examined the characters, setting and background. Each is well done.

The Florida part: Unlike the experience I had a couple weeks ago with Robert Wilder’s ‘The Sea and the Stars’, this book does what Wilder should have in including Florida history. The book has plenty to learn and it’s accurate and interesting. The history peppered through the book would entice anyone to want to visit the locations mentioned. Have to wonder why Whitney didn’t get to travel writing, she does such a great job with location description. Whitney makes Key West sound fascinating and a place to visit.

The book itself: As much as she writes so well, this book does drag at times as she shuffles the shells to keep the reader guessing about the twists and turns. The goal is perfect, but the execution could have been culled a bit better. I’d mention editing, but that would be laughable considering so much needless waste in other contemporary fiction being published today.

This is clearly a book written with a woman’s viewpoint. Lots about male and female interests, relationships, etc. There is plenty of mystery, too. Males are likely to struggle a bit with this book wanting it to move faster. The young of today, who are being weened on adrenaline and less on thinking, will really struggle with this book.

Bottom line: I recommend this book.

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Our monthly Socrates Cafe meeting on Tuesday covered an assortment of topics. Above and below are a series of sketches about the topics brought up. The first was the struggle of selfishness. The second was about how open we should be about our private life. Then the question of where conscience comes from. Next a question of perception….

The next to last discussion was asking where complaints come from. Finally, the standard philosophical question of the connections of truth and beauty.

Resort Nurse by Diana Douglas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is part of my Florida book collection.

I picked this up noticing the Florida location and considered it a romance novel. I hadn’t read one before. However, after reading the book, it’d be more accurately described as a life novel. There are romantic overtones, but this is just as well following a lady as she takes a new job at a hotel in the Key Sud hotel somewhere amongst the Florida Keys. Based on hints given in the book, I’d guess on Big Pine Key. Seems the author would mention Key West. Though, some distances mentioned don’t seem to be that far down the Keys.

Location information is a bit lacking, but a number of Keys, Homestead, Miami and Miami Beach are mentioned. The author knows a bit about driving from Dade County through the Keys by her descriptions and must have traveled it herself.

The story was a bit predictable to me involving the turn in the story. Which guy the nurse ended up with was not as obvious. Overall the writing is direct and well done. Very good dialogue. Douglas does a tremendous job of depicting a teenager in the 1960s.

This 1969 book further shows me how poorly books today are assembled. From writing, to story to the actual publication, what’s happened to the book industry? If books today were at a higher caliper I would give this book a lower rating. Due to appalling mess of the book industry in the past fifteen years or so, i have to give this a higher rating. This book is certainly cheaper and better written and I didn’t notice any misspellings or punctuation issues I see in so many of today’s books.

Bottom line: I recommend this book.

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The Cat From Outer Space by Ted Key
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a light book, but it is also a good book. It moves mighty fast. But it’s a fun fast.

Where this book soars is comparing it to contemporary fiction. Specifically comparing it to the last book I read, ‘Sea Change’ by Robert Parker, this book is genius fiction. In ‘The Cat from Outer Space’ the characters are well defined, the settings are well described, the story is understandable – and no nasty language and sexual mess.

Unlike my complaints of a current book’s over abundance of everything, this one is a bit too trim. But, it works and I finished the book satisfied. Love the ending involving the Pledge of Allegiance. Can’t imagine a book ending like that today.

Another neat thing about this book is that it was written by ‘Hazel’ cartoonist, Ted Key.

It’s short, it’s fast and it’s fun. I recommend it.

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Sea Change by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Reading as part of my Florida collection:

Robert Parker dovetails his typical Massachusetts setting for his Jesse Stone character with locations in Southeast Florida involving a crime involving yachts, wild kids and sex. Not that it had to be Florida. He could just as well had the alternate location in Virginia or New Jersey. To do that, though, more narrative would’ve been required. So, Parker takes the easy route and assumes the reader is carrying a stacked knowledge of Florida stereotypes. Big house, rich and arrogant people, beach bars are about as detailed as Parker gets in this book involving Florida.

What I found odd was the lack of narrative in describing scenes in Massachusetts, too. In fact, this book is nearly fifty percent dialogue. The writing of that is Ok, but it’s difficult to often know much of anything involving the surroundings. Seems to me a deadline to get the book in to the publisher got too close and Parker slung this out. The format I picked up this book in was the taller $9.99 version. A ton of kerning happened to stretch this book to fit it and is further indication that Parker may have quickly written this to meet a deadline.

My usual complaint of fluffing a contemporary book up is certainly the case here. This time, though, it’s the dialogue that needed severe trimming. There’s a side story involving Stone’s relationship with is ex-wife that doesn’t fit well.

overall this book does have Florida locations, but are not well written and locations are very general. The overall book seems to me to be a whole lot of dialogue looking for a good story.

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The Blood of Patriots by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Johnstone clan has done it again! This is a REAL page turner that had be going through it about as fast as I’ve ever gone through a book. Whatever formula is used to illustrate each literal character works. I was never all that enthralled with the main character, but that didn’t matter as the story soars ahead. This book does what a book should do:Drag you in and keep you until the end thoroughly enjoying a good book.

I really like the contrasts of the central location of the book and New York city. Probably the best written parts of the book. The comparisons are dead on. The setting in the mountains is also very well done. The characters almost seem as if separate people wrote them to make them so different. I’ve found that in other Johnstone books that the dialogue written sounds so authentic.

I keep expecting the Johnstone clan to produce Harlequin formula books. Or especially like the Executioner/Bolan books. I’ll add the Matt Helm series, as well. Instead, after reading about a dozen, I’m not finding that. The Mountain Man series has a bunch of repetition in the first novels after the first, but still well drawn characters and a decent story. It’s just weird to me that a few of the newest books have blown me away. You’d think a team of ghost writers would be churning out gunk. This is not gunk.

About the political stance; I noticed a few reviews stating that the “conservatives” are the good guys and the “liberals” are the bad guys. Never is anyone labeled as such throughout the book. What probably catches a reader is that practically all contemporary novels have the same political stance and viewpoint. This one does not follow that and I’m not surprised it’s jarring people. It would be nice if the PC “laws” would be stripped away and the censorship of other viewpoints be lifted. It’s good to open one’s mind to other ideas.

With that thought, I’ll draw a line from this book to the Vince Flynn series. The handling of religious viewpoints of the characters is very well done as Flynn does, as someone who has studied religions. Specifically, the Muslim religion is well represented with traditions and procedures. A couple of issues I had was that no other religion is hardly mentioned. Other characters with other religious beliefs might’ve helped to balance the story. Another issue is the main character going too far with blanket statements about the Muslim religion. I get that’s the character and his whole viewpoint is through the prism of the badge, but his beliefs being defined would’ve been made the character stronger. That’s a bit petty on my part considering the pace of the story.

Something else real nice with this book is the lack of excessive narrative as is also found in a good 99% of books coming out today. This along with an earlier Johnstone Clan ‘Home Invasion’ are two of my favorites of the year and beyond.

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I attended a Silver Springs park update on Wednesday and learned more about the merging of the iconic Florida attraction, Silver Springs, into the state park system. The grand reopening will be October 1st and the park’s whole name will be Silver River State Park. The cost to get into the two merged sites: $8. Wild Waters will still be a separate area from the overall park. Drainage is changing significantly and that might be most noticeable in the massive changes in the parking lot. By the way, parking returns to the early days of Silver Springs by being free.

Swampy’s Florida cartoon artwork by Rob Smith, Jr.

This is cartoon artwork for the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Dunnellon’ coming out next month. Watch for more coming in the next few weeks!

Thought I would share this camel on, what many weekly workers call, “Hump Day”.
Drew this last week for educational materials for my friends at “The Knowledge Exchange”, an educational store in Palm Bay, Florida, near Melbourne.

The art is drawn on vellum bristol and inked using a series of felt tip and brush pens.
Below is video at YouTube of me inking the artwork.:

Drew caricatures tonight for a corporate event at the Peabody hotel south of Orlando in Orange County. The event’s attendees were all involved with containing digital information or servicing those who do.