Penciled this during a meeting tonight as I prep for a series of watercolor paintings I need to get done. It’s part of a Swampy’s Florida series that will soon be available to interior designers through a Miami company. There will be two series. One much like this of Florida locations and Florida critters. The other series is of beach scenes around the state.

This is just the pencils of the artwork. Next I prep the art to be watercolored. I’ll be painting the art  this Friday during the Art Walk in Downtown Mt. Dora, Florida, at Julianne’s Coastal Cottage store. I’ll be doing it live. If you’re in the area, please come by and say ‘Hello!’.

I did the penciling during a meeting of the Springs Alliance which I’m involved with. Certainly an appropriate time to be working on artwork about the Rainbow River.

This is from a photo taken by a friend of a half fallen cypress tree on the Rainbow River in Marion County, Florida

Hell Road by Ray Hogan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ray Hogan sure knows how to fill a few pages. Not with the ability of his colleague Louis L’Amour, but still done with great skill. This story today would have been split into a 4 part series of 500 pages each. Hogan accomplishes the same feat in 126 pages. Sure it could all be better flushed out. Hogan assembles a great western novel better without the excess.

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Last caricature gig of the year and drew a terrific assortment of attendees. Most in the event business themselves.

The Last Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m hooked. This rolls off the blocks at a steady speed and then charges to the end…which is more of a beginning as this series is still coming out after this initial book from 1984. Johnstone does an excellent job of portraying the area and time of the mid-west and west in the late 1800s. The characters are well drawn to the point of leaving you wanting more and thus wanting to buy more of the series. I will purchase more and I’m not even a fan of the western genre.

As I read, it struck me how the current PC generation would be offended by some in the book. The thing is that what happens in this book happens to us today, we just let it go, expect others (government) to protect us than actually attacking the problems. Johnstone in 1984 reflected how much of humanity has solved problems during the late 1800s and throughout the history of man. Most countries still solve such troubles the same way today.

Interesting to me are a few recent reviews of the book have that PC tinge. The idea that good and bad guys are old fashioned is a recent viewpoint by fellow Americans and certainly a new idea in the history of mankind. Johnstone’s book brings one back to reality and that’s something many Americans could use a good dose of.

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Re-Discover Florida by Hampton Dunn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Florida historian, Hampton Dunn, tags a series of Florida historic locations with one page reviews and history. The state is well covered by being broken up in three parts, Central, East and West Coasts. The volume is dated and a number of the locations are either gone in inaccessible at this time. Still, all are well written and worth the view of Florida history in 1969.

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Guide for Hire by Gladys and Ed Fortner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For a book from 50 odd years ago, this one sure does cover it’s intended territory as a guidebook of a portion of interior Florida in a rather complete and creative way. Graphically it reflects it’s time period, but in ways that would be over done in today’s digital onslaught. A ton of information is scattered in nooks and crannys of the graphics, thus providing more than the narrative provides. It’s a terrific piece for it’s time, but also an example to take note of in today’s guidebook design.

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Thalberg by Roland Flamini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a tremendous biography of a creative genius who knew his time was short and decided not to sit around and mope about it, but went out and lived life to it’s very fullest, thereby changing an industry. I really like the author’s focus on Thalberg’s greatest achievement, his work in film. There would seem to be nothing else to focus on, but the writer really delves deep into the inner workings of Thalberg’s work. A reader can telly get the feeling of someone, like Thalberg,that runs hard with a weak constitution.

I comboed this with reading ‘The Last Tycoon’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald based his main character Monroe Stahr on Thalberg and Fitzgerald’s dealing with him and the Mayer studio system. The two authors either were both accurate in their portrayals or both way off. Reading both at the same time really fleshed out the biography further. Though I recommend e Flamini’s book over Fitzgeralds.

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The Last Tycoon (An Unfinished Novel) together with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fitzgerald’s fictitious tale pulled from the life of Irving Thalberg sure does flesh out Thalberg’s manner and ways around a studio. I read this at the same time reading Roland Flamini’s ‘Thalberg’ about Irving’s life. Reading Fitzgerald was like reading Flamini as both illustrated the legendary producer’s life. Fitzgerald follows Thalberg closest with the studio scenes in the book. Otherwise Thalberg’s manner is well drawn out, though the personal circumstances noted in ‘The Last Tycoon’ are purely fictional to Thalberg’s life.

I’m not nutty about the writing. There are certainly good lines and passages, but as a whole it is clearly in the development stage.

Well worth reading if you are a Thalberg fan.

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Here’s Swampy, Rob and Marcia Gaedcke, President of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce with a page of art for the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’.

Been penciling and inking and penciling and inking and… I guess ya get the idea…

Got lots done on the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’. Lots more to do. And that’s besides this Swampy book!

American Assassin by Vince Flynn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not my favorite of the series. This is a better written book. It’s also overwritten, much like most contemporary novels of today. I believe, after reading the other ten books, this is my first complaint of Flynn doing this. This would have been so much better as three separate books with fewer flashbacks.

With so much stuffed in 500 pages, no one will leave this book not knowing who the central characters are. Flynn has a lot of room to flesh out the start of the clandestine activities of his hero Mich Rapp. He does that and more by connecting all the other characters that appear in the series.

The story, as usual, could very possibly be happening today, but this is set in the past. I wonder if other readers notice the absence of cell phones and iPads? This is what Flynn did best in this book: Set a story in the past and have it seem as if it could be happening today.

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