My Friends the Authors

Posted on by tahlia42

In the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of supporting two of my friends in their writing endeavors. I attended a friend’s talk at a book festival, and then just last week I had the privilege of being a guest at another friend’s book launch.

I was so excited to see my friend, Leslie Adatto at the book festival. She moved to NYC a few years ago. As she talked, it was apparent to everyone just how in love with New York City she is. She beamed with her admiration for her adopted city.

Roof Explorer's Guide: 101 New York City Rooftops

When Leslie first left, she was focusing on rooftop gardens in New York City. Her interests evolved into all types of rooftop attractions. The Roof Explorer’s Guide is all that is needed to see the city from on high. She designed her book to be small enough to be easily carried on one’s travels and is broken out into categories – bars, restaurants, gardens, athletics, and the list goes on.

A week ago today I was able to share in Jeannel King’s launch of her book, Draw Forth.

Draw Forth

Jeannel uses the book to share her love for communicating visually and teaching others to embrace their good enough drawing skills to follow in her footsteps. No need to be a professional artist – all that is needed is that others be able to understand what was meant. She helps her reader in getting over that negative self talk of “I can’t draw”. Anyone that calls herself the Stick Figure Strategist is good at putting people at ease with their drawing skills.

There were several fun activities at the launch, including creating a self portrait. I was so proud of mine. I showed it to everyone I met, and I’ll share it here.

Tammy Self Portrait

I don’t feel comfortable drawing noses or chins, so I skipped them, and it was more than okay. It felt liberating to be excited about my glorified stick figure picture! Jeannel’s message definitely got across.

I am honored to have two wonderful ladies in my life whose writing talents have come to the forefront. You are both inspirations.

Published by tahlia42

8 thoughts on “My Friends the Authors”

  1. Aw, thank you Tammy! I was so thrilled to see you at the party. . . it seems like we cross paths on important life events! (Your synagogue, my book!)
    I am SO glad that you shared your awesome self-portrait, too! :^D It’s awesome, and totally says “Tammy!” I especially love your comment about chins and noses, and how you decided to bypass them. I didn’t even notice! ;^D

    Big hug and thanks to you for being willing to share a crazyexciting moment with me!
    Jeannel

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  2. That’s so great that you’ll support your friends like that. Writers often need that support too because it can be a frustrating business.

    I’m not too good at noses either. I remember most of my drawing attempts from the past and I always had trouble with them – that and hands. To this day, most of my drawings look like they were done by kids.

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    1. Both of my friends have self published, so I’m glad I can help get the word out about their projects.

      I agree that drawing hands is hard. I’ve not put in the time that it would take to get better at it, and it really isn’t important enough to me to improve.

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  3. These are great books – and yes -the good fortune goes both ways, I’m sure, Tammy – you to have the author friends and them to have you to support them. I have a book on intuitive drawing and have talked to the author of it, about the benefits (therapeutically and self-knowledge-wise) of drawing. Like, you use your non-dominant hand and close your eyes and doodle or line draw without lifting your pen. It was really quite revealing. You can set an intention beforehand or ask a question and then see what comes up in the drawing. “Make your Mark”is the name. And I’m one who says I can’t draw a stick figure – but I’ve taken a drawing class and a painting class and the self-guided Drawing on the Left Side of your Brain. They helped me free myself up and just go with it. Thanks for sharing these.

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    1. I took a drawing class that had Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain as its textbook. It was quite good. I’m thinking of giving it a go again – I’ve lost many of the skills I’d developed all those years ago.

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