5 Beautiful Pieces of Art Made from Books

Here are some beautiful pieces created with books.

Aren't these beautiful? If you want to see more, here's my book art Pinterest board. Which of these would you personally want to do the most?

Write on!

Sarah Allen

The Prettiest Place in Sin City

When people ask me why I moved to Las Vegas, I want to take them here:

I've gone to the Bellagio to write and take pictures, but mostly just to people watch and think. It's nice to go from a city that mostly smells like smoke into a fresh garden. And it's an adventure to see what they are going to do next. They have new statues and new flower arrangements and sometimes birds and butterflies and it makes the Bellagio gardens one of my favorite places in the world. Then once you've walked through the gardens you get to go watch the fountains and if you stand close enough, feel the spray of water on your face. 

I'm not much for night life--in fact, I'd much rather sit at home with a good movie or book--which might appear to make Las Vegas a weird fit. But I love being able to take a quick drive onto the strip when I feel so inclined, and take it in. 

And then maybe use it in my next novel.

Sarah Allen

Writing Challenge: The Pink People at The Bellagio

One of the absolute best things about living in Vegas is that the Bellagio is only 15 minutes away. Often on a Saturday afternoon I will go and check out whatever the new amazing exhibit is up in the gardens, and I'll stay for an hour or so and watch the fountains. I bring a notebook and jot down thoughts and ideas. 

I'm not the only one who sits in front of Bellagio fountains for an obnoxiously long period of time. There is always a varied assemblage of Batmen and Despicable Me Minions and showgirls and street magicians, and I have to admit, if I was going to be a busker, that's where I'd be too. But there is one that stands out. For the past couple months, every time I've gone, right in front of the center nook where I always stand is a man all in pink, his clothes frozen as if blowing in the wind, and he himself seems to be blown back, leaning impossibly on his heels. I haven't the faintest idea how he does it, but it is quite hilarious to watch people passing by, looking back, walking around him, some even going so far as to wave a hand under his rear to see if there's some invisible thing holding him up.

This last Saturday I took a Bellagio trip. I walked through the gardens and then went out to watch the fountains. I saw the familiar pink figure, but this time, it was a woman. She had star-shaped glasses and a pink pig-tail wig. She was in the exact same outfit otherwise (I'm pretty sure their ability to sit blown back like that has something to do with the pants, although I've seen them stand). Anyway, I had fun watching her and watching people watching her, like usual, and also had fun speculating about these two people. 

And now I pass that speculating off to you. Given these two characters, what would you specifically do with them? If you were writing their story, what would it be? I love seeing how other people develop their story ideas, and I'm intrigued to see what you come up with. So why not, right? Give it a shot.

Make awesome!

Sarah Allen

Some Inspiration for Supernatural Female Characters

I thought I'd just keep it nice and pretty today and give you all some hot supernatural women to inspire you as you write your fantasy or sci-fi or magical realism or whatever it may be that might have an element that's a bit, shall we say, out of this world.

So, which of these is your favorite? Any story ideas springing from these lovely ladies? Check out my Pinterest board for more ideas.

Sarah Allen

Inspiration for Child Characters

I've had several conversations with my roommate about how difficult it is to write child characters. And it is. However, I think its something many of us come up against in the course of our writing careers. I think when we get down to it, we all know what it feels like to be a kid. It's just that we have several years worth of experience fogging up the accuracy of our memory. Maybe all it takes to get ourselves in the right mindset is the right picture. If a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe one of them will say exactly what we need to hear.

If you're writing a child, now or in the future, maybe one of these pictures can help you strip away all the jaded years and get down to the truly childlike. Maybe one of these pictures will inspire its own story. If nothing else, you'll get a smile.

Anybody writing a child character? Which picture do you think carries the best story? If nothing else, I hope these shots brightened up your Monday as much as they did mine :)

Sarah Allen

5 Characters With Their Pets

Sometimes it's our relationships with our animals that say the most about us. That includes our characters. Here are five characters with a unique variety of pets. See if you can get any ideas from them.

Could you use any of these in a story? Which is your favorite?

Story Gathering at the Smithsonian

We've got some relatives in town, which means we're doing all the fun touristy DC things we wouldn't normally do. Like the National Air and Space Museum. I'm not talking about the normal one in DC, I'm talking about the extension, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the Dulles airport in Chantilly, Virginia.

A few things about this center. First, I thought it was way cooler than the main museum, and if you're in this area, this is the one you should go to. Not only that, but I thought this was one of the most well-designed museum's I've ever been to. The railings had built-in seats and there were genius old guys like everywhere just standing there waiting to answer all your questions and listening to them talk, describe how the shuttle lands like a helicopter crashing, was the best part.

Anway, there's my plug. On to my point.

So I did something while we were at this museum that I've never done before, but that I plan on doing at every museum I ever visit from here on out. I feel like museums can be super intimidating, and even if you have good intentions and want to learn there's just too much and you can come out barely remembering anything at all. This time I approached it as a story hunter.

One of my favorite things at this museum (although it was all freaking awesome) was the collection of WWII planes from Germany. So many of the plaques said that they were the last plane of it's type in the world, and talked about how it had been captured and restored and the process of it ending up with the Smithsonian Institute. Can you say fascinating story?

(sorry for the small font and crappy phone pictures)

What about the guy in charge of getting the plane back from Germany? What about the guy who gave it back to Germany? What about the guys who restored it? There are some characters and stories for you. Even just for background history.

So yeah, I was the dufus taking pictures of the plaques with my phone. And it was so much fun! Like I said, this story hunting approach is the one I'm going to take at museums from now on.

 The space plane shuttle thing, that the pilots apparently say lands like a cinderblock. All the outside is made entirely of pure glass. Except for the nose-tip and wing-fronts, which get hotter than the glass melting point. Those spots are coated with an extra layer of a special substance that includes the bodies of dead carpenter ants. Yeah. 

You can't quite tell, but there is a swastika on the tail fin back there.

Anybody else a museum nerd?

Sarah Allen

Top 5 Strangest Animals to See Before You Die

So there are a ton of weird animals out there, but these are just some of the ones I want to see, at some point, in real life.

1. Bald Uakari: A monkey with a red face? How cool is that! Native to Brazil and Peru, these monkeys are listed as "vulnerable" on the endangered species list.

2. Barreleye Fish: So, um, this fish has a transparent head. Nuff said.

3. Pink Fairy Armadillo: These are just adorable. Less than five inches long, nocturnal, and found mostly in Argentina.

4. Helmeted Hornbill: This bird averages, get this, about 3 1/2 feet in length, not including tail feathers. It eats mostly figs and is found in Sumatra and Borneo.

5. Tube-nosed Fruit Bat: Okay, I just think these are cute too. Endangered, and native to the Philippines.

What other animals would you add to this list? 

Sarah Allen

First Forays into Children's Book Publishing

My sister is an illustration major. And not just any illustration major. She is super, super talented. Seriously. She has a gift. I mean, look at that mouse.

So, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity here and asked her if she would be interested in working on some children's books together. She said yes, which makes me very excited. I've got some ideas floating around in my brain, and I'm gonna try and solidify them and let her do some illustrating while I keep working on The Novel, and that will be extra awesome because then I'll feel like I'm getting two things done at once.

Anyway, I'm wondering what the next steps would be after we get something put together. I've done research into regular publishing, and I'm wondering how different it is with kids picture books. I'll do some research into that, of course, but I'm wondering if my wise readers have any beginning advice for me, or recommendations of where to start.

Is it pretty much the same submit-to-agents process? Do we just submit the words and illustrations together, and is that the norm? Can I have an agent and publisher for children's publishers separate from my adult stuff and will there be issues with that?

Yeah. That's kind of what's going on right now. Advice or pointers in the right direction would be fabulous :)

Sarah Allen

p.s. My sister said if I posted this picture I had to include a disclaimer that the photo of it was low res and bad quality. Consider it disclaimed.

Beauty and the Beast rose for Thanksgiving Creative Joy

Sending a red rose to you, originally uploaded by SivaTian.

This is just an incredible photo I found on Flickr, and thought it might make you all as happy as it made me. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sarah Allen