From Art, Words

by Kathleen Huddle
(Elmira, NY, US)

In addition to being a mother of four daughters, I am a painter, photographer, jewelry maker and writer. I'd painted a large body of work depicting my children and I'd always considered it my legacy to my children. But, one day I was exhausted beyond belief and I heaved a heavy sigh and said, "I'm so tired my head might roll off my shoulders."

"What do you do all day that could possibly make you that tired?" asked one of my teenagers.

Surely, that was a rhetorical question. It was then that I decided to leave a written record.

I wrote a combination art/memoir book, Mama With A Blue Face, which is 277 pages. It took eight years with countless rewrites. Then I hired an editor who line-edited my ms, twice. As a visual artist, it was essential to me to have complete control over the book, so I elected to self-publish. I designed the cover (based on one of my favorite oil paintings and placed an interesting image on the back cover as well), the color of the cover (about which I was very picky--they sent three different blue colors and I didn't sign-off on the cover until it was correct), and the the layout, where the text wrapped around an image--everything except formatting the ms into a computer, which I do not know how to do. I wanted the format of the book to be 8 1/2 by 11 inches so that the images would be full-page, adding to the look of an art book. I included 55 color images of my work, which I took with a digital camera. The book is printed on acid-free paper. I made two mock-up copies, which helped me figure out my design and I had no surprises with my finished book. I sent one mock-up copy to AuthorHouse so that they could refer to it. I was in constant communication with AuthorHouse with questions concerning my book.

I worked with AuthorHouse and was pleased with Mama With A Blue Face. It was quite expensive to produce an art/memoir book, but my family loved and appreciated it. Actually, I recommend everyone to write a memoir because it is a good exercise in self examination. Now, I'm trying to interest a publisher in Mama With A Blue Face. I sell my book out of my business, Huddle Art Studio, for $40 plus tax & shipping (it is way too expensive on Amazon and other sites.)

Also, I designed and used my images in another book, Children of the Sky, in which I teamed up with a talented poet, Margaret K. Menges. The poet wrote an original poem for each image, which mainly features babies in the bathtub. Children of the Sky is also 8 1/2 by 11 inches in full-color, but is only 26 pages. I used the services of AuthorHouse for that book also. Once again, I made a mock-up copy first. I actually made a small profit on Children of the Sky, which sells well for Mother's Day gifts and baby shower gifts.

Good luck to all the writers.

PEACE OUT,

Kathleen Huddle

Visit Kathleen's site.