Crossroad In Time

Crossroad In Time

Many years ago I took an adult-education class at our local community college on novel writing. Like most writers, I’d had an idea running around in my head for some time and I used that idea in the class. Below is the chapter I wrote for that class. It was just an introduction to our work and style but was well received by the instructor.

I went on to write and re-write the novel over several years and then it sat. I’m not sure why, but now seems like a good time to finally introduce it to the world at large. Maybe it’s because of the nature of society today and the fact that we seem to be so divided and hopeless. Perhaps this feeble attempt to write a story will brighten someone’s life and, God willing, help us all to remember to “Love your neighbor as yourself”. God Bless. Read the rest of this entry

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

Texas Bluebonnet

Wow! Has it been almost four months since my last post…my how time DOES fly!

February 2019 is almost in the can and that means we’ve been in Fredericksburg, Texas now about four months…and that’s the longest we’ve been in one place since we went full time in our RV back in early 2017. In those four months a lot has happened.

1. We bought a house. Yes, we bought a house and will now base our travels out of Fredericksburg. Since Texas is pretty much in the center of the USA it’ll mean we’re not traveling coast to coast every year. Of course that means more time to stop and smell the Bluebonnets!
   
   
2. We’ve gotten involved. Ilene’s joined the local Native Plant Society of Texas, I’ve joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Ex-military Flyers, and we’ve found a wonderful church to attend, St Thomas Antiochian Orthodox Church.
   
   
3. We’re staying busy. We’ve both attended local classes on fly fishing, gardening, egg tempera painting, and Texas forensic archeology. Later this month we’re also looking at volunteering at a local historical site, helping to start a local flying club, and I just attended my first Urban Sketcher outing as part of the Die Kunstler von Fredericksburg group. Read the rest of this entry

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

That’s it, Inktober 2018 is in the can! Today I finished the last of 31 days of pen and ink drawings for Inktober 2018.

As I mentioned in my post last week it’s been a stretch. I decided to stay with the prompts and challenge myself to draw/ink pictures I might have otherwise avoided.

Some of the drawings I’m very happy with…others, I’m glad I did them but can tell I was rushed or didn’t spend much time planning the art. But that’s OK! I’ve learned a lot and can now concentrate on improving my work.

As you look at these pieces please understand how hard it can be to try and come up with a work of art from a single word prompt. Some ideas came to me right away…others, not so much. One of the fun things this month though was sharing the art on Instagram and having the chance to see what other artists came up with.

If you click on the pie you can see the whole month’s efforts. Compare them with the prompts and see if you’d have other ideas…I’m sure you would.

I hope you enjoy my art as much as I enjoyed the process of creating the daily pen & ink drawing. In the future I’ll work on my photography skills so my pictures will be cleaner and more indicative of what my pieces look like on paper.

Now I’m off to the next challenge—I wonder what it will be?

Shout out to Steven B. Reddy @steven_reddy, Alphonso Dunn @Alphonsodunn, and Steve Mitchell @mindofwatercolor for their guidance and inspiration.

Happy Trails, Safe Travels, and Make Art!

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

I’m a firm believer that artists may have talent but it’s only through hard work that artists get better. Just like athletes, writers and other artists can only get better by practice, practice, practice!

NaNoWriMo

To that end I have challenged myself over the years to practice my limited talents and skills with the help of online challenges. In 2015 I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and completed 30 days dedicated to completing 50,000 words on a NEW novel. You can read about my exploits here.

Now that Ilene and I are full-time RVers one would think I’d have more time to dedicate to my artistic activities…and you’d be wrong. It seems like the more time I have, the more time I don’t seem to have. I still have a home to take care of, this one on wheels. We do a lot of sightseeing since we travel more. Oh, and I seem to ADD more hobbies as time goes on.

What started as being interested in watercolor painting last November has morphed into pen & ink drawing, urban sketching, plein air painting and drawing, blog posting on three sites, working as a voice talent, and building an RV inspection business. And yes, I saw City Slickers—but I can’t seem to do just ONE thing! Read the rest of this entry

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

40 Years But Who’s Counting?

40 Years But Who’s Counting?

It was 40 years ago this month that I met my wife, my best friend, the mother of my sons.

It was forty years ago while vacationing in Hawaii that we met. She was from Chicago. I was stationed in North Carolina.

It was a twist of fate that brought us together; one I’ll write about at some point in the future. We spent three days together. In that short period of time we fell head-over-heals in love. Three short months later we were married.

In the past forty years we raised a family. We’ve been blessed with a wonderful daughter-in-law and darling granddaughter.

Together we traveled to Europe and lived in England for five years. We’ve lived and traveled throughout the United States. Always together. Always side-by-side.

The years have been good to us. And today I rededicate myself to her and another forty years.

Thank you for being my friend, my companion, and my wife.

To my Jean from Billy. I love you sooooo much. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

Writing Is My Catharsis

Writing Is My Catharsis

Merriam-Webster gives the following definition of catharsis: a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension.

I happen to like that definition as it defines my reasons for writing to a “T”. Writing purifies me from the garbage that I walk through on a daily basis—most of it on network news. If you’re asking yourself, if he doesn’t like network news why does he watch/listen…keep reading.

Writing allows me to purge junk from my mind allows me a release from tension.

As to the spiritual renewal…well I’m working on that.

I’ve heard stories about Abraham Lincoln writing letters to generals and political opponents. Letters that were scathing to say the least. Letters that were brutal attacks with those he had disagreements. Read the rest of this entry

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

American Sniper

In a couple of months my wife and I will celebrate 40 years together. It’s pretty safe to assume after forty years we tend to think a lot alike and share many views when it comes to politics, religion, and social justice, just to name a few. Recently, however, she made a comment I had to totally disagree with.

Like many Americans we took the time last weekend to see the film, American Sniper. The film, directed by Clint Eastwood is based upon the book of the same name by Chris Kyle, a former US Navy SEAL credited as being one of, if not the, most lethal snipers in US history.

Unless you live in a vacuum, you’re probably aware it’s been quite a blockbuster, and it’s breaking several box office records. Read the rest of this entry

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.

Pardon My Dust

So, I’ve had this domain name, keithshafer.com, for about three years now and I finally decided to activate it. Working with Hostgator I got a smoking deal to host all of my domains on one server for a great price.

The past week has seen me scrambling to transfer domains from Godaddy.com to Hostgator.com, as well as add my wife’s account to this account, and to top it off, we’re in the process of opening two new stores for the wife’s Amazon FBA business.

Needless to say I’ve been a bit busy. Oh, did I mention I also write three times a week for our Over 50 business blog and once a week for my travel blog. Can you tell I like to write?

Anyway, I wanted to get a short post up so you’re not looking at the typical “Hello World” post for a new WordPress site. It’s a three-day weekend ahead so I should get everything sorted out between now and Tuesday.

Thanks for taking a look at my site and pardon my dust.

Keith

keith

I’m officially retired after over 40 years of working with the US military in one way or another. My bride of 45 years and I settled into a nice home in Fredericksburg, Texas, USA, and are enjoying the many events, organizations, and attractions the Texas Hill Country has to offer. I enjoy urban sketching, watercolor painting, dabble in writing, and do an occasional voice acting gig.