Artistry and Spirit Converge

Long ago I learned to see more in the messages of art that just what is on the surface.

I am a strange bird in that I adore the images of fractals. (Although given how many collector's

kaleidescopes are sold each year, maybe I'm not such a strange bird after all.)

I use this same eye for abstract messages when I look at the covers done by our Muse It Up Cover Artists, like this current one, just out from our

Cover Art Queen Goddess, Delilah K. Stephans. So much is going on for your eyes to behold, and you feel the power in the intensity of the eyes, the set of her lips, the rigid position of the hands and arms, the bright illumination of the fly-away strands of the hair that radiates out to or from something beyond the landscape and the formations in the clouds above.

EXCEPTIONAL!

One of the most powerful covers I have received so far from our Queen Goddess is this one...

No people...just color, light, shadow, and texture. The people who have read the story tell me they are astounded by the power of this cover that TELLS the story down to the sepia shadowing of deterioration and neglect.

That's a LOT, but that's the quality of the work of our cover artists here at Muse.

HOW did she know without reading the story this would be the right cover?

Perhaps because she has the soul of a wise spirit?

Delilah did this next one for my daughter. It is book two of her Gods At Work Series and tells Hera's story. Kat only asked Delilah for one thing if she could manage it on the cover...Hera's trademark is the

peacock feather.

Look what Delilah came up with...far more powerful than anything Kat or I could have imagined. That peacock is a breathtaking addition and sets this cover apart from the

other two in this series...Aphrodite's Book One.

Although the newest Gods At Work series cover for Hades' tale, Book Three, is pretty powerful too, don't you think? 

Death ain't half bad is he?

The very first cover Delilah did for me was for Santa is a Lady. Book One in my Christmas Miracles Series.

She makes it seem alive with the rippling water from the droplets falling from the

pointsettia leaf doesn't she? Angie's eyes...you can see so much in her eyes. Eyes truly are the mirrors to the soul, and Delilah showcases it so well in this cover.

Kat's second cover from Delilah proves the power

of starkness, eyes, and color. Frozen, Book One in Kat's Artica Lights series is about a land of eternal winter, and Awni, the haunting woman showcased at the very top of this cover its lonely, untouchable queen. Down below, a freak storm swirls...look carefully...you can see the lights brilliantly hidden, but there...(look into the area where the word FROZEN is presented)...about to claim the lone man to Artica and a life he could never imagine.

All of this is showcased on the cover Delilah created from a few scraps of info...because she has that extra power...she has a soul seasoned by many events you and I can speculate about, but never understand fully.

As head of our Cover Art department and a wise, knowing soul, she makes certain all her artists share her ability to just get it right....for instance, take a look at this gem by our NEWEST cover art goddess, Nika Dixon:

Tiger one of our cover art GODS delivered this keeper...

Suzannah Safi, Heir to the Queen's throne, brought us this magnificent jewel,

Kaytalin Platt, our very own YA expert artist hits it every time,


And horror in the Hands of Mike Zambrano is a lock.


Delilah, Tiger, Suzannah, Kaytalin, Mike, and Nika, thank you all for your artistry, your power, and your visions. You all ROCK!

AMERICA-PRIDE IN THE FACE OF VULNERABILITY

December 7th...a Day that will live in infamy!



The USS Arizona

America learned that no matter how far our shores are away from the other continents, we are as vulnerable as any other citizen of this world.

December 7th, 1941...Pearl Harbor...tranquil, sweetly exotic, laid back...Hawaii, believed it was only vulnerable to the vagaries of the

Goddess Pelé...before December 7th and the early morning attack by the Japanese Military under the code name Operation Al.

353 fighter planes descended on that tranquil paradise. 2,402 people were killed with another 1,282 wounded.

All eight of the Navy's battleships were damaged...

The USS Arizona Memorial

six of the eight were raised, repaired, and returned to service...later, during the advancement of war.

December 6th, 1941. The United States believed it could remain untouched by the dark stain spreading across the rest of the world...

but evil is never content to stop, and others will jump in when they see the success of another's evil to claim their own glory in the rampant fear and misdirection.

America wanted to stay away from the Blitz...away from the

vicious cancer spreading across the OTHER parts of the world.

Lost Innocence
December 7th changed that. America lost its innocence. America learned what it meant to get angry, but also what it meant to pull together as a

Nation, as a people, as the cornered tiger whose paw has been chomped.

Since December 7th, 1941, America forgot...forgot we cannot be a sleeping giant, turning a blind eye to the rest of humanity.

Our second loss of innocence came almost sixty years later on September 11th, 2001.

Hawaii, an actual island state, discovered being an island is no protection against the spread of the stain of evil...a lesson we learned again on 9/11/01.

This world IS our island, and every creature on it is part of the brotherhood of earth. The stain of darkness cannot be ignored just because for this moment in time it is nothing more than an

inkspot across some far reaching sea, because evil, like cancer, will not stop its spread if we do nothing but turn a blind eye to it.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed December 7th, 1941 a day that will live on in infamy...but until it actually arrives on our calendars...or we are forced to remember the same feelings of having our innocence shattered, do we really give much thought to the lessons we should have learned and held onto? No man is an island...no country is an island...no continent is an island...

Planet Earth is our island, and in that we are ALL of us earthlings, from the smallest

amoeba on...and together we are the ecosystem that keeps Planet Earth turning.

I find it strange we get all excited about finding possible fossilized bacterial life from a meteor of

Mars' landscape. We end up throwing all kinds of news conferences, cheering the scientific world on, and begin dreaming about one day colonizing the red planet while forgetting the lessons we have learned through life's most violent episodes here in a heartbeat of time later.

I was not even a twinkle in the eyes of my parents when the Japanese laid Hawaii low and crippled the Navy of this vast Country...yet I remember.

To all who lost their lives on that unimaginable day, may you know you will always be missed. To the many who died

in the vicious conflicts that followed...thank you for stepping up to stand proud and strong against the stain of evil.

For all those who perished on 9/11...I have this huge poster on my living room closet door to remind all who enter my home...I will never forget.

The Rainbow Bridge of all colors, all species.
And to my brothers and sisters around this planet...
 
God Bless Us Earthlings, one and all.