Tiffany Studios Buying Guide

A year ago I was working on my military sci-fi series when on a lark I started putting together some notes on a hobby of mine: collecting antique Tiffany Studios pieces. I certainly can’t afford lamps or the high-end pieces, but I inherited a small collection from my parents, which I have occasionally added to. As time has gone by, buying antiques has shifted from estate sales on dusty yards in front of rundown houses to online auctions. 

Buying antiques online, though, is fraught with danger. 

As I began to buy online, I decided to document for others how to do it safely. One thing led to another, and my notes turned into a book. As it turned out, it is about 80% buying guide, 10% history of Tiffany and his various enterprises, and 10% personal history.

I’m very happy with it, and it has been well received. As I worked on it, I also added chapters on Tiffany Favrile glass, and Tiffany Furnaces pieces. I plan to update it a bit from time to time as I own (at least briefly) new pieces. You can see it on Amazone at this link: Tiffany Studios Buying Guide

But it is time to get back to fiction…

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Lots of good reasons, but good reasons are just more excuses. 

In fairness I DID publish a book, stayed employed, lost 15 pounds, and taught my daughter’s service dog how to play frisbee…so I’ve not been dead on my ass. 

More on the book I published later. That is a long story. For now, check this out…

This was simple. After having wanted to make a map of Kira’s Village — where much of the Lonely Hunter story takes place — I stumbled upon www.inkarnate.com today and within 90 mins was able to learn enough to use their free version to create Kira’s Village as you see it above.

It’s been stuck in my head (and on my hard drive) for 5 years now, so I know it pretty damn well. I’ve tried hand-drawing and PowerPoint and they all look like crap, so had all but given up. Once I mastered Inkarnate, I was able to knock it out quickly. 

With a bit of luck and a lot of self-discipline, I hope to get back to fiction shortly. 

Lonely Hunter continues to be 95% done, so I probably ought to finish that soon. It is now the second novel in the series.

IrSaa’s Prelude (now the first book in the series) continues to delight and challenge me. The first draft is nearing completion, so still needs to go through Critique Circle and a lot of editing. 

Bright Universe (now the third book in the series) is still effectively done short of going through CC and being professionally edited. I continue to be pleased with this book even though it is brutal and without hope. 

The 4th book (which will remain nameless at the moment), continues to sit at about 70% done.

The 5th and 6th novels are each at about 20% + a rough outline. Occasionally — rarely, to be honest — I jump into one and tweak a paragraph or two, but that is about it. 

I don’t really anticipate making any more maps for any of them…just seemed like something I need for Lonely Hunter.

That’s it for now… 

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We went to our first film festival this last weekend, the Lake Travis Film Festival. My wife and I had all-day passes to one day of the three-day event hosted by the cities of Lakeway and Bee Caves, which are suburbs of Austin.

We had no idea what we were doing, so we learned a lot about such things.

We saw about 10 films of various forms as we bounced back and forth between three venues that were showing student shorts (they weren’t so good), documentaries (which were very good), and an art gallery with static displays. We skipped the venue showing music video shorts.

One of the beauties of it was being exposed to things I would have never ever gone out to see otherwise. Three that most impressed us (with trailers for the interested):

The Act of Reading — Ostensibly about a quirky young man who decided to complete a book report on Moby Dick for his teacher after she flunked him for not doing it 11 years earlier. Strangely structured, but very engaging.

Motorcycle Man — A polished and emotionally engaging look at an old guy who can’t give up racing — living — motorcycles.

A Cut Above — And from the world of competitive Lumberjills, a clever look inside a sport and culture I’ve never thought about.

Listening to the directors after each documentary, it was fascinating to hear how much they each focused on the story, and the struggle to figure out what the story was they were trying to tell. Sometimes they did not realize what the story was until all the filming was already done. Though there were differences, much it sounded familiar.

Turn out was light, but I hope they have funding for a few more years so they can become better established and grow their attendance as well as draw in strong candidates.

They really need to step up their student entrants. I wanted to see them because though I knew the average quality was going to be worse, I had hoped for that rare gem from an unsung talent on the rise. Unfortunately, that one did not show up in what we saw.

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Sales of my novel have ceratinly slowed — only 307 copies this year — but that still allows me to donate $100, which my employeer (Dell Technologies) again generously matched. So the total is $200 for the year, which brings the total to $2,500. 

If your’re curious, the other half of the money I collect goes to marketing, advertising to be precise. I have a very modest spend of about about $6 or $7 a month for pay per click advertising with Amazon. 

Not a huge donation, but more than I thought my little book would ever do, and happy to help. 

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