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Saturday, February 23, 2008

Shoulda Been There - New John Lennon Biography

I have had the pleasure of recently making the acquaintance of Jude Southerland Kessler and her husband, Rande Kessler. Jude has written a new, documented, biography about the early life of former Beatle, John Lennon called, Shoulda Been There.

Being a Beatlemaniac myself, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy. Once I've had a chance to read this book, I will be posting a review here for everyone to see, but in the meantime, I do have the following information about this wonderful biography.

"Here comes a book that breathes life into the [Lennon] story...and I say, 'Hey Jude, carry on!'"Bill Harry, noted Beatle expert and Founder of Mersey Beat

The Only Documented Historical Novel on Lennon

Literally hundreds of non-fiction books have been written about The Beatles and about the man who formed The Beatles, John Lennon. And quite a few fictional books about Lennon have been created to amuse fans. But Jude Southerland Kessler's Shoulda Been There is the first book ever to tell the Lennon saga with carefully researched footnotes and detailed, informational endnotes, while using a fiction format to keep the reader turning the page. Researched for over 20 years with 7 trips to Liverpool and countless interviews with John Lennon's friends, early band members, first manager, and club D.J.'s, Shoulda Been There traces Lennon's life from 1940 to December 1961 (when The Beatles signed with Brian Epstein). But it is not just a story about the birth of a band. It is the tale of a lost child whose parents, for one reason or another, pushed him aside for other pursuits. It is the story of all children for whom someone "shoulda been there."

All of the scholarly, non-fiction ingredients are present in Shoulda Been There: an encyclopedia of real characters complete with bios of each, an index and thorough bibliography, and a glossary of Scouse (Liverpool) terms. Yet the book is a riveting novel. Although it is 795 pages, it is written in short vignettes that can be digested quickly. It is, as David Haber of whatgoeson.com wrote, "something special." Bill Harry called Kessler's unique approach of weaving data into a compelling story "factional."


Now, all you Beatle and John Lennon fans are probably asking yourselves, "Where can I get a copy of this book?" Well, you won't find this at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble. You won't even find it at Amazon.com. However, I am pleased to tell you that you can purchase a copy for $29.95 plus shipping and handling Right Here. This book is available to ship worldwide.


For anyone who does buy a copy of this book, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I hope you will please come and post comments here and let us all know how you enjoyed it. Oh! And as they say on TV - Makes a Great Gift! :)
Kerry

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Brushes: Photoshop vs PSP

I am a PSP user. Still use version 7, actually. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right? Not to mention that I'm not going to shell out hard earned coin of the realm for another version of a program that I've already paid for.

I really like my Paint Shop Pro and use it all the time, but from time to time, I get really frustrated when I see all these great brush sets that are out there for Photoshop. Now, I know that Photoshop is great and I'm certainly not going to knock it, but again, it's a question of why spend the money on a new program when you have one that works just fine.

So, after finding a set of Photoshop brushes on a graphics site that I belong to that really wanted, I decided to do some research. It turns out that there is this great little program called ABR Viewer that you can use to convert the brushes to png format.

Hallelujah! The heavens opened, the angels began to sing and my checking account was soon a few dollars lighter as I went and purchased these fabulous brushes.

I downloaded the free ABR Viewer from http://abrviewer.sourceforge.net/ I found it to be a tad temperamental, but I was also trying to open an abr file with more than 300 brushes in it, so that may have been part of the problem. Anyway, I was able to easily convert the files to png format. It did take a few minutes to complete, but it wasn't an unreasonable amount of time.

Now, I had read that you can then go and open Paint Shop Pro and open all the png files and then export them as PSP brushes, but for myself, I actually prefer to use them as png files - but that's just my preference.

My only problem now is to decide what to create first! Some new websets? New graphics for my tube site? New designs for my Zazzle and Cafe Press stores? Oh, decisions, decisions!

Thank you Mr. Luigi Bellanca for this wonderful and free software! I really appreciate it, and I'm sure a great many other PSP users do too.

I'm off to create!

Kerry

Monday, February 4, 2008

Well- Here I am!

I've finally started a blog!

I feel like I'm way behind the curve here, just getting around to having a blog. I've been told by lots of people that having a blog will help promote my artwork and various shops around the internet. But, I never started a blog because, well, what am I supposed to say?


So - here I am! I'll probably be having some eclectic posts. Some will be about my artwork and shops and others will be about my interests - like classic rock!

I have a site dedicated to classic rock - www.rockmaven.com

And here are my various shops:

www.zazzle.com/krwdesigns*

www.zazzle.com/krwoldworld*

www.zazzle.com/krwbaby*

www.zazzle.com/krwwedding*

www.zazzle.com/krwholidays*

www.zazzle.com/krwnamegame*

www.cafepress.com/krwdesigns

www.printfection.com/krw

http://www.redbubble.com/people/krwdesigns


I also have a graphics site that has free images and linkware websets. Soon, hopefully, I will have the membership area of that site up and running and have cds for sale.

www.krwgraphics.com


About Me:

I stay home with my 2 lovely children; one girl, one boy. I am a self-taught artist. I use Paint Shop Pro and Daz Studio for most of my work. I have also done some fractal work and even a few hand drawn items.

I also love classic rock. I've always had a useless gift for remembering things about music and movies. I figure why not put all that useless knowledge to good use? That was where the Rock Maven site came in. www.rockmaven.com

I don't have a site for movies, so, I suppose this blog will come in good for exploring that interest.

Hmm - well - I guess that's it for now.

Check back soon for - well - God only knows what!

Kerry