In this issue: We interview 1archangel about writing non-fiction. Emotional Soldier sits down with us to discuss writing poetry. Dazzleme discusses her photography and techniques. MinoYasue discussses the use of computers with art.

1archangel Interviewed 1archangel writes poetry and non-fiction stories. She has written a book that shares many of the major events of her life with a great deal of detail. We talk to her about writing non-fiction and how she is able to include such detail. Lava Flow Interview: 1archangel Tom Tell me about yourself. 1archangel I am a life-long (almost sixty year) resident of the State of Connecticut, and a twenty-five year employee of the Judicial Department. Retiring two years ago has afforded me the time to spend with my family. My husband and I have been married for thirty-nine years, and we have a thirty-two-year old son, Jason. Paranormal events and parapsychology interest me very much. Since joining FanStory, I have spent less time on candle-making, sketching, and photography, although they remain hobbies. Tom How long have you been writing? 1archangel Since I can remember... When I was young, I loved to draw pictures of kids having adventures, and I would write a little entry about each creation. At the age of ten, I wrote a story about a young man going into the service. The story was never shared with anyone and the scribbled pages eventually ended up in the trash. Actually, aside from a few poems published in the Library of Congress, serious writing didn't happen until I joined FanStory. Tom You mention in your bio that spirituality plays an important part of your life and I assume your writing. Why is that? 1archangel Wow...why? Well, it's been a "pull" for lack of a better word that's always been with me. Perhaps because I was raised by parents who practiced Christian values, coupled with Catholic School education, continuous involvement with church activities, having nuns and priests as friends, and a inner awareness of a higher presence. Since I believe that we are flesh and spirit, there is a constant pursuit of balance between the two. That involves taking care of the body AND the soul. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a holy roller...far from it. I have yet to achieve satisfaction with my spiritual life...it's still a work in progress. Tom Tell me about writing Christian Reflections 1archangel Those reflections are my way of sharing with the Christian community. Eventually, I hope to publish them. Some are my own experiences; others are my thoughts and philosophies. Hopefully, I will be enlightened enough to complete the project...still ANOTHER work in progress. Tom How does your religion and beliefs impact your writing? 1archangel Since my beliefs are a part of me, they come through in my writing. "Cadence", a paranormal thriller, was inspired (I feel) by a higher source. My childhood reflections shared in Random Remembering...The Early Years not only expose my adventures in annoying adults, they are a retrospective view into my early thoughts and desires. I.e. there's a story about my drinking year-old Holy water because I thought it would make me an instant saint. The goal for me is to reach someone...even just one person with a message or an experience that might help them in seeking spiritual growth. Tom But I couldn't help notice that you wrote a poem that was the first place winner of an erotic poetry contest. :) 1archangel Oooops! You would have to remind me of that one. Thanks, Tom! I have no excuse for that, except to say I ventured into new territory to try to expand my writing experience. It was the first and last erotic write for me...just not comfortable in that area of expression. Tom Seriously, does your writing or other factors ever conflict with your what you are writing. Are there certain things or thoughts you wouldn't touch? 1archangel I wouldn't delve into erotica for reasons mentioned above. Tom I enjoyed reading your book Marriage Vows: No Loop Holes. Writing about your life this way must have been interesting. 1archangel Actually, the write is partly inspired by court cases I sat in on, as well as my own trials, tribulations, and survival. As a firm believer that people in love can enhance each other's lives, the write is meant to open an eye or two. The divorce rate is distressing. Tom Did you keep a diary? How do you remember the details of what happened in 1969 for example when you wrote "I Prefer the Rich Part, but..." 1archangel I have kept diaries since I could write. Some events are so vivid in my mind, referring to my journals isn't necessary. Most of my recollections are from my memory, however. I wish the things I did this morning were as clear as what I did twenty years ago. Tom Any advice for someone that may be thinking of doing this now or in 20 years? 1archangel Just do it. Find the time to explore your potential. Don't feel inhibited or that you may fail. The fastest runner won't win the race if he or she never enters the event. Tom You also go into your past with Times Remembered. Tell me about writing it. 1archangel Perhaps, it's my need to share myself that prompted this series. Being shrouded in mystery is not my preference or style. Feedback from Times Remembered indicates that people can relate, and that means a lot to me. We're all in the same life-boat. The more we connect, the better our lives become. Maybe that's why a great deal of my work involves personal experiences. Tom Any thoughts you would like to share to new writers? 1archangel Just go with whatever your gut tells you. Try not to get discouraged, but do pursue your passion. If you WANT to write, you have the soul of a writer. Keep a journal. Jot down anything that comes to mind in the course of the day that might be writing material. Above all, be true to yourself. Tom What can we look for from you going forward? 1archangel Wish you didn't ask this one, Tom. Aside from a few poems published in the Library of Congress, I have had an agent (Book to Film Productions)trying to get CADENCE accepted by a film-maker. Since this would be a high budget movie, there haven't been any takers so far. Eventually, I hope to publish Random Remembering Early Years, but that is not an iron in the fire yet. 1archangel I have kept diaries since I could write. Some events are so vivid in my mind, referring to my journals isn't necessary. Most of my recollections are from my memory, however. I wish the things I did this morning were as clear as what I did twenty years ago. Dazzleme Interviewed We sit down with Dazzleme to discuss her photography. In the interview we talk about the difference between "Traditional Photography" and "Mixed Media Photograhy" and the techniques involved. Lava Flow Interview: Dazzleme Tom How long have you been a photographer? Dazzleme I have enjoyed photography since about 1986. It is my hobby (fulltime) and my passion and I really enjoy it so much. It is very relaxing and I love being one with nature. My favourite shots to take ae animals, landscape and nature shots along with macros of flowers mostly. With my 1st Pentax A3000 SLR camera, I also was entitled to 10 free lessons from Blacks Photography as I purchased it there along with a wide angle lens and a 70-210mm zoom lens. I really learned the basics and beyond with this camera as it was very easy to work with and understand the settings being fully automatic. My instructor from Black's taught me a lot as well as my girlfriend who is a freelance professional photographer as well and we often go out together. I would still have and be using my Pentax if it was not for the fact, I had to give it a funeral the first part of the year. She just up and died! Nothing left in her shutter button! lol. Tom Are different cameras better for different forms of art? Dazzleme I have graduated now to a fully digital SLR Canon Rebel XT which I did extensive research on before purchasing it. Along the way, before this camera, I had others given to me as Christmas gifts - Olympus C720, and Canon Powershot A640. The Powershot A640 really taught me a lot about macro settings and working with that setting was a lot of fun. I have given my Olympus to my son who goes to College and needed a digital for his projects as he is into journalism so I gave him a crash course with that. My girlfriend who is the photographer, bought my Canon A640 for quick shots using a digital as she prefers the SLR still. I have only the Rebel XT that I use solely now and do not have the others at all. It works well for me and I really feel I am in my photo element with it as I love the results I get with it. So in answer to the question on different cameras for different arts - no I just use this one now. Tom When did you first start creating mixed media photography (the use of a computer to edit your photographs) Dazzleme I have never had any kind of connection with mixed media photography until I joined this site and as a Dazzlemer of fact, I had no idea what it was! I had a couple of programs already on my computer that dealt in effects and filters to convert a photo into mixed media so I use them a lot. Tom "The Softness of Dahlia" I think is a good example of your mixed media work. Using that as an example what is involved in creating this form of art? Dazzleme "The Softness of Dahlia" was a challenge for me. I always make sure when I go out to take photos that I purposely take a selection of photos that I want to use to convert to mixed media. I keep them in a file on my computer until I am ready to convert them. I try and keep an idea in my head as to what I would like to do with the image to change it that would grab the viewers attention and yet be appealing and not overpowering. I worked in stages for this whereas I transformed it first into my filter for a mirrored effect and this came from my PSP X program. I then saturated the image in this effect and saved it. Having the mirrored effect was ok but I wanted to have it stand out a bit more so I used the seamless tile effect as well as the displacement map and then the soft focus all over effect in my Corel program. Since the original image had some dark background dof in it, I knew that would show up somewhere in the image if only just a bit.When I saw the end result, I decided this was what I was wanting to post. Tom How much time does that take? Dazzleme This was about a 2 hour process to get it just the way I wanted after all my changes and experimenting with the different effects. Tom You also still post traditional photographs. Dazzleme When I first joined this site, my objective was to post only photos as that is really what I enjoy doing the most but then I realized I enjoyed the mixed media aspect of the site using the filters and effects so I was able to incorporate the "best of both worlds" for my images. My preference is taking photos and being out and about as I enjoy the hiking aspect of a days outing and I love incorporating photos into the exercise! Also, this happens when I am walking my Golden retrievers. Tom How did you approach the shot "Flight of a Bumblebee". Dazzleme Wow! Did I enjoy the surprise I had here! As many bees as there was this day, and my intention was to capture the Dahlias and Zinnias in the park from the flowerbeds as their colours were wonderful and I wanted to use different angles, I was not paying attention at the time of this shot on the bee as my focus was on the flower and the side view. It is amazing what that split second of timing can capture! I knew it was flying around where I was but my surprise was in my photo when I was it in the frame on the computer. I believe because of the angle of my shot on the flower, that the bee was in perfect alignment with my depth of focus when I captured it. Tom "The Elusive Illusion" was well received. Dazzleme The Elusive Ellusion was a special mixed media for me. I spent 4 hours on this one. I had an idea what I wanted to do but could not just get the right effects for this. I had to try several different filters until I found the one that would do the presentation the way I wanted it. Unfortunately this was not from one of my own computer programs but rather from my sons as he has a program on his computer that is part of his college program and cannot be copied to another machine and he uses it for illustration and cartoon characters and when he showed me some of the effects, I asked if I could use my flash drive to experiment with the effects. That is the one I used for this. It was done in 3 different stages. The original butterfly was in the center but I wanted to introduce the effect of having one coming to land and one leaving the flower. I had to save each frame with that effect and layer it together. I wanted the ghostly effect there so I had to use the degree of numbers in the program to give the effect of the flying away and coming to the flower. Basically this changed the distance of the butterfly from landing to taking off. Tom "Us an our Shadows" is a different shot. Dazzleme Use And Our Shadows was really a lot of fun and not a lot of thought put into the shot only for the timing for the sun effect for the shadows around 7pm. My girlfriend had done this effect before so we did some experimenting with the angles. We thought against the stone wall it was most effective. Tom What determines whether a shot will be unedited or if it will be edited using software? Dazzleme Editing photos for me is not something I like to do as my thought on that is what is the point of taking a photo if you are going to manipulate it on the computer for the way it looks? I use a very big resolution for my photos - 3456 x 2304 and try to compose my shot the way I want it to look for presentation by choosing the settings on the camera wisely so I do not have to edit that much. The only editing I really do is cropping on certain photos and I know with the large size resolution, I will still have the image be close to normal before it starts to show distortion in any way. A wonderful photographer on this site once told me that if I compose my shot in my head first, then through the viewfinder the exact way I want to present it, I should not have to edit it so I try and do that as much as possible. Tom Any special projects planned? Dazzleme Special Projects? Always! Right now it is for fall displays people have in their yards for thanksgiving and Halloween and just fall. It takes me to some interesting photographic places! Macro shots is always a challenge for me and I try and work with this inside over winter. Christmas lights this year will be a challenge for me as I am starting to work with night light effects. There are more but to numerous to mention as I change my mind a lot! Dazzleme The Softness of the Dahlia Flight of the Bumblebee The Elusive Illusion Us And Our Shadows Floral In A Glass Globe Emotional Soldier Interviewed Emotional Soldier writes poetry that expresses feelings and emotions. We talk to him about writing his poetry. Lava Flow Interview: Emotional Soldier Tom Tell me about your user name "Emotional Soldier". That has to have some meaning. Emotional Soldier The use of "Emotional Soldier" is a name that came about through relationships when love was a true and dedicated. I was dedicated to fight and keep it at any cost, but when keeping it physically became a lost reality, I have learned to keep it in the memory of my poems. It was kind of a "battle for love" name. Tom What's with wolves that are shown in your profile. Emotional Soldier The Werewolves are just a metaphor of "wolves" their attitude heightened to that of being a Werewolf. It applied it to my attitude, symbolizing how life, certain situations and circumstances have the ability to transform a person into things that they "normally" would not be. So the werewolf would be the "alter ego" that arises in my personality at times, so I thought I would institute it into my poetry. Tom How long have you been writing. Emotional Soldier Been writing all my life from the age of about 16 or 17, when I began to experience relationships and feelings. Tom In your poems, what is it you are trying to do. Or is it different for each poem? Emotional Soldier Different from poem to poem. The "Emotional" part of the name comes in again, when the events of my life or even incidents in the news, spark an emotion in me. So a poem arises when my feelings are aroused and I use that arousal to hopefully produce a passionate write. Tom Tell me about writing Unique Individuality. It was well received. Emotional Soldier This was a poem about two people, two regular people, who will become more than regular when they approach each other. One sees something special in the other and the other sees something special in the other as well, a "uniqueness" that no-one else see's and an "individuality" that no-one else see's. When they bring, and come together what the world saw as average has a all new power that can now be noticed, but ... at the same time it has its sexual aspect ... your "uniqueness" my "individuality" is the sexual application, so it has its dual meaning, the physical and the spiritual. Usual my writings carry both meanings. Tom Tell me about writing your 9/11 poem We Felt It. I think one of the reasons it was well received is it didn't go into the politics of the event. But touched the day itself. Was that intentional. You wrote that six years after the event. Emotional Soldier Yes, because the actual politics for me at least will never be known but as I watched the event, even six years later, I was still able to write what I saw. No one needed to deliver for me much as to the politics of what I was witness to, there were no politics involved in that at all, so I was able to write that feeling and experience and I think all people left that day with many political question, of which none were going to be effective in erasing the horror of what we all were witness to. Tom You do try different forms of poetry. What do you feel most comfortable with? Emotional Soldier I feel most free with the raw emotional output from the heart, I believe it speaks, from heart to heart, and in doing writing this way it will never really be a failed poem because it touches in the reader what has been touched me, so the human value of the poem's speak to the human value of the reader, the only think I have to accomplish is my delivery and expression without a definite structure most times. Tom Tell me about writing Looking Up At The Sky Emotional Soldier When I write from the point of view from any picture I always take the personal route first, if nothing materializes I take the fiction route and attempt to apply some fantasy. In that one it was from a personal perspective about how I would have loved a day like that with someone you love relaxing in a tranquil environment, just for a day, perfect scene, perfect day ...just a dream hoping to be captured someday. Tom Any tricks of the trade you would like to share? Emotional Soldier As far as the poetry itself ... wow, that's a tough question when it comes to writing because I think it is born in you and maintained by your love for it, so there's can be no tricks as to what people read because they will feel you out, but I would say to anyone who writes to keep writing and the number one thing in writing I would say is, to make the reader understand, a most difficult thing to do. Tom What can we look for from you going forward? Emotional Soldier You can look for more of the same, not much deviation on my writing, promoting Jesus Christ, my words and my life, my perspectives and attitudes. But most of all, all my heart will be at the front of all my words. Emotional Soldier The use of "Emotional Soldier" is a name that came about through relationships when love was a true and dedicated. I was dedicated to fight and keep it at any cost, but when keeping it physically became a lost reality, I have learned to keep it in the memory of my poems. It was kind of a "battle for love" name. MinoYasue Interviewed We sat down with MinoYasue. She is an artist that is not shy of trying new things. She is a software engineer and uses her skills with computers to enhance her art. We talk to her about this. Lava Flow Interview: MinoYasue Tom Tell me about yourself. MinoYasue I am originally Japanese and currently live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I hold a job as a Geomatics - Software Engineer. The word 'Geomatics' is comprised of Earth (geo) and mathematics (-matics) and is defined as a mathematical study of the Earth; you can think of this as modern technology in the surveying of gravity, remote sensing, satellite, etc. Another passion of mine (beside art) is films. I am very easily moved by the great movies. When this happens, I may contemplate a film for a long, long time - even a year. I think I am quite obsessive by nature. I used to love creative writing too, but the dream eventually disappeared because of my language limitations. Expressing deep inner thoughts and emotions requires a great degree of language competency. I am glad that at least I have art as an outlet for my creativity. I am antisocial by nature and, for me, the arts are an expression of my thoughts and emotions. I lived by the sea during my childhood. What treasure it is! I always remember beautiful white beaches and the infinite blue sea. The sea is my fascination, and hopefully, I will be able to live by the sea again, one day. I belong to it?. Tom How long have you been an artist? MinoYasue The truth is that I have never considered myself as an artist. The artist to me is someone who has something very special that affects others deeply. I do not think I have that much faith in myself. That is another reason why I have never attempted to expose my works. I just love and need to paint. If you ask me how long I have been painting, I would say since my childhood, off and on. I have quit many times, but always ended up picking up the brushes again. Tom You have a somewhat unique way of approaching art. You take advantage of all mediums available to you including the computer. Tell me about that. MinoYasue Until last Christmas, I had no idea about digital works. As you can see, my 100% traditional works are so detailed, and it requires long planning and designing (as well as the actual painting process). I thought it would be nice if I could have some designing tools. As a software engineer, I have a general idea how digital software works, and much can be achieved easily in Photoshop, (such as composition planning by moving around the objects within). Last Christmas, I wished for a WACOM tablet as one of my presents, and Santa was very nice to me. I started to scan in many sketches to work on the composition in Photoshop. This was meant to be solely for design purposes for my traditional paintings. The problem is that I somewhat being stacked with it. The best advantage of digital work is how quickly I can form my endless ideas. Right now, I am trying hard to find the way back to my traditional works. I think that is where my heart belongs, and I miss it. Tom So what goes into creating an image like "Fairy in Love" MinoYasue I used several digital canvases for each theme in the image. I made a sketch of a girl and scanned it in first canvas. I refined shape and color and whatever else to define her fully. I choose the Apophysis image and imported it into the second canvas. I cropped out the girl in (1) and pasted in (2) with the application of transparency. I needed the flower field so I looked for some pictures (or clip art) and pasted it (3, which now has girl with Apophysis image) with some transparency. Use digital paint to smooth out edges or whatever else required adjustments. This is not really complicated process. I think this process belongs more to a graphics design category. Tom I enjoyed your "Japanese Legend" book. Tell me about creating it. MinoYasue I think everybody loves the fairy tales of their childhood. These stories are so much reflected by the culture of the places where they were created. Some of the artworks are directly from the stories, and the others are from my imagination, but inspired by the legendary stories nevertheless. These stories (on which my art in this book is based) had a strong impact on me as a child, and even now, I recall impressions I received by hearing these tales. These stories are a part of my personal history as well. Tom What about "Kappa" MinoYasue Kappa populates swampy areas, and carries a shell on their back (like turtles) and wear a plate on their head. They can travel on land, but the plate on their head must always be kept moist. Otherwise, they are quite innocent and mischievous, though they also love to eat children. They consume the essence of the children and leave only their skins behind. The one food Kappa love more than children are cucumbers. Therefore, it was customary that parents used to write children's names on paper, tie it to the cucumber, and drop it into the river where the Kappa live, in order to avoid the attacks of Kappa on their children. The story was quite fearful to me as a child. I think I have illustrated my fear as a child; I think that children grabbed and eaten by the Kappas in the background, was what I felt when I was child. Tom How much times goes into creating a piece like this. This was created with pencils correct. MinoYasue Yes, it is pen and ink and colored pencil. I already knew how the creature looked like, and had clear picture about the composition, but did a bit of research on skin tone of Kappa, etc. This is a relatively quick work for one of my traditional artworks. It took about 15 hours. Did you see my "Manga" background? I used to draw a lot of Manga when I was small. I had a lot of fun doing this work. Tom You use so many different formats. Does the individual work determine how you will create it? MinoYasue Yes, in a general sense, especially in traditional artworks. If the work requires a lot of transparency (layering), I use Acrylics. If I want the color to be bold and singular, I use gouche, etc. I say in general, as I often change my mind about the work during the creative process. For example, during the sketching, I often become so detailed, the sketch becomes an independent artwork. For digital works, I used a lot of apophlysis background, and sometimes its appearance (flow and color) determines the type of work. For mixed photographs, the base photograph often determines the type of the work as well. Tom Tell me about "Ghost in my House". What started that? MinoYasue I was lying on my coach, and I saw the shadow of lamp shape on white wall; the shadow was really like a lady with hut looking at me. So, I took a photograph of it, and painted a face on the photo. It may be a really ghost; who knows - hehehe... Tom "Hope In Hell" was recently the subject of a writing contest on FanStory.com. What is your interpretation of the piece? Did any of the writers come close to your vision? MinoYasue When I saw this photo, I was very moved by the agony and desperation on her face. It was so painful even to watch. I think her pain is a presentation of what all we experience at least once or twice in our lifetime. Some people are getting over it and others are defeated by it. Life may be cruel, but we do not have any choices but go through it. Such is life. A majority of authors interpret the pain with in their own unique perception and psychology. It is interesting to know the point of view from the others, as well as educational. I am grateful. Tom Tell me about creating artwork based on people. I imagine it must present quite a challenge. MinoYasue As I mentioned before, I am anti-social and do not communicate with others too well. So art is a mean of communicating my voice to the others. That is main reason why my artworks are so emotionally based. I think art is a necessity for my own accord and feel it is neither difficult nor challenging. When I feel something strong about people or event, I just speak. Tom How do you approach this? Anything you would like to share with other artists? MinoYasue Many times, when I read reviews, I see there are quite many people are so technically minded. I recognize that the technique is very important, because it is a mean of conveying one's intentions, but what I want to emphasize is that the true art should be from one very core mind. I want you to FEEL the art before you SEE it. Tom Any special projects planned? MinoYasue I think I have quite an active mind and imagination. I have so many stories to express, but I cannot write it because my limitation of the language (even in my own language; I have been away too long). But, I can draw and paint, and I would like to express the stories in storyboard fashion. MinoYasue Fairy In Love True Love Kappa Ghost In My House Hope In Hell A special thanks to Emotional Soldier, MinoYasue, Dazzleme and 1archangel! Have something you want to say about this issue, tell us. Have a question you want answered in our next issue, ask it. © 2007 FanStory.com, Inc - All Rights Reserved - Issue #43/Winter 2007