Day: June 29, 2017

Behind the Logo: The Backstory

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I finish all my posts with the same logo, a wolf encircled by my name and the words “moonlit imagination.” I’m also guessing that you might have wondered why I do that and where it came from.

The history behind it isn’t really complicated or extraordinary. My high school offered Yearbook as an elective and I took it my junior and senior years. This elective, along with compiling and selling the school’s yearbook, taught us about graphic design and layout. One of the assignments we got was to design business cards for ourselves. I came up with a handful of designs and this logo was my favorite.

My logo, slightly enlarged

The howling wolf represents my dual nature as a lone wolf but also a pack animal. Wolves are also strong, majestic, and misunderstood, much like writers often are. The words encircle the wolf in order to follow the same visual path created by the full moon at which the wolf howls. “Moonlit Imagination” is a slogan I gave a potential freelancing business long ago because I am a nocturnal being and my best work is done at night. The “S” and “H” are just my initials. You can probably figure out why my name is there.

After all these years I still have a file of each of the business cards and logos, and after all these years this logo is still my favorite.

When I first started writing posts for this blog, I felt like they were incomplete even with images and a sort of “conclusion” at the end. I didn’t like the white space underneath the last of the text. I had been looking for a way to use this logo for a while and I figured that, in addition to making business cards, I could use it as my signature at the bottom of my posts. So far it seems to be working fairly well.

As I’ve been looking into using VistaPrint to make some business cards, I realized that this logo would look good on other products as well: shirts, tote bags, hats, etc. This realization gave me an idea but I want to run it by my readers before I make a decision.

You probably know that running a quality blog isn’t always free. Between the money for the domain and the time spent writing, it does burn a small hole in your pocket before it truly lifts off. My most prominent sources of income are Swagbucks and my book reviews from Fiverr, but I’m still looking for more ways to raise money. I’ve placed a couple ads on this blog but I don’t want to overwhelm my readers and I’m still working to build up my writing, editing, and book review freelance jobs. I have also entered some writing contests and plan to focus more on getting published but we all know that will take some time and a lot of submissions.

My idea is to offer you, my readers, the chance to buy some merchandise with my logo on it. This will be accomplished either through an online store or, preferably, with pledges through an account on Patreon. I will also be offering these products from time to time as free monthly giveaways for my newsletter subscribers.

First, however, I would like you to answer this poll.

If merchandise with my logo (pictured at the end of the post) were available, would you buy it and/or pledge a monthly donation to this blog?
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Mind you, this idea may or may not come to fruition. I want to see how well my readers receive it before giving it a try. Thank you for providing your opinion on this matter.

If you have any comments or suggestions about this idea, please leave them in the comments section below.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011

Book Reviews: Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling

If you haven’t figured out that I’m a fan of J.K. Rowling, you either haven’t been paying attention or you’ve missed a lot of posts. Don’t worry; I’ll catch you up. I’ve looked up to Rowling for as long as I can remember. It goes without saying that I love Harry Potter. That series is one of the rocks of my life that will never go away, along with Disney, my parents, my pets (past, present, and future), reading, and writing. More importantly, I have drawn a lot of strength from Rowling’s life story. It keeps me going in the hopes that I will be able to write my own life story as well as she has written hers. That’s why I was absolutely ecstatic when Very Good Lives was published.

Image retrieved from Amazon

Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination is the official publication of Rowling’s 2008 commencement speech at Harvard University. I would describe this very short tome as an inspirational narrative which draws on aspects of memoirs and self-help books.

With Rowling’s signature humor and captivating accounts from her life after graduation, Very Good Lives is the perfect book to keep on your nightstand. A quick read, witty, I read all 80 pages one morning before getting out of bed.

The main lesson from this speech is to use your failures to build yourself up. We all know that Rowling had hit rock bottom before finishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She explains that whether we’ve hit rock bottom as she did or just had a string of minor failures, we can use these failures to learn what not to do, point ourselves in the right direction, and learn what we really want out of life.

The secondary lesson, as the title implies, is the importance of imagination in our lives and the world. Most notably, Rowling discusses how we can use imagination to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. No better person to get such advice from than a woman who once worked with immigrants then went on to write books that positively impact people’s views of ostracized groups.

I’m not afraid to say that I have dealt with a lot of depression and anxiety since I graduated from university. I’m a struggling–and otherwise only employed through freelance work–writer living with her parents to save money. (No one should be ashamed if they live with their parents. Humans are social animals by nature and it’s a great way to save while paying back student loans so long as your parents are OK with it.) I don’t always feel good about myself, especially when I can’t find a job.

Rowling’s Very Good Lives has helped me to pull myself back from the abyss of self-loathing. Perhaps I’ve failed by my own standards but I have also succeeded. I can learn from my failures and use them as the foundation on which I continue to build my successes. Rowling’s book/speech helped me to realize this and is one of the reasons I was able to convince myself to apply for my Master’s program, launch this blog, join Fiverr, and, most importantly, keep writing even when nothing I write seems publishable.

The illustrations are beautifully simplistic. Like the letters on the cover, they are solid red images dancing across and at the edges of the white pages. Each illustration matches the text occupying the same page and distracts from the white space without detracting from the message.

Image retrieved from Amazon

Some Amazon reviews have complained about the fact that they could just look the speech up online and not pay for the physical copy. I don’t know about now but when I bought the book two years ago, the proceeds went to charity. Again, I can’t say if that’s the situation now.

So why bother to buy this book if you can look up the speech online and the proceeds may or may not still go to charity? Well, that’s a matter of personal preference. I prefer paper copies over anything electronic, whether it be an e-book, a Word doc, a PDF file, or a web page. A paper copy also allows you to read without the distractions of social media and the Internet.

I only know where you can buy a paper copy or the e-book. If you know where people can find the speech online without violating copyright, please post a link in the comments for other readers.

Overall, Very Good Lives is uplifting and inspiring. I would recommend it for everyone, even if you’re not currently going through hard times or you don’t like Rowling’s work. In each life some rain falls and this book is like a towel; it won’t prevent you from getting wet during the storm but it’ll help you wipe off the drops left behind.

To buy a copy of Very Good Lives, follow the link below:

For more information on J.K. Rowling, be sure to visit her official website.

Leave your thoughts on Rowling’s work in the comments, and sign up for email notifications so you never miss a single post. Also remember to sign up for my newsletter The Scrapbook for exclusive content and monthly giveaways.

Do you know of any books I should read and discuss? Would you like me to review your published book on this blog? Contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com with your recommendations or hire me on Fiverr. I accept book review requests through my “review your book on my blog” gig and as custom orders.

 

Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011