I recorded the steps of constructing a lightbox to demonstrate how simple it is to get this photographic effect.

Why would you want to construct a lightbox if you are not going to be an advertising photographer?  A lightbox simply showcases your work in the best light.  Suppose you are a sculptor, jeweler, doll maker, knitter or any other type of creative artist who would like to open an online shop and get in on the action and make some serious coin.  Customers need to see your product unencumbered by distracting visual data that impedes their ability to discern if they want to buy your wonderful creations.  Give them simple, give them direct.  Give them tomatoes.  Or tomatos if your Dan Quale.  Does anyone remember this guy?! 

Now that I view the tomatoe photo I’d like to edit out the shadow around the bottom.  But that’s a Photoshop story.

My husband, Mike Wilson, recently opened an online store aptly named Stone Cairns, to sell his cairn art.   He also sells his cairn art in Suttons Bay, Michigan at The Painted Bird, and at the Santa Fe Trading Company in Saugatauk, Michigan.  So check out these groovy shops if you’re ever at the lakeshore.

Incidentally, I told him to change his shop profile picture because it looks like I’m married to a twenty-year-old.  I took this picture way back when when we went hiking on Isle Royale, Michigan.   Which reminds me – *News Flash* – Biologists fear moose and wolf populations will soon go extinct on Isle Royale, because population numbers are very low.  So if you’d like to go hiking and see some moose, now is probably the time to go.

Things You’ll Need for Construction:

1. White Felt

2. Cardboard box

3. Glue

4. Scissors

5. Velcro

6. Measuring tape

Lightbox Steps

1. Find a large, sturdy, approximately 2 ft. X 2 ft. cardboard box.  Keep in mind what you will be taking photos of, because you don’t want the sides to show.  This will ultimately decide the size of the box you need.  You can always add extra pieces of cardboard along the sides if you need to make the box sturdier.

2. Cut out four openings: the front, two sides, and top.  Leave about 2 inches of cardboard around edge for stability purposes on each side.

3. If you feel the need for more stability, glue strips of cardboard to the edges to make the corners sturdier.

4. Cut out poster board pieces to fit over all exposed areas inside the box except the bottom and the back wall.

5. Then cut poster board to size so it lays on bottom on box and curves up along the back.  You don’t want edges to show in the lightbox because you’ll see them in the photo.

6. Cut felt to fit three open sides.

7. Attach the velcro to the felt so it adheres to the box.  When you’re done, your finished product should look something like this:

Voila!  Enjoy your cheap, custom-made lightbox.  You don’t need special photo equipment or cameras to take great lightbox photos.  Play around with lamps and other light sources to get good results.

Oh I sat there for awhile, contemplating small claims court and the hassle that entails.  But like Dylan Thomas raging against the dying of the light, I did not go quietly into that good night.

If the your client is advertising on the Internet that is their Achilles heel.  That’s how they drum up business, and they probably want to keep it that way.  Draw back your pen like a good warrior and get ready to shoot them a letter that will instantly make them cut you a check (plop cash in your paypal)  faster than you can say deadbeat.  This method really works, I received a check in the mail within the week.

What to put in the said letter and/or email?  You are simply and straightforwardly going to scare them into giving you your money.  You don’t have to be nasty about it, just be direct about the consequences. Send them no more than three invoices, because, like baseball, after three strikes you’re out.  If you get no response after say, three weeks after your three invoices have been sent, then get ready for the letter.

Check out Angela Hoy’s Writers Weekly for specific advice on how to craft the letter.

Get everything in writing.  If you do make your way into small claims court, you need evidence, not your word against said client.  Save emails and all other types of written correspondence.

Also check out this post on Writers Weekly concerning the rise of scammers advertising jobs on the Internet.  Expect more of this scamminess in the future due to the crappy economy.

I absolutely love this site and I wanted to share it with you.  You can find everything here at Agent Query – all the latest updated agent listings, to a great interactive forum, and also a list of queries that worked.  They have a HUGE database that you can easily query under many headings your work may fit under.  Start now and have fun!

If you’re just starting to look for an agent I recommend you start here.  Why?  Because you want everything you can possibly find about an agent before you submit.  You want to know exactly what they represent and what they’re looking for, as well as what their client list and what they’ve sold recently.  This will give you a good idea how you’re novel will fit with their client list and recent books.  This information is difficult to find from books alone.

Okay, this is how I’m doing my queries:

1. Match my novel with agent queried via what type of work they’re representing.  This is difficult because I don’t write under a particular genre.  My work can fit under historical fiction, thriller/suspense, with a does of paranormal romance.  So I queried under thriller/suspense because all of my work can technically can fit under that category.

2. I started with ten queries and then I’ll  branch from there.  I need to get some feed back. If none at all?  That’s feedback.

3. Perhaps you’ve done this in the past.  I have too. Mass queries.  The queries I’m sending out now are more personalized, citing books that the agent represents that are similar to mine.

4. Of course I give a brief summation paragraph of what the novel is about.

5. Then a brief paragraph about myself with relevant experience pertaining to novel and how I learned to write.  Had to mention one of my all time favorite teachers here:  Bret Anthony Johnston.  Loved his fiction class.

That’s it.  Tweaked to fit each agent.  Their needs and mine.  The most important thing is to find an agent who you feel comfortable with and who can sell your work.  So make sure you find the agent that is a good fit for YOU.  Or else the agent will do it, on the basis of what you send.

So I’m back.  Really now.  You know the blog is the first thing to go if you’re trying to: a. Earn a living b. Keep your daughter in dance shoes and c. Have a life.

But I think I can publish regularly now.  Probably not three times a week, but I’ll see how it goes.

So what is my novel about? I can’t spill the beans just yet.  Somehow it takes the power out of the whole project if I describe it in a blog post.   But I will say that it has been quite an adventure of time and space.  And he research has been consuming.  I travelled back to Elizabethan England and had to learn Early Modern English.  Yes, the kind that is spoken in Shakespeare.  Just enough to give a taste, not overwhelm the reader, because that would boggle the mind and slow the story.   Then there was the science itself.  I relied on David Bohm’s theories of the universe to explain time travel and why this could be possible.  Quite simply,  Bohm states that the universe is a dynamic hologram. 

No science fiction in the story, but some of the characters speak of the possiblity of time travel because of these theories.  I also immersed myself in psychology and psychological theories, because this is an important part of the story.  And the symbolism.  Should I even get started on the symbolism?  Probably not. 

Why would I go through all this trouble?  Because I was inspired, lit on fire with a passion I wanted to share with you, my one day reader.  So you too can be inspired.   And be transported to another time and another place and wonder about reality.  And Shakespeare! 

I’ll let you know when it’s published.  And of course share with you the journey along the way.  Because I’m back.

Good question. 

My response: Taking a blogging break.   I don’t know for how long.  Probably for two to three weeks. 

Don’t worry about me.  I have some projects that need laser like focus and blogging and blah blahing keep me too frazzled to apply this focus. 

I enjoy communing with all of you and I will be by to visit you when I can. 

I was recently up in Northern Michigan getting pictures of fall color, fishermen, and yes, more barns. 

Fishing the Platte copyright Ellen Wilson

Lake Michigan Leelanau Peninsula copyright Ellen Wilson

Oak Leaf copyright Ellen Wilson

Nuthatch copyright Ellen Wilson

Barn Leelanau County copyright Ellen Wilson

And because I have that damn J thing going on with the Myers Briggs thing I just had to post today.  The little voice kept saying wait on it wait on it.  Who really cares?  Apparently my anal sense of puntuality does.

I’ll probably get around to it tomorrow.

Talk with you soon.  E

PS Oh and check out my RSS number since my last post.  It was up to 120.  Now it’s 108.  Hmmm.  I still haven’t quite figured this number thing out yet but I’m I’ll leave it up because now my curiousity is really piqued.