Dare I Admit It?

by Gigi

Deep breath. Here goes: I'm not really a writer.

OK, it's part of who I am. I write mystery novels, sure. But "writer" doesn't sum up my creative identity.

I should have realized it much earlier than I did, but after a brief detour in academia, I finally followed the creative path: I started taking art school classes, spent countless hours in the darkroom, and wrote a novel. So where does that leave me? I'm now a graphic designer, photographer, and mystery writer.

And you know what? These things don't seem like separate pursuits to me.

When I take my camera out and capture a cool scene (like this raven here), I imagine where it might fit into a story.

Not only did I leave the Brompton Cemetery with some ethereal photos taken with the new soft focus lens I was learning to use, but it was an overcast day and I was nearly alone aside from the birds... yeah, I left with some inspiration for a story.

I admit that's only two out of three. Photography and writing. Bringing all three creative pursuits together is the physical form of books themselves. My favorite art school class was Book Cover Design.

I've always loved book covers, but that class was when I started envisioning book covers myself (at right). I especially loved using my own photos and collage art to create a book cover, whenever appropriate, since that allowed me the most flexibility to create exactly what I imagined when reading a book.

I'm a graphic designer for my day job, but not designing book covers. If I ever discover more hours in the day, I would still love to be a book cover designer.

But even without a particular end goal, I can't really stop myself from mashing up these creative outlets.

Here's Dorian the gargoyle at left, imagining a scene from a gothic novel as I envisioned it in a larger photographic collage.