When I was very young, about five years old, my mom and I were filling out a keepsake book that documented my school years. One of the questions in the book was what did I want to be when I grew up. I answered then in scrawly handwriting that I wanted to be an artist and a farmer. I think it had something to do with the bright orange finger painting I had done in school that day and the fact that both sets of my grandparents always had huge gardens that I loved to explore.
I have come a long way since then, kept many gardens, and painted many different pieces of art from nursery murals to falling angels. I feel like my life is always a work in progress. There is always more to do and try. More to learn. It never ends. Sometimes it’s frustrating because nothing ever seems to get done. But as one of my neighbors once told me, “If everything was done, you would have nothing to do, and you would be bored.”
Wanda asked me to write something for her blog. She’s probably a little curious about how I keep up with all of the insanity I have going on in my life. Firstly, I am a mother of three young boys ages: 7, 9, and 11. They take up a lot of my time and attention. My husband and I also own two Greek restaurants here in Tucson, The Fat Greek on Park and University and Fat Greek 2, which is changing its name to Greek Taverna, and is located at Swan and Camp Lowell. I also run a small publishing house called Purple Sword Publications. If I have any spare time leftover, I get to write romance stories under the pen name Anastasia Rabiyah or design cover art for a few small presses that I freelance for.
Getting in to cover art design was quite by accident. I was having my first novella published at Forbidden Publications and the publisher taught me the basics of photo manipulation so I could make my own cover. All of the covers I’ve designed are done from stock images which I meld together using a drawing program. The program allows me to change colors, textures, crop, blend and so much more. It’s a lot of fun and very destressing in most cases. Once Forbidden’s owner saw my work, she asked to me do cover art for other works besides my own. After that, I took on more freelance work and have designed covers for loveyoudivine, Amira Press, Sugar and Spice Press, Whimsical Publications, Whispers Publishing, Awe-Struck Publishing, and Phaze.
As time went on, some of my publishers closed. I eventually found myself with a lot of my romance stories coming out of contract. Rather than send them out and start over again, I opened my own publishing house and decided to keep it simple and small, working with many of the authors I either designed cover art for or edited for at my old publishers. Purple Sword has given me an avenue to not only publish my stories, but read on a regular basis the stories of authors whose work I love.
When the economy crashed a couple of years ago, my husband and I were trying to find creative ways to keep our restaurants afloat. So many Mom and Pop businesses have gone under with the recession. We had purchased land that we intended to build a house on, in order to fulfill our dream of moving to the ‘country’ someday and were not able to do so. Lending policies had changed and we found ourselves trapped with two mortgages.
Rather than let the land sit and do nothing, we put it to work for us, starting with several dwarf goats. The goats led to a garden (had to do something with all the poo). The garden now provides many of the vegetables we use at our restaurants. You can find out more about it and see pictures of all the animals and gardens at www.markouranch.com. Like all things I do, it is a work in progress. It’s our first year trying this idea, and it’s a great deal of trial and error and manual labor. We now have thirteen goats, seven sheep, twenty-one chickens, two geese, two ducks, and a Jersey dairy cow due to have a calf in March.
My day is pretty hectic. I wake at seven, get the kids off to school, stop at the ranch and do all my chores: watering, milking, feeding, weeding, and general maintenance.That takes anywhere from one to two hours. Then I head home to work on publishing responsibilities such as contracting, cover design, editing, writing, uploading, and website maintenance. I also work on restaurant duties such as accounting and marketing. Then it’s time to get the kids from school. There is a small lull of time for helping them with homework, watching them play and ride bikes. But around six or seven it’s off to the ranch again to milk, feed
and water. The kids help out with chores.
My family leads a busy life. All of us help out to try and make the ends meet. We have fresh goat milk daily,chicken and goose eggs to eat, lots of healthy, tasty home-grown veggies, and my husband and I get to pursue what we enjoy. It’s not always easy. There are days I’m exhausted and wish I could sleep just one more hour, but in the end following my dreams has given me a lot of inner peace and happiness.
I have come a long way since then, kept many gardens, and painted many different pieces of art from nursery murals to falling angels. I feel like my life is always a work in progress. There is always more to do and try. More to learn. It never ends. Sometimes it’s frustrating because nothing ever seems to get done. But as one of my neighbors once told me, “If everything was done, you would have nothing to do, and you would be bored.”
Wanda asked me to write something for her blog. She’s probably a little curious about how I keep up with all of the insanity I have going on in my life. Firstly, I am a mother of three young boys ages: 7, 9, and 11. They take up a lot of my time and attention. My husband and I also own two Greek restaurants here in Tucson, The Fat Greek on Park and University and Fat Greek 2, which is changing its name to Greek Taverna, and is located at Swan and Camp Lowell. I also run a small publishing house called Purple Sword Publications. If I have any spare time leftover, I get to write romance stories under the pen name Anastasia Rabiyah or design cover art for a few small presses that I freelance for.
Getting in to cover art design was quite by accident. I was having my first novella published at Forbidden Publications and the publisher taught me the basics of photo manipulation so I could make my own cover. All of the covers I’ve designed are done from stock images which I meld together using a drawing program. The program allows me to change colors, textures, crop, blend and so much more. It’s a lot of fun and very destressing in most cases. Once Forbidden’s owner saw my work, she asked to me do cover art for other works besides my own. After that, I took on more freelance work and have designed covers for loveyoudivine, Amira Press, Sugar and Spice Press, Whimsical Publications, Whispers Publishing, Awe-Struck Publishing, and Phaze.
As time went on, some of my publishers closed. I eventually found myself with a lot of my romance stories coming out of contract. Rather than send them out and start over again, I opened my own publishing house and decided to keep it simple and small, working with many of the authors I either designed cover art for or edited for at my old publishers. Purple Sword has given me an avenue to not only publish my stories, but read on a regular basis the stories of authors whose work I love.
When the economy crashed a couple of years ago, my husband and I were trying to find creative ways to keep our restaurants afloat. So many Mom and Pop businesses have gone under with the recession. We had purchased land that we intended to build a house on, in order to fulfill our dream of moving to the ‘country’ someday and were not able to do so. Lending policies had changed and we found ourselves trapped with two mortgages.
Rather than let the land sit and do nothing, we put it to work for us, starting with several dwarf goats. The goats led to a garden (had to do something with all the poo). The garden now provides many of the vegetables we use at our restaurants. You can find out more about it and see pictures of all the animals and gardens at www.markouranch.com. Like all things I do, it is a work in progress. It’s our first year trying this idea, and it’s a great deal of trial and error and manual labor. We now have thirteen goats, seven sheep, twenty-one chickens, two geese, two ducks, and a Jersey dairy cow due to have a calf in March.
My day is pretty hectic. I wake at seven, get the kids off to school, stop at the ranch and do all my chores: watering, milking, feeding, weeding, and general maintenance.That takes anywhere from one to two hours. Then I head home to work on publishing responsibilities such as contracting, cover design, editing, writing, uploading, and website maintenance. I also work on restaurant duties such as accounting and marketing. Then it’s time to get the kids from school. There is a small lull of time for helping them with homework, watching them play and ride bikes. But around six or seven it’s off to the ranch again to milk, feed
and water. The kids help out with chores.
My family leads a busy life. All of us help out to try and make the ends meet. We have fresh goat milk daily,chicken and goose eggs to eat, lots of healthy, tasty home-grown veggies, and my husband and I get to pursue what we enjoy. It’s not always easy. There are days I’m exhausted and wish I could sleep just one more hour, but in the end following my dreams has given me a lot of inner peace and happiness.
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