As High As They Will Go

Title: As High As They Will Go

Media: Graphite

Artist: Dan-Dwayne Spencer

Dear Reader, 

I'm sure that you are looking at this saying..."Dan-Dwayne I thought you were a better artist than that. those hands are way out of proportion." However, this is not the case. This is a drawing of one of my students who graciously posed for my art class. He was in a wheelchair and suffered from some kind of MS that caused his body to be out of proportion. I'm sure there are different kinds but I don't know which he had. I do know that people suffer greatly from it and it shortens their life... But frankly I don't understand why people must have such terrible afflictions... like MS, Cancer, Parkinson's, Dementia, or Alzheimer's. Anyway - Sorry, I strayed from my story... He loved art. He truthfully wasn't a craftsman and his art wouldn't be considered creative or clever but he loved the making and doing of it. Everyday he rolled in with his attendant to his assigned desk where his aide attached the desktop I made for him. He had special attachments connected to his paintbrushes and drawing tools so he could manipulate them with his contorted hands. They told me he wouldn't live to graduate, but they didn't know his powerful little spirit. I was very happy to know that he did graduate. In this picture he is raising his hands as high as he can. I've never made prints of this drawing and probably never will. Like this student... it is one of a kind.  

In my story "A Deal of a Lifetime" which is in my book "Spies Lie and Spies Die" Ten year old Blair and his mother stop in a souvenir shop and buy what they believe to be a fake Pre-Columbian Idol. The thing turns out to be the real thing and the gangsters who stole it from the museum wants it back. He wants it bad enough to kill Blair and his mother to get it. To find out more read my book "Spies Lie and Spies Die."  

Larger than Life

Here in Lubbock, we love our favorite son... Buddy Holly. We have a Buddy Statue, a Buddy Museum, and we have even moved the Allison House (Where one of the Crickets lived) to the museum grounds. (Funny they didn't move Buddy's old house too. It was just down the street from the Allison house.) Anyway, All to say that we love Buddy, his music, and his band (The Crickets). I guess you might say we've made him bigger than life. Here you see enormous Buddy glasses (a sculpture) which sets just outside the Buddy Holly Museum. I suppose being larger than life has it's advantages and it's disadvantages too. It would make it hard to fit into everyday society. I mean if Buddy was alive there would be people swarming to get his autograph and such... and imagine the paparazzi. Then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be living in Lubbock Texas. As I understand it he had moved to New York or somewhere before he died. Why... you ask? Because Lubbock just didn't get his music. Some liked him but some really didn't. That is the way of things. Pardon the paraphrasing but I think that even the Bible says that a prophet is not respected in his own country. There is no denying that Buddy (and his band too) was a fantastic entertainer, songwriter and what some would call a poet. The Plains of West Texas has produced many musical talents like Waylon Jennings, Mac Davis, The Gatlin Brothers, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks; and Actors too like Woody Harrelson, Barry Corbin, and Chance Crawford (best known for his role in Gossip Girl.)   But, Let's not forget the famous (and semi famous) writers from West Texas which include Elmer Kelton, Kambri Crews, Carol Hall, and of course Me... Dan Dwayne Spencer author of "Spies Lie & Spies Die" and "The Secret King and Poetry of Praise."

Fate doesn't hesitate... fate doesn't ask permission... fate just does.

Title: Fate

Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer

Media: Polychrome Pencils

This drawing is one in my Earth Angel Series. Sadly it no longer exists. It is now only available as a digital print. (Which all my drawings are available as digital prints through my email Dan.Dwayne.Spencer.Novelist@Gmail.com but that is another subject.) Anyway this original drawing was one I used for many years as a class example when I taught this kind of drawing style. It hung in my office at school. (I was lucky to have a little room I used as an office and storage room.) One night the air conditioner broke and condensation started pouring back through the vents. Yes... you guessed it... through the vent over the picture and it ran down onto of the drawing. It was ruined. Fate was a great name for this work (titled before the accident, by the way) because fate didn't ask what the drawing was worth. Fate didn't hesitate to allow the air conditioner to break down, and it certainly did stop it from happening. What happened to this drawing was just that... fate. In my short story 'Midnight in New Orleans' My character, Minerva, starts to question the fates when she asks Alexis what business she had being at a séance for her Old Tom. That bit of foreshadowing might have started your thought wheels turning. If you haven't read my book 'Spies Lie & Spies Die' which contains my short story 'Midnight in New Orleans' then please do. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.        

The Presentation for the Rotary Club in Post, Texas

Sorry there are no actual pics of the event in this post... I finished my presentation for the Rotary Club in Post, Texas and it went great. What wonderful people. (South Plains people are indeed wonderful but these guys were terrific.) Thank you for having me. As for pics... I was talking so I didn't get one of the event myself, I'll get one from the Club President or maybe the Assistant Governor of the Rotary Area and post it later. It was all great fun.

If any group or organization would like for me to come and speak about writing and publishing please contact me at Dan.Dwayne.Spencer.Novelist@gmail.com

CLICK HERE - Books by Dan Dwayne Spencer

Speaking at the Rotary Club in Post, Texas

I'm excited about speaking at the Rotary Club in Post, Texas tomorrow.

Expanding my viritual bookseller's shelf

I just found out something I didn't know... I knew that Amazon has the freedom to put my books on various reader's lists and vendor's catalogs. My books are now available through "Goodreads.com" and "Noobertsamanda.com" which claim my book "Spies Lie and Spies Die" in a promising top seller. I pray yes on that one. Yea for expanding my virtual bookseller's shelf. I'm still looking for a good review from Bill Kerns at the AJ.
I took my book to him and he made time to interview me and said he would try to get a book review out for it.

The West Texas Mountian Range

This is another of my pictures of the West Texas mountain range which I took with my instamatic camera. I love how the cattle break the horizon line. This time I was on my way back to Lubbock from Brownfield. (One of these days I feel I must write a story which is set in Brownfield, Texas. It was my home away from home for almost ten years.) I have to say I enjoyed teaching my classes there.  This is a brief account of my career leading up to teaching at BMS.  I left teaching at Monterey High School and took the job as the Art Director for KAMC and KLBK Television. It was invigorating. I worked there during the "TexasSize" era. That was a brief time around the year 2000.  I was there seeing all the feeds during the terror attacks on New York. I personally did the screen art used 'on screen' from 2000 to about 2004. I left The Television station and returned to teaching again. - this time in Brownfield. I find it funny how people like to compare things... they ask if I missed teaching at one of the biggest schools in Lubbock and later teaching in a small town. (It's not that I disliked Monterey, but you see, I had this great opportunity.) Where I ended up had great people, classes of 18 to 30 instead of 35 and sometimes more; I'd say what's not to like. Sadly I left because of a family tragedy. Funny that I had been writing on a story here and there all the while I was teaching and doing artwork. I always said that Art was my profession but writing was my vocation. Now I guess it's both... I hope you enjoy my books "The Secret King & Poetry of Praise" and "Spies Lie & Spies Die." They were a long time in the making. (Thanks to my Sis and my Wife for encouraging me to pursue publication.)

My Guradian Angel

Title: Guardian Angel    Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer    Media: India Ink and Watercolor Wash

This is a very old drawing. I finished drawing it back in the 1970s when I first went to Texas Tech University. I had many offers to buy it, but she is my guardian angel and has hung in every office I have had since I began my professional career... Well, except maybe one office. I don't remember her hanging in my office at 'Jester's Art Service.' She hung behind my chair when I was the Art Director for KAMC and KLBK Television. I imagine that the angel who appeared to Nachet in "The Secret King and Poetry of Praise" looked similar. Maybe more muscled. Yes, definitely more muscled.  

Are our lives guided by FATE?

Title: Fate      Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer      Media: Polychrome Pencils and Graphite

This is a drawing I finished about 1997. Reading the drawing left to right... the depiction is an abstract of a bird in flight, but it can't out fly Fate. The last picture on the right is of the birds skull; the remains left after the ravages of time has consumed it. Between the now and later is the Earth Spirit Fate. The drawing drew quite a bit attention before the accident... you see, it no longer exists except in digital form. When I was teaching in Brownfield it hung in my office (I had a little office area joined to my classroom there.) Anyway, the roof leaked and this drawing was ruined... totally beyond repair. I think there is an irony in an artwork titled "FATE" going through the creation process and the destruction process in a matter of years. I write my stories like that too. I let the adventure bloom and develop through the creative process of writing. I may go back and rewrite a section or take something out but the adventure is there by... fate. Some people write because it is there job. I write because I have to. I've done it for years - I went from a manual typewriter to my electric Smith Corona, then to a word processor with 240Kb memory, then to a computer with a 5.5 inch floppy disk. Later there were smaller discs and now jump-drives. Through the years lots of my stories were lots, misplaced, or on discs that were unrecoverable. So you see, I never let anyone read them... sometimes not even my wife. Now days I let her read all my stories. My sister also asked to read them. I'm sure she was curious, but that started it. They pressed me and pressed me to publish. So the rest is history. I have two books published and another I expect to release in December. I have a collection of children's short stories waiting to be released and I have a bible story coloring book I personally illustrated that I may release next year. Look for great things to come.

"The 38 Special"

I went to an auto show not long ago. Where was it? On the Texas Plains where I live of course. Anyway, there were some terrific Rat-Rods in the car show. For those of you who don't know what a Rat-Rod is... well, it is a cut up collection of cars and parts reassembled into a hot rod. Most are extremely cool as the builders have searched high and low for just the right part to put in just the right place on the hot rod. They usually don't even try to paint them but let them be in whatever condition they come out being. This picture is the dash of one of my favorite Rat-Rods at the show. I can't help wondering if the driver has to have a (firearms) carry permit to drive the car. The name written on the side of the rod was "38 Special." I bet the owner is a mystery writer... What do you think? Oh maybe not.  

Unexpected Things

 Pictured here is a common sight here in West Texas... Of course, it's a cactus. They are everywhere. Every wilderness area that has not been cultivated for agriculture is loaded with this plant. This kind of cactus is flat, thin and teardrop shaped with spiny needles that can be three inches long. It  is very common to see them everywhere and because of that we here on the plains just all but over look it. It's just a another cactus. So Invisible. Then it blooms in the spring. It covers itself in cactus roses. A magnificent sight. the bigger the cactus the more magnificent the display. What a delicate display of color and texture from the most prickly plant on earth. Yucca plants are much the same. (A yucca is also pictured in this photo.) The tips of the leaves are so spiny... so sharp and needle like (even the cactus are jealous of how they poke and hurt.) You can't clean under them and they collect all kind of blowing trash. Truly an annoyance most of the year and then they bloom. I'm sure we have all had that moment in life when we take things for granted (no matter what they might be) because they are so ordinary. Yes... These things are very ordinary, in fact so much so, that they become invisible. Then for what ever reason... they bloom, transform, and suddenly they are noticeable.  -  In my book "Spies Lie & Spies Die" there is a particular short story titled "Morning Fog" The main character is a fellow who is driving on highway 62/82 from his Texas home to where he works in Crosbyton. (A town on the Texas Plains.)  His name is Eugene Bentley and he is about to have a similar experience. He believes himself to be so ordinary that he is invisible. It takes quite an adventure for him to make his transformation. A near death experience for sure.

Buddy Holly was a West Texas Writer, a world class poet

The picture featured here is really the birth home of Lubbock's favorite son... Buddy Holly. Now there was a writer for you, a world class poet. His birth house was just around the corner from where my parents and I went to church for years (and years) and down the street from the Texas Tech Stadium. Busloads of people would stop there to see it. Usually they were on some world famous tour of Buddy Holly's home town. There was a great debate whether or not to tear down all the old houses in that area and build a new and more prosperous neighborhood. It went on for quite a few years, but it somehow lost the battle. Now that area is a thriving metro area of townhouses, fabulous housing for the University students, restaurants and shopping. Everything changes... even if it is a part of out history... even if it has great emotional value... and even if it is irreplaceable. It may have the best outcome and sometimes it is a sad ending.

In my short story "A Christmas Season in Hell" from my book "Spies Lie & Spies Die" The professor is looking for someone with an original story... an original thought. He didn't know that below him in a sealed room that person had been waiting for him. What was Edgar's story. Why was he sealed up in that room for forty years?  How would his story finally end after the professor falls into his morbid tomb?


CLICK HERE - Books by Dan Dwayne Spencer

What is the difference in fences and walls?

This is a unique picture I took in a little West Texas town called Meadow. The house was rather ordinary, but it had this great fence which was surrounding a side yard. I couldn't resist framing this pic with my instamatic. In my book "The Secret King & Poetry of Praise" it's a good thing my characters Nachet and Amon didn't build a fence like this or else they couldn't have seen those three wise men coming up to their little house just outside the walls of Bethlehem.

(Ok... So, I don't know if Bethlehem actually had a wall... but most towns of any size built in that time did and the horrible smell of the firing clay would have made it all but necessary for the potter's shop to be outside or on the edge of the town.) So I have to ask... Is the structure here a wall or a fence? It could be used as a wall for a little village. Humm… maybe.


CLICK HERE - Books by Dan Dwayne Spencer

Why use the phrase Water Bird as a code word in "Spies Lie & Spies Die?"

I must admit to a fondness for water birds... especially cranes. I also draw them. They are magnificent. No one would suspect that here on the West Texas Plains I see an abundance of cranes. I think they migrate and my home is on their migration path. They fly off to somewhere about October, and return again in the spring. However, a few long legged white beauties can be seen from early spring through fall. I'm no expert; just an avid observer. At the right time of year some of our local parks with ponds will be full of them... in the trees, in the shallow pond water, walking on shore. Amazing.

Title: Water Bird

Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer

Media: Polychrome Pencils

In my story "Spies Lie & Spies Die" I needed a pass phrase to keep the money safe in the virtual vault. I used 'Water Bird' for the pass code to access the money. When Angie got that strange phone call and the breathless man said "Water bird" she had no idea it was so important, but she knew she had to find out.

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Visit my website at danspencerart.com and see the fun stuff there. 

West Texas Writers

West Texas Writers...

I am interested in how many people out there on the West Texas Plains are aspiring writers, published writers, or waiting for the perfect time to write that great American novel. If you are one of those people please contact me at dan-dwayne-spencer-novelist@gmail.com

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I want to thank my friend and four star romance writer Nicole Locker (whose books are also available on Amazon.com.) She has been a great help to encourage me... and sometimes guide me through the proverbial minefield a new writer must traverse.