The Day's Work - Paintings of C. Litka: 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015

Rural Road Study

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Rural Road Study

12x8" 30x20cm acrylic on hardboard Autumn Sunlight

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Evening in the Hills

8x12" 20x30cm acrylic on hardboard Evening in the Hills

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Autumn Lane

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Autumn Lane

Sunday, November 1, 2015

New Works

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard Beacon Hill

8x6" 20x15cm acrylic on hardboard Moonlit Alley

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard Autumn Blvd

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard The Road To

Saturday, October 17, 2015

My old Impatiens 2015

A quick painting of a 10 year old impatiens plant after it was brought in for the winter. Its on my painting table and I painted it against the night outside the window.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard My Old Impatiens 2015

Monday, October 12, 2015

Two new works

I'm committed to painting again. This time, anything and everything goes.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Moon over the Thames

24x12" 60x30 acrylic on hardboard Rocks, Dragons and Birds

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Oct New Paintings

I've started painting again, which is about all I can say. Just putting paint on board.

6x8" 15x20cm acrylic on hardboard Small Street Study

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Potted Plant

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Potted Plant 2

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Low Country Barges Study

12x18" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Low Country Barges Study

Monday, July 13, 2015

Some Day Days

I released my second novel, Some Day Days, on 9 July 2015 as an ebook at smashwords.com, once again for FREE

It should be available in iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo shortly for FREE

It is also available at Amazon in a Kindle edition for $.99. Once I draw their attention to the fact that they are being undersold, they should reduce the price to FREE as well – in the USA. Smashwords offers a mobi ver that can be read on a Kindle, for FREE

Be careful what you wish for – wishes can come true, as Hugh Gallagher discovers when the girl of his dreams, the incomparable Selina Beri, comes seeking his expertise on a piece of technology she needs to understand for her last final exam. Can Hugh, the classic shy, geeky, university student, avoid making a fool of himself with the girl he's loved from afar? A romance set in the near future.

Some Day Days is a simple story of first love and friendship set in Oxford and Cambridge England. It reflects my taste for simplicity, understatement, humor, and clever writing (though that's a goal rather than a claim.) Raymond Chandler once wrote that there are two types of writers, writers who write stories and writers who write writing. I aspire to write writing. I started writing Some Day Days six years ago, and finished revising it this year, so this work spans my current writing phase.

It is something of an experimental work, along the lines of Frankenstein. The original subtitle was a romance in an undetermined number of pieces of which this is the first twelve pieces. It began life as a novelette, to which I added a novella length sequel, and then, as my imagination raced ahead, I outlined a whole series of pieces until I had a memoir spanning four years. I use the word "pieces" to describe its parts because no one term describes them all. I have the original novelette, its longer sequel, several chapters of varying lengths, an essay, a gaming story and a ghost story, tied together as the memoir of Hugh Gallagher, a third year student reading Physics and Philosophy at Oxford University – let's say twenty years from now. It does, however, have a beginning, middle and an end, and thus, the essentials of a novel.

The first piece, Kiss of the White Witch is a result of two challenges. The first arose in reading somewhere about a challenge to write a short story centered on the effects of a new technology in the future. I chose a device that records one's life in video as a "dynamic diary" or a "dyary". I wrote this before Google Glass, but after the first such limited devices were being talked about. The second challenge came from my dislike of stories that are told to the reader, rather than having the story play out on its own. Talk being cheap, it's easy to be a critic – so I decided to see if I could write a story that unfolds mostly in dialog. The result was Kiss of the White Witch.

Several drafts later, I found myself wondering how I could bring the two characters together again, and eventually wrote a sequel, a novella called A Shattered Heart – the second piece in this work. I now had two pieces, both too short and too long for anything, leaving me no choice but to plow ahead and write more. Over the past six years I've written the ten other pieces that make up the rest of this work, which cover the first six months of the long romance I had dreamed up.

One should never say never, so I won't. I am, however, unlikely, to write more pieces, so this is most likely a stand alone book. I considered adding an addenda outlining some of the subsequent events, but Hugh wouldn't stand for that, "It's my story to tell. Or not. I'll tell it my way, or not at all," (Artists! It seems that even a small literary effort sparks an artistic temperament!) Still, it is, after all, his story to tell. Or not. I've honored his wishes.

Some Day Days – a little romance of first love set in the near future by the author of A Summer in Amber, is available at most fine ebook sellers. And coming late summer/early fall 2015 Planets of Call, a long space opera with a golden age of science fiction touch.

Friday, June 26, 2015

New Work

18x24" 45x60 cm acrylic on hardboard Blue Floral

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard Near Dawn

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Magenta Floral

Magenta Floral 24x12" 60x30cm acrylic on hardboard

Coming up blank for landscapes, so I think I'll try my had at more decorative art and use some paints I haven't had much use for in my landscape pieces.

Monday, May 18, 2015

My Book Blog

I've started a new blog for my written works. It can be found here:
http://clitkabooks.blogspot.com/

I've self-published one science fiction novel, and have two more novels written that I will publish as well over the next six months. A Summer in Amber is available now (for FREE) at your favorite ebook seller. (It is only free on Amazon in the US store, but a mobi edition for kindles can be downloaded at the Smashwords site for free here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/537938

Coming the summer 2015, an old fashioned science fiction rocket ship adventure: Planets of Call Stay tuned for more information.

I write for fun. I've no intention of making a career of it. I'm too old for careers. Self-publishing them is for me simply the end of a long project. It's the 21st century, and while the promised flying cars have failed to materialize, I can at least publish my writings rather than trying to sell them to one of perhaps a hundred editors. (For better or worse.)

Most Recent Paintings

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Lane Between the Hedgerows

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard Sunset in the Valley

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard Rural Landscape

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard Prairie Creek Line

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Painting of the Week

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard First Light

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Week's work

Old Roses 12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

View of the Sea 12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

acrylic painting modified in gimp

not quite final version of the cover

Friday, April 3, 2015

Book Covers

I've been writing fiction for the last few years, mostly to amuse myself. I've three novels to show for the effort. I've not decided what I'll do with them yet. Depends on how they're received by those brave enough to read them. But if I decide to go the vanity route and self-publish them, here are the current covers.