Greetings from the cave!! 

As some of you have already gathered, there have been a few changes around here. And it is more than just the header above. I forewarn you now, this post is a chaotic mess of logistical changes that I'm still navigating, so have patience with me!  

The first major change that I will announce is that I have a monthly newsletter, which I hope will go live this month! The subscription form is in my sidebar on both blogs, so please do check that out! Due to this, my monthly wrap-ups on the blog will be phased out in the next couple of months. Included also in this newsletter will include updates regarding my upcoming podcast, Femininity from Scratch, and some extra goodies...once I figure out what those are.... 

The second major change that I will announce is that I now have a new public email: 

catherine.fem.writer@gmail.com

This email will host not only my newsletter and podcast for now, but also will be used as my main form of communication with my readers. You may also notice that there will be two different Google accounts controlling this blog with the same name. The old one - which includes my old Gmail - will hopefully be phased out from blog things within the next year. 

There will be some new social media pages coming also. I'm already starting a new Pinterest page because I want to share my aesthetic boards for my WIPs with you all. Before, only my alphas and betas got to see them. I'm trying to decide if I should separate the feminine stuff from the writing stuff, what do you girls think? I'm also looking into getting a Storygraph account. I will also be changing my bio links to a new Lnk Bio, which is connected to my new Gmail (not the old one that is currently attached to my Insta). 

Bloglovin will remain my RSS (Email) feed host, unfortunately, for the time being. You see, the RSS feed option is only available through a paid plan on Convertkit, which I didn't realize before I signed up. And since I am just starting out, I do have not the financial means for a paid plan just yet. 

Now you might be asking - why did I not just go for my own domain? Why did I go for another free account and why am I going through all this trouble, only to possibly change it over again in a year or so? 

The main reason why, unfortunately, money-related. I am cheap, as many of you already know, but I also don't have a lot of money to throw into this venture right now. I'm more concerned with paying off my other debts first. 

But I needed another email for the podcast, and I have discovered this year that I need to reclaim my old Gmail account. While explaining my pen name has avoided much of the awkwardness and probably helped with increasing my platform...the awkwardness is starting to become a *problem*. So there needs to be even more separation between the blogging part and my real life. 

*sigh* My little blogging venture is growing up and I don't know how I feel about this?!!

But if I really think about it....it was time. In five years, I've outgrown the old and it's time to grow into a new one. So please keep an eye out on this blog and my upcoming newsletter to stay on top of all the new things!! 

Scribbingly yours, 

Catherine

It's time for a fresh start around here. And what better time to do it when the new year...or I should say, a new DECADE is around the corner??

Like seriously, a new decade is starting in 15 days. It's crazy...

First thing, I need to apologize for those visitors who stumbled across my blog this past week. I'm afraid you were subjected to wonky coding, ill-fitting templates, and terrible aesthetics.

I can now explain why - I've been redecorating again. More intensely, actually.

You see, I've been trying to find some kind of aesthetic that fits this blog better. After a year of trying to copy my personal blog's style into this one, it was clear that nothing was really working. Or at least, not working as well as my other blog.

The background is what kept frustrating me the most. As much as I liked the photo backgrounds, it just seemed to be a mess. And even though the layout worked, it didn't really reflect any sort of budding author - it was more like a girl who blogged as a hobby.

And so, I took a flying leap into the next step as a blogger - and that is graduating from using plain Blogger templates and using a more professional and a bit more personalized template.

Now, I had a bit of an idea of what I was doing when I helped Lia redesign her blog, but hers was a piece of cake. I'm not sure why, but this design process was fraught with trouble.

Finding a template that suited my aesthetic proved to be one stumbling block. It took a lot of sifting through some really poorly designed templates before I came up with a shortlist of templates I liked.

Then it was hour after hour of overlaying new template themes onto the blog, and discovering the limitations of each one. I finally chose one called "Splendid" from Gooyaabi Templates...which I think is the first one on my list, LOL.

And that's when the disaster struck.

You see, there was some really wonky coding issues with this template. The header was miniaturized, I couldn't change the menus, and something else was the wrong size.

Now, I never took any tech classes - the only HTML I could read were some formatting tags that I picked up from blogging tutorials. So I was not comfortable digging into the code.

Thankfully my brother Matthew, who is an almost-graduated graphic designer, knows about building websites. So he and I spent two hours trying to read the HTML code - both on the browser and the template, which are two different codes - to fix all the issues. My coding knowledge more than doubled after that. In the end, we got the major problems fixed and both of us were in agreement that HTML is from the devil.

It was he who helped me choose the pink :). He took my title picture and made a digital color palette from the pinks and greens and we found a matching shade from there.

From there, it was a matter of linking pages and cleaning up the gadgets. I didn't transfer as many images from the old blog, and I took down my post on the Eagles Super Bowl victory because of all the spam views it got. Oh, and I updated my personal bio page too.

And there left one thing to put in.

And that was the profile picture.

I had indeed been thinking about putting up an "actual" profile picture for some time. One that showed...me.

I admit, part of what spurred me this time was seeing the stock photos in those templates. 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved my Waterhouse painting. In fact one day, I hope to do one of those "photo replications" that I've seen vloggers do. But alas, that day is not today.

As much as that painting served me well, an author platform needs a good author photo.

Now, I'm more of an ethereal person and I believe that author photos reveal their brand. And so, I wanted a bit of a whimsical feel to my photos.

I had a medieval-style dress that I had made for my Renaissance concerts, which I thought was perfect for this purpose. It's dark blue with silver accents, and very swishy :).

During the fall, I started collecting pose ideas on Pinterest and I got my brother Tyler to be my cameraman. Alas for us, due to work and school, we were unable to take advantage of the fall foliage this year.

But, we ended up getting a decent (and very pretty) snowfall one December day, and so on the spur of the moment we did the shoot. We borrowed Mom's brand new camera and had a freezing time getting some shots of both me and the dress (which will hopefully be featured in a post on WbC in the future). I was really impressed with the light - it was cloudy, which eliminated the blinding force of white, but the snow really made the dress pop out.

One of these shots became my new profile picture: 

Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn, photography by Tyler

I decided not to do a full face reveal at this time. Part of it still has to do with privacy, part of it is sensitivity towards my severe case of acne, and the third part is that...well, I'm in a state of transition. I'm coming out of the shadow of my own obscurity. This blog is morphing into an author website. All things will come in their time :)

And now, I shall give the mic to you! What do you think of the new design? Have you got any design ideas of your own cooking? Have you ever done a photoshoot? Chat with me in the comments! 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine <3   

Hello all!

You may have noticed that there have been a few changes around here.

I decided to update my blog look again. Not that I was really tired of the old look, but I had changed the width of the sidebar months ago and the lopsided banner finally got to me.

And the background picture really needed to change from spring to summer - so I changed it to a dusky beach sunset, which I think looks really pretty. With that, all the text colors got changed to match the picture. I dearly love the colors in here - that shade of purple is one of my favorite shades ever.

The Old Header

When I first made my headers, I made them all in Paint. Let me tell you, it was pretty time consuming resizing all the pictures to make them all fit neatly. And I'm pretty sure that they weren't even, no matter how hard I tried.

In my previous headers, I put in pictures that reflected my interests. In Header 3, which you can see above, I started mixing in pictures pertaining to my WIPs.

This time around, I decided to try out Canva after MK successfully made a custom banner through them for her blog. The templates were crazy complicated and hard to distinguish, but I decided to go with a 9 grid one - similar in structure to Header 2.

To change it up, I decided to put one picture for each of my WIPs with a title pic in the middle. 

The New Header

From top left, they are:

Chandelier - "Shattered Chandelier". Since this work is POTO inspired, I decided to use the chandelier as the symbol for this WIP.

Apples - Hidden Seeds. Since the apple is a main symbol of this WIP, I decided to find some really colorful ones.

Cave - From the Cave. This one was really hard to find a picture for. Caves aren't exactly horizontal...

White rose bush - The White Rose. Easy right?

Steamship - "Rose of Culmore". Trying to find an Irish symbol that fit in the horizontal box was really hard. So, I decided to go with an immigrant symbol of the steamship - since this is an immigrant story.

Holsteins - Plain and Simple Truth. Since free Amish pictures are scarce, I decided to go with the classic dairy cow for this farming WIP. 

Church - Ancora Spei. Since this one is the most religious of all, I wanted a classic religious symbol. So I went with a Gothic church interior with stained glass windows.

Ship ropes - Fair Winds. I decided against the pirate flag even though it is a pirate story and decided to go with the ship instead....you know to keep it consistent with the other headers.



Having a fully stretched header makes me feel so much better! And it's so pretty :)

And now, I'd better head off to bed....after all, it's nearly 2 am....

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine

Lantern light is flickering in the early light. Not many sounds dare to break the silence as the Readers's eyes scan the horizon. They are looking - looking for a lost cave. 

A lucky beam of light steals across a vine - it barely covers the void. The reader shouts and they find the outline of a door in a rock. After much shoving and groans, it gives into the pressure and falls away. The Readers scramble down - anxious that they may not be too late. 

Down, down the passages they run - the lights dancing to meet the walls. They continue for a way until they come to the main chamber. They stop - the openness awes them. 

Then, the Readers become aware of loud clicking noises coming from the other side of the chamber. They creep around cautiously and catch the gleam of a screen. 

There in front of it, sits the object of their search. 

As they all reach her, she catches the light in her eyes and turns to face them. Blinking, she faces the worried faces. 

Dear me, is it the end of March already?

Then again, it is very difficult to tell time in this very dark and damp cave. *shivers*

I do apologize for somewhat disappearing again - this month is being bookended by huge writing streaks, so the middle was a bit slumped.

Anyway, much has happened and it won't tell itself. So settle yourselves down and let me ramble my way....


And now, I shall hush my rambling mouth and let someone else fill the silence. What adventures have been your way this March? What new books or movies have you been introduced to? If you're participating in Camp, what are you working on?? Tell me all! 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine

Hello all!

So....a couple of things happened.

Firstly, I got tired to seeing the Farm Lassie profile in my sidebar. The profile picture didn't really fit the rest of my blog. Around the same time, the Rebellious Writing team was sending in profile pictures for the new website. I decided that it was time to look for a profile picture for Catherine Hawthorn.

I chose a public domain painting called The Missal by John William Waterhouse. Isn't it gorgeous?



After I changed the profile picture, I looked up at my header.

The old header

And looked back at my new profile. And back at the header, which was now screaming at my inner designer to be changed.

Therefore, I did.

The new header :)

I must have downloaded at least 100 free images in search of the right ones and driven myself crazy to make them all fit, but I'm in love with this header. As with my previous header, there a significance with each image.

The Center Image - Whomever the artist was that created this piece of art is an absolute genius!!! I saw it and literally gasped in astonishment. And the script font that I added seemed as if it was made for it.

Crocuses -  Seems I can't get rid of these, can't I? This was the only image that I kept from the old header. The original was also featured as the last picture in my story "The Snow Dancer of Iclyn" published here on the blog.

Berry Tea - A must-have if I'm going to be doing any extensive writing. Also a staple of almost all period dramas. And isn't that cup so pretty??

Sword - I wanted some sort of weapon to reflect my inner warrior as well as the fantasy genre. This medieval sword fit the bill nicely.

Castle - Obviously castle = fantasy. But that is actually a photo of Cardiff Castle in Wales. Somehow I don't think it was a concidence that I just happen to pick a Welsh castle while working on a Snow White retelling with based in Welsh culture...

Books - Every writer is also a reader. And thick books are all the better!

Ship - Remember the ship from the last header? This one is in for the same reason - in celebration of my first completed (non-edited) novella, Fair Winds, Sassy Devil. Since the rest of the header was so colorful, I decided to replace the spooky looking schooner with a pretty sunset-y one.

Violin - I love to listen to music while I write and work. Violin is some of my favorite, and I've even played the violin/fiddle for several years.

Film Strip - Thanks to my little sis, I have much more of an appreciation for film than I did when I was a little kid. I haven't done much movie or TV commentary here, but maybe that will change soon.

Now my inner designer is at peace with itself, I can get some sleep around here....

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine

PS - I've just checked the stats, and my pageview counter is over 5000! Big shoutout to my 20 blogging buddies, and my viewers! *gives round of applause*

Hello all,

So...you may have noticed something new as you opened up The Rebelling Muse within the last 48 hours.

Missed it? Look above.

Yes. I figured out how to make a header.

How did I make it?

Not Picmonkey.

Not Canva.

Not even Photoshop.

I used......Microsoft Paint.

It was time consuming to create this header, and one for my other blog, Frugally Fancy. Mostly it was a matter of finding and resizing all the images in order to make them all fit.

I did use a tutorial to get started: http://www.21rosemarylane.com/2013/02/creating-header-for-your-blog-using.html. Once I had the dimensions, I was on my own.

This header was around 888 pixels long and 250 pixels high, which is a good size. You can change the pixel size of the canvas on Paint really easily (just click and drag the little squares on the edge of the canvas) To start with, I added the blog title via the text option onto the picture I wanted it on. I resized it to 250 pixels high using a resizing site (http://resizepiconline.com/en) and redownloaded the image so I could copy it into Paint. The rest of the pictures I simply resized and arranged how I wished them (saving the resized picture and copy-pasting them in is much easier to use with the selection tool on Paint).

I will say that a lot of photo images sites have their own quirks when changing images. The resizing site I used for a lot of my images only let me change the width (when what I really wanted to change the height). And you have to make sure that you have the images exactly right in Paint before clicking off them (minor adjustments become major headaches). But if you really don't want to put out any more online accounts and are willing to spend some time and effort, I would recommend using Paint to make your headers.

For this header, I used all free images found by Pixabay or Google Images (CC Search). I make it a priority to find public domain pictures whenever possible in my creative works, if not my own images.

The Title Picture
Since I am a writer, I looked for an image that conveyed that as well as give a little color. I saw a series of pictures similar to this one on Pixabay, and this one was my favorite.

The Ship
Besides the Ships post that I've done (http://catherinesrebellingmuse.blogspot.com/2017/02/favorite-film-ships-other-romantics.html), this picture was really special since my one and only completed (unpublished) novella is a pirate-y sea epic.

The Mansion
My favorite genre of reading is historical fiction, and I have written some historical fiction pieces, so I thought this was a perfect symbol for that.

The Crocuses
You may have recognized these from my last story, The Snow Dancer of Iclyn. These were chosen more for an aesthetic color decision than for a nod to my story though.

Park Bench in Meadow
I love sitting outside (when it's nice out) when letting my imagination run loose. This picture seems to suggest a hiding place for a writer, especially one that likes to act out her scenes *snickers*.

Joan of Arc
Only downfall of free images is that sometimes it is super difficult to find what you want. As well as historic fiction and sea epics, I'm also experimenting with a fantasy novel. The main character is a young woman that becomes a Shield-Maiden (Tolkein's definition like Eowyn, not the historically accurate Viking Shield-Maidens). After long and fruitless searches through really crappy (and just downright inappropriate!) fantasy pictures, I finally found this one of Joan of Arc which is totally fine, since I admire her very much.

I thought about changing the theme on the blog too, especially with the new themes on Blogger now. But instead of changing the theme altogether, I found a new background image that I really like and have customized the theme colors to my liking.

Also for those that follow me, I have a new favicon. It's the seagull picture that I had on my first post.

What do you think of the new header and background? Yay, nay? Vote in the comments!

Keep smiling,

Catherine