Librarian in a Lightbox

I went and bought a few clamp lights at Home Depot t'other day, and today I set up my mini studio to take a few shots, these being the best of them.
For my lightstage I am using a beer soaked, antique stool given Beatty by my mother. Beatty since has given it to me and it's FABULOUS!
To light the subjects I am using the clamp lights thusly: one big light clamped onto a bookshelf overhead and two lights clamped onto the stool illuminating either side. We call this fill light and my fill is pretty harsh, so I call it glare.
I need to engineer a better lighting system to diffuse the light better. Oh well. I think being an amateur is part of my sophistication.
I'm really trying to think of and create concepts which can only exist as a photograph. Which means they are fleeting, time-oriented concepts, hence the curling dyes and liquids. I started to make a diorama to photograph, but decided that a diorama photographed was an archival activity and as such, not terribly interesting.
Somehow all of this is helping me define what photography is not, and may thereby allow me to someday back my way into a good photograph.