Updated Cover for The Preparation! Check it Out !!!

So, as per typical my perfectionist tendency is, I have been increasingly disappointed in the cover for The Preparation. It was leaps and bounds better than the first cover I did for it in MS Paint, but I did not like the lettering and font choices, etc. Here is an updated (and I think improved) pre-official/pre-release cover. Hope you like it.

Cover Release - The Preparation - How Does it Look?

I finished the cover for The Preparation today. I was a little skeptical about getting the concept idea I had in my head out and on the computer, but I actually like the results. I think it looks pretty good, especially since I didn't pay someone $400+ to do it, nor did I have to deal with the endless flakes out there who claim to be professionals. Anyway, without further adieu - the pre-official cover for my first, upcoming novel: The Preparation. Please tell me what you think.

 

I don't know the exact date of official release for THE PREPARATION just yet. I know it will be after Christmas, but hopefully before the summer. I really would like to get it finished and out on Amazon so I can start getting feedback - and so I can start editing IN THE MEADOW. That is one aspect of being a writer that I do not like at all: bringing a book together takes so freaking long! Even with a traditional house, you're often looking at a year or more before your book is available. When you are self-publishing [doing it all yourself], you have complete control over every aspect of your book, but you're working alone and so it still takes FOREVER. But, I just have to be the turtle; slow and steady wins the race, right?

X Factor US S01 E15 & 16 - So Long Stacey!

 I finally found the results show for the X Factor US tonight. Not sure why no one else has it. Sadly, Astro put on a terrible performance and an even worse attitude on top of it. I'll be surprised if he isn't in the bottom two again next week. But, what do you expect from a young kid like that. I guess we don't expect all that much these days.

I also got another practiced Book Cover done. I really like it. Here you go:

Everything in this cover is taken from somewhere else. I started with the background scene of the sky, which was actually a scene of the ocean. Then I grabbed a picture of the church and cut it out using the magnetic lasso; I love that thing! Then I did some shading using the gradient tool. At first this did not work out well at all, and I ended up deleting all the shading and starting over. The second time I started shading the tower, then the edges. I also noticed the bottom of the original cover is much darker, so I added that, and I really liked the outcome. Then I lightened up the shading to a gray and shaded the clouds and parts of the church. I then found the CRIME SCENE tape [didn't use the original POLICE] and figured out how to rotate it [though I doubt if I could do it again without some hunting and pecking] as it was tilted the opposite way. Oh, yeah - and the church was opposite, too. I flipped it when I first started. The words went on beautifully, now that I know how to use the stretcher thing. It makes the words any size I want - I love it. Lastly, I took [accidentally the color I was using for the lettering] the white and splashed a gradient horizontally from left to right. It was perfect! Maybe I'll start dong free book covers for writers to get the practice in. Then again, I'm getting way ahead of myself. So far I've been copying other covers, so I have the ideas ahead of time of what I'm looking for and what I can compare it to. We will see how well I do when I'm working just from a blank canvas.

Anyway, I managed to get a chapter and a half read through on THE PREPARATION today. I'm also slowly incorporating/transferring all my notes, etc into My Notes Keeper. So far this program has been running great with no glitches; I hate glitches. Also did some research on OUR DAUGHTER, studying up on Gnosticism, etc. It's pretty fascinating. I'm currently reading the Gnostic Handbook and taking notes wildly [you got it, in My Notes Keeper].

Astro, my boy - it is your contest to lose. Of course, you have to beat Drew for the top seat. Keep your attitude in check and you have a fighting chance. But, please, oh please, pick some better songs. The last few have been terrible!

Drew, keep it coming. And I agree with the judges: up tempo. Let's see you do some real rock. Try Avril next week!

New Schedule - New Book Cover Design - Transform Tool

I have been in the zone today. Using the My Notes Keeper program and putting together yet another daily schedule, I think I've gotten more work done today than all of last week combined! I even got an algebra video watched! What?!  Also did a chapter in The Preparation edits; the new approach is working great.

First I want to show everyone my newest book cover. This is for T.R. Ragan's book Abducted. I have not read it, but I guess I should, huh? I'll look for it; I might already have it. The rain has been coming down almost non-stop today. Non-the-less, on with the cover.

I think this cover is MUCH better than my previous ones, and isn't that the point? I'm sure those who are actually graphic artists can tell the girl has been lifted from another picture and put into this one. Hey, I never claimed to be an artist, I just play one on the internet. ;-)  One victory I had in this cover was discovering the Transform Tool in Edit. I kept struggling with my fonts, setting it to 72 and most being about half the size I needed. So I looked it up and some smart ass on a yahoo answers page told someone a year ago how to use the tool to make the text as big as they wanted. I so love the internet. I get to be a part of virtually every conversation that has ever existed - barring chatrooms (and who really wants to be a part of those conversations anyway).  I was also able to get the fade tool to work a little better (that is read: I didn't know what I was doing), allowing me more control over shading, etc. It's so much better than those MS Paint days!

Well, I better get back to it. I took an extra hour on the cover, so I'm behind. Also did some work on the Summary Outline for Our Daughter. It's amazing how just a little research can open so many doors when you're stuck in the middle of a story. I would have to disagree with Tim Ferriss. I don't think research for its own sake is a waste of time, at least, not for me. I guess most of my research now is directed by my current or upcoming story, so maybe he is right after all. Go Tim!

Over 1200 and a New Practice Book Cover

So, I got off on a TERRIBLE start today! Well, it wasn't terrible as much as it was just late, late, late. Got up an hour later than I was supposed to. Then dinked around in the office too long [watching Las Vegas] and so I didn't get back out to my laptop until at least 7am. Then a client came. 7:30am. Then an unscheduled one came. 8am. By that point I had to address all the issues with our current stays. 9am [slap forehead now, please].

I didn't really get started writing until 11am, but - thankfully - I was raring to go. I thought I would finish SEEKING LIGHT AURORA today, but the story had some additional scenes that I was unaware of until I started writing today. I love it when that happens. So, I pretty certain I'll finish it within the next day or two. I think it will come in around 20K for a word count. But, last night I went on a quest to find out how novellas were formatted and what kind of length we're looking at. They have chapters, but there tends to be just one scene per chapter rather than multiple. I found several for sale on Amazon that were between 60 and 150 pages. I found several Stephen King novellas that only came in at 50 pages. So, needless to say, I think that is great. At this point, I will probably just release it as an e-book novella, but I might use it to test out the new POD printer I'm considering. Though I think I will probably go with CreateSpace, simply because it is the easiest and most cost effective way to get listed on Amazon for print books. We will see.

I also did a new practice book cover and I do not necessarily like it. It is for Koontz's Odd Hours, and I think it looks really good as a thumbnail, but when it's bigger, I can really pick out what's wrong with it. I definitely didn't take my time on this one. But, nonetheless, here it is.