Fling

Every once in a while a girl needs a new hat.  That was the old way of easily remaking your image.  Unfortunately no one wears hats anymore.  I guess girls buy shoes.  Although I don't, I buy something like a tart ring, or kitchen equipment or treat myself to some Kenya estate tea.

I woke up this morning and a photo I had taken yesterday was on my mind.  I wanted to do something with it but I didn't know what.  That's when the decision was made to revamp the cover of Fling.  Even though I very much like that old Russian postcard that was always intended as the cover, I think Jemima and I need a make-over.  As someone with a career in the visual arts, I'm sure Jem would understand and approve.

So here's the new cover of Fling.  I hope it's eye-catching and appealing.

Not Low Maintenance 2 Prep Work

Readers are unsure how much work actually goes into the writing and then publishing of a novel.

It's a lot.  Hours, days and months for me.  If you add in the cover, it can be a very large investment in not only time but consideration.

I've been thinking about the cover for NLM2 for about 6 months.  I'm not an artist but I was a photographer earlier in life with a photography major in college so that seemed the way to go.

I wound up getting a new camera--the old one was for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting Patterns--and have spent the last few weeks doing test photos.  This is one of the tests.  Maybe I'll even use it inside.  While right now most dedicated reading devices are B&W, in another year or so I think that'll change.  More people will be using tablet computers as readers and the graphics are fantastic in those.  I think some illustrations will be enjoyable.

Not Low Maintenance 2

I've been working on the companion book to NLM for years.  This is true.  It's very close to completion now and I'm teasing you with a partial announcement. 

NLM2 (I'm not telling you the title yet!) is Bel's story.  Readers express quite an affection for the Miller sisters and want to know more about them.  I liked Bel very much as I was writing NLM and decided she deserved her own book, her own fella and her own future.

I've been working on the cover art for the last month and it's not ready yet.  But I think we'll see it published by the end of the month. 

As for Not Low Maintenance and Viva, in the real world there have been some interesting surprises over the past week which I will be all too glad to tell you about should they come to fruition.