playful / frisky / risky
Left behind
Now, one more new book cover
At a recent online writers’ conference, I was convinced to bite the bullet and release my novels at goliath Amazon in addition to the alternative ebook retailers where they’re already available. As I began pondering the new hurdles and strategies, I looked at Hometown News as a first offering.
A few years ago I had replaced the original cover, which sought to convey a sense of an idyllic small town where children could grow up safely, at least at the onset, with another of more urgency, reflecting the broader sense of the ultimately dystopian novel.
The new photographic image, though, was problematic.
The flames coming out of the residential window had the emotional message I wanted to convey, but they kept eating up the title and author credit, no matter which color I tried.
So I came up with this, trying to employ a trendy design element:
Returning to it now, though, I still felt an unease. The solution, in the end, was to make the artwork a bit smaller to give it more impact. Got that? It doesn’t make sense, but here’s how I’ve gone:
By the way, it’s now also available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon, as well as at Smashwords and affiliated ebook retailers.
What’s your take on the new design?
Yes, some men are from Mars
The kernel of this passage is insightful, but it got reworked and retold in a much more humorous vein in my novel What’s Left.
Well, he had every reason to feel out of place, I suppose. He might as well have been a Tibetan or a man from Mars dropped down in the middle of America. But reincarnation would assume that Iowa was the right place for him to be growing up, that he’d found the right set of parents and right surroundings, and that would mean I’ve been overlooking a lot.
~*~
Well, the alienated individual is one complex issue to take up. Just look at Kafka. Cassia’s having her own struggles, so let’s concentrate on those, especially as she’s becoming aware of surroundings that work in her favor, unlike those of her father’s youth.
Perhaps nobody’s in a perfectly right or wrong place. We usually make do, as best we can, although I’ve lived some places where that could be challenging.
What’s been “right” for you where you are? Or, if you’d rather, what’s felt “wrong”?
~*~
~*~
Maybe I’ve been reading too much speculative fiction
What’s the difference between a zombie and a vampire, really?
Especially in a time of Covid?
The villain and the muse
After watching their interplay in “The Tales of Hoffmann,” I’m wondering:
Is a muse also a guardian spirit?
Ten crops of the Yakima Valley
In my novel Nearly Canaan, Joshua and Jaya settle into a place unlike anything they would have imagined. It’s desert, for one thing, where nearly everything has to be irrigated, for another. Quite simply, it’s a lot like Yakima, in the middle of Washington state and an agricultural mecca.
Besides the well-known crops of apples, hops, and grapes, let’s consider:
- Barley
- Peaches
- Nectarines
- Pears
- Apricots
- Cherries
- Mint
- Asparagus
- Eggplant
- Hay
~*~
Not necessarily in that order.
One way to summarize Ipswich, on the North Shore
Northeast of Boston, before you get to New Hampshire, is the Colonial town of Ipswich. Though it’s one of many, it still has a distinct flavor. Consider this, from the street signs:
Labor in Vain takes off from Turkey Shore Road.
How much more Puritan can you get? I just picture the blunderbuss in hand as someone in a big black hat and buckle goes out looking to bag a bird for dinner.
Or, the memories, back when we could travel …
Do we hear music?
Along Friar Roads
