Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 2

Canva Tutorial: How to merge two photos together in Canva

Merging two or more photos together is one of the most useful photomanipulations that you can do. In this tutorial I will walk you through how you make a book cover by adding extra sky to a photo to make it fit better into a book cover.

There are easier ways to do this using alternative programs – Photoshop, PaintShopPro, Photopea or Gimp will let you use a soft brush erase and allow for more subtlety – but this is how you do it in Canva.

Just click on the red play button to watch the vid...

Canva Tutorial: How to distort text in Canva

Let’s face it, sometimes you want text to do funky things. Now you can distort your text – make it wide at one end and thin at the other, or make it fit into a globe, that sort of thing – using the Typecraft app in Canva.

Here’s a tutorial on exactly how to use it and where you might use it in your book marketing. (Mainly, it’s a nice thing to be able to do on a book cover). Just click on the big red play button to watch the video on YouTube.

How will you use TypeCraft in your desig...

My favourite Christmas novellas

I’ve been neglecting this blog lately, so when I wrote a longish post on Facebook, I thought, ‘hey, why not share this with my blog readers too?’. So here we are.

Someone asked for Christmas novella recommendations. I love reading novellas at Christmas. I stack them all up on my Kindle and have a reading binge in the strange liminal time between Christmas and New Year. Here are some of my favourites.

First of all, I must mention my own ones. Please buy them –

Girl At Christmas (m...

Book review: A Blend of Magic by Kate Kenzie

This is a lovely witchy story set in the spooky town of Whitby. I loved the atmospheric descriptions and Vincent the giant maine coon!
Willow owns a little magic shop (one of those shops that isn’t always findable) and is happy in the cosy little world. Then Nate appears – with a meet cute engineered by cats and ghosts. Things are set for a wonderful Christmas, but secrets from Willow’s past rear their ugly heads…

If you’re looking for a book with witchy vibes, this book delivers in spades...

Book review: The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft

Maddy Cracy is carer to her aunt Ruthie and to her own little girl Lyla. Her life is predictable, if a bit stale until Raff turns up with a box of old love letters between Ruthie and his father. As with any Sue Moorcroft book, this did not disappoint.

The Christmas love letters is about two romances – the one between Maddy and Raff that is unfolding in the present, and the one between Ruthie and Raff’s (married) father, that happened in the past. The discussion of Ruthie’s affair is gentl...

The Holly King by Mark Stay

I’ve read all of the books in this series. There are few mentions of the previous books, but only in passing, so you can read this book as a standalone novel without reading any of the others in the series.
This book feels slightly ‘older’ than the earlier ones and has leaned into the horror elements a bit more. Is Cozy Christmas Horror a thing? If so, this is it. It’s scary, but in places it is also genuinely funny. The big fight with the Christmas ornaments made me giggle.

If you like Te...

COver Reveal! Knowing Me knowing You

Five years ago, Alex met the man of her dreams on New Year’s Eve – but he never called. Years later, and after a string of failed relationships, she’s given up on men and accepted that ‘New Year’s Eve Guy’ will always be the one who got away.

Until the day he turns up in her office – a management consultant tasked with ‘streamlining’ the company. New Year’s Eve Guy – Gihan – might shut down Alex’s team!

Gihan is as just as gorgeous as Alex remembers, and she swears there’s still a conn...

Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen

This is an unusual thriller. It was so much fun to read!

Saffy is a serial killer. It’s a hobby, of sorts.
Jon is a true crime podcaster who actually helped catch a serial killer. Two, in fact. His marriage has fallen apart and he’s quite depressed.
Girl is a dog. She is a Very Good Girl.

Saffy has a crush on Jon and she’s worked out exactly how she’s going to meet him and help him fall in love with her.
In the meantime, Jon’s podcast seems to have been provided a place, not just for true ...

Anatomy: A love story by Dana Schwartz

I bought this book because of the cover. It’s so beautiful and clever.

The story is a gothic love story set during the early 1800s in Edinburgh. Hazel wants to become a surgeon – a profession not available to a lady. She’s promised in marriage to a viscount (her cousin Bernard, whom she’s known since childhood).
Jake is a bodysnatcher (or ‘Resurrection man’ as he’d prefer), who removes bodies from graves and sells them to the doctors to practice on.

The story touches on medicine at the ...

Act like It by Lucy Parker

Richard is a grumpy actor known for being a bit miserable and rude. Elaine is an actress known for being nice and kind. In order to save Richard’s reputation, the management of the theatre they work in engineer a fauxmance between them.

Richard was so very, very grumpy. Elaine was fun. She was strong and the polar opposite of Richard in personality.
There’s a lot of fun banter between the two and some of the interactions were hilarious. I always like a fake relationship story too.

I rea...