The Hardest Thing I Ever Wrote
Did you ever write a book that just seemed to fight you every inch of the way? I know I've had issues with my fourth book, The Wrong Ghost, but really it's my third book, The Harbinger of Retribution that just may go down as the hardest thing I ever wrote.
First off, the book didn't turn out at all as I originally plotted it. Not unusual, but it took forever to get the thing to make any sense at all. Of course, I can't give too many details about the plot, I am releasing it in the Fall of this year, but I think I had to do at least five rewrites, and I am not exaggerating by much, before the plot and the characters cooperated.
Okay, I got it written, I'm happy with it and I hope my readers think so as well. I'm done, right? Wrong.
Because now as I am geting it ready for publishing as an ebook, another issue has come up. Why am I surprised? Nothing has been easy with this book! Worse, it is my own fault, and I should have seen it coming, but I didn't.
The cover.
Now I did the covers of my first two books myself. The Mystery of Hurtleberry House was easy, a house. I just had to remember the description. The next one took a little more artistic endeavor, a problem when you consider that I am no artist. Still I made it work. All The Island of Living Trees required a picture of a spooky tree, and I think I did a pretty good job.
The problem with The Harbinger of Retribution is what it is. A statue of a woman in a hooded cloak made of black marble with two swords crossed over her chest.
What the heck was I thinking? I mean it's a powerful image, and I would love to have it on the cover, but it's just beyond me. Yes, I know I could hire a professional, but I don't know if I could get someone else to see The Harbinger right. Besides, I'm a starving writer here, I don't think I can afford to pay someone.
I know I'll come up with something eventually, but to be honest I will be glad when I finally get this ebook published and out of my head!
Still, aggravating as it was and still is, although The Harbinger was the hardest thing I ever wrote, I think it might turn out to be the best.
I’ll be interested to see if you all agree.
I hope so.
First off, the book didn't turn out at all as I originally plotted it. Not unusual, but it took forever to get the thing to make any sense at all. Of course, I can't give too many details about the plot, I am releasing it in the Fall of this year, but I think I had to do at least five rewrites, and I am not exaggerating by much, before the plot and the characters cooperated.
Okay, I got it written, I'm happy with it and I hope my readers think so as well. I'm done, right? Wrong.
Because now as I am geting it ready for publishing as an ebook, another issue has come up. Why am I surprised? Nothing has been easy with this book! Worse, it is my own fault, and I should have seen it coming, but I didn't.
The cover.
Now I did the covers of my first two books myself. The Mystery of Hurtleberry House was easy, a house. I just had to remember the description. The next one took a little more artistic endeavor, a problem when you consider that I am no artist. Still I made it work. All The Island of Living Trees required a picture of a spooky tree, and I think I did a pretty good job.
The problem with The Harbinger of Retribution is what it is. A statue of a woman in a hooded cloak made of black marble with two swords crossed over her chest.
What the heck was I thinking? I mean it's a powerful image, and I would love to have it on the cover, but it's just beyond me. Yes, I know I could hire a professional, but I don't know if I could get someone else to see The Harbinger right. Besides, I'm a starving writer here, I don't think I can afford to pay someone.
I know I'll come up with something eventually, but to be honest I will be glad when I finally get this ebook published and out of my head!
Still, aggravating as it was and still is, although The Harbinger was the hardest thing I ever wrote, I think it might turn out to be the best.
I’ll be interested to see if you all agree.
I hope so.
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message 1:
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Susan
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Jul 02, 2011 11:44AM
How do you make your covers? I guess I just assumed you were putting together pieces of pictures to make a picture. I'm no artist either, so I don't have a clue how these things work.
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Well believe it or not I use the Windows Paint program, and I do make the pictures mystelf. In fact after much prayer and false starts I did just finished a cover I think will work for this book. At least I hope so. I'm posting it in the Fall and I just want it done! If you like I can send you a copy, you can view it in paint and you can tell me what you think. Hopefully The Wrong Ghost doesn't go this wrong.
That would be great, I'd love to see it. Thank you. I'm impressed, Paint is not an easy program, at least not for me. But as I said before, I'm no artist.
Susan wrote: "That would be great, I'd love to see it. Thank you. I'm impressed, Paint is not an easy program, at least not for me. But as I said before, I'm no artist."Okay, I'll email it to you. Hopefully you'll get what it's supposed to be. This one is less...structured. Lack of artistic talent really shows.
