NaNoWriMo Book Covers

Here are my imaginary book covers for past years' NaNoWriMo novels, along with a brief storyline. All images and statemets are copyright by the author. 

2014 - Troubadour’s Test 

The troubadour Sir Loriano of Vayne must deal with corruption and deceit in the wealthy city of Candelei in order to save a drug dealer’s sheltered daughter from an exploitive marriage and release Lady Tora from the Women’s Quarters so they can continue their quest to the drakken mountain. 

2012 - City of Gold 

On a quest to the drakken mountain the troubadour Loriano of Vayne and Tora are out of funds when they reach the City of Gold, Candelei. Corvid, a wealthy merchant, hires Loriano to perform at a banquet celebrating his daughter Rose’s betrothal to Lord Landris Dalmar, brother to the evil Lord Gervane. When Tora hears the names, she faints and is taken into the Women’s Quarters. 

2010 - Troubadour Quest 

Sir Loriano of Vayne and the herbalist witch Tora cross the empty lands of Miratan together to reach the City of Gold, Candelei, on the way to the drakken mountain. They must avoid the fanatical Speakers of Light and Lord Gervane Dalmar’s witch hunters. 

2008 - Sacred Mountain 

Karié and other new Chosen adjust to life in the mountaintop community. During their initiation to the Creation of Life, Barok, carried away, forces himself on Napisti, who screams and falls into a deep trance from which she can’t be awakened. Under the High Priestess’s guidance, Karié, who enjoyed her initiation, follows Napisti into the vision and leads her back into the world, but Napisti cannot face a sexual relationship, one duty of Zophra’s Chosen. 

2005 - Sacrifice! 

Karié, 14 years old, reluctantly journeys to the Sacred Mountain to present herself to the goddess Zophra for Choosing. Among the 14 applicants are Napisti, believed to become the next High Priestess, Prince Barok, and the commoner Maran. Karié wants to live in the world, but at her Presentation at age 7, the goddess clearly favored her. 

NaNoWriMo is coming...

One of my favorite things to do is NaNoWriMo. For one thing, it's a darned good way to whack out a first draft. I, the compulsive over-editor, get to throw it all aside and BLURT! I get a kick out of the forums, going to an occasional write-in (hardly anyone gets much writing done), and posting that frustratingly small number of new words. Some days my keyboard slogs uphill through warm butter; other days it sprouts wings and words dance onto the screen. Life interferes, dammit! My husband, the cat, a friend, need... Just when the plot is hopelessly dead and entangled there appear passages of absolutely golden prose. Which trickle out into a swell floop. And there's the last frantic push, after which I mentally collapse in a sweating little heap.
This year I "ought to" do the next section of Loriano's story, but I'm returning to my beloved Ancient World to continue the story of Karie the last true High Priestess with Speaker of Visions.
*The woman on the cover is not Karié; she is High Priestess Alina, who appeared in a Journal Workshop meditation exercise and told me to "Write! Or Else...!" 

New book cover - Aarrghh!!

I really love the original yellow and red cover on DARK LADY'S STONE with Loriano playing to the Stone with the image of the Lady. Many people have commented favorably on it, but many others said it wasn't a good cover and would turn readers off.
So I finally got a new one to see what will happen and went to upload it to Create Space. It was endless frustration! I think The Gods are firmly against that new cover! Or maybe it's my resistance to change. First I couldn’t figure out where, on Create Space’s setup/ cover screen to input the new file. So I phoned them, and their representative quickly pointed it out. (Why I hadn’t seen that in the five times I’d looked???) So I hit “Upload cover." “Browse.” And I got a message to update Adobe on my browser. I don’t WANT Adobe on my Safari! Why did I get Firefox & Chrome except to have a browser with Adobe? And why do I need Adobe to upload a .PDF anyway? I kept hitting "Later" and "No." Create Space wouldn’t let me proceed. Update Adobe or else!
Back to Square 0. Open Firefox. Log into CS again. Find Cover Setup. Hit Browse. Choose File. I choose the file. Hit upload. And it starts loading—Ta-Da! Two-thirds of the way through a message flashes: Upgrade Firefox. Screw it! I hit Later. And thank the gods my cover file keeps loading. When it finally finishes it looks just like the old cover. I go back to my folder, double-check my artwork files—and it is the old cover!! And furthermore CS is reviewing my submission and I can’t make further changes until they finish. 
Aarrghh!

Book cover does its job

Sheri McGathy's cover for Dark Lady's Stone is really working. 

Yesterday I went to Postal Annex to mail a copy of my book to a family friend. Another customer pointed at the cover, "Oooh! I want to read this one! And I've got some friends who'd like it, too." So I gave her several of the cards I've printed up with the Amazon and Kindle links. 

Then the manager (who was packaging the book) said, "Several local authors have sold a lot of books placing them here. We'd love to carry yours. It looks really interesting." 

So I came home and ordered half a dozen. 

Progress to publishing

Lots of happenings. I found a musician for the cover of The Dark Lady's Stone and the artist found a Hi Res version, as well as a big black Standing Stone. I checked out 2 versions of the cover with friends, wrote a blurb (That is HARD!), and I should have the final this weekend. The editor's had a few delays, but she'll try to get my manuscript done by the end of next week. Oooo! It's all so exciting!

New Adventure!

I'm deep in the throes of self-publishing The Dark Lady's Stone! I found a free-lance editor to go over my final manuscript for the little things I've undoubtedly missed--grammar, spelling, typos, missing words--and as a bonus she's a poet, who can help with Loriano's troubadour poems. I am also working with a cover artist to come up with a way to depict my story. She and I have spent many hours looking for suitable images on the web. It's a joyful and frustrating process. Standing stones are easy, but I hadn't realized how hard it is to find usable pictures of a guy in his early 20s with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes who doesn't look too modern or too wimpy. I wish I were a skilled enough artist to paint my own hero.