IWSG, May 2016

Good morning everyone! All blogged out from the A to Z challenge? Me too. But I must blog on. And on and . . .

For this year's A to Z, I chose the theme Weird Science as a tie-in to the release of the IWSG anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here. For ten of the letters, I featured an aspect of science relating to one of the stories, such as virtual reality internet, mirrors, rabies, etc. Since my writing time for the entire last three weeks of April went up in smoke due to sick kids and vacation, I did have to blog as I went, which cut into my visiting time.

Another regret was not getting at least one of my short story collections posted on Amazon before (or during) the challenge, so there went that marketing opportunity. Blast it! However, I think rushing the project would've been a bad decision. 

I've found YouTube extremely helpful as I tip toe through this self-publishing process, in particular for adding hyperlinks in the table of contents and making a cover in Word. My version of Word is kind of old (2010, version 14), so it doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles, but here are some of my prototypes:

1. The Basic Skull

2. Skull plus Soccer Girl

3. Skull plus Surgery Scene

The colors are fun in this version, but there's something about having the image of the girl that I like. 

4. Skull plus Soccer Girl and Surgery Scene

This is my daughter's favorite and it is more creative, but I wonder if the casual viewer can tell that the little image is a surgical suite. But if I enlarge the skull too much, it might not look like a skull anymore.

Which cover do you think works best? Have you ever made a cover? Hired someone to make a cover? Did you enjoy the A to Z challenge this year?

A big shout-out to Ninja Captain Alex. Not only has he created this wonderful, supportive group, he visits regularly, and gave me an opportunity for publication! And do visit this month's cohosts: Stephen Tremp, Fundy Blue, MJ Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, and Stephanie Faris.