Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
I am deep in the entrails of The Wound of Words Draft Three, and I have come to a crossroads. Care to help me decide which way to go?
Now, some people love prologues, some people hate them, and some, for reasons I am unclear on, just skip them. Some part of my mind insists that a short double prologue is just what is needed, so I wrote one. But what do you think?
Continue & Comment
Two and a half years ago (can you believe it?) I asked you all, my dear readers, to weigh in on the question of what cover image to use for Restoration Day, with ten images paraded before your eyes. (Spoiler: the winner was Contestant #2.)
Now, with The Wound of Words making its way through the convoluted pipeway to publication, I find myself in need of your opinions again. As before, the selected image needs to look good in every size from thumbnail to 14x21cm – and preferably also in black and white; it needs to not disappear into the (white) background on a webpage, and of course, it needs to draw the reader in without giving a false impression of the book’s contents.
Also as before, there are ten images. But this time, either because I am getting old and boring or because I am getting more mature and have a better idea of what I like (consider what you know of me and pick accordingly) they are variations on six themes, instead of the seven last time.
On the plus side, my GIMPing skills have advanced to the point where each cover image is approximately the shape/proportion of the actual cover, so what you see is more or less what you will get, except of course that the final version will have a professionally-designed title and name on it and will therefore look Much Better.
Here then, for your discriminating judgement and critique, are our ten contestants.Continue & Comment
The Wound of Words (draft 2.2) has now been despatched to the lovely people who volunteered to be beta readers, and I… what am I going to do?
I’ll be carrying on with the Grand Productivity Experiment, but doing less writing work and a lot more house and garden work. Especially garden work.
There’s the redcurrant to prune (at last!), the mighty Balrog to hack back again (the shed porch disintegrated and collapsed under its weight this year), and the dozens of poles shooting out the top of the apple tree like some sort of living candelabra to slice off.
And once I’ve done all that (no doubt with the assistance of the Caped Gooseberry’s superior musculature), it’s on to the potting, the planting out and the weeding.
Inside, for those inevitable days of Much Water, there’s pruning of another sort to be done (aka decluttering), and a truly remarkable quantity of mending to work my way through.
