Afternoon, Sunday, October 8, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hello, everyone. How are you all doing? I hope you are having/have had a nice Sunday.

I promised myself – reluctantly – that I would take time off from working on my novel and give my mind and body (my mind, mostly) a break, at least for the first two days of the Columbus Day weekend. I am not yet sure if I want to take tomorrow off; every day that I take off from work – yes, you skeptics in the back, writing a book you expect to publish and sell is work – is one more day that sets back my self-imposed deadline for sending Reunion: Coda to Kindle Direct Publishing (December 15 is my target date).  If I’m well-rested tomorrow, I will most certainly work, federal holiday or not.

Up Front – Thinking About Cover Art for Reunion: Coda

I stuck to my “No Work on the Novel” pledge yesterday; the only activity related to Reunion: Coda I did last night was to talk – via email – with my NYC-based buddy Juan Carlos Hernandez about ideas for the novel’s book cover, even though I only finished Chapter 11 on Friday and I have not started Chapter 12.

My reasons for even thinking about book cover designs now are simple. When I first self-published Reunion: A Story five summers ago, CreateSpace Independent Publishing (now Kindle Direct Publishing) did not have a wide variety of cover designs either for print or e-book editions, so I had to choose one from the few choices that were available then.

I did not like the way the cover for the first edition looked, but I’m not a graphics artist, and I can’t afford to hire a good illustrator, so I used the cover design I thought worked the best, hoping that readers would not judge Reunion: A Story by the art on the cover.

Nowadays, with the explosive growth of self-publishing and the resulting demand for book covers fit for a wide range of genres, there are sites – such as Canva – where writers can find editable templates for book cover art, I have at least a few options that I didn’t have (or didn’t know about) five years ago.

Anyway, whilst Juan and I were discussing possible options for how to get a cover done, I went to Canva after searching on Google for “romance novel cover illustration templates” and, after opening a “free” account, I messed around with a couple of templates that were available for non-premium users and came up with several ideas for a cover illustration.

My Sunday Agenda

As for today, I don’t have any plans to go anywhere or hang out with anyone (What else is new?), and – unless an utterly brilliant idea flashes in my brain, I do not foresee doing any work on Reunion: Coda. I don’t even want to go to Canva lest I end up spending several hours messing around with templates for book covers. I don’t plan to create the actual cover myself unless there’s no other option, so I shouldn’t do that unless Juan or someone else takes on the role of cover illustrator and needs some guidance about what I want in terms of general ideas about the look and theme of the artwork.

I might read for a while, not just because I like reading for relaxation and escape, but because anyone who writes a lot must also read a lot. I’ve talked about this before in length, but as Stephen King often says, you can’t be a good writer unless you are a constant reader.

In the evening, I’m going to take a break from my room and watch a movie in the family room. It’s time to get out of my room for a while.

That’s all the news I have to share, so I’ll close for now. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.