I still remember the first time I saw the artwork that would eventually become the cover of Lucy’s story (Wherever Would I Be). It was a bit of a shock, seeing my character so clearly in the work of someone else – but there she was. I figured, having held this book with this cover in my own hands so many times now, that I any related shocks to the system were in the past.
Cut to the artist, Pascal Campion, posting an image of a then upcoming New Yorker magazine with this art on the cover:
It took me a couple days to get my hands on physical copy, but I finally succeeded today! The art on The New Yorker is a slightly different sketch, and I do have to say that I love on the one on the cover more (specifically the filled-out hair). But it’s a little surreal to see these two covers side by side. 🥰
To say I went on a rollercoaster with the cover of this book is an understatement. I have several Canva projects in a GvM folder. The last of which has sixty-eight designs on it. (Now, some of those are similar designs – copied and changed a bit here or there. Maybe a new font. Maybe a different color.) I just couldn’t seem to find something that…stuck.
I had gone through a number of designs before landing on this one. I liked the colors (for the most part – I loved the red brick but could never get the title quite right). I loved the brick as the background, but I couldn’t find the right one for the full cover (this was a portrait-oriented photo, and I didn’t care for the enlarged brick when spread over the full cover). I landed on this as a place holder for the website, but I continued to fiddle with it.
Eventually, I started trying wildly different designs to try and break out of the cycle of small shifts and the irritation that resulted when I couldn’t get it just right. I spent a lot of time on Unsplash – a wealth of searchable photos. I tried all sorts of things, all sorts of images. But still – nothing clicked. Nothing made me utter – “That’s it!” It all seemed too much. Too complicated. (I even went down a rabbit hole of Pascal Campion pieces – and I found one that made a lovely cover…but the vibe didn’t fit the story.)
So I decided to simplify it.
Through most of this process (spanning…months? a year?), I had an idea that stuck around in the back of my head that I knew I couldn’t create in Canva (but if I still had access to my old Creative Suite software, I could…). So I just kept trying other things.
Cut to: Me realizing I COULD actually (sorta) do what I had wanted in Canva! \^o^/
Canva has a series of ‘frames’ in all different shapes that you can insert photos into – including variations of letters. BINGO! I had envisioned the title cut from a photograph of fire and lightning to represent their individual powers. And I could use frames in the shapes of letters and insert photos into them.
I sent a mockup of the cover to my writing bestie, and he had the brilliant idea of putting it on a slant – and voila! I give you the cover of Goode vs Melville. (❁´◡`❁)
Here are the last few days of my #AStoryADay March 2024 challenge. As a reminder, the goal of all of this is to be exposed to stories I might not have otherwise come across – to experience new (to me) writers (though I’ll also do “not new to me writers but new to me stories of theirs”).
So – be warned – I know nothing about these stories going into them. If any end up being problematic, I will remove the link soon as I read it. But *fingers crossed* that won’t be an issue this month.
Feel free to read along with me! (And please share your thoughts on the stories in the comments!)
Time moves so quickly that it’s hard to believe I’m down to the last three stories already. I really love starting each morning with breakfast, a cup of coffee, and a story. There needs to be some sort of service out there that collects and posts a single story link every single day. 🙂 Perhaps I’ll do another month of stories in the fall.
Here is week four of my #AStoryADay March 2024 challenge. As a reminder, the goal of all of this is to be exposed to stories I might not have otherwise come across – to experience new (to me) writers (though I’ll also do “not new to me writers but new to me stories of theirs”).
So – be warned – I know nothing about these stories going into them. If any end up being problematic, I will remove the link soon as I read it. But *fingers crossed* that won’t be an issue this month.
Feel free to read along with me! (And please share your thoughts on the stories in the comments!)
Here is week three of my #AStoryADay March 2024 challenge. As a reminder, the goal of all of this is to be exposed to stories I might not have otherwise come across – to experience new (to me) writers (though I’ll also do “not new to me writers but new to me stories of theirs”).
So – be warned – I know nothing about these stories going into them. If any end up being problematic, I will remove the link soon as I read it. But *fingers crossed* that won’t be an issue this month.
Feel free to read along with me! (And please share your thoughts on the stories in the comments!)
Here is week two of my #AStoryADay March 2024 challenge. As a reminder, the goal of all of this is to be exposed to stories I might not have otherwise come across – to experience new (to me) writers (though I’ll also do “not new to me writers but new to me stories of theirs”).
So – be warned – I know nothing about these stories going into them. If any end up being problematic, I will remove the link soon as I read it. But *fingers crossed* that won’t be an issue this month.
Feel free to read along with me! (And please share your thoughts on the stories in the comments!)
In 2022, I made a goal (and met it!) to read a new story every single day for the entire year. It was a lovely experience, but it was a LOT of work to put together. Thus, I decided not to repeat it for 2023. Though as the year went on, I found I missed it. However, I was not looking forward to putting together an entire year’s worth of stories, so I opted to take on a single month instead (and maybe add more later). So – each Friday for the month of March, there will be a post with a week’s worth of stories that I intend to read each morning. The goal of all of this is to be exposed to stories I might not have otherwise come across – to experience new (to me) writers (though I’ll also do “not new to me writers but new to me stories of theirs”).
So – be warned – I know nothing about these stories going into them. If any end up being problematic, I will remove the link soon as I read it. But *fingers crossed* that won’t be an issue this month.
Feel free to read along with me! (And please share your thoughts on the stories in the comments!)
Note: I chose stories at random. I tried to make sure I wasn’t grabbing links for excerpts – only standalone stories. But I know I missed that a few times when I did the yearlong challenge. I also chose links where you should be able to read them for free (to keep things accessible). Some do come from The New Yorker and other places that charge after a few reads, but you should be able to access them if you’ve not already met the limit with other clicks.
When I opted to do the Kickstarter to raise funds for the cover of Wherever Would I Be, I was able to include some add ons to the project. This is a way for the project to earn extra money. I spent a lot of time checking out other projects to see what was common – but a lot of them had things I couldn’t pull off in time (like character art and fancy printed versions of the book). I did include a few common ones – such as book marks and journals with the book cover art. And then, I don’t remember if I came up with the idea or if someone suggested it, I included an opportunity to have a character named after them in my next book – a murder mystery.
Now, I didn’t think many people would take me up on this – maybe a couple. Maybe. But certainly not EIGHT people. I mean…that’s a lot of people to kill off on paper. 😂
I did talk to a couple of folks about putting them into other books (you’ll see Jake in Goode versus Melville and Ashley in my Anne of Green Gable’s world story). And two others I asked to be on the detective team. Then – I had to write my childhood librarian and admit that I couldn’t bring myself to kill her off even on paper – so would she like to oversee the records department? ¯\(o_o)/¯ She said sure.
That left me with three friends to…well, off.
Throughout this entire process, I never once considered the fact that characters I completely make up become real to me – as if they were living, breathing people walking around. My writing bestie and I talk about characters like they are real. So what happens when such a character shares the name and features of someone who really is walking around in my life?
Cut to writing my first body drop with the name of a dear friend. This went, oddly, ok. It was easy to distance myself from that, I think – because clearly my friend is not dead. But when I got to the scene where my main character has to go tell this person’s mother? Yeah. Bring on the tissues.
If you do ever consider following suit on an endeavor such as this, there are a couple things I would recommend. First, put a cap on it. Decide how many characters you can actually do this with. Next, because this is a murder mystery, I did double check with the folks I planned to kill off that they were ok with this – especially with how they were going to die. I also ran their backstory by them. I wasn’t, after all, writing about them as they are – the character just happened to have the same name. Which, I also gave them choice over – how they wanted the character named. For example, if they are Samantha but prefer Sam – that sort of thing. One friend came up with a variation of their name so that it would only be obvious to those that know them that the character is named after them. (I did include a caveat on the Kickstarter add on that it had to be an appropriate name – I didn’t want a Boaty McBoatface situation on my hands.)
This entire thing has been such an unexpected experience – but it’s also been a really great one. The support feels great. And the excitement of seeing their names in print is something I can understand. I still remember the first time I saw my name in print, as well as the first time I saw my name as a byline. I can’t wait for them to get to experience this. (❁´◡`❁)
This year for Christmas, a couple of dear friends gifted me something that I never would have thought to get for myself – and I love that it shows how well they know me. (Thanks Cody and Jim!!! ❤) If you are new here and didn’t already know, I have a love of the story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So much so that my first book (All Falling Things – which found a home with Scarsdale and will hopefully have a launch date soon!) is loosely based on this story.
Y’all – the drawers even open and close!
The gift? A 3D puzzle based on the story. (❁´◡`❁) I opened this Christmas morning and couldn’t wait to put it together – so I did that night. There were SO many tiny pieces – and whoever designed it really had an attention for detail. If you’ve never put one of these together, it starts by setting up the smaller set pieces, and I had such delight in seeing them all come together. (If you’ve ever wanted to attempt one of these and have been too intimidated – don’t be. The instructions are super easy to follow!)
Once all the smaller set pieces are put together, it’s time to assemble, as they called it, the scenes. In this case, the setting for where Alice fell down the rabbit hole and the setting of her actually falling. (They even included her kitty looking after her!) Once the two scenes were together, there was some wiring to put in place for the LED lights. Then – time to assemble it into its ‘book’. (There was even a mirrored piece that runs the length of the back, which makes the forest look like it extends even farther back!) Once all was said and done, it was a blast to put together – even if I felt like I had bruised the pads of both of my thumbs. 🤣
There is a motion censor at the top that turns on the lights for a bit whenever it senses someone walking near it. I can’t help but smile every time it catches my attention. (I may have spent some time looking up other 3D puzzles after I finished…) I never would have thought before to buy one for myself before, but I absolutely enjoyed the entire process.
[One thing I will note, about this kit at least, is that it would be rather difficult to put together with small children involved – there is a level of fine motor skills required to place and snap the pieces together that tiny hands would find rather difficult. ]
Last night, I attended a tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Big Bopper at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, WI. This was not an event that would have probably caught my attention, despite my love for all things live music. But when my bestie asked if I’d want to go along with her and her mom, I of course said yes. Live music, the bestie, and Mama H? Always a great combination.
What I hadn’t anticipated was the history lesson in store for me. I thought we were just going to relive some great music from the fifties. I knew who each of these singers were. I knew their music. I knew their fate.
Map of the 1959 Winter Dance Party Tour
What I didn’t know was that on Feb 1, 1959, these three played their second to last show at the Riverside Ballroom (meaning the specific night and location in relation to their deaths). They would go on to Clear Lake, IA, the next day – and then Holly chartered that fateful plane – for him, Tommy Allsup, and Waylon Jennings. They were, after all, zig-zagging around the Midwest in winter, with several hundred miles between back-to-back venues. (Carl Bunch ended up leaving the tour previous to this due to frost bite.) Jennings would give up his seat to Big Bopper (who had the fly), and Allsup would lose his seat to Valens in a coin toss.
Poster from Feb 1, 1959 show at Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, WI.
What I didn’t know, which I learned on the car ride to the venue, was that my friend’s mom had been in attendance at that show in 1959 – she had been a few months shy of turning eighteen. This tribute night wouldn’t just be a reminder of their music for her – it would be a reminder of that specific night. (When the ticket cost ninety cents if you showed up early enough, and we’d have been turned away for showing up on blue jeans.)
Photo and signatures of Holly, Valens, and Big Bopper hanging in the foyer of the Riverside Ballroom.Winter Dance Party Tribute Feb 2, 2024
1959 Tour Schedule
Jan 23 – George Divine’s Million Dollar Ballroom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Jan 24 – Eagles Ballroom, Kenosha, Wisconsin (Debbie Stevens also performed) Jan 25 – Kato Ballroom, Mankato, Minnesota Jan 26 – Fournier’s Ballroom, Eau Claire, Wisconsin Jan 27 – Fiesta Ballroom, Montevideo, Minnesota Jan 28 – Prom Ballroom, St. Paul, Minnesota Jan 29 – Capitol Theater, Davenport, Iowa Jan 30 – Laramar Ballroom, Fort Dodge, Iowa Jan 31 – National Guard Armory, Duluth, Minnesota Feb 1 – Riverside Ballroom, Green Bay, Wisconsin Feb 2 – Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa
Ami Maxine 