Book Covers

I went down a rabbit hole recently. A Canva book cover design rabbit hole. I’ve decided that I want to self-publish my second manuscript (for a few reasons I’ll chat about in another post some time), and I was goofing around with covers. I played around with some of the templates, and then I went rogue. (Well, as rogue as one can go with a free account.)

I follow this wonderful artist on Instagram, Pascal Campion, and back in December of this last year, he reposted a drawing of his that at first glance I thought – that’s Lucy and Ciro! (Lucy is the main character of the book, and Ciro is her little brother.) I know there is no way I could afford to use this image, though – assuming he’d even be open to it.

As I continued to reimagine the cover, I still had this view of a wrap around, dark blue sky filled with stars. This one specifically comes from an edited template – me just trying to get my feet wet. I liked the colors…the concept not so much. I tried a few things with this background, but I couldn’t get anything to work the way I wanted. (This will come back around.)

This was a random sharp right curve away from my original idea because I was so frustrated and just needed to try something different. I didn’t hate it – I like the simplicity of it. But I was frustrated that I couldn’t really edit the silhouettes of the figures. It would require me creating brand new ones. So I moved on.

Then I stumbled upon this image, and I liked it. I liked the colors, I liked the figure, I liked the stance, and I liked the lights (though I wish I could erase the string between them to give the lights a bit more of a firefly feel (which play a prominent part in the story). But no go. I’d have to recreate it, which wasn’t the easiest thing to attempt.

But I did attempt it. [face palm] I ended up recreating the gradient using the highly sophisticated design program called PowerPoint. Maybe you’ve heard of it. [strained smile] Use what you got, am I right? I toned down the brightness of the colors a bit, and then I went on a looooong search for a figure to come even remotely close to the original image. No go. Also, every single firefly feature is part of the pro/paid Canva (I’m not saying they don’t deserve money – just that I’m not at a point where the money is worth it – I’m just goofing around). Then I saw this figure – the young woman on a swing (there’s another important story of her on a swing as a kid). Then I started playing around with stars and yellow glows and on and on and on. I still wasn’t fully happy with the background, so I swapped it with the stars again.

Like I said, I came back to them. [another face palm] I still couldn’t get it to be what I saw in my head (going to need access to a professional design program for that, which I don’t have on my laptop at home). I went to make one more attempt, another attempt, and so I deleted the background…and then I had another idea.

I actually really like where I ended up. Not sure if this will be it (or a fixed up version of it).

Overall, this was a fun exercise. (There are even a few other designs I created that I didn’t share here.) But now I need someone to come and take Canva away from me…

More Adventures in Homeownership

Sometimes, life throws a tree at you. With the help of a wicked storm, of course. Other times, life throws a second tree at you with the help of…seemingly nothing. Last week, Friday, I woke up and, without my glasses, noticed something in my backyard – something with lots of leaves that wasn’t there yesterday. It had rained most of the night, was raining still – but a gentle rain. A good soaking rain (we got over an inch) without showy thunder or epic winds.

I figured a branch broken in the previous storm just finally wiggled itself loose, and I readied myself to drag the thing around to the front yard for the pickup crew to turn into woodchips.

But then I put on my glasses and got (what I thought) was the whole picture – and then it became that I would hopefully be able to drag it. So I got dressed and put on my boots and went to explore…

Folks, I will not be dragging the FULL TREE that has demolished a section of my fence (missing my shed by about a foot) and is taking up about a fifth of my backyard with it’s branches (I didn’t get the full view until I walked around to my neighbor’s side of the fence – pictured here; it’s their tree that fell). Most of the people in my life are already laughing over the likelihood of TWO trees even in a year – let alone the second one falling before the mess of the first is even fully cleaned up. I’m not laughing. Yet. You see – I love Mother Nature. And in return, she makes me sneezy and topples trees onto my things. This has become a rather expensive relationship.

A New Word

There are many odd things that a writer can learn when working on a story. In most cases, the learning is probably intentional – research for something specific that occurs in or relates to their plot or characters or setting.

In some instances, that odd thing is a word they’d never heard of before. Today, I learned one such word as I was editing a chapter. (When I sit down to start writing, I reread/edit the chapter or section that came before the scene or summary I am about to write – I find this helps me not only add in words or details that I hadn’t thought of during my last writing session, but it also helps get me into the right frame of mind for what I’m about to create.)

The word I learned today is ‘snigged.’ I stumbled across it as I was reading/editing, and my first thought was, “Why didn’t Word flag this?” My second was, “I wonder what it means – does it have anything to do with snigger?”

Well, reader, it does not have anything to do with ‘snigger’:

As my writing buddy, Jack, said, “That is a very specific word.”

A Story a Day: Month Seven

For this month, I chose to focus on Creative Nonfiction stories. As with the previous six months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along!

  1. “Writing Memoir and Writing for Therapy” by Tara DaPra
  2. “Tell It Even More Slant” by Brenda Miller
  3. “Tiny Truths” – from CNF, who “challenged writers to tell a story in a single tweet.”
  4. “Introduction: On Staying at Home” by William Atkins
  5. “The Steepest Places: In the Cordillera Central” by Ben Mauk
  6. “Tala Zone” by Pascale Petit
  7. “Confluences” by Kate Harris
  8. “A Hunger” by Fran Lock
  9. “The Sum of Life’s Troubles Makes a Whole Damn Dish” by Nuraliah Norasid
  10. “A Series of Rooms Occupied by Ghislaine Maxwell” by Chris Dennis
  11. “Confusion of Tongues” by Fernanda Melchor (Translated by Sophie Hughes)
  12. “Tiki Girl” by Amanda Lee Koe
  13. “The Safe Zone” from Small Bodies of Water by Nina Mingya Powles
  14. “What’s in a Name?” by Victoria Princewill
  15. “A Bleed of Blue” by Amy Key
  16. “Bleak Midwinter” by Catherine Taylor
  17. “Breast or Tooth” by Tishani Doshi
  18. “On Mistaking Whales” by Bathsheba Demuth
  19. “On Running” by Larissa Pham
  20. “Mr Brown, Ms White and Ms Black” by Kei Miller
  21. “Pipe Dream” by Joni Renee Whitworth
  22. “The Geographical Cure” by JP Gritton
  23. “Domestic Coffee” by Rachel Purdy
  24. “The Coyote’s Dance” by Austin Gilkeson
  25. “Of Floods and Ruination” by Amy Lee Scott
  26. “F*ck ‘90s Nostalgia” by Vanessa Veselka
  27. “Master Sauce” by Grace Hwang Lynch
  28. “Her Tattoo is My Name & My Name is a Poem” by Amy Lam
  29. “Punch Line” by Molly Tolsky (CW: suicide)
  30. “This Truth About Chaos” by John Freeman
  31. “Resident” by Elizabeth Miller-Reyes

A Story a Day: Midway

Six months.

181 stories.

667,814 words.

To be honest, I’m a little surprised that I’ve managed to keep going this long without missing a single day. (Full disclosure, I came close once – had gone to bed and was drifting to sleep when I remembered I hadn’t read it yet. I grabbed my phone to read it and finished the story at 11:58 p.m.) I usually read them in the morning while I eat breakfast and drink my coffee, though there have been a few days where I’ve had to roll out of bed and hit the road or there’s something else that requires my attention.

I will say that I haven’t loved every story I’ve read – but that’s not the point. None of us will love everything we read. The goal was to read new stories, experience new authors. And the important thing is that I have learned something from each story. Some of them have even given me ideas for stories I’d like to write (if only I had the time).

The best part? The slow mornings. I mentioned in a post early in the challenge that a change for me during this pandemic is a slow morning. No more turning off the alarm clock and jumping right into work. (Another bit of full disclosure – I’m not a morning person. This doesn’t mean that I’m not productive in the mornings. More so – I’m just not ready to interact with people first thing. There is a “no one calls Ami before 9 a.m. rule in my family” for this very reason. To be fair, my sister would call at 6 a.m. on her way to work because she was bored on her drive.) Before, mornings were something to get through until I was ‘fully awake.’

Now they are something to enjoy. Breakfast. Coffee. Story. I’m going to be sad when the year is over – but I’m not sure I will re-up the challenge for next year. It’s a lot of work to track down and schedule stories. But I will keep the slowness. Perhaps read a chapter in my current book or something along those lines. Only time can tell – and I’ve got sick more months of stories to read first.

My favorite story so far is still “Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu – the story I read way back on January 14.

I’m Definitely on Some Lists

I recently sent an email to the police department in Madison, WI (USA). After I hit send, my first thought was…this is going to land me on a list. [strained smile]

I sent a request to the South District Office in the hopes that they might allow for a tour of their facilities – as I had just decided I wanted this district to be the location of a mystery I have been thinking about for some time and recently started writing. My MC will be a detective who has just transferred to this district. As with all my writing (aside from the YA SFF), the locations are real places, and I want them to all feel real – so that someone who has been there feels it’s authentic.

Understandably, it turns out they don’t give public tours, but the Lieutenant who responded offered to answer questions. I did send a list to her, and, again, my first thought…I’m going to land on a list or two with these… [laughs uncomfortably] She was kind in her responses, and they even gave me an idea of how to make the story work. Can’t wait to add her name to the acknowledgements. 🙂

This got me thinking, though, about that meme that goes around in various iterations – where a writer’s search history gets flagged. For my YA, I had to look up how much damage a pipe bomb causes, as well as how to make certain weapons (thankfully, since it’s SF, they aren’t weapons that work in real life). For this mystery, I’ve looked up various things about causes of death – and there will be many more searches that involve bodies and burial and blood splatters and whatnot. (Perhaps whoever might see my flagged search history will see this and realize, oh, she’s a writer!)

Thankfully, my other books/WIPs have had me looking up history and restaurants and Italian translations. 😛

Have you had to look up anything for your writing that has certainly landed you on a list or two?

“On today’s episode of Adventures in Homeownership…”

I’ve been a homeowner for a little under eight years. During that time, I’ve learned a lot about replacing sump pumps (and everything that goes with them). I’ve come downstairs and, half-asleep, stepped into a giant puddle in my kitchen and learned all about broken water lines leading to refrigerators. I’ve learned how to replace things like a garbage disposal and a kitchen sink faucet – and how to improvise some fairly impressive strings of curse words in the process.

This week in homeownership, I’m learning the intricacies of making an insurance claim regarding a tree that had a bad night and is requiring the assistance of my house to hold it upright. We had a rather wicked storm rip through our entire state on Wednesday night (multiple tornados touched down; straight-line winds up to 80 mph). I thought I managed to get through unscathed – went to bed with my power still on, and from what I could see, there were only branches down in my yard.

Just my house lending a helping hand. Or…roof.

Cut to waking up at 3:30 a.m. to discover my power had indeed gone out. And then, once the sun came up, I discovered that poor tree. I feel incredibly fortunate that I am ok and that all of my people are accounted for and safe (though really wishing I hadn’t had that grocery pickup Wednesday morning…).

I’d also be ok going a few months without learning anything new in the realm of homeownership…

Come Sniff Books with Lynda Barry

reposted from my work with UntitledTown

I have a confession. In 2009, I didn’t know who Lynda Barry was – I had yet to be introduced to her work. But I was back in Green Bay, a year out of grad school, and desperate to once again be surrounded by writers and artists. So when it was brought to my attention that the nationally renowned cartoonist was giving a creativity workshop at UWGB, and I discovered that I was able to nab a spot as a UWGB alumna, I jumped at the opportunity. And I’m forever grateful (if for no other reason than finding another book-sniffing kindred spirit).

Though she was born in Richland Center, WI, Barry spent most of her life in Seattle. Known as the class cartoonist, Barry met the same challenge many of us likely have – a parent who didn’t understand our love of books or writing or creating – and insisted that we instead get a “good steady job.” Also like many of us, she didn’t listen. 

If you learn nothing else from Lynda Barry, learn that. 

While attending school at Evergreen State College, the editor of her school newspaper put out a call stating that he would “print anything that anyone submitted” – and Barry rose to the challenge, attempting to push the envelope as far as she could, trying to come up with things that she was certain they wouldn’t publish. Barry even submitted the cartoons by sliding them under the office door at night and with the pseudonym Ernie Pook (the comic series that would later also feature Arna, Arnold, Freddie, and Marlys). True to his word, though, the editor printed them.

The editor of that college paper? Matt Groening. (Yep, that Groening, of Simpsons fame.)

At the age of twenty-three, Barry’s career took off thanks again to one Matt Groening. When writing about West Coast artists, Groening included his former classmate and friend. This gained the attention of the Chicago Reader, the first to pick up her comic – which would go on to appear in over fifty alternative weeklies, running for almost thirty years. 

Along with publishing collections of her comics, Barry has written two illustrated novels, Cruddy and The Good Times are Killing Me (which she also adapted into an off-Broadway play), as well as three books about the creative process, including Syllabus: Notes From an Accidental Professor.

As though an extensive publishing career isn’t impressive enough, Barry has also been teaching since she was twenty five – her students over the years ranging from children to adults. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at UW-Madison and travels the country conducting workshops, such as the one I attended at UWGB in 2009.

As a teacher, Lynda Barry isn’t interested in theory or critique – she’s interested in where ideas come from and in helping people find their own creativity. She makes it clear that her workshops work especially well for non-writers. “‘Kids don’t plan to play…They don’t go: Barbie, Ken, you ready to play? It’s gonna be a three-act.’ Narrative, Barry believes, is so hard-wired into human beings that creativity can come as naturally to adults as it does to children. They need only to access the deep part of the brain that controls that storytelling instinct” (NY Times).

Her best piece of advice? She won’t let her students “reread their writing until the entire course has concluded. ‘While you’re writing, you’re having this experience,’ Barry explained. ‘But when you read it, all you can think about is, Is my baby defective?’ Sometimes, she said, babies just need time to open their eyes” (NY Times). I saw this in practice when during her workshop, she asked for volunteers to read pieces of their drafts out loud. She called on folks one at a time – each time coming to their side, dropping to her knees so that she could listen closely, and then always giving small words of encouragement when they were done reading. The pieces, which were works in progress, were not being critiqued – praise was given simply for the act of creating.

Be sure to follow Lynda Barry on Instagram and Twitter, and check out her INKtalk.

Lifelong Learner

I love being a student. I can’t say I have always loved school, but I’ve always loved learning from people. One of the perks of being a college professor is that I get a tuition waiver at my school (we still pay fees, and if we audit, it’s another hundred bucks – but still well worth it in my eyes).

So when I started pre-writing (i.e. outlining and completing character questionnaires) for a murder/mystery I’ve been thinking about for a bit now, I couldn’t help but think – I know there’s a course for that. I’ve always loved detective procedurals on TV (Bones, Brooklyn 99, Lucifer, NCIS, Rizzoli and Isles, and White Collar), but I never know how much is reality and how much is to fit into the allotted time slot.

And I want this story to be as authentic as possible. Enter: Criminal Investigation. This will be the first of three courses I plan to take over the next three semesters, starting with this summer session. I’ve opted to audit mostly to take the pressure off (I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to grades…leftover expectations from my K12 years; I also have significant testing anxiety – looking at you standardized tests.) With auditing, I have access to the class, the material, and the professor – without the added pressure of worrying about my grade. I can learn for the sake of learning.

This class, which started Tuesday, is an eight-week course (accelerated to fit the summer session – it would usually be sixteen weeks, so we’ll be moving quickly). It will run the same time as my own courses that I’m teaching, too – so another reason to take a little pressure off. During this course, I’ll get to learn the “principles, procedures, and techniques” of investigation, as well as how activities are coordinated, the responsibilities of the investigator, and case preparation. I have no doubt this will be an excellent foundation to make sure I can “get it right.” Or, at least, to get it to be as authentic as I possibly can.

Plus I get to be a student again. (My last course for fun was back in 2013 – it’s definitely time!)

A Story a Day: Month Six

For this month, I chose stories from web exclusives and archives of Fairy Tale Review, which is an “annual literary journal dedicated to publishing new fairy tales and to helping raise public awareness of fairy tales as a diverse, innovative art form.” As with the previous five months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along!

  1. “The Listening Tree” by Micah Dean Hicks
  2. “Genie in Pieces” by Claire Hero
  3. “Avenue” by Sharma Shields
  4. “Of Humankind” Miriam Bird Greenberg
  5. “Homecoming” by Molly Fessler
  6. “In Which Hansel is Gretel and Gretel is Hansel” by Brandi Wells
  7. “Planting Petals” by Kristi DeMeester
  8. “The Robe” by Katherine Kim
  9. “Garden” Matt Morgenstern
  10. “Salamandrine, My Kid” by Joyelle McSweeney
  11. “Coven” by Anna Cabe
  12. “Small Animal” by Aurelie Sheehan
  13. “The Lemon Tree” by Ben Loory
  14. “Magenta” by Molly Gutman
  15. “The Seed and The Stone” by Julian K. Jarboe
  16. “a disappearance beside the yatsushiro sea” by Kiik A-K
  17. “Sleeping Beauty’s Daughter” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
  18. “No Girls Allowed” by Anne Valente
  19. “Oyster” by Inez Tan
  20. “Juniper” by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
  21. “Gifts from the Sea” by Naoko Awa (Translated by Toshiya Kamei)
  22. “The Girl, the Wolf, the Crone” by Kellie Wells
  23. “Blue Funk” by Rikki Ducornet
  24. “The Season of Daughters” by Zachary Doss
  25. “Family: A Fairy Tale” by Ira Sukrungruang
  26. “The Peach Boy” by Sequoia Nagamatsu
  27. “Appleless” by Aimee Bender
  28. “Wolf Lessons” by Wren Awry
  29. “Suddenly” by Carmen Giménex Smith
  30. “Brother and Sister” by Elise Winn