I’ve spent the last three hours or so completely redesigning my cover for “To Be a Monster,” which will be in the Beneath the Waves bundle. My story is told from the viewpoint of Scylla, one of the many innocents who were unjustly turned into monsters in Greek mythology. My original cover idea used a photo of an ancient mosaic depicting a sea monster grabbing a man, which fit the story perfectly, but it was just okay as a cover. Yesterday I decided to scrap what I’d done and start fresh.

Coming up with the new design took a little time, but it was nothing compared to the hours I then spent adjusting the colors and fiddling with the font to get it to display better in a thumbnail on Facebook. It looks fine in the same size in Photoshop, so I can only assume Facebook does something to the image on upload. I do think the color and font changes I made improved the cover, but at this point I’m ready to call it good and just assume that most people won’t be looking at it in a thumbnail size on Facebook. 🙂 I’ll take another look in a few days, but wow, did that take forever!

My last cover, which took significantly less time to design, is for “The Switch,” a short story that will appear in a bundle that launches near the end of June. Edith, the protagonist in “The Switch,” is a seventy-some-year-old woman who is about to commit her first crime ever.

Speaking of crime, I’m starting a class on writing mysteries next week. I’ve been working on improving both my time management and scheduling time to relax (the latter seems crazy, but I’m trying to fit it in nonetheless), so I’m not sure how wise it is to start a 6-week class… But I’m doing it anyway!

In other news, I’ve decided to turn The Faerie Summer into the first volume in a faery-themed series. Issue #2 will be released in December; the theme is faeries and midwinter (also known as the winter solstice, at least in the Northern Hemisphere). Issue #3 is scheduled for April 2018; its theme is faery paths and passageways. The plan is to release three volumes each year.

And because that wasn’t enough, I’m organizing a bundle series of fairy tales! Some will be retellings; some will be new stories with a fairy tale feel. Right now the plan is for three volumes, but if there’s enough interest this could be extended.

It can be a little confusing to talk about both faery stories and fairy tales (which is part of why I’m using the different spellings). I’m working on naming each series, so things should be a little easier once that’s done. I hope. 🙂