We Don’t Talk About Covers

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Covers are a funny thing, you know. And by that I don’t mean funny ah ah.

It’s one thing to do a cover for another person. I only really need a blurb, pick out central elements and mood, and I very very rarely go wrong.

But for me, it gets complicated. Usually it gets complicated because whatever I’m using to do covers can’t do what I wanted. I had Musketeer problems until AI got good enough to do Musketeers.

And the clanker has real issues with Ellyans, because, well, if it gets them right our hypersensitized eyes see “trans.” And that on a cover would not be really good to sell. Not for me, at least. Besides having the major problem that the people who bought it for the cover would really, really hate it with a burning passion.

So I had a cover and I was happy with it. It conveyed the duality of the worlds, and while Brundar (the Ellyan) looked a little odd, it wasn’t wrong.

And then Dan hated it. So I tried to do another figure….

Look, We Don’t Talk About Covers.

They looked okay before I uploaded them, and then I wanted to claw my eyes out because after processing by Amazon and in thumbnail, they looked horrible.

I should explain, lest you think it’s ignorance that I was DELIBERATELY going for a late seventies early eighties feel to the cover. This came about while talking to Foxfier and Holly F. who were my unwilling cover sounding board.

I had come up with more modern covers, but they either gave the feeling of “mil sf” which it ain’t or “YA sf” which it CERTAINLY ain’t.

So the two juvenile delinquents (look, they’re in their forties) said “the problem is that nothing like this has been published since the early eighties.

And my brain flicked. The unofficial name for this cover is “That seventies cover.” It’s not ideal, nothing is, but it’s the best I could do for the feel. (The cover before last of the alternates was ALMOST perfect, except all the colors were too dark and believe it or not that immediately gives the feel the book also is “dark.” So.)

If it sells really well, there will be an artsy cover, probably centering on a hand holding the power ruby, and there will be interior illustrations too. BUT that’s if it sells really well.

So, we don’t talk about covers…. And last night, just before the gate clanked shut, I looked at the covers on the side of the site, because my web person hasn’t been able to change it (Because I kept changing them. some lasted hours) and realized I still like it best of all. So were back to the first cover, and we don’t talk about covers.!

Meanwhile, of course, on Sunday as I was trying to figure out how to do a promo push (do you see a promo push? I don’t see a promo push!

Yeah, I gave it to a bunch of people with blogs, and hoped– But that’s fine. if people don’t like it, they don’t like it.

I know some are still reading, and a couple got back to me with “wow, just wow.” Which is highly gratifying. But I still don’t know how to do promo.

I’ve done very strange little videos, and some even capture the dual nature of the critters.

Like this one, of Nikre Lyto, Archmagician in waiting. (Can’t remember if I’ve shared before.)










Most of them, though are just… odd. Midge has the certainty that what you really really want is a sword. or at least it does that in MY videos. “Nice family breakfast!” “Why did someone pull excalibur out of their pocket and brandish with intent? But anyway….

I found Uncle Lar’s blurb for No Man’s Land (it really is just a blurb) and since I’m all out of crying I can do it now:



It’s an open secret that I do beta reads, copy edits, and some subject matter research for a small cadre of indie authors.
Mostly SF, but I’m a pushover so western and even Regency romances have been slipped in front of my red pen for a quick scrub.
So when Sarah asked me to take a look at her latest of course I agreed as I always have since millenia ago when she first delved into independent publishing.
I am not writing this bit for her fans or those long time readers of her works. All y’all already know what you’re getting. This is for the readers looking to pick something interesting up by an unfamiliar author. My message is simple, dive in and stick with it. First ten pages or so I felt like walling the thing out of frustration. Things were not adding up. By a quarter through I was disgusted with myself for failing to properly appreciate her skills in foreshadowing and the planting of suggestions that would take full flower later in the tale.
Now done I’ve gone back and reread the first several chapters just to chastise myself for missing so very many hints.
Sarah tells me she was inspired to write this in response to Left Hand of Darkness, and that certainly makes sense, but for me I caught a definite whiff of Keith Laumer’s Retief stories.
A word of general caution, even though my review copy clocks in at 275 pages do not expect everything to be wrapped up in a bow and settled. The title is after all No Man Volume 1.
My recommendation, buckle up, dive in, and enjoy the ride.


Larry A. Bauer
aka Uncle Lar

I’m going to miss him terribly, and can’t believe this is the last book in which he’ll be in acknowledgements. Maybe Mom has found him and is trying to organize him. (For some reason the idea amuses me, even though it would drive him to distraction.)

Anyway, when I got word mom died, I’d just discovered (via my kid) a site where I could put lyrics and it wrote music and “sang” it for me.

I don’t know if it was finding it out right then, but I got stuck writing lyrics and putting them to music and having AI sing it to me. Every style from sea shanty (son’s favorite) to Celtic metal. I might not be totally sane just now.

Anyway, I am going to share, but you’re not obligated to hear them. Mostly I’m doing this post today because it’s easy and because I am starting to stress over not doing promo.

So, I started with songs FROM Elly, two of which are quoted in the book. The first one is their culture hero story (Amissar (Missa) Mahar.) Or as Foxfier calls it “the cowboy murder suicide song.” (I honestly don’t know why cowboy.) It sounds subtly “off” because it’s of course a translation. And though their voices run the gamut don’t for the love of your sanity imagine this sung by a male.

Oh, for those not having seen that, Elly is populated by humans genetically modified to be hermaphrodites. It is the longest waiting book in my head, as it appeared there when i was 14 because I read Left Hand of Darkness and decided I could do better. I couldn’t, of course, but the irritation the book sparked led to this world and to my learning to write.

It’s in two parts, because it is in two parts, though usually sung together in Elly.

Missa’s Confession.

Missa’s Lament.

Another song, in volume 2 is Master of Illusion, so of course, I did it too: Master of Illusion. (Eighth circles are … um… the lowest power in the brotherhood of magicians, but also they have a knack for people and creating illusions and have a reputation.)

And for a palate cleanser, this doesn’t appear in the book (other songs do) but it will appear in book two, and it’s a parent singing to his future eighth circle child. Because eighth circle’s have a reputation, they’re called “snakes” which they tend to embrace, though not complimentary. So this is: The Snake’s Lullaby.

But then I got caught in making …. well music to advertise the book. Something might come from it…. or not.

Anyway, lookit (They all have slightly different lyrics. Lyrics mine, the rest AI with some… okay a lot of direction “I created a monster” quoth younger son.):

The Ballad of Skip Hayden.

The Ballad of Skip Hayden — Power Celtic Metal version.

I did a lot others. How many? Well, younger son likes sea shanties and…

HOWEVER I’ll just share two more. Dan’s favorite: Skip Hayden Goes Kpop.

And mine: Skip Hayden’s No Man’s Land.

So, yeah, I’m done with that now, before it becomes “We don’t talk about songs.”

If you want to read the first chapters of the first book, it’s on my website which is mostly unbuilt, but hey. And you get to see the problem with covers, since it has the second cover we came up with: https://www.sarahahoyt.com/shrodinger-worlds/

Anyway, all this was in the name of promoting, so I’ll end in a link, and I promise to have a real post tomorrow when hopefully I’ll write something other than… lyrics? What even?

No Man’s Land: Volume 1 (Chronicles of Lost Elly)

Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.

On a lost colony world, mad geneticists thought they could eliminate inequality by making everyone hermaphrodite. They were wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Now technology indistinguishable from magic courses through the veins of the inhabitants, making their barbaric civilization survivable—and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden, Viscount Webson, Envoy of the Star Empire—Skip to his friends— has just crash-landed through a time-space rift into the middle of it all.
Dodging assassins and plummeting from high windows was just the beginning. With a desperate king and an archmagician as his only allies, Scipio must outrun death itself while battling beasts, traitors, and infiltrators bent on finishing what the founders started: total destruction.
Two worlds. One chance. No time to lose.

Volume 1
The Ambassador Corps has rules: you cannot know everything, don’t get horizontal with the natives, don’t make promises you can’t keep.
They’re a lot harder to follow when assassins are hunting you, your barbarian allies could kill you for the wrong word, and death lurks around every corner.
The unwritten rule? Never identify with the natives.
Skip’s already broken that one.
Now he’s racing against time to save his new friends from slavery—or worse—while dodging energy blasts and political intrigue. One crash-landed diplomat. A world of deadly secrets. And absolutely no backup.

Some rules are meant to be broken. Others will get you killed.

137 thoughts on “We Don’t Talk About Covers”

  1. I got to “Maybe Mom’s trying to organize him,” and thought about what one of us said when my momma died. Someone said Daddy met with her a Snickers (her favorite candy bar); some changed it to a box of Snickers.

    Gotta go; sorry.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I have no idea how you should promote No Man’s Land, but then I’m the self proclaimed King of Bad Marketing™, so not surprising. I don’t see how you can say anything about it being set in a planet of hermaphrodites without screaming, “Woke!!!” to both your fans and those who would be your detractors. Your name on the book is enough for your fans to just be skeptical, but I think not for the casual reader.

    I’m a bad person because I’ve only read the first 3 chapters in the e-arc because I’ve been so busy finishing and trying to promote my first novel, but things should get calmer for me now.

    As to your songs, I listened to Missa’s Confession, but am put off by the tool that insists I MUST sign up (for free of course). I’m sure it’s fine, but it’s too early in the morning out here for me to make decisions that involve potential cyber security issues, so I’m putting off listening to the rest of the songs, but I am intrigued.

    Liked by 2 people

    4. I don’t see how you can say anything about it being set in a planet of hermaphrodites without screaming, “Woke!!!” to both your fans and those who would be your detractors. 

      In my mind the fact that she used the word “hermaphrodite” to describe them is enough to signal that it’s less likely to be woke.

      As far as I know that’s one of the Bad Old Words Which Good (Woke) People Do Not Use To Describe.

      And getting that information out in front is far better than springing it on the reader as a surprise.

      Liked by 2 people

          1. How about “quantum superposition of states”? That would even fit in with as underlying conceit of the story, the “Schroedingers”.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. All of the above, and… there’s already at least one well-known counterexample to the “can’t say anything about… hermaphodites without screaming ‘woke!’!” idea. In 5 words:

        Bel Thorne. From Beta Colony.

        Maybe there are some who’d say Lois McMaster Bujold is tolerably ‘woke’ but… huh?!?

        Liked by 2 people

  7. /scratches head

    Yeah, I can’t tell what the gender is of the white-haired alien on the right side of the cover, so it must be a hermaphrodite.

    A hermaphrodite with big teeth and claws.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Next time you see Sarah at a convention or something, get her tipsy enough to tell you the abject monsters that the Clanker came up with when she was trying to get it to show her Skip fighting the horrible man-bear.

      It kept insisting the, ahem, one-on-one was not so much combat.

      Liked by 2 people

  8. The Celtic Metal version of No Man’s Land – O.M.G. I now have to listen to all the other songs. I wonder what Tolkien would have done with such a tool? (Possibilities include running screaming in horror from the very thought of it.)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. This is why people who say AI destroys creativity are wrong. Give the tools to a creative and we have so much fun. Probably not good for us, but SO MUCH FUN.
      Um…. You probably want the Pirate Shanty and the tavern song too?
      https://suno.com/s/n2edvGyZgGxxjOBU

      https://suno.com/s/kXkFCaEchX0fTKYM

      There’s more variations on the Celtic version. I love them, but Dan found them baffling.

      https://suno.com/s/IMwkRwzJXUoJcNH8

      I told him we’re all wrong, my honey and I. He loves kpop, I bop to Sabaton while writing. But we fit….

      Like

      1. I can’t bring myself to pay money for Suno but it is so much fun when I am in the mood to play with it. I’ve inflicted some settings of Kipling on your readership here, from time to time, but I’ve also played with Beowulf, Longfellow, Bisclavret, Elizabeth Anne Siddons, Thomas Beddoes, Robert Browning, Edgar Allan Poe and some Star Wars dialogue I’m not gonna credit to George or his wife’s scriptwriter buddies because the actor saying the lines tended to rewrite his material. Oh, yeah, and an extremely abbreviated version of Ballad of the White Horse.

        Guys, seriously, if you like the music Sarah linked to and have a Discord account that you are comfortable linking to an outside website, give Suno a shot. Mucho entertainment value, even on the free plan, and pretty good transparency as to what free users can and can’t do (*is still salty about Claude AI randomly not talking to me on the free plan after last night’s fanfic marathon).

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Suno is responsible for the banger songs about Tectone, Nuxanor, etc. on the Menace Crew and associated videos. (The channel is called Don P. Bongwater, and fair warning that the videos are both funny and NSFW.) He did a demonstration of his attempt to do a James Bond-like theme song, with various moods and instrumentation, and most of them came out very well.

          Liked by 2 people

      2. Listening to the Celtic metal version, I kept imaging how it would sound with Joakim Brodén doing the vocals.

        Kpop doesn’t work for me. No. Just no. :)

        Liked by 1 person

        1. So much for spelling. Imagining.

          [Weird thought; Sabaton has done songs for a couple-three games. You think they might like a crack at Skip’s ballad or similar?]

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Even priors o SAH commenting on listening to Sabaton, they were the band that I was imagining listening to with the Celtic Metal version.

            All we need is for the offspring of Sabaton (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) to do one and we can have the ultimate sub-genre: Heavy Metal Christmas Ellyrian Art Rock. Fireworks mandatory.

            Liked by 5 people

        2. I (and my family) love the Korean BBQ places with the grills in the table, and you grill it up ourself right then and there. Every one of them near me has a Youtube K-Pop channel playing on the screens, which are sometimes sutitled in English. The K-Pop boy bands doning a variation of gangsta rap is along the lines of MST3000 absurdity. The K-Pop girl bands all pretty much look alike as adorably sweet waifs (not too different from any other culture’s girl pop bands, I think). The girl bands are impressive for the sheer number of costume changes in a 3 minute video. The music, well, it’s pop.

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            1. I’m sure you’ve at least tangentially heard of Kpop Demon Hunters, the movie aimed at the pre-teen and geek-teen crowd. There’s one song in there, “Soda Pop”, which is exactly as bubbly and fizzy as you’d expect from the title…

              … and deeply creepy in context. Between that and the penultimate perfect villain song, the lyricists really knew how to utilize “I will tell you exactly what my evil plan is and you’ll love me for it because I sing it so well.”

              Liked by 1 person

              1. I’m old enough to remember, WAAAAY too vividly, one of the true progenitors of the Bubblegum Pop genre – “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies. It had it all, and back then you had no alternatives other than the AM radio stations to listen to music. Dozens of weeks at #1 on the charts, so multiple plays per hour. I think that period of time turned me into a prog/art rock fan.

                Liked by 2 people

      3. AI destroys the creativity of the lazy. And the thinking processes of the lazy. You’ll note a commonality there.

        Mind you, I have ethical objections to LLMs due to their training data sets, but the tool is not the issue. The issue is the get-rich-quick (off of other people’s work) types, and the cheat-my-way-to-a-degree types. Which have always been with us. It’s not the tool, it’s the tools who use it.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Oh, my. Literally LOL to the Sea Chantey one, but only in the best of ways. You can’t properly even call this “guerrila marketing” because it’s both a halfway-decent chantey in itself and also a good synopsis of the story (at least as I’ve read in bits and snippets so far). Yes!

        It’s also a bit flashback-inducing, also in a very good way, because the opening scene of one of my “Daughter World” stories (interstellar Gates used to populate planets with the endangered, ought-to-be-dead, and simply kidnapped, see assorted vignettes) features one character singing what he thinks are ‘authentic sea chanteys’ to another (third-person viewpoint) who’s from the very nautical planet of New Albion and knows the difference: “Every tin-shilling, brass-sovereign one of them.”

        Ought to get back to that one, too.

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Try The Ballad as a fiddle tune, without the shouting. Instead, double for emphasis (“the Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost”). Change of vocal tone in each section.

        Missa’s Confession and Lament as chanted dirges with changes on the repeated lines, drive provided by the sung meter. That’s what I heard when I read it.

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        1. I know this is a new area, generating songs to pair with the story, but I propose we treat this as fanfic. If you have a version you hear in your head, take the lyrics and play with sumo yourself, and don’t tell the author because authors maintain a separation from the fanfic generated by fans.

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          1. It isn’t a fiddle tune, because they don’t HAVE fiddles. and Missa’s confession/lament is played at their equivalent of weddings. It certainly isn’t a dirge.

            Like

    2. “What would the Tolkien songs sound like?” was my first thought, too.

      What a fun idea. Very much not my wheelhouse (I tend to dislike songs in books), but excellently done.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. OK, I’ve changed my mind. I can recommend how you can promote No Man’s Land. Just find a way to post these songs. Download them. Put them on your cloud-sharing space and post links to them. They’ll sell the books better than anything I can think of. Of course I’m Irish, so maybe that helps. ;)

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Dan thinks so too. It will work by next week.
      Look, it’s not so dire as that. The woke won’t buy me. The people who give it a chance will find that it is, as Jasini put it “Weirdly wholesome.” (It is, really. I won’t say the only sex is married sex, but it’s “As as well as.” And it’s NOT on screen.) Mostly I just went nutty on the culture.
      Once there are some comments people will be less gun shy. But that’s why I was hoping for early reviews. I forgot it is a massive book.
      We want to do videos. Younger son and his beautiful wife are helping me find software to make it work. We’re going to do two sets “Songs of Elly” which are their traditional songs. And “Songs about no man’s land.”

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I promise, I’ll get to work on reading the e-arcs. Of course, my writer’s gremlin has me in it’s grip again because Raonteur Press has an upcoming anthology called Bourbon and Lead and the gremlin won’t let me pass up trying to do to San Diego what Raymond Chandler did for LA. Another day or two, and I should have something suitable, but I’m on the e-arcs, I really, really mean it. :)

        Liked by 2 people

          1. Well, yes, it fit.

            I also want to say that I *really* liked the bookends. I wasn’t sure how to fit that in my review, since I didn’t want to give too much away.

            Liked by 2 people

      4. Well, the “This is not a plan” Warhammer filk guy got his songs on Spotify- maybe you could upload them, too.

        It looks like you need a distributor to upload, and they’ve got a list with one-year subs like $25.

        ….yes it’s basically a stunt, but $25 for promo isn’t bad.

        Liked by 2 people

          1. Until/unless we meet “actual” intelligent, non-terrestrial aliens, seriously gene-modified humans are likely going to be as alien as it gets for us. (Assuming the latter ever happens, of course.)

            And see, naturally enough, “uncanny valley effect” — those LovableTentacled Monstrosities might even be less alien to us “baseline” humans than our somewhat-variant closer cousins…

            Liked by 2 people

              1. Given the (lack of) available information I neither believe nor disbelieve in non-terrestrial (etc.) life… which agnosticism apparently is enough for my inner muse/gateway/etc. to not exclude such. On the one hand, it seems madly us-centric to imagine we’re anything like unique.

                On the other hand, is the Fermi Paradox and all its supporting data, which suggests the very, very awesome possibility that we, at least we-of-Earth and we humans respectively, might be As Good As It Gets — in the Solar System, our stellar neighborhood, our spiral arm, our Galaxy, or wider.

                Which is scary indeed, and in a very unusual way. No pressure, right?

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            2. We already have millions of gene-modified humans thanks to the COVID debacle. Damn government. The unethical, immoral, and frankly illegal Tuskegee Syphilis experiment was a trial run that we all should have learned from. They went from just racist, to full on attack against all of us.

              And we have no idea what the multi-generational fall out of that is going to be.

              Liked by 1 person

    1. I had NO IDEA they existed either. Having had kids was definitely my best ever decision. They discover this stuff and give it to me.
      Though I’ll point out younger son is definitely going “I created a monster.”

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Kids have to be careful what they introduce to their parents.

        A former boss who was previously high up at CBS records, when I asserted the genre died off because most of the music just sucked, said that the internal music industry conclusion was the one factor that killed sales of disco records was that the target youth demographic’s parents started listening to it.

        Liked by 1 person

  12. The Ballad of Skip Hayden — Power Celtic Metal version reminds me of Dragonforce. Which to me is a good thing. (featured in one those Ringo books)

    Me Likey

    Liked by 2 people

  13. It’s not a question of liking or disliking, sometimes it’s something else. It can even be as lame as not finishing the comic. Because life.

    FWIW, I was surprised that anyone could write a cozy Left Hand of Darkness hard anthropological SF story (The bits where Ransom is just living with Hrossa are hands-down my favorite). Happily gobsmacked, would recommend.

    The ending, just the coda really, however disturbed me. Still going back and forth on that one. But it doesn’t really change the review. It’s the talking house that’s delaying me.

    Like

    1. Ransom and the Hrossa (now there’s a weird name for a band) are from, Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. I’m so confused.

      Like

  14. In Skip Hayden’s No Man’s Land, there’s a misplaced T in the third verse. That is one of the problems with computer generation. A real singer would (probably) ask to clarify, rather than just sing what was in front of him.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I’ll wait. Std versions [1,2, &3] are in the to-be-delivered queue, and I’m up to my eyeballs in getting ready for the latest medical adventure* as well as trying to get the Gotta Do list done before weather gets serious (and before I’m off my feet for a while…).

        (*) Minor surgery on the other knee.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. They’re only spoilers because you know the story! I consider them referents to the story, if you already know it. I think that song stands quite well on its own, and for a NML virgin the song could be considered a teaser. I’m just wondering how to get these creations out there. Too bad I don’t know any college radio station DJs anymore – they’re the kind of thing that would be red meat to a truly edgy (as in truly independent) DJ. Also, college age kids would likely be quite receptive to the book(s).

        Liked by 2 people

        2. The college radio station of my youth (over 50 years ago) had plenty of room for freeform programming, ranging from Too Much Herbie Hancock through a Best of the BBC Goon Show, and including a 3 hour “Music to Read Science Fiction By”.

          A look at station Wxxx’s listings showed they went full NPR, except where “anything you can play, we can play woker” is the rule.

          I don’t know if satellite radio has anything like the old setup, but perhaps a podcast with songs and some commentary might work. A mention or three on Instapundit could start things.

          Liked by 1 person

  15. I am so glad I don’t need a picture to visualize them. I have a perfect image in my mind’s eye from your descriptions in the book. I know what they look like. At least to me. You may visualize them differently than I do, but that’s okay.

    But that’s just me. I am probably the only person in the world that finds illustrations in novels irritating because they don’t match my own mental vision of the scene.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. The AI generated songs don’t understand the spirit of the song, nor the content. (eg.”tear” is pronounced “teer” rather than “tare”.) Just being able to indicate meter (‘point’?) and resolve homonyms would go a long way, I think.

    There are a lot of hobbyist musicians singing at open mic events. It’s a shame you can’t find one with a conservative bent and let him loose on this.

    Oh, The Ballad of Skip deserves a style like Saboton’s, again with emphasis and timing driven by meaning. I think Missa’s story needs to be closer to chant, with much less instrumental decoration. The instruments should hold notes/chords across entire lines of verse, like pedal points.

    But what do I know?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Sure. This is a compromise. Actually Missa’s confession and lament are done in a style I think no one would like in our time and place. More like the old Roman songs.

      Like

    4. Sometimes with computer text readers (what we called ’em before they became ‘AI’) you can get better pronunciation by deliberately misspelling certain words, like using ‘tuff’ instead of ‘tough’.

      Like

      2. Way back, I had a TI99-4A with speech synthesizer. Wrote a short program that created “words” of variable length with random letters for Halloween. At times among the gibberish, there would be short phrases that almost seem to make sense.

        Like

        1. The first song on the new VNV Nation album is like that. I swear I hear some Latin liturgical phrases, because my ear says that’s what I should hear to that sort of music. No, there are no lyrics, but my brain fills in what ought to be there.

          Like

    5. About AI voices re tear and tare. I’ve found that sometimes it pays to misspell words, so they get pronounced correctly especially with homonyms. Our wonderful mutt of a language i soooo much fun!

      I still can’t make AI pronounce onomatopoeia realistically at all. Aaaargh! :(

      Like

  18. My dad passed away yesterday, btw. So if anyone was worrying about things coming in threes, it’s taken care of.

    It couldn’t have come quicker. He literally fell down dead.

    He was a good man. Please pray for him and for my family.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. I understand that. It’s been a really bad year for parents.
          I thought I’d have to mention it here, so you’d understand undue flakeyness.
          Though I NEVER thought it would end up being a musical insanity.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. “anyone was worrying about things coming in threes, it’s taken care of.“

            –

            Unfortunately the “in threes” I find is optimistic. Instead comes in waves.

            Liked by 1 person

    9. May you and all the family, friends, and all those concerned (be they fuzzy or not) be blessed with the constitution requisite to days you live in. May there be comfort in fellowship and in reconnection should there be those apart. May the lessons learned in loss strengthen you and may the kind words of those you meet be not forgotten.

      May there be joy in both memory and in life itself, not just bittersweet but honest. May your example be one that inspires others, even as you grieve.

      And may our lives bring honor to the memory of those that have gone before. Just as we feel inadequate at times compared to those we looked up to, so do others feel towards us, at times. May we all leave this life a legacy that makes the world a better place.

      Liked by 2 people

    18. Out of the depths I call to you, LORD; Lord, hear my cry!
      May your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
      If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand?
      But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered.

      I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and I hope for his word.
      My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak.
      More than sentinels for daybreak, let Israel hope in the LORD,
      For with the LORD is mercy, with him is plenteous redemption,
      And he will redeem Israel from all its sins.

      Liked by 2 people

  19. I have updated my blog with the correct image again.

    I hope you understand when I say that unless I look closely, the only difference between the covers that I notice is that sometimes he’s carrying a spear, and sometimes it’s a knife.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. Working on your guest-post. It took on a life of it’s own. Of course.

    In the meantime, here’s something I only discovered last night. Eric Johnson, Cliffs of Dover. It’ll kick over your toaster.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. As far as I can tell, personally speaking, the headlining illustration version of the “No Man’s Land” cover above is, if not the best of the lot, as good as any of them I’ve seen yet. Just my twopence.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. *sigh*

    I’m a bit jealous of those who have friends willing to read your drafts and offer suggestions.

    Most of my “friends” (which is a small, small number) are ESL (“English as a second language”) folks. They have a quite different set of interests in reading material than what I typically write. And even my family, when I sent them copies, said “You write books?”

    I’m not giving up; but I am looking for advice.

    My marketing skills are weak. I need to learn more of the right “writer’s kung fu” for this…

    Have a blessed weekend.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s not impossible that, if you asked for volunteers for first-readers, second-readers, etc. here, you might actually get a few takers. Some of us have been known to do copy editing / proofreading at some point in our lives, too.

      That’s something I’ve been considering; especially given how somewhat-frustrated writer friends are not always the best sounding-boards either. (With, e.g., the “urban” fantasy story that’s really as much or more a rural fantasy; or some of those suddenly do-able Ellie Maclachlan stories.)

      Regarding the not-outing-yourself problem, I will simply note that (for example), fully functional if not full-featured mail accounts at Proton Mail are free. (And Proton Drive, another integral part of the same package, lets you selectively share files easily.)

      Liked by 1 person

  25. ‘or “YA sf” which it CERTAINLY ain’t.’

    ——–

    From what I’ve heard, as far as many in the publishing industry are concerned these days, the only difference of note between YA and Adult is that the sex scenes in the former aren’t as graphic as the ones in the latter.

    Liked by 2 people

  26. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » SOME AUTHORS ARE SO BAD AT PUBLICITY THEY’RE ALMOST FUNNY….  We Don’t Talk About Covers.

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