RWA Nat'l Conference and Book covers

First off, I want to say Congratulations to all of the 2012 Golden Heart and RITA Winners from the Romance Writers of America national conference. I’ve enjoyed reading the updates you all posted on Twitter and Facebook. Hope you all have a safe trip home.

Here’s the list of all the winners. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with both Elisa Beatty and Darynda Jones in online chat rooms during the Winter Writing Festival sponsored by the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood, which they are both a part of.  I’m super excited for them both!

Here’s Alexandra Sokoloff’s take on this year’s conference.

This week has been a little intense. I’ve finally finished the first serious edit on the second book of the trilogy. I’m going to let it sit during August while I work on the third book. I’ve also been playing around with cover designs. I have a whole new respect for graphic artists. I’ve gotten several headaches trying to figure this stuff out on my own. I’ve read several articles that have helped and a friend has been giving me some excellent advice. Now I just have to figure out what look I want for these three books.

Of course, right as I start trying to figure out what I want for my covers, articles and posts have popped up about the hazards of using internet images. I’ve decided to use images of my own so I don’t have to worry about either obtaining or reobtaining the rights or an image sold after I obtained the rights to it. It will take some time and tweaking, but I think I can get it accomplished, it will just take some time and energy and lots and lots of Advil! lol

And I’ve signed up for the August session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I figure that’s the best and fastest way to get the third book completed. Yes, it will just be the first draft, but it will be there to improve. Right now, I don’t have anything written. The story has been stewing for the last two weeks.

I’ve been doing research for another book. I’ve learned quite a bit about the city of Chicago. Things I never thought were tied to that city. George Pullman, Michael Finn – the man they named the drink Mickey Finn after. Now I know the story of how the phrase “slip them a Mickey” started. I’m excited to continue the research. This book is slowly forming, but I’m still not sure exactly what path it will take. Hopefully with a little more knowledge about the history of Chicago, the characters will take over and help flesh out the story.

Sorry for the short post. Too many things going and trying to get back to them. Once I get the covers figured out, I’ll share them here with you.  Have a great week readers!

Melanie

About these ads