Clover Autrey

I really enjoy playing around with Photoshop. I'm not an artist by any means and I seriously just know enough to cause myself trouble, but I think I have a half-way decent eye at finding the stock photos that will work. I mostly go for the model's expression on whether they capture the feeling I hope my book evokes.

This Christmas book is a first for me as it has no cover model. I wanted something that said "Christmas" with just a glance, but also "monsters" because for the life of me I cannot write a fluffy happy everything's harmonious and joyful story to save my life. I wanted a book where all the main characters from the first four Highland Sorcery novels got together to celebrate just being family all in one place...and as it happens, one time too, since they have all been traveling back and forth through time.

Well, I got them all together. *Clearing throat and ducking*. But it wasn't easy and they had one heck of a fight on their hands to get there. It basically goes: Toren and Charity's son is in danger (in two time lines), they kill the monsters, so yeah, let's have Christmas now.

Best freakin plot ever, right? Brings all sorts of Holiday cheer. In case you're wondering, that squishy sound is my eyes rolling.

Back to the cover:

I started out searching for something Christmasy: Loved this picture because the ornaments have a kind of Scottish pattern on them. (Note: I play around with the pictures and make mock-ups before buying them so this still has a watermark. My favorite place to purchase stock photos is Dreamstime.com.



Then I went searching for the perfect monster breaking into their happy little Christmas. The monsters actually come through rifts in time so this one breaking through the wall seemed perfect.
 I also found this broken ornament that symbolized a disrupted Christmas nicely. Well, I think so at any rate.
Next I layered the three photos on top of each other to see if they would work together. Using the eraser tool, I erased the bits I didn't want like the glob of red ornaments and the gray wall the monster was coming out of. I also used the clone tool to blacken over the top of the monsters snout and teeth so I would just have a clawed hand, since my monsters' faces don't look like that at all.

With a little placement, here's the mock-up I came up with at first. (Again, notice the watermarks since I haven't purchased all the pictures yet since I may not use them. That's what I like about Dreamstime. They allow you to play around with their images first.)

As much as I like how this turned out, it also seems a little busy, especially when you take into consideration that it will mostly be viewed as a much smaller thumbnail on most of the distributor sites.
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So I played around some more, got rid of the Scottish ornaments (glad I didn't buy it yet--maybe next Christmas?) and moved and angled the monster's hand a little bit. Then I went back to Dreamstime and purchased the two pictures so I can legally and honestly use them, and started over again, darkened the font color, and here's the final version.
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Chase should be celebrating his 18th Birthday today, finishing his Senior year of High School, driving, kissing girls, thinking about college and his future.

Yet he left us 3 years ago, 24 days before his 15th Birthday. 3 years. It feels like 3 months.

I can't describe what it's like to have a terminally ill child. You've either been there and know the experience, or you haven't. There's no in-between. It's 24/7 of keeping up with treatments and medication, and driving to specialists, checking port feeds in the middle of the night, and worrying about what could go wrong whenever you step out of the house on your own for a few hours.

But there's also a closeness that's reached from spending so much time together with deep conversations that otherwise wouldn't come up. Some conversations about what's after life that no one should ever have to have with their child.  

For the record, I do believe in an after life. I believe in God, and I believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior. For me, that stuff isn't made up or just something nice to believe in that brings me comfort.

I imagine Chase in the spirit world, finally able to do the things his body wouldn't allow him, happy, at peace, not hurting, and having a wonderful time with his brother and uncles. Who needs a driver's license when you can soar at lightspeed?

So Happy Birthday Chase. Enjoy this day and know that even though we miss you so hard it hurts, your life is being Celebrated.

Love you.

Mom

Just for fun...

My twelve year old is definitely a Millennial.  

He loves technology, understands, takes it apart and rewires it. After myself, my husband, and my two oldest boys have all tried to simply get the TV back onto the TV after watching Netflix here on the Wii, we must eventually call T down to fix it, which he does with a I-can't-believe-you-can't-do-this shake of his head and two seconds later it's done. Of course since he has rewired everything where only a Mage of the Thirteenth Level can figure it out, I'm thinking it's not because I'm too old to get it. He's even gone to his friend's house where their cable has been out for days and inspects their router and fixes the problem. His brain functioning in this is a little frightening. I only hope he learns to use his power for good.

Anyway, the gamer's ultimate game Minecraft is T's passion. He loves it. I've heard him explaining how to set things up in there with the exasperation of an old man. He has his own Minecraft server.

"What is a server?" I ask.

"So people can go to my server and play the game through my server even when I'm not there."

"And why is that important?"

"Ah, Mom. You just don't get it."

He's right. I don't get it at all. But I helped him get his server. He's thrilled with it and feels important.

Needless to say, he's on his server, playing Minecraft alot, leading his friends through the worlds as they play together through their headphones.

So hearing him talking in his headphones is a normal occurrence at our house. However, yesterday, the talking seemed different, less action, more monotone when I passed. So being the nosy-must-know-everything-that-my-kid-is-doing-on-the-Internet type Mom, I ducked my head in.

He was reading.

About four of his friends were all on CreepyPasta (at their own homes with headphones) taking turns reading these scary stories.

My son who doesn't like reading.
My son who has dyslexia.
My son was taking the lead, reading out loud to his friends who were all reading along together because "reading the stories alone is too scary". Like one of his friends could reach through the monitor and save him.

I'm thrilled. Yes, reading. I want my kids to have a love of reading! Does it matter that it is urban legend scare-your-pants-off stuff? No. Who doesn't like those? Am I ready to start thrusting books in T's face like Nightlife because if he likes Jeff the Killer, he'd love Slashback. Then again, I know I can't get too pushy, too let's-bond-over-this right this second, kay, kay?

So I closed the door, did a quiet knuckle-tap (which I know, yeah, yeah, fifty-year-olds aren't suppose to do--not cool) and am letting the bond-over-this opportunities come natural as I  leave my copies of Rob Thurman's book out in surreptitious locations. Oh that? It's just a book about monsters with sharp metal teeth who can open up doorways to other worlds... Kinda scary though.
 

Too Good to Be True by Kristan Higgins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kristan Higgins walked up to the podium and exclaimed "Behold the Power of Spanks". Throughout her luncheon address, she was charming and hilarious and at one point even made me tear up. Of course after that I'm going to read her book. Not to mention there was a free one right there placed on my chair. Score!

I got a lot of free books at the conference but Too Good to Be True was the first one I wanted to read, and it was just as charming and hilarious as Kristan, and yes, at one point I teared up. Okay, maybe at two or three points.

I love this book and I love this writer.

There's a truckload of reviews on here so I won't bother to sum up the story, except to say, every time Grace struck Callahan with a lethal hockey stick or rake, it was the funniest thing ever. Then she backs up into his truck...wow.

He's an ex-con and she's a big fat liar and I love them both, felt so bad for Grace when it looked like things weren't going to work out. Sigh.

Now, even though I have a pile of books at my disposal, I'm kinda thinking of digging into another Kristan Higgins book.


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