Mishi's First Mission, My First eBook Release, and a Cover Contest!

It's going to be an exciting week here in authorland. (Yep, that's right, I've decided I now reside in a mystical world known as authorland wherein I get to write every day and people will eventually pay me for it.)

Mishi, one of the main characters from Blade's Edge, is off on her first mission in Part Three: Chapter 3 (also known as Chapter 19). Blade's Edge is currently riding at number 17 for the month over at JukePop, so reading and +voting is, as always, appreciated.

And coming up this week (Tuesday to be specific) is the release of my first ever ebook collection of short stories Rain on a Summer's Afternoon (recognize the title? If not, take a look at the top of this page). Here is the 'back cover' blurb to get you excited.

Rain on a Summer's Afternoon is a collection of short stories that are sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, and always imaginative. This collection includes 'Off Belay', previously published in The First Line magazine, as well as five new stories. The stories in this collection include:

Pretty Chains

Bound from birth to a life of servitude in the sultan's palace, Asha's only moment of freedom was a brief one bought and paid for by her mother's life.  Yet once the sultan pushes her past the breaking point, Asha will find there is more to her past than anyone suspects.

The Flaming Oak

Alys loves the Flaming Oak, even though the other villagers refuse to go near it. But Gran, who Alys trusts more than anyone, says that it's safe to play with the ancient tree most days. Most days...

The Wolf Mage

Argen is a rare animal mage who uses her skills to mediate between the worlds of nature and man. But her skills are challenged when she meets a wolf unlike any she has ever seen before.

A Rose by Any Other Name ... Except, Perhaps, Agnes

Agnes hates her name. She just doesn't own enough cats or afghans to suit it. Ahnye, on the other hand, has a perfect name and enough assault rifles and C4 to go with it. Yet to get this next job Agnes and Ahnye will have to learn to work as one.

Irony

Lisa knows all about irony; she explains the concept to college students every day as an English professor. But her new relationship with a sexy writer beau is about to show Lisa that reality can be more ironic than fiction.

Off Belay

A woman abandoned by her partner during a climbing trip must find a way to survive and make it back to civilization after a deadly avalanche buries her.

Are you a paper-only person? No worries. The paperback version of this tome will be available in two weeks' time. Check back here for announcements and details.

And directly related to that, dear readers, I now offer you some direct input to into the creative process for this particular project. The cover. As you know, despite the old adage, most people do judge a book by its cover. In the not very distant future, for my larger scale projects (full novels, series etc.) I plan to run kickstarter campaigns to allow me to pay a cover artist for work that is actually good. (More on that in a week or two.) In the meantime, I'm without funds, and this project is so small and so 'just testing' that I am doing the cover myself.

I have created four covers for this project so far. One of them you've already seen but I'll post it here again. The other three are new. They're all kind of similar, two of them even use the same picture, but they're the best I can do at the moment since I completely lack talent in the department of two dimensional drawings.

So the contestants are as follows: I will number them just to make voting easier.

1.

2.

 

3.

4.

Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about graphic design and these are just the best I could throw together on my PC using photos that I have taken in various places around the globe and shareware photo editing software. 

Constructive criticism is welcome, but just a quick "I vote for #__" is completely acceptable. Simply comment in the comments section with your preference and I will tally them all up by Wednesday and make a choice. 

Keep in mind this vote is for the paperback version. The ebook will start with whichever cover I deem best at the time of publication, but can be easily changed at any time after publication so, I will update it with whatever choice we make later. 

Thanks so much for your time and input! Don't forget to check out Blade's Edge if you haven't already.