NaNoWriMo and Book Covers

We're now a couple days into National Novel Writing Month, an annual challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I've completed the challenge for the last four years and have served as my region's municipal liaison for the last three. We are told that participants who complete their novel profile on the challenge website are more likely to win and to finish their novels. So as part of my pre-writing (a.k.a. procrastination) I created covers for the novel I planned to write.

The story revolves around a gay dating app that becomes the platform for a resistance movement in a future where support for the LGBT community disappears. I imagined the cover would feature a smartphone displaying the app's icon.

The first version was completed on Microsoft Paint with clip-art and the paint feature. I was pretty happy with it, but Paint has a tendency to reduce the quality of images if you look at it wrong. Beck Muth, a writer in my NaNoWriMo region, suggested using Canva, a website for editing images. It had templates for crating book covers and in very little time I created the second version of my cover. I wondered how it would look if I added pictures in a grid, like a dating app might display, so I took some free images from Pixabay.com and pieced together the third version.

So, what do you think? Do any of them peak your curiosity enough that you'd flip it over and read the blurb or maybe download a sample onto your e-reader? I appreciate an feedback.

Flash! Friday Entry for 3/27/2016: Blazing a Trail

On March 27th, 2015 this picture was the Flash!Friday prompt:

We were given 200 works within a ten-word leeway. The story I wrote is very relevant to current events.

Blazing a Trail

At first, the grayscale image was just a blur. Pictures took a surprisingly long time to load in her new office, probably, because of the gauntlet of firewalls they had to pass through. After a moment, the image resolved.

Rachel stifled a laugh. Then, remembering that she was alone in her office, she laughed openly. The clothing was so antiquated, especially in contrast to the black suit and pencil skirt she was wearing.

She looked over the women’s faces. Only half of them even noticed the camera, before the photo had been captured. 1911, she thought, long before digital photography and selfies. Looking at the camera, or not, all the women were focused and resolute. They were prepared for the task that was about to be set before them.

If these women could blaze a trail, so could she. The knot in her stomach began to ease for the first time since the official tally had been announced.

Rachel took a breath and pushed back her desk chair. She chose to follow along the curved office wall, rather than step across the presidential seal on the floor. She took one last moment to gather her courage, then left the safety of the closed room. The torrent of press awaited.

31 Horror Films 31 Days, Part 2

Here's the next set of movies I watched this October...

#6 The Ring

This is probably the horror movie I’ve heard the most about before seeing it. I remember seeing the trailers when it came out. I also remember kids in my CCD class discussing, and spoiling, the ending. I did like the moral dilemma proposed at the end. Usually, you learn the rules early or about halfway through a story. In The Ring, they are not explained until the end. I plan to watch the sequels, despite mixed reviews, because i want to explore the consequences of these rules further.

#7 The Haunting in Connecticut

This looked terrible, but I watched it because the events that inspired the movie were discussed on the Monster Talk podcast. Oddly enough, the movie strays far from the paranormal events described by the original family. I guess Hollywood decided corpses in the walls and possessed children would make for a better movie than ghost sodomy.

#8 Nightbreed

This movie is basically the Morlocks from the X-Men. Apparently, the version I saw and Netflix has the alternate ending. If you’ve seen Hellraiser, you’ll pick up on similarities in tone and the style of the effects.

#9 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

My brain was not designed to watch a silent film. That is no reflection on the movie, just on my attention span. I did find the movie interesting as a glimpse into the psychology of pre-WWII Germany.

#10 The Purge

Like any Millennial, I love a dystopian story. The set up poses and interesting “What if?”. Then follows it up by forcing us to ask ourselves “What would we do?”.

#11 The Blob (1988)

When I think of The Blob, I think of cheesy 50s horror. I think of the movie playing in the background while Danny laments losing Sandy at the drive-in. This, however, is the late-80s remake. Its surprisingly gory and not afraid to kill off characters that I thought would be safe. They even throw in a Cold War-era moral to boot.

Writing Group and Movie Ignorance

Friends in my writing group have recently taken me to task for my poor familiarity with popular movies. This is not a new revelation. I’ve always unconsciously thought of movies as a social thing and usually only watch them with another person. If I’m alone, I’ll opt for a TV series. I’m frequently met with shock when I confess to having not seen someone’s favorite movie.

The subject of this particular meeting was the “plot twist”. I outed myself because I had to keep asking people not to spoil the twists for me. My friend, Becky of www.BeckyMuth.com, took it upon herself to compile a list of movies with plot twists that I needed to see forthwith:

The Shining
Six Sense
Fight Club
Primal Fear
The Village
The Exorcist
Rear Window
Fright Night
Cujo
Psycho
Silence of the Lambs
The Leprechaun
Pan’s Labyrinth
Identity
Shutter

She then set about publicly shaming me in a scathing blog post about my movie ignorance. That post can be found here: Anthony Does Not Watch Movies

She was quite right to do so. I fully acknowledge this is no small sin for someone who wishes to make a living by writing fiction. Some of these movies are integral to modern popular culture.

And yet, there is hope. I not have a job with a lot of downtime so I am able to remedy this situation. I’ll discuss one step I’ve taken in my next post. If you have any movie suggestions that I can’t get away with not seeing, please comment below.