So, a few months back, I took a field trip to the nearby Barnes and Noble just to do a bit of window shopping, so to speak. I was aimlessly wandering around the space, considering buying something to drink, when a display table with Rachel Harrison’s Cackle caught my eye. (And yes, I understand the irony of pointing you to the Amazon site as a reference.)
The cover was enough to pull me in; I didn’t bother looking at reviews. I simply bought it.
As it sat on the side table next to my reading chair, I thought: Hm. Could I replicate that cover?
Mind you, this is a deliberate exercise. I would never use this as an actual book cover. It’s far too close to the original. Which is why it has a fake title and fake author name. I even changed the fake author name I normally use for cover exercises—Callie Robb—to Callie Roberts. Apparently, Callie wanted to be shelved even closer to La Nora.
And yes, creating fake covers for fake authors who somehow have preferences is weird.
But it was fun. It was great to revisit Photoshop and discover I hadn’t completely forgotten how to use it. The central image is not mine, but one I found on Depositphotos (artist: liudmyla.mammamia). I felt it was striking enough that it didn’t need all the embellishments of the original cover.
And I’m hoping in 2023, I’ll create even more covers for Callie (and maybe a few for me).
It’s been a busy week, what with some snow, a dance meet and an invitational, some ads classes, some writing, and some extra-long commuting thanks to the snow mentioned earlier.
Well, at least there’s no negative word count this week. I’m back on track, more or less.
Writing Wrongs 