FLU SEASON: The Book of Mom - cover reveal

This year has been full of stress. (That's 2022 for those who may read this in the future.) Of course it's stressful to write about the stress of surviving a pandemic in a novel while surviving a pandemic. 

However, even more stressful has been the revolving door of cover designs for my forthcoming pandemic novel FLU SEASON: The Book of Mom. 

(Note: FLU SEASON is the series title; The Book of Mom is the first book's title.) You may have read my rant in my previous blog post. If you haven't, don't worry; I'll be recalling some of it here. Covers revealed below!

In my previous 15 novels, the cover design was not too intricate. Yes, they could have been more detailed, more compelling, more artistic, but what I ended up with suited my tastes if not readers' tastes. For science fiction and fantasy, the genres demand artistic, fanciful, detailed art depicting some scene related to the story. I could not achieve that by myself with the skills I have. (My best artwork comes from my 7th grade art class: a portrait of a Neanderthal man in tempera paint. Be amazed below!)

So I went to my usual art friend who has managed to please me through several novel covers, hoping she could do some of that art stuff for me but more complex art. Unfortunately, she was not then available. My first thought was to do it myself. I have made a couple covers for my novels but the design was simple - some effective that way, some not so much. The main obstacle was gathering the images I needed and relearning Photoshop. I did create a decent cover but I didn't feel confident in it.

On Twitter (@StephenSwartz1) I'm following/followed-by other writers and - as they choose to connect with me - various cover designers and publicists looking for work. One fellow writer showed off her covers. I liked them, thought it was a good example of what I needed for my book. I asked who did them for her and she put me in contact with her cover designer.

This was an adventure. No offense intended, for he ultimately did good work, but the process of working with a one-man-band proved to be frustrating and dragged the project out longer than necessary. I should have used that time to go through my manuscript once more for any final tweaks, given the time it took, but I kept expecting the finished product any day. When I finally got the finished product (full covers for print and e-book plus assorted promotional images featuring the cover) I was delighted. But...not wowed.

He created a cover that exactly matched what I said I wanted. It was technically correct based on my description. A couple of friends had valid criticisms of the finished cover. One said the cover looked too much like a comic book rather than a more serious novel about a tuba-playing mom and her teen son escaping a city in chaos for what they hoped would be relative safety in the countryside. I fretted over whether to use this cover or not. As the first book of a trilogy I was also concerned with the subsequent covers based on the standards of this one. 

I submitted the files for the manuscript and the cover, got my proof copy, and saw it with fresh eyes. It did look a bit too comic - but that was what I had described unknowingly so I could only blame myself. Having the physical book in my hands also showed me how big it was. The font was needlessly large for one thing (looked fine on a computer screen), so the page count had expanded. Right away I reduced the font throughout by 1 point, which shaved 40 pages from the manuscript.

All right, I thought to myself. I was then half way through that final reading/tweaking of the manuscript as I waited for the finished product to arrive. That "final" read through allowed me to snip here and there to further reduce the size. I knew I would need to resubmit everything and I worried that the cover may not match because of the change of the spine width due to having fewer pages.

At about the same time, I was contacted by a short-term follower who happened to be a cover design artist. Actually, she represented a business that designed covers and promotional material. Feeling distraught at my situation, I inquired about their services and found it reasonable. I gave them less instruction for the cover, hoping the artist would use his/her imagination more. I received a good rendition of my earlier description, however; the only problem was switching out a French horn for a tuba (I did specify a tuba).

They sent the files two weeks ago but I was traveling and forgot or missed seeing the email with the link to the files. Once I'd caught up and gotten the files, I was pleased - though two weeks behind my own timeline. I did see an error to fix and as long as they were fixing that I might as well ask for a couple other minor changes - which they fixed in 24 hours and resent to me. 

I don't know which cover is the best. They are all similar and yet differ in some ways. You may comment on your favorite (or, more likely, the one you like more than the others) and I will wait until I get the consensus I want before sending that cover to the publisher. I will reveal (although you might guess in the meantime) which is done by which designer. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Now that I have everything - the manuscript tweaking is finished - I will resubmit everything and hope the next proof copy will be perfect. If it is, you will soon have Book 1 of FLU SEASON The Book of Mom available in print and for Kindle before the holidays.

Book 2 (The Way of the Son) is finished and undergoing appropriate revision and editing. The cover design shall commence forthwith.

Book 3 (Dawn of the Daughters) has begun, with much note scribbling, and may be used in this year's National Novel Writing Competition in November (just have to write 50,000 more words than what I have now).

Thanks for your support!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2022 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Understanding the Horror of Horror

"I ain't dead yet!"

As Halloween approaches, it's a good sentiment to have. However, as we accept the once a year opening of the door to the underworld and the unseen and possibly the undead, as well, it may be the best time to also reflect on what makes horror horrible...er, uh, scary. (You knew what I meant, right?)

Ever have a scary dream? Maybe it awakens you in the middle of the night and you don't know where you are. Maybe you still feel those pin picks or knife cuts in your skin. Perhaps your throat feels tight and the skin is rough from where the rope scraped. You might have been sensing the increasing pressure of heavy stones laid upon a barn door which was itself laid over you, all the better to extract a fictitious confession. 

Or perhaps your brand of scary is biting into a chocolate birthday cake and instead of pleasure, finding crunched up bits of cricket or other "foreign" matter there. Perhaps the beverage served reminds you a bit too much of freshly squeezed blood, donated by the kid who did not bring any gift. Or the sandwich you packed for lunch today somehow tastes strangely like human flesh instead of what it is: braised cow tongue. You open the lunch box and there are cockroaches squirming about. Is that your kind of scary?

Still another kind of scary is logging on the Internet--or, just as easily, flipping on the television--and there they are: so many stories of horror happening all around us and across the world. Killings of all kinds done in many creative forms. Solo assassins, self-designated mayhem artists, gangs of revengers, harmful idiots out for their own entertainment at the folly of anyone who gets in the way. Or the larger forms of them: armies of nations or parts of them doing the same thing: creating chaos for its own sake or the sake of someone's power structure. Where is the candy?

Or take it down to street level in your local town. Same thing: street thugs, simpletons with weapons, angry for anger's sake, and loners with axes to grind, guns to shoot, people to kill--for the sake of Halloween? Nope. Just people afraid of people, shooting before shaking hands. People afraid of their own shadows--or the lingering shadows of the previous night's dream. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" It's all the same in an unsettling way: a spark of angst in the middle of the brain and we shriek.

Whether the horror is on the screen in a movie theater or on the page in a book, the mind provokes the body into a certain set of sensations and we act or react. Let the horror be real or let it be a fictitious fright. We feel it the same way biologically. And yet, the fictitious kind usually leaves us stronger, more confident, even less afraid, while the real horrors leave us in constant terror, constant stress, that we cannot simply put down or walk away from when we've had enough. That is the true horror of the horrors around us. 

Halloween is coming. Is it too little now? Is it too unscary compared to the real world today? Is it more trick than treat? Is it becoming a little better, or are we not yet at the peak? Be safe in your own little world and, at least for a night, pretend that all you have to worry about is a bad dream that will go away when you open your eyes. Or (it's happened to me too often), a lot of children ringing the doorbell after you've already given out your last bag of candy corn.

Looking forward to a day when this is the scariest thing we will see.

If you liked this rant, I accept donations of Kit-Kat and Jelly Belly jelly beans (any flavor). Thanks.


And don't forget our own library of horror--the fictitious variety (except for my contribution, which is 87% real)--and enjoy your midnight read!

The Myrddin Library of Horror 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2015 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Metaphysics of Pizza

It's really very simple. If you have sworn allegiance to an organization whose prime purpose is to change history, then you have to stay flexible.

You might have to do any number of things. Even change it back, or change it in a different way than originally done. You may have to stop your colleague from changing something. That may require violence. Are you prepared to be violent? Probably you will be asked to affect your violence in either the mantle of Chaos or Order. But not both. And almost certainly, you will be offered pizza.

The lesson here is whenever you sign up with a mercenary outfit, be sure it is one in which pizza is served.

Excerpt from THE DREAM LAND Book II "Dreams of Future's Past" illustrates the sublime cosmological effects of pizza:

“It seems strange, Kanê,” Erutên-Vigasz spoke, sitting next to the Captain, “that we discuss who to kill over a meal of this round food. Is there meaning to your selection?”

The Captain grinned. “There is always meaning—to everything.” He motioned to the box on the floor at their feet. “See that box? It is square, suggesting conformity—rectangularity is hardly seen in nature—there is also restriction, limits. Yet, inside is the pizza: round, suggesting symmetry and order.”

Erutên nodded, thoughtfully.

“Why not put a square pizza in a square box?” the Captain continued. “Or a round pizza in a round box? The answer is simple: it is easier to make a square box than a round box. Folding cardboard leans to perpendicularity. To make a box one must work from the outer edges and fold inward. Conversely, it is easier to make a round pizza than a square pizza. The dough of the pizza begins from its center, a swirling ball of dough, then a disk that expands outward evenly as the creator whirls it around its axis. To then stretch out the disk, the circle, to fill the corners of a square pan or a square box requires unnatural action. It is natural, hence universal, for the roundness to remain.”

Others were now following the discussion.

“And yet, there, too, is a lesson to be learned! These forces, the squareness and roundness, are always working together and working against each other: chaos and order—one is always moving toward and becoming the other, constantly in flux, ever always changing, never fixed or satisfied, always seeking balance. Someday, while in flux, chaos will reach a point halfway to becoming order and at the exact same moment order will reach a point where it is halfway to becoming chaos, and both forces will swirl around each other and become one: neither order nor chaos, neither chaos nor order, but a singularity of multiplicity where all that ever was has been reduced to all that ever will be! Thus, all matter in the universe will become a microscopic dot too small for the smallest microbe to notice in the far corner of its jelly—so much smaller than the germ of a germ of a germ’s germ. And then, it could only be a mirror image and not an actual microbe—which would, of course, be contained in that germy dot—if all matter were compressed into the shape of a pizza, round not square.”

“I see,” sighed Erutên. “It is very cosmical, what you say. This world is—how you say?—interesting. I should like to learn more.”

THE DREAM LAND Book II "Dreams of Future's Past" . . . with or without pizza!


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(C) Copyright 2010-2013 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.