Book Cover Dilema

"There is no way you're paying over a 100 dollars for another book cover. You haven't grossed enough to pay an editor, buy your copyrights, and so on." Sweetman is the business person in the house.

"But I'm a writer. Not a cover artist." I can't even draw stick people.

"Nor are you a good  business woman. You haven't even made back all your money on what you've spent to promote your books."

So I hang my head in the hall of shame. He's right, you know. But I'm always hopeful.

Soon I'll be releasing Killer Stilettos, and I haven't got a cover yet. I'd like Collin Beishir to do it.  He did the initial cover to my debut novel below.

And the cover to my short story, The Partners' Progeny.

But he would have to re-do the cover to Secondhand Shoes since I'm going with a shoe theme. Money is an issue right now. Things have been changing in my day to day life at The Salon. The corporate hounds have figured out how to take money out of mine and fellow hairdressers' pockets and put it into theirs. Its really cramping my style...if you know what I mean. Not to mention, I do what I can to help the grandbaby.

So the Sweetman says, "You willhave to learn how to make the covers yourself along with the formatting. Save your pennies for the editor." Talk about being scared to death. Clearly, I have no idea about bookcovers. I directed Collin the wrong way with my debut novel. I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten from peeps wanting to know what is wrong with my cover. So I hang my head in shame feeling I didn't do Collin justice in his talents. 

Live, make your mistakes, and hope to God you learn. 

Anyway, I've heard you can make bookcovers via Power Point. In fact, I found some instructions and will be practicing. Don't be surprised if I begin posting off the wall covers just because.

Anyone use Power Point to make their own covers? Anybody struggling money wise? 

The economy does seem to be changing. And it's at the corporate level, wanting more from you while they take more out of our pockets. I'll stop here because I could go on forever about this.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday. This morning I'm working on my rewrites to Killer Stilettos. Later, I'll be heading off to work.

Before I go, here's a few lines from Killer Stilettos:

The night air felt muggy and hot. Low rumbles of thunder sounded around us, and lightening zig-zagged through the dark sky. Big puffy clusters of clouds hovered over us.

“I don’t see any stars. Can we go back to my room now?” The words filtered through a hiccup.

“Ah, mi amor. But this is beautiful.”Julio lifted his eyes to the sky. Thunder boomed again and what looked liked a million lighted crackles filled the sky for a split second.

“You brought me to watch lightening?” It gave me a fright. I hated lightening.

“Pretty cool. Huh?” Julio moved behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my right shoulder.

Out of my right peripheral, something dark but transparent moved.

Hope you enjoyed the diddy.

Hugs and chocolate!
Shelly

Bullies and Bad Bosses

Today, is Thank Your Wonderful Boss Day-something like that. Its been all over the news this morning, and so has the girl who committed suicide because of two completely insensitive girls-bullies who have taken that word to a whole new level. Two unremorseful souls. This reminds me that its Something-Something-National-About-Bullies-Month.

In my opinion,we should have a public hanging for bullies for a month and call it, It Sucks to be a Bully this Month. As for  Thank Your Wonderful Boss Day, there are more terrible ones than good. At least that’s my experience. I can personally count on one hand how many fantabulous bosses I’ve had and it doesn’t even reach a total five.

Anyway, my really big bully issues began in high school. Honestly, I have no clue why the mean-herd-mentality hit the group of boys and girls I had to share classrooms, hallways, and a cafeteria with for nine months out of the year for four long horrid years.

What was their purpose to stand in parallel rows in the school hallway like someone was going to pop some rad Soul Train move toward the next class? Well … actually … they were waiting for me. I was the star of those moves. All I wanted to do was get to the next period.

Each kid would push up their nose and snort as I walked down their Aisle of Torment, amongst other things their sick adolescent  minds could think of -which brings me to the day of gym class. While in the shower, the girls- not all, only the bullies- decided to take my school uniform and shoes. They put them in the toilet and took turns urinating and defecating on them. Talk about humiliation. Wrapped in a towel, I sat for four hours in the girl’s locker room waiting for my mom to come with another outfit and shoes.

So when I hear someone killed themselves over a group of insensitive morons. It leaves me wishing for a It Sucks to Be a Bully Month. Since a public hanging is probably out of the question, why not post their faces and the cruel things they’ve done to another human being for the entire world to see like they do sex offenders and pedophiles? Maybe they would think twice about what they post on social networks about someone else. PLEASE NOTE: I remember yours faces and names. I’ve never forgotten and probably never will. Wonder if you people are in positions to bully others in the work place. It wouldn’t surprise me.

This brings me to my next topic: Bad Bosses. They were probably your high school bullies. I say this because they have no problem being insensitive to others. PLEASE NOTE: I know this last statement isn’t true of  ALL bosses. So I don’t mean all. But to be honest, I’ve had more bad ones than good.

Over the years, I’ve been threatened, insulted, and lied about while the owners of these certain establishments turned their heads. All aspects of bullying really needs to stop. We’re all here to go through a journey. Life is tough enough without a bunch of monstrous people bashing others. It’s wrong even if their in a superior position.

In The Partners’ Progeny, Monica Bowman is the new girl at a lawfirm and seems to withstand attacks from Victoria Sheek, her supervisor and the daughter to one of the partners, until…. well, check it out on Amazon. It’s a short read at 99 cents, close to 6000 words with five 5 star reviews.

US Amazon

UK Amazon

Actually, its available for all countries on Amazon.

And before I go, I wanted give a shout out to PK Hero. Hay! Ho! She’s a got a cover for her up and coming book.

It’s lovely. Don’t you think? Anyway, her cover is everywhere today.

Ever been bullied?

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

FREE TODAY AND TOMORROW

Hey, everyone! Today is the day, The Partners’ Progeny is being released for Kindle only.

Bullies rule … or do they?
For seventeen years, Victoria Sheek has been a paralegal supervisor at the Law Offices of Pereene, Carr, and Sevino, specializing in injury law. Rumors portray her as a bully. She remains confident that her position will never cease because of close relations to one of the founding partners, Mr. Carr.
Until Mr. Pereene, the head partner, hires Monica Bowman. Smitten with her because of her resemblance to his deceased granddaughter, Melissa, and his memories of her, she can do no wrong.
Which one of the two girls will keep their position at the firm? It takes an unexpected event to decide the outcome of this rivalry.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Partners-Progeny-ebook/dp/B00DF8K072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372454712&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Partners%27+Progeny%2C+Shelly+Arkon

Available for all countries

Please  Tweet and Facebook this. Thank you.

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Also, Authors for Oklahoma have book bundles up for 10 dollar donations to The American Red Cross, for Moore, Oklahoma. We’ve set it up raffle-style. It will run through July 15, 2013. Please spread the word.

First group of bundles can be found at the link below:

http://writersofmassdistraction.blogspot.ca/2013/06/raffle-bundles-1-3.html

Second group of bundles can be found at the link below:

http://writersofmassdistraction.blogspot.ca/2013/06/raffle-buncles-4-6.html

You can also find Authors for Oklahoma Here . Likes are nice, but that’s not why we formed the group. We want people to spread the word and donate.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly