Celebrate the Small Things

Last week, I figured I'd join this Friday blog hop. Celebrations are a good thing. Especially when you can do it with others. Celebrate the Small Things is hosted by By VikLit at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

Today, I'll celebrate my clean house. But as I write this post, I have yet to dust the upstairs, clean up my laundry room, and the guest bath. Several months ago I challenged myself to clean one room a day instead of doing all my housework in one or two days. So far, its worked out pretty good. Sometimes though, my Salon schedule gets in the way since its one of those flexible ones-its never the same week to week.

My second celebration is my practice with Power Point in making my own book covers. It gets easier and easier every time. And the best part is, I'm having fun doing it even tough its not yet perfected.

Thirdly, I want to celebrate Roland Yeoman's recovery from face surgery he had done last week. He's over at Writing in the Crosshairs . Drop in and say 'hi'. He has a wonderful blog.

Fourthly, I want to celebrate another blogger's recovery from eye surgery. Michael Di Gesu His blog is just as wonderful. The way he writes will swoon and sweep you off your feet, ladies.

And last but not least, I wish to celebrate the rewrites I've accomplished on Killer Stilettos. Currently, I'm stuck on chapter thirty-one.

Here's a diddy:

The one red speck flitting in her eye multiplied into two more, and a low guttural growl escaped her. Mom slapped her gloved-hand over her surgical mask. Her eyes darted from me to Cynthia. “Excuse me. Must’ve been the bean burritos I ate for lunch.”

Cynthia shot me a quick a glance and pulled her brows together.

Strange noises rumbled from mom’s stomach, and her eyes went glossy. “I’m not feeling so good.” At any moment I figured she would definitely spew green chunks my way and her head would spin.

“Maybe you should go home, Miss Babs.” Cynthia set her Bible on the bedside table. “You wouldn’t want Lila to catch what you might have.”

Mom flinched. 

That's all for now. Gotta get to The Salon. But I'll be on my iPhone checking out others' posts throughout the weekend.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

How to Make a Basic Ebook Cover with Power Point 2010

Being an Indie author means a lot of money comes out of our pockets. We're responsible for whatever the cost may be to make our books. And well ... it ain't cheap.

So I thought I'd do my best to show everyone how to make a very basic ebookcover. 

Here goes:

First, you must open your Power Point program.

Second, go to home.

Third, go to New Slide.

Fourth, pick which look you want. I usually pick Blank. 

Fifth, go to Design. Choose Page Setup.

Make your width at 6 and your height at 8. Click Okay.

Sixth, go to Insert.

Seventh, click on Picture. I chose one of my dogs, Sir Poops. You can also save a pic from the web.

A box will pop up like this:

Now you're ready to add your name and title. Go to Insert.

Then go to Text Box. Click on it. After, an arrow will appear. Move it to wear you want your name and title.

You can play with the text size, color, and font shape from the Home bar.

Now it's time to save my cover. Go to File.

Click on it. Then click on Save & Send.

After, click on Change File Type.

Then click on JPEG File Interchange Format.

Click Save when another box pops up.

Another box will pop up. Choose Current Slide Only.

Then, go to where ever you saved the file and open with Paint.

After, click on Resize.

Click on Pixels. Then, make your Horizontal at 600 and your Vertical at 800.

After, make sure you Save it. 

I hope this helped even though its a no frills kind of cover. It takes me a while to get comfortable with strange and unknown territory. 

Also, if you want to play around with your font, Lorelei Bell had a fabulous post on it. GO HERE TO READ

I hope everyone has a lovely Monday and week. I'll be at The Salon for the biggest part. Florida season is in full swing with snow birds and people wanting to look their best. They kind of slack about their appearance in the summer months though. It might have to do with sweat ... like a lot of it.

So I'll be around via the iPhone which by the way is a great topic for a blog all by itself ... that and Feedly.

Bye for now!

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly