Book Date Monday #7

Welcome to Book Date Monday! In today's episode...

• Some Cover Fun!
• Hurricane Update
• Kickstarter Update
• Stacking the Shelves

First, Some Cover Fun...

Part of the process of writing and publishing stories that I enjoy is creating a simple cover image for the tale. Nothing fancy, just a basic cover design with a title, byline, subtitle genre description, and a free image from Pixabay. I use PowerPoint, create a slide, and then save it as a jpg or png.

Here are two recent covers along with an older cover (in the middle) for your consideration - combined into one slide using, you guessed it, PowerPoint. (My space monkey pirate collection is available a number of places, by the way; the other two stories are exclusive to Patreon supporters.)

Each month I format a short story that I've written (or write a new one!) and make it available for my Patreon backers. I usually create a PDF version and upload it direct so that supporters can download it any time. My plan is to eventually create little e-books of all my individual stories. That should keep me busy!

Also, each Friday I send out a free flash fiction story via Substack (free subscription here). I'm trying to make these available on Patreon as a freebie to help expand my platform there, but there's only so much I can do each week, lol. Sometimes life gets in the way!

Puertor Rico/Hurricane Fiona Update...

Speaking of life... I interupted my latest "freebie" series with a Hurricane Fiona Update. You might know that we live in Puerto Rico now - and can read some details of what we went through (not much, btw) on my wife's blog, Boom Travel & Wellness. 

My "office" the other day when we were without electricity.

But the quick recap is - we have power and water again after about 5 days without. The rest of the island is hit and miss, many are still without services. If you want to help out and give to those in need - by buying an e-book, in fact! - I'll explain how when I talk about my Kickstarter Update next.

'Secrets & Scents' Kickstarter Update...

We've got 10 days to go and we've almost reached the first Stretch Goal! Pretty exciting. The project funded within a week, so that was great. The details are here - check the project out! But basically, you can back the campaign and get an early release ebook of my newest book & candle shop cozy mystery.

Cool, right? What's cooler is that I'm donating the proceeds of every $3 purchase of the add-on, Ma Tutt's Donut Hut, to a church in Orocovis, PR (in the middle of the island). They are distributing water, food, supplies throughout the community where landslides and floods destroyed homes and roads.

So check out my new cozy, and if you back it and buy the Ma Tutt add-on, I'll send those extra funds to some folks who'll make sure it's put to good use. Thanks for considering it!

Check out the campaign here.

Finally, some Book Date Monday updates...

1) Stacking the Shelves. Each week I've been downloading Cliff Hamrick's short stories featuring his likeable rogue, Jarek the Scholar. They've been free on Amazon lately - one per weekend. This series is fantasy but in a variety of settings - some are on the high seas, others in dungeons. Very enjoyable. Titles include: The Silent Ship, City of the Dead, Desert Nightshade, and The Secret in the Library, among others. Check them out if you like short fantasy adventures.

2) Currently Reading. In addition to Hamrick's stories, right now on my tablet I'm reading a collection of fantasy tales called Lost Lore: a Fantasy Anthology. I think it's still free on Amazon. The first two stories were really good, so I think I'll enjoy these offerings.

3) Just Finished. Finally done with Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter. This is the first Inspector Morse mystery and it was quite well done. A number of red herrings and it got confusing in the middle - but then Morse was confused, so I think we were supposed to be as well! This is a slightly different Morse than what we were used to on PBS - and definitely not the Endeavor we've come to love. So if you read the original mysteries, be prepared to have a different Morse stuck in your head!

4) On My TBR: Ashamed to say that Book 3 in my friend's sword and planet series, Laws & Prophecies, is still unstarted. The series is called Sword's Edge Chronicles and I'm happy to report that she's updated the covers. They are very appealing now and the writing is solid. I just need to jump in to this last novel and finish the series!

Well, that's it for my roundup. Tell me what you're reading this week in the comments below! And have a great week. Go here to participate in this week's blog hop.