Month: July 2014

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Celebrate the Small Things

Celebrate The Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here. CelebrateSmallThings_Badge

Another busy week has flown by. Where does the time go? I’d like to celebrate —

  1. Finally managing to carve out some writing time by getting up earlier.
  2. Fun times with good friends!
  3. Swimming at Sand Bar beach on Lake Champlain.

What other celebrations are going on out there?

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Celebrate the Small Things

Celebrate The Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here. CelebrateSmallThings_Badge

I’m late to the party for this week, but I’d like to celebrate a few things —

  1. Bought my very own block of ISBN numbers!
  2. Had a great time at our good friend’s birthday pool party last weekend!
  3. Got my lawn mower fixed so I can go mow my hayfield… er… lawn. 🙂

What other celebrations are going on out there?

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ISBNs!

I’m so excited! I am now the happy owner of a block of ISBN numbers! I know it sounds kind of silly to get excited over a bunch of numbers, but these aren’t just any numbers. These numbers bring me one step closer to my dream of being a published author. I can look at the row of digits and picture them on the back of my soon-to-be book cover — the cover that will wrap around my creation and hopefully entice potential buyers to take a look. The ISBN that I assign to my book will be registered in the Library of Congress and will appear in book listings worldwide. Whoa! Deep breath…

I purchased the ISBNs from Bowker Identifier Services at www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main. In the process, I discovered that Bowker also has a Web site at www.selfpublishedauthor.com with information for those embarking on the self-publishing path. I haven’t gone through much of it yet, but on first glance, it looks like it will be a useful resource. On the bottom right side of the home page, I found a list of a dozen links to more great resources for writers: The Book Designer, Writer Beware: The Blog, Writer’s Digest Blog, and the Independent Book Publishers Association, to name a few. Well worth checking out. I know I’ll be back soon to read more.

But for now, I’m going to go look at my ISBN numbers again and smile for the rest of the day. 🙂

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Celebrate the Small Things

Celebrate The Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here. CelebrateSmallThings_Badge

This week I’m celebrating family, friends, and flowers!

  1. Had a wonderful time with my brother and his family, up visiting from PA this past week.
  2. Looking forward to a good friend’s birthday pool party tomorrow!
  3. My small flower gardens are flourishing in the beautiful summer weather we’ve been having.

What other celebrations are going on out there?

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Celebrate the Small Things

Celebrate The Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.CelebrateSmallThings_Badge

This week I’m celebrating a very LARGE thing — America’s Independence Day! Happy Fourth of July!

  1. We got to watch our town’s parade without getting rained on.
  2. It looks like the weather will clear up enough for us to enjoy the local fireworks tonight with good friends.
  3. Looking forward to spending time next week with my brother and his family, up visiting from PA.

What other celebrations are going on out there?

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IWSG / Font-tastic Dilemma

Today’s the day for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) where, on the first Wednesday of every month, writers get together to share their insecurities and offer encouragement. The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

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Click here to see this post with the various fonts.

Click to see this post with the various fonts.

I’ve been playing with various fonts, trying to decide which one to use for my book cover title. But it seems like there are a zillion fonts out there. How on earth does one choose?

My novel is romantic fantasy adventure. The romance element inspires thoughts of flowery and curvy script like Vivaldi from my computer’s font files or like this free file I found online called A Yummy Apology. Fantasy should be more exotic like Endor or Half-elven or Immortal, while the adventure element needs something strong and bold — Bodoni MT Black, Stencil, and Impact are all possibilities.

Swordplay is essential to the plot as well, which draws me toward a serif font that is clean and sharp like a blade. I really like Castellar and Imprint MT Shadow because of the added depth of the lettering. There is so much more to the main character than even she knows and in my mind, the shadowed depth of the letters symbolizes this.

So many choices. And once I figure out the title font, I need to decide if I’m going to use the same font for both title and author or choose another for the author.

Lori L. MacLaughlin (Cardinal), Lori L. MacLaughlin (Slender Gold), Lori L. MacLaughlin (Celtic) …

Which will it be? Sigh …