Mentally drained

April 19, 2017

Mentally drained

Just a quick note to everyone. Since my last post, I’ve been very busy, mostly with family and friends. However, I’m now back, at least in spirit. My body is straining to keep up with my desires. That is, writing and keeping up with my friends and followers, all the stuff that makes my life worthwhile.

That said, since my return to work yesterday, I am mentally drained. Yes, that’s right, I’ve been off since last Thursday afternoon. At my job, I am responsible for various applications that are widely used within my client base. After testing several weeks ago an upgrade to this platform, I figured updating it yesterday would be a no-brainer. Over and done with, easy. Right? How wrong I was.

Instead of taking a total of three hours to implement and then another three hours to test, two days later, I’m still working on it. I figure I will complete the project tomorrow but one thing I do know, I will be calling the vendor once again. Yep, before I left today, I discovered something wrong that needs to be fixed before I can put the ‘DONE’ stamp on the project.

Yes, I know you probably don’t care about my concerns at work. However, it is affecting my ability to write and chat with you, my followers. When I got home yesterday, I felt so drained that it took a couple of scotches, dinner, and time in the hot tub before I felt a bit more relaxed. Early to bed and I slept the entire night, right through to the morning alarm. Great, as normally I’m up once or twice a night, and not for a trip to the head.

So why did I feel unrested as I got ready for work? And now after my shift and I’m home, I feel almost as bad as yesterday. I am once again, mentally drained, which makes me feel physically wiped out. “Hey, where’s that glass of scotch?” Or should I open a bottle of wine? Either way, something smooth will soon be passing across my tongue to chill out.

What does this all mean to my writing? Well, as it so happens, I’ve done little, and I’m stressing over it. Yet, I’m so mentally drained, I can’t seem to pick up where I left off. Sorry, everyone. I’m working hard, and I appreciate your patience.

So, I’m off to find a bit of downtime. I appreciate all that every one of you has done for me. A new exciting book will soon be released, and I’ve got another nearly ready to turn over to the editors. With notes on several story lines in the works, I need to get going.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow.
Rich

Working Hard

June 28, 2016

All my life I have strived to do better, improve myself, help the community, love my family, and cherish my significant other. It’s hard work but it’s easy work as well. Seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it? I don’t see it that way. Take for example, the quote I just found.

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”

When I read this, I didn’t need to study it. My mind instantly went to points in my life where I felt each of these emotions. I’ve had my stresses in my life but once I’m past them, I tend to forget about them. The feelings remain but the facts fade. I guess I do that as a way of protecting myself and staying healthy.

Most poignantly are the passions in my life. Building a shelf, lashing a complicated structure to protect life and limb, painting a portrait to get it just right, writing and rewriting a piece of dialog for a story; these are all passions I love.

I pour my heart and soul into my passions. My girlfriend and significant other is the most important passion in my life. I tend to put aside other passions in order to do for her. Helping others, even the little things, is also important to me. Whether it’s offering a drink to a house guest, helping someone find their lost keys, or helping someone in distress, I do with the love of passion.

When I put aside time to work on my creative works, my passions really come alive. I recall and relive those feelings. I get lost in the creative process. Even now, as I write this entry, my body and soul are coming alive as these feelings flood every nook and cranny.

Time seems to slow or even stop. Adrenaline floods my body, my mind focuses on the work and everything else disappears. It’s a wonderful feeling. In my mind, I go somewhere else. Just ask anyone who has observed me in this state. I’m gone from this world and I’m in another world. I’m so far gone, that it frustrates my girlfriend to no end. Whether she wants to make dinner, spend time with me, or just ask my opinion, she finds it hard to break in. When I finally acknowledge the interruption, I can get upset, even angry. I lose my train of thought. I lose my mojo.

I don’t mean it. I would prefer to not snap and get upset. She doesn’t deserve the response and she tries to be patient but at times, not. Sorry honey. Together, we work it out, make adjustments and move forward.

Yet, I can’t get away from this alternate reality I go to in my mind when I’m creating, painting or writing. It’s fun. It’s addicting. It’s a far better alternative to prefering alcohol, drugs or just being a dickwad.

I can’t wait to re-enter the zone of my passions. What about you? What are your passions that you love.

Leave a trail

June 27, 2016

Good morning all you readers out there. I had a long and tiring weekend but today I’m refreshed and happy. I spent Friday night with friends who cooked us a fine meal and engaged me with spirited conversation well into the night. Saturday, I went to a wedding at the ball park. After the wedding, the reception was held in one of the ball park suites where a battle raged on the field. After the game, I were treated to fireworks. I’ll bet that there aren’t too many people who can honestly say that they had fireworks on their wedding night.

Not that kind! Well, that too but I am referring to the kind where gun powder is fired into the air which explodes into a multitude of light and sonic boomers. I had a wonderful time. Sunday was recovery day. I was wiped out and I needed to rest and recover.

But I digress. I read a cool quote this morning which I’d like to share with you.

“Do no go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Reading this quote, I was hit with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, following the path is easy. It’s what is expected. Fall in line, conform, and do as your told. I know that my girlfriend would welcome this from me, at least, some of the time. Yet, one of the reasons she loves me is that I do blaze my own trail. I go my own way. I forage ahead and damn the consequences.

Admittedly, I’ve gotten into trouble on a number of occasions and paid a price for my independence. Yet, it is who I am. One thing I’ve learned in life is that to be happy with myself, I have to be who I am. If I’m not happy with me and who I am, how the f**k can I make someone else happy.

So, I walk where there is no path. I am enjoying this period of discovery. It’s filled with wonder and joy. True, I make a wrong turn now and then and I need to back track a bit. So what. It’s a learning experience. What I still need to figure out is how to leave a trail. I do so in my professional life. Yet, I need to figure out how to leave a more lasting trail in my personal life.

I have talent for doing things. Whether it is hanging a TV on the wall so it won’t fall off or grilling a steak to perfection, I manage to do things in creative ways that people appreciate, or so they tell me. Yet, it is not enough. I want to more. I want to blaze a trail for others to enjoy.

Which is why I write and paint. I can express myself in ways that is impossible to do in real life. Perhaps some of my creative works will survive my life. Wouldn’t that be cool? Can you imagine? What if a hundred years from now, some picks up one of my books and reads it, or stumbles across one of my paintings and says, “Wow!”

What would Mona think? Would she enjoy someone reading her story well after her author moved on? I think she would. There is a lot of me in Mona.

What about you? What do you think?

Goal without a Plan

June 22, 2016

I was poking around this morning, wondering what I might write about and I stumbled across this quote.

“A goal without a plan is simply a wish.” CalamusWorks

I can’t think of a day in my life where I hadn’t chosen a goal without establishing a plan. It seems natural to me. I make plans almost without conscious thought.

Take for example my recent move from my old home to my new one. Once the decision was made, I started developing the plan to make it happen and as efficiently as possible. It took months to make it happen but it did. Whenever I leave the house to do a number of errands, I don’t just get in my car and go. Instead, as I’m buckling in, I plan my route to be as efficient as possible. That means, go from one destination to another without crossing my path. Some people say I’m being ridiculous. Though I can see their point, I don’t agree. Gasoline is expensive and I don’t want to waste it by retracing my route.

When it comes to writing and painting, I also have a plan but those seem to be much more fluid in nature. It drives me crazy but I have to keep adjusting the plan as each day goes by. I know what my end goal is and I have plan to get there. However, I keep coming across so many unknowns and interruptions that I find it hard to stay on the path (plan).

Sometimes, it is simple fatigue. Sometimes someone needs my assistance and I’m glad to help. Sometimes obligations get in the way. Not that I don’t want to live up to my obligations. I do, though sometimes I wish they didn’t exist. I accepted them so I will make sure I deliver.

These and many more tend to pull me away from following the plan to writing success.

Which raises the question. With any goal and the plan that makes it happen, what is the measure of success in reaching that goal? Buying and house and moving, seems easy enough. Sign the closing papers and move in. Run an errand?

What is my measure of success in reaching my goal of becoming a well-known and successful author and painter? I have to give that some more thought. That too seems to be fluid. I want to be successful, I need to define what it means to be a successful author and painter.

Stay tuned. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

You sometimes describe yourself as ‘deviant’. If you consider yourself normal, why is that?

January 15, 2016

Let’s go back to Webster’s Dictionary definition of the word.

Deviant def: ‘different from what is considered to be normal or morally correct.’

Now mind you, I say that I am sometimes a deviant from the side of my mouth, in jest. Yet, I do feel that at times. I was raised in a traditional home with liberal thinking parents and a house full of female siblings. I instinctively know that I think differently from so many people around me. Most of my community, including family and friends, are more traditional in their thinking than I. They are more conservative and middle of the road in their thinking. They aren’t open-minded and appear to be set in their ways.

Normality, as in the American dream, was what I ever known. Religious, hard working, earning a living and eating dinner at 6 pm with the family was my norm.

You get the picture.

Me, I don’t subscribe to this view of life. It’s way too ‘vanilla’ for me. I rebelled from this mindset when I became an adult. I believe in whatever makes you happy so long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.

I believe in the right to love who you want, sleep with whomever, one on one or more. I believe in monogamy, polygamy and group marriage even though I don’t believe I could deal with the stress of multiple spouses. One is quite enough, thank you very much.

I believe in sharing and loving without reservation. With that, I do have expectations in those whom I love. I believe in polyamorous family units. I believe in same-sex marriage. I believe in being single as well, if it suits you.

I believe in power exchange in adult play among consenting partners.

I believe in doing what’s best for myself, my family and my friends. I believe in giving of myself. I believe that it is okay to have expectations from those you love. They say ‘you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends’. I say you can choose both. If family or friends don’t live up to your expectations and can’t offer you what you need, then I choose to find a new family and new friends.

Not that I live outside society’s norms. I will, however, try to rise above society’s expectations and pull the rest of you along with me, if I can. If I see that you have something to offer to help me rise to greater heights, I will accept whatever gifts you offer in attaining growth and enlightenment.

So to that extent, I consider myself a deviant … also normal.

2016 May it be a great one!

January 1, 2016

2016 A great one to come?

You’ll note that the image I’ve used for this post is one where the year is scratched into the sand.

It’s beach sand and I wonder, will it be washed away from the surf, scraped away by some angry foot or harden and turn to stone for all eternity.

I wish that 2016 will be a superb year, filled with promise and hope for the future of our species. If anything, the past several years makes me wonder whether we as a species will be around a millennium from now. I wonder. There seems to be so much hate in the world, closed-minded people who insist that everyone believe and act as they do, whether we as a species can surmount these challenges and boldly move forward into the 21st century.

Even if we do survive to the 22nd and 23rd centuries, what will they say about our current period on this planet. I can’t help wonder that they would say “Just how the hell did the species survive?”

Mona and Honey live sometime in the next millennium, 35th century perhaps, and somehow, their community has figured out a way to accept each other for whom they are. They are opened minded enough to realize that all members of our species have something to contribute to society as a whole.

Let’s see if we can emulate their example and accept that each of us, have something to contribute to the global community.

If you have a greeting or a wish you wish to extend to someone, please feel free to share it here. I’ll be happy to repost it to all of my followers. In the meantime, may 2016 be a great one for you.

As 2015 winds down

December 31, 2015

As 2015 gives way to 2016

As the year 2015 winds down and as we prepare to welcome 2016, I plan on remembering both the good and the bad that happened in my life this past year.

If there is any one thing I’ve learned this past year, it’s that our failures as well as our successes that make me the person I am today. Those experiences will also shape the person I will become tomorrow.

As we celebrate this new year, it is my sincerest wish that our celebrations are done with love, compassion and fellowship with our neighbors, both near and far. Even if they live on the other side of the globe, we all deserve the respect of being who we are.

If you are looking for a New Year’s Resolution, I would offer you this one.

Find a way to accept your neighbor into your heart, regardless of their race, sex, nationality or religious belief.

Where do you write?

December 28, 2015

“Where do you write?”

This question was posed to me recently so I thought I would give it a stab. Everywhere, I suppose. I do remember that I started writing my initial books sitting on my deck in the middle of the summer.

Not exciting to most but I was able to soak up the sun at the same time. Sun worshiping weather is kind of rare in my area of the country. Glare on the screen hampered my ability to see the laptop so a deck umbrella was a necessary accessory.

Moving indoors, I either sit in a chair in my living room or my studio with the game on or more likely, playing music in the background. Since I have a day job I may write while on lunch, often at a table at a nearby café. I’m used to typing while slowly munching on a sandwich or drinking a cup of coffee.

That’s the wonderful thing about today’s laptop computers and tablets. I can write almost anywhere, if I choose. I like utilizing any spare time to write including jotting down a chapter or two in the waiting room as my car was being serviced. I prefer the use of a laptop and tablets since I can later read what I wrote which is a big plus.

Mostly though, I write the bulk of my books sitting in a recliner in my bedroom. “Huh?”

Well, for me, my brain is constantly playing imagery in the background. It seems my best dialog comes to me at four in the morning while I’m half asleep. It is that sleep state between being fully awake and fully asleep where my mind floods itself with recollections of music, imagery and/or conversations. If you don’t experience it, consider yourself lucky. I might be jealous of you, though.

The dialog runs at super speeds in my semi-conscious state and if I am fortunate to realize it, I get out of bed, pick up my computer and begin furiously writing it all down before I forget it all. Trust me, if I wait until a decent hour, the scene and the dialog is lost forever. So, I’m up at four a.m., writing furiously and it often continues right on into mid-morning or later.

So, that’s how and where I write my books. How about you? Where do you write, paint or whatever you enjoy doing. Please write a comment and let me know. I would enjoy sharing common experiences with you. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas

On this day, around the world people are celebrating the holiday as is their custom in their native lands. I hope you remember the ones you are not with you on this special day. Whether they be protecting your country, on assignment helping to support their families or simply living afar, please send them your love. It’s the most precious gift one can give.

If you wish to share a holiday memory or send a message to a loved one, I welcome your comments. I’d be happy to share them with my followers.

Merry Christmas

Season’s Greetings

December 24, 2015

Season’s Greetings

Wishing you and yours the very best time in this holiday season.

I welcome your comments regarding your season’s memories or if you simply wish to share a season greetings to a loved one. I’ll be happy to share them with all of my followers.

Happy Holidays

December 23, 2015

Happy Holidays

As I write another chapter for my next book, I am reminded just why we are all here on this planet. Contemplating just how Mona and Honey would approach this holiday, I can’t help wonder that ultimately, they would gather their respective families together, share fellowship, various stories of the past year of their dearly departed and they would welcome their newest members of their households.

They would also sit down together, share a meal, engage in conversation, seek out those they barely know and even enjoy each other, be it in fellowship, their bodies or simply, their common experiences.

We are a community. We are a global community. We all live together for the common goal and support of one another. I trust everyone on this planet feels the same way. I would love to hear your stories, your holiday memories and your wishes for the new year. I’d be happy to publish them here on this blog and share them with all my followers.

I hope that our own future is akin to their experiences. It is also my hope that our entire global community will celebrate the coming holiday with love and compassion for our fellow neighbor.

I look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, have a very Happy Holiday.

What inspired you to write?

December 16, 2015

What inspired you to write?

Hmmmm … I suppose I’ve been writing in one form or another all my life. I remember writing short stories as a kid. I remember one story I wrote that later became a motion picture but that is another story in of itself.

Later, as an adult, I chose a career where I would write code for programs. I even got recruited by a company because I reverse engineered their software and began writing programs against their platform. They were so impressed, I got an upgraded job.

Writing programs exercised my creativity as well as the logical sides of my brain for decades. It was enough to figure out what to write and deliver a product that many people used each and every day. I got paid to do it yet there was never a question or an interest in receiving residuals for the work!

Jump ahead to the later part of my life and I was becoming increasingly anxious to create something other than computer code. I picked up pencil and paper and rediscovered drawing. Picking up paint and brushes, I rediscovered painting. For a while, I thought about trying to market my creative works. I was quickly frustrated by the process and abandoned my feeble marketing efforts. I still draw and paint but I do it for the love of the craft.

Frustrated by not being able to capture the imagery in my head fast enough, I dabbled with writing. Eventually, I stumbled upon an idea that really excited me. So, I wrote and wrote. Over time I must admit but I was determined to finish the story.

When I shared the finished product with friends, I was astounded by the response. They demanded that I publish it and continue writing.

So, now I’m working on a new career. One in which I do part-time now and will devote full-time after I retire from business. I enjoy writing and if I make money doing something I love, wow! Who is to say that someone might even like it enough to sign me to a movie deal? Wouldn’t that be cool?

What inspires you to do what you love?

What was YOUR favorite part of ‘The Taste of Honey’?

December 9, 2015

What was YOUR favorite part of the book?

There are many favorite parts. They include among many, Mona’s dungeon play with Master Charles, the execution scene of Honey’s perpetrator, Mona’s investigation into Honey’s disappearance, Mona’s budding relationship with Renée and Honey’s final scene as she is preparing for her live roasting.

As I look back at each scene and how I felt when I wrote them, I realized that it was Honey’s roasting scene that was my favorite part. While the sex and her spitting is graphic, it was the love story that developed out of it that really captured my interest.

I wrote it from the first person perspective so that the reader would connect with Honey and accept her decision for a live roasting.

What I really liked about the scene is that you’re inside her head, experiencing what she experiences. You feel her final hours as she has her final sex with her Master, loving him as he discovers that he, in fact, loves her also. You, as the reader, experience the spit pushing into her sex, traveling through her body and exiting out her mouth. Ewe! You are right there with Honey as they gut her insides. You see what she sees as she is carried over to the fire pit and begins to roast. Through her eyes, you see her family and friends looking on, before she succumbs to the heat of the fire.

What I really liked about this scene is how I felt as I wrote it. When I started the writing the scene, my mind seemed to divorce itself from my body. My fingers flew over the keyboard. As the scene developed, I got wrapped up in her character. I felt for her. For awhile, I became her.

Ultimately, the scene defines the love relationship between Honey, her Master, her family and her closest friends, including Mona. Her spirituality is so strong that no one can divert her from this course. Even her own Master has told her over and over again that she did not need to do this. In this moment, he realizes that he loves and needs her. He needs her in his life and doesn’t want her to roast.

Honey, however, believes that she has a higher calling. Honey believes that her actions will help save them. She believes that her decision will allow her to live forever in him and her loved ones. As a result, they will live healthier and happier lives.

So, for those and for many other reasons, that is my favorite part of the book. What’s yours?

How did you come up with the title ‘The Taste of Honey’?

December 7, 2015

How did you come up with the title? Did the title come first or did the story?

For months, I had a concept of what I wanted to write. I had developed the idea of a future history of the human race dependent upon consuming themselves to survive. Originally, I had thought at it would be the result of a devastating war that put the species on the brink of extinction. It wasn’t until later, that I came up with the GMO angle running wild, systematically wiping out all protein based biologically life on the planet.

Yet that didn’t help me decide on a specific story line. I wanted a story in which I would highlight a main character who would by the end, decide to be live roasted and her meat consumed by her family and close friends. I wanted the live roasting to be the character’s choice and not forced upon the character. Further, I wanted the other main characters to feel comfortable with consuming the meat of one who had been one of their own. I struggled over months to find a way to carry out that goal.

In that time, I wrote draft after draft but none of them spoke to me. Then one day, while sitting on my deck, enjoying roasting under the summer afternoon sun, the phrase ‘The Taste of Honey’ hit me. It was a eureka moment. As I reflected upon the phrase, I decided immediately that it would be the title of the story.

Now, at that time, I wasn’t even thinking about publishing the story. I just wanted to write it. Now that I had a title, the rest of the story came together in a flash. Within minutes, I was furiously writing notes, capturing thoughts and ideas before they flashed out of existence. For me, it was a race to document the ideas, never mind whether I would use them all.

A couple of hours later, I had a clear concept of what I wanted to write and I began writing anew. Honey was not only to be the subject of the title but she would be a main character in the story.

It was a journey of self discovery, of retrospection and of desire. Desire in the sense of curiosity of seeing the story come to its conclusion. I knew what I wanted to write but I wanted to see it written on paper. The story took on a life of its own and before I knew it, it was no longer a short story but a full length novel.

An Editor’s Viewpoint

December 4, 2015

An Editor’s Viewpoint

by Janet Maggio

I just completed editing the novellas included in ‘The Client Series’. I look forward to editing Richard Verry’s writings since I see first hand what a great author he is becoming, especially with character development. As in any book, I like to define myself with one of the characters. ‘The Client Series’ was difficult for me. It identifies with one of my greatest fears against the female gender and it is so timely with what is happening in the world today, Human Trafficking.

I like reading and editing with Rich. Those sessions have created heated discussions and since Richard knows I am impatient, he keeps telling me to hang on and “you will feel better” after reading ‘Her Essentia’. I hate to admit it yet he was right! I do feel better.

I hope you enjoy the series too. Please read all three and I implore all women to get through them all.

It will soon be available on his site, www.richardverry.com.

How I came to write ‘The Taste of Honey’ (part 2)

December 1, 2015

With a title, I had a really rough idea of how I wanted the story to go. At the time, I wasn’t thinking I would publish it but I want to write a fresh and new story. As I researched the story idea, I found little that someone else hadn’t already written about my idea. Great! Time to get writing in earnest.

So, with a title and a rough, and I mean really rough, concept, I began writing. No outline, no framework that existed except in my head. As the stories developed, I wrote draft after draft refining it as I went along. I wrote a future history and an encyclopedia of the rules and concepts of the universe I was creating. Over the years, the drafts and the supporting material got more and more refined.

This process went on for two years. During that time, I didn’t tell anyone that I was writing a full length novel. As the months went by, I would pick it up and work on it. At other times, weeks would go by without even thinking about it. Six months before I finished it, I resolved myself to work harder at it. Diligently, I would write a chapter a day or so. Then, a funny thing happened.

I started waking up at four in the morning with awesome dialog running through my head of this scene or that one. Like the imagery that invades my thoughts, the dialog my half asleep mind developed was perfect. Instead of trying to fall back asleep, I would get up and write for a couple of hours. On weekends, I would write well into mid-morning.

My lady-love would wake up and begin talking to me and I’d ask her to hang on until I finished my thought. At times she’d be okay and at other times, not. Oops! Not good. But the unwritten dialog was just too good to interrupt. I had to capture it and I beg forgiveness and kept on writing.

Then, while on a trip to Florida, I did a final push and finished the book. That’s when I involved my girlfriend and other friends, editing it again and again. They all told me, “Rich, you need to publish this. It’s too good not to.”

So, I published it and immediately began writing in earnest, driving myself to continue Mona and Honey’s story. Four months later, I released the sequel ‘Broken Steele’. I’ll tell you about how that came to be written in a future blog.

Marketing on Social Media

October 13, 2015

So, I’ve been on social media for a while now, and the more I learn about it, the more I realize that it is an important part of marketing my books and artwork. The folks who I now following have lots of great ideas and thoughts that make a whole lot of sense to me. I hope that my posts do the same for you.

What bothers me is that it seems that I have to pay attention to the feeds throughout the day, everyday. Don’t get me wrong, it can be fun but it can be tedious as well.

I struggle with the idea that I have to post multiple times a day. I don’t believe that I would do justice to my followers. The ones I’ve been in direct contact with, tell me that my thoughts and insights are interesting. They want to read them. Makes me smile. Thanks to all who get this far in my essay.

So, back to struggling with this whole new venture involving social media. I find that I seem to be spending more time marketing than writing or painting. I also have a real full-time job. I don’t want that to be jeopardized by what I do here.

So, how do I balance everything? I presume that in the years to come, I’ll figure it out and it won’t be so intrusive on my time. Yet, I have a driving need to promote my creative works. It’s not so much selling my books or my fine art. It’s more that I love the idea of people appreciating my work enough that they want their very own copy of it, or the original for that matter when it comes to my art.

I’m not saying that I am a world class author or artist. Time will tell in that front. But, I believe I’m good and I’ll only get better by doing what I love to do.

Writing and painting. Right now, writing has the nod. But how do I do that while promoting, marketing and supporting myself on a shoestring budget.

Your thoughts and ideas are most welcome. Please send me your thoughts. I really want to hear from you.

Thanks for reading and have a cup of coffee or tea; a glass of wine or the taste of a good woman or man. Till next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, which isn’t much.

Book Covers Help

October 5, 2015

So, I need help. I’m hoping you can help.

As a relatively new indie book author/publisher, I struggle every time trying to find the best photos to use as the basis for a cover. As I am also an artist, I like to do my own digital design .

In the past, I’ve licensed photos from iStock and 123RF. As I get deeper into book authoring and publishing, I am astounded by the covers I’ve seen from other indie authors.

I’d love to hear from all you indie authors as to where and how you develop your covers. Are there better sites for selecting and licensing photos for covers? Googling helps but I consistently get sucked in to sites that sell these services. I’d rather license the photo and do the rest of the work myself.

Oh, I need to keep the licensing costs down. One photo I found, the owner wanted hundreds of dollars to give me a minimal license. Suffice to say, I didn’t buy it.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Thanks for sharing.

Mentally drained

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2016 A great one to come?

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As 2015 gives way to 2016

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“Where do you write?”

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

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Season’s Greetings

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Happy Holidays

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What inspired you to write?

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