Arrivals - Part 3

I now have 100 copies each of The Secret Cellar, The Hitchhiker, and The ABZ Affair.



Now I can show you all three. I love how cover artist, Linda Sandow, used different palettes for each one and yet kept the tone similar and the wonderful intensity of the colors! Here are the fronts together.



And the backs:



I even like the spines together. How about a whole shelf full of these volumes? Maybe someday. I have plots for two more in my head already.



I also ordered padded mailers today. Linda and I will have a marathon signing session early next week and get these out to you if you've pre-ordered.

Only three more days at the reduced price and guaranteed autographs. Pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books for $24 (no discount after March 31), they will be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be pre-ordered at Books Leaving Footprints

See Arrivals - Part 2

That One Tiny Thing- Ha!

 
Remember, I said I had one tiny thing to do and The ABZ Affair would be ready to be sent off for approval. Ha!

I started by proofreading the crafts, and as I suspected, it was a good thing I didn't try to do that last night. There was a fair amount more to do on those.

This lengthened the book by a few pages, and that changed the size of the cover, so I had to fix that.

Then I remembered that I wanted to find a better font for the map. I didn't like the one I was using, but the commercial use was free. Did you know that you can't just use any font you want in a book? For a lot of them you are supposed to purchase a commercial license. But I found one I liked that has no restrictions, so I redid the text on the map. I like the results much better. I'll swap them out in the first two books before I order more copies.

Then I also remembered that I wanted to tweak the illustration with the forklift just a little bit, so I did that.

After that.... I did the one tiny thing, which actually took a couple of hours, a general floor plan of the canning factory.

Then, the cover file had to be converted to a pdf, which took forever for some reason today.

But.. ta-DA! By 4:30 I had the whole thing uploaded to CreateSpace and proofed. Clicked the button to have it approved. Hoping everything goes well, and I can order these books tomorrow.

But, I just did one tiny thing, right?

Cases of the first two, The Secret Cellar and The Hitchhiker, have already shipped!

map of the East South River Road Neighborhood for The ABZ Affair


Illustrations for The ABZ Affair

ABZ Affair - Almost There

 
So close to being done with The ABZ Affair! I got the two craft/skill sections done today, but that's about all. It takes a long time to describe things so that a ten-year-old can read and follow the directions. Hope I've succeeded! This is a coder/decoder for a simple substitution code.

the substitution coder/decoder wheel craft in The ABZ Affair

the template coder/decoder craft in The ABZ Affair

This one is a lot more complicated, but it's also a lot tougher to crack. This book was aimed at kids who like a challenging puzzle, and since there are two crafts per book, anyone who doesn't want to try this still has the other one to make.

I illustrated these two crafts with photos.

Wrote the Acknowledgements section. Now I think there is just one tiny, tiny thing to do, and I can send it off to be approved.

Interior Illustrations - The ABZ Affair

 

the friends eat lunch sitting on the playground merry-go-round


Joe-Pye weed and boneset


George drives the forklift


Cora slides the deadbolt

The interior illustrations are now complete, but I still have two secret code graphics to do for the craft/skill pages. Those will be tomorrow.

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books for $24 (no discount after March 31), they will be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be pre-ordered at Books Leaving Footprints



Illustrations - The Hitchhiker

The ABZ Affair - Full Cover for Paperback

My goal is to get the third Dubois Files book, The ABZ Affair, fully formatted and approved this weekend so I can order copies. That will keep me busy for sure! Today I got the cover completed.

This is not as simple as it sounds. In order to get the correct size template to design it, I had to know how many pages the book was. To get that number I had to know how many illustrations I was going to use. So that had to be decided, and temporary placeholders put in the text. I also had to write the text for the back cover.

It says, "George Harris liked writing messages in secret code. In August of 1953, he learned one that was tough to crack, and taught it to his sister Ruby, and then to his friends Jimmie Mosher and Cora Dubois.
When the four of them were offered a job picking up trash at the Cherry Pit Junction canning factory, someone listened in on their conversation and stole a coder.
The children were playing games, but what were the adults up to?"

That took a while to write. The plots of kids books are not too complex, so by telling these details, we're almost halfway through the book! Have to keep some secrets.

Meanwhile, my brain just continues to spin. I have the basic plot for Dubois Files #4 worked out. Thanks to some brainstorming with my friend Ester, she solved the problem of how to keep the kids in the ending.

I came up with the singular event that sets the plot for my potential technothriller in motion. That idea's been cooking for a long time, and it's certainly not on the front burner, but now that I have a key piece of the action... my brain won't let it rest.

So, tomorrow will be all about illustrations for The ABZ Affair. That's the last big project. Oh yeah, and headers/footers and page numbers.

The Hitchhiker - Full Cover for Paperback

The ABZ Affair- Color Cover

 


I am trying really hard to get these three books all formatted for paperback by the end of Wednesday. Still not sure if I'll make it!

Today, I received color cover art from Linda J. Sandow for The ABZ Affair, so although it's not the full size scan, I can show you what that cover will really look like! Don't you just want to know what's going to happen to George and Jimmie when the man comes through the door?

Also, I tried the Hungarian Cherry Soup recipe that will go in The Hitchhiker (It's good, but then... I like pretty much anything with cherries.)

One illustration for The Hitchhiker is done, and I'm actually pretty happy with it. Another one is researched and reference pictures ready to print.

Struggled with more formatting for the cover to The Secret Cellar. I must have used the wrong template by accident because it was rejected. I usually get covers through on the first try. Oh, well. Now I wait again.

I got the ISBN numbers for the paperback and ebooks of The Hitchhiker registered with Bowker. I have to buy another block of numbers. Yikes. Those are a big expense, but one has to have them. And every format has to have its own number. It's significantly cheaper the more you buy, but coughing up the money for 100 of them would really hurt. I'm sure I'd eventually use them, though. Once I start putting books in audio format that will gobble up a pile right there. Might bite the bullet.

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books, we've just sweetened the pot. They will now also be signed by the cover artist, as well as by me. Unless you are local, this may be your only chance to get copies signed by both of us. Signed sets can be preordered at a discount at Books Leaving Footprints



Oh, and I did another writerly thing that involves a contest and a deadline. Will tell more when the time is appropriate.