North Country Quest - Cover

After almost 9 years of working on North Country Quest, it's ready to go to the printer! The writing was sporadic for about 7 years, as I branched off into fiction. In 2018 I began to get more serious. In 2019, it's essentially all I've done. Even so, I didn't manage to finish until 2020. But here we are.

This book is even better than North Country Cache. The writing is better. There are more pictures. Hopefully, the printing quality of the cover will be better (long unhappy story that I have to relive every time I look at a copy of NCC).


Today, I'm sharing the cover of the new volume. The design is the same as for the first one, but with pictures that go with these stories.

The image above is the front and spine. Here is the back cover with recommendations by Frida Waara, Polar Adventurer, and Jennifer Pharr Davis, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.

The book will be first available, publicly, at the Quiet Adventure Symposium in East Lansing, MI, on February 29.




See Too Fast at Car Speed for a sample of the first chapter.

Concept Cover - The Bigg Boss

Yes, I'm already working on the outline for the 4th Dubois Files mystery. Title is The Bigg Boss. Mr. Bigg is the owner of the canning factory that Cora's father manages in Cherry Pit Junction. But the friends are about to get to know him better. That might not work out so well.

Here's the concept cover without lettering. I'll be delivering it to Linda J. Sandow tonight so she can begin working her magic.


Tentatively, The Bigg Boss will be available at the July 21 Writers' Rendezvous in Ludington!

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 Hitchhiker - Full Cover for Paperback

 


I had to work at the paper a couple of hours in the middle of the day. That's ok... I'll take all the money I can get between now and the end of that job.

After having the cover for the paperback of The Secret Cellar rejected twice (!!) I was getting frustrated. But, the fault was mine. I wasn't paying attention, and the bottom of the g on my name was hanging into the area where no text is allowed. It's been submitted again, and hopefully this time will be good.

As you can see, I got the cover for the paperback of The Hitchhiker ready to go as well. This time, I'm pretty sure I haven't made any dumb mistakes.

Also, I submitted my entry to the contest I mentioned.

Got the second craft/skill for The Hitchhiker written up- the cherry soup.

And, I did another illustration. Just one more to go for The Hitchhiker, and then I think that book will be complete. I'd like to get it done tonight. Earlier, it felt like my brain was turning to mush, but I may have gotten my second wind.

If you want to pre-order (through March 31) the set of the first three Dubios Files books, they will now be signed by the cover artist Linda J. Sandow, as well as by me. Signed sets can be preordered at a discount at Books Leaving Footprints



See The Secret Cellar - 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.

The Secret Cellar - Full Cover for Paperback

 


Closing in on finishing all formatting for The Secret Cellar. Here's what the full cover for the print version will look like. Cover art by Linda J. Sandow.

I paid money to get my scanner to talk to my computer again, but it was well worth it. The scanner is a pretty good one, and I wasn't willing to call it a dead lump of plastic again.

I'll get it hooked up soon... maybe tonight, and then I can scan the illustrations and get them finalized.

Release date March 31, 2018. Signed sets can be preordered at a discount at Books Leaving Footprints

The Secret Cellar- First Draft Complete

concept cover for The Secret Cellar

Here's the introduction, followed by the chapter titles for the childrens' mystery, The Secret Cellar. It turned into 22 chapters instead of 20, and a total of about 12,500 words. It's a little longer than my target length, but I'll let my test readers tell me if it's too long.

The picture is a very rough concept sketch for the cover of this first book in the series.

CORA INTRODUCES HERSELF

My name is Cora Caulfield, and I'm an older lady now. But when I was a child, my last name was Dubois. That's French, pronounced dew-BWAH. I lived on the east side of the Thorpe River in Forest County, near where the Thorpe flows into the Petit Sable River. The year I turned nine, in early 1953, Jimmie Mosher moved into the house his grandfather had built on the west side of the Thorpe.

We became friends immediately. He was in the same grade at school, we rode the same bus, and we liked to do a lot of the same things. Things like exploring and trying new activities—if there was a puzzle to be solved, we were an unbeatable team. Friends who lived nearby sometimes joined our adventures.

I've been looking back on those years, and writing down our stories of the many mysterious happenings so they won't be forgotten. I hope you'll enjoy them.

Our first big success at solving a mystery was just after school let out for the summer that year. Jimmie's family had a big problem!

1. JIMMIE AND LASZLO
2. A NARROW ESCAPE
3. THE TENANT FARM
4. HAZEL'S TEARS
5. GRANNY MAY'S SONG
6. JIMMIE AND CORA
7. BASEMENT OR CELLAR
8. CRAWLSPACE
9. A BURIED TREASURE?
10. CORA'S DILEMMA
11. GEORGE AND RUBY
12. MARGIT'S PRESENTS
13. KING OF THE HILL
14. THE SECOND CELLAR
15. DISCOURAGED AND PURPLE
16. FORTY-THREE CENTS
17. THE ACCIDENT
18. THE SECRET CELLAR
19. THE HIDEOUT
20. LIGHT AND SHADOW
21. SOMETIMES SMALLER IS BETTER
22. SAVING THE FARM

Cover for Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp

I wasn't sure that I could get the cover for Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp created as cleanly as the one for News from Dead Mule Swamp, all by myself. I decided to give Farah Evers' design services a try, as she has designed some great covers for other members of Accentuate Writers.

I told her what I had in mind, and she immediately "got it." We did about four rounds of editing until we were both happy with the design. Here it is!



I highly recommend Farah if you need a book cover that is professional and reasonable. Whether you have a concept in mind, or even need someone to help you start from scratch on a graphic representation of your book, she can do the job!

Visit Farah Evers' web site. This link takes you to her graphics services page.

Cover for News from Dead Mule Swamp

About draft three, but I think I'm getting close!

It looks really good in print. I probably need a version that is digitally sharper in a small size for ebooks

Cover for Next e-Book- Fall Off the Couch Laughing

OK, I shouldn't have spent the time, but I just wanted to be able to say I made some progress on this one.

The next collection of my essays will be Fall Off the Couch Laughing. The results are not guaranteed, but they should be good for a chuckle or two!

Now I have to get it all formatted for Smashwords. Hopefully, within the next month.