Is getting a dog a good enough excuse for my absence these past couple of months? A lot has been going on. Freelancing is finally starting to take off for me, I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to live after this autumn, and I’ve done a healthy amount of slacking off.

But I don’t want to let creating slip through the cracks, so I’m back to my projects. My goal is to have a short story available on kindle by the end of the month, and then I’ll go back to book four.

Here’s a peek at what I’ve been up to this week. When I published Eye of the Void, CreateSpace had just started offering the option of matte finish covers in addition to glossy. I ordered one, loved it, and immediately decided I would rework my first two covers. I have always been less than happy with my cover for Children of Fire, so this was a perfect opportunity.

That’s one of the beauties of self publishing. If I want to change something, that’s exactly what I do.

Here’s the original print cover. I have since tweaked the text and added in a book blurb to the back, but the image is more or less the same:

And here is the rework I’m proofing:

Since my first cover, I feel I’ve learned a lot about cover design, my own artistic abilities (or lack thereof) and how CreateSpace covers translate to their printers. Hopefully these bolder, more dramatic colors will make the image pop a little more and draw more attention. I also discovered mixing and manipulating fonts when I made the cover for Eye of the Void, and couldn’t wait to create something more interesting for this one.