Wednesday, July 4, 2012

First things first, Happy Independence Day!  
Here's a photo of cake (that I didn't make, boo) that will probably make you very hungry. And have the urge to bake. Or maybe that's just me. 


(source lovefromtheoven)

So earlier this week I had a mini revelation, and I knew I had to share it with all of you. 

Multi-tasking. Is. Ridiculous. 

We're inching closer (and closer, and closer) to Friday, aka #ObumbrateDay (you can sign up to attend the online event on Facebook here or just Twitter hashtag #ObumbrateDay), or as I like to call it, The Day I Spend More Time Staring At Amazon Than Any Other Day of The Year. Between working a 12-hour shift at my day job, I'll be slamming the internet like a giddy author, happily posting quotes and answering questions and doing flash giveaways all day. 

But until that day actually comes, I've been doing a mountain of prep behind the scenes! Designing t-shirts, formatting the digital version of Obumbrate for Kindle/Nook/iBooks, completing paperback and hardback designs, promo items, bookmarks, I could list this stuff all day. I'm also pretty sure that if I wasn't so twitchy about being hands-on with my projects, I could have someone do some of this stuff for me and reduce the work load, but honestly where is the fun in that? 

But back to topic. Multi-tasking is a miserable feat, and one that, if conquered, I tip my hat to you. I've only barely managed to juggle work, family, friends, and all the little things in-between and maybe catch my breath along the way. Example, my Monday kind of went like this: 

9AM- Up. Acknowledge that the dishes did not magically finish themselves last night. Inwardly sob. 
9:30AM- Receive email from CreateSpace, kindly informing me my cover was rejected because one of the E's was toeing the red line. Promptly rage. 
10AM-2PM- Re-do cover. Get distracted along the way with imgur. Curse those cat photos. 
2-4PM- Oh hey, those dishes still haven't finished themselves! And they're... growing. 
4-8PM- Head over to friend's house for a few hours. Insert random stop at Starbucks and B&N.  
8PM-3AM- Can't sleep, so let's do more graphic design! 

Rinse and repeat for two days. Only add more later. 
In hindsight, this doesn't look that bad. But something about trying to make a photo look good and accepting it in the end is impossible. 

Oh, speaking of! If you've been lurking around Goodreads, you've probably seen the new cover for Illumine. Surprise! If not, as a 4th of July and early #ObumbrateDay treat, here's the cover.


2 comments:

  1. I felt the need to do everything with my book too. I'm glad I did, there were a lot of mistakes and I had to redo things over and over - even after I first released the book! But I know what goes into the process, which is why I can now happily delegate out certain tasks on the book I've currently got in production.
    Good work on your cover.

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    1. Pardon the pun, but I'm on the same page as you, Charmaine! There's been so much I have re-done or adjusted and if I didn't have the creative control like I do now, I surely would have gone mad about it. Has it gotten an easier for you down the road when it comes to setting up stuff, be it book formatting or creating graphics?
      And thank you for the compliment! Pretty sure I would have became a graphic design student if I hadn't still had this insatiable urge to write all the time, hah!

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