Day 112

Spoiler Alert! May contain planning-stage plot/character details or other spoilers!

28 Jun 2016

Set up a poll yesterday for the titles; so far ‘Blind the eyes’ is in the lead with 75% of the vote… on three votes, lol. So clearly I’ve got work to do extending my reach… also threw together a cover mockup based on a concept I’ve been playing with. Wanted something simple and graphic, using a niqab-inspired silhouette. I’d been thinking of using Ravel as the cover model, b/c the gold eyes would pop + target female audience, but after thinking it through, that didn’t really make any kind of sense. Ravel would better be shown in full Freedom regalia; as madly exotic as possible. So I went with Cole, and it looks pretty cool… but also (unsurprisingly, in hindsight), way more middle eastern than I intended, or really makes sense. So I guess I should introduce more sparkles & skin… But actually, I’m pretty pleased with the mockup quality, given that I threw it together using watermarked composite photos and in less than an hour. Maybe I can get away with making my own cover? Although, there’s a guy I follow on Instagram that does pro-quality cover art for $5-6K that I should probably spring for instead, especially if I can’t get away with the simple, graphic-look design. I’ve got some basic Photoshope/AdobeCS skills, but nothing fancy, and no real artistic eye.

Frustrating myself with piddling freelance projects again today; some sort of test-section, but it’s under 100 words and heavily industry-specific. Maybe it’ll lead to a heap more work, but in the past this sort of thing has proven to be more of a time-waste than anything else. The rates are fine if I can sail through, but if too much research or endless rewrites are needed, it ends up being far less than minimum wage. Boo. Also, it distracts and takes away from working on this!

Realized I painted myself into a corner yesterday with that new section of backstory for Itri. Dropping his sword in the underground Skytrain tunnel was dramatic and all, but now it makes no sense every time I write him skewering monsters with it… I happen to like swords and other bladed weapons, but they do come off as a little old school for this story anyways, so maybe he’s better off with the knives? Sigh. More rewrites. Would love to start sharing the story around more openly and getting feedback, but every time I move forward, there are more details to be fixed at the beginning.

Tuesday

Start time: 1:30 pm

Location: bedroom

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