Under the Covers 2 Images

These are the photos that go with Rish Outcast Episode 279: Under the Covers: The Coverage Continues.

 1.  

The damage doesn't look as bad from up here.

Big's attempt

Final version (although the chips don't quite look right to me now)

2.  

Rish's mockup . . . huh.

      

Rish's template . . . still weird.

   

Big's final version.

3.   

Original image version.

Image possibilities:

  

    

Final Version

4.  

This one was ALMOST right, but you can
tell I painted out the unwanted elements.

Another image--not exactly what I asked for, but pretty darn good.

The mock-up I sent Big.

   

Big's excellent final version.

5.

6.  

Not terrible, but WAY too muscular.

     

Just fine . . . except for the feet.

Big's final version.

7.  

My original cover (and the one that's been up on Smashwords/Amazon for years)

Big's finished version.

8.  

Original almost-good version.

Big's "finished" version.

9.    

Big's three elements.

Big's finished cover.

10.  

Original 2020 Rish version.

Computer-generated "weird" version.

Rish's fixed version.

11.  

Big's rejected cover.

(just gonna set this here)

Big's final cover.

12.  

Rish's original (2016?) cover, using an Unsplash photograph).  Not bad, really.

A house . . . but no fence or snowstorm.

A house I liked, and a fence I liked (but again, no snowstorm)

Rish's combined template for "Stormy Weather" (again, with no snowstorm).

Big's version, with snowstorm.

13.  

Big's original cover, using a photograph.

A.I.'s attempt at "Fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant."

More baffling "fortune cookies."

Big's final version

14.  

Oh no.

Dear Lord, no.

Get out!  Get out now!

And that's where we leave this . . . for now.

"I Tell You Things, You Tell Me Things...

 ...Quid pro quo, yes or no?"

If you didn't recognize that quote, then you need to watch it again.  Little Starling, fly, fly, fly.

I write A LOT of stories.  So many that I often forget that I wrote them, stumbling upon them later and thinking, "Is that one of mine?  Is that one I finished?  Is that one any good?"

So, today I'm mentioning a story I wrote called "Quid Pro Quo," and the answers are Yes, Yes, and No.

But you know what is pretty good?  The cover Big made for me.  I mean, he may speak Portuguese instead of Spanish, he may not like Tina Turner or food on Wednesdays, and he may occasionally worship Belial, Nephew Of Beelzebub, but the man definitely has a knack for cover design.    

It would NOT create "a man and a goblin shaking hands, standing in a doorway,"
so I had to generate the two images separately.

Last week, I sent him an image of a goblin and an image of a man, and told him to combine them, so it looked like they were shaking hands.  I gave him this mockup (which I recognize is pretty shaky, but it wasn't meant to be seen, not even on this blog):

The rough mockup.

And this was the finished product:

Big's finished, combined version.  They ALMOST look like they're together and touching.

Then, I was pot-committed, as they say in Cricket circles.  

I'll be honest, I would not have published this story AT ALL if Big's cover hadn't been so solid.  He just keeps doing it, too, and that's an enabler of the finest/worst kind.

Speaking of the worst kind, "Quid Pro Quo" is a short story about a man, Alex, who gets a knock on his door by a little man who turns out to be a goblin.  The goblin has a proposal, if Alex will do him some mischief.  

And that is all.  The story can be found HERE.  I recorded it the other night, and tried to "make up" a foreign accent for the goblin to speak in, and ended up sounding like Martin Short's character in FATHER OF THE BRIDE.  On behalf of goblins everywhere, I heartily apologize.

*Write?  Yes.  Finish?  No.

Rish Outcast 277: Under the Covers

Rish and Big Anklevich get together to talk about the cover art they created for Rish's stories, mostly in 2023. Apparently, some of Rish's past covers were so bad, that even he couldn't let them stand.

Note: There is an accompanying blog post at my blog, with all of the images discussed. Check it out HERE or here: https://rishoutfield.blogspot.com/2024/03/under-covers-image.html

Download the file directly by Right-Clicking HERE.

Support me on Patreon HERE!

Support Big on Patreon HERE!

Support your local gunfighter HERE!

Logo by Gino "Undercover Brother" Moretto.

"Rest Stop" One Exit Back

I first started publishing on Amazon in 2013, and did quite a bit of it early on*, but then slowed way down as the months became years.  These things are habit-forming (just ask Big Anklevich, who in 2024, has put out fifty or more stories and collections on the site, and thrice as many covers.

But I got into this habit of putting an Afterward in my stories, explaining where they came from, that I eventually started calling "A Word About The Story."  I would often record an audio version of the story, write the Afterward, then publish it, long before I started editing the audio (many of the stories just sat for years, unedited, and sit there still).

But a few of the earliest ones didn't have Afterwards, and as Big has been helping me switch out my old (and sometimes "old") covers for new ones, that all have the same font and shape of byline, I've been adding a few words at the end of them, when I can.

Enter "Rest Stop," one of my darker little tales about a man whose dog is called by something into the snowy woods and he goes after it.  I revisited the duo in a story last year, and am eager to share it with you (not eager enough to edit or publish it, mind you, but eager nonetheless).  

This was the cover it had had for the last couple of years (which isn't at all bad, even if it has the font that Big soon grew to despise):

You know, it gets the job done.

But I found another image on Unsplash that expressed the same thing**, and is the correct shape, so why not upgrade, right?

I'll try to get to the continuation of Jordan and Geronimo's story sometime this spring or summer.  In the meantime, here it is with a new cover, and a new Afterward.  Or rather, HERE it is.  Thanks.

Same feel . . . just better-looking.

This feels good, so I'm going to keep doing it.

*I also published on Smashwords, which was a bit more open than Amazon, allowing me to make some stories available for free, then distributing them all over the web.  But they required a weird formatting with no tabs and a word-for-word disclaimer that I eventually stopped doing . . . but if you think I should start with them again, I've got eight or ten stories I'd put up there and not on Amazon.

**What I WANTED was a snow-covered sign, where you couldn't read what it said . . . and I found one on Unsplash just the other day that was exactly what I needed.  It must not have been uploaded last year when I went looking for new art.  Should I swap it out . . . or just move on with my life?

Fem-Pro Available On Amazon

In 2021, in this very library, I wrote an introduction to a short story collection featuring girls and women, to be titled "Female Protagonist."  And then it sat.  And sat.  

And sat.

Is this image offensive?  While I sort of hope so, it wasn't meant to be.

But here we are, in the middle of Big's mid-life crisis, and his enthusiasm for publishing and cover art has infected me, to the point where I actually sat down again and finished putting "Female Protagonist" together.

And it was way too long.  I included the stories from the 2021 version (except for "The Night Clerk," since I figured that could go in a Dead & Breakfast collection), and then the two or three stories I had written since 2021 that fit in there . . . and then a couple more I discovered today just going through files.  And we were well past one hundred thousand words.

And that bummed me out.  I had come up with an excellent cover for it*, and I was eager to get it published (Big has put out his collection already, despite starting on his a full two years after mine), but I didn't want to have to lose stories like "The Scottish Scene" and "Underdecorated" and "Subtext."

So . . . why not a second collection of similar tales?  

I could do a Volume 2 sometime, and it was already halfway full!  I asked Big what he thought of a collection called "Female Protagonist Returns," and he counted with "Female Protagonist Strikes Back," or "Dawn of Female Protagonist."

This dookie just writes itself, doesn't it?

But having that excuse, that I could put "deleted" stories into a second collection, made it all easier, and before long, I was done, and ready to publish.**

She's SUPPOSED to be looking in a window, but the green wall or whatever at the bottom is
perfectly-positioned for a title, so that ended up my pick.  And I love it.

There are nine stories, an introduction, and one novella in this one, equaling just over eighty thousand words.  It includes such gems as "Office Visit" and "A Lovely Singing Voice," and then such--what's the opposite of a gem?  A rock, maybe?--rocks as "My Funny Valentine" and "Creature Feature," and "A Gallon A Day."  

So, if you're interested, "Female Protagonist" is available on Amazon at THIS LINK.

And now, maybe I'll get started on the old man one.

P.S. I am working on an audio version of the collection, since I have all the stories recorded . . . but I had forgotten how long just formatting and saving new versions takes (especially since I'm way pickier about sound quality than I was even before the pandemic).  I'm two hours into it, and only partway through "Lovely Singing Voice," which will probably be the story I take a five minute sample from for Audible.  I just got to the part where Tanissa's dad says he's fallen in love, and I had forgotten how awful that moment is . . . good work, whoever wrote that thing.

*Actually, for once, there was an embarrassment of riches in coming up with the image of a teenaged girl looking into a window at something glowing green.  I would've been happy with three or four of the images that A.I. dreamt up for me, though all of them had a slightly different feel (and girl).

**The audio version will take longer.  But hold me to it--you know I am eager to let things lie.

The Sweetest Words Of All

No, not "I've been a very naughty girl!"  What kind of blog do you think this is?

Famous photo of Adolf Hitler writing "Mein Cramp" on his laptop.  He was fond of Lenovos, oddly enough.

Actually, I was talking about the sweetest two words of all, the ones every writer longs for during the process of planning, drafting, reorganizing, and pushing through the uninspired quagmire that inevitably comes.  I got an idea for another Lara Demming story in March, one where she goes to Colorado and gets to see Holcomb interact with other witch-types . . . and finally, I got to this bit:

I finished another story, and that's good.*  But is the story good?

Who knows, and maybe at this point, I should pose the question: Does it even matter?  

You get better at writing by doing it, which makes it pretty much the opposite of any sport where the younger you are, the better (of course, I'm not talking about a nine year old playing basketball--we're talking adults here)(or golf, where Donald J. Trump is a world champion despite being in his late seventies).  I have written excellent stories decades ago, I'll admit it, but now I can see places where they could be improved and discover parts that just don't work, because of my years of experience.

This is my tenth Lara & the Witch story, one that takes place between "The People We Touch" and "Here To Help," and it didn't turn out as dark as I had intended, mostly because Lara Demming is a nicer person than I am.  I also found that the ending I planned for it no longer applied, and had to be entirely thrown out (although I started on a story called "Accept No Substitutes" last year that could use that for an ending, so maybe not entirely). 

I don't have a title for it, but I did try to come up with cover art . . . and did not succeed.  But Big has gotten better and better at taking two images and marrying them into one image, so it might not be a bad cover after all.  You'll find out in a year or so.

This image was a mistake, of me taking a photo of the glowing mushroom I wanted to use on the cover, to send to Big, but it caught my reflection, and when I tried to do it again on purpose, either my face or the shroom ended up out of frame.

*I should've finished it ten or so days ago, but I am easily distracted.  For example, I started this blog post a week ago.