Bad Seeds Preview

Coming out soon on Amazon, the first volume in my continuing science fiction/supernatural thriller series, Bad Seeds.

Here’s the opening section of the first novella, Hack 1: Enter Sandman. Each volume will be self-contained but with continuing back stories. Comments welcome, even at this stage.

Mr. Sandman
Bring me a dream
Make her complexion
Like peaches and cream
Give her two lips
Like roses in clover
Then tell me that my lonesome nights are over
— The Chordettes

THE DAY I DIED it was sunny and the birds were singing. Typical. I’d been hoping for a minimum of some gloomy stormclouds and a dramatic drumroll of thunder. Not too much to expect since that’s my city’s default weather pattern. Still, once you’ve decided to off yourself you’ve forfeited the right to be choosy.

On the upside there was one thing I could be choosy about: my exit strategy. Suicidal or not, I’m no masochist. Pain not being my thing, I had to figure out the best way to shuffle off my mortal coil so that it wouldn’t sting too much.

I considered the following options:

Gunshot to the head.

Poison.

Jumping off a tall building.

Slashing my wrists.

Hanging myself.

All of the above have more cons than pros, though. Gunshhot; a chance of not hitting the relevant vital organ straight away. Poison; could take too long and the potential for a futile change of mind. Jumping: like they say, it’s not the fall that kills you but hitting the ground — and the falling would be a little too scary. Blade to the wrists; again, too much thinking time. Hanging — a snapped neck is okay, but slow suffocation isn’t.

It took weeks to hit upon the final method. It was a stroke of genius, too. Not that my damned guardian angel thought so.

Evolution of a book jacket

One of the most challenging aspects of being an indie author is creating a book cover. I’m fortunate in one respect, in that I worked for a number of years as a graphic designer. But I am not an artist. My line was mainly typography, layout, logo design, publication design and so on. Along the way I learned to use PhotoShop, Illustrator and other graphics programs. So I feel relatively comfortable doing a layout.

To some extent, it’s possible to use freeware images, or combine images to create something original. But, in an ideal world, if you can afford it, there are plenty of excellent artists and photographers out there who offer their skills at a modest price (or some form of bartering).

Recently, I found a very talented artist on Deviant Art – Ted-Mx (Fyodor Ananiev). He and I are working together on a cover for the first volume in a novella series called Bad Seeds. I’ve used one of his existing images to create the draft cover below.

I found a free font, called Xirod, which I used for the branding and subtitle. The other text is simply a standard font. I reversed the first E on the word Seeds to visually suggest what the word means (black sheep, or people who dysfunctional in some way, or with criminal tendencies – all of the above describe my slightly warped “heroes”). I’ll tell you more about the series itself later, but meantime I’d value comments and feedback on this initial cover idea.