A Whole New Hell

Wow, this will make three, count 'em, THREE blog entries this month! Can you stand the excitement? LOL

Well, the good news is I've finished the last round of edits on Lucky Dog and it is even now in the hands of my editor. I'd make some flippant remark about all the different ways she could tell me how bad the book is, but I don't want to give her any idea. ;-)

So while I'm waiting to get my book back, I thought it might be a good idea to start working on the cover. When I wrote the first half of the book during NaNo I came up with a mock-up cover for it, but I've since been informed that the picture I wanted to use is unavailable. It's too bad, really, because it would have been perfect.

So now I'm perusing the stock photos for a new cover dog. Have you any idea how many dog photos there are? Thousands. And that's just on the site (Dreamstime) I'm using.

It's a tricky thing, searching for a particular picture. You can't be too specific - black dog in woods - or the search will come up empty. But 'black dog' leaves you wide open to 311 pages of dog photos.

You gotta wonder about some of these filters though. While I can understand the inclusion of puppies and poodles and dogs that only have a smidgeon of black on them, I have to wonder about the inclusion of the woman posing with a china dog. Okay, she's dressed in black and the china dog is black, but what about the guy in the hoodie holding the Pomeranian? The only thing black in that picture is the background. And although I've met a few dogs that were the size of small horses, I'm a little surprised when a horse shows up in my search for a dog. Ditto for the red rose and the cat.

But this is how I've spent my Sunday afternoon, and I've narrowed it down to two possible candidates. There's gotta be a better way of doing this, right?

Of course there is! If I had any money I could pay someone to do it for me. But I don't, so I can't.

And the solution for that is quite simple. I just need all of you out there, and your friends, to buy my books. :-D