3words August – day 1 of ??

And so here we are. Well, I say ‘we’… 😉

Like I posted earlier, ‘we’ are going to be inspired by one or more of the girls on vickiedoodles’ site here:

http://vickiedoodles.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-girls.html

Oh, and if you visit/link vickiedoodles’ site please keep everything appropriate. Thank you

Would you like a ‘rules’ reminder?

  • I post 3words every day for the duration of the story
  • ‘we’ write 100 words of an ongoing story each day
  • ‘we’ repeat these two steps until ‘we’ reach the final day

Simple. 🙂

Ok, so here are the day1 3words… CONFESSCIRCLECONTACT.

And part1 of my story…

 

“I know one of you did it, and I won’t stop till I find out which.”

I glared at each of the six girls in turn, forcing them into a moment’s direct eye contact, hoping one might look away, thereby confessing. But none did, and I knew I shouldn’t have expected it to be that easy.

They were sitting in a circle in the garden, while I paced around the outside of them, thinking that by forcing them to see the others it might also provoke a confession. But, again, I wasn’t confident.

“Okay,” I said. “Who wants to start?”

 

 

3words Redux kindle available

Yes, that’s right – I managed to NOT focus on my EconomyEdits job for the weekend, the first two consecutive days I’ve not client-edited since I began.

Thanks for the ok, Nicole. 😉

On top of that, I actively worked on ME things. First, I tarted up all the 3words shorts that I wanted to include in the collection. Then I created an eBook. And then I began working on the paperback version (give it a couple of days – tomorrow’s busy, and I’m back on the job again :)).

Oh, and I finished reading my novel TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but… Man, I enjoyed reading that. I do think the intentional typos could be an issue, though, so will be stop-gapping that tomorrow or Tuesday by adding a “WARNING: TYPOS AHEAD!” type page at the start. And then see from there.

But today is more about 3words Redux now being available on Amazon as an eBook, and can be found here:

I do like that cover. 🙂

And don’t forget – 3words August will be upon is in just a few days… so please seriously think about committing just 10 minutes a day to an ongoing story. You never know – you may love it! Obviously, I think you will. 🙂

 

 

CreateSpace & Kindle covers – an idea

A quick word about creating covers for Kindle and paperback via Amazon and CreateSpace.

Yes, both can be strugglesome and limiting. As I’m sure you’ve found.

But something I’ve found that is possible with covers at both is… you can design your own front (and back, with CreateSpace) cover elsewhere via another platform and then upload the whole thing as a single file. This will then cover ALL of the front (and back at CreateSpace) if you opt for the relevant template. Of course, the file needs to be BIG to avoid blurring, and the DPI for the image preferably mahoosive.

Another thing I found is that you can play around with the Author & Title text boxes. I liked one design for my collection Swimming In Clouds, but didn’t like where the Author & Title boxes were PLACED, so, I simply switched them around, and effectively had my author name as my book title and my book title as my name.

For example, in the image below:

swimming cover 0107

 

This was created using a Kindle template. However, DAVID BURTON is in the book title box, SWIMMING IN CLOUDS is in the subtitle box, and TEN TALES OF FAILURE AND HOPE is in the author name box. All I did was type over the text in each box as above, then clicked preview and saved that file. Of course, when I backed out the initial page now showed that TEN TALES OF FAILURE AND HOPE was the author of “DAVID BURTON – SWIMMING IN CLOUDS”. All you need do is retype the correct information in the correct boxes, so everything will now list as it should via Amazon. Of course, when you re-open the preview you’ll find everything is rejigged as I just said above, with DAVID BURTON now where SWIMMING IN CLOUDS is in my photo, etc. But all you need do is upload the image and make sure it covers the whole cover and then hit preview and ultimately save, leaving your details where you would prefer them on the cover, but still assigned correctly for Amazon purposes in the file information.

Below is another example, and one I am currently considering for my WONKY MONKY series. The image of the monkey and the noticeboard is an image at i-Stock that I am close to buying.

monkey sample

 

All I did with this was open it with Paint, then stretch it, and then simply create some text boxes and filled in the relevant information, leaving me with this:

wonky sample 0107

And then I uploaded it to a CreateSpace template, adding the blurb on the back, so we have this:

wonky BookCoverPreview

I simply need to convince myself that this looks good enough to justify the expense for the image. 😉

Any thoughts?

 

 

3words July – day 7 of 20

Today’s words: SCOOPSAUNTERQUESTION.

And my ongoing story:

 

Danny bit his tongue, paid Paulie, sucked in a deep breath and sauntered back toward Sandy, placing her Bud on the table while sipping his own as he sat.

Sandy glanced at it and shook her head.

He said, “What?”

She snorted out a laugh. “That’s the best you could do?”

“What?”

“I said surprise me.”

“Well,” he said, glancing at the bottle. “You weren’t expecting a Bud.”

Sandy laughed and scooped it up. “You’re not wrong.”

“So I won?”

“Won what?”

Danny grinned. “There’s the question.”

Sandy rolled her eyes and sipped her drink. “You are such a slut.”

 

 

first review for Seven Sneezes

 

First review on Amazon:

 

Ambitious, deep character study 
By Eduardo Suastegui 
Telling a story that spans a character’s life would seem to most a daunting, almost impossible task, but this is the challenge that Burton takes on with ‘Seven Sneezes’. Though I usually enjoy a faster-paced tale, the author’s skill and artistry kept me moving along. If you’re up for insightful character portrayal, then you too should take up this novel.

 

Many thanks, Eduardo. 🙂

 

 

economy edits logo & testimonials

Just managed to create this, and felt like sharing… A re-shaped copy of my logo  and testimonial snippets from economyedits.wordpress.com

economy edits logo & testimonials

Now I simply need to find places to put it… 🙂

 

 

3words July – day 3 of 20

Today’s 3words are: SNORT – HONOUR – EASY.

And my ongoing story:

 

She shrugged. “What’s weird is why I’m down here.”

“Why’s that, then?”

She glanced up then looked away. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Danny guffawed and rocked back, almost slumping to the floor beside her. “After the day I’ve had, lady-”

“Lady?” she snorted. “I ain’t no lady!”

Danny nodded, “And they call me easy.”

Slowly, her face softened and she smiled again. “Would you help a not-lady to her feet?”

“Would be my honour,” he said, pulling her up.

“I’m Sandy,” she said.

“Uh-oh.”

“What?”

“I’m Danny.”

“Uh-well-a-well-a-well-a-huh.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” he chuckled.

 

 

my currently available paperbacks/eBooks

BookCoverPreview  https://www.createspace.com/4869363

This novel follows Lizzy Anderson from her first birthday when she realises she sneezes in sevens (hence the title – had to be a reason, right?). She struggles through a tough and lonely childhood, meeting the love of her life aged 9, and again at 18. They begin a life together, and we are drawn in to her journey, hungry for her highs and lamenting her lows as she weaves through adulthood, parenthood, love and death during one woman’s life, leading to old age and the inevitable. ( approx 310 pages / 93,000 words  )

 

final BookCoverPreview 020714 https://www.createspace.com/4880091

This novel centres around Ed, a middle-aged, frustrated would-be-writer, family man struggling to maintain his grasp on a reality he finds he never really wanted, having been caught in the flow where there were more interesting lives he could have lived, if only he’d made other choices at three key moments in his life. When a catalyst creates a window of opportunity for him, Ed decides to write the novel he’s always dreamed about, but gets lost in a metafictional frenzy of ideas, struggling to find his true self while he and seven others live the same life. ( approx 730 pages / 275,000 words )

 

kcw BookCoverPreview july 01 https://www.createspace.com/4877890

A collection of three novelettes. In the first tale, Cafe Books, a young man returns to his home town to help his mum with her cafe. He swore he would never return because of past problems with one particular girl, but can’t deny his mother. Then the girl walks into their cafe and all kinds of feelings, memories and secrets are exposed. In the second tale, Ten Minute Windows, a lonely and frustrated mother frequents the same cafe and sits at her favourite table every day, for just ten minutes, being the only time she has for herself. One day there’s an obnoxious man at her table, and he keeps coming back, day after day. In the third tale, Kissing The Mist, an undecided young fiancee seeks the advice of her much-loved, book-fan grandmother, bringing another old, second hand book as a gift. Only, this time the book comes with a history and the grandmother’s past unfolds and unravels the young woman’s delicate grasp on the life she’s found herself living.

 

BookCoverPreview final 2906 https://www.createspace.com/4878938

This collection features ten of my favourite stories from the last twenty years, and include: a Pushcart Prize nominated story of two alienated sisters and one twisted father; a chance meeting in a public park between a man, a cheeky young girl, her dog and her mother; a super-short life story of an unappreciated working man who lives for his family; a once-exiled flasher who dares to return to his childhood village hoping for some kind of redemption; two co-workers struggling with their undisclosed-yet-known-about affair and their own feelings toward each other; a man talking with his lover’s cat at night in the garden, trying to right their problems, but only exacerbating them; a much-mocked/unloved father feeling compelled to spend more and more time in his dream-based reality; a mother and her young child mourning the loss of the dear man in their life, while trying to remain positive; an office clerk struggling with a family death and his drinking problems during an unwanted anniversary; and a man reflecting on his abused childhood and abusive wife, desperate to believe in something.

 

Also available as eBooks at Amazon via: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00JZ03YHC

 

 

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