Category: Sindie Publishing

New interior design for Picture Imperfect!

Thought I’d share shots of the new interior formatting for Picture Imperfect, my steamy mystery romance, AKA “A Sassy Suspense,” and a stand-alone set in the Pacific Northwest.

I wanted to update some language from the first publication that might cause some folks harm. Ie. words like crazy, insane, and overweight (which was only used in the book once, but if it caused harm, I apologize). Now that I know better, it felt like the right thing to do was correct some language.

While at it, I redesigned the interior with some snazzy new formatting that I love! The cover hasn’t changed, but I’m including a shot of Picture Imperfect next to Head Over Heels, as PI is twice as long!

PI is my longest book, with multiple points of view, a love story, a mystery to solve, family and friendship complications, and – ta-da, of course a happy ending!

What I found doing this update is there was one typo!! Fixed it.

I also got to update a bit of technology.

And I discovered I still love this book!

The new formatting applies to the print and digital editions, so if you pick up a copy, you’ll get it as it is now, February 2024 moving forward.

Same cover, “Not for Resale” because it’s a proof copy
Title page is the same
Sample of new interior formatting (this is the first scene with Gabe’s mom’s point of view – she gets a love story in the book too!)
Another sample of the new interior formatting. I love the script! (PS, don’t zoom in and read the page if you don’t want a spoiler)
New author pic, taken, you know the drill, in my bathroom with my shower curtain backdrop behind me.
Comparing spine width to Head Over Heels

Wanna check out PI? HERE

Back to Books

Take me Home

I took my author photo in my bathroom

So, this is what’s going in the back of the Love & Other Calamities Romantic Comedy books:

Yeah, I took my author photo in my bathroom! With my phone.

It’s in black and white in the books (unless a reader reads on a tablet with colour), and it looks fine. Good enough! Until I can set up the “big camera” and take proper self-author photos for my new website.

But my website is still old, and when I imported the picture into the new home page, it looked weird. It was suddenly obvious that’s a shower curtain behind me.

A couple of YouTube tutorials, and this is what I’m hoping to pull onto the home page instead:

Not bad for my first time using Affinity Photo. I like the blue behind me. I managed to accidentally cast a shadow. A splash of over-exposure and it’s not so obvious that I’m, ahem, mature.

I like my Cruella tinsels.

Wish me luck getting the new website pages built!

I’m updating my website, and I’m not sure how it’s going….

When I say I need to redesign my website, I mean I have to start over with completely new software. This current site is built with an ancient copy of Dreamweaver and the Fireworks software that no longer loads on the ancient PC that sits in my office ONLY to update the website. I used to have an old copy of Photoshop on there, too, and no idea where it went. This makes creating new graphics a challenge.

Here’s the thing. I’m not allowed (by C’est Moi) to rebuild the website hopefully using the How to Build a Website on WordPress course on a special template/theme/whatever they’re called I bought, oh, 2 years ago before I realized just how long my 2018 car accident was going to affect my ability to write actual books. What I am allowed to do is update this current site because I still believe in websites.

So I’m trying. My software no longer connects to my server, so I need to update and build the books without worrying that they might look horrible in Internet Explorer (which thankfully no longer exists) and then go in through the back end and upload via FTP.

So, seeing as I can’t completely start over on the website until all 5 books in Love & Other Calamities are on preorder, I’m bumbling about doing the best I can with my ancient software, and cross your fingers that when I load those pages, they’ll look reasonably okay.

I’ll post on the blog when I’ve uploaded the pages. There are a lot of pages to upload. First, I need to resize some current graphics on the iMac, zip them to the PC, and finish building the durn pages.

Meanwhile, my imagination is itching to come up with a new series but I still have to revise and edit the last two books in Calamities. But the covers and blurbs are done like a lizard burning in the Galapagos sun!

Yippee-ki-yay, mudderfugger.

I’m baaack???

My site changed servers a few months ago, and because I’ve been busy recovering from a car accident and working on updated versions of Deceiving Derek and Catching Claire in Love & Other Calamities – and also writing the next three titles in the series, Before Brady, Just Janie, and Trusting Trey – I didn’t realize my blog was broken. I kept trying to publish new posts, to no avail. I spent hours on tech support with my host, to no avail. They even switched my customized Muse Interrupted theme to the 2021, theme and I still couldn’t publish a post.

Most aggravating.

I was about to hire a website designer to fix things when I decided to do ONE LAST TEST. And, well, whatever was glitching for weeks before I went away to trek through Ireland for a month is no longer glitching!

This is good because I really, really, really need to redesign my website, and I want to move it to a WordPress-based site because my web design software is on an old computer I only keep for the software. I need to get with the times and make things mobile-friendly.

So redesigning my site is on my To-Do list for this year.

That said, because I’ve been away from publishing for so long, like 5 years, I made the decision not to put any of the books in Love & Other Calamities on pre-order until all 5 are revised and edited. I’ve learned that when it comes to my neck, skull, and shoulder injuries I just need to put my health first, and besides who wants to read a connected series with months and months between releases?

If you’ve stumbled upon this post and you’ve been wondering, What happened to Cindy? Yeah, I got whacked, multiple times, from behind. And it wasn’t as fun as it sounds. 🙂 I’m now seeing a pain management specialist, getting nerve block injections every 3 months or so, and, on top of my other therapies (of which there are many), I finally feel like I can get on the path to publishing again. I can’t spend much time at the computer. I do 2-3 hours a day of physio, strengthening and yoga just to TRY to get to 4 hour days – with breaks that interrupt my flow. I would really love to get 4 to 5 4-hour writing days a week. I’m not there yet. I can get maybe 2 hour days. I can do a 3 hour day but will pay for it the next day.

I am determined, even as I am reminded that those 6 hour days are lost to me forever. So I’m gonna go ahead with my plan not to put Love & Other Calamities on pre-order until the editing process is complete.

For my readers, that means some aggravating waiting. But I thank you for your understanding.

When the updated versions of Deceiving Derek and Catching Claire are on sale, I’ll let you know here. I won’t be creating new website pages for the series – I will just be putting the links here and/or pointing you to pages hosted on a site like Books2Read or my SleekBio. When I design my new website, I WILL create separate pages for each title, but because of my injuries it seems not a very wise use of my limited time to make 3 new website pages on an old computer with old software and THEN redesign the entire site.

Thank you for your understanding!

PS. You never know, I might change my plans and update my old site before redesigning the new site. If so, I’ll also announce that here.

Love This New Cover for Borrowing Alex!

I lurv, lurv, LOVE the new cover for BORROWING ALEX!

The female model in the photo is actually the same girl from the previous BORROWING ALEX cover, but now she’s up close with her guy. My cover artist, Kim Killion, has done an amazing job pulling together a look for the Love in the Pacific Northwest series.

Check out BORROWING ALEX at these retailers:

Amazon

Apple Books

Kobo

Google Play

Nook

Amazon Canada

Amazon UK

Amazon Australia

By the way, did you know you can now buy eBooks at Wal-Mart? BORROWING ALEX currently has a limited time $3 off savings at Wal-Mart! Check it out here!