My new feel-good ebook, LOVE POTION COMMOTION, is out! YAAY! *Kermit flail*
Here’s the blurb:
Dating goes the dogs!
Soon-to-be college student Alanna Lu Feng helps her great-aunt and -uncle with their doggy fashion design business, shooting photos of their French bulldog mascots. It’s good money and fun work—but why can’t Alanna Lu get lucky in love?
Vivian and Frank Feng adore their great-niece, but they’re hiding a secret from her: Vivian is a witch! Sick of listening to her great-niece’s dating woes, Vivian concocts a plan to get her great-niece into the arms of a special someone. But can magic solve the problems of love?
A lighthearted comic fantasy that will make the whole family smile.
Novella, 27,000 words
You can read an excerpt here at Pixelvania Publishing, buy it for your Kindle on Amazon.com, or buy it elsewhere (BN, Kobo, etc.) at Books2Read.com. If the store you want isn’t up yet on B2R, just wait; it will populate within the next few days as the different stores accept it into their system.
Hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Engage!
What could he be looking at?
Coming next week: Magic Fashion Frenchies #1: LOVE POTION COMMOTION! A new family fantasy romance comedy…which is a really long-winded and non-trademark-infringing way to say “This novella’s like a Hallmark movie, but with better special effects.”
I think you’re really going to love meeting Vivian Feng and her family–two-legged and four-legged members alike! I look forward to sharing this story with you soon! Stay tuned! Or better yet, sign up for the Pixelvania Publishing newsletter to get the official announcement the moment it publishes!
…for the Republic of Mac N Cheese!
A friend invited me to her baby shower. I wanted to go, but had no real money to spend. But I *did* know about her deep love for gnomes.
So I thought I’d draw her a baby gnome!
First, I drew some preliminary sketches at church (click any image to embiggen) (and ignore the MOM! cat).
Then I procrastinated. The night before the party, I had my husband pick the pose (he thought the crawling one with the crooked hat looked like it was “up to no good”), then started drawing on some illustration board that was gathering dust. I think I’ve had that piece of board since college!
The pose was a killer–took me at least two Magnum, PI‘s to finish. By then it was bedtime, and I had no idea how I was going to color it. In particular, I was worried about the skintone. I had a variety of markers on-hand, but I couldn’t think of a one that would make for a decent-looking, non-creepy skintone.
I prayed for a solution, then went to bed.
It was revealed to me the next morning that I could do flats colors with markers, then use some Prismacolor pencils to add the subtleties I wanted. I still didn’t know what I’d do about the skintone.
Then Moxie Kitten saved my bacon. When I started pawing through my marker collection, one of her markers came up. The color I use for her nose and ears is “Light Peach”, a beautiful, soft color that I realized would work well for this Caucasian gnome-bebe.
It was what I needed. With only an hour to go, I got started coloring. I finished it just in time. I had my husband take a pic with his phone, then it was off to the baby shower!
My friend, the mama-to-be, loved it and said it would go well with her nursery. I got to eat cookies and meatballs!
Mission accomplished!
90% of my Frenchies edits are done so I’ve really got to get a cover going. I’ve made a few batches of covers but am still not sure if I’m in the right direction for a “Fantasy Family Romance Comedy” story (it reminded my reader of Hallmark movies, which was exactly what I was going for).
Today, instead of starting with a thumbnail, I decided to start with type, then pasted an old mockup under it. Love the author name in this font, but maybe I shouldn’t use it if I’m going to use it in the title. Or vice versa. And I think branding could be stronger, you know?
I don’t even know if I want this to be photobashed. I was considering aping the BEWITCHED animation style. And doing a patterned frame around it. But I don’t know if I can pull it off.
(In my secret heart I want all my covers to be illustrated, or have some illustrated aspect to them. I mean, I have the skillz, why limit myself with stock photos? But the business-savvy writer boards seem to say that it’s not right to illustrate everything, so I’m torn. It’s hard to go against the crowd, you know?)
Ink and pencil shape doodle.
Concept art for my Greatest Nosferatu Love Story of All Time novel; the aerie where his mother and little sister (both dragons) sleep. His mother’s hoard (or at least part of it) lines the shelves, and she sleeps on a nest of silver coins. You know. Typical fantasy stuff. :3
I think this guy’d make a cute little citizen of Kittenville!
