Sunday, January 21, 2024: Ta da! List

New cover, new poll responses, and rain!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

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Daily Diary, Day 1237:

In Ddaera’s Embrace Cover Reveal:

My first reason for celebration is that I now have a cover for the current book I am working on. I have written here about what went into my decision for what I wanted for my first cover in the Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Maids of Misfortune. Subsequently, all these elements remained consistent for all the covers in the series, establishing a distinct brand for the series.

However, I never had the same clear vision for my science fiction series covers. Consequently, when I decided to complete the series, I worked with a friend and fellow author who graciously offered to help me “rebrand,” this series. She redid the covers for the first three books, created the cover for Tides of Acerba. This week we worked together on what I wanted for In Ddaera’s Embrace, and I am excited about what she came up with.

One of the themes of the series has the struggle to protect the planet Ddaera’s environment. A second theme is the way the planet itself has protected itself by giving some inhabitants special healing and psychic powers. Therefore, it was important to me that the covers not be about people, but about the planet itself, while also reflecting scenes that came from that particular book. So, the cover of Between Mountain and Sea has the ship that plays a role in the story, literally on Sapphire Sea, with the cliffs where Mynyddamore are located in the background. The cover of Under Two Moons shows Silence, the snow cat, who is introduced in this book, against a snowy backdrop. Through Ddaera’s Touch’s cover shows the desert sandstorm that plays a crucial role in the story, while the cover ofTides of Acerba show the dolphin-like animals in the story in the Strait of Nihon (again, a crucial part of the book.)

So, the result was I now had covers showing four different areas of the planet, all important to the story, and for this fifth book, In Ddaera’s Embrace, I wanted to show a fifth setting, in this case a hidden valley with a waterfall, up in the Mynyddeira Mountains. Again this setting is an important one in the book. And for all of the covers, the consistent branding of two moons, which signals that the planet isn’t earth

I do hope you all like this new cover as much as I do. Definitely a reason to celebrate.

Responses to Polls:

My second reason to celebrate is how useful the responses to the latest polls about favorite characters were for me. Earlier polls primarily confirmed what I suspected about the demographics of my subscribers and readership, as well as the greater preference for the mysteries over the science fiction series. Yet, I really didn’t have any idea which characters would be chosen as favorites and in some cases the answers actually surprised me. As I wrote about in this post, these answers helped me think about what returning characters I should include in my next novel.

Rain:

A third reason to celebrate is it has been raining. It started yesterday with a gentle rain, but not the usual drizzle/fog we often get. I didn’t rain for all that long, only between noon and two-thirty. The rest of the day there was an occasional sprinkle or two (although dark skies). Total accumulated a whole .38 inches in our neighborhood (smile.) And this morning as I write this, it starting raining again (just as my husband was about to walk Leeza, so they turned back at the door.) Again, this isn’t supposed to last long, then just intermittent showers until tonight. However, at this point the prediction if for more steady more rain tomorrow. You know me and weather. Loving it! Here are pictures for the clouds as the rain was coming, then the current rain today from the back yard, looking west, then from the front yard, street gleaming.

And finally, I did want to celebrate another new paid subscription! Always gives me little bump of motivation to keep writing.

So, ta da! these are my celebrations this week, what are yours?

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