Final Edits, Cover Art, and a Third Draft Finished

Urge to kill... fading... fading... fadi-RISING!  ...fading...

Today I finished the third draft of Merm-8 Defender (damn, I keep mistaking it for that), which means pretty much the content is set.  There's one sequence of events that still bothers me, maybe because it's so morphable.  I keep thinking it can morph into something better.  It used to be another scene but it slowly changed into something different to accommodate characters.  But it still fits the template.  But at some point, you just have to give up.  It's the novel as a whole that people will remember, not one scene in the back.

This looks a little like a ten-year-old boy's back

I also turned in the final author edits for Merm-8.  No one said anything this time when I turned them in.  I'm hoping everyone's pleased.  I didn't leave anything inconclusive, so I'm hoping we really are done, and they didn't just give up on me.

What in the world is reflecting up there?

Also been working harder on the back cover blurb that's supposed to accompany the book.  It's not unlike writing a cover letter. The difficulty is pulling in more of that advertising quality.  I've been studying back cover copy, but they all are so uniquely tailored to their book.  And it reminds me of how far I have because even the big names like Hunger Games and Lock-In don't have amazing cover copy.  They have amazing word of mouth.

Not a fan of the "evening gown" mermaid

And finally I got a delight in my inbox.  The mockup of my cover art was posted.  Squee!  But when I took a look at it, it wasn't what I and the promotions specialist had discussed.  It was just a mermaid in dark water.  No science-fiction elements, no other characters.  It looked like a fantasy romance, which it definitely is not.  The mermaid's not even the main character (although she's the draw-in).

I hope the artist is receptive to feedback because right now it looks very generic and does not reflect the content of the novel.