Gideon Redoak and the wrap-around cover

Whew. I’ve been working on Gideon Redoak for two straight days! Yesterday was all cover design. I started out by tweaking the front cover image, and ended up making a full wrap-around design for both the paperback cover and the hardcover dust-jacket. I hope they don’t print too dark, or I’ll have to over-lighten them and do new proofs, which costs me money. *sigh* But I’m very pleased with how the cover image came out. Here’s the paperback version:

Gideon Redoak has now officially gone to press! I uploaded the files for both editions to Lightning Source and ordered proof copies. I also spent time last night taking care of inquiries that had come in and faxed paperwork to LSI for the Espresso Book Machine and authorizing Canadian distribution channels (which means Chapters, basically). I’ve been too busy, things have been getting away from me!

I still have lots to do to get ready for Gideon Redoak’s launch: set up files for the Kindle, CreateSpace, SITB program, open-source PDF e-book, and Scribd versions, for example, update BLUM’s website, set up direct ordering, list the book with Indiebound, assemble a list of reviewers to query…gods. A ton of stuff. But Gideon Redoak has gone to press! YAYYYYYY!!!!!!

It’s always something… the exercycle is acting up again. I’m not sure if I can adjust it, this time it’s the “magnetic” wheel mechanism. And all those humungous graphic files I created as I worked on the cover designs filled up my backup flash drives. Have you ever noticed that it’s always when you’re up until 4:00 a.m. trying to finish up and get to bed that your computer decides to start throwing monkey wrenches in all directions??? It’s like the furnace conking out at 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night: you’d think inanimate objects just knew somehow when they can create the maximum disruption and inconvenience by screwing up!

Almost all the thunderstorms missed us yesterday. More are forecast today, and I’m sure that if I left the laundry out on the line, Pepperell would get socked. *wry grin* The one cloudburst we did have caught me when I was making a 15-minute dash to the grocery store! Wasn’t much to it, though.

Is anyone else finding that life has just been weirdness piled on weirdness ever since approximately July 7? We’re in a triple intra-eclipse phase, which I don’t recall ever seeing before, or at least not for a very long time. Two lunar eclipses with a total solar eclipse in the middle–usually eclipses come in pairs and the intra-eclipse period is only two weeks long. This one is a whopper. If I wasn’t so frantically busy, I’d write more about it, but the quick summary is, it’s not just you. Hugs to all who are getting bludgeoned by it. It’s all over after August 5–just in time for Worldcon!