New Fiction Idea #0

It occurred to me that I can link back to story profiles for just about everything but Along the Winding Road. Better late than never.

Working Title: Along the Winding Road

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic/Romance

Protagonist: Charlotte Heiman, a six-foot twenty-year-old who works as a zombie hunter for her village—more specifically, one of its restaurants. She's determined, optimistic, and a little flirty, and family is her highest priority.

Other Main Characters: Arthur Deering, an English twenty-four-year-old of Chinese descent. He is an excellent archer but isn't the best at social interaction, particularly after being in isolation for years.
(John) Dalton Tolbert, a very blonde twenty-four-year-old who fanboys over swords but does most of his fighting with a staff. He's energetic and social and prides himself on his wingman abilities.

Antagonists: Zombies and distance along with some other survivors.

Setting: Four years after the zombie apocalypse. Some zombies are still hanging around, but they're not so threatening anymore. Place-wise, it's across Texas, between Killeen and Hunt.

Plot: Charlotte sets out to find her younger brother Blake, who was away at camp when the zombies attacked. On the way, she has to contend with various enemies, but Arthur and Dalton are happy to help her along—particularly the former, who quickly develops a romantic interest in her.

Point of View: Third person, omniscient.

Cover Me

Some of you may have viewed my first attempt at making a cover for The Long and Winding Road. For those interested, here is my second.

I'm not entirely sure if it will be usable in publishing, since the background is from a wonderful stock photo artist on dA. While I had been envisioning a much more, er, winding road, this picture really has a good feel to it, and I wanted something symmetrical with the hand design in front. I'll still try to find somewhere to take my own picture, but I doubt I'll be able to do as well.

The hands are mine, although I did start by tracing a how-to guide on them. Charlotte's nails are my own addition, which explains why they need more adjusting. I tried to add a little texture, though I'm not sure how well it really turned out. The main difficulty was the outlines. I did my shabby tracing, then the colouring, then the same-color outlines, all in an attempt to make it less cartoony. It's still far from realistic, but I like the effect. Of course, I'll have to redo it if I decide Arthur is white after all (he's currently Chinese with a little bit of Korean and Caucasian). We'll see.

I might make the title bigger, although I like the effect (Hooray for SumoPaint layers!). It goes well with this background, at least. I was originally going to do black letters with a white glow, but then I stumbled upon this effect. The lettering worked well enough for me to stop font-surfing at the "B"s, but if anyone has an idea that might look better for a post-apocalyptic romance, let me know.

I'm planning to have my name centred, same font and effect but smaller than the title, about where the fog comes in on the road. I really don't mind the cover without it, but that probably wouldn't help get my name out there.

Then again, eBook covers really aren't seen as much as "real" book covers. I have to look at a solid book cover every time I go for the book, but 'tis not so in digital publishing (at least, not for the Nook). I just need to snag some attention and hope the writing is worth looking back at the description for my name.

So, better than my last cover? Worse? About the same considering the different styles? Any other photos of the same style you know I could use?

Pitchapalooza: The Sequel, in Amazing 3-D!

Well, I've gone on ahead and written up a pitch for The Winding Road. I'm sort of unsatisfied with that title now that I've thought about it more, though, so I refer to it as The Long and Winding Road in the pitch. If anyone has other fitting title ideas, feel free to (read: please do) let me know. Also feel free to critique this first draft of the pitch.

Clocking in at 239 of 250 allowed words, we have:

The zombie apocalypse was years ago—old hat. Besides, there’s a cure and plenty of bullets yet to take care of the rotting stragglers.

No, the threats these days are the survivors.

Charlotte Heiman has finally achieved a stable life in the walled remains of Killeen as a zombie hunter, but she can’t stay any longer. She hasn’t seen her little brother Blake since her family dropped him off at camp that fateful summer, and now that she has the supplies, she’s headed his way.

Arthur Deering has finally achieved a stable life in a rural home with no companions but his bow and arrows. He has long since come to believe that he’s the only man alive—so it comes as quite a shock when Charlotte finds him. Quite an infatuating shock, as a matter of fact.

Although Arthur turns out to be much more of a suitor than a menace, he’s not the only survivor Charlotte meets. It’s a long walk to Hunt, filled with those who lost everything and aren’t afraid to take whatever they can. It will take both Charlotte and Arthur to get past survivors that threaten to take their supplies, bodies, and lives.

A tale of the numbness and the hope humans can achieve in the aftermath of atrocity, The Long and Winding Road will appeal to all post-apocalyptic romance lovers from the realm of The Hunger Games to that of Warm Bodies.

Making Covers

So, I fancy myself to be of some quality of an artist, but making covers is difficult. Maybe "designing" would be a better word, actually. I still have no idea what to do for Mayflies or Macbay Transportation Services, and while I have a vision for Crumbling it's going to be difficult to draw in a non-anime style.

The Long and Winding Road, though, provided a relatively simple design for me, so I went ahead and tried to make it. So, ta-da.

I also have an alternate version for the original fiction. Same font, though it's all one line at the top, and my name is in white, a bit smaller, beneath it and aligned to the right. The main image is still the same.

So, what do you think? There's a heart since it's romance, and blood since it's still zombie apocalypse. And, of course, a winding road. I'm only partially satisfied with each element, though I think the title font worked out fine, haha.

So, does it make sense to you? Should I redesign it? Give up forever? Abandon my writing dreams for cover designing? Opinions appreciated.

The (Long and) Winding Road

Those of you from the Brutal Death Denial Support Group forum already know about this (and have had some sneak previews), but I am currently working on my own zombie apocalypse fiction. I wasn't considering jumping on this bandwagon, but the "zombie restaurant" idea from my community writing club was just too much for me to pass on.

One problem is that I'm writing it as a romance of sorts. I am not a romantic person (even telling-you-this-isn't-a-date-but-still-at-dinner-and-movies-with-a-male dates just make me anxious and ready to run out screaming), and I have a tendency to skip over any tingly-kissy parts of things like Divergent and Clockwork Prince. Needless to say, what I originally write probably won't have any convincing romance beyond giggly fluff, but that's what beta readers are for, no?

Although I've been writing this as Hetalia fan fiction with the plan of posting it on fanfiction.net (which is still my intention), I've actually been editing pretty heavily as I go. Normally I don't do much of this because I can't stand reading my own writing, but I had better get used to it if I'm going to try to get published.

I'm also seriously considering converting it into an original fiction once it's done and I do some large-scale editing. I already have some name and personality changes prepared, and I think it might work. I'm not sure that I'll have all of it done by June 30 (which means I would need another NaNoWriMo win if I wanted five free copies printed), but I'm actually a bit hopeful. If I attempt this, I think I'll change the title from The Long and Winding Road to just The Winding Road, since copyright laws are worded awkwardly and I don't think the male protagonist is going to be such a big Beatles fan in the rewrite.

It's quite possible that if I do the rewrite, this will be the first book I try to publish. I'll definitely go for amazon.com publishing, with something cheap (I hear three cents per one thousand words is the best pricing?), unless some strange and wonderful miracle happens. I have no idea what such a miracle would be, but if some of my published professors/friends/husbands-of-people-my-mother-works-with get me in with their publishers or something somehow, that could qualify? Considering I have no original fictions worthy of publishing yet (only one is actually finished, and it's one of the quality I can't reread to edit), I haven't looked too far into this business.

All of this is still a long way off, though, so don't go searching madly through the Amazon store just yet. It's probably going to be another month or two before The Long and Winding Road even makes it to fanfiction.net (I'm planning to start posting chapters once Unsurvivable finishes, and about the same time I get to writing Break Out), so it'll probably be a year before I try to get the original version published.

Any input, advice, or comments in general are appreciated.