So the AuthorLifeMonth thing on Instagram is still going strong, and it’s been a lot of fun, seeing what other writers are doing with their lives! Here are my posts to that hashtag since last week:
Day Five was “Comp Covers”, which a lot of folks took to mean “rough drafts of our book covers”. Here’s a comparison of the first attempt at the Stardancer cover, on left, with the final, on right.
![Day 5 of #AuthorLifeMonth! I'm not sure what "comp covers" means, but it seems to be 'rough drafts' for covers. Left is the first cover design for STARDANCER, and on right is the final design. #books #amwriting](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1713/24833825105_807b80ce7a.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1)
But then someone else told me that “comp covers” refers to covers of similar books in our genre, so here are a couple of those!
![Day 5a of #AuthorLifeMonth! Apparently "comp covers" actually refers to books similar to our own in terms of genre, mood, and such. Here are a few for me: the amazing "Across The Universe" trilogy by @bethrevis, and the equally wondeful "These Broken Star](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1542/24210281173_e583d75097.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
(Yes, I’ve read those, and they are terrific.)
Next came “Fan art”, which left me at a loss, since to my knowledge, nobody has done any “fan art” of anything I’ve written yet, alas! But hey, I’ll get there. Instead I posted this depiction of a girl reading The Fault In Our Stars, which another reader used to show her reaction to reading The Wisdomfold Path.
![It's Day 6 of #AuthorLifeMonth! Today is "fan art". I don't really have any fan art yet, but @americaseditor used this little cartoon a while back to illustrate her reaction to THE WISDOMFOLD PATH while reading it. (The cartoon actually seems to refer to](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1535/24223986814_8aff48eeca.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
(No, there is no cancer in The Wisdomfold Path, but it does get emotional in spots.)
Next up was “Writing Music”, so I did a quick collage of some CD covers from favorite film scores of mine, in the genres I write (SF, Fantasy, Horror/Supernatural Thriller).
![Day 7 of #AuthorLifeMonth is Writing Music! I listen to music a lot when I write. I love movie music, and here's a smattering of filmscores for various genres in which I work. Top row: fantasy and adventure music (lots of this right now for LIGHTHOUSE BOY](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1644/24785485661_191466fd09.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
For “Awesome Moment”, I went ‘throwback’ to the photo I took just after I typed the words “The End” in the first draft of Stardancer. I’d done it, folks!
![Day 8 of #AuthorLifeMonth: Awesome moment! We're going throwback, to the moments after I typed the words "THE END" at the conclusion of STARDANCER. I knew, at that moment, that I was on my way. To where? I don't know, but I'm heading for the second star t](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1451/24811842411_6ef1833da7.jpg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1)
Day Nine was “Challenge Overcome”. For this I alluded to the struggle a lot of indie writers have to endure: formatting our books. Ewwww!
![It's Day 9 of #AuthorLifeMonth! Today the theme is "Challenge Overcome". I write writr write, then I edit edit edit, and through all this, I'm OK. Then it's time to format, and I want to set my computer on fire. #amwriting](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1471/24557291709_8bf9705994.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1)
Day Ten brought us to “Non-author Photo”. This was a fun tag to peruse. I just picked a few of mine and collaged them. I doubt I’ll ever appear pie-faced on one of my own book covers.
![Day 10 of #AuthorLifeMonth: Non-author photo(s)! I couldn't pick just one, so here are a few. Featuring overalls and pies, of course.](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1467/24940625345_5e2c97c19b.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Finally, we come to yesterday’s category, “Favorite Review”. I couldn’t pick one, so I went my own xkcd route:
![Day 11 of #AuthorLifeMonth: Fave review! I can't possibly pick one. I am grateful if every good review I've been lucky enough to receive, and I'm lucky to have enjoyed good beta and proof reading to this point. Everybody is awesome! (But I do need more re](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1575/24962839525_55457b3281.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
More to come next week! And just for good measure, here are a couple of recent writing-related photos of mine that are not a part of the AuthorLifeMonth tag.
![The Angry-looking Purple Writer #amwriting #overalls](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1512/24854291921_b0746e91d8.jpg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1)