Friday Five…

It hasn’t been a great week. After managing to get through the whole of winter with my health intact- even when everyone else was snorting and sniffing and coughing- I succumbed to my first head-cold in well over a year.

I’ve been tired and a tad run-down, and I know that it’s Nature’s way of forcing me to slow down, but it’s flipping inconvenient- and has left me in the World’s Worst Mood.

The thing with colds is that you can function, but you sort of can’t either. Aside from feeling dreadful and looking like a swamp monster, colds bring (for me, anyway) a tightening of the airways and asthma. This means that I can’t walk- because I can’t breathe. That means that the bad mood gets worse- which, of course, (along with whingeing and dramatics) elevates the whole thing beyond a simple head-cold into man-flu territory.

Anyways, enough of the whining…to this weeks Five…

What I’m proud of…

Miss 17. Again. Still. She started the HSC this week and has approached it with a lack of drama and a sense of balance that, in the face of my head-cold histrionics, I find seriously admirable.

What I’ve signed up for…

Nanowrimo. Again. Even though for the first half of the month I’ll be madly trying to clean up at work, and for the second I’ll be spending most of my waking hours in a car on the Ultimate Road Trip.

I’ve written and scheduled a heap of nano inspired posts- in case you’re up for it too…

What I tried…

Pilates. I’ve bored you for weeks with my chronic back issues- although I’m sure that my chiropractor isn’t complaining. It’s definitely on the improve with all the walking that I’ve been doing, but can be still dodgy on those busier, more stressed weeks. A friend recommended pilates to me (it had done wonders for her), but the issue was finding one night a week where I had no other regular commitments.

Then Wednesday evenings opened up for me, so I tried it. And I think I’m going to love it. More importantly, so will my back.

Who I’m developing a slogan for…

Ok, I’m not really, but I could….

The other day in Bunnings I was watching people come down the escalators with trolleys full of potential.

‘Just think of all those projects,’ I said to Miss 17.

‘That should be their marketing message,’ she suggested.

‘Building Aussie homes- one project at a time.’

Yes, we’ve been watching too much Utopia. Rhonda would be proud.

What I’m agonising over…

The cover for Big Girls Don’t Cry.

My designer had nailed the brief, but the girl she used was so not how I imagined Abby to be. She was way too blonde and way too pretty.

The dilemma I had is that I’d done my research.

I’d asked my friends- very few of whom read anything with romance in it. All said they’d prefer a book without a girl on the cover.

Then I asked my writerly friends on the Romance Writers Forums. Surprisingly, a few of these said the same thing.

I say surprisingly because when I checked out single title romance covers, and covers that had won or been nominated in cover contests, all had, yes, you guessed it, a face or a person, or a figure. Like this.

And these. The covers below are four of the category winners in this years RWA cover contest. Just one- Shooting Butterflies– doesn’t have a figure. It won the romantic elements category…and while I like all of these, I love it the most.

Then I looked at the new releases for this month from RWA members and again, with the exception of this one, all had a person (or people) on the front.

Then I thought, Big Girls Don’t Cry is more contemporary fiction with romantic elements than romance, so maybe I can be different…

Then I thought, maybe my friends are right and I don’t need a person on the cover…

Then I emailed my designer and told her to ditch the girl…

Then I worried that the images are too clichéd- even though the location of this book is so incredibly important.

Now I’m not sure again.

Oh the pressure of running your own publishing company- so many decisions, so little time (ahem).

How was your week?