Times like this, I really wish I’d paid more attention in my Photoshop segments.

I have an old version of PS (maybe 6 or 7) that I used in college. I can do some basic effects and maipulations with it, but figuring out cover art and website stuff is…challenging. I may still hire a pro for the cover, but I’m taking a shot at it on my own. I don’t particularly want people on my covers, or anything more than maybe a landscape/galaxyscape. Heck, I’d be OK with just one color and some text for title and author, provided it all looked nice. In that case, it makes sense for me to try this on my own.

There’s plenty of tutorials around for me to practice with, and I’ve been dabbling with the light effects and text features on my own. So we’ll see. If I can’t pull it off to my standards, I’ll hire someone. In the meantime, it’s always a good skill set to learn…along with the CSS and XHTML.

Something like 19,000 words on That Zombie Story. Not sure how that happened, though it occurred this morning. My protagonist is sufficiently disgusted with the whole apocalyptic situation, even though they’ve managed to acquire the obligatory post-apocalyptic canine companion. They are also realizing the extent of the damage, just what sort of people tend to do well in these situations, and what they may have to eventually do in order to survive.

One of the over-arcing themes in this little series is how far one’s willing to go to live. When the veneer of civilization starts rubbing off, it becomes difficult to tell the good guys from the bad. Throw in dead people running around and it’s a real mess.

I’m sitting here streaming Life After People on Netflix, and Juno keeps reacting to the sound effects and occasional explosions. Very amusing. The show itself is kind of sobering…at times, it’s hard to think about all the things we made–all the aspects that made us human–just disappearing forever. But it’s a good primer for the empty world the protagonists in That Zombie Story will inhabit.