tentative cover and story list

I've been working away at the holiday collection, getting the cover half-way decent and deciding which order the stories are going to be in so I could do a linked table of contents.

I was sort of scared about that TOC, but it turned out to be much easier than I'd feared. The Smashwords Style Guide was pretty straight forward, especially since my eyes glaze over when the tech talk starts. Wonder if that's why I never managed to become a programmer? lol

Anyway, here is the cover, which I think is in it's final form. It looks good in grey scale also.  And my boys liked it. They seemed rather impressed, actually.

I worked on this for a while, trying to get the image strong enough to see in thumbnails, especially the blood splatter, but not overpower the font. It wasn't until I changed the color from a sepia tone to the green, as well as changing the title color from black, that it worked.

I also learned how to do a drop shadow! Gosh, I'm rather impressed.

My goat was to have at least five stories, coming in around 15,000 total words, for this collection, and I made it. I'm doing the final editing now, but it should stay over the 15K mark.

Here's the list, subject to rearranging and blurb changes:

A Visit From St. Nick 
  What could Santa Claus want with an elderly Jewish grandma on Christmas Eve?

In the Meadow

Winters in North Dakota can be harsh, but this year the piles of snow are a blessing.

Miracle in 34B

The unwavering belief of a little girl in the magic of Santa Claus restores the faith of an enigmatic man.

It's a Wonderful Life

A man wonders what good he's ever done for anybody, until he meets someone who shows what his life was worth.

Figgy Pudding

  The last customer in the restaurant on Christmas Eve brings a special gift to the overworked staff waiting to close up and go home.

There's one more little tease for a story running around in the back of my mind, and if it decides to show itself in time there may be a sixth story. We'll just have to see how that goes, as I plan to publish this collection on November 7th.

So, that's the plan, Gentle Readers. Until next time we meet.