Hitting the Big Time

Have you ever had a spotlight shine on you unexpectedly? Or had a microphone handed over to you when you had absolutely nothing to say? Or been called on to speak in a meeting? That’s sort of the feeling I got last month when the gorgeous cover for my novella Searching for Lady Luck won the Crème de la Cover Contest at In D’Tale Magazine. Though I was thrilled to win simply for the recognition, the prize included a quarter page ad for winning the weekly contest, and a full-page ad for winning the monthly contest!

After the initial excitement, I started to panic. How on earth was I going to come up with two ads? I do a little bit of digital image manipulation, but nothing that people are going to look at in a magazine. I felt like I’d walked into the wrong party and everyone was looking at me. Knowing I wouldn't be able to do this alone, I asked my daughter for help, since she took a lot of computer courses in college, and she agreed to work with me.

But then I decided to gift the full page ad to my publisher (you  know, to thank them for putting my books out there) and in return she paid the cover artist to create my ad for me! Today I got the finished product. I am so thrilled, I wanted to share it with you.

What do you think?