Happy New Year From Mint Phalanx!
Happy new year from Mint Phalanx!
More Posts from Mx-field and Others
Reanna: I wish my headmates had the luxury of thinking about their stories without possibly annoying others like I did. But they get to have collaboration and make suggestions. I didn't have that before the phalanx.
From Our DeviantArt Post
Title: The Murder After Byline: Reanna Field (It's actually by SL.)
This is the front cover for The Murder After. It has a white pillow with the yellow rose and knife lying on top of each other in an "x" shape. The rose's stem has blood on it, and so does the knife's blade.
F.M. and SL worked on it during Labor Day [2023.] SL took the picture, and F.M. did the rest. He traced and colored. To add texture, he put the photo on top and made it more transparent. It was better than filling in texture by coloring.
Not from Our Post
SL: I wanted to share the meaning behind the picture. The yellow rose represents friendship. (Jacqueline was Terrance's friend.) The blood on the stem represents the cut on Jacqueline's neck. The pink paring knife represents nothing. We chose it because our mom doesn't like it, just in case we were still taking pictures when she got back.
I'm proud of this cover. It's my favourite.
The Murder After is out now, so you can buy it on Amazon. (Link to its page.)
SL: I made a side blog to share my development of The Murder After and eventually The Year After. It's like looking behind the scenes, and I hope it will pique readers' interest. The blog is called development-before. (Now deleted.)
From Our DeviantArt Post
Title: Carnival Byline: Reanna Field
This is the new front cover for Carnival. It's the red curtain but changed to look like a frame that puts the title and byline in the focal point.
It was supposed to have a picture of Staride, and the curtain was supposed to look like it was rising. But it looked cooler after we used the smudge feature to make the cover look darker. It makes the frame look like a diamond.
Carnival is out now, so you can buy it on Amazon. (Link to its page. Note: the back of the hardcover does not have a blurb.)
Reanna: Classwork is like doing dishes. You put off the easier one because it was hard last time.
Carnival: Preview
From chapter one. This is the Call to Adventure. If you like what you read, go to the book’s profile below.
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Lakewood, Colorado. In an apartment unit, a dim lamp lit the upper right corner of the front room. Brain, Caleb, Jackie, José, and James sat on a grey couch right of that lamp. On the carpet floor lay Chaz, too sad to notice his friends. They glanced at him, then at each other, unsure how to comfort him.
“Why?” Chaz whispered to himself, “why, why, why, why, why?” A moment later, he said, “no use crying now.” He sat up, wiped the tears off his face, stood, and noticed his friends. They stared at him.
“Why are you staring, and how long have you—”
James stood, “you killed her, didn’t you?” Chaz blinked, “what?”
“You heard me.” He smirked.
“Phoenix is dead,” José whispered. He stood, but Brian pulled at his t-shirt. So, he sat back down.
“What makes you think I killed her!?” Chaz said. James shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe because you don’t trust anyone—”
“I trusted Rebecca- “Chaz pointed at him- “and you know it!”
“Yeah, right. So, you decided to—”
“No, I didn’t.” He clenched his fists. “They said there was a leak in her car’s gas tank! I was here when it happened, and I didn’t know until Brian told me!”
“You probably poked a hole in it,” James said.
“I didn’t touch Rebecca’s car when she left!”
He pointed at Chaz, “you did something to her car to make it explode—”
“No, I didn’t! Why the fuck are you accusing me in the first place!?”
“You—”
“I DID NOT! WHY WOULD I WANT TO KILL HER!? I LOVED HER!” The room fell silent.
Chaz felt shaky, so he lay on the floor again. He cried again. James sat on the couch and lowered his eyes.
"Happy now?" Jackie whispered to him.
Brian stood and walked towards Chaz.
“Don’t touch me.” He found a box of tissues and placed it next to his friend instead, respecting his vulnerability.
Ten awkward minutes later, Chaz took a deep breath, sat up, used a tissue, stood, and turned to face Brian.
He said, “you said the police won’t investigate because as far as anyone knows, the explosion was caused by a gas leak from a bad fuel tank.” Brian nodded (as if it weren’t said earlier.)
“But they didn’t see any body!” Jackie kicked José's leg.
“Let’s go to Lakeside and find Rebecca ourselves.”
Reasons to Buy Carnival
You like horror comedy with some gothic fiction on the side.
You want to give these genres a try.
You want a story that takes place in Colorado.
You want a novella that isn't romance.
You want to see the playlist.
Link to its page on Amazon (Note: We would give this book an MPA rating of R.)
The Murder After: Profile
Title: The Murder After (links to Amazon) Series: Terrance's Story #1 Genre: mystery, dramadey, psychological fiction Year self-published: 2024 (through KDP)
Copyright status: CC BY-SA 4.0. (Do what you want as long as you give credit and use the same license.)
Blurb: Terrance is one person to a body and lives in Lakewood, Colorado. One morning, he woke up next to a dead body. Now, he wants to know what happened one night because he became a suspect in an investigation. Do you want to know what happened too?
Format: chapbook Page count: 52 (fifty-two)
MPA rating: PG-13 Reasons: some language, violent death (off screen), drama, suicidality
Price: $5.95 Note: This is specifically SL's story.
SL: I should point out that I tried narrating in the British dialect. Our official story is that I was challenging myself. Then, I learned the second person is Terrance's natural perspective, but I was too lazy to change anything. So if I sound like an American trying to sound British, that's why. (Please don't get mad at me for saying "closet" instead of "wardrobe.") [T: I roll my eyes and go with it.]
SL: Over the weekend, I tried turning our print books into ebooks, but the KPF file wouldn't process. I thought a print replica would be the best way to preserve our fonts.
How can I do that if the file won't process?
