And I’ve been monitoring how my giveaway has compared to the others by watching it in the site’s “Most Requested” list.

I check again this morning — and this is what I found. Totally cracked me up :-)

Hiya, neighbors!

(P.S. Click here if you want to enter!)

I planned to stop after the first 5 chapters, but couldn’t put it down!

THAT’S the kind of thing that makes this writer VERY very happy :-)

I love the concept. It’s a first person novel, narrated by a woman who is an animal control officer.

And she’s got problems.

Man problems, for starters. Her ex-fiance has shown back up in her life. And here, she thought she was completely over him.

Before you know it, she also ends up with dog problems — particularly when she stumbles on evidence of a dog fighting ring that is out of her official jurisdiction but very much on her conscience.

I first drafted Loose Dog several years ago. Shopped it to exactly one agent, who requested a full, but eventually passed on it.

I should probably have kept pushing, but instead I set it aside and wrote Libby, and a bit after that Can Job.

And you know what? That was the right decision. Because what that one agent told me is that Loose Dog was well-written but needed work on pacing. So I focused on improving my plotting, and as you can see from my Amazon reviews, plotting is one of the things readers like about my novels.

So now I’m back to Loose Dog, and my first New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to tweak it until I absolutely love it.

Get ready, world :-)

Here are mine :-)

A Classic

Portrait of a Lady. One of the great things about my Kindle is that there are so many free classics. This book, considered by some to be Henry James’ masterpiece, is definitely “slow hand lit.” James takes his time; the book’s pleasures are subtle ones meant to be lingered over, not swallowed in chunks. Definitely worth reading if you’re inclined to literary fare.

An Indie

As an indie author myself, I’m meeting other indies on a daily basis. There’s no way I could read all of the new books I’m finding out about as a result, but I am trying to at least sample and if something grabs me, read on. The Movie by Bosley Gravel is one that did. Said it before and will say it again, Bos is a writer to watch.

Where have you been all my life

This one sort of falls into the indie author category as well. Julie Harris is a midlister who has started bringing titles out as ebooks. I read An Absence of Angels and really enjoyed it. It’s historical fiction, great story telling, memorable characters.

And one print book

My dad lent me this one. Gregory Orr spent part of his childhood in Germantown, New York, where my father also grew up. The Blessing is his memoir. It opens on the day that Orr accidentally shot and killed his younger brother, but this is not a maudlin book. It’s a beautifully realized meditation on pain, grace, and art.

And it looks beautiful, don’t you think?

Only $9.99! :-)

Gorgeous, dont you think???

So I had a perfectly fine professional cover for Can Job…

And then I got another email from my designer, Derek Murphy.

He said he’d been playing around and had something new to show me.

I downloaded the file, opened it, and was blown away.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked the last version. But this one . . .  Everything is perfect. The design is more assertive and definite — which better captures the spirit of the book. I also like what the image suggests. A bunch of cans on the shelf. Anonymous cans. It’s a nice metaphor for the kinds of cubical jobs my characters are forced to endure.

And last but hardly least, the title is now larger — which is better for viewing as a thumbnail.

So big big kudos to Derek (find him here at Creative Indie covers). He nailed it.

And stay tuned — the print version of Can Job should be available very soon now!

As I may have mentioned when we met, Can Job is my latest novel — a story about DipTych Corporation, a fabled company based in Borschtchester, N.Y.

DipTych is a fine old company.

It makes can openers.

But then it decides to Go Digital.

Can Job is currently available as an ebook for the low low price of $2.99. Three ways to buy:

• From Amazon (Kindle version).
• Nook version from Barnes and Noble.
• Or you can Smashwords, which offers it in a variety of electronic formats.

Photo via Buzzfeed. Click the pic for The 13 most menacing threats of soon.

What, no Ebook Reader?

No worries. Soon — soon! — Can Job will be out as a print book as well. For Luddites. I mean traditionalists. (Not making fun! I’ve only had a Kindle for a year, now, myself…)

So if that’s you, please drop me a note or leave a comment and I’ll email you to let you know when it’s out. Figure 3 weeks or so.

Thanks!

Next up: get it out in print form . . .

We’re still tweaking, so it’s a work in progress . . . but obviously Derek is much more sophisticated as a designer.

I like that Derek’s staying with the cans as the primary visual since it’s similar to my old cover (the one I designed myself — see it here if you want to compare).

We also came up with a way to incorporate a tagline onto the cover.

So. What do you think? Like it?

Most important question of all: would you be tempted to buy the book?