And now the hardest part…

… Choosing a cover.

I’m very close to publishing my next erotic short story Sharing Claire.  I am really excited for this one! Writing this threesome of Claire, her dominant Thorn, and their best friend Blake was a lot of fun – but writing is always the fun part. After the writing, there’s the editing, and then the waiting for your beta/editor to go through it.

Keep reading for a short excerpt of Sharing Claire below!

When it gets back to you with corrections and suggestions, there’s always a moment of panic and “I want to give up!”  —  What could be worse than that, I ask myself every time. Only to realize that the hardest part lies still ahead. Even harder than going through another round of edits and facing hard comments! Because after finishing the writing part, there comes the design part of publishing.

I’m operating on a shoestring, so I’m still doing it all myself. There, I said it. I’m doing the very thing everyone in self publishing warns you about: I’m doing my own covers. (My favorite tool for this is canva). Doing it myself means I have to make all the design decisions myself, from the picture to the fonts used, to their placing on the cover. Which, if you’re as unable to decide things as I am, is really hard. So here I am, asking for your help:

Which of the above designs do you like best?

Tell me Blue, Pink or Black in the comments!

And now, like promised, here’s a little preview of Sharing Claire!

Later, she will have to confess this transgression, and she looks forward to her penance with equal measures of dread and anticipation. Thorn knows how to pull her strings, he knows how to turn her into a blubbering mess of bliss, but also how to torture her with exquisite punishments, and she loves him for it.

Now that some of her tenseness is washed away by her stolen climax, Claire is quick to dress and do her hair and apply make-up. Her lips and eyes receive the most attention, for she doesn’t want her lipstick to wear off after taking the first bite at the restaurant. When she’s done, her make-up looks dramatic, and her bright red lips are perfectly prepared to eat and suck a cock. She feels daring as she slips into her tight red dress, for she doesn’t wear bold colors like this often. Spending the biggest part of her days managing her stables, she doesn’t often need to dress up. The times when she had to muck the stables herself are long gone; now she’s mostly doing accounting and organizational tasks, making sure that everything goes perfectly and none of her high class clients has a reason to complain. You might think that managing a stable has more to do with horses and less with numbers, but Claire has to get up before sunrise to squeeze in her own daily ride, otherwise she hardly gets close enough to a horse to touch it. Still, there’s no place for fancy clothes nor loud colors around horses.

The greater part of her wardrobe is reserved for plain functionality, but there’s also a place for her wild, daring side. The side she indulges with Thorn and their play. This side of her requires killer heels, and when she stalks down the stairs to meet Thorn and Blake, she holds on to the banister and concentrates on each step. Thorn chose the shoes for her, and the heels studded with sharp metal spikes should have been her first clue that he is planning something more for her than just a fancy dinner.

From the gallery at top of the stairs, she can overlook the large living room area. Blake lounges in one of the leather armchairs and watches her descent with a grin – appreciative, there’s no mistaking it – while Thorn is on the phone, pacing between the couch and the foot of the stairs. He wears a suit, covering up his lean body and his beautiful skin too much for Claire’s taste. She loves him with his sleeves rolled up, showing his arms and the tattoos on their insides. Now, only the cherry blossoms on the side of his neck peek above his collar. Claire wonders once more how it’s possible that not even something as gentle and soft as flowers manages to soften his sharp edges. He and Blake look like a pair of hungry wolves. Blake is the darker one of the pair, all brown eyes, black hair and stubble, and his middle-eastern tan closer to Claire’s own golden color, whereas Thorn’s dark, silver-fox hair frames a face that, despite all the time he spends outside, only shows a light tan. He still paces, and his shoes clack on the bare hardwood floors. He turns around as Claire reaches the last step, and there’s a frown on his face.

“I’m sorry, too. Goodnight,” he says into the phone and ends the call, his eyes focused solely on her. Something in his expression gives his eyes a darkness that is in stark contrast to their blue color. With his sharp cheekbones and jawline, it’s easy for him to look stern. Claire feels small despite her high heels when he steps up to her and takes her hand to lead her down the last step and into the living room.

“You’re late,” he states. The severity of his tone doesn’t fit with the ever growing grin on Blake’s face. Blake’s teeth flash and reflect the warm light of the chandelier above them.

“I’m sorry. There was a lot to do in the stables…” There is always a lot to do, and Claire knows that her apology is rather lame.

“They gave away our table at the restaurant.”

“Oh.” Claire’s stomach drops, and she swallows. If Thorn finds out that she’s late because she disobeyed, she’s in for a punishment. She was already in for punishment to begin with, and fully aware of it, but being responsible for missing their reservation adds a new gravity to it that she hadn’t calculated on before. Considering that she doesn’t exactly have a pokerface, he will know sooner rather than later. He always sees the guilt on her face as if her thoughts are written plainly across her skin.

Like this preview of Sharing Claire? Leave a comment!