The nice folks at Baen's Universe wrote to ask me about art for my next story with them, and I managed something, but I think I am probably one of the more amiable people when it comes to visual art for my stories. I am so totally not a visual person that it's always interesting to me to see what someone who is visual comes up with, even if it's nothing like the fragments of visual stuff I have in my head. I have some pet peeves in illustration -- when someone is described as "stocky," for example, and portrayed on the cover of the book as spindly instead -- but for the most part I am very easy to please, or at least to entertain. If they were going to try to compose scents for the different characters, I would be a harridan of hell -- "No! The cardamom is not buffering the anise enough, it smells like someone else completely!" -- but this is not the way this business usually works. Which is probably just as well for all concerned, or I wouldn't be able to go into a bookstore at all. Particularly the mystery and history sections, oof. Although some romances might be just as bad, and -- oh, the authors I couldn't read. I have trouble with the way some stories smell in my head anyway, but moving it out of my skull and into my nose would be worse, much worse.
I think it's time to give up on "Five Ways to Ruin a First Date" for the day and start kicking some other story with heavy boots. For some reason I am in, "Oi! You! Hold still so's I can stomp you!" mode as regards my stories this morning. They bear it bravely.
