Ki ki ki ma ma ma. . . .

In honor of this being Friday the 13th, I'll be revealing my cover to my story collection, which is titled 13. No relation to Jason Voorhees. Sad. I know. There just happens to be 13 stories in the collection and having a number as a title looks cool.

But since I'm stealing Mr. Voorhees' day, here is a meme to celebrate his spooky awesomeness.

Yes, that is a cat wearing a hockey mask. The Internet wins.

And before anyone goes and argues with me that the title of this post isn't the “Jason sound,” I got it from this interview:

http://www.slasherama.com/features/harry.HTML

In the interview, Friday the 13th Composer Harry Manfredini explains that the sound stands for the line “Kill her Mommy!” And Manfredini says “ki and ma” in the interview, so that's what I used. Even though the Internet and my FB friends have it all sorts of ways. . . .

Now on to the cover!

See. Having a number for a title is totally awesome.

Now for the really fun part. When I started my blog, I wrote out a calendar for my posts. It's what I was taught “professional” blogs should do in one of my PR classes. So I did it. Yeah, thing is. . . I always mix up dates on calendars. We'll just blame that on being dyslexic. What this means for you, the human reading this post, is you get something extra. On my schedule I'm supposed to be posting the first mini trailer for one of the stories in 13 on Monday, but I had it stuck in my head that it was today. So it's finished early; so I'm going to show it early.

You're welcome.

First up is Pale Moon Rising. The back story of this story is really a story itself. It's one of the first short stories I ever wrote that was good enough to rewrite over and over until it was accepted for publication. I was still in high school when I wrote the very first draft. Most of that original draft was lost versions ago, with the exception of how the story opens. I refused to change that even when a magazine offered to publish it if I reworked the opening. It was the first time I had told an editor “no.” And I'm glad I did. It was published by the very next magazine I sent it to. And why was I so stuck on that opening? Besides for the fact that it was just totally awesome.

I wrote the story in class when we had free time. A classmate who sat next to me asked to see what I was working on. At the time, letting people read my work was still kind of scary, so it was unusual that I handed over a rough draft like I did. She called it beautiful, and she wanted me to let her read it when I was done. We had a holiday break after that, and I finished my story.

But the girl in my class never got to read any version of the finished story. She died in an accident over our break. The opening is still the same one she liked. For her. And because she was right. . . it's beautiful.

And hopefully you'll think the trailer is beautiful too.


Do you need a tissue after all of that?

To cheer you up, I have fun news! I'll be having my first giveaway for 13. There is a catch though. I'll be announcing the giveaway here, on my blog, once I reach 500 “likes” on my FB page. So you see that little FB link on the right? Go click it! And share this blog and my FB page and tell other people to click the “like” button!

Also, I'll be adding an “Ask Raina” section to my blog. Each post I'll answer one submitted question about me, my writing, the stuff I cut up. . . random things I say. You get the picture. So get to asking!