Whoo! One month since my last post? Really? Editing, holidays, editing, recovering from illness, editing, goofing off (hey, that last bit’s serious business!) . . . it’s been a full month.

And as I gear up for conventions (sometimes as a guest, sometimes just part of the crowd) and other public appearances, I decided it was time and past time to not only get more business cards, but to upgrade my boring white stock cards to ‘Snazzy.’

Now, it’s important to understand something here. I advise people on complicated concepts all the time. I have created multi-tiered currency systems for fantasy novels, detailed more elements of worldbuilding than an author could fit into their current novel, explained obscure points of Constitutional, federal, and state laws, researched medieval organizations on a moment’s notice, explained wormhole physics off the top of my head and (most recently; today, in fact) explained exactly how microwave ovens work.

But when it comes to graphic design, I was unable to get a simple business-card site like Vistaprint to spit out anything like the design I wanted.

I felt like the Genie. Phenomenal cosmic research power! . . . itty bitty computer skills.

And, to be clear, I do have some artistic ability, and I’m more than familiar with basic computer skills, to the point that people come to me for advice. It just seems that if you bring those two topics together, I turn into someone who barely knows how to click a mouse.

Enter my friend Shaylynn, though, of Shealynn’s Faerie Shoppe. She took my scribblings and in about five minutes created this:

novel ninja 9

Simple, elegant, and above all, fast. It took longer for me to write down my nitpicks than it did for her to fix them.

So give her stuff a look and tell her I sent you! I bet if she doesn’t have what you’re looking for, she will by the time you’re done describing it.