Photoshop is Like Crack

To me anyway.

And just to clarify: Photoshop truly is my own personal crack cocaine. I hadn't been in the Shop for a purely creative project for many months until recently. Oh, I'm always dabbling on some work-related job - building logos or cleaning up some image for a purchase order or corrective action - but those just don't exercise the same creative mental muscle groups, you know? So a couple of months ago I embarked on a new set of images for the Wicked Bag of Suspense Tales from Wicked East Press and now I've got the bug again. And it feels good!

Since the very first short story I wrote, a zombie piece called "Scrap," I've created at least a rough image to go along with each story. The pictures keep me moving ahead and help me set the tone. I usually have them open in my background as I write and whenever I hit a stumbling block of pause to breathe if its an action scene. They're inspirational. And all this from an ancient copy of Photoshop 7. Imagine what I could with something a little more current!

If all goes well in my writing career, I'll have less and less time to play in the Shop, but it's a past time that I'll never be able to leave in the past for very long.

There are nine tales in Wicked Bag of Suspense Tales and I created a unique piece for each. I'm pleased with each so I'm hoping my fellow authors are as well.