For the month of September I will be writing ten 3000 word short stories for my Spring Death theme. That is about 2.5 stories a week. I wrote my first short story yesterday – Mother Always Said.
It is a tale of a religious mother who endures hardships at home with an abusive husband, and at church with a questionable congregation. Her son becomes part and parcel of her deterioration, and sets the stage for the rest of his life.
So the above image is the first rough cover draft, first idea that came to mind which I quickly put together before it escaped me. Carin Marais, a friend, writer and fellow Patreon, also sent through an amazing suggestion using the following image:
If you have any ideas, suggestions, comments, links or anything helpful, please let me know. If I use your idea, you will get recognition, as well as a PDF version of the final cover and short story (a reward usually reserved for Patreons). Thank you in advance! You can use the contact form if your idea is complex – I’m on my emails almost all the time (except weekends.)
Earlier today I wrote a poem “Darker than Black” inspired by this tale, exploring the boy who is now a man. If you haven’t read it, please give it a look see. 🙂
A-Scribe To Describe 
I actually quite love the original cover that you made. However, the other image is nicely done as well. The cross adds the religion effect (even though the other image is clearly a prayer).
I think it depends on how “dark” the story is too. The story seems to touch upon some dark themes and if the story itself is as dark as it sounds, the second image may be best. The black background and black and white hand and cross would reflect on the theme, I think.
Hmmmm considering the points you made, about it being dark, I think the second image would actually work really well. You also can’t tell if the person in the image is male or female and you can interpret the image as you like in light of the story itself. Thanks a lot Rache 🙂
Yes, that image is very mysterious. Glad I could help!