Cover versus Embedded
In preparing a story for adding to the posting queue, I found myself with a minor dilemma. The story (called Plain and Solid) is about six pages long. It's about a pair of college roommates, one of them, Steffi, student teaching at her old high school, and the teacher she's working under is her old high school math teacher, and back then she had a huge crush on him, but he paid her no attention. The roommate, Gena, unbeknownst to the student teacher Steffi, has a huge crush on Steffi. That might be something of a dilemma for Gena, but it's not the dilemma I'm faced with. I have one illustration for this story. It shows Steffi, the student teacher, in the classroom pressed against her old teacher. This action is described in the story much nearer the end than the beginning. Okay, I do not plan on doing any more illustrations. But where do I put this one? At its place within the story? Or at the beginning as cover art? I am leaning toward putting it at the start, as cover art. I think it acts nicely as a teaser. But does it give too much away? Okay, it may be that this action never actually occurs. It may be that it's only what Steffi desires. Or not. If the picture occurs late in the story, and it's the only picture, is it too late? While it's a nice picture, it doesn't really add anything significant to the story. Embedded, is it extraneous?
If you have any thoughts about this, or about cover art versus embedded art in general, please let me know.