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Just a few more days until the voting for the Gemmell Morningstar Awards closes and my friend and high fantasy writer Helen Lowe's "The Heir of Night" is in the final round of voting for the category Best Fantasy Newcomer.
Please make your vote before May 31st.
All you have to do to vote now is click Here
Then click again in the circle immediately above "The Heir of Night -- Helen Lowe"
By way of added incentive, no book by a woman has yet won in either the Legend or Morningstar categories. Your support could well make that a thing of the past.
Writers write books. And in this age of indie and self-publishing sometimes we design covers for them. Good covers. Bad covers. Covers that attract readers, or repel them. The truth is, not all writers are good cover designers or have the artistic, computer, or technological skill to pull off a good cover.
Sometimes we need to hire someone, but that can be expensive, and where and how does one find a good cover designer?
I am pleased to say, I recently "met" book cover designer Kura Carpenter through SpecFicNZ, the national speculative fiction writers organization I started in New Zealand while I lived there.
Kura is from Dunedin, New Zealand and has designed for authors all over the world, including a recent cover for Steam Press for the novel 'Tropic of Skorpeo' by author Michael Morrissey to be released later this year.
Kura kindly agreed to let me interview her about cover design, so here it is. I asked and she answered. All you have to do it enjoy!
Kura, how did you get into book cover design?
A couple of years ago my friend, Justin Elliot, asked me to create the cover for his YA Fantasy adventure, A Dark Future. I really enjoyed it, but I pretty much wrote it off as one-time opportunity. Then in 2011 I met Peter Jenks who was about to release a non-fiction guide as an ebook, and I increasingly became aware that ebooks were really taking off and that publishing was changing and I could design for anyone, anywhere.
What is your favorite book cover of all times?
I don’t have a single favorite cover, but I do have a favorite design era. I love the Art Nouveau & Arts and Crafts influenced covers of the late 1800s. Will Bradley’s cover for ‘In Russet and Silver’ published in 1894 is a good example.
What is the hardest genre to design a cover for? The easiest?
As I’m primarily a photo manipulator, I find the hardest is Historicals because sourcing photos of models in historically-accurate clothes can be challenging. I find the easiest are those with a strong emotional content, so for example romance and horror.
What is your favorite kind of book to design a cover for?
I enjoy doing thrillers most because I like creating a graphic that will tell its own story, and thinking in terms of visual cues as to the tone of the book is great fun. I also enjoy doing sci-fi because I get a chance to flex my Photoshop muscles and create special effects >> Blue lightning, anyone?
On average, how long does it take you to design a cover?
The length depends on the genre and the number of base photos required to build-up the graphic. A sci-fi/fantasy cover will usually be heavy on props and special effects and therefore they take longer. For example the fantasy cover I created for James E Thomas Reed Butler’s Story’ required ten images, whereas the non-fiction ‘Girls and Dating’ by PM Jenks only required one. But in terms of hours, I’d say on average 8 to 12 hours.
Authors are often surprised at how little say they have over their book cover with a traditional publisher. How hands-on is the process if they commission one with you?
That’s entirely up to the author. I personally like a collaborative effort, and so I encourage the author to have a lot of input. It’s important to me to understand the author’s taste and style, after all I’m creating a cover that needs to fit their individual brand.
Are there any big no-no's of cover design? (Things one should never do, ie- have a relative design your cover, use a certain font for the title, etc)
I think it’s very important to project the right tone, and I think people sometimes forget that fonts also have a tone. To demonstrate this I’ve created a simple graphic where I’ve reversed the normally associated conventions with two fonts.
And as long as your relative works in graphics, I don’t see the problem with getting their help. :p
Are there any key principles for cover design? (things you should always do-- ie- include genre clues on cover, always have cleavage- hehe)
I feel genre clues are extremely important, as they are all about setting a tone. Any adult having grown up as a book lover will have developed an unconscious but very sophisticated ability to interpret and value a cover design through visual cues and symbols. So for me, the key to good covers begins with understanding the market. What a particular audience wants and expects to see, and what those things mean. For example, imagine a man standing in a forest a night. What genre is that? Not enough info? Ok then, he wears a cloak and holds a lantern… Are you thinking Historical about now? But what if I add, the lantern is illuminated by captured Fairies…?
I saw a recent discussion on-line about the use of gender neutral covers for YA versus gender specific covers (covers that feature a guy protagonist, or, more often, a girl protagonist). Books like Divergent, Legend, and Hunger Games had very gender neutral covers. What's your opinion on the roll gender plays in cover design and appeal?
To me this question precedes the design process, it’s really about how publishers calculate their sales. Any time a cover is gender specific the publisher is effectively risking losing 50% of the potential audience. I predict with the prevalence of ebooks, it will become common for YA books to have 2 covers, a solution which isn’t cost effective in traditional print publishing.
How do you balance author input with your own expertise? In other words, what do you do with a client who keeps insisting on bad cover design ideas?
I’ve never had a client like that, but I have wondered what I would do if I was in that situation. On one hand, I’m employed by the author, therefore I should deliver what they want. But on the other hand if I could see what they wanted would be detrimental to their sales, then I would have to say so. I simply couldn’t do something I felt would effectively ruin the purpose of the cover. Every product has a function to serve and fundamentally, Book Covers are adverts.
Can you talk about the components involved in back cover design? What does the author need to bring to the table? Book blurb, a one sentence hook, recommendations and review quotes from other authors, author bio? What about the author photo? Do you recommend one or not, and why?
The more an author can bring to the back, the better. A blurb is essential. A one sentence hook is great for catching the eye and generating intrigue. Recommendations and reviews make purchasing the book easier for someone browsing, because people like to go where others have gone before -- as in, it reduces the risk in their minds. And as for photos, I think they’re a good idea. Readers are naturally curious and sharing a photo will help establish a personal connection with them. I feel a photo has a psychological value similar to a signing your real name to an important document. A value that says, this is the real me, and I stand behind this book.
Thanks Kura! Be sure to check out Kura's work and website HERE.
Have a sci-fi, fantasy,or horror novel that released recently, or is coming out in the near future?
Well, you need to promote that puppy and I just stumbled upon one damn good way to do it.
Check out what StarShipSofa is doing.
They will publish the first chapter, or first ten minutes of narration of your novel (whichever comes first) and release it as a teaser with one of their weekly podcast stories.
You have to make your own audio file, make it quality, and send it to them, but I think that is some pretty amazing free publicity.
And lest you think these are small peanuts, StarShipSofa was the first podcast to ever be nominated for and win a Hugo Award.
But The Powers that Be had spoken, so I went looking on-line (craigslist mostly) for a working, cheap, local, non-dealership car we wouldn't have to go into debt for (debt being another thing we like to live without). We found a few possibilities and began to call and set up appointments to go see them. And this is what I learned;)
1. If you are selling your used car on craigslist, be sure to post a picture of it from years before. Before that fender-bender. Before the rust crept in. Before the paint began to peel. Basically, before it looked like a piece of shit you beat the crap out of. Coincidentally, this is the same principle middle-aged people use to select their on-line avatar photo. No, they are not still twenty-something, and thin, with a haircut from the eighties. That picture is old, just like they are now.
2. Put a positive spin on the description of your vehicle. Anything you bought or replaced since you've owned the car (even if you've owned it twenty years) can be described as "New". After all, it was "new" when you bought it. That giant crash crumple in the front panel could be described as a dent in the bumper. You can still quote the Kelly Blue Book Price and point out that your obviously mashed vehicle is in excellent, like-new condition.
3. When someone calls you to set up an appointment to view your vehicle, be very vague. Set a time and then go on a bike ride just before they arrive. Reschedule three of four times. When they finally do catch you home, answer the door shirtless and pretend to forget where you parked the car (Yes, this happened.)
4. When showing a vehicle, be sure to keep all your crap inside of it. Fast food trash. Parts you've yanked from the car. Used condoms. Your mother's broken Rainbow Vacuum. Do not wash, clean, or empty the car. These people need to know what that car is really going to look like when they use it. As an extra bonus, remember to leave a small white board in the front windshield on the dash on which you've written- Car broke down again. Please don't tow. Be back to get it when I can. (I'm not kidding. One car actually had this. You can't make this shit up.). I'm sure the future owner will need to use that sign.
5. Be sure all the repair work on the car has been done by you in a shoddy manner without any record-keeping of any kind, and tell the buyer this. Unscrew the air conditioner and let the Freon leak out. Patch hoses with duct tape. Re-attach the driver side mirror with putty. Use cardboard or plastic wrap instead of traditional window glass. Make sure the vehicle won't start when the buyer comes. When it doesn't, tell them you installed the wrong kind of battery in it and ask them for a jump (Yes, this did happen. No, we did not jump the car).
6. Finally, ask way too much for the car and refuse to negotiate the price.
I guarantee, using any of these methods will result in no car sale for you.
Honestly, I began to wonder if some of these postings, and people, and their car selling methods were some kind of joke.
But never fear. In the end, we found a great, reliable, used vehicle, so it can be done. You just have to have a sense of humor about the whole process and realize that some people have no idea what they're doing.
What's your funniest or strangest car-buying story?
Sometimes you read something that just blows you away and you have to shout it to the roof tops. That is what this post is. It is me shouting as loud as I can, "Wool is amazing!"
What is Wool?
1) Wool started as short story self-published by author Hugh Howey in 2011 that was so popular readers clambered for more, and Howey happily complied. Wool rapidly began to develop a passionate following of fans eager for the next chapter in the saga and as of April 8th 2012 rates #1 in Amazon.com's Kindle Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthologies and High Tech. The Series now consists of six novellas:
- Wool (Jul 30, 2011)
- Wool 2 - Proper Gauge (Nov 30, 2011)
- Wool 3 - Casting off (Dec 11, 2011)
- Wool 4 - The Unraveling (Dec 26, 2011)
- Wool 5 - The Stranded (Jan 25, 2012)
- Wool 6 - First shift (Apr 14, 2012)
The first five books of the Wool series are available in an omnibus, which I just finished devouring in a non-stop read-fest. Both my husband and I found the beginning just a little slow, but still a good read. Once you get past the original short story though, the story arc really picks up and is very compelling.
2) Wool is an amazingly well-written story with a fast-paced, high tension plot and extremely well-developed characters. The Story of Wool takes place on a decimated Earth, ravaged by some yet-to-be-revealed catastrophe. Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending hundreds of stories beneath the surface. There is one paramount law within the Silo: never say you want to go outside, for if you do, you will get your wish.
Wool 6 is actually a prequel to the first five and I've just bought in on my Kindle.
I also had to buy Howey's YA book, Half Way Home, while I was at it because, of course, I love YA and now I love Hugh Howey.
And I love it when I find an new author I can ravenously devour, and Howey is especially sweet to consume because he is purely an indie writer. I know all my money is going to support him (not a publisher, not an agent, or a possibly out-dated publishing model), and he certainly has proven to me that good writers can exist and thrive outside the trappings of traditional publishing.
If there is one thing you read this year, make it Wool.
Wishing I was back in New Zealand right now because this little tid-bit just crossed my inbox.
What happens when you take an iconic American Spaghetti Western and set it in New Zealand? The World's First Pavlova Western, Good for Nothing. (For those of you who aren't familiar, Pavlova is New Zealand's iconic dessert, basically a cake made entirely of meringue with whipped cream and fruit on top- think pure unadulterated sugar bomb. Why does it have a Russian name if New Zealand invented it? Good question.).
What is Good for Nothing?
Good for Nothing is an adventurous romp shot entirely in New Zealand with the South Island serving as an impressive stand-in for the sweeping Old West.
The film's time period is set around 1876 and uses New Zealand locations and sets to recreate this period. Featuring Victorian/Edwardian/Western architecture, clothing and props it's a feast for fans of this era! In fact, plenty of costumes and props were bought in Oamaru!!
The film is on for a limited time nationwide so be in quick to see the spectacular New Zealand landscapes on the big screen! We just debuted in the NZ Box Office top 10 this weekend and have received some amazing reviews with Kate Rodger from 3News giving it 4 stars and Graeme Tuckett saying "Go and see it, on the biggest screen you can find."
Want just a hint of what you'll get? Here's THE TRAILER:
Where can you see the movie?
It has just released nationwide throughout New Zealand - here's a list of the cinemas & dates wheremit's playing:
What's in it for you?
We would love for you or your organisation to get a Posse together and go and see the film - both Leonard Maltin and Stuff.co.nz recommend that the spectacular New Zealand landscapes need to be seen on the big screen! In fact, we are so keen for you to round up your friends we'll provide a free signed soundtrack to every Sheriff of a Posse of 10 or more! And if you get 20 or more we will also send you a free signed DVD when it comes out as well! Just get in touch with us (info@goodfornothingmovie.com
If you want to know more about how a bunch of Kiwi Cowboys made the film - check out this making of clip.
Yeeha!!
In keeping with my love of YA dystopian, I recently read Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien and I highly recommend it.
Summary:
World and character development are beautifully done in this book set in a society divided between the wealthy, who live within the wall of the enclave, and the poor who live outside of it. Sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone lives outside the wall, an apprentice midwife helping her mother serve the pregnant women of her village. But that service comes at a price, for the enclave requires that a midwife give the first three babies she delivers every month into the hands of the enclave to be adopted beyond the wall. When her parents are arrested for treason, Gaia must decipher the secrets they left behind and decide where her loyalty lies. With the enclave? With her parents? With the mothers and babies she serves? Or with herself?
Things I loved about this book:
The characters-- very solidly developed and real.
Gaia Stone- great, strong, young, female protagonist who solves the challenges in the plot herself with out any need for rescue by men or boys. Also, Gaia has a disfiguring facial burn scar and is an outcast in her own community. Not your typical "must be beautiful and popular" YA heroine.
The world-- nicely developed and deals realistically with the ramifications of certain choices the society has made.
The love interest-- the romance is subtle and not cheesy. It develops slowly and believably and doesn't have any of the "He must magically love her" tropage of many YA books. It also isn't the main focus of the book, so yay!
Codes and mysteries- There are certain parts of the book that involve codes and it almost felt like a mystery the reader gets to take part in.
The twists- There are many wonderful twists, even a few I didn't see coming, so that was a delight.
What I didn't love:
The ending-- Without giving away a spoiler, the end did fall a little flat for me. Gaia takes action at the end of the book that I don't believe she would based on the way she is developed throughout the book (ie- she always dares to risk everything fearlessly for her principles and those she loves, but I feel she goes against this character trait at the very end). I did read an interview with the author in which she said this was not the original ending for the book, but when the publisher wanted the story expanded to a trilogy, she changed the ending. I think this was a bit unfortunate. I think there must have been a way to keep the story going without compromising the consistency of Gaia's character.
More of Gaia's story:
Despite my disappointment with the end, the book was good enough throughout that I will definitely be reading book 2, Prized, and possibly checking out the segway e-book (1.5), Tortured, which bridges the story between Birthmarked and Prized. Book 3, Promised, is not out until October of this year.
What is a Grammar Nazi? Here's how the Urban Dictionary defines one:
1) Someone who believes proper grammar and spelling should be used by everyone at all times, no matter the circumstance.
2) Someone who attempts to pursued or force others to use proper grammar (see English Teacher:)
3) One who uses proper grammar to subtly (or not so subtly) mock and deride those who do not: a proponent of grammatical superiority. (My Grammar can beat up your Grammar).
4) One who cannot resist correcting the grammar and spelling of others: (ie. the Grammar Police).
And I will add one more item to that list.
5) Someone who believes the entire world is going to hell in a hand basket based solely on their "perceived" deterioration of the human language. (You know, the Grammar Apocalypse we've all been fearing IS at hand).
Honestly, as a writer, I think there is a time and place for some Nazi in my grammar. For example, I love to have a Grammar Nazi as a beta reader- helps me clean up all my little ips and oops. I think most editors should be Grammar Nazis. I think English teachers could loosen up a bit though. I have to cringe when my daughter comes home and tells me that a paragraph is 4-6 sentences long (no more and no less). Um, no dear, a paragraph is how ever long it needs to be. That length is just some bogus arbitrary rule your Nazi teacher made up to make her feel better.
But I also think you can be supremely good at something without thinking everyone else should be and rubbing your superiority in their face. That's the part that bothers me. Not the perfectionism, but the elitism.
If you are a Grammar Nazi, or you know one, or you live with one, here are some things you might want to consider.
1) The purpose of the human language (both oral and written) IS NOT perfection, it is COMMUNICATION. Grammar serves the purpose of clarity and understanding, not the other way around. If you can read something and understand it, then language, and the person using it, have done their jobs.
2) Language is not your personal band-stand. Your pillar of superiority. Language belongs to us all, to the masses, not an elite few. If you can't understand what someone has communicated, ask for clarity. Bashing a person for not communicating well is you not communicating well. Are you genuinely interested in what they have expressed or are you just interested in how much better you could have expressed it? The use of language as a bludgeon is a far greater crime than a misspelled word or a misplaced comma, in my opinion.
3) On the internet especially, you have no idea what the circumstances of someone's language use are. For example, is English their second language (or their third or fourth- in which case they are probably a much better linguist than you will ever be)? Are they dyslexic? Did they have a cat sitting on their computer while they were typing (This one happens to me a lot). There are many reasons for the misuse of language that are far beyond your ken.
4) A misuse of grammar rules DOES NOT denote a lack of intelligence. My son has a very high IQ and he has trouble with grammar and spelling. He also knows more about military history than any human being I know. Language is not the only (or the primary) measure of human intelligence. There are numerous types of intelligence- Spacial, Emotional, Social, Musical, Logical, to name a few. Just because Mathematical and Linguistic intelligence are the two focused on most in traditional education does not mean the others aren't incredibly valuable. So, you're good at Grammar. Pretty sure that's not going to save anyone in an apocalypse (unless, of course, it is the before-mentioned Grammar Apocalypse)
5) Speaking of the apocalypse, the world is not going to end due to bad grammar or text speak. Human language is not devolving to the point where we will soon be communicating in grunts again (yes, I have seen people say this). Stop being such a linguistic Luddite. Language is made to change. Rules change. Words change. Meanings change. Even punctuation changes. Language has and always will serve human need, not the other way around. It is made to evolve and that is exactly what it is doing. Remember how rock-and-roll was going to end the world? It's sort of like that. Every generation decries the next generation's voice of expression because we're scared it invalidates our own.
5). Finally, if you are good at grammar, do you really want everyone else to be? You could make a living at that skill. You could teach it, or edit magazines or websites, or run workshops. A doctor doesn't expect everyone in the world to learn surgery. Instead, he rakes in the dough for his unique skills and training. Yes, every human being should probably know basic first aid, just as every human being should be able to communicate and strive to communicate better. But they are rarely perfect at it. And that's where you come in. To fill that void. To serve that purpose. To market and employ your unique talent. NOT to flail it around like a weapon and cut people with it.
Are you a closet or in-your-face Grammar Nazi? Time to confess and come clean in the comments:) If not, have you encountered a Grammar Nazi and how do you respond to them? Any other points anyone wants to make about issues of grammar and language use, I'd love to hear them.
Oh, and here's a video for your grammatical enjoyment:
