~Giggles~ I’m not sure how Clara would like pulling the jolly old fat man around. Although, he might need a body guard these days…
Tis the season! Why not grab a dark fantasy free book to unwind?
Thank you Adam Wing for this cover!
Thank you R.E. Moran for the hard work you’ve put into this cover! This lovely work of art is for The Van Helsing Resurgence, my second dark fantasy book for the Clara Grey Adventures. It borrows elements from its predecessor, and features a badassed Clara ready to take on the world!
With my edits nearly done, I should be able to get this book out within the next couple of weeks! While you wait, just remember: While the Roaring Twenties are long gone, a heroine’s work is never done.
I am so thankful that Mikki Noble took it upon herself to put together an anthology from within the Twitter Writing Community! And boy did MerryBookRound do a wonderful job with this cover!
I can’t wait till Supernatural Beings – From Ashes to Magic comes out in December! It will feature a unique short story written by yours truly! Can you? 😘
Yay! My proofs just arrived! I have to admit that I was rather curious at first, considering the size of the box. Once I removed all the wrapping paper, the proofs beckoned me to peruse their pages.
Alas, there is a slight flaw in this printing, the index came out all wrong. So I had to change the manuscript and submit the changes through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. Fortunately, this minor setback will not slow down release of the print version for too long.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Re Moran for her work on the cover. It looks even better in print!
It’s always nice to have some options! A friend has cleaned up the prototype cover that I made for the Grand. Essentially, she applied her experience and skill to create a more refined cover.
However, she also created an alternate cover. This variant is far simpler and would realistically scale better at different resolutions. Alas, it seems that I am a bit biased, since I made the prototype.
So what do you think? Which is better? Detailed or Outlined? Feel free to post any recommendations on potential changes that could make this cover really pop!
It has been roughly a year since the Portrait was released as an eBook. One of my side projects was to push this novel through CreateSpace in order to create print variant.
With the help of Nutty Nuchtchas I was able to get the cover sorted out. The cover image was tweaked using a higher quality source and a skilled hand was involved for its final inception. It is always a good idea to let a professional handle the finishing touches.
I look forward to seeing the end result!
When Revision 5 was introduced, it brought about a new cover design, which featured a speakeasy. The speakeasy was iconic for the Roaring Twenties and Dirty Thirties, at least in the United Stated and seemed to be a good fit.
A reader proposed that I use an actual hotel to create the cover. This idea has merit since the Grand features separate stories that have a common era, theme and location. The Grand is the focal points for all the stories, so it makes sense to pursue that idea.
Fortunately, I had the chance to visit la Ville de Québec which features one of the Railway Grand hotels found through Canada. I used Chateau Frontenac as a base, threw in a backdrop of the Rockies and added a skull rendition that I got from pixabay.com. The latter was listed is Public Domain, whereas the former where both my shots.
The font itself is YoungSerif found on the fontlibrary.org. It seems to complement the overall feel of the cover and has an agreeable copyright.
Overall, I think I may have found my eventual release cover. What do you think?
Nothing is quiet as iconic to the Roaring Twenties and Dirty Thirties as a speakeasy. These were places were people went to drink, dance, smoke and enjoy themselves. Movies often depicts the classier clip joints as places filled with live bands, cigarette girls and the hedonistic Flapper.
The cover for the Grand was designed to be temporary. Sites like Wattpad demanded a cover even if the work was in progress, so I found shots from the era and used them as a cover. While the cover served admirably, I never owned the rights to the image. Sure it should have been out of copyright, but such laws are always a bit ambiguous.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit a Speakeasy in Halifax and I took a few shots. Turns out that one seemed to have some of the elements desired.
To make the cover work I did the following changes:
Overall it makes for a cover which is uniquely mine. While I will likely experiment with other cover designs in the future, this one will at least set my fifth revision apart from the others!
