A Far Out Fantastic Site

Last post , I presented the complete book cover illustration reveal for my upcoming horror short read, “Circa Sixty Years Dead”. Now, may I present to you the full cover reveal--illustration and lettering both: Credit: Steven Arellano Rose, Jr. As I said I would , I used a graphic design application, Paint.Net, to paint the black sky and touch up some of the statue’s edges to reduce that glowing effect. I also used black digital paint to touch up the horizon line on the right-hand side because it had been uneven with the horizon line on the left. The rest of the illustration was produced by my own hands. The lettering was completely produced using Amazon’s graphic design application, the cover creator. Graphic art software is very handy in practical situations, in my case, the marketing of a book. Yet I try not to let the digital art drown out my art made with my own hands using physical tools, pencils in this case, as opposed to virtual ones such as Paint.Net’s paintbr...

Well, here it is! The completed book cover illustration for my short read horror story, “Circa Sixty Years Dead”. Credit: Steven Arellano Rose, Jr. That brings my book that much closer to its release! This week I’ll be working on formatting it for Kindle. I’ll also be uploading the illustration to Amazon so I can put it together with the rest of the cover. So next week, I’ll have the full cover reveal for you: complete with illustration, title and author’s byline. That is, provided that I don’t need to make any changes. Any changes I need to make will be determined by you, readers! Therefore, let me know what you think of the illustration and whether or not it needs any improvement. After all, the books I write are for you to read, not for me. The end product is for the pleasure of your reading; I already read the story as I edit it. I’ll check the comments box below throughout the week, and if there are any suggestions for the illustration then I’ll work on making changes t...

Well, I have some good news and bad news. I’ll get the bad news over with first. Because of some technical problems with the software that I used, I didn’t finish the book cover art for “Circa Sixty Years Dead”. I was really determined to complete it and so was up late into the night Saturday/early Sunday morning so I could have it here for you. By the time I saw that it wasn’t going to get done, it was already too late to post anything and so I apologise for the late posting. The good news is that the illustration is closer than ever to completion and I have the official synopsis for the book. ‘Circa Sixty Years Dead’ Cover Art Progress So I could have the best book cover art for “Circa Sixty Years” I took advantage of an update for the Paint.Net software that I use. Paint.net is a free software which is really useful for those basic needs of an illustration, mine being painting a solid black sky.  I know, I had said that I was going to use black marker for the reveal, but I’...

Credit: Studio Hades/Openclipart.org I hope you had a chance to check out last week’s post that featured guest blogger L.G. Keltner. She gave a lot of really great details about her Self-Help 101 novella series, including details on the writing process. Speaking of which, I want to talk about a part of the writing process this evening, one that actually comes after the book releases—post-publication editing. I was reading an article a while back from a Star Trek fan site. It talked about an editing error in the most recent Blu-ray edition of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Director’s Cut . Apparently, the error was in the opening scene of the film where the wrong graphic information on the bridge simulator’s screen was used. The mistake was discovered by hardcore Star Trek fans after the Blu-ray released. I’m not sure how big Hollywood production companies handle the ones who overlook these things but I can imagine they are much less forgiving than indie film makers and ...

Last week I said I would take a break from talking about my next book. By now that book probably seems to be a bunch’a bull to you since I keep putting off the release date. But it is with great pleasure to have my guest blogger, L.G. Keltner, talk about her Self-Help 101 series of novellas of which two are already out. Credit: L.G. Keltner What inspired you to write the Self-Help 101 series? I was inspired to write the first novella in the series, Self-Help 101 or: How I Learned to Take Over the World Through Tolerating My Family courtesy of an odd combination of factors.   I’d been contemplating the nature of self-help books, and I listened to the Pinky and the Brain theme song.  I only intended to write one novella, but then my husband said the fateful words.  “You could make a series out of this.  Each book takes place on a different holiday.  Imagine doing the 4th of July.”  Within a minute, I knew I’d dedicated myself to this...

Here’s how far I’ve gotten on the book cover illustration for “Circa Sixty Years Dead” since last week: Credit: Steven Arellano Rose, Jr. As you can see, I haven’t even gotten to the sky yet. But I finally darkened all of the ground. But not enough. I didn’t realise this until I coloured in the man at the bottom. Here’s a close-up of him: Credit: Steven Arellano Rose, Jr. I know, it’s blurry. But the man is very small in the picture to begin with. I just wanted you to see the contrast in shades. Also, he looks like Frankenstein’s monster, but he isn’t. I lightened the top of his hair to give the effect of reflected light, but it makes his head look flat so I’m going to change that. I had made peach the base colour for his complexion. However, because the main scheme of the drawing is blue I needed to make his complexion as such because that’s what it would look like in a half-moon’s light which the light source in this picture is based. So, in order for him not to tu...

I was at one of the thrift stores in my town looking for a tee because I don’t like today’s styles in clothes. Not that I have a problem with anyone else wearing knee-length kaki or silky shorts or big brand gym tees, but today’s style just isn’t my thing personally. I’m a vintage type and so I buy and wear ‘60s/’70s style; I’m a nerd for those eras. Anyway, I didn’t see anything there that I liked as far as clothes go. But the store was having a Four-book/$1 deal. So I went to the book section to look for vintage paperbacks, especially ones with good book cover art. Book Cover Art From the Frazetta-Vallejo Era I found something by the late sci fi/fantasy author John Morressy, who I’ve heard of several times but haven’t really read any of his work. The book was a high fantasy called Kingsbane , the third part of the Iron Angel series. I’m not a big reader of high fantasy, although I do read at least one title in the genre a year. But this first printing from 1982 bears a book cove...