Cover designer, too . . . ?

I tend to think of myself was an editor, writer, and fangirl -- and coffee addict, let's not forget the all important coffee! -- before I think of myself as an artist or graphic artist or cover art designer or anything remotely thus. But the truth of the matter is that I've designed roughly 93% of the approximately 30 covers published as paperbacks and ebooks by World Weaver Press and Red Moon Romance. Of course, I've had generous help from illustrators and photographers -- amateurs,  pros, and those who offer their work as stock art.

Recently I had the pleasure of working with a local photographer, using his infrared cornfield photography as the starting place for the cover of Scarecrow. But as you can see from the original photo and the cover of Scarecrow, one of the more obvious things I did as designer was to redraft the sky. In this case, I imposed the sky of a completely different image over the top of the infrared corn field and then married the two. Since all color in IR is false color, I gave it a hand to become as vibrant and dramatic as needed for a bookcover.

Final cover art for SCARECROW anthology.

"Red Corn" Copyright Dan Wiedbrauk of one-candle.com. Used with permission

More of Dan Wiedbrauk's photography can be found on Flickr, and if you're interested in infrared or macro photography, he regularly talks technical process on his blog, One-Candle.com.

Most recently, I've been responsible for the designs of Scarecrow, Corvidae, Demons Imps and Incubi, Fractured Days, Far Orbit Apogee, and Skye Falling.  See more pretty covers: Read More . . .

Pre-made cover art available for purchase in Spring 2016. eBook Formatting and Interior Paperback Layout services available now.

The Artistic Line Between 'Vulnerable' and 'Self-Destructive'

I've been watching The Voice this season. I tweet my live reactions @EileenWiedbrauk BTW, if you're interested in following those joys, disappointments, and uneducated immediate reactions as I have zero knowledge of the music business beyond that of avid radio station listener.

Here's the big question I've recently been pondering: why was Amy Winehouse such a huge success in such a short life? She had a fascinating voice and a hot body, yes. But so do so many of the young people who try to make it in the music business each year. So do so many of those who make it as contestants but don't win national shows such as The Voice.

Now I admittedly don't know much about the music business. But if I'm to believe what all of The Voice coaches repeatedly say, it's all about finding an emotional connection to the lyrics/song, and finding a way to connect that emotion to the audience that isn't show-tune-emoting. As the coaches say, it's about being vulnerable.

Image of the Fantastic

I quite desperately want this: Spectrum 16: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. So! Pretty!

Okay, the cover art is kinda creepy but what was that whole thing about judging a book by its cover? It's over 200 pages of the stellar, recent fantasy(ish) art. If you click through on the link there's a handful of image previews that you can look at on Amazon. I went through this entire book at the bookstore and the image previews don't do it justice. They're gorgeous.

I used to hate fantasy art -- probably because my definition of "fantasy" was so narrow: I only liked what I liked and I only wanted the art to be the rendering of what I saw in my mind when I read certain books. I've grown since then. I'm not longer fixated on certain books or certain images. Now I'm more than willing to embrace the awe and the wonder.

I'm betting that by this time tomorrow I'll have broken down and ordered it.