A Weird, Writerly, Winterly Week

This week has been kinda weird. The days have both drifted and zipped by at the same time. I got *some* writing done, but have focused more of my writerly energy on copy-editing a manuscript for someone else.

Oh, no. Hand-slap, Kat. This is not a "manuscript." It has earned the status of full-fledged BOOK, and will be released on June 1st through Splashdown Books' new imprint Darkwater.

"What book is it?" you ask. It's called Winter, and the author is Keven Newsome, founder of New Authors' Fellowship (you know, that group blog of which I'm a member--and if you are not, you *should* be following!).

I read the manuscript--back when that's what it was, before Grace Bridges from Splashdown got her hands on it. I knew--let me repeat--I knew--she'd fall in love with it. It took all my restraint to not rave and insist she publish it--she needed to make her own decision, of course, and I wanted no accusations of trying to influence. Instead, I kept my mouth shut and simply told her I had a feeling I knew what she'd think.

I was right, of course!

I've had to keep my mouth shut about the contract, the book cover design (amazing work by Holly Heisey!)...all of it, because Keven wanted a big reveal. He had plans...including an awesome trailer. Which you can view at the end of this post.

What I want to say really quickly before that, though, is how excited I am about this. The book rocks. It is close to home for me because the main character is Goth. I was never full-fledged Goth, but I teetered on the edge for some time. I can really relate to her. And the story itself is good. Dark, suspenseful. Perfect for a premier release at Darkwater.

Also, props to the editor who is combing through Winter before me--Kristen Stieffel, who is not leaving much for me to actually edit :P. She's doing an amazing job! I'm just more brutal when it comes to "chop, chop, kill your darlings." I've had another crit partner dub me "The Hacker." What I say to that--MY writing wouldn't be what it is if I hadn't had a "hacker" of my own go after it. I chop-chop out of love, because I have full faith in Winter.

OK, the time has come. We are at the end of my post, and I leave you with the trailer for Winter, by Keven Newsome:

Holly Heisey Covers the Dim Knight

Today closes out the building of the cover for Tales of the Dim Knight by Adam and Andrea Graham.

We were blessed to gain the painting skills of Holly Heisey for the final cover. She is a massively talented up-and-coming artist and writer. She specializes in digital painting, but she's wicked good at pen and ink and pencil drawing, too.

Holly told me she did the entire painting in Photoshop, start to finish. The first version was without helmet or gloves:

And then with the mask, like the one I had in my original drawing:

The problem is, Powerhouse wasn't wearing his helmet in the drawing I did because I was going for comical. If you look, you'll see I drew it so it appears that his helmet has fallen off and he's trying to reach down and grab it mid-flight:

But we LOVE Holly's rocking painting, so it's decided to go with that and just put his helmet and gloves on:

The final touch is adding the text. If you scroll up, you'll see there is text in the earlier drawings, but Grace Bridges (owner of Splashdown Books, if you haven't caught that yet) is a stickler about having the perfect text with her cover designs.

I got to be a part of that process, since Grace sent me images with the text in place asking for critique. The slightest adjustment can sometimes transform the text from "meh" to "just right!"

Again, here's the final cover:

See what teamwork can do? And of course the amazing talent of Holly Heisey. PLEASE visit her at her blog and check out more of her awesome artwork here.

Thank you, Holly! You rock! :D

Return to the Dim Knight

I keep my promises. We ARE back to our regularly scheduled art series today.

Since we took a little break, let me list the recap here of my previous posts:

Post #1: The Other Side of Me

Post #2: The Beginnings of Kat the Artist

Post #3: The In-Between

Post #4: Back to the Drawing Board

Post #5: An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

Post #6: From Cover to Cover

And, that brings us back here. The second cover drawing for Tales of the Dim Knight by Adam and Andrea Graham.

Remember, we put together the drawing of Dave the mild-mannered janitor as he fought a battalion of mops, but it wasn't quite right for the cover. The authors, Adam and Andrea, really wanted to see Dave on the cover in full superhero garb--his "Powerhouse" costume, which they described in the book as a cross between Buzz Lightyear...

...and a Power Ranger.

Which meant me putting on my designer hat. I have never really designed a superhero suit! Maybe as a kid, but it was probably something Wonder Woman would have worn, and, um, I doubt Dave would have been too keen on that ;).

So, I began sketching:

Really rough. Body's out of proportion. Hair is bi-ig. No one is too happy with the fact that his helmet is off. I explain, however, that I can't figure out another way to make him comical. I tried. None of THOSE sketches went anywhere but the trashcan, though. The issue was that with his helmet on, I felt focused on the costume, which meant trying to make it look "cool." His suit isn't supposed to be stupid looking, but this IS a SPOOF. Everyone sees my line of reasoning, so they let me continue in this direction.

*NOTE*

Here's an important point. Publishers don't slap cover images on at the last minute. It takes TIME. If you are a first-time writer, you have probably looked at the Writer's Market (that ginormous book that lists publishers and agents and all the known information about them) and seen that the publishers section lists the time it takes from acceptance to publication for many of them. You may have thought, "It takes THAT long???" Well, yeah. Editing, cover design, layout, tweaking. Publishing a book takes a lot of work.

It is VASTLY important to lay out enough time for these things. Grace came to me for this artwork while there was TIME to get it done, so we had wiggle room. I got to play with my ideas, while Grace, Adam and Andrea thought about what I was doing, came up with suggestions, and we worked together. Remember, though, this is SMALL PRESS. Big presses work very differently--in a big press the author may never even see the cover until it's on the final product. Or they might--but no guarantees.

*END NOTE*

So, I tweak the design--stretching the legs to the right length, taming the hair, designing a cool helmet (Andrea did call my helmet "awesome!").

Much cleaner, eh? This seems to be going the right direction for everyone now, and Grace does a mock-up cover that ends up being used the the sample chapters (which were available before the official book release).

But we were in for a surprise. Remember, there was still time before the release, and while this was fine for the sample book, and everyone was happy with my drawings, we ended up with the opportunity to utilize the artistic talents of someone else....someone with painting skills that added a new dimension to this cover.

Way different! But really, what this book needed. Rest assured, my drawings were used. As interior art--black and white, line drawings. And, of course, as a guide for the new cover artist in designing her version of Powerhouse's costume.

I'll give the full skinny on where the new cover image came from next time. It was a wonderful surprise--and in case you're worrying, no, I was not upset at being bumped from the cover. Teamwork is important, and I truly love the new cover art. My drawings work better, IMHO, as interior illustration anyway.

So, be prepared next time to meet the lovely and talented Holly Heisey....