The Art of the Cover

A friend told me recently that it was a nice plan I had working at a career in illustration and design for a couple of decades... all in preparation for when I my own book cover to design.

Well, I guess Chip Kidd was way ahead of me on that one.

But, yeah, it did come in handy.

Interesting thing... I have designed covers for other people, or illustrated a book review, but did I ever really get the feel of the book they had written? I should damn well know what my book is about, shouldn't I?
I have had cover ideas over the years I wrote Correction Line. I know the feeling I am going for - but as I tell my illustration students, sometimes there is a gap between the image you have in your head and the one you put on the paper.

Over time, that gap does shrink. I think I know what the cover will look like. Here on woofreakinghoo, I am going to put up a few drawings of the cover in progress.

Starting with the roughs on my desk (shown above). 

Correction Line - The Beginning

As mentioned, my first novel, Correction Line will soon be available as a Kindle e-book. Following that I will be releasing other electronic versions.

In the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a few excerpts, along with some other artistic bits.

To start with - here is a look at the beginning of the novel. A section called: Awake

Frank awoke with a picture of the house, a ragged thumbprint in his mind's eye, blue paint mostly gone, ashen gray clapboards formed a bent rectangle on a flat and burnt horizon. He dressed, made a sandwich, brewed a thermos of coffee, got into his Dodge and drove away, didn't even bother to lock the doors. He'd left it long enough – if he'd didn't do something now, his family would never be safe.

The dreams he'd been having made it clear, a sacrifice had to be made. It didn't make sense, but little did the last few years. It was time for a shift away from the path.

He drove nine hours straight, swigging lukewarm coffee and popping pink wake-ups, watching the stars wink out and the sky light a field of ripe flax a shade of cobalt that made his eyes swim. He stopped for gas, grabbed a large soda, and a handful of Mars bars. It kept him going for a few more hours, but he was drifting. His mind moved through the different sensations he'd experienced, like flipping channels on an old black and white TV. Click. His wife, a soft exterior that encased a strong core, she also felt the spectre of danger that filled his life. Click. He flipped to the man in the gray-blue house, whose very presence emitted a darkness that surrounded Frank like a hulking mass. Click. His daughter, on the edge of puberty when he left, innocent, yet something in her eyes that told him she possessed her mother's gifts. And now she was a young woman, beautiful and so very strong.

My Kingdom for an Indent

For a consistent indent that is. I am in the process of converting one of my novels to an e-book (yes, you read that right, the guy that said "never"), and I have come across yet one more reason to hate Microsoft Word.

Ask any designer (I should know, I am one) which program they hate the most. They will yell out "Word" like they were on the mean streets of Detroit circa 19-i forget. Anyway, the program is crap. And the way it messes with formatting is enough to drive writers and non-writers to drink. Hell, just about anyone, nuns, sheep, holograms (okay, getting trippy).

I digress.

Often.

I have waxed eloquent about the best writing program out there (Scrivener), and now it turns out that they are also awesome for doing e-book conversions. The only problem is this novel was created in the dreaded Crap, oh sorry, I mean, Word. And I have got indent mania going on. Maybe I am making too much of it, but I am pretty sure any reader with two good eyes will notice the single, double and non-indent features in my novel. Sure, they might think I am being one of those experimental-meta writers. (I threw in "meta" just to show my lit hipness).

But more likely they will say, "What is this crap?" And they won't mean Microsoft.

So onward. Slowly I am figuring out how to remove the nasty Gatesian indent rules, and swap them for cleaner, purer Scrivener indents.

I know for damn sure which program I will be using to start the next one.

Spring-ing

Well, what else can come out of dormancy.

Stay tuned to Woofreakinhoo for some upcoming publishing news. I have decided to get with the fron edge of publishing and will be making some of my work available as e-books.

Kindle is first up.

Excerpts and a few more surprises to come.

Dormant

That's one of those words that just doesn't look right - dormant - but it is not a feeling that is so good either. Writerly things have been stalled temporarily, but I am trying to wind them up like a cheap organ grinder. Maybe not the best metaphor, but it's better than trying to start a diesel engine at 40 below.

I wonder if Vonnegut had days, weeks, years like this?

Onward. The machine begins again.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of a chicken. (from my illustration website)