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Rabia Gale

alchemical fantasy

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pretty pictures

pretty pictures

book cover monday: middle grade covers

It’s been AGES since we last had a book cover post. Time to rectify that with some super-cute and stunning covers of middle grade novels. This is a post I’ve wanted to do for a while!

Let’s get to it!

Tuesdays at the Castle

The cheerful yellows and the spunky, bookish heroine of this cover never fail to make me smile. I really like the blue title font against the golden spiraling staircase, and the use of symmetry, height and light in this illustration.

Deadwood

A much more ominous color, though the illustration style gives away the genre. Love the way the title is incorporated into the tree and the way it pops out from the dark background.

The Time Travelers

I love the movement, the way the children are floating down, and the color contrast between the golds at the top and the blues/greys at the top. There’s a mystery in this cover that pulls me in.

The One & Only Ivan

Aww! Cute baby elephant! Spotlight effect! Bold title treatment, set off by decorative swirls. An eye-catching cover.

The Kneebone Boy

Deliciously creepy cover!

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Do you have any favorite middle grade covers to share?

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Check out my other book cover posts:

  • strong females
  • strong females (no weapons)
  • white backgrounds
  • cover artist: Larry Rostant
  • cover artist: Chris McGrath
  • cover artist: Dominic Harman
  • cover artist: Kinuko Y. Craft
  • cover artist: Ravven

Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc

One of my favorite pieces of art

Large_Blue_Horses

 Edited with links to other bloggers posting one of their favorite pieces of art:

  • Siri Paulson (everyday enchantments): Barbara Furtuna
  • Ellen Gregory (to beyond and back): Botticelli’s Venus
  • Liv Rancourt (Let’s have a devil of a good time…): Christ and St. Michael
  • Linda Adams (Soldier, Storyteller): Inspiration in Color in Washington, DC
  • Margaret Miller (Marmalade and Roses): How do you decide a favourite?
  • Tami Clayton (Taking Tea in the Kasbah): Through the Lens
  • Kim Griffin (Forever, For Now): Inspiring Art
  • Cora Ramos (…drinking the eclectic cool-aid): Dance Me to the End of Love

business cards for writers

I have something cool to show you.

But first, some background.

Years ago, I used to take pictures, usually of flowers, sometimes of homeschool projects, often of my kids.

Then I got lazy. The camera was too unwieldy to take everywhere, it was too much of a pain to get the pictures off it, and my husband got an iPhone so it was easy for him to pull it out and snap a picture or two.

I got used to this, so when my cool new business cards arrived, I said (as usual), “Dear, can you pull out your iPhone and snap a picture of these?”

My obliging husband er… obliged, and took this picture:

Business Cards-Brown Background

Oh, dear. The brown background gave the black-and-white cover of Shattered an unfortunate sepia tint (not to mention my husband and his cell phone are usually only around after work in the evenings, when one has to use artificial lighting anyway–which can be trying).

So I asked him to take a picture with a light background.

He did so.

Business Cards-Light Background

 

The Shattered cover looks closer to normal, but there’s that flash glare on the Rainbird one…

At this point my husband gave me the no-more-pictures-do-it-yourself look and went upstairs to give the youngest child a bath. I toyed with idea of posing the cards one more time, perhaps even unearthing the digital camera out of the depths of… wherever it is, fiddling with cables and getting into the photo-managing software.

That sounded tiring, even to me.

So there you have them: cell phone pics in trying lighting of my new business cards, which are ten times cooler than what they look like in this picture.

Pertinent details:

  • I used Moo for these cards. They came in two packs of 50. The “I break fairy tales” version comes with the Shattered cover. The “I fuse fantasy & science fiction” comes in Rainbird and Mourning Cloak flavors.
  • Perhaps I should have gone with rounded edges? Any thoughts on that for next time?
  • The QR codes go straight to my website. If I’d been clever–or had more time–I could’ve set up a special business-card-exclusive page on my site for goodies, but I didn’t. Note to self: Remember that for next time. However: QR codes! Eeek! I’ve always wanted them!
  • They came with a 15%-off coupon code for first time card orders, so if you want it, leave me a comment and I’ll email it to you.

The reason why I hurried up and got these is because:

a) I meet people in Real Life. Sometimes I even tell them I’m a writer. Sometimes they even ask about my books and seem interested when I tell them. Sometimes I wish I had a business card to give them. Well now I do!

b) I’m going to Balticon at the end of the month! With the husband. Who will have his cell phone. So there will be pics. Trying pics, probably, but pics nonetheless.

Do you have writer business cards? Take a picture (with a cell phone, of course *wink*) and share them with us! Do you have other offline marketing tactics to share?

friday this and that

Are you a NaNoWriMo winner planning to self-publish for the first time? My fabulous and generous cover artist, Ravven, is giving away a FULL publishing package to one deserving writer–complete with editing, proofreading, formatting, cover art, website graphics, and marketing help.

(And yes, yours truly is one of the volunteer beta readers!)

Go here to find out the details.

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The cover for FableCroft Publishing’s One Small Step is here!

One Small Step

This anthology contains the short story “Sand and Seawater”, co-written by Joanne Anderton and me.

Our tagline–brought to you by Jo–is Dolls are creepy, read this story!

(Better tagline coming soon…)

Aussie peeps, you can pre-order a copy here (you lucky things, you!)

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Links from around the web:

You Don’t Do Much Else Interesting and 25 Other Reasons Why No One Likes Your Art

More Insights on Sharpening Your Creative Mind

IndieReCon (posts, videos, chat replays)

Out, All of You! On fighting for your own voice

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Mist and Memory

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