Year-End Gratitude: My Cover Guys
New
Year’s Eve, 2012 10:00 pm
I’m happy to say I was able to give away a few books
this past week, but I have plenty left. My Holiday Giveaway will continue
through January 6th, and for the last week I’ll give a book to anyone who leaves a comment on this
blog.
All you have to do is leave a comment at the
bottom of this post (click on Comments
and you’ll see how to do it), or email me at redwolfofprophecy@gmail.com. Just tell me which of my books
you want and in what format and I’ll get back to you for information on how to
get them to you. Happy New Year!
Yeah, I know. These are the same two I was
bitching about back in August when I was ready to re-issue The Draculata Nest and publish The
Dragon of Doughton Park but couldn’t because the covers weren’t ready. At
the time I was second-guessing my decision not to do the covers myself. I’d
hated asking for help, but I was desperate. There’d been enough negative
comments about the original Draculata cover… I mean, if the people I was giving the book to were putting off
reading it because the cover was so lame, who was going to take a second look
while browsing the shelves? For all that, I was thinking about slapping
together something on my own for Dragon anyway. I wanted to get it out there
and move on to writing the final book of the trilogy.
I should have known better than to
complain. Quality takes time. I certainly wouldn’t rush the writing of the
book. And this week two different authors as well as a Goodreads librarian
remarked on how much they liked the covers. The results speak for themselves. And
Rich and Ray donated their services for free! Talk about looking a gift horse
in the mouth!
So before it’s too late, before the old year
counts down and disappears into the forgotten past along with my memories of
past favors (as of January 1, it’s what
have you done for me lately?), let me introduce you, with undeserved
brevity, to a couple of remarkable individuals.
Rich Westover…
Rich and I have known each other for some time,
having shared some mutual interests and even worked together on some service
projects over the years. Rich’s spirit of helpfulness and willingness to be of
service to others made an impression on me, but I really didn’t know much about
him until a close friend got tired of my whining about how much trouble I was
having designing my first cover and suggested I ask Rich for help. It turns out
graphics design is his profession.
Did I mention before that I hate asking for
help? Well, miraculously, I gave Rich a call to consult with him on some
specific problems I was having. I
mainly asked him some questions about using PhotoShop, which he answered. As
you can always expect of Rich, he was very helpful. When I told him what I was
doing, he offered more help. I declined.
But, when the time came to do the cover for
The Dragon of Doughton Park I
approached him with my tail between my legs and asked if he was still willing
to be more involved. I couldn’t pay him much (actually nothing). To my
amazement, he responded with an emphatic yes.
The next thing I knew, he had found an artist
willing to do covers for the whole series, we were discussing concepts and Websites, and I was swept up on a storm of enthusiasm that has yet
to abate.
Rich approaches many things
enthusiastically. I can’t go into all of them here, so I’ll share one thing
that you can follow up on yourself if you care to. I’ve found it fascinating,
myself. I’ve spent a lot of time hiking around the Southeastern U.S., daydreaming
about what the land must have been like when it was a true wilderness. Rich is
actually doing something about it. He's restoring some of the woodlands around his South Carolina home and has
set up a website to record the progress and the things he’s learning as he goes.
I find myself checking in regularly to see the pictures, the progress, and some
of the natural history. Rich’ll throw in some poetry now and then, too. It’s
surprisingly entertaining. Check it out at http://limestonegrove.org/.
Thanks, Rich. Here’s wishing you a Happy New
Year!
Ray
DeLotell…
The
artist Rich drew into my cover design project is Ray DeLotell. Ray is also an
old acquaintance of mine. Our paths had crossed several times over the last
decade. I knew he had a creative bent in that he is a singer/songwriter and
plays guitar. But I did not know he was an artist until Rich told me he wanted
to create something original for my covers. I was a bit skeptical (being the
glass-half-empty kind of guy I am), but when I mentioned to some other friends
that Ray had volunteered, they were, like, damn
he’s good – you’re lucky – how’d you talk him into it?
Turns out I’d seen some of his work and didn’t
know it was him. Ray’s art has appeared on everything from paving stones, to
album covers, to a mural covering half the sanctuary at a local church. Ray
jumped into the project feet first. He read The
Draculata Nest and his fertile imagination took off from there. Before I
knew it he had four or five concepts to present for the first book. I was
overwhelmed with choices.
Ray’s also been an inspiration with his zest
for the project and for life itself. All the while he was working on the cover
for Dragon, he was undergoing weekly
dialysis treatments and several rounds of chemo-therapy. In spite of the health
problems, with periods of time when his body simply wouldn’t let him do much,
Ray continued to produce. The covers for Draculata
and Dragon are great. And you
should see some of the stuff he’s working on for Red Wolf Rising. I can’t wait.
If you want to see some of Ray’s portfolio,
he has a website he’s working on that features some of his stuff already. Check
it out at http://www.freedreamstoker.com/ .
Here’s to you, Ray. I really, really
appreciate what you’re doing. Happy New Year, and keep up the great work.
Here's the normal way to get my books...You can purchase my books through the following venues…
The Draculata Nest -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Click on the link to order:
ebook for Kindleebook for Nook ebook for Kobo in Paperback in Charlotte
ebook for Kindle
The Dragon of Doughton Park ----------------------------------------------------------
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