Writerly and Artsy Holiday Gift Ideas!

It's that time again when we all need to wrack our brains for creative holiday gift ideas. What can you get for the writer in your life, or your artist sibling? Something creative and fabulous, that's what! Here are some out-of-the-box ideas to start with:

How about a New York Times crossword puzzle dish set? Nothing more quirky than serving that holiday stuffing while you're figuring out what a 6-four word down is, starting with Z.

Or, for that graphic designer you love, how about a set of Pantone coffee or espresso cups? Pantone, for the uninitiated, is the standardized system of printing colors. Photoshop contains Pantone, as do printing houses, for syncing up a perfect color palette. I bought my book designer a Pantone 286 C, and a Pantone 2583 C coffee mug (FYI, that's a royal blue and a lilac). Hey, they even make Pantone mobile phone cases!

What about a pretty Scrabble pendant, or old typewriter pendant from Etsy?

Or a naughty "Bad Muse" T-shirt?

How about gifting scrivener software? That's the awesome writing program many swear by. I use it for outlining, as it has a virtual cork board where you can post index cards with plot elements and move them around at will.

For even more gift ideas, check out Open Minds author, Susan Kaye Quinn's recent gifting post.

Have you found other cool writers' gifts that you want to share? Gifts for arty folks?

Fireseed One Color Cover Reveal! Launch Date Soon!

Hi all

Well, here it is. The polished color cover reveal of my forthcoming YA thriller, Fireseed One! Isn't it spectacular? The virtual launch party is scheduled here for December 20th and everyone's invited so mark your Google calendars or whatever you use. They'll be giveaways and blog links galore. Getting back to cover art, I do love all of the sizzling photo montages that are so popular right now, but as an artist, I'd love to see a re-trending of the painted book cover, you know with the great, visionary art? I wanted a look like that for the Fireseed novels. That's why I chose my cover artist, Jay Montgomery, a true digital painter. And, I'd like to shine a spotlight on his talent by interviewing him, and providing links to his sites. Welcome, Jay!

Me: What's your process?

Jay: Every job is different and depends on the subject matter and deadline. In general for a book cover, I first get all the input from the client, including excerpts from the manuscript, doodles, images they like, phone call and email discussions. Then I take all that input and use paper and pencil to draw up some small thumbnail sketches. I send those to the client and get feedback and then with those changes work up a tight sketch while gathering photo reference and other inspirations. The tight sketch is usually done in Photoshop and sometimes it's value based and sometimes it's linear based. For this cover it was helpful for me to do a multilayered grayscale Photoshop file, to give me the flexibility for placing and revising various elements. Once I get approval with any revisions I add color to the grayscale layers and continue to add various details. I work from big brushes to small brushes, background to foreground. For photoshop brushes I never use a smooth airbrush perfect looking tips. I always use natural textured brushes. For this cover, from the tight sketch to the final sent file I worked 14 hour days with several breaks/errands and other jobs taking about 14 days complete. I sent a working color version to Catherine once I was happy with where it was going. Then with a few tweaks from her comments and finishing all the details it was sent to the Graphic Designer in the format requested.

Me: Some of your specialties?

Jay: My overall specialty is my flexibility in style and market. As you can see on my website, I have done work in almost every area of illustration, including publishing, editorial, advertising, institutional, multimedia, graphic design, etc. I have illustrated 3 children's books, over 30 different magazine covers and countless interior illustrations for magazine, books, technical illustrations, logos, t-shirts, on and on. I guess I specialize in conceptual realism for any market or subject matter. I love it all and can't decide a narrow focus. Maybe that's my strength and weakness.

Me: Do you have a dream project?

Jay: My dream project would be a $50,000+ commission to create all original and personal fine art work about my observations of the world in terms of making it a better place for a solo show in New York City at a prominent gallery with a deadline of one year. In addition to the commission fee, all the work would be for sale and I would get 75%+ of all sales. The gallery and people that would help me would get the remaining. It's a near impossible dream, but I believe in dreaming big!

A shorter and simpler dream job would be to illustrate a TIME magazine cover and for it to be published.

Me: What was the best thing about working on my cover?!

Jay: The best thing about working on this cover was making up water farm details, burn suits, and rock formations. It was really nice working with a fellow artist and teacher that could visualize and draw. Catherine also had a grasp on how I thought and the jargon of my industry which made things go smoothly and not have to educate the client to make the best possible cover. I loved creating visual representation of the world of FireSeed.

Me: What do you teach at the Savannah School of Art & Design?

Jay: I teach how to embrace your inner vision and visual talent though quick thinking, art techniques, and presentation. I teach a variety of illustration classes for Sophomores to Seniors. Traditional techniques with graphite, watercolor, pastel, acrylics, oils, ink, colored pencil, charcoal, etc. Digital techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator CS5. Advertising Illustration, Editorial Illustration, Book Illustration and Self Promotion. In all my classes I discuss the business side of Illustration, including copyright, contracts, negotiating, pricing, portfolio presentation, website development and anything else that will make them a successful artist today.

Here are some links to his art so you can see more! PORTFOLIO, his BLOG, on Facebook, on FLICKR, on TWITTER, on Youtube, on Jacketflap, on DeviantART.

BTW, the water farms Jay talked about painting, that's on the back cover. Stay tuned for another reveal.

Tight Cover Sketch of my New YA Revealed!

It's happening! I am deep in the process of prepping my YA thriller for indie publishing, to hopefully launch on December 20th! I am very excited, as this is a novel I am truly proud of, and feel that it has unique ideas and inventions. I'm also thrilled that I'll have 9 interior illustrations in it. For years, I have wanted to combine my art and writing. Fireseed One, is the right project at the right place and time.

In the next days and weeks, I may chat about some of its themes and perhaps offer sneak reads. For now? I want to reveal the tight cover sketch my amaaazing cover artist did, and leave you curious (as I am) to see his final art, right after Thanksgiving.

I'm learning on my feet about purchasing ISBNs from Bowkers and how to format illustrations and text for all of the various book options. Oh, and I did an illustration marathon over the weekend with no heat, after my boiler died a nasty death last Friday, to the tune of thousands in new parts. (Gaskets disintegrated into ash in a dry fire-scary, scary stuff-thankfully I was up at 3 am, watching TV and smelled something burning, don't ask me why I stayed up so late, but I'm glad)

There's something to be said about holing up in a kitchen for three days with a space heater. You get a ton of work done! What else can you do? Okay, I could have made piles of pancakes.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who helped me decide on the final cover sketch! Your advice paid off. What do you think of the artist's "tight sketch"? Yeah, awesome, right? I will reveal his name when I post the COLOR cover, next week, so stay tuned!

Cool Sci-fi, Fantasy and Science-related Blogs

Hi all, I've been busy whipping my YA thriller into shape to indie pub it! That's the fun part. The downside is that I haven't been posting quite as often. BUT... I'm determined to catch up! So, let me start by turning you guys onto some of my favorite sci-fi blogs. M'kay? Because I know a lot of you out there are writing fantasy, futuristic stories and sci-fi.

io9 is one of the best. Their slogan is "We come from the future!" They post daily about everything fantasy and sci-fi, including reviews of the latest films, and overviews of the best classic films and novels. They also follow the world of science and space travel. Without further ado: heeeereeee's i09.

And here are a couple of links to their thought-provoking archives:

1. How to Write a Sincere First Draft of Your Sci-Fi or Fantasy Epic

2. Quantum Locking will Blow Your Mind--but how does it Work?

Another well-regarded blog is SF Signal.

And, just to switch it up, here's a really cool article by Hannah Waters from Scientific American on why scientists should read science fiction blogs.

Do you have some fave sci-fi, science or futuristic blogs you want to share? Do you find it helpful to keep up with scientific advances? What about favorite fantasy/myth sites?

Random Thoughts for a Rainy Day

I've been drawing a lot lately, having fun imaging the futuristic world of my YA thriller for possible use in a book. I dug out a favorite drawing of mine. I had written and illustrated a futuristic story way back when, which turned out to be the skeleton of my current YA. It's amazing how long an author can chew on a theme! I uploaded this black and white line drawing into Photoshop, where I gave it new breath it with airbrush. It's part of an under-border of invasive vines, which provides a barrier against enemies undersea. Think scary/beautiful like a Venus Fly Trap.

On another note, I am happy to say that I'll be teaching a creative writing workshop in Greece, the last two weeks of June 2012! What a great place to do some serious writing and socializing. I specialize in untangling plot knots, helping people with pacing and characterization, and I believe in giving quirky writing exercises that seem like play, but are actually strengthening writing muscle. Anyone up for a workshop near a white beach? Anyone up for freshly grilled fish? I'll post a link when I get more details.

So, what are you up to this rainy day, turned night, turned cold & beautiful day? Any exciting turn of events in your life? What old story themes have become new again through your magic?

Help me decide between two cover sketches ASAP!!!!!!!

Okay, I need your help figuring out SUPER-QUICKLY a decision between one thumbnail sketch for the cover of my YA thriller and another--the dilemma: do I go with scary cult figure on the cover that my main characters run into, or do I go with a more romantic desert scene, where my characters are trying to figure out where they are? I want guys and girls to read this. I don't want to turn off guys by too romancey a cover, but I don't want to scare off girls by a too-scary hooded weirdo (or do they like being scared by a book cover?!). ACK!!!!!!!!

Please weigh in immediately if you can, as I have to get this back to my art guy today!!!!!!

Okay, here are the thumbnails without the title of the book, as I have to leave a little something to the imagination, right? Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

The Illustrated YA Novel is Coming of Age

I've written a YA futuristic novel that I'm putting final polishes on. I'm also an artist, so I'm experimenting with doing ten illustrations for this novel. No can do, you say? Not for YA? I'm happy to report this is no longer the case! The age of the illustrated YA is coming of age. Pictured here is a peek at my image of a scary cult that my main characters run into in the Great Chihuahua Desert. Yup, these cowled creeps are raising the net on my guys. Oh, and those rock formations that look like... well, stay tuned. In fact, stay tuned in general, as I may post another picture soon.

Examples of lushly-illustrated YAs are popping up all over the place. Scott Westerfield's Leviathan, with art by Keith Thompson comes to mind. A Monster Calls, inspired by Siobhan Dowd, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay is another shining example. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a novel by Ransom Riggs and chock full of vintage photos, takes the already eerie novel about a 16 year-old boy sent to a crumbling, abandoned home for dangerous youth to a whole other layer of strange. Beth Kephart, a YA author posted on September 29th about this very subject, and she's excited to say that an upcoming book of hers will be illustrated.

So, who says teens shouldn't enjoy evocative images! There's no reason that gorgeously illustrated novels should only exist for the picture book and middle grade set. N. C. Wyeth and Albrecht Durer are two classic picture-makers for adult and crossover novels. With the rise of the graphic novel and the text art hybrid that Brian Selznick introduced with The Inventions of Hugo Cabret, this is fast-changing, and I, for one, am hugely excited about it.

That said, I do think that illustrations for teens need a sophistication that allows for one's imagination to paint in the main characters. Good illustration, as good fiction allows for this breathing room.

That's why, in my pictures, I'll have no images of the main characters (Or maybe one, from the side view??) and precious few of the other players. That's why I won't be giving away any big gun surprises in them either. No spoilers, only images that fuel a sharper, more fierce imagining.

I firmly believe that images in YA novels can enrich and elevate prose. Seems like the perfect time to break away from old formulas and invent fresh, new templates. What do you think? (Should I do my main players in profile?) Please share any more good examples of this phenomenon. What kinds of illustrations would you not want to see, or really love to see? Dish here.