Cover Art | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘Cover Art’

YA Boxed Set

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, writing, Young Adult on October 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Progress is being made. I actually have a cover demo I like. It’s been really hard to think of–and therefore to search for–images that have any relationship to all three stories. I finally had to broaden the concept.

I can’t share it yet because, since I haven’t finally decided on it, I haven’t bought the right to use the images.

I’m hoping to get this boxed set out in the next month or so–plenty of time for Christmas.

And then, before you know it, it’ll be time to start thinking about a boxed set for the DUAL MAGICS series. I don’t think I’ll have nearly as much trouble with that cover design.

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Projects

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on October 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

As I posted (sort of) on ~~Wednesday~~ Thursday, I’m working my way back into WAR OF MAGIC, the fourth (and final) book in my DUAL MAGICS series.

Having decided on a title, I guess I can go ahead and finish the cover now.

I’m redoing the first couple of chapters because I just didn’t feel they were doing what I wanted or needed for the beginning of this book. This dissatisfaction may have been part of what was keeping me from making progress before. This is where taking a short break can really help.

It doesn’t help much with the other issue, though. Which is that I really think I’m going to have to kill off at least some of my characters at the climax of this one. It’d feel like cheating to get to this huge war and have everyone survive unscathed. But . . . I really don’t want to. Writing is hard, sometimes.

Meanwhile, I’m still tossing around the idea of putting together a boxed set of my three stand-alone young adult novels: FIRE AND EARTH, THE BARD’S GIFT, and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. But I’m still stuck on a cover image for these three disparate stories. So, I thought maybe coming up with a title would help. Right now, I’ve got:

BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC:

Three Girls Who Changed Their Worlds

(Referring to the different weapons used by the heroines of these stories.) Not sure about that yet, though.

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Boxed Set Covers

Posted in writing, tagged Alternate History, boxed sets, Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, paranormal romance, series, writing, Young Adult on October 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

So, having decided to explore boxed sets, the next logical step was to figure out how to make a boxed set cover.

The only “boxed set” I currently have is the CHIMERIA OMNIBUS, which includes both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER. The original cover was a sort of mash-up of the individual covers, but flat, like a regular book cover.

This seemed like the logical place to start learning how to take this cover and turn it into a boxed set. And . . . I did!

Yes, I did make a couple of changes to the cover, too. It doesn’t make much sense to have the individual book titles both on the cover and on the spine.

Now, on to considering a possible boxed set of my three young adult stand-alone novels. The sticking point here is in figuring out a cover image that works for:

FIRE AND EARTH, a sword-and-sorcery novel with an armored woman on the cover.
THE BARD’S GIFT, an historical fantasy with viking ships on the cover.
DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, a fantasy romance with a girl with roses in her hair on the cover.

I don’t think that’s going to be as easy as figuring out how to make a boxed set cover.

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Boxed Sets

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, paranormal romance, Romance, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on September 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »

BookBub Partners put out a very interesting post on boxed sets this week. It’s made me think.

There’s already, sort of, a boxed set of the first two books in the Chimeria series:

It probably needs a new cover–or, well, at least to have this cover made to look more like a real boxed set. (There are sites to help you do that.)

I’ve always intended to do a boxed set of the Dual Magics series after I finish it. This post has made me think a little harder about exactly how I’m going to go about that.

I had never before considered the ideas of a boxed set of the first books in different series (which wouldn’t work anyway until I have another series or two out) or of doing a boxed set of unrelated stand alone novels, like my three YA stories–FIRE AND EARTH, THE BARD’S GIFT, and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. That . . . sounds kind of interesting, actually.

There’s always another angle to think about. That’s part of what keeps this indie author thing interesting.

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Progress

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, first pages, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, writing on September 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’ve made good progress on the very rough draft of BECOME, the first book of my next epic fantasy series. But I’m starting to get the itch to go back to WAR OF MAGIC, the final book of the DUAL MAGICS series.

This is exactly what I was hoping for when I took a short break to work on something else. Getting my enthusiasm for a project I’ve been working on for so long back up to the level I need to make the climax work.

I may work on the two in tandem for a while. I’ve done that before and the protagonists and stories are enough different that I think the risk of calling Vatar by Gaian’s name, or vice versa, is probably small. But I expect the momentum to carry me forward on WAR OF MAGIC before long.

Here’s a very early look at the first page of Become. This is part of the prologue. Gaian’s very first appearance shown from the point of view of one of his antagonists:

Queen Carala hung on tight to the railing at the top of the staircase for balance and scowled at the spectacle below her, clearly visible through the great doors, which had been flung wide for the occasion. A procession of priestesses, led by the High Priestess herself, climbed sedately up the broad steps of the Palace and were met by Carala’s husband of less than a year, Leradan, the Year King.

If she weren’t so heavily pregnant, she’d be down there herself. Not to welcome the priestesses, but to monitor whatever foolish promises Leradan made to them. Not that she’d have been able to sway him. Goddess knew she’d talked herself hoarse last night trying. But no one could change that man’s mind once he’d made it up. And he’d decided to let himself be thoroughly gulled about this.

Carala sighed. Much as she wanted to be there, it took two of her husband’s strongest guardsmen to see her safely down the steep staircase at this point. She’d just have to rely on her half-sister, Lady Damina, to let her know what ridiculous oaths the High Priestess extracted from Leradan.

Below, the High Priestess accepted a small, blanket-wrapped bundle from one of the other priestesses and passed it to Leradan. The infant squalled at the transfer and Leradan, blast the man, put the baby on his shoulder and rocked, completely oblivious to the effect on his dignity. Not that the demonstration that he would be a good father wasn’t reassuring. Carala placed a hand on her own swollen belly. But there was a time and place for everything. And the great hall, with the doors wide open to the whole kingdom, was not the place.

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Brief Respite

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, world building, writing on August 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Well after bashing my head against the keyboard repeatedly, I’ve decided that the problem with getting back into Book 4 (probably to be titled WAR MAGIC) is that I just need to give myself a break. I need to let my creative battery recharge.

Because, let’s face it, if I’m not enthusiastic about what I’m writing, that’s going to show. It’s not that I don’t love the characters, world, and story of the DUAL MAGICS series. It’s that I’ve been living with it 24/7 for at least two years. And the story has been running around in my head for much longer than that. (This is the third version. The first book had been written in full twice, once very badly, once in a misguided attempt to make it YA. And the second had been written all the way through once, again, very badly. It took two complete rewrites of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and one of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY before I felt they were ready for the world to see them.)

Even during breaks–like while a manuscript was cooling before revisions or while it was out with my beta readers–I’ve mostly been working on either the tie-in short stories or the next book in the series. Or just giving another editing to pass to something I’d written earlier and formatting it for Amazon, like DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, which was actually written just before I started on the rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

Sometimes, you can recharge by taking a vacation. That’s probably something I need to do. It’s a great way to get inspiration, among other things. But it’s not going to be this year. Or probably next.

But there are other ways to recharge the creative batteries. Fortunately, one of them is to allow your mind to play with other toys. So, even though I don’t have a first draft, yet, Book 4 does have a cover. (Well, except for the title, etc., anyway.)

Another way I’m going to recharge is by playing in another sandbox for a little while. So I’ve given myself permission to spend a little time in the world of my next epic fantasy series. Not for long. But it’s amazing how much more writing I can get done on something new. I need to bring that “new” energy back to the final book of the DUAL MAGICS series. Maybe this is the way to do that.

This new series doesn’t have a name yet. I’m playing with THE GODDESS’S OWN, but we’ll see. It’s either a trilogy or a duology. The first book is currently titled BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING. We’ll see about that, too. It’s sort of a Hercules story, turned completely–or almost completely–upside down. (Hint: The hero’s not the son of the sky god (like Hercules’s father, Zeus), but of the mother-earth goddess.)

So, Book 4 is coming. But I think it will actually come faster–and better–for just a little break to let my imagination play with other toys.

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Cover Art Update

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, marketing, writing, Young Adult on August 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

While I’m trying to transition my brain back into first-draft mode, I updated the cover of FIRE AND EARTH. Admit it, the old cover was kind of boring:

The new version is more dramatic:

It’s one of the great things about e-publishing that it’s so easy to change a cover.

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This and That

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’ve finally made progress on the blurb for BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

It isn’t finished, yet. It still needs some tightening, but I’ve finally got something I can work with:

The foundations of Vatar’s world are unraveling.

Being one of a handful graced—or cursed—with both kinds of magic makes Vatar the target of those who think he’s too dangerous.

The Council that rules his adopted city has guaranteed safety for him and his family in return for his promise not to expose their secrets. But they’ve already failed to keep their part of the bargain.

One Council member sees him as an obstacle to furthering her power. Gerusa launches an unsanctioned attack on Vatar and his family. When that fails, she is forced to flee the city.

But that’s far from the end. Even from exile, Gerusa exerts influence, causing the city to churn with unrest and uncertainty. It’s clear that her goal is to unseat the Council and replace it with herself as sole ruler.

Unable to trust the Council, Vatar sets out to stop her.

But when he’s captured, he’ll be forced to prove his boast that it’s impossible to imprison anyone who can do what he can—or die.

The key was to focus on the central conflict.

I’ve also finished marking up the revision notes. One of the things I know is that I need to center the manuscript more on the central conflict. (Maybe not surprising that I had trouble with the blurb, then, huh?) There is a central conflict, but other things are happening, too. Things that lead up to the conflict in the fourth and final book in the DUAL MAGICS series. I just need to make sure that the main conflict of this story gets center stage.

A bit later today, it will be time to dig in and start the final revisions. Once I have a handle on that, I’ll be able to set the release date. The target is still September.

I also now have a new cover for “Modgud Gold“.

That ties in with the series much better.

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In Transition

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on July 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Well, that what happens after school gets out for the summer, disrupting my routine. I completely lost track and forgot to blog yesterday. Catching up today.

So, I’m now in the mode of switching from starting the first draft of DUAL MAGICS BOOK 4 (title to be determined) to making the final revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3).

I’m currently making revision notes, chapter by chapter, based on the three critiques I’ve received from my beta readers. (One critique is still out, but she told me in the beginning that she’d need extra time.) But, if I’m going to have this ready to publish in September, I’ve got to get started.

A lot of the revisions will be relatively small. A little more context or background in a few places. Some things may get shifted around.

And not throwing out so many names all at once. That’s a big one right at the beginning. Starting sequels is hard partly because I already have all these characters. They’ve all been introduced in the earlier books. But that doesn’t mean I can name eight of them right at the beginning without expecting to confuse the reader. Yet, I have to identify them before the action starts, which is in Chapter 1. Well, I’ll work that out, too.

There are a few larger issues I’ll have to work on throughout the manuscript, too. Like doing a better job of centering the story on the main conflict.

Then there’s the blurb. That’s really been fighting me this time around. I’ll get it eventually.

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New Covers

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I have a new cover for “Becoming Lioness” now. It looks more like it belongs with the series and might even give a reader the idea that it’s a fantasy story.

For reference, the old cover looked like this:

“Modgud Gold” has proven to be more difficult. But, thanks to some helpful internet friends, I think I finally have a direction to go.

Meanwhile, progress on the still-untitled Book 4 of the DUAL MAGICS series continues. Though, by next week I expect I’ll be ready to set it aside for a short time while I take care of revisions and polishing edits on BEYOND THE PROPHECY so I can publish that in September.

And, I’ve started writing out a concept for another story. Like I don’t already have several in the pipeline. But you’ve got to write down the ideas when they come to you or risk losing them. And nobody wants that.

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