Conjure This

I picked up a copy of Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife on Amazon. Yes, I went for the dead tree edition for six bucks rather than a $7.69 e-copy. I'm still that guy. If the price was $3.99 or less on Kindle, maybe... but that's beside the point.

I'm a good twenty pages in, and it's a fine book, but the cover troubles me:

This woman is not Tansy. Not in my imagination. Not from a book published in 1943, no matter how dark the fantasy. The hair, her dress, the gothed-out eyes... Not to mention the words at the bottom of the cover: "The Classic of Urban Fantasy". What? Urban Fantasy wasn't even a phrase one used in 1943. Was it?

This is marketing, sure, disguising a classic horror novel in trappings of the now to sucker new readers. Not unlike slapping a Twilighty cover on Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice:

Oh yes they did.

Does the cover effect my reading of the book?  The jury is still out, but if I'm thinking about the cover instead of the content, I'd have to say all signs are pointing to YES. What about you?

Promises, Promises

It ain't going to be pretty.

We have a Winner! (and More Elective Surgery)

Fred, the envelope please...

Mary Rajotte is the winner of my 50/50 split of In the Memory House profits for November, thus continuing a fine tradition of Canadians winning my contests. Congrats, Mary. I'll be in touch to share the bounty.

Which might (or might not, who knows?) have been a bigger bounty had I started with this:

Instead of In the Memory House. Sometimes I need a little more market research. I tend to be too much of a gut guy. You see, In the Memory House is also the title of Howard Mansfield's book of essays about New England culture and history.

Yeah. Not my book at all. Mine features a living house which tries to make friends by killing people. Think of it as a house with Asperger's on steroids.

So maybe Echoes of the Dead has a little more zip. The word "Dead" lands hard, at least. It does deliver the message directly, and I've found that is a key piece of marketing any book. And yes, the paperback is still coming.

And then I've nixed Smoke and replaced it with Vengeful Spirits. Again, I think the new title lands harder and sends a little more of a direct message about the book's content.  I've also tweaked the cover with new font and image:

This poor puppy has been through a number of changes, originally starting as Borrowed Saints. Like I said, I'm a gut guy. My heart and mind need to arm wrestle before the next book skitters into the wild.

Congrats again, Mary.  And good luck, my dear books.  I will try to do you better in the future.

Coming Soon...

Five years ago, one of them never left the house. Now they've returned, and Hollywood cameras will catch every moment...

WIP Wednesday: Lost in the Font Forest

One of the fun things (for me) about e-publishing involves font selection.

Yes, you read that right: font selection. Crown me king of the geeks.

But think about it. Book covers are different in the digital era. They are an electronic "button" with which a reader might investigate or purchase your book. Fonts must be readable on small icons and draw in a reader's attention. They should convey a message about the book, too.

I could spend hours looking at fonts...

Unfortunately not much else would get done.

Some of my favorite haunts:

dafont.com

urbanfonts

1001 Free Fonts

Don't blame me if you accomplish nothing today.

We are the Monsters Draft Cover

Thoughts?

Shock Totem 3

I wanted to wait until I had this

in hand before I posted about how damn proud I was to have a story in Shock Totem. A big thank you to the brave editors for taking a chance on my little story, "Wanting It". It's one of my favorite tales, if not my very favorite (don't tell my other stories) and never fails to catch me with armor down at the end.

I've already devoured John Skipp's rather delicious (if one can stomach it) entry and a wonderfully sad tale from Jeremy Kelly, "A Birth in the Year of the Miracle Plague". Shock Totem is a mag well worth your support.

You know what to do.

WIP Wednesday: Sharp Edges

Behold, the cover of Shock Totem #3:

I wish my current WIP was half as pretty.

__________

Megan eyed me in study hall. She kept eying me, sneaking glances when I was hunkered over my sketchbook. My doodles grew eyes and arms, reaching out of the paper, grasping for dry land. Sanctuary. Megan’s eyes were black ash.

“Did you know this guy they found in the river?” she asked.

I looked at Stienz. His head was bent toward a book.

“No,” I lied.

“It’s awful sad. Does stuff like this happen often around here?” she asked.

My tongue was a stone, heavy and stubborn. “No,” I lied again.

Polluto 7

My contributor's copy of Polluto 7 landed in my mailbox the other day. What a lovely (and odd) magazine. "Molting Season" (my story) kicks off the issue with these lines:

Ben began to molt on a Saturday evening after having 'the talk' with Traci. He cut most of his extra faces off with a folding utility knife he used as a stock boy in high school.

How's that for a trip down the rabbit hole? You can buy copies at Polluto's website or straight from the printer.

Tomorrow: I try to recruit some of my fellow travelers for a little mission.

Vampires. Sparkles.

Look! I'm in a book with famous people!

Hey...that vampire has braces. Sparkly braces. Heh.

It's Virtually Here...

And you can sign up for a free sample when The House Eaters is available. Go on. Do it.

(I just love the campy, 1970s Scooby-Doo vibe to the cover. Hell, bats are even flying out of the tower.)

One for You, One for Me

Sick Things is now available at Amazon.com and other fine retailers. My longish story, "Ranching the Sleore," has one of the most bizarre climaxes I've written to date. This one isn't for the kiddos...but what do I write that is?

The cover art is er...eye catching. (sorry for the ocular reference)

Speaking of cover art, I had a peek at the cover for Blood Lite II: Overbite the other day...mums the word for now, but it is shiny.

Have a good weekend.

Pictures Tell the Story

(yes I'm reading about buffalo...it's research...wink, wink)

Owen's been having some Cthulhu inspired dreams?

...and, oh goody-goody, I've seen a draft cover for The House Eaters, and it's spooky in a vintage pulp horror/Nancy Drew/paperback book from the '60s sort of way. I'm giddy. Drunk with giddiness.

Today, We Talk About Cover Art

From Orbit Books, how a book cover gets made (in just two minutes):


And then there's this...

How Do You Feel About...

Works of art being used as book covers. For example:

(which, if you don't know, is a painting by Van Gogh)

See, I'm kind of partial to this painting by Théodore Géricault (Head of a Drowned Man)

Not that I'm thinking about book covers or anything...

Is it "cheap" to use the work of a long-dead artist on a modern book? Copyright (at least the modern, legal version) isn't an issue, but is it unethical? Thoughts?

Cover Art is Your Friend

I just posted the "draft" cover art for the Fifty-Two Stitches antho on the Strange Wire, so I thought I could let it fly here, too.

We'll make a few changes closer to publication (maybe some blurbage on the cover, etc.), but yes, he is looking at you.

Cover Art Goodness

Triangulation: Dark Glass is now on sale. The collection includes some wonderful tales. (Hidden behind which my own "Dancing Lessons" can be found.) The cover of Triangulation: Dark Glass smacks of dark fantasy goodness, doesn't it?

A Guessing Game

Here's an item of interest and a little guessing game:

Anybody want to take a guess...be the first to guess correctly, and you'll win something cool. (well, I think it's cool)

Here's a hint: this is part of a larger whole.

And I Just Shot May Out of a Cannon

...along with Kanye West. Check out what Jeremy D. Brooks has to say on the subject. Personally, I think Kanye is an ass and I hope nobody buys his steaming pile of dog shite book. (sorry...wasn't going to go there)

So I lived in the land of short stories and flash fiction for the month. Five short stories (ranging from just above flash length to 3K), four flash fictions (two are for a "secret" project), and nada on anything longer. It felt like I'd found an old friend again, writing all those shorts.

But it's the house I want to talk about--er, summer. (sorry, I was quoting "House Taken Over" by Julio Cortázar...one of my favorite stories of all time)

I want to start laying the pieces for a horror novel for an adult audience. At this point, it feels like climbing freakin' Everest without those nice Sherpas to help. The ideas are swilling around, but I probably need to mash some together to make the plot novel-worthy. I want to outline the darn thing by the end of June (and write at least two shorts), then set to writing during the long, hot trek that is July in these parts.

That's my goal.

In the meantime, if I were to choose cover art for a collection of my short fiction, I would go "David Sedaris" (um, his latest book featured a piece by Van Gogh), and use this:

Head of a Drowned Man by Théodore Géricault

Return of the Raven

Return of the Raven, featuring my short story "In Hollow Fields", should be available for pre-order from Horrorbound.com soon.

As a collection of short fiction and poetry inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Return of the Raven should be a fun read.

As an adjunct to my day job, I've started a writing blog with prompts, quotations, grammar tidbits, etc. five days a week. I don't know if any of the content will mean much to my dear readers as it targets a high school audience, but feel free to spread the word about The Write Addiction.