Cover Reveal

Blood Fugue, Moonsongs Book 1 by E.J. Wesley Cover Reveal Party

Author E.J. Wesley is throwing a blog party to celebrate the release of his new book cover and wants you to join in the fun. Jump over to his blog to learn about how you can win some awesome prizes, including $50 toward a cover of your own and advance reader copies of Blood Fugue.

Cover work by Sketcher Girl, LLC - http://sketchergirlstudios.com/

What's the Story About? 

“Some folks treated the past like an old friend. The memories warmed them with fondness for what was, and hope for what was to come. Not me. When I thought of long ago, my insides curdled, and I was left feeling sour and wasted.”

Jenny Schmidt is a young woman with old heartaches. A small town Texas girl with big city attitude, she just doesn’t fit in. Not that she has ever tried. She wears loneliness like a comfy sweatshirt. By the age of twenty-one, she was the last living member of her immediate family. Or so she thought…

“We found my ‘grandfather’ sitting at his dining room table. An entire scorched pot of coffee dangled from his shaky hand. His skin was the ashen gray shade of thunderclouds, not the rich mocha from the photo I’d seen. There were dark blue circles under each swollen red eye. A halo of white hair skirted his bald head, a crown of tangles and mats. Corpses had more life in them.”

Suddenly, instead of burying her history with the dead, Jenny is forced to confront the past. Armed only with an ancient family journal, her rifle, and an Apache tomahawk, she must save her grandfather’s life and embrace her dangerous heritage. Or be devoured by it.

BLOOD FUGUE by E.J. Wesley, is the first of the MOONSONGS books, a series of paranormal-action novelettes. At fewer than 13k words, BLOOD FUGUE is the perfect snack for adventurous readers who aren’t afraid of stories with bite. Available wherever fine eBooks are sold September 2012. 

Join the Party!

The Open Vein, E.J.'s blog - http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com/

E.J. Wesley on the Twitter - https://twitter.com/EJWesley

Goodbye Blue Sky

My first attempt at using watercolors

Eight Miles High

acrylic on canvas

The colors changed a little in the photo (I really need to learn to use my camera properly) but you get the general idea.

Sketcher Girl Studios, LLC

GRAND OPENING!!!!

Today is the day that Sketcher Girl Studios, LLC officially opens for business!

In celebration of this momentous event, Vic Caswell (owner/operator) is hosting a give-a-way.

Using the "Contact Us" form on the site, send her the secret word from the end of this post and you'll be entered to win.

Sketcher Girl Studios is a freelance illustration company with a focus on book cover design.  Vic Caswell has produced the covers of Emily White's debut novel ELEMENTAL, as well as it's sequel FAE (release date not announced yet), and Kimberly Ann Miller's debut novel TRIANGLES (releasing June 2013).

SGStudios is passionate about books and getting them out there and into the hands of the readers who will love them.  Vic will read your book.  She will work with you to ensure that the design you end up with is something you love.  She doesn't use stock photography, so you are guaranteed an image that is original and she offers full legal usage of her cover images.  So, if you want to print it on swag, and sell that, the money goes straight to you.

Her prices are competitive- affordable for small press publishers as well as self-publishers.

She also provides other services- such as: tattoo design, logo design, header design, artistic prints, children's book illustration, and pretty much anything illustration that you can think up.

Stop by and drop the secret word: Mischief, for your chance to win one of these nifty prizes...

such as:   postcard sized prints of  her work titled PERCHED CREATURE, one of two copies of ELEMENTAL by Emily White, a ten dollar Amazon gift card, an original painting, and  free labor on a book cover (costs may be incurred for props/ models/ wardrobe) and more!

Links:

Sketcher Girl Studios

SGS on Facebook

Testimonials:

Vic Caswell is brilliant! Not only is she super easy to work with, but the things she comes up with are so amazing. She was able to take the half-coherent ideas I was kind of able to articulate and come up with exactly what I was thinking of. I loved working with her on both my books' covers and I can't wait to work with her again!- Emily White (author of ELEMENTAL from Spencer Hill Press)

"I'm loving my new logo!!! Victoria Caswell did a MARVELOUS job and was such a joy to work with. She made the process effortless and I swear she could read my mind. So, if you need some work done, please send it her way! You won't be sorry!" Nancy  Fennell (owner of Scents of Adventure)

Dust in the Wind

Acrylic on canvas

Do you see someone walking away? or do you see someone walking towards you?

Summer In The City

In Through The Out Door

Three different images all focusing on the same subject matter; an armed man walking down a dark tunnel. Different perspectives, angles, color and framing as well as a slight change of style, dramatically change each image.

The first image shows our character walking towards the light. We can't see the characters face or where he actually is, it's kinda grim and has some supernatural/religious overtones (the light on the celling and walls almost give the character an outline of wings).
The second image has our character stepping out of the shadows. It gives us more of an idea of where the character is by showing us the exterior of the building, it also shows us more of character himself.
The third image is primarily a reference to Blade Runner and focuses more on the weapon rather then the location.

Peace Train

Tangled Up In Blue

Some basic costume designs, for the military/police in my upcoming digital comic.

I had more pencil sketches, but I spilled Johnnie Walker and Coke all over them and unfortunately I couldn't recover them.

Merry Christmas Baby

Merry Christmas, seasons greetings and all that jazz

Maybe

Some preliminary designs for the cover of the first issue/chapter of my web comic.

So, what do you guys think?
Which one do you like best?(if you like any of them)
Do you think there is anything I should change about them?

Once I decide on a design for the cover I will put a bit more detail into it and fix up some of the things I'm not happy with.

Steampunk started of as a working title, so if I can come up with something better it will change. Once I put up the first couple of pages maybe you guys can help me with a title.

Evolution

I don't usually put that much shading and detail into the pencil sketch if I plan to go over it later.

My characters are not named dude and betty, the truth is I have been slack and I haven't named them yet, I'm terrible when it comes to naming things (god help me if I ever have children).

Life on Mars

AARRRG! My characters are killing me, they wont shut up. What I intended to be a SHORT prologue, to my upcoming web comic series, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This web series was only intended to be a practice run, of writing and illustrating a comic book/graphic novel, while I start a more complex graphic novel.

When I first put pen to paper on the prologue, all I wanted to do was establish the main characters and set up the premise for the series. Pretty much all I wanted was the who, the what, the when, the where and the why, but what I have so far, is so much more.

I intended to keep everything short and sweet, you know, get it over and done with and get to the main story. But in trying to create realistic dialogue and actions for the characters, I feel the whole thing is just getting out of control. The characters seem to have taken over and are operating on their own. When I was writing, the conversations just flowed and it wasn't until I started to pencil out the individual panels when I realized that what I had written was probably too long. The dialog didn't have anything to do with the plot but it was a good way to define the individual characters and their personalities. I have already edited out a biggish chunk of dialogue that wasn't necessary to the plot (it was just a bit of humor). Even though part of me wants too cut back on what I have already, part of me wants to keep adding to what I've got, even though I know I can add some of it in the main story.

So do I edit out some of the material, to get to the action and main story quicker?
Do I sacrifice pacing for character development?
Am I too eager to get into the main story?
Am I putting too much thought into, what is essentially is a training exercise?
Am I not putting in enough thought?
Have I lost control of my own characters?
Where did my beer go?
Is there life on Maaaarrs? (sorry I just listened to that song now I cant get it out of my head)

American Made

Review

Captain America: The Fist Avenger



Growing up the only time I ever came across Captain America was when he guest stared in an issue of Spiderman or X-Men, that was until the Marvel civil war cross over and Ed Brubaker (one of my favourite comic authors) started writing Captain America stories. So once I actually started to get to know the character I really became a huge fan. So when the film came out I went in with high expectations and I wasn't disappointed.


Set during World War 2 Captain America: The First Avenger tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly kid from Brooklyn who can't enlist in the army due to his small size and strength. Rogers gets his chance when he is recruited into Project Rebirth, an experiment that transforms him into a super soldier who is at the the peak of human potential. Initially used as a poster boy for the army Rogers, now going by Captain America, soon gets into combat, battling the force's of Hydra (a Nazi research department) and its evil leader, the Red Skull.

Reminiscent of the original Indiana Jones movies Captain America blends good story telling, plenty of action, colorful characters and a little bit of humour. It is well performed all round, aside from a couple of bad accents, the flawless special effects add to the action with out overshadowing it. The movie doesn't take its self too seriously and parts of it are cliched but it works. Some of the film seems a bit rushed towards the end and some of the action sequences while good could have been a bit better or even just a little longer.


Not without its flaws Captain America is still a fun and highly enjoyable movie. I give it a 8 out of 10

People Are Strange

Getting to know your MC Blogfest
For more info and entrees:
http://elizabethmueller.blogspot.com/2011/05/jeannie-campbells-getting-to-know-your.html

Play The Game

Here is my top three games of all time as part of Alex J. Cavanaugh's It’s All Fun & Games Blogfest.



Resident Evil series

I couldn't pick just one from this series, from the first time I played the original on a friends Playstation I was hooked on the series and was always anticipating what would come next. With very compelling story lines the franchise has spawned countless games across all platforms, several films (live action and animated), a series of novels, comics and a hell of a lot of merchandise. Resident Evil is survival horror at its best.


Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Full of eccentric characters, pop culture references and carnage, Vice City is my favourite among the Grand Theft Auto series. Other GTA title may have bigger maps, longer story lines, better graphics, more content and the ability to swim but what Vice City had was a greater sense of fun with is huge list of crazy characters, numerous pop culture references (mainly gangster films) and its dark humor.


Uncharted 2 Among Thieves

With most games that you play, you can usually find some things that you don't like or things you would change about the game, it is very rare that you will find a game that is ,for a lack of a better word, perfect, but Uncharted 2 is a game where I can find no faults. Among Thieves mixes an intriguing story with amazing graphics, great gameplay and plenty of action, adventure and humor.


Just missed out:
Star Wars The Force Unleashed, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario Kart, and the Mortal Kombat series

Back in the Saddle

After looking at the date on my last entry it seems hard to believe that I was gone for so long, but after many distractions and exploits, I'm back.


They say there are three main ways of learning, Audibly, Visually and Kinetically.

A basic example I once saw was: How does a child learn fire is hot?
Audibly: The child is told "fire is hot" and they don't get burned
Visually: The child sees some one get burned, and now they know fire is hot
Kinetically: The child touches fire and learns first hand that fire is hot (they are only going to do this once)

We all use all three of these ways to learn new things all of the time. Some people find it easier to learn audibly, some visually and some kinetically, Me? I gotta touch the fire.

Since I learn better by doing things (and I don't really know what I'm doing). Instead of jumping strait into one big project, I'm gonna create a web comic that I will upload to this blog and my deviantART account, one page at a time, while still working on the story for my big project. So hopefully in a few months you will see page one of my web comic.

OK, I have made my first major decision. I have decided to write and illustrate a graphic novel. In the future I would like to write a proper novel but right now I think I more likely to finish a graphic novel. I know my story is gonna miss out on a lot of details, in choosing a GN over a novel but hopefully I'll be able to make some of it up will the illustrations.

So right now I'm right into character design mode. I've already done a heap of sketches and digital created a couple of characters you can check them out here:
http://kirwin85.deviantart.com/gallery/28461919
They are missing a lot of detail and I am still playing around with few different illustrating styles. So I'll keep playing around until I find a good style to actually illustrate the book with. I need to find a style that is going to compliment the story.

Until next time.

Top Ten Music Blogfest

Here is my top ten favourite songs of all time as part of Alex J. Cavanaugh's blogfest.
It was very hard to just pick 10, my first list was close to 30 but i painfully cut it down to 10 (with some honourable mentions at the bottom).


10. Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum I have no idea what the bizarre lyrics of the song actually mean. All I know is that hay they are sung beautifully and accompanied by a soulful melody that always moves me

9. Beethoven's 5th - ‪Danny Alkana‬ Guitarist ‪Danny Alkana‬ takes on a classic, backed by an orchestra ‪Alkana‬ performs Beethoven's fifth symphony on his electric guitar. Powerful, energetic and moving ‪Alkana‬ gives this already beautiful song a modern twist that really strikes a chord within me. If you haven't heard it I recommend you check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5jiNFzc1-8

8. Life on Mars? - David Bowie With its strange lyrics and amazingly beautiful tune, Life on Mars? makes me want to start singing along overtime I hear it.

7. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan Accompanied with the iconic film clip Dylan's folk rock masterpiece always affects me.

6. About a Girl - Nirvana Beatles inspired "About a Girl" is the first song that let the world know that Nirvana wasn't just an ordinary grunge band.

5. I'm Stranded - The Saints From the very fist second this song starts it hits you with its raw energy, then a few seconds in to the song you get hit again with Chris Bailey's strong punk voice as he drums out the lyrics.

4. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd The hypnotic Comfortably Numb, in my opinion, has two of the best guitar solos of all time and has beaten countless other Pink Floyd songs to make it onto My Top Ten list.

3. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks Beautiful and poetic one of the Kinks' best known and most acclaimed songs, Waterloo Sunset always affects me in a wonderful kind of way.

2. I'm Jealous - Divinyls Chrissy Amphlett's beautifully tortured voice creates so much raw emotion that complements the honest lyrics and powerful music to make one of my favourite songs of all time. f you haven't heard it I highly recommend you check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf-o378KGD4

1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin Often credited as one of the greatest rock songs off one of the greatest rock albums of all time, Stairway to Heaven has made it number 1on my Top 10 list because of its beautiful melodies and amazing guitar solo.


Honourable mentions.
Peace Frog - The Doors, Spooky - Dusty Springfield, Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedy's, Tango Shoes - Bif Naked, Gimmie Shelter - Rolling Stones, Lets stay together - Al Green, Alone with you tonight - The Sunnyboys, Devil - Stereophonics, Oh Yeah - The Subways, Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith, C'mon C'mon - Von Bondies, I am the Walrus - The Beatles, Ever Fallen in Love - Thursday, and Like a rolling stone - Bob Dylan

Decisions, decisions

To start of with, I would first like to thank everyone for their help and support. When I first bloged about my aspirations of writing I didn't know what to expect, but the reception I got was just amazing, so THANK YOU.

O.K, I need to start making some decisions regarding my WIP, right now my focus is try do decide whether I am going to write a novel or write and illustrate a graphic novel. Both have their pros and cons but I think I still need to do a little (or a lot of)research. I found a couple of books by Will Eisner about writing and illustrating comics/graphic novels, so when I have some spare cash I'll probably pick them up. Even though I don't know how this journey is going to end I'm still going along (at my own pace), jotting down notes and scribbling sketches. That is another thing I need to do, get organized, I have notes and sketches on all these random bits of paper and they are scattered all over the house.
Did reading educational books on writing help you? If so could you recommend any?

Until Next Time.