I woke up the other morning to find an email in my in-box from my UK editor. (Since I'm in Australia, he's awake when I'm asleep).The covers for my trilogy have arrived. I'm blown away. Clint Langley has outdone himself with these covers. They are all great, but my favourite is the middle one.
Writing is like the iceberg, so much goes on even before the book gets sent to the publisher. What you finally see in the bookstore is the product of years of research, writing and rewriting. Much time is spent in the intangible world of the mind, so the days when something physical appears are red letter days.
Seeing these covers was a red letter day for me. All the writing, rewriting, researching and waiting have finally paid off.
Meanwhile, I am in neck deep in another new writing project and feeling deprived when life gets in the way. Family obligations and work conspire to eat up all my time as well as the mental space in my head where I have to go to create a new world. It all seems so intangible and ephemeral, but then I look at how the Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin is coming together and I know it is achieveable.
So this is a 'hang in there' post. It is all worth it.
How do you keep the flame of your passion for writing alive?
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25 comments:
Those are magnificent Rowena! I've been a fan of Clint Langley's work for a while now, and those really are some of the best examples of his work.
I imagine it is incredibly cathartic to see your babies, bound and beautiful in their covers. I hope you are revelling in it :)
Thanks, Jonathan.
I'm really impressed with Clint's work on these covers.
They're excellent selling covers - but it just shows how tastes vary! - I would rate the first as 'outstanding'.
Absolutely beautiful covers. They really caught my eye. Kinda make me wish I lived in the UK...
~Dianna
Fantastic covers. I have to go with Rowena on this one, I like the second cover most of all.
Dave, I love the richness of the second cover. The colours really appeal to me.
Dianna, the books will be distributed in the US and the UK.
C Kelsey,
I'm with you on this.
Very inspiring when I've had a tough day and I need to get my 'mojo' back!
All I can say is, "Wow!" That's some mind-blowing stuff. Those covers would definitely be enough to make me grab one of those books off the shelf and start thumbing through it.
Now, I know that "you can't judge a book by its cover," but the fact is, a good cover can go a long way to swaying the jury.
RJ Cruze said:
Now, I know that "you can't judge a book by its cover," but the fact is, a good cover can go a long way to swaying the jury.
So true. That is why covers are such a touchy subject for writers. I'm buzzing.
Congrats, Rowena! Those are some awesome covers. Do you know if he actually read the books and then designed/created them? Or was there another process?
Covers and artwork are such tools for bringing stories to life. I remember the first artwork I was ever given. It was for a story I sold to Child Life in 1988, a leading national children's magazine at that time. I got a double spread and was wowed by the fact that an artist had taken my words and brought them to such life.
Good for you, Rowena. Set these on the dining room table and look at them every time you walk by. Congrats, again!
Annonymous -- is that you Linda?
In this case, Solaris came to me and asked what ideas I had for the covers. Since I'd created a Resonance File for the series, I had images etc in there. I collated a file with images of the world (snowy vaguely Russian) and images of the costumes and I wrote a paragraph about each character.
I was really lucky that Solaris chose Clint Langley to do the covers.
:-)Do you think this is sexual dimorphism in action or do I just have bad taste? Seriously, great covers especially in that they do appeal to a range of readers. I would be over the moon with them.
They work really well.. very tasteful..i think you'll have success with those...
As for keeping the writing alive.. if it's a part of us, we do it anyway.. because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.. the business side of it can be depressing (rejections) but the writing is a please...
=]
Anthony, that is so true. The writing is part of who we are!
Dave ... sexual dimorphism?
I like beautiful things. The colours on book two really appeal to me. I can appreciate the stylization of books one and three.
Congratulations, Rowena. Those covers look great. When are you launching?
Rowena,
But the covers won't be the same... and I'm in that strange country called Canada too. I hope to see them around here sometime.
~Dianna
I like the first one. Looks like such a fascinating character. But they're all three great.
:) I don't know about all this euphoria over some very Noir and grim covers tho', someone might thing we've odd appetites. ;)
MataPam
Chris, I thought I'd do something at World Con.
But the publisher isn't sure if they can arrange distribution in Australia, so there isn't much point in having a launch.
Matapam, I have no idea if, when they say they have US distribution, that includes Canada. Sorry, for my ignorance.
I'll look forward to it, Rowena. I've just booked my room and flights for WorldCon in Melbourne. Let me knows as soon as you organise something:)
Rowena,
::Grin:: I'm in Texas. Amazon.com was happy to pre-order for me.
How do you keep the flame of your passion for writing alive?
Dear Rowena
I find my daughter's university fees quite motivating, not to say inspirational.
John
Did anyone ever answer you about sexual dimorphism?
It's really a simple idea. Di for two and morph for shape -- some species have different shapes for the two sexes. Hens and roosters, for example. Just looking at them, would you believe that they are the same species? Lots of birds let the males dress up pretty fancy, while the females are plainer. I've been told that some fish also have some extreme variation in shape and size between the sexes.
Other species, of course, you may have to check more closely. When you end up taking genetic samples to identify which are males and which are females, that's not sexual dimorphism.
OK?
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