Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Free books for the First of August
It's Tuesday. Want some free books for your favorite ebook reader? Of course you do. Here's an instafreebie giveaway sponsored by writer Erik Carter.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Friday Freebie Fiction!!!
It's Friday and there are freebies all over the place.
Like Dystopian? Here you go. Fancy something more steampunky? Check these out. Books with kick-ass heroines across a variety of genres? There's a giveaway for that.
Here's a thriller and mystery deal that will end soon--as in today, Friday the 28th. So don't wait.
Like Dystopian? Here you go. Fancy something more steampunky? Check these out. Books with kick-ass heroines across a variety of genres? There's a giveaway for that.
Here's a thriller and mystery deal that will end soon--as in today, Friday the 28th. So don't wait.
Labels:
#freebooks,
#iamreading,
bad-ass heroines,
dystopian,
steampunk,
thrillers
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Twenty -three writers, one boxed set
Venom and Vampires, a boxed set of novels and novellas themed to paranormal creatures, went live last night on Apple, Kobo, Nook, and Amazon. It's a double-dozen tales, with a little something for everyone, from straight up urban fantasy to historic fantasy to Kory Shrum's rural noir-tinged tale. This is a limited edition and the material is all original, so it's not one of those boxed sets where the editor gathered a bunch of stuff that's already out there. If you love the genre, you really owe it to yourself to pick it up. (Just 99 cents plus tax where applicable.)
Monday, July 24, 2017
Author Interview...KB Inglee
KB Inglee writes historical short
stories. Her collection, The Case Book of
Emily Lawrence is available from Wildside Press. She works as an historical
interpreter at a 1704 water powered grist mill. She lives in Delaware with her
family and too many pets.
When you research your fiction you really get into it. Are you part of an organized group of history
re-enactors? I work at Newlin Grist Mill where I present the 1704 grist
mill and the 1739 miller’s house, spin on a great wheel, and wrangle any
animals I can. I am not part of an independent group of re-enactors.
What is your favorite era, and why? Early colonial. My
grandfather was the pastor of the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth and the Adams
church in Quincy, so I was pretty much brainwashed as a kid. I haven’t figured
out how I ended up writing late 19th century, probably my least
favorite time period.
In the spirit of your historical fiction, have you ever
written a story longhand? When I started writing, I wrote in longhand
a lot, but as I aged it got more illegible, so if I want to read it, it has to
be on the computer.
Do you find it hard to “switch gears” when you go from short
to long fiction? I
don’t have a problem since nowadays write only short fiction.
Are you a member of a writer’s group? Do you belong to
Sisters in Crime? Have you ever been to a writer’s convention? Yes, yes, and yes. I
would not be where I am now if I hadn’t found Sisters in Crime. I belong to two
SinC chapters, and a critique group. I also belong to Pennwriters, and I am
part of a group of Delaware writers. I try to attend two writer’s conferences a
year. Favorites are Malice Domestic, New England Crimebake and Pennwriters.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Author Interview...Debra H. Goldstein
Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin
and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (Five Star -2016) and the 2012 IPPY Award
winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set
on the University of Michigan’s campus. Her short stories and essays have
appeared in periodicals and anthologies, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Birmingham Arts Journal, Mardi
Gras Murder and The Killer Wore Cranberry:
a Fourth Meal of Mayhem. In addition to being the Sisters in Crime Guppy
President, Debra serves on the national Sisters in Crime board, numerous civic
boards in Birmingham, Alabama and is an MWA member.
I love the title of your website, “It’s Not Always a
Mystery.” Your first two books—including the IPPY Award-winning Maze in
Blue—were mysteries. Do you have an alter-ego who’s writing in another genre?
For years, my alter-ego could be
found in the decisions I issued as Judge Debra H. Goldstein (much more boring
than my mysteries). I called my blog
“It’s Not Always a Mystery” because, under my own name, I write both mystery
and literary short stories and non-fiction essays, as well as my novels.
You grew up in New Jersey and Michigan and worked in New
York before moving to Atlanta to attend law school. Now you live in Birmingham,
Alabama. Was it an adjustment, a culture shock when you first moved to the
South?
For me, moving to the South was a
charming experience. I embraced it
although I came South by accident. I was working in New York and had been
accepted to several law schools. I got
on a plane to tour some of the ones offering me scholarship money. It was snowing when I left New Jersey,
snowing harder in Pennsylvania, snowing even harder at my next stop, but when
the plane broke through the clouds in Atlanta, I saw the red clay Margaret
Mitchell described in Gone With the Wind
and this English major was hooked. I
didn’t know it was the day after one of our terrible rainstorms when the air is
clear, the pollen washed away. At that point, I thought I would be here for
three years, but when I took my first job out of law school, it was in Michigan
during a winter which had thirty-four inches of snow. I moved back to the South the following year.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Author Interview...Kristin Kisska
Kristin Kisska used to be a
finance geek, complete with MBA and Wall Street pedigree. A member of the International
Thriller Writers, James River Writers, and Sisters in Crime, Kristin is now a
self-proclaimed fictionista.
Her short mystery story, “The Sevens” was included in the Anthony
Award-winning anthology, MURDER UNDER THE OAKS (2015). “A Colonial Grave,”
which is a murder mystery set in Colonial Williamsburg, was included in Virginia is for Mysteries, Volume II (2016). She was excited that her jewelry heist
short story, “Wine and Prejudice” set in Savannah was included in Fifty Shades of Cabernet (2017). And, she contributed her psychological suspense short
story, “To the Moon and Back” to the eclipse-themed anthology, Day of the Dark
(2017).
When not writing suspense novels and historical thrillers
or blogging for Lethal Ladies Write,
she can be found on her website~ www.KristinKisska.com,
on Facebook @KristinKisskaAuthor, and
Tweeting @KKMHOO. Kristin lives in Virginia
with her husband and three children.
On your website, you describe
yourself as a “finance geek” complete with an MBA and a Wall Street pedigree.
Does that background figure into your fiction?
Thank
you for hosting me on your blog, Katherine! It’s truly an honor.
No, I
haven’t written any finance stories yet; perhaps I overdosed on corporate
financial statements and stock prices when I wore my investment banker hat.
That said, someday I hope my muse will inspire me with a chilling MBA-themed
suspense or mystery plot.
So far my
published stories have involved a secret society (“The Sevens”), a cold case
murder (A Colonial Grave), a jewelry heist (“Wine and Prejudice”), and with Day of the Dark, a mother-daughter bond
(“To the Moon and Back”).
I had to laugh when I saw you had a
story in an anthology called Virginia is
for Mysteries. I used to work for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and had
the original “Virginia is for Lovers” t-shirt. (And yes, many people asked me
if my name was Virginia.) What took you from Virginia to Prague?
I’m a first
generation American from then-Czechoslovakia.
A few years after the Iron Curtain fell, I decided it was finally time
to explore the country of my dad’s birth and meet my family members. I bought a
one-way ticket to Prague—my parents thought I was nuts. After three years living in the *Paris of the
East*, I returned to the States, but Prague is still the city of my heart (it’s
the setting of both a new short story and the novel I’m currently writing).
Friday, July 7, 2017
Bride of the Midnight King is free!
In honor of the release of Midnight Queen next week, I have put Bride of the Midnight King on freebie for five days. It's been my best-seller since it was published and has a nice smattering of 5-star reviews.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
A timely Shakespeare quote
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
From Russia with Love
Grigori Kozintsev's Hamlet |
I found myself wondering what Shakespeare thought of Russia, if he thought of Russia at all. Shakespeare's life spanned the 16th and 17th centuries and by then, Moscow was a huge cultural center. It was a principality known to the English as "Muscovy." That land pops up a couple of times in Shakespeare's plays, most notably in Act V, Scene III of Love's Labour's Lost when Rosaline asks another character why he looks so under the weather:
Why look you pale?
Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy.
In searching for Shakespeare/Muscovy links, I ran across this article about the way Soviet Russia viewed Ophelia. Poor Ophelia. Using Grigori Kozintsev's film version of Hamlet as a source, the article deconstructs her "corruption." It's interesting reading.
Labels:
Grigori Kozintsev,
Hamlet,
Love's Labour's Lost,
Moscow,
Muscovy,
Shakespeare
Monday, July 3, 2017
Shakespeare's balls
19th century lawn tennis |
One of the best scenes in Shakespeare's Henry V is the one where he receives a gift of tennis balls from the Dauphin. (This actually happened. See the account here.) Henry is not happy with the gift, which is an insult to him and the resulting speech, which begins, "We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us," is a masterpiece. taht scene takes place in the 15th century, and by then, the game was already three centuries old. Think about that as you watch Wimbledon.
Labels:
Henry V,
Shakespeare,
tennis,
Wimbledon
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Baby it's Cold Outside.
Temperatures hit 24 Celsius in London this weekend, which is a rather balmy 75 Fahrenheit. That's much cooler than almost anywhere in the United States right now, including the Pacific Northwest where overnight temps are still dipping into the 50s even though daytime temps are in the mid-80s.
June would not have been particularly warm in Shakespeare's time. He was born in 1564, right in the middle of the Little Ice Age and only a decade after major glacial expansion began. There's a reason why they wore so many layers of clothes back then.
June would not have been particularly warm in Shakespeare's time. He was born in 1564, right in the middle of the Little Ice Age and only a decade after major glacial expansion began. There's a reason why they wore so many layers of clothes back then.
Friday, June 23, 2017
The Essex Serpent should be on your TBR pile
I've always loved historical fiction but I don't read that much of it any more, unless it's for work. In the past year I've read some wornderful books, including Karen Essex's Kleopatra and its sequel. This weekend I read The Essex Serpent, a debut novel from UK author Sarah Perry and it was the best couple of hours I've spent in some time. Not only is the period well-researched, right down to little details like mention of a game of "Chinese whispers," but her writing is lush and layered and downright beautiful without getting in the way of the story.
In The Essex Serpent, a widowed woman with a scientific mind becomes intrigued by a local legend and with her companion and odd young son in tow, she begins looking into things, much to the dismay of her London friends, some of whom are aware her rich, controlling husband was an abusive bastard and some who are not. (Cora has a scar on her neck in the exact shape of an ornate leaf decorating a candlestick that her husband once pressed into her flesh lhard enough to wound.)
The "mystery" of the serpent is eventually solved, but that particular plot thread is not the only one that holds our attention.
This is a character-driven book and the characters are fantastic. Cora is an extremely sympathetic character. For all her flaws (and her companion Martha freely points those out), she's also a generous woman with a prodigious intellect, a woman born a century too soon. (There are scenes where ehs has to endure "mansplaining" and has to bite her tongue and readers will bond with her over the experience.) But then there's Cora's complex relationship with her 11-year-old son Francis. She doesn't really like him and though she'd say she loves him, we sense it's only out of duty. He IS very odd, and nowadays would likely be diagnosed as being somewhere along the autism spectrum. But Francis is not just a gimmick of a character; he's fully realized and when he unexpectedly bonds with a sick woman, it is a touching and believable event.
Cora meets a kindred spirit in the most unlikely place--the local rectory. She's a Darwinist and an atheist and she's delighted that the local minister is open-minded and quick-witted, and more than happy to challenge her to debates on a subject both find fascinating. And meanwhile, there's mass hysteria at the village school, a missing girl, a Socialist who awakens the social conscience of a wealthy man, and more.
In The Essex Serpent, a widowed woman with a scientific mind becomes intrigued by a local legend and with her companion and odd young son in tow, she begins looking into things, much to the dismay of her London friends, some of whom are aware her rich, controlling husband was an abusive bastard and some who are not. (Cora has a scar on her neck in the exact shape of an ornate leaf decorating a candlestick that her husband once pressed into her flesh lhard enough to wound.)
The "mystery" of the serpent is eventually solved, but that particular plot thread is not the only one that holds our attention.
This is a character-driven book and the characters are fantastic. Cora is an extremely sympathetic character. For all her flaws (and her companion Martha freely points those out), she's also a generous woman with a prodigious intellect, a woman born a century too soon. (There are scenes where ehs has to endure "mansplaining" and has to bite her tongue and readers will bond with her over the experience.) But then there's Cora's complex relationship with her 11-year-old son Francis. She doesn't really like him and though she'd say she loves him, we sense it's only out of duty. He IS very odd, and nowadays would likely be diagnosed as being somewhere along the autism spectrum. But Francis is not just a gimmick of a character; he's fully realized and when he unexpectedly bonds with a sick woman, it is a touching and believable event.
Cora meets a kindred spirit in the most unlikely place--the local rectory. She's a Darwinist and an atheist and she's delighted that the local minister is open-minded and quick-witted, and more than happy to challenge her to debates on a subject both find fascinating. And meanwhile, there's mass hysteria at the village school, a missing girl, a Socialist who awakens the social conscience of a wealthy man, and more.
Labels:
Historical fiction,
Karen Essex,
Kleopatra,
Sarah Perry
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Because a good meme is timeless!
When the "Nevertheless, she persisted" meme first showed up, it was in honor of Elizabeth Warren. But as it turns out, there have been a number of times when it is applicable. Ansaldo Design Group has taken the phrase and adapted it to a series of graphic totes featuring feminist icons ranging from Joan of Arc to Queen Elizabeth I to Harriet Tubman to Junko Tabei (a Japanese mountaineer and the first woman to summit Everest). Some designs are also available on t-shirts. Check them all out here.
Labels:
Ansaldo Design,
Elizabeth Warren,
Etsy,
Harriet Tubman,
Junko Tabei
Venom and Vampires Boxed Set--for Apple
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Julius Caesar, then and now
My first encounter with Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar was watching the star-studded 1953 film in my 9th grade English class. James Mason was Brutus, Marlon Brando played Mark Antony, and John Gielgud played Cassius, he of the "lean and hungry look." I have to say, I was not particularly impressed then, and upon looking at Antony's famous "I come to bury Caesar not to praise him" speech (see it here on Youtube), I haven't really changed my mind although looking at the black and white clip, it's eerie how Marlon Brando seems a sculpture come to life, so faded is the whitee of the film. And oddly, too, he reminds me of James Purefoy as Antony in Rome. (If you're interested, you can compare it to Charlton Heston's version from the 1970 adaptation here.)
I never really liked the play. A couple of female characters make cameo appearances, but there's no one like Coriolanus' mother in my favorite of Shakespeare's political plays. Vanessa Redgrave played her in the Ralph Fiennes version, and she was in her full Vanessa glory in a meaty part. For some reason, almost every high school English program uses Julius Caesar to introduce the bard to their students. (Sometimes it's Romeo and Juliet but in four of the five high schools I attended, Julius Caesar was the first play offered. And it's a wonder anyone ever went on to another play.)
That's why I'm so interested in the controversy the Public Theater has generated with their politically charged interpretation depicting Caesar as looking like Donald Trump.
I never really liked the play. A couple of female characters make cameo appearances, but there's no one like Coriolanus' mother in my favorite of Shakespeare's political plays. Vanessa Redgrave played her in the Ralph Fiennes version, and she was in her full Vanessa glory in a meaty part. For some reason, almost every high school English program uses Julius Caesar to introduce the bard to their students. (Sometimes it's Romeo and Juliet but in four of the five high schools I attended, Julius Caesar was the first play offered. And it's a wonder anyone ever went on to another play.)
That's why I'm so interested in the controversy the Public Theater has generated with their politically charged interpretation depicting Caesar as looking like Donald Trump.
Labels:
Donald Trump,
James Mason,
Julius Caesar,
Marlon Brando,
Shakespeare
What to read by Margaret Atwood after you've reread A Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood is one of the authors who is rewriting Shakespeare's plays for the "Hogarth Shakespeare'" collection. Her novel, Hag-Seed, is a r-imagining of Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest. Unlike some of the plays in the series so far (I'm thinking of Jeanette Winterson's luminous retelling of The Winter's Tale, Gap of Time), The Tempest is a play that's been re-imagined mamy, many times, most recently in Julie (The Lion King) Taymor's version with Helen Mirren as "Prospera."
All of Shakespeare's plays are full of quotable lines, but my very favorite exchange in all of Shakespeare is a conversation between Prospero and Caliban. "You taught me language," Caliban says to Prospero, "and my profit on't is I know how to curse." I've seen about half a dozen performances of the play, including one stunning version mounted by Ellis Rabb and another starring Anthony Hopkins as Prospero. (Stephanie Zimbalist played Miranda.)
I'm looking forward to reading Atwood's "take" on the tale because the books I've read so far have been terrific. I'm especially looking forward to Nesbo's Macbeth, which is one of my favorite plays, despite its reputation for being a cursed piece of work.
Other books will be published over the next four years, including Jo Nesbo's version of Macbeth and Gillian Flynn's Hamlet. Tracy Chevalier's Othello re-do will be out this fall. I already have Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew) and Howard Jacobson's Shylock is My Name (The Merchant of Venice).
i'm surious how much of a feminist take on the play Hag-Seed will have. One of the things that has always bothered me about The Tempest is the way Prospero stole the island from Caliban's mother, the witch Sycorax.
All of Shakespeare's plays are full of quotable lines, but my very favorite exchange in all of Shakespeare is a conversation between Prospero and Caliban. "You taught me language," Caliban says to Prospero, "and my profit on't is I know how to curse." I've seen about half a dozen performances of the play, including one stunning version mounted by Ellis Rabb and another starring Anthony Hopkins as Prospero. (Stephanie Zimbalist played Miranda.)
I'm looking forward to reading Atwood's "take" on the tale because the books I've read so far have been terrific. I'm especially looking forward to Nesbo's Macbeth, which is one of my favorite plays, despite its reputation for being a cursed piece of work.
Other books will be published over the next four years, including Jo Nesbo's version of Macbeth and Gillian Flynn's Hamlet. Tracy Chevalier's Othello re-do will be out this fall. I already have Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew) and Howard Jacobson's Shylock is My Name (The Merchant of Venice).
i'm surious how much of a feminist take on the play Hag-Seed will have. One of the things that has always bothered me about The Tempest is the way Prospero stole the island from Caliban's mother, the witch Sycorax.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Saints and Misfits...a book fro the TBR pile
This has been a good year for coming-of-age stories by debut authors and Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali is another one. Just read the sales copy and you'll want to read this book, which came out yesterday.
There are three kinds of people in my world:
1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.
2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.
Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.
But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?
3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.
There are three kinds of people in my world:
1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.
2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.
Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.
But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?
3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.
Labels:
coming of age novel,
S K Ali,
Saints and Misfits,
YA novel
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Summer of Shakespeare is Coming!!
I do like the phrase, "Upstart Crow," though.
Labels:
Etsy,
Upstart Crow,
William Shakespeare
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Coming Soon...Day of the Dark anthology
Kaye George has edited this very cool anthology of crime stories themed to the upcoming eclipse this summer. The book will be out next month from Wildside Press and I'm thrilled that my story, "The Path of Totality" is included. I like the cover a lot.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Saturday, May 27, 2017
New from M.J. Rose
M.J. Rose was the first really successful indie published writer I was aware of. (I hadn't yet heard of John Locke or Amanda Hocking.) I even had a book she'd written about self-publishing and selling the books herself. Then she got a traditional publishing contract. I liked her books and I liked that she was willing to share her tips. So I've been a fan for five years or so.
M.J. Rose writes lush prose.
I started out reading her Morgan Snow books, and they were a lot of fun. Her more work reminds me of the late, great Tanith Lee, and this new book (available in July) has pretty much everything I love in a book, plus Paris.
Here's the blurb:
In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for the South of France after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.
In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École des Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd.
M.J. Rose writes lush prose.
I started out reading her Morgan Snow books, and they were a lot of fun. Her more work reminds me of the late, great Tanith Lee, and this new book (available in July) has pretty much everything I love in a book, plus Paris.
Here's the blurb:
In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for the South of France after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.
In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École des Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd.
Labels:
1920s,
amanda Hocking,
John Locke,
M.j. Rose,
Paris
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Something new in urban fantasy ... Heartblaze 4I lo
I love urban fantasy and it's getting harder and harder to find something that spins the tropes in a new way. Something like Brotherhood of the Wheel doesn't come along every day. This book, though, the first in a new series, is something different in a good way. The author blends an authentic depiction of Viking civilization with a dark Gothic dream of a supernatural world and the result is fantastastic. Yes, there are werewolves but so much more. (And that "more" includes a heroine is strong and tough and a villain who is as memorable as she is original.) Check it out here.
Labels:
Heartblaze,
Shay Roberts,
Urban Fantasy,
werewolves
Monday, May 1, 2017
A picture is worth a thousand words
It's been a while since I bought a poster. (Yes, back in the day I had that Picasso Don Quixote poster that everyone had, along with Ansel Adams' Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico.) But I saw this one today and thought about a space I could put it. You can buy it here.
Freebies...urban fantasy box set
I love boxed sets. They're a cheap (often free) way to sample new authors in whatever genre I'm currently interested in reading. And I always love Urban Fantasy. I've read Christine Pope's hosen, from her Djinn series, and I'm a fan of Pippa DaCosta, so I'm looking forward to reading Hidden Blade, as well as Stacy Clafin's Lost Wolf. All the selections in this set are full-length novels, and the myths seem to span everything from Norse to Egyptian gods and everything in between. (I'm a sucker for Egyptian mythology.) You can get this boxed set free right now.
Labels:
#freebooks,
Boxed set,
Christine Pope,
Pippa DaCosta,
Stacy Clafin
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Judging a book by its cover-- Oscar de Murial’s A Fever of the Blood
Jacket design
by Derek
Thornton/Faceout Studio
Imagery:
Arcangel and Shutterstock
Pegasus
Books
Faceout
Studio designer Derek Thornton went for a very different feel for his
wonderfully tactile cover.
“This
cover was deeply inspired by scenes and elements in the story. When I started
designing we decided we wanted this cover to be dramatic, atmospheric and
elegant. Even though this cover seems to be made of one dramatic image, it’s
actually a composite of multiple images: a handmade snow texture, an image of
highlands, the circle art that interacts with the figure, and the hooded figure
of course. The final book was finished with a rounded emboss on the type, and
pearlescent shimmering stock creating a beautiful final printed package.”
Faceout
Studio has designed numerous covers across genres, producing striking jackets
for everything from cookbooks to lit fic as well as genre covers including the
50th anniversary edition of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, Sebastian
Fitzek’s The Nightwalker, Gard Ven’s Hell is Open, Matt Goldman’s Gone to Dust, Claudia Gray’s Defy the Stars, Adam Mitzner’s Dead Certain, and Luca Veste’s Dead Gone.
Outside of
design Derek loves spending time with his wife and three kids, playing sub-genres
of metal on his seven-string guitar, and dreaming of future tattoo endeavors.
Labels:
A Fever of the Blood,
Derek Thornton,
Faceout Studio
DISARM...a gun sense anthology
I wrote an essay for this charity anthology, which was originally called Disarm, a gun control anthology. I am not sure why the publishers changed that one word, but either way--this collection of fiction and non-fiction and poetry is all about the gun problem we have in the United States. Proceeds from the sale of the anthology will go to Everytown for Gun Safety. You can purchase the ebook now, the paperback version will be available early in May.
I don't know what it's going to take to change the gun culture in this country, especially with a president who is in the pocket of the NRA, but I hope the pieces in this book will help change the conversation.
I don't know what it's going to take to change the gun culture in this country, especially with a president who is in the pocket of the NRA, but I hope the pieces in this book will help change the conversation.
Labels:
Disarm,
Everytown for Gun Safety,
gun control,
Gun Sense
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