Tag: book covers

We’ll Collect The Moments One By One

Andrew has made me a new book cover to go with the recently finished Secrets. It looks wonderful in my opinion. In fact, I think it’s my favourite of the covers that he’s made so far. It’s below if you want to see it. Feel free to comment on it here or go to my facebook page and give your say there.

Secrets is the third (as of yet unpublished) installation in my Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow series. Andrew’s read it so I’ll let you read what he said about it:

“Secrets, the third instalment of the currently-unpublished (somehow) Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow series, continues the storyline of Jocasta, a third-year at a magical high-school, her fellow pupils, her teachers and her enemies, as they set to wage war on each other. The book contains elements of romance, fantasy, horror, drama, and a fantastically written action scene towards the end which brings about the culmination of the aspects of the plot developed specially for this instalment (while furthering aspects such as relationships and other events seen throughout the series as a whole). It was by quite a way the most enjoyable instalment of the series yet, truly saying something considering how well I thought of its predecessors, and was a brilliant showcasing of its writer’s, Rebecca Clare Smith’s, talents.”

– Andrew S.R. McCluskey [Musings]
In other news, I heard my mother downstairs when I got up today. My mum is usually at work at that time. I’ve grown to recognise that whenever she comes home early from work it means that there is something very wrong. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it frightens me a little bit. She suffers from depression which is brought on by stress at work… It worries me a lot. I don’t like the idea that my mum gets increasingly upset and stressed and can’t talk to me about it; though, I realise that’s unfair as I don’t talk to her about my problems. I have no need to; I know how she’d react to most of them. I just worry about her a lot. I don’t want her to fall apart again.
This is where my younger brother steps in to be his duly unhelpful and nasty self. We wanted to print some business cards off for her jewellery venture (I think this was more her trying to distract herself from how she was feeling) but, of course, the printer needs to be set up to the new network that we’re on. We are not the most electronically able pair. Ergo, we asked my brother to help. What did this produce? Nothing but abusive language, door slamming and my mother getting upset. One day, he and my eldest brother will both get a slap in the face and wake up from their selfish ways. 
(Lyrics in the title are from Mushaboom by Feist)

New Book Cover. New Entry.

Dear readers, gather ’round, gather ’round. Okay, that was patronising. I’m sorry. Don’t beat me. I just like amusing myself with silly statements sometimes.

Anyway, as you can see, my friend Andrew has mocked up a book cover for my second unpublished book in the JLM Series. He’s doing these off his own back and free for me. I personally think they’re really well done and it makes me really thankful to have such good friends around me. The second book is called Shadows & Ghosts (in case you hadn’t guessed).

I’ve heard on the grapevine that is twitter (from the lovely iamJaymes who cheers me up greatly with his tweets) that Stefanie Meyer has written a new novella. Unfortunately it is still following her silly saga about sparkly vampires. That still grates on me. I can see how it’s a clever idea, but it’s the most un-vampire thing I have ever heard. Couldn’t they have glowed? Wouldn’t that have been better than them looking like they’ve been decorating Christmas cards with small children? Maybe that’s just me, but I find it stupid. And I find the number of people obsessed with it even more ridiculous. Especially when some of those people are mothers. I mean, really, what is the world coming to when mothers are convincing their daughters to read about boys who sparkly? I’m sorry, but the only boys I know who sparkle generally don’t do it to attract women. I’m pretty sure that they have an entirely different agenda. I also fail to see how vampires having kids would work, as well. I mean, I’m pretty sure the guy’s supposed to be dead down there unless I’m missing something and corpses really can have children. I’d explain this in more detail… but I think that clever individuals will see where I’m coming from anyway.

Anyway, I’m going to try and finish off my editing of this chapter. When I do that, I intend to write a piece about book fandom battles. It’ll be fictional and basically my own little mad twist on the situation. I may post it here. Then again, I may make it too long to fit here and just link off to it.

I Found A Boy Who Had A Dream Making Everyone Smile

Today, every attempt to write more of Chapter 23 of Secrets has been thwarted by interruptions.

Firstly (which was not so much an interruption as I said hello to Andrew and discovered he was editing the book cover design he had created me), I helped with my opinions and image searching to edit the book cover of Dark Side of the Moon that my friend designed. It looks even better than it did and I think he’s even more of a genius with graphics. He’s going to be designing the graphics for my new site. Personally, I reckon that this will make the site even more fantastic than I could have originally designed. He has a knack of being able to figure out exactly what I want from the mass of congealed matter that makes up my brain. Anyway, results of today’s editing are below so you can tell me what you think of his lovely design:

Secondly, I’ve had lots of people trying to talk to me about various things… which is fine… but I don’t need the distractions right now. I want to get Secrets finished instead of getting sidetracked (you could probably argue that this is sidetracking me, but I wanted to mention all the stuff I needed to mention so I could continue on with Secrets). I know people don’t mean to distract me, but they always seem to know when I’m on a roll with whatever I’m writing and they just barge in with their hellos. I’m maybe being a little dramatic, but you have to admit that it is frustrating. Other people might say that I should just ignore whoever they are. I would do, but then I feel inordinately mean by not speaking to them. Dreadful, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, a friend instant messaged me and he’s started doing some writing of his own. His introduction to his piece can be found here and I’m sure that if any of you can provide him with feedback, then he’d be really appreciative. Personally, I think it’s an excellent start. His narrative voice is really strong and it draws you in and interests you straight away. To say that it’s not something I would normally pick to read, I’m glad I did. The title doesn’t really make me jump at it, but the actual writing of the piece is engaging and does make me want to read more. The writing is humorous, too, as if you’re listening to your friend describe something that has happened to him or her whilst you wait for the bus to arrive. My point is, I enjoyed it.

He’s also told me that he uses some freeware especially for writers to type in. I’m reliably informed that it’s a useful tool… and also that, if you want it to, you can set it so that it makes typewriter noises whilst you write. I think he finds this particular feature the best. Personally, I wouldn’t use it, but that’s because I’m rather set in the system I have for my writing. Nevertheless, it seems like something that could work for a lot of people so I thought I’d give it a quick mention. It’s called Q10. At first, I thought Didrik was trying to say I needed some skin care for wrinkles (I should hope I don’t have wrinkles. I’m only twenty!), but I had a look for it on the ‘net and it seems to have a number of good features. Despite this, I still don’t want to swap MS Word for it, but everybody is comfortable with different things. I’ve linked to it, anyway, so you can have a gander for yourself. It may or may not suit you. If you’re like my friend Didrik, though, you’ll love it just for the typewriter noises. It seems to work for him anyway.

Something else that I want to mention is my friend’s online magazine. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is Greyson’s second issue of OverByte and it still seems to be doing really well. It looks a lot more professional now and he’s had a lot more support getting the latest issue sorted. It’s primary audience are independent game makers on the internet. I’m not a game maker but I did skim it for the jokes and the ending comic, which were all thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, it’s nice to see how far he’s come along with it. On a private note, I think it’s helped build his confidence a lot too. In a weird way that makes me really proud of him. So, in support of my friend, you can find OverByte at its own site and, if you’re an indie game maker and you’d like to write articles for the next issue, you can register to audition.

(Lyrics in the title are from Oxygen by Colbie Caillat)

Emerging from the Gentle Grip of Night’s Unfolding Arms

I’m considering writing some flash fiction on here in the future. If you’re unaware as to what that entails, then listen up, please:

Flash fiction is where you write a piece of fiction based on an idea or a statement that you are given. You go with whatever you think of when you get the statement, phrase, question or idea etc. Then, you complete a writing piece on it in either a set number of words or a set time.

Because it’s so quick and spontaneous (hence the name flash fiction) it’s supposed to be a really good way to build up your writing skills (as well as padding those portfolios!), which is why I’m going to start writing pieces. I’m going to add them here and each piece will be titled with ‘Flash Fiction No.#’ so that they will be easier for you to find. Not only that, but I will be tagging them with ‘flash fiction 500’ and ‘flash fiction 1000’ according to how many words I write of each. Pieces may not end up complete as these are literally just quick writing exercises, but hopefully you will enjoy reading through them. I don’t want to write just anything, though, so, if you have a suggestion for a statement that I can base a piece of flash fiction on, please comment below and I will write a piece based on it. These pieces may not be terribly long, but it will help me to improve my writing and for you to see what I can do.

Your flash fiction statement will probably end up being written about, so please comment with one!

Another thing to mention is my formspring account. I know that I keep going on about it, but I’d really like to hear if you have any questions. They can be about my writing or even just something you generally want help with. I’ll try my best to satisfactorily answer the questions that you pose. More questions, however, mean that I get to expand more of them on here if I think I can give you more information and, let’s face it, I clearly love rambling on here.

IMPORTANTLY, (yes I had to caps lock to make sure I got your attention) the poll finishes tomorrow so if you want to get your vote heard then please click on your favourite title on the right.

I thought I would show you the book cover for the first book in the JLM Series, Dark Side of the Moon, which has been designed by Andrew McCluskey (NALGames). This is the current design, but he’s said he’d like to edit it further. I’m not sure when he’ll get around to this, so you can have a look at it’s current state. Personally, I really like it, which is great as Andrew is the one in charge of the graphical content of my new site. He’s also going to be in charge of the flash content. Sean Buller (UnknownGamer), my lovely Canadian friend, is the one in charge of the coding. When they’ve finished my site and set up one of their own to promote their website building skills, I’ll give you a link so that you can take a long hard look at what they can do. What they can do is brilliant, though, and they’re willing to learn new skills to get you what you want. The design of the book cover below, for example, was taken from an amalgamation of ideas that I gave Andrew. None of them were very set because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted, but he’s managed to come up with something I adore and, when he has a moment, he intends to edit it a little more to make it just that bit more awesome.

I’m still editing Dark Side of the Moon. Nevertheless, I am getting closer to the end of that. The last scenes of Secrets/Spilling Secrets are looking good, even if I say so myself. I’m taking it slowly, though, to make sure that I hammer out every minute detail and get it as perfect as I possibly can. If it’s not perfect, then it just won’t do. Lots happens in it and there are some tense and emotional moments. Furthermore, I think it will beautifully illustrate how much some of the characters have developed since Dark Side of the Moon and how they’ve grown up from the stroppy teens they were, amongst other things.

Anyway, please remember to comment with statements for flash fiction pieces and don’t forget to leave me some formspring questions. Thanks!

(Lyrics in the title are from You Are The Moon by The Hush Sound)