Realism

Just wanted to show you a little bit of the developmental process for Inter Vivos. Thematically, it started out like this:

Nox wandering gracefully, in chiffon, like a proper princess over the ice plains in the State of Aquarius. I still envisage an image similar to this as my book cover one day.

Now that I've come to write those scenes, however, it has changed into this:

Nox, wrapped up tight in a fur coat, army boots and wearing a motorcycle helmet, fighting her way through a blizzard like the scrappy pup that she is. That's just the way it goes, I guess!

[Illustration by me. Good, huh?! Hmm, perhaps I'll have to leave the graphic novel version of the book to a professional. At least Hannah can see that all of her commissions are safe!]

Pictures!

A few pictures for you today. The first is a mock up of the book cover for Dorcas Grubb. Thanks to Morph for the photoshopping! I stole the picture of the girl from Flicker (via a yahoo image search) so if she ever finds this, sorry! But that's almost exactly how Dorcas looks in my head, which is a bit scary.
I'm up to 6,098 words, and it's still going well. I do think I'll need some help a bit later though, but will post on the forum about that.
It's quite exciting, because at the minute, I am feeling really optimistic, as the story is so full of possibilities. So I can day dream about agents, and publishers, and book tours and my book cover, safe in the knowledge that at this stage of the writing, it is still all possible. Apparently, this is a common feeling for week one NaNoWriMo-ers.
The second and third photos are from our latest office craze, courtesy of http://www.yearbookyourself.com/. If you're bored, go have a go, it's hilarious. Anyway, this is what I'd look like in 1964 (left) and 1982 (right). In the 1982 pic, I look scarily like my mum on her wedding day!

Lands End Cover

Am I just the biggest geek because I find it exciting that the anthology my short story "Calypso" is a part of has its own Amazon page? How sad am I?

Anyway, here is the cover of the book, Lands End. I find it a bit weird that the person on the cover appears to either be completely bald or is wearing a stocking over his head. Maybe the caption should be "Mugger Walks on Water" (I'm sure you guys can come up with something better!).

The link to pre-order the book on Amazon is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lands-End-InkerMen/dp/0955625939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216914249&sr=8-1

Don't Judge a Book...

OK, so I know it's a little presumptuous, especially seeing as I only have a quarter of my first novel written, but I've been thinking about book covers. Now, book covers, in my opinion, are the make or break in whether someone makes a purchase or not. Now then, there's the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. I personally favour the stylish, the clear, concise approach. Not like this.