books

Oct

2014

New Book Covers, Part Deux!

Last week I posted that I was doing new covers for my two existing books and I also posted pictures of two possible covers. I appreciate all the feedback I got on that post.

The Slightly Revised Beginning Cover

To review, this is now going to be the new cover for The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning which I did not have posted last week. I will be uploading the new covers to all the outlets when Book 2 is released.
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Sep

2014

New Book Covers!

Alright, everybody! I’ve gone down to the wire with this… But seeing as how my book is about to get published, and I still am not 100% sure about which version of the cover I’m going to use, I though I’d let you readers see them and get a bit of feedback, hopefully. Once I make my final decision, I will be taking down this post.
Okay, first I will show you the redesign of The Inventor’s Son’s cover. It’s not radically different, but I wanted to make the cover look more like it was a real book cover…

This is the redesigned Inventor’s Son cover.

And now I want to show you the two covers I came up with for The Scientist’s Son. I had a really hard time with this book cover, mostly because, unlike gears, which are so very symbolic of Steampunk and of inventions that it was never a question that would be the theme I’d use. But for a scientist, most symbols are not from that era, but later (like the sign for atoms, etc.), so I had to improvise.

This is one of them, a series of hexagons put together.

…Or this one with a skull, which makes it creepy, scientific, and possibly more Steampunk.

I have my reasons for not using stock photos and images of people in my covers, not the least of which is that I can’t really find many Steampunk themed stock photos that aren’t of grown men and women. I also was leery of having a face on a cover that is supposed to represent the main character. Also, the covers represent books that my main character finds among his father’s writings that help him to follow the clues to locate him. In The Inventor’s Son, he is given a red journal, and in The Scientist’s Son, a green one.
So now that you’ve seen them, let me know what you think, please! PS, I am going to do a new cover for The Beginning also, but it will be very much like Book 1’s cover, only a darker backgroud color.

Jun

2014

Why I wrote a Prequel to My First Book

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Jun

2014

The Inventor’s Son Prologue has been Released!

The Inventor’s Son Prologue has been released in the Kindle Store

This prologue to The Inventor’s Son series begins with a seemingly innocuous meeting during which a promising new technology for amputees and soldiers is demonstrated. However, it is soon discovered that the mastermind who created those miraculous prosthetic limbs has only one true intention. He wants to discredit and then destroy the family of his former student, Marcus Stanwood.
A brilliant but flawed inventor and scientist himself, Marcus knows firsthand how ruthless and pitiless his former professor and mentor can be. He sets a desperate plan in motion, and the fate of his son Ethan will hinge on his success or failure.
The Inventor’s Son Prologue is an introduction to a Victorian London that could have been, and a young boy whose life is destined to change dramatically overnight.

May

2014

The Joys and Perils of Owning a Paperback Book

UPDATE: As of this morning, I have sold two copies of my book, and had one person borrow it with their Amazon Prime account. Yay! Baby steps, my friends, baby steps. And as you can see, my makeover of this blog is ongoing.

Recently I was looking through my bookcase. It’s a real, raw wood one that I’m not sure you can get anywhere anymore. Over the years, there have been books that have been “keepers” as well as ones that had a temporary place on the shelf until I would trade them in or donate them to Goodwill. One of the ones that I kept, for some reason, was this one:

Pearl in the Mist, Book 2 of The Landry Series, by V.C. Andrews

The foil on the cover is a bonus. I don’t think you can get anything like this anymore, even if Pearl in the Mist is actually still in print. One thing you really can’t get with an ebook is this:

The peek-a-boo cover, exclusively available with paperback books.

Yes, I suppose one could upload two covers… Although I’ve never seen this as an option. Oh, I know, you’d probably insert the picture right into the text of the book. I’m not sure. I’d have to try it for myself. Anyway, I used to LOVE this when I was reading V.C. Andrews’ books, and would go out of my way to find ones that had this kind of cover, usually the first edition in paperback.
But there’s a price to pay for the glitz… I opened the book and was shocked by what I saw:

Look, they even gave you a cool bookmark that you could detach from the back cover for free!

When I did this:

Terrible acid burning!

I am not certain whether it was only that I kept it in a raw wooden bookcase. For most of its life the book was in a climate controlled (air conditioned and heated) environment, was not put out in the sun… But this is what happens to many of the mass-market paperback books. This copy was $6.50 full retail price back in the day (copyright 1994) so even by 20 years ago standards, that’s pretty expensive! Was this book published with cheaper paper made with a lot of wood pulp? For $6.50 you’d think you’d get at least paper that had the acid buffered out of it.
Now, of course, if I wanted a permanent copy of this book, I’d get the ebook version, fancy covers be damned. The ebook, so long as I own something on which to read it, will be there forever. All my paperbacks will eventually suffer the same fate as Pearl in the Mist.
Just something I thought about.

May

2014

My Book, The Inventor’s Son, Has Gone Live!

If you like a book that’s got a Steampunk feel to it, has plenty of tension and some action, geared toward people who like YA, then check it out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KFK3WKA

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