Lethal Seasons Cover and Guest Artist Alex Storer

I am very pleased to display this fabulous cover that Alex Storer created for me. When I was first thinking about the cover, I ran across Alex's website. His artwork looked exactly right for this book. Two paintings especially caught my eye. After Hours, because of the mood and energy in it.

And Hope, because it showed a similar futuristic world.

I asked him to stop by and talk about the creative process.

From Alex Storer:

The obvious question when designing a book cover is how can you best represent a story through a single image or design? Fortunately in this case, Alice had a fairly clear idea in her mind of what she wanted, and it was my job to realise this, then refine it.

Being Alice’s first SF novel, part of the task was to present a cover which clearly represents the genre. In addition to the right visual elements, the cover painting also needed a particular atmosphere. Luckily, I got a lot of inspiration out of just the title itself – Lethal Seasons – it has a certain edge to it, and an underlying sense of menace. With this, I knew straight away the sort of lighting and textures I wanted in the painting.

What was essentially a landscape scene ravaged by climate change, needed that extra science fiction slant, somehow integrating or representing the killer virus that lies at the core of the story. We discussed various ideas of how to integrate a DNA helix into the tornado and other means of including viral elements – which is where the idea of framing the image with cells and particles eventually came from. This went through several revisions, before settling on a subtle blend of virus cells and molecules combined with spatters of blood, for a subtle suggestion of the underlying horror of Lethal Seasons.

We felt we reached the right visual approach with this combination – but I also wanted to extend this into the typography, so the title wasn’t merely text sitting over my painting, but an integrated continuation of the design with the broken molecule lattice and other viral elements contaminating the text.

Once the cover was finished, I started working on an idea for a video trailer for the book, using the imagery of the cover set against some of my own music. In the end I composed a new piece of music for it, to better reflect the impending sense of threat and disaster – it wanted to be dark and dramatic, and hopefully something that will draw people in to want to find out more about the book.

 

Next week I will debut that amazing book trailer that Alex created!

Updates on Lethal Seasons

Cover reveal coming soon!

Woo hoo!

Next week I will reveal the fabulous cover that Alex Storer created for Lethal Seasons. Alex will also be a guest on the blog discussing his artwork and music. I am very excited to have him drop by. I hope you will all be as blown-away by the cover as I was.

Lethal Seasons is about to go into the final edits. I am getting very good feedback on it. Which makes me do the happy dance (see above) and is sooo rewarding. It's one thing to finish a story and think it's good, it's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish to have people like it. And they do!

That doesn't mean its perfect. I have several plot tweaks and such to work on before I hit the PUBLISH button. But it's close! And it looks like I am still on course to publish by August 1st. Whew.

For this book, I am doing some marketing. It's hard work. Something that is not intuitive nor easy for me to do. I am struggling with some of it and dreading a lot of it. But I want people to know about this book. So I am working on it.

 Having a schedule and lists has really helped. I did a countdown starting at 12 weeks. Then I discovered that some reviewers need months to turn around a review. Some won't even look at it until it has a pile of reviews on Amazon. That seemed like a trick question to me...if I already have 25 reviews on Amazon, why do I need theirs? Name recognition, I guess.

Some days I feel like I'm floundering. Press releases, blurbs, bios, links, samples.... Whew. I would so much prefer to be spending that time on the White Lies sequel. But I need to know how to do these things, so I will soldier on!

Oh, and by the way, I changed the blog background. Any comments?

Tired of Megalomaniacs and other thoughts

I read all sorts of books. I like character driven ones the most. I used to say that I liked epic fantasy and space opera, but maybe my tastes are changing. I am getting really sick of THE BIG BAD.

I lost interest in Star Trek TNG when the Borg arrived. And a variety of other shows when the evil that cannot be defeated showed up. I like the day to day conflicts. The problems that can be wrapped up with smarts and ethics (and superior firepower).

Megalomaniacs are an especial problem to me. There was a trend in writing to try to personify the villain. A lot of books went into the twisted point of view of the bad guy. After a few too many senseless torture scenes, I gave up. I'm tired of the quest for world domination. Why would a guy want to destroy the world to rule it anyway? I never quite understood that. If it all is blasted nothingness, what's to rule?

While learning to craft a story, I started writing from the villain's POV and realized I did not want to go there. How could I possibly understand a crazy killer? I didn't want to get all caught up in the dark thoughts and nastiness. What I ended up doing was writing from the other side. The reactions to the villain's deeds set the right tone for me.

I have found a bunch of new authors who are writing what I want to read right now. Daniel Abraham is wonderful. His stories are full of rich world building and interesting characters. I think they lean toward epic fantasy, but there are no doomed armies marching out to battle the undefeatable evil.

The real world is depressing enough sometimes, I don't need hopelessness in my favorite escape.

From flood to drought

It's hot, hot, way too hot for May.

My peas are drooping and the lettuce is burning up. Poor things. Last year I was slogging around in rubber boots in ankle-deep water and this year I'm watering soil so dry it cracked. Except for that four inches of rain we got in one night which flooded the garden.

I am sooo glad I went to raised beds. Even with that, a couple of them were coated in mud (and the patio and the porch). I lost some beet seedlings and maybe some napa cabbage. I wasn't sure if they had come up yet. This year was the easiest for prep that I've ever had. Weeded, tossed in some compost and voila! the beds were ready. Love it.

So I thought I would be ahead of things. Then I decided to tackle the stairs. I didn't anchor them properly the first time and they were always shifting and slipping. We were going to hire someone, but that turned out to be way out of the budget. I can see why. All the digging and hauling, it's very time consuming. But I'm working my muscles, and that's always good. Just wish it wasn't so blasted hot.

Previous incarnation of the steps.

 

My great-great grandfather was a stone-cutter, so maybe it's in the blood. I am doing a much bigger job of it this time. Which I think will be the third or fourth time I've built these damn things. There were 19 steps to the top of the hill where the rest of the backyard is level. I call it the terrace. The steps are turning out great. I made them deeper, and less tall which will make for more steps in the long run. I will need to redesign the plantings along the side. It's a lot of work. But it'll look so nice when it's all done.

And then I can finally carry the lawn mower up to the terrace, which hasn't been mowed since June of last year. Ugh.

Lethal Seasons coming August 1!

Fingers crossed that I have allowed myself enough time to finish the book! But I am being bold and declaring August 1 to be my publication date for Lethal Seasons, book 1 in the Changed World Series.

Whew.

I'm doing a few things differently this time. First of all, I gave out the rough draft before it was done. I knew it needed some work, still, but I wanted some feedback on where to really spend my time. And the feedback I got was a little different than what I felt needed work. Although there was some overlap. Working on the first rewrite now. Hoping to get it to my second round of readers by next week.

Whew.

Second big change - I hired an artist for the cover.  Alex Storer  He has some very cool art. And he is being very accommodating. He's shown me some sketches and things are really moving along! Very exciting!

Whew.

The garden is calling, I should be writing and the house needs a major clean for all the company we're having this month. Yikes. Better get to it!

Maybe the last frost?

It was forecast to go down to 26 the other night. With high winds, rain and snow flurries. I could heard the wind all night. It was making me nervous.

According to my chart, temperature that low would kill the flowers on the apple, cherries and strawberries and damage the fruit just about to form on the apricot and plum. So I was severely bummed by this.

The following night was only 30, a temperature that shouldn't hurt any of the fruit or flowers.

I've got my fingers crossed, but it looks like we made it through without hitting a killing temperature in my yard. Fruit growers in the area have reported losses.

The strawberries look okay. A bunch of them are in bloom. I'm really excited. I've already netted them. Having a plan ahead of time has saved me a lot of time this year.

The blueberries are just starting to bloom. Every year the bushes get larger. That's the amazing thing about nature. It has its own agenda regardless of your plans. So I can forget about the plant, but it still grows and blooms in its own time.

 I might even have enough to make something this year, like jam. Last year I had enough to eat for breakfast everyday. I would pick a bunch, maybe a whole carton (pint) in the afternoon to eat the following day. Delicious. And my netting for that is already planned, too.

Sadly, I have decided to rip out the blackberries. They had Japanese fruitflies last year, which lay eggs in the ripe fruit. You can't tell until the worms come out...ugh. Enough said.

But I think I have enough to care for in the yard for right now!

Next up...more Asher!

To my delight, people have been asking after Asher. Yes, he's doing well. And getting himself into more trouble.

I am planning a second book for him. It might turn into a series. Right now I can't say.

When I started thinking about him yesterday a scene popped into my head and I was so excited to have an opening ready to go.

Yes all the players will be there - George, Denny, Lisa and Thomas and a few surprises.

I finished the first rough draft of the apocalyptic mystery and it is off to my first reader. While I am waiting for feedback on the various versions I plan to work on the 2nd Asher - working title: Dark Deeds. And I may be tinkering around with another illustrated flash.

The apocalyptic mystery has a new name - Lethal Seasons. It's a bit rough in places, but the bones are all there. Or so I think. My reader will let me know if I'm wrong about that. April and part of May will be reading, feedback and rewrites. I had hoped to publish by June, but I think it's going to be more like July. I'm not rushing it.

Now, back to work!