{"id":1190,"date":"2014-12-06T16:15:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T00:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sacollins.com\/blog\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2015-01-07T05:59:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T13:59:28","slug":"covering-old-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1190","title":{"rendered":"Covering Old Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covering Old Ground – <\/span><\/h1>\n

More Cover Artwork for HO’M,O – Henry O’Malley, Omega.<\/em><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

So here I am again- more discussion on the arc of creating a look\/feel for a book I’ve been putting together. It started out simple enough (almost bland in it’s simplicity):<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

The originally created cover image.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Actually this is a later iteration as I can’t find my original which was just the slash cut with out any bloody references and minus the lycanthropic tagline.<\/p>\n

It was slightly emotive of what I wanted but almost too simplistic in approach. Originally I was thinking of going horror novel ala Ikea – ya know, very Scandinavian in design – sparse and minimalistic, yet evocative.<\/p>\n

Because the gash\/slash was in a swooping motion I used a very swishy font. I tend to favor them. Mostly because I admire calligraphers. And as I said before – I am a BIG FONT WHORE.<\/p>\n

So yeah, it was serviceable. Passable. Minimally getting me there.<\/p>\n

I mean, I didn’t kid myself and say – wow, that’ll get them to buy it!<\/p>\n

Cause, I knew it ultimately wouldn’t. I wasn’t foolin’ myself none, ya know?<\/p>\n

So I posted it anyway and then my author pal, Jayne Lockwood commented that she thought the HOMO title should be bolder cause it was sort of lost in the vast sparseness of the work. I thought about it. I did. I swear I did.<\/p>\n

Then did nothing about it. Told her that was what I was after.<\/p>\n

But it festered. Made me rethink what I was doing.<\/p>\n

I didn’t want to do the whole muscle dude thing on so many of the M\/M romance stuff. Cause that’s just so… meh. So 1990 in my book. It’ll be cheesy in a few years and NOT retro-chic cheesy either. Just plain cheese – but not the good kind you can put on sandwiches and stuff.<\/p>\n

So I needed to retool it. I knew that.<\/p>\n

Then I hit a major creative speed bump. It happened last night. I took a breather from writing the ending to the story (it was a NaNoWriMo winner story so I knew I wanted to get it done). And I took a small (fitful) nap. I woke up and had a pseudo-meltdown. I don’t know if it was the wrong side of the bed, or in general I was letting my shit get to me but I wrote a rather long rant to my betas, friends and family (do they have a cell phone program for that?) and babbled endlessly on whether I needed to write at all. Whether I was good enough.<\/p>\n

It was a fucktard moment. I ain’t proud of it. I mean, I even bcc’d my mom on it. How embarrassing is that? Your own mother knows you’re a fucktard. Brilliant – NOT!<\/p>\n

So when I finally crawled out of my pity-party and began to sort out my shit and got back in the writing saddle I decided I’d take an artistic turn for a few and re-examine the HOMO book cover.<\/p>\n

The hubby was busy with the initial edits and comments, so I was left to my own devices in retooling the cover for it once it was done.<\/p>\n

I hit up istockphoto (my usual goto) and found a few werewolf-y looking things. But the costs are getting up there to use this service. I like the quality of work but the credit fees to just buy some shit is getting up there now. There had to be others out there that were cheaper. So I found CanStockPhoto.com.<\/p>\n

I combed through their stuff on wolves and forests and such and found a couple of things I sort of liked. I always wanted ominous eyes if I was going to do a picture. I also knew the cover had to be dark. So I started to try and combine those two terms to source something for the new reworked cover.<\/p>\n

I found these two pieces to start with:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A minimal version of what I ended up using.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And even though I railed against using a half naked man on the cover but I sorta liked this guy when I happened upon him – he had that whole Tanner Tallman (from my book) thing going on. And he had wolfy fangs so yeah, he was worth a saw buck to buy him. (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention? BOTH images cost me less than $9!) It was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

So here he is – (even if I didn’t use him this time around) – it’s a novella series so yeah, I could still put him to use down the road. Especially if I focus on Tanner somewhere down the line.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

My version of Tanner Tallman (the beta of my wolf pack).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anyway, so I went about taking the wolfy eyes and the darkened road and began to repurpose my original cover art.<\/p>\n

First to go was the swishy font for the logo – rebranded it entirely into a sans-serif font rather than a display font (if you’re into typography like me you know what that means, if not, eh, don’t fret too much about it). This was invariably a big factor on my changing the background from a faux leather texture to solid black. It would allow the red blood and title to punch a bit more on the cover. Great, but it still seemed sparse without something else.<\/p>\n

\"HOMO<\/a>

HOMO with some minor edits – black background and the font change in the title.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then it was time to sort out which of the two picts I was gonna use. Since Tanner wasn’t the focus in this first book I decided it was better to go with an establishing and moody thought. So wolf eyes and road it is:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The reworked and final image for the first of my HOMO series of gay werewolves set in 1956 West Virginia.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think it is far superior to my original IKEA take on it. What do you all think?<\/p>\n

I am hoping to release it to the masses in early January. It’ll be my first publicly released work for sale but my third novel that I’ve completed. The other two are still in edit mode before distribution. This one was for fun. While I love the work and am happy to dedicate it to my first fan (who loves all things werewolves) it is nowhere near the serious work I am doing in Angels. This is meant to be a spooky romp of a read. Something to get the imagination as well as the loins inflamed, ya know?<\/p>\n

So yeah, that’s it for this time around. Who knows I may end up with a separate series of how I design book covers and why? Who knew? I should probably youtube this shit to expand my market share?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eh, who has the time? I want to write dammit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covering Old Ground – More Cover Artwork for HO’M,O – Henry O’Malley, Omega.   So here I am again- more discussion on the arc of creating a look\/feel for a book I’ve been putting together. It started out simple enough (almost bland in it’s simplicity):     Actually this is a later iteration as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[377,94,365,270,261,48,525,229,216,5,4,198,3,445,396,145,18,325],"tags":[336,529,736,527,456,452,457,443,163,534,453,442],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors-voices","category-characters-reimagined","category-fanboy-moments","category-gay-community","category-geeking-out","category-giving-back","category-graphic-design","category-imitation-as-flattery","category-journey","category-mm-lovefest","category-homoerotica","category-men","category-novel-writing","category-supernatural","category-the-craft","category-words-have-power","category-writing","category-young-adult-realities","tag-book-cover","tag-book-series","tag-graphic-design","tag-graphics","tag-hank-omalley","tag-homo","tag-riley-raintree","tag-sparrows-hollow","tag-storytelling","tag-tanner-tallman","tag-werewolves","tag-west-virginia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75tPU-jc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1249,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1249","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":0},"title":"Banned By Association","author":"S A Collins","date":"January 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Banned By Association \u00a0 Okay, maybe it was my fault. Maybe ... So I hit a BIG learning curve here. \u00a0Epically so. \u00a0Why, you might ask? Because my first work, a novel that was released to the world from several selling platforms, Amazon being just one of them, got BANNED!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Guilt by association? Banned by my own hand? You be the judge ...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/BANNED_homo_coverIcon_400w-210x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1271,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1271","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":1},"title":"A Guest Blog Spot on Lady J’s Website – Hooray!","author":"S A Collins","date":"January 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest Blog on LadyJ's Site - Hooray! Guest blog on author pal, Lady J (Jayne Lockwood)'s blog site\u00a0and her erotica website SavannahSmythe.com regarding the release of my new work - HO'M,O - Henry O'Malley, Omega\u00a0\u00a0 A Sparrows Hollow Lycanthropic Adventure. \u00a0 \u00a0 I encourage you to check it out and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Author pal - Jayne Lockwood\/Savannah Smythe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/jayneicon_orig.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1228,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1228","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":2},"title":"Quick! The Stork Done Took My Baby!","author":"S A Collins","date":"January 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Quick! The Stork Done Took My Baby! \u00a0 Okay, not really freaking out too much here. I mean, there was no stork, even if there was a baby (of sorts). What happened was, I bit the bullet. I grinned and bear(ed) it. I took a leap of faith... I published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"The book is out in the world now. Hall-le-fucking-lu-jah!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/homo_coverMast_300w-210x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1820","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":3},"title":"Five Star Review – and GIVEAWAY for Angels of Mercy Vol 2!","author":"S A Collins","date":"December 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"FIVE STAR review of ANGELS OF MERCY - VOLUME 2: MARCO. \u00a0 \u00a0 Thanks to Paul Gay Berry from GayMediaReviews for the lovely words and the opportunity to share it with the readership out there! #Humbled #DoingTheHappyDance !! BIG GIVEAWAY WITH THIS ONE - There's an opportunity to win the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"Print cover reveal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/AoM_V2_Marco_CVR_Print2x3blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1163,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1163","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":4},"title":"Designing My Angels of Mercy","author":"S A Collins","date":"December 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Designing My Angels of Mercy \u00a0 \u00a0 Sidebar: S.O. to author pal, Kris Ripper who liked the first one I did of these, that I'd thought I shoot her another. Hope you all enjoy it too! \u00a0 So let's talk book covers, shall we? \u00a0I mean, I did it before.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"The FINAL - FINAL version of the book cover for \"Angels of Mercy - Volume One: Elliot\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/AoM1_sacollins-100dpi_RGBMaster2x3-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1762,"url":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=1762","url_meta":{"origin":1190,"position":5},"title":"Words and Errata – The Vocal Edition – Ep 001","author":"S A Collins","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Words and Errata - The Vocal Edition - Ep 001 \u00a0 So our first show is in the can and has been getting quite a few listens (not in the hundreds or thousands yet, but it'll get there. Of that I have no doubt). If you haven't listened to it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Authors Voices"","block_context":{"text":"Authors Voices","link":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?cat=377"},"img":{"alt_text":"SA Collins - Words and Errata - The Vocal Edition","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biz141.inmotionhosting.com\/~akweko6\/sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PodcastIcon_SC1400_100pxsac-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1242,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}