Let's Party Medieval Style!

It's another Launch Party!

This times it's my very own sister, author Karen Elizabeth Brown. Today kicks off the official launch of her newest novella, Medieval Muse.

 Back on July 14th (HERE)  I gave you a behind the scenes look at the making of the cover art for Medieval Muse.

Now... we are celebrating the story itself! First, I'll share Karen's "official" announcement, then below that I'll give MY review of the book. Watch out, just because she's my sister, don't expect me to "fudge" with my opinion. ;-)

Medieval Muse

By Karen Elizabeth Brown

What happens when Victoria Budroix receives a cameo that promises to give her the desires of her heart? Since she doesn’t know what that would be, a trip to medieval times, intrigue, threat of war and an overbearing lord are on the list for her to choose from. Or could it be meeting her one true love?

Sir William of Conrad has escorted a stranger home to be under his protection. He discovers this woman speaks her own mind and melts his heart. He faces his father’s outrage and a broken alliance with the neighboring clan by falling in love. 

Medieval Muse is available as a free read from Smashwords.com, HERE. 

Karen Elizabeth Brown’s passion for writing is what fills her entire life with exhilarating inspiration. She spends her days writing, doing research and studying about the subjects of her stories.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys music and reading, especially medieval fantasy. Born in Southern California, she migrated to Southern Oregon in 1974 where she now resides in the Rogue Valley with her family and friends. Find out more about the author at her official website. 

Okay, time for my honest review. 

Sister or not... Karen wrote a totally interesting story! I love time travel type tales, and this novella whisks you back to medieval times in an unusual way. 

I could identify with our leading lady. A modern, strong willed, independent and spunky gal who DETESTS having to ask ANY man for "permission" for anything... being plunked down in the middle ages! I enjoyed the humor that situation caused.

I also enjoyed "meeting" the people from the castle. The main characters seemed real and believable, from the castle gossip to the timid scullery maid. And of COURSE our leading man. Poor guy had his hands full with this feisty "Lady" who appears out of nowhere!

I won't give away the ending, but let's just say it didn't leave me grinding my teeth, like some unresolved stories do! It ended "just right". :-)

If you enjoy romantic fantasy, time travel, castles, intrigue, humor, double-crossing women and gossips... well, maybe not those last two. But this was a totally enjoyable novella, just right for a hot summer evening with a tall glass of iced tea.

Happy reading,

Retta


PS: Did I mention this was a free download at Smashwords? Just follow the link to Smashwords and download the format that works best for you. And if you enjoy it, would you do my Sis a favor and come back to leave a review at Smashwords? 
Thanks bunches!

Join the Party!

I'm happy to tell you that Mary Pax's Launch Party starts today! 

It's a Launch Party for the latest book in her Backworld's series,

Stopover At The Backworlds' Edge

First, the official announcement, then afterwards I'll give you the straight skinny:

The Backworlds Book 2 is Out!

The sequel to The Backworlds is now available. Craze and his friends continue their adventures in Stopover at the Backworlds’ Edge. See what role chocolate plays in the galaxy this time.

The interstellar portal opens, bringing in a ship that should no longer exist. A battleship spoiling for a fight, yet the war with Earth ended two generations ago. The vessel drops off a Water-breather, a type of Backworlder thought to be extinct. She claims one of Craze’s friends is a traitor who summoned the enemy to Pardeep Station. A betrayal worse than his father’s, if Craze lives to worry about it.

Available for all ereaders from:

Amazon / Amazon UK / B&N / Smashwords
iTunes and Kobo will be available shortly.

If you haven’t read The Backworlds yet, it’s available as a free read from many outlets. See HERE for links. [http://mpaxauthor.com/the-backworlds-series/backworlds-the/]

Inspiring the words M. Pax writes, Mary spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the husband unit and two loving cats. She write science fiction mostly and has a slight obsession with Jane Austen. Mary blogs at http://www.mpaxauthor.com/blog/

Okay, I promised you the straight skinny. When I review a book, friend or not, I'm honest. And honestly... this was a BLAST to read! 

I thought the first book in the series (The Backworlds) was a fun read... I was delighted to find this one topped it! Once I started, I didn't want to stop. 

It was a fun romp through space and other worlds, with fascinating characters of all "kinds". I'd even venture to call Chocolate a character in THIS story! Danger, betrayal, spies, frizzers, gender-morphing beings, revenge, cruelty, friendship and tenderness... and of course, chocolate. ;-)

The story had so many surprise turns I had to buckle my seat belt. I'm not fond of "predictable" books. Can we say Borrriiinnnggg? But NOT THIS ONE! 

Mary's characters, the pickles they got into, the worlds they were on--and inside of--had me shaking my head at her wild imagination. It had me asking "how does she THINK of these things??!!" And I thoroughly appreciated the ending. And no... no hints.

Yep... loved it. Honestly. Can't wait to read the next one in the series.

And the next time I sit down to have my hot tea and chocolate... I think I'll take a long pause and remember what happened in this story!! :-O

Happy reading,

Retta

Glowing Cameos & A Free Story

Back in June I posted a seven part Cover Art Tutorial (HERE). So today, instead of including instruction, I'm excited to simply share the WIP (work in progress) photos of the cover art I made for a new story coming out in August.

The author is my sister Karen Elizabeth Brown 

(her blog is HERE)  and the story is titled 

Medieval Muse 

Her first announcement for her new story, which will be a free download from Smashwords, is HERE. 

Okay, enough chatting... let's see how this thing was created. :-D

(As always, click on pics to enlarge if you'd like)

First, the noodling around with thumbnails, playing with ideas. I also did a lot of research on medieval imagery, authentic cameos, and castles. I ALWAYS enjoy the research part... it's fascinating, like peeking into the lives of our ancestors and history.  And I have to reign myself in or I'd spend way too much time on it. :-}

Here are a few of those thumbnails... 

Next I put together some mock-ups and 

sent them off to the author for feedback..

Also converted one to black and white, 

to check values and see how it would read 

on the older Kindle devices.

Final design on tracing paper, ready for transfer...

Painted on heavy watercolor paper with acrylics. 

Note I left some things to be finished in Photoshop...

Close up of the painting ready to scan...

Hey... you're ignoring me!! 

I get so lost in my imagination, Joey had to

jump up and beg for attention, poor girl...

Now we are inside Photoshop with a close up. Here I've finished the background, simulating old leather; added the morning sun rising behind the castle; added highlites and reflections, and deepened shadows...

Now the glow from the medieval cameo. 

As you will read in the story... this is no ordinary cameo!!

Finished with all the final touches. 

Here is a close up for the curious who, like me, 

enjoy a close peek. Remember you can click it

to make it even larger...

I loved this font because it looked old and carved from stone. 

And here it is, the finished cover art for Medieval Muse!

I hope you found this interesting, and don't forget to visit Karen's blog for the book Launch Party that will take place August 1 - 6, when you can download her story for free from Smashwords.

Thanks for reading,

Retta

My Favorite Commission!

It's funny... back in April I posted about commission work (HERE),  and now I seem to be remembering that I've done LOTS of it over the years! 

So, on that topic, I thought I'd share my all time favorite: a handpainted watercolor and ink book.

The book was a surprise gift from a gentleman to his wife on their wedding anniversary (awww, how romantic). It was based on the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Her name began with R.

In the finished book, each chosen verse was on the left page, with the matching illustration opposite it on the right. 

Here's how each set looked in the book, side by side:

There are quite a few, so I'll show the rest as thumbnails below, to enable faster page loading. If you'd like to see them enlarged, just click on them.

The book was watercolor and sepia ink on heavy watercolor paper, bound into a leather book. I loved painting this. The gentleman told me later his wife loved it, also. I think when we feel deeply for what we are doing, we do better at it.

I hope you enjoy this favorite of mine. :-)

Thanks for reading, 

Retta

Cover Art Part 7: We Made It!

(Part 1 of the Tutorial started HERE) 

We're on the homestretch. The painting has been scanned in to photoshop, and ready for the finish work. (As always, can click any pics to enlarge)




For a re-cap, here was the pencil sketch:

Here is how raw it looked at first scan into photoshop:

Step 9) The text. 

Absolutely make sure you use separate Layers for the text. Pick your font with care. Number one priority: readability, both large and small versions of the cover. I know, I already mentioned that... but it's that important. :-)

The whole point is Communication. If it can't be read, it's worthless.

The legal stuff: If you download free fonts, make sure it says you are free to use it for personal AND COMMERCIAL use. Many are only for personal use only. You can NOT use this for a book cover that will be sold. I found so many cool fonts that I dearly wanted to use, but... nope, they were for personal use only.

I hunted high and low trying to match the font from an old movie trailer for the Wizard of Oz. I couldn't find it, so just came as close as I could to the feel of that font. Here's that neat old movie title page:

Here we are, waiting for touch-ups and text:

Cleaned up the edges; removed the texture where it shouldn't be; added a glow around the silhouette; added reflected light to the flying monkey; added color and highlights to the title 3; added final sparkles here and there.

I experimented with a curved Title, to mimic the shape of a rainbow. But when the cover was reduced any smaller, it was extremely hard to read.

In the end, I chose readability over nostalgia:

And here is what I chose for the Sub-title. It needed to be readable, yet subordinate to the main title. And since the concept that Jules was presenting was the idea of going BEYOND the flying monkeys, I used the Warp Text tool to make that word stand apart.

This part of the design, the three 3's,  was made using a stencil font. I then went to Layer Styles, to Visiblity, and chose Ghosted.

Step 10) Final copies. 

All done! Be sure to save your creation in PSD form if using photoshop, or whatever original format your program uses. Reason: every time you make changes to a jpeg, it degrades the image. Better to make another copy from the original PSD, make any changes, then save it to a new jpeg.

Send your author the needed sizes they prefer, or what's required by the publisher. 

I sent my author:

-a full sized file PSD, 1650 x 2550 pixels, 11.5 MB

-a black and white jpeg, 647 x 100 pixels, 115 KB

-a blog size file, 453 x 700, 45 KB

-a thumbnail size file, 250 x 386, 61 KB

Your requirements may vary, so be sure to check.

So there you have it... 

my journey from this:

To this:

Close up:

I hope this will be helpful to other cover art beginners. And if not, at least entertaining! LOL!

If you are intrigued by her book, I invite you to visit Jules Joyce (HERE) and find out more. Her book will be out this summer... exciting!

And, I'd love to hear what you think of this tutorial! If you like it, I'd be happy as a clam at high tide if you told someone else about it. They might find something in it useful, too. Thanks! :-D

Part 1 of the Tutorial  starts HERE. The Steps are more fully explained in each post. 

The Process Summary:

Step 1) What is the main concept; think simplicity

Step 2) Find out the needed technical stuff: aspect ratio, pixels, file size etc.

Step 3) Do a lot of quick thumbnails, in black and white (pencil or digital)

Step 4) Play with color schemes, which supports your concept best

Step 5) Gather any needed reference material

Step 6) Finalize your sketch; think both large & small image readability, & bold text

Step 7) Transfer sketch to your support if paper sketching; or scan in to computer

Step 8) Continue in your chosen medium, or in photoshop (working in Layers) 

Step 9) Font: readability is priority one; must be allowed for commercial use

Step 10) Final copies. Save in PSD. Send needed sizes to author, or what's required by publisher. 

The ideas here are most applicable to the traditional artist who is using a digital art program to do the finish work. Those making 100% digitally created cover art are a horse of a different color. 
;-)

Thanks for reading,

Retta

"I know you've heard it a thousand times before. 

But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, 

you have to practice, practice, practice. 

If you don't love something, then don't do it." 

--Ray Bradbury, 1920 - 2012