"Proofreading..."

 

This also applies to formatting...

Video: Creating the cover of "As Winter Came And Went"

A small video showing the how I created the artwork used as the cover for As Winter Came and Went!

"Creating a bookcover"

Another cartoon in the series about the making of book-covers... Again, inspired by real events!

"As Winter Came and Went" - Blurb

 

 

 

September 1820

Lies, nightmares and malaria… They haunt Dennys O’Connor as he crosses the seas, leaving behind him Africa and the desert where he was lost for months.

Once in England, the young man struggles to come to terms with what happened in the Sahara and tries to find his place in the world he left two years ago. A world where he never really fitted in.

Unable to settle down or to make sense of the chaos his life has become, he wanders, from the grey streets of London to windswept moorland, from wayside inns to manor houses, as he meets old friends and new, becomes involved in the training of a capricious racehorse and even begins to fall in love.

But the journey he began when he set off to Africa is far from being ended yet…

"Designing your own bookcover"

And because designing your own bookcover when you're a would-be novelist is hard, here's another cartoon on this subject. Sadly inspired by real events...

Creating the cover of "As Winter Came and Went"

I had begun to think about the cover of As Winter Came and Went even before deciding to self-publish. Which author hasn’t? Daydreamed about a wonderful cover, about the way the book would look in a shop and so on. And I had even wondered, what would I put on the cover if I was able to do it myself? But at this point, I hadn’t even realised it would one day come to that: me creating the cover for my novel. 

What cover did I have in mind then? Actually, there were many covers. One was lush, colourful, rather abstract with floral motifs (think William Morris – and yes, I am aware it’s not the right time period for my story, but everything’s possible in daydreams, right?) and lots of gold-leaf. And (of course) the book would have been a hardback and that design would have featured on the dust-jacket. Another would have featured a horserace (think Stubbs – yes, yes, still not the right time period). Another, quite an elaborate design with a mixture of sketches and floral motifs (why floral motifs? Because they look pretty and quite timeless, that’s why). So, my imagination knew no limits and I dreamt on.

It was another matter when I was confronted by reality: I had decided to self-publish and I had no money to spend on a professional cover design, so I would have to make it myself. 

I downloaded Gimp, a free photo-editing software, because a writing magazine I was reading recommended it and, hey, it’s free! And I opened it. And I had no clue how to use it. And I google “how to make a bookcover with Gimp” and found several helpful videos on YouTube and useful articles on a number of blogs. And I started making “pretend” covers. I never actually thought, here I am, making the cover that’ll have to sell my book. I thought, here I am, learning to use that software and pretending I’m making a bookcover. 

I don’t really know why I was thinking that, but I’m glad I did: it made the whole process quite fun and stress-free. Except that the covers I came up with were very bad: basically, photos, with writing on it. You see, I may be a daydreamer, but I’m not naïve. I knew I had to forget the covers I dreamed about: I did not (and still do not) have enough skill to create them. And I did not even try. And I also thought that many novels, especially literary ones, have very simple covers. And that some novels have photos (landscapes, seascapes, slightly misty as to have an abstract look) on their covers. I’m an amateur photographer. I’ve got lots of photos. So it seemed like an easy solution to have a simple cover, that would not scream at the reader: “handmade by an indie-author who doesn’t know how to use Gimp properly.”

Except those covers (yes, there were more than one), seemed to say instead: “handmade by an indie-author who doesn’t know how to use Gimp properly so put a random photo of a seascape and wrote the title in a fancy font.” I was not satisfied. Those covers were not attractive. And yes, they were random: they could have been put in front of any book. They were not original. They told nothing about the content of the book.

So I thought I had to find another solution. And I thought, maybe I could take several pictures and make a montage, as to combine different elements that would give a clue as to the contents of the novel. As if I had the skills to do such a thing! Anyway, I started looking online for pictures of horse-racing painting dating from 1820 that would be copyright-free and available for commercial use (on a side-note, if you’re making your cover yourself, and not using your own photos, please be very careful about copyrights and check the rules in your country and in the countries where you want to sell your book!). Because, I did have this idea at the back of my mind that I wanted to include something about horseracing. Because it is quite a central element to the plot of As Winter Came and Went, and because I think that horse-paintings of the 18th and early 19th century are very quaint.

And I found a painting from 1828 by Horace Vernet, “A saddled racehorse tied to a fence” which you can see it here:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horace_Vernet_-_A_Saddled_Race_Horse_Tied_to_a_Fence_-_WGA24752.jpg And I thought, great, it’s approximately the right time period, that horse looks nice, there are no people around it. But I began to wonder, how am I going to include it in the cover? As I’ve said before, I do not have the skills to do so. Let’s be honest, I cannot create a nice cover design on a computer.

But there’s one thing I can do better: paint. And I had an illumination. I thought, I know, I’m going to recreate a painting featuring a racehorse. And I wondered why I had not had this idea before. For not only would it allow me to have an original cover, but it would be linked to the novel for two reasons. The first, obvious one, would be the racehorse. The second, not so obvious one is that: one, very important character (no, you do not “know” her yet, for I have not posted any extracts concerning her) is an aspiring painter. And she paints horses. And she paints Summerhaye, the horse featuring on the cover (yes, that’s the talking horse in last week’s extract). So the painting on the cover could be a representation of one of the fictional paintings in the book.

I loved that idea. And I started to paint. The format of the actual painting is A3, taken vertically. I was inspired by the posture and attitude of Horace Vernet’s horse, but I changed the colour from chestnut to black with white legs and a white blaze, to fit the description of Summer. I replaced the buildings by a misty sort of landscape and cloudy sky. And, another change, I did not make my horse have a docked tail (a tail where the last vertebras have been cut), because, though it would have been representative of the time, I think it’s barbarous and I assumed that the first of Summerhaye’s many owners would not have done it (for cultural reasons, but I will say no more), and that later on, the horse would have become too difficult to let someone touch, let alone cut his tail, without trying to retaliate.   

Anyway, I completed the painting, digitalised it by taking and editing a high resolution photo of it, and then used it to create the cover. Not without some difficulty: I had to put it in the right format, crop it to the right size, find an appropriate font. But the most difficult was finding the right colour for the title. How I struggled! It was either too green, too blue, too light, too dark… But in the end I made my choice. And now that I’ve revealed it, well, I’m not going to be able to change it anymore (at least, that’s what I tell myself)!

"The 6 stages of D.I.Y. bookcover design"

Because I've just revealed my bookcover, I thought it would be fitting to make a cartoon on this subject. I have gone through all those stages... More than once actually... Anyway, now that I've published my cover, I won't be able to change it, even if I do go again, from time to time, through (shortlived) phases of despair and doubt!

"As Winter Came and Went" cover reveal

And here it is! The cover of As Winter Came and Went, featuring the racehorse Dennys met in yesterday's extract...
I do hope you like it and that, maybe, it makes you want to pick up the book and read it!
Feel free to let me know what you think of it! I will soon write a post detailing the story behind it.

As Winter Came and Went - Extract 7

I made references in several posts to a certain character who took much more importance in the novel than I had expected he would. He also seemed to steal the heart of some of my beta readers. Anyhow, he became so important that the cover which will be revealed tomorrow, makes a reference to him. Well, now, features him.

So I thought it would be a good idea for this month's extract to be the scene where the main character, Dennys, meets this other character...

Extract from chapter 3

In the morning he decides to go for a walk by the river. Heavy, lazy clouds are gathering but there isn’t any sign of rain yet. The streets are busy: people running to and fro, hailing their acquaintances, greeting their friends… He knows no one here. Andrew has gone back to his parent’s estate; he came two days ago to say goodbye, promising he’d write. Dennys is both relieved and regretful.
The river is filthy. Choked by the waste from the mills. You have to go upstream and past the town to find the semblance of green and pleasant countryside. Dennys follows the path that goes along the bank, walking briskly. He trips over the stones, gets caught in the bramble; at least it occupies his mind, the exertion leaving him breathless and physically tired, but pleasantly so.  
Into the woods and out, past a spinney. A field and a bridge; rust coloured leaves and damp sticky clods clog the narrow space under it. Rustling branches, the gurgling river. Screeching birds. A beast creeping in the bushes. Voices and a clatter of hooves. 
A saddled and bridled horse trots over the bridge, head high, tail swishing; he has no rider. He falls into a canter, quickens his pace, races with the river and stops as he becomes aware of Dennys’s presence. Man and horse stare at each other, gauge each other. It’s like the old legends: the devilish horse inviting the passers-by to jump on and galloping away, leading them to a premature end in a swamp or at the bottom of a cliff. 
He smiles in spite of himself and walks up to the wary horse who snorts but does not move. He raises his hand to stroke the animal’s forehead. The horse shies away, eyes rolling and Dennys guesses that for him, the gesture is synonymous with a blow. He doesn’t give up and calls the horse, whistling softly, hand outstretched. The horse hesitates, before deciding he can trust this human being. He advances and daintily nuzzles the hand with his velvety nose.
Apple? The horse’s eye is bright and expectant.
“Sorry, I’ve got nothing for you.” 
The horse shows his annoyance by flattening his ears against his neck and baring his teeth.
“Don’t even think of it,” Dennys says warningly, and the horse goes back to being a charming, friendly creature.
It’s a pity… The horse sighs.
“Where do you come from?”
You’ll know soon enough. Hear. My owner’s voice.
“And your rider?”
Gone. He was there and then nothing.
“Did you throw him off?”
He fell…
“They’re searching for you, come on.”
I don’t want to go back.
“Why?”
I don’t like them. They make me run in circles and hit me with sticks. They shout. They’ll be angry now. I don’t want to go back.
“They’ll be angrier if they don’t find you soon.”
Don’t you want to go away with me?
“I’m not a horse thief. And you’re a racehorse, aren’t you? What would I do with a racehorse?”
I can run faster than the wind. They won’t catch us.
“Yes they would, come on now.”
The horse looks contrite and refuses to move: his four feet are firmly anchored in the ground.