The Cover Journey

Monica La Porta, , , , , 9 Comments

Today I have been busy reading inputs from my editor, and looking at the covers my talented friend, the Italian artist Sandro Fiorini, has been creating for me.

Sandro and I have been emailing each other several times a day for the last week exchanging ideas and deciding on fonts. He hasn’t read The Priest, and so we are proceeding slower than we would otherwise. Also, as an author, I don’t seem to be able to describe my book succinctly enough for my cover designer.

I have decided to post our progresses and our failure in communication to show what an incredible journey is going from a merely formed idea to a final cover.

The Beginning

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Beautiful cover, but it gives the reader the wrong assumption about the genre. The Priest isn’t a romance novel, and the potential buyer would feel betrayed by the art. I had briefly spoken with Sandro about the project, but it is evident that I should have taken few more minutes to explain what I wanted.

 

 

Second Attempt(s)

I gave Sandro few details about The Priest’s story, and he drew three sketches.

 

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Needles to say my friend is talented.  Sandro should start drawing The Priest’s graphic novel right away.

I realized at that point that we were getting definitely closer, but few details were off, and that I needed to give Sandro more information about my work. First my novel’s genre isn’t romance or fantasy, but a combination of alternate reality and love story. The drawing style would be perfect for a fantasy cover, but it gives the wrong impression for The Priest’s modern day setting. Ginecean technology is similar to ours, so the futuristic jet was out of place. The City of the Men looks like a natural pyramid from the outside. Finally, the main character is a man, the slave Mauricio. I liked the idea of having a close up of the face, and the landscape as the background.

But Sandro’s time isn’t wasted because the general atmosphere and the attire in the drawings could  work for a scifi project like Green Glass and High Tide (working title).

Second Cover

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Well, I loved this image from the beginning. I like the sepia color, and I think that Mauricio’s face is sad enough, but his hair has to go. A slave doesn’t have time to style his mane. Also both the road and the city are too civilized. The City of Men is hidden in the desert and there is no road to get there.

 

Variation of the Second Cover

cover--thepriest-v5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much better already. Maybe I would change the fonts? Also my personal techie commented that the proportions are wrong.

Second Variation of the Second Cover

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Changed the fonts. I would go bigger, and I would change something in Mauricio. The forehead is too visible?

For now I will send Sandro to sleep. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

The Cover Journey

Editing Delight

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I opened my mail today to find The Priest’s first chapter corrected by my editor.  I read every note she wrote with trepidation, and I am happy to report that there were only few of them.

Having your words corrected by another person can be unnerving, but it is part of the publishing process. It is also part of the learning process to become a good storyteller. Every line I rewrite now, it is a line I wont have to rewrite later, and the next novel I write will be easier to correct. The day will come when I’ll only think about the story I want to tell.

Today I am one step closer to realize my dream, and I am glad I never thought of giving up. I know the odds are not in my favor. I am an Italian writing in English. A nobody trying to get people to read her work. But, what can I lose? 

Editing Delight

Life Is Short

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And that is why I decided three years ago to start writing. Creating universes and populating them with characters is something I have always enjoyed. So, one day I thought, why not today?

Almost six hundred thousand words later I have decided it is time to climb the next step. I have hired a professional editor, and an artist who is designing  my covers. It is my intention to publish on Kindle before the end of the year. Thinking that my work will be out for all the e-world to read is exhilarating, and terrifying.

What if nobody is going to like my novels? What if readers are going to write awful one star reviews? And worst of all, what if there will be no reviews at all because nobody is going to read my words?

Well, then I will learn from my mistakes, and I will write better stories.

When I decided to write in a language that is not mine, I knew that the road ahead was long and full of turns and hills. I didn’t know that writing in English was going to change the way I order my thoughts. I didn’t know I was going to like it so much.

Life Is Short

Bruno

Monica La Porta, , 2 Comments

I normally try to spin sentences and words to say something funny, but this time humor fails me completely. My five year old Beagle, Bruno, has been diagnosed with advanced lymphoma, and it saddens me beyond words. 

He is the sweetest dog and has been a joy all around. Given several choices, we, as a family, have decided for Bruno to undergo a therapy of prednisone. We know that his days are counted and he will stay with us for maybe a month. He seems happy, and he can still run in the backyard with his brother, Nero. He is still chasing squirrels, bunnies, and the rare joggers who wander in the trail behind his territory.

I am dreading the moment when Bruno won’t eat anymore, because it will be the moment we have to take the final decision for him. And I don’t want to.

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Bruno

Being Human Done For The Summer

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At the end American Being Human (ABH) didn’t let its viewers down. And, since time is a precious commodity, SPOILER ALERT from now on.

So, Bishop is dead, but not at Josh’s hands . Sally and Aidan team up and take care of the deed, leaving the future dad closed in the safe room. And everything would be fine, but Nora shows up. 

After so many twists and turns ABH and BBH converge on the season finale. I liked that Aidan takes full responsibility of Bishop’s death. His character is growing in the right direction. Aidan is conflicted in his choices, and he is dark enough without being melodramatic. On a side note, Celine’s sacrifice could have been depicted better. After spending two episodes showing how cute she was with her French-Canadian accent, and how much Aidan cared for her, her death is anticlimactic.

Josh ends up infecting pregnant Nora. It promises drama aplenty for the new season.

Sally misses the moment and doesn’t go through the door, but in the process she acquires corporeal powers. Although her fate is still unresolved Sally becomes gradually stronger, and on the final episode she is the one who has accomplished the most. I like the way the authors slowly have built the ghost character through the season.

Time to watch BBH now.

Being Human Done For The Summer

Being Human Gone Dutch, and Renewed

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We are almost at the end of the first season and the Syfy show has been granted a second chance. Being Human has managed to gather the numbers, and the feminine audience. I have spent some time reading the reactions to the announcement, and I have noticed a big schism between the Brits loyalist and the Yankees. Since I am neither British or American, I can draw my conclusions without being accused of patriotism.

As I said before, I like the two series for different reasons. British Being Human (BBH) is always funny, sometimes whimsical, rarely predictable. American Being Human (ABH) is always coherent, sometimes funny, rarely dull.

Obviously there are aspects I don’t like in both shows. I wasn’t fond of the characterization of the psycho fiancée in BBH, and I don’t like the Dutch vampires in ABH. Ironically I don’t like the fiancée because his character is too exaggerated, and I don’t like the Dutch because they come out flat.

Speaking of the Dutch, SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen the last three episodes. They represent another step into uncharted territory for the American show. The Dutch vampires, whose sudden appearance at the end of the show seems slightly deus ex machina , are ancient beings. They mostly sleep, hanging like giant bats, and once every fifty years are called to supervise and judge the health of the modern vampire’s society. Bishop is under scrutiny because his plan to create an army of vampires to go mainstream doesn’t conform to the rules. The Dutch, tipped by treacherous Marcus, have come to straight things up. The idea was good, the rendition is not. The Amish vampires are not cool. On the other hand, Bishop does everything right. He uses the ancients’ way of life against them. His character shines where the Dutch’s shrivel.

One final note, actually three. First, Rebecca dies, as in BBH, which somehow I didn’t expect. ABH  has gone so far and beyond its homonym that Rebecca could have easily lived and found a place in the new season. Second, Nora is pregnant. And again, I didn’t see that coming either. While I am mildly disappointed by Rebecca’s sudden departure, I am pleased by Nora’s furry bundle of joy. Third, Aidan’s long lost flame, Celine, comes back from the past, as in BBH, although so much more is added to the story.

Looking forward to ABH season finale, and then I will catch up with BBH, which meanwhile has been renewed as well.

Being Human Gone Dutch, and Renewed

Evernight

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I don’t remember how I came across Claudia Gray’s Evernight, but I knew it was about vampires, so it was enough for me to give it a try. I liked it, and I want to write a review about it, but I am at a serious impasse. I am not against throwing spoiler alerts left and right, but in this case I feel somehow…hesitant. Anyway, here it goes: SPOILER ALERT around the corner.

Bianca Olivier has been enrolled at Evernight, a boarding school for the rich and the spoiled. She doesn’t have much of a choice in terms of liking it or not, since her parents teach at the school and are adamant about her studying there. Things get better when Bianca meets Lucas Ross who has decided to protect her from the evilness lurking in the shadows of the school.

The love story follows the usual patterns of teen angst with a light side of supernatural elements, when at page 139 Bianca shows her true colors. She is the vampire. Not only that, she is a born vampire. Everybody who is a serious vampire fan knows that vampires are made, not born. Which in turns should elicit the old time question about who made the first vampire…something like the egg and the chicken conundrum. But I digress.

I liked how Claudia Gray played with words from the beginning of the story letting the readers know that Bianca is special, and that her parents consider her as their little miracle come through. I thought that it was rather clever to describe Bianca’s world from her point of view, without letting out her nature. The author treated her character being a vampire the same way as ethnicity, or skin color. It stands to reason to think that if the protagonist is from India, for example, he or she will refer to food as simply food, not Indian food. Therefore Bianca doesn’t say exactly what she eats, food is food for her, even when her meal is a warm cup of blood.

Bianca bites Lucas, not once but twice. The second time with his permission. The second bite leaves Lucas with heightened senses, and Bianca seeks adults’ advice on what is happening to him. And that is when it turns out that Lucas is not who he seems, as well. He is part of Black Cross, a league of vampire hunters. Once discovered, Lucas runs away and Bianca follows him, only to be separated again when her parents and several vampires come to rescue her from the Black Cross’ crutches.

In a nutshell, Bianca and Lucas’ love story is the young adult vampire version of Romeo and Juliet, minus the ending, otherwise there wouldn’t be other three books after the first one. And let’s face it, nobody really likes it when young characters die in the name of love. 

Evernight

Being Human Getting Bold

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Spoiler Alert on. Be cautious and use your judgment if you want to read or not what it comes next.

Good, you made the right decision. Being Human, a Syfy’s show, has definitely graduated from being the American version of the homonymous British show to being something of its own.   And it makes me happy. I had noticed a certain degree of freedom the writers took to tackle several topics, but I wasn’t expecting what happened in the last episode, I Want You Back (From The Dead).

So, accordingly to what I thought, the American show skirted the pedophilia plot. It was a tough topic to pull off, but at least the writers didn’t kill the story completely. In the British show , after the dvd accident, Mitchell and George are targeted as pedophiles, and their house is vandalized by an angry mob. The kid is ran over by a car, but at the end he walks away with his mom as a freshly turned vampire by a remorseful Mitchell.

I was surprised when Bernie, the bullied kid, was introduced in the American Being Human’s (ABH) story line in the previous episode, Children Shouldn’t Play With Undead Things. I was even more surprised when I saw the path taken in yesterday’s episode. Bernie is ran over by a car trying to escape from the bullies, while Aidan and Sally watch helplessly from a window. Aidan keeps Bernie alive using CPR, but he doesn’t turn him. Instead Rebecca decides to play house giving Aidan a kid of their own, the newly turned and highly unstable Bernie. And from there on things got interesting…

Bernie doesn’t walk out at sunset hand in hand with his mom. Bernie dies at the end of the episode. Even though I saw that coming when the two bullies are found dead in an alley, I still was surprised when Aidan killed him. It only made sense, and it changes the show completely. And I liked it. A lot.

The cherry on top of the cake? Bernie didn’t kill the bullies after all. Bishop planned everything to force Aidan’s hand. Brilliant.

On a side note, Sally finds a companion in Nic, a fellow ghost she had crush on in college. Another nice touch. Let’s see where this story goes.

Being Human Getting Bold