Spell of the Black Unicorn & A Little Help from Friends

Back in the day, as a writer I had very little help, absolutely no feedback, except for when I was in a writer's critique circle-which was way long ago. Now, with the Internet, I'm connecting with other writers all over, and other people who can do things I simply cannot. You've got your beta readers, people who can do covers, and also someone to format the manuscript.

There's no way I could have gotten Spell of the Black Unicorn ready to put out as an ebook without my friends, and I'll name them here and give them all a shout out and have some links where you can find them.

Shelly Arkon is my awesome beta reader. I don't know how I could get a better one. I don't believe I could. I'm not sure if she rolled her eyes at my use of the word "peer" so many times in the manuscript, but yeah, it was one of my "crush" words. She often said something encouraging, telling me I was an awesome story teller. You can find this talented author here at Secondhand Shoes (also the name of her own book)

Since my novel was origninally published as a paperback in 2008, it sort of went by the wayside. I wanted to allow the story to see new light, because a lot of people bought and said nice things about it. It also needed a new cover. Something that looked interesting and that might give it the look of something trendy, with the fantasy undertones it needed, without looking too much like a children's book (or YA), which it is not. Well, answering the call for creating a great cover was my good friend Jeremy Hawkins. You can find Mr. Retro-Zombie at this site. Here is the cover, in case you've missed it.


Isn't that a nice cover? It really caught me by surprise. I didn't know what Jeremy would have in mind when he said he could do this for me. We had to work on the lettering, a little to make it brigher, but it's perfect!

Now I don't know how many of you out there can format, or know what you're doing, but I've got no idea about it. Although I did format the original book for the publishers to put it out as a paperback, I had very good instructions (and still had to pay $400 for them to get it printed). So, I needed a formatter. I have a friend in Carole Gill, and she offered her husband, John's help in this area. His services are called White Rose Ebook Formatting. His service is straight forward and he's excellent. I highly recommend him. He also does book covers, and has helped me with a few of my short story covers. I had pictures, and he put in the lettering, got the correct size of the cover/picture and so forth. He was also able to up-load one for me, as I had trouble doing it. So, he's very reliable and flexible in what he can do for anyone in need of formatting and covers and so forth.
This weekend I will be getting the ebook to Amazon. Wish me luck. I was unable to get the high speed Internet service. It's too complicated to explain here. Suffice it to say I'm still on dial up. Yes. I'm as patient as a fool, I guess. I had a feeling I this was not going to work for me.

Hopefully the next post I will write will be where you can get your hands on the ebook copy of Spell of the Black Unicorn. Untill then, my friends!

Spell Books ~ Covers by My Friend Jeremy Hawkins

Once upon a time I wanted to be a writer. I wanted it so bad I drove all the way from my house to Dubuque Iowa (I think it was about two hours drive) to attend a writer's round table/critique forum. That was back in the early 80's. I thought I had a chance to get recognized. The teacher was published, had an agent and one of the women in the group had her historical romance novel grabed up by his agent.

Long story short, I didn't make the cut. I wasn't even considered. My story was so in need of an editor, (spelling, grammar, punctuation), in fact, that it was obvious to my teacher that I had much to learn. But I couldn't afford the class, and couldn't keep on driving all the way out there to Dubuque.

Fast forward to 2013. Here I am, my first self-published book (not the one I'd been writing in 1980's), came about when I was turning 50 and figured I was never going to get so lucky as to be picked up by anyone, let alone be published. So, I published my novel about a sorceress, Zofia Trickenbod, who is hiding out on Earth trying to keep the Stone of Irdisi (the most powerful magical implement on their world) safe from the evil Vesilvod Bood. The black unicorn, not so surprisingly, follows Vesilvod Blood around, hoping (we think), he will change his coloring back to white. Meanwhile Zofia's husband--who was long thought dead from an attack from Blood--returns, but not as a wizard, but a vampire. This paranormal/myster/romance crossover was my first seen by other readers back in 2008, and they loved it. I had people ask when the next one would be out. Yeah. Not at $400/book. Wasn't gonna happen. Now that we are able to self-publish, I felt like it was time to reintroduce Spell of the Black Unicorn to the world again as an eBook.

The original cover was drawn by yours truely. I wanted the unicorn on the cover. I wanted to show that it was somewhat whimsical, but probably made it look like a children's book with the way I had it. *sigh* (The original cover can be seen on my sidebar).

So, I'v been working with a good friend of mine, Jeremy Hawkins http://izombielover.blogspot.com/, who has a flair for retro art deco, and the colors are always paired up nicely. I had this cover that he worked up for me. This is one version. We may have to find a lighter color for the title and all. But this is really something I like for my new cover. There is another version, and I'm waiting to make a decision on whether I like it justified to the left or staggered.


If you want to leave comment on these covers, that would be great. Just so you know I'm going to ask that the lettering be somewhat brighter so it stands out.

Thanks for stopping by. As I get closer to publishing the ebook, I'll have more posts on this story, and some teases up soon.
Have a great Sunday, and rest of the week, my friends!

I'm visiting my good friend Jeremy Hawkins today!

Hello, my pretties! A beautiful spring morning here in rural Illinois.

I'm over visiting Jeremy Hawkins (a.k.a. Retro Zombie), on his site JMH Digital [Two Thumbs]
Where I answer 21 questions and give you a little peek into my life. Jeremy is a dear, sweet guy. He's got a lot of pans in the fire right now, and made time for me on his blog so, go and show your appreciation, please, and leave a comment.

Thanks


OTHER NEWS:

I'm having someone over to my post tomorrow. I want to introduce you all to Carole Gill, author of House on the Blackstone Moor. We are going to be host posting on each other's blogs periodically. I wanted to bring in someone who had the same interests as me, but slightly different. She is really into the dark Gothic romance, and her book will be re-released, and I'm going to bang my drum about it when she does, because it is quite a different tale and a great read, as well. And she and I have become great friends in the past year or so.

Meanwhile I'm still on my edits, and will do my best to bring you something once in a while on this blog as I have time.

Please come back tomorrow and welcome Carole Gill!