I’ve always wanted to have at least one of my works translated into Spanish. Never mind the why of it, but it’s part of my heritage and I always felt it was necessary. I had plans for how I’d get here, but sometimes dreams take longer than you plan and don’t come together quite the way you expect.

At any rate, I’ve been working with a translator on a fantasy short story called “Snitched, Snatched.” Getting it right in English was hard enough, now Gustavo Bondoni must tackle trying to get it perfect in Spanish. Luckily he is skilled as a story teller, and I’m counting on that skill to come through in “Snitched, Snatched.” He has his own short story collection out (in English) on Kindle: Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places (20 stories.)

All of this leads to needing a cover that reflects the story, captures its essence and has a magic of its own. Enter Assnezana and her fantastic artistic talent.

You can find more about her here: Assnezana and see more of her work on Jaguarwoman.com and also on Dreamstime/assnezana .

She has some awesome artwork; more magical settings like the one in the cover, some aquatic settings and some fabulous garden settings. Check them out!

As for the story, look for it on Kindle in about a week if things go smoothly, two if they don’t! I’ll post more about the release date as it gets closer.

I haven’t worked with this artist personally, but did check out the portfolio and prices–both good! If you’re looking for cover art, you might give Shaed Studios a look. The samples are all photo-manipulations, and I don’t know if the price covers the photo (or how many) but the samples looked well-done with nice fonts.

From an email:

Shaeddyn has a Bachelors of Media Arts and Animation
What you get: I charge a flat fee that will give you as many drafts as you need to be happy. You don’t pay unless you are satisfied with the end result. When you have paid for the end draft, I will send you full versions of the cover for each format you need them in, and the image will then belong to you to do with what you please. I will use the image in my portfolio for examples of work.

Doing multiple drafts is very important–so is the ability to opt out if you just can’t get to an agreement. Many authors are picky and sometimes it’s impossible to get your “vision” realized the first time around. Of course, with terms like these, the artist can always opt out too, which is equally important!

Make sure to ask if you get to choose the photo and what rights are assigned to you. Most photo sharing sites allow ebook use and up to 500k print copies–always double-check before entering a contract so that you know where the photo is from. If the artist provides the photo (some do) make sure you understand whether you are getting an exclusive (rare).

Remember my little article on covers? Okay, I’ve done several, but specifically, the one where I babbled about poses?

What *is* it with this pose???

At Graves End

What is she supposed to be doing? Looking for fish beneath the ice? Dropped an earring and has a leg cramp??

As part of my research for my trip to Rome, I’ve been reading up on the art in the Vatican.  Not to be a philistine, and remember I am uneducated in artworks, but it seems to me that the people depicted are quite well-fed (looking a little flabby with extra pounds around the waists here and there.)

Of course, this wouldn’t be all that obvious if they wore clothes.  What is up with that?  Over half the pictures I’ve seen depict completely naked people–sort of implying that in that day and age, clothes were not popular.  When the people in the images are wearing clothes they seem to be half draped in clothing (body parts…leak out here and there–a boob here, a missing fig leaf there.)

I’m not complaining about the quality of the art, mind you, I’m just noticing. Makes me wonder if they are trying to depict what was considered normal/beautiful for the time or if because the scenes often depict a holy image of some sort if the nakedness is meant to portray us in all our…glory?  Hmm.

At any rate, I’m sure the pictures (like most things) are better seen in person.  Most of the ones in the books I’m reading are black and white and that tends to make them a confusing picture of crowds of people.  It’s hard to tell what any of them are supposed to be doing, even when you’re familiar with things like the story of Moses and the Flood and the Last Judgment and so on.

I am learning quite a bit and I’m looking forward to seeing the real things.

I’ve been very privileged to work with some great artists. Some of these artists are actively taking commissions. Some of them will work on a commission via a referral if they have openings.

Deb Wentz did the Under Witch Moon cover (referral only). She does illustrations.

Valentino Sani did the cover for Under Witch Aura –Book two in the Moon Shadow Series (Coming in Dec 2011). He works by referral only, but you can buy some of his fabulous photos on Dreamstime.com. He is a professional photographer and does photo-manipulation. You cannot see the cover yet, but it is FABULOUS! The guy has more talent in his eyelash than I have in both my eyeballs.

Just WAIT until you see the cover!

John Dotegowski did the cover for Year of the Mountain Lion. He does some awesome illustration. He takes commissions; contact him via his website.

RazzDazzDesign.com They do a lot of photo-manipulation, but may be able to help with clipart and possibly illustration depending on what you’re looking for. Razz did the cover for Catch an Honest Thief.

Here’s an artist I’d like to work with:

Anne Marie Broughton As of this posting she was open for portrait work and cover art. Her prices are reasonable and her work is quite astounding!

I’ve also heard good things about Stephanie Mooney although I’ve not worked with her personally. I’ve seen several of her covers–they look great! At the time of this posting, her prices were very reasonable.

Just for the record, most sorcerers (be they women or men) do not do the majority of spells in their underwear. Or in High Heels. Or fishnet stockings. This probably comes as a shock, I know.

When looking for photo art for possible covers it seems that many photographers tricked their victims subjects into dressing in as little as possible before staging the spell shot.

Look, I don’t know *that* many witches, sorcerers or the like, but I know a *few.* None of them, not one, does spells in evening attire unless it’s an absolute emergency. No one goes out in a mini-skirt planning to throw around a fire ball or three. When working for a client they *never* show up for work in their bra, underwear, corset or–heaven forbid, a towel. Seriously. How is one supposed to work a spell while holding onto a towel???

Do not go there, people. Do NOT, I beg of you.

Oh sure, some witches like to drape a scarf or two, but you don’t want too many of them–fire is an oft-hazard of spells, so you want to be careful of too many flowing robes.

Does anyone wear jeans to work anymore?? Anyone????

P.S. Most witches do not wear pointy little hats anymore either. Another great shock, I am sure.

And here I thought I did in-depth reporting on cover art! Well, author Jim Hines has gone out in the field (possibly left field) to uncover the secret behind cover poses. He’s dedicated. Very dedicated. Check out Jim Hines version of being a cover model.

Jim Hines is the author of the very excellent Goblin series, starting with Goblin Quest. I reviewed it here, back when I was just starting to do reviews. In short, it’s a very good fantasy series and worth a look for both YA and adults.

Jim has also written the alternate fairy tale series Princess Series series. I’ve read the first book, which is a wild adventure of what happened to Cinderella AFTER the happily ever after. She’ll get some help from some other fairy tale characters you may recognize. For a frugal and fun way to check out Jim’s writing, he has an anthology on sale right now for 99 cents: Goblin Tales

Dark Wolf is still doing his feature columns with artists. This week he talks to Nicole Cardiff–and what fabulous art she does! The interview is one of the more interesting as well (maybe because blue is her favorite color????) I loved the part where she mentions that talent is only five percent of the formula…

Go check out the interview, which has several very nice samples of her work. For even more, check out Nicole’s Website.

I really like the one with the wolf. And I love the colors she uses.

Here it is:

Artwork and design by Katerina Vamvasaki

Tell me what you think!!!

After solving one case of corporate crime, Sedona expected to get her peaceful life back. Problem: She is still a manager at Strandfrost, and there is still rampant jealousy over her promotion. Is the danger of being railroaded by her not-so-illustrious colleagues worse than taking a new undercover job from Steve Huntington?

Crooks are coming out of the woodwork and family troubles are stewing. Sedona needs to keep her sanity intact, piece together mismatched clues and dodge more than one stray bullet. If she can manage all of that, maybe she’ll have time to figure out whether her love life stands a chance.

I’ve been working on covers lately. Part of that means I look at every cover I see and evaluate it. Do the colors make me want to buy? Is it too loud? Too soft? Too … weird? I saw a cover the other day where the lady on the front was in some kind of…well, let’s hope it was a fighting stance. It looked more like she had a really bad cramp or…maybe, yeah, she might have just crapped her pants. That could be a scene in the book for all I know, but it really isn’t what I want on the cover (of her book or any other book, frankly.)

Anyway, in my various evaluations, I keep running across covers similar to this one:

Blood Challenge

I have seen three or four or six covers where the woman is in heels and crouched in a similar position with a gun. These ladies have one leg stretched out and one leg in a crouch. Sometimes she’s in a mini-skirt, sometimes leather pants, sometimes jeans. The backdrop varies from a cityscape to waterfront or she looks like she’s balancing on a wall. No matter where she is…This is a silly stance. Yes, yes, I am *sure* it is sexy (it must be because that is the only possible reason to use this stance.)

Go ahead. Try it–and remember you’ve got to get into this position quickly and you have a gun in one hand (or have both hands around the gun). Then, when you’re crouched, use both hands to hold the gun.

I’ll wait.

Okay, if you can even GET in that position without pulling anything (I hope you’re able to get back up, too!) try holding your hands out with an invisible gun. Keep your hands steady! Did you fall over? How long did it take you to find your center of gravity?

When you hold the gun in a shooting position, are your arms moving as you try to keep your balance?? No rocking back and forth!

Yeah, it’s possible to get a shot off, and if you hold very still, you can maintain the position and find your center of gravity such that you can hold the gun across one knee.

But if you’ve ever shot a gun, this is not the position you’re going to rush to get into if you’re in danger.

See, if you’ve ever shot a weapon, you know that a major requirement is balance. Not just to get the shot off, but to handle the recoil. And if you’re in a hurry, crouching down to avoid getting shot, you’re scared. You’re moving, you’re looking everywhere, but the one thing you need to be is steady–fast. You go down on your knees–both of them. Maybe you even fall onto your stomach because from there, you can use the ground to steady your arms and you might be marginally safer. I’d sit on my butt before I’d attempt a crouch like the ones in these covers.

I *know.* It’s Hollywood. It’s imagination. It’s fiction. But yanno. If you really want some laughs, put on a mini-skirt and heels and try it… just don’t try it with a loaded gun!

(related poses on covers)
(related poses #2)
(Maria Complains about Cover Art)
(Maria complains more about Covers)

Okay, okay, I shouldn’t do this, especially with me about to do a cover poll in less than a month. I could be setting myself up for a huge and ugly payback…

But yanno, I just gotta say that if I was going into combat and I was wearing a leather holster, surely there is a more comfortable outfit than a bra??? Seems to me that the holster thing (there’s a barely visible holster looking thing that is either part of the bra or some sort of thing wrapped around the back to hold guns. Or swords?) is going to rub skin raw. But maybe there was an emergency and the heroine jumped out of bed, grabbed her pants, her gun…and yes, of course, instead of throwing on a shirt on to cover up, she wasted time putting on a bra. That’s what I would do, no doubt! Do I need to mention she is yet another model sitting in that seriously ridiculous pose? I need to spend more time at the shooting range. Obviously I am missing the latest in balanced shooting positions.

Don’t be mad. I actually have the first in this series (Under Wraps) on my wish list as a possible TBB (to be bought.) Although she kinda looks likes she’s in a modern-day corset thing in the first. These covers do not help sales people! Stop having women fighting in their underwear!!!

I was much more inclined to buy the above book after I saw this ugly cover:

Okay, either the guy has a really bad 3rd degree burn or he is suffering from some other nasty looking skin disease. Or maybe the lady behind him hurled?

Looking closer, maybe it’s a parasite under his skin crawling along…I mean seriously gross.

Over on BSC, Dark Wolf does a post now and then about art and artists. He includes a review and samples. This week he highlighted Marc Simonetti I thought the artwork was very nice, but I specifically went out to Simonetti’s site to see an enlarged sample of the last picture that Dark Wolf posted. Instead, I got sidetracked looking at the 3D link. Wow. It’s well worth the trip. Click on the Marc Simonetti and then the 3D off on the sidebar and page through–it’s quite a tour of an old abandoned castle. I quite enjoyed it on a rainy, gloomy morning with my cup of tea!!! If I spoke French, I’d get permission to post a sample or two of Simonetti’s art here, but since I don’t, we’ll have to stick with touring his work on his page!!!

From my post over at DeviantArt; I’m cross posting here. Some of you will already know some of these things…

I’m no artist. I’m just a writer and of all things, I mostly write cozy mysteries. I can hear the “What?” already.

Cozy mysteries are a genre of the mystery group similar to Agatha Christie. Murder She Wrote. Small town murders that occur off the page where the gruesome details are sketched over. There’s usually at least a small element of romance and quite frequently a large element of busy-body. The covers have a quaint, almost cartoonish, air about them (Think artist Brandon Dorman who did Sara Rosett’s covers.)

I’ve been at this a while and have gone through a few phases looking for art. Or drawing my own (you can probably tell from my covers which was commissioned.) The thing is, I really don’t like doing artwork. I don’t mind pencil drawing when I have to sketch something to get a point across, but fight with AI? Photoshop? AEIII!

I’ve recently started writing an Urban Fantasy series, the first of which is out: Under Witch Moon (Moon Shadow Series). Yes, I commissioned that artwork. I love it. But it doesn’t shout urban fantasy because the industry has chosen photoshopped photos to denote Urban Fantasy (Think Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, or the The Dresden Files)

Why doesn’t anyone hire artists to draw urban fantasy covers? Okay, okay, I admit it, I prefer drawn images to photoshopped ones in most cases. I don’t know why; it’s just a personal preference. The covers for John Levitt books are quite awesome even though they are photoshopped. I’d take them in a heartbeat. One of the things I like? The guy is a normal looking Joe in blue jeans. He’s got his dog, his guitar and he’s looking a little lost–but he’s not in a trench coat, he’s not loaded to the hilt with swords or guns and he left his loincloth at home. His chest isn’t bared in an obvious attempt to get himself killed.

It’s true that if the Levitt covers were a drawn picture, a cool demon might be a nice add to one of the backgrounds. Might be tough to keep that realism look with a drawn demon, but there’s some talented folks out there. I know it can be done. But I digress.

My question is: Where are all the heroines in blue jeans? We can carry a gun while wearing blue jeans; we can use it too. We want sneakers, cause gosh, we might have to RUN. Ninja outfits are very cool, but sometimes we might just have to fight without the outfit–we might be in shorts, sneakers and, God-forbid–a t-shirt!!!

*Sometimes* we might even be in sweatpants rather than evening wear. Sure, they might be tight-fitting sweats, like the ones we wear to the gym, but we do wear them. Rarely and I do mean RARELY are we in our bikini’s with a sword strapped to our thigh. No, really, I mean that. I can only think of one time that happened to me and thank God I had the sword. You go walking around in a bikini in normal foot traffic, you’re going to need the sword.

I’m sure the blue-jeaned heroines are out here. Or even a clever ninja outfit that could almost pass for day wear. Because some urban fantasy heroines, or cozy mystery heroines, have a day job. They have to go to work–ready for normal and ready for demons, be they the mundane kind or the fantastical.

Believe me, I’ve run into both kinds on the job. And not once did I wish I was wearing a bikini.