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if it's Wednesday, I'm behind schedule. As usual.
Brain never really engaged on Tuesday, so after taking Pandora to the vet, I gave up and dealt with a lot of small pending things. Y'know, filing, cleaning, laundry, answering e-mails, culling the pile of magazines TBR, figuring out what wines I'll be taking with me for the Seder Thursday night....
Also had some back-and-forth with Madame Editrix about the cover for Hard Magic. At this point, urban fantasy has a look that seems as carved-in-stone as Scottish romances, but there really is such a thing as too much over-identification, and I asked, rather plaintively, if we couldn't get away from the overt trappings, just a bit?
Some ideas were bandied about, and a compromise that I rather like was floated, but it will all depend on Voices Other Than Mine having their say. In a perfect world, the cover for Hard Magic would be a shot of Bonnie working a la the opening credits of CSI, only with a swirl of magic replacing whatever technical apparatus they were using, and No. Leather. Anywhere.
Also; no tats, midriffs, or high heeled anything. In the books, she is far more likely to be wearing cargo pants, engineer's boots, and a long-sleeved baby tee.
We'll see, the author said dubiously and yet with a spark of hope somewhere deep in her withered soul...
Thankfully brain staged a comeback Tuesday night, and another 2 chapters were red-marked and retrofitted. There are portions of this book I really like, and portions that are scaring me for what they're trying to do. That's a good combination, I think. But there's something rising out of the mess, slowly.
Like all books, this one's teaching me something new I didn't know about process: I'm still finding things my lizard brain left there for the mammal brain to pick up and work into the revised narrative, but the actual timing and results of that are...changing. I'm still not quite sure how. Updates as I figure it out.
And thinking about story-building let me to some more thinking about Monday night's episode of Castle --
One of the things that I really liked, thinking about it after, was when Beckett finally told Castle about what had happened to her, that it was her mother and not her father who had died, and then said "so now Nikki has backstory," Castle's immediate reaction was to fall back on his (half-joking) 'stripper" story... not because it was a wise-ass comment, but because it was his way of saying "this character is based on you, but it won't be you. You're my inspiration, not my template." He -- and the writers -- are making a separation between their (fictional) lives and his (fictional within the fiction) novel-life.
Or maybe I'm giving the writers too much credit. But I don't think so.
I also really really loved the completely non-verbal way Beckett said "holy shit, so this is how the best-selling world lives" when she visited his apartment, her body saying what her voice didn't. Because, yeah, the well-off are not like you and me. They have large city condos with shiny new appliances. And formal dining rooms you can play Laser Tag in.
I'm sure the show will jump the shark at some point. But hopefully not for a while...
And now, coffee, writing, and, um, more writing. And some red-lining and possibly some headdesking, kicking of walls, and whimpering.
Also had some back-and-forth with Madame Editrix about the cover for Hard Magic. At this point, urban fantasy has a look that seems as carved-in-stone as Scottish romances, but there really is such a thing as too much over-identification, and I asked, rather plaintively, if we couldn't get away from the overt trappings, just a bit?
Some ideas were bandied about, and a compromise that I rather like was floated, but it will all depend on Voices Other Than Mine having their say. In a perfect world, the cover for Hard Magic would be a shot of Bonnie working a la the opening credits of CSI, only with a swirl of magic replacing whatever technical apparatus they were using, and No. Leather. Anywhere.
Also; no tats, midriffs, or high heeled anything. In the books, she is far more likely to be wearing cargo pants, engineer's boots, and a long-sleeved baby tee.
We'll see, the author said dubiously and yet with a spark of hope somewhere deep in her withered soul...
Thankfully brain staged a comeback Tuesday night, and another 2 chapters were red-marked and retrofitted. There are portions of this book I really like, and portions that are scaring me for what they're trying to do. That's a good combination, I think. But there's something rising out of the mess, slowly.
Like all books, this one's teaching me something new I didn't know about process: I'm still finding things my lizard brain left there for the mammal brain to pick up and work into the revised narrative, but the actual timing and results of that are...changing. I'm still not quite sure how. Updates as I figure it out.
And thinking about story-building let me to some more thinking about Monday night's episode of Castle --
One of the things that I really liked, thinking about it after, was when Beckett finally told Castle about what had happened to her, that it was her mother and not her father who had died, and then said "so now Nikki has backstory," Castle's immediate reaction was to fall back on his (half-joking) 'stripper" story... not because it was a wise-ass comment, but because it was his way of saying "this character is based on you, but it won't be you. You're my inspiration, not my template." He -- and the writers -- are making a separation between their (fictional) lives and his (fictional within the fiction) novel-life.
Or maybe I'm giving the writers too much credit. But I don't think so.
I also really really loved the completely non-verbal way Beckett said "holy shit, so this is how the best-selling world lives" when she visited his apartment, her body saying what her voice didn't. Because, yeah, the well-off are not like you and me. They have large city condos with shiny new appliances. And formal dining rooms you can play Laser Tag in.
I'm sure the show will jump the shark at some point. But hopefully not for a while...
And now, coffee, writing, and, um, more writing. And some red-lining and possibly some headdesking, kicking of walls, and whimpering.
urban fantasy cover trappings
Re: urban fantasy cover trappings
But we have reached a point where Every. Cover. Looks. The. Same. And while yeah, that's good for reader recognition, I want you guys to be able to find the new books easily!
*[I got around the 'leather' thing because her slicks are black and close-fitting... if you squint they look similar....)
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Laura, would you pop over to my live journal and take a look at my new cover? I'm doing an independent urban fantasy (vampire) series, and I'm still getting used to the trappings--after doing high fantasy for so long. I *think* this cover is a little different from the standard urban fantasy covers, but you know a lot more about this stuff than I do.
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Oh, thank you. I know you've been on "both sides" of the conference stuff many times.
The first time J.C. saw the cover for DHAMPIR, he blinked and said, "Our characters could never afford those clothes."
Hah!
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(true story: cover conference for FLESH & FIRE they wanted the character to be wearing a 'wizardly' cloak.
Me: "they didn't wear cloaks then. He'd be wearing a fitted jacket over his shirt, something rougher for when he was outside, but...."
Editor: "...." [translated to: 'don't give me grief, you know what they want and why they want it, they're not going to listen to demands for accuracy!']
Me: "oh, all right. Give him a short cloak. But no damned medieval hood!")
Payment for Cover Artists?
I've always wondered how they are paid--I think it must be a flat fee?
How much would an artist be paid if he/she was doing a hard cover painting for a publisher like Roc or Ace?
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I just don't want this new look to fall into the "oh god another Tough Babe with Sexy Trauma" trend. Especially since Bonnie, bless her, is pretty much Trauma-free. She's had hard knocks, yeah, but her overall personality is more "people are cool" than "people are crap." Far more Abby than Anita.
The cover for FLESH & FIRE is so High Fantasy is makes me squee. Talk about whiplash between books!
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I really hope ABC picks it up for a new season; from what I can tell, its ratings are decent if not spectacular.
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... my Dad raced motorcycles, and you overheat in leather .. and sweat... its not that flexible, and the darn stuff was HEAVY, specially after he sweated in it.
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The jeans would probably be decent first-pass protection against a hasty knife or claws, though.
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Gosh, I think I shall start watching Castle. LOL