Books are like Bananas? Where is this post going? Srsly.

*pokes head around corner* Um, hi. Alexis here. It's been a while. *grins sheepishly* Sorry 'bout that.

Life has been... well... life. Which has kept me from writing. Which in turn has kept me from posting because, hey, what could I say? "Oh, hey guys! Still not writing. Too busy trying to round up the marbles of my life which I've dropped all over the hardwood floor. Sorry I'm not inspiring! See y'all later!" Not really gonna cut it.

But just because I haven't written lately doesn't mean I haven't been creative. So I guess that's a stupid excuse. In fact, I've amped up my creativity quite a lot, especially in the last few months.

Tucker being ridiculously adorable.

I'm still doing my book "reviews" over at Witty Title Here. {With the new year came a new photo look and process, but of course I still get my feathery helpers to join in when they can}.  [RIGHT]

But you may not know that I've also started an Etsy store with my latest endeavor: hand-lettered typography. Most days, I spend my lunch hours sketching, and my evenings inking the sketches onto nice paper. [BELOW]

*FOR MORE INFO SEE BOTTOM OF POST

Lately, my evenings have been given over to finally, finally decorating and organizing my house and to refinishing the desk I finally bought for my office. Srsly y'all, you have no idea how long I've suffered without a desk and just how much chaos it has created in my home.   

The "cleanest" part of my office.

In my office alone, none of the art is hung. [RIGHT] Boxes flood the floor {because I have no storage}, all my art supplies and gadgets and computer and monitor are littering other parts of my house where I can use them since my office is pretty much just a storage shed/library. My books are only so organized on my shelves because they are sharing space with random objects and picture frames that have nowhere else to sit. It's driving me insane.

So, right now, my priorities have shifted to finishing the desk, getting it out of the garage -- where my husband can then move all his shit that clutters the house {it's a vicious cycle}-- and the house can maybe not be such a source of clutter in my mind.

Which is an exciting prospect. Because when my surroundings are in chaos, my mind is, too.  {Spent an entire Sat. sanding all of this, btw}.



Needless to say, with all that going on, I haven't really been focused on the writing aspect of my life. I haven't forgotten or abandoned it... just... haven't focused my energies there. I think it was much needed. In truth, things had been a little depressing for me in the fall/winter. I stopped sending out queries/synopses/etc in August, but got a continuous trickle of rejections through about November.

To be fair, there were many positive rejections. {One in particular, which came out of the blue a couple months after I'd stopped expecting to get any more responses, actually ended up meaning a lot to me because I was having a really rough week when I got it. And even though it was a rejection, it made me feel a little better}. [RIGHT]





But when something you truly believe in continues to give you almost nothing of real encouragement/positivity in return for years of devotion and effort, no matter how hard you try to change things, the veil of hope begins to wear thin. Especially when so many agents found it promising but, ultimately, not fresh enough. I'm convinced that this is the worst possible feedback you can get on a manuscript. How? How do you fix that? Srsly. It's very disheartening.

...And yet, I'm just the most stubborn person ever, usually clinging to optimism against my better judgement. {But that often pays off, so of course, it reinforces my desire to do so}. So even when I don't work on it for months, or give it really any shelf space in my daily thoughts, I continue to think of ways to fix it. Most are written off before they've completely formed. Other ideas swirl in my head for weeks before I voice them, and then realize how unhelpful they are. Yet I carry on. Why? Because my greatest flaw is my stubborn refusal to give up hope. Yes. Flaw. This flaw has got me in any number of situations where I suffer far more than I ought, and where most people would just give up. But oh, no. Not me. No, I'd rather spend seven years on the same book because I know it's worth not giving up on. And it's not like I'm being unreasonable. It's not a bad book. It's actually really good. People love the characters, they love the world, they enjoy the writing and the story... it's just not... Well, okay, it's like this:

You've got a bunch of bananas. They're ripe and bright and yellow and delightful. They are the best things you've ever tasted. But by the end of the week they aren't quite as bright. A little brown is creeping in. They're the same bananas you wanted on Monday, but by Friday, you've gotten used to the taste. You know these will be just as good, but it's not like you haven't had several like it before. Like, all week. You can actually taste them by memory without opening one up, and you decide to pass. You want a fresher one. So, at this point. my manuscript is sortof, to agents, like the bananas on Friday. Is it just the newest freshest plot ever? No. Is it still satisfying? I'd like to think so. But here's where my stubborn determination to not give up kicks in:

Not my photo. Totally grabbed this off the internet.

Wait another week and those bananas have finally reached the perfect ripeness for just the most fantastic banana bread ever. Yes, the bananas are mushy. No, they don't seem like something you wanna snatch off the shelf and devour. But add a few ingredients and give it some time... and you've got something devourable after all.


So I guess what I'm saying is: to me, my manuscript isn't bananas on Friday. My manuscript is banana bread. I just have to find the right ingredients and then give it some time. It will be fresh when the time is right. Maybe not in the same way as a ripe banana, but still devourable... still leaving you wanting more.

Anyway, that's the short version of where I've been and what I've been up to. I hope, if nothing else, you were entertained, and that maybe your life will seem easier and calmer in comparison to mine ;)

*Profits from ATYPeICAL are used to pay for the desk, art supplies, writing supplies, and books. Basically, if you buy my stuff, you're helping to sustain my creativity... and my sanity. So... please decorate your home and keep me sane!

Author Interview: Diana Rowland

Today the Ninja Peas are pleased to welcome fabulously talented author Diana Rowland to the Pod! (She's our first official published author interview. How cool is that?) If you aren't familiar with Diana and her work--and why aren't you?!--you should be. In addition to being a former police officer, morgue tech, and all-around awesome person, she writes both the Kara Gillian and White Trash Zombies urban fantasy series. A couple of things you, dear reader, should know about Diana before we continue...

1. Before pounding the keyboard for a living, she was a bartender, a blackjack dealer, a pit boss, a street cop, a detective, a computer forensics specialist, a crime scene investigator, and a morgue assistant.

Author Diana Rowland

2. She won the marksmanship award in her Police Academy class and has a black belt in Hapkido.

What does all this mean? Well, frankly, it means she can calculate the best angle and trajectory from which to completely kick your ass in a state-approved manner, and then to show there are no hard feelings, she can mix up a great drink and deal you into a friendly game of blackjack...just don't get caught cheating.

Now that you know a little about the author, you need to know a little about her writing. For those who aren't familiar with these series, here are the cover copies and cover art for the first book in each series. More information can be found at Diana's website for subsequent books.

Book 1 of Kara Gillian series

MARK OF THE DEMON

When Homicide Detective Kara Gillian finds traces of arcane power on a body, she quickly realizes that this is no ordinary murder. The serial killer known as the Symbol Man is a nightmare that Beaulac, Louisiana thought had ended three years ago, but now he's back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he is well-versed in demonic lore.


However, Kara is a Summoner of Demons, and may be the only cop on the city's small force who can stop the killer. Able to see and interact with a world most people can't, Kara must draw on her skills as a police officer and master of the arcane to stop the Symbol Man from killing again and possibly summoning something even she can't control.


But with a demonic lord of unearthly beauty and power haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head....

MY LIFE AS A WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE

Book 1 of White Trash Zombie series

Angel Crawford is a loser


Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.


That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in an horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue--and that it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.


Before she knows it she's dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey--just when she's hungriest!


Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat.


Literally.



If you're a regular reader, you may remember that A, M, and I discussed cover art a few weeks ago. While our opinions were varied and strong, I thought it would be fun to get another author's perspective on the matter. My first thought was to grill--uh, interview Diana because, as you can see, she has truly mind-blowing covers. Here's what she had to say on the subject:


Jeannie: Readers may often decide which books they want to read based solely on the cover. As an author, how important is it you that the cover art reflect the story you've written?

Diana Rowland: Cover art can be a very touchy subject with both authors and readers. For my part, I would definitely push back if I had a cover that depicted the story or characters in a way that I felt was radically different from how I’d written them. However, I also believe that a cover’s primary purpose is to sell the book. To that end the cover should be eye-catching, attractive, and give the reader a solid sense of what sort of story this is, e.g. if there’s a spaceship on the cover, the expectation is that it’s some sort of science fiction. That being said, I don’t think that a cover needs to illustrate the book down to the slightest detail, and it’s more important that it capture the overall feel of the book. The woman on the cover of the White Trash Zombie books doesn’t look exactly how I’ve described Angel, yet somehow those paintings perfectly capture who she is. (And yes, I LOVE my cover artist, Dan Dos Santos!)

J: Series covers can change over time as characters change. However, you had the experience of changing publishers with your first series. Has the difference in covers affected the Kara Gillian series? What is some of the reader feedback you've gotten about the difference (if you can share)?

Book 4 of Kara Gillian series

DR: The change in covers hasn’t affected the story or writing of the series, of course, but I think it’s changed the marketing. DAW very much wanted this series to be marketed as urban fantasy (which it is!), whereas I feel that Bantam wanted it to be marketed more to the paranormal romance side of things. I’m more comfortable with it being marketed as urban fantasy, not because I have anything against paranormal romance at all, but because this isn’t paranormal romance, and I think those readers would have grown frustrated over time with the lack of a major romantic plotline.

That being said, yes, I would have liked for all of the books to match, but in the long run I do think that the newer covers reflect the true nature of the series much better. But, oh, the reader feedback!! The reactions have run the gamut from cautious approval to virulent hatred, but I think that if the series had started out with the Dos Santos covers no one would have batted an eyelash. The majority of the less-than-positive feedback has been because the series as a whole doesn’t match, and I can certainly respect that avid readers could be disappointed in that.

J: You have a new "white trash" zombie series which sports some spectacular artwork from Daniel Dos Santos. Can you tell us a little about how these covers were created? Is he given a description of Angel and a basic outline for each book?

DR: I am the luckiest author in the world because I actually get to talk to my cover artist! For both of the White Trash Zombie covers, I’ve had extended telephone conversations and email exchanges with Dan where we’ve discussed the overall themes of the books, possible scenes, her appearance in general as well as specifics of how rotten she could be. Dan always asks me if I have an idea for the cover, I tell him that I have zero visual artistic sense and go ahead and give him a sample scene idea, and then he (thankfully!) ignores my suggestion and paints something a thousand times better. :-D

J:  The cover for EVEN WHITE TRASH ZOMBIES GET THE BLUES is definitely "trashy" but in a good way. What was your initial reaction to seeing it?

Book 2 of White Trash Zombies series

DR: SO. MUCH. LOVE!!!  Seriously, this is the perfect example of a cover capturing the feel of a book. Funny thing is that Dan and I had this particular cover discussion while I was at a Chik-Fil-A with my daughter. She was playing in the climby-playground thing while I was on the phone with Dan merrily describing rotting body parts and gunshot wounds and grungy, nasty settings… It wasn’t until I hung up with him that I realized that a woman and her two small children had been sitting behind me that whole time. Oops!

J: In addition to being an author, I know you're an avid reader. What are some of your favorite books covers, past and present? How important is the cover to you as a reader when choosing a book?

DR: A cover that’s obviously cheap or a bad photoshop job will turn me off of a book, simply because I tend to think that a sloppy cover will likely mean a sloppy book as well. (And, yes, I know this isn’t universally true.) I’m certainly drawn to covers that are striking (in a good way) or exceptionally creative or attractive, but beyond that I tend to use cover art as a guide to genre, and will gravitate toward the “look” that I’m in the mood for at that time.

Some of my favorite covers include the Jane True books by Nicole Peeler, and The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey, simply because they both have cover art that is interesting and striking, that perfectly conveys the tone and concept of the books.

J:  And now for every author's favorite question: What's next for Diana Rowland?

DR: I’ll be starting White Trash Zombie Apocalypse fairly soon, and at this time it looks as if that will be the end of that series. I have some other possible projects on tap, but nothing solid yet.

But, for the Kara Gillian fans, I can tell you that I’ll be working hard on the Demon series for a few more years. After all, there’s still a ways to go to finish up that whole story. We’re just now getting to the really good stuff!

J: Awesome insights, Diana! Thanks for hanging out with us. :-)

That's all, folks. Be sure to come back next week when we dish on...*drumroll*...The Hunger Games: Book vs. Movie! Until then...

Peas out.

Judging a Book by its Cover: Alexis's take

Book Covers

These two simple words inspire a passion of opinion and eagerness to discuss that you'll rarely see from me. Maybe it's my graphic design background, or my creative spirit. But honestly, I think it's just common sense -- aesthetically speaking -- regardless of my profession or hobbies.


It's been hammered into our skulls to "never judge a book by its cover" and as true as that is {for there are several books I absolutely loved which I refused to read in public without first taking off the dust cover and hiding that sucker} they have the saying for a reason. Because we do judge books by their covers. If we didn't, the publishers wouldn't spend so much time and money on cover art and artists to begin with. Covers matter. Plain and simple. They're signposts to the masses, beacons to individuals, tiny billboards working hard to get your attention.


But like billboards, and anything in advertising, not all covers are equal. {Why else would vanity presses and special edition covers do so well?} If the book's cover doesn't grab you, you won't grab the book. It gets passed by. Worse, if the cover turns you away, well... the book is being turned away as well.


Now, I'm not saying that the cover will make or break a book {my experience with Westerfeld's Leviathan/ Behemoth/ Goliath hardcover-dustjacket-redesign-midway-through-the-series-debacle is proof of that}... {I'll get to that later... possibly*}. I believe the title holds a fair percent of the initial pull, your loyalty to a story or author is another consideration, and then, if those things do their job, the back cover copy and the inside flap.


What I'm saying is that book covers get the coveted "first impression" moment. And for a reader {well, a reader like me... and most of the readers I know} that's a big moment.


The problem, lately, especially in YA, is that I'm starting to get a lot of bad first impressions. I'm being turned away. The publishers, who think they've hit gold plastering actual photos of actual people who may or may not look anything like the actual characters or have anything to do with the actual story, are instantly turning away an entire set of customers; those who hate to have images planted in our minds for us {hence why we read the books before we see the movies -- though "movie versions" of book covers are not my target}. It's almost insulting. We, the readers, the cultivators of imagination, are being told how we should imagine. We are, essentially, having to take creative direction on our own creativity.


Where before I'd be drawn to a beautiful, interesting, or original cover -- something that evoked the feel of the book and drew me in {which I have always prided the YA genre as doing} and maybe even inspired me as an artist -- I'm now overwhelmed, dismayed, and put off by the ceaseless sameness that seems to have pervaded the shelves. I skip entire sections... because they're all the same cover. Just a different title. Maybe a different shade of black or a different splash of color {I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's a shortage in cover artists and the YA publishers are just sharing the same person}.


So we have a problem. Luckily, there's a solution. {No, my suggested solution will never be "just switch to digital books and ignore the covers entirely," thankyouverymuch}.


Publishers need to stop regurgitating designs because they're afraid to take risks, constantly going to what's "safe" and what's "working"-- terms I've found they really enjoy. For one, there's no growth in that. Sure, it's working. For now. Just like Twilight-inspired wanna-be stories are "working." {Forgive me for the reference. I feel nauseous using it}. But eventually, safe becomes same and the market over-saturates. At that point, everything becomes a fad. There's no art in that.


Now, I'm not published. But one day I will be. And I certainly don't want the book cover equivalent of 80's hair or parachute pants holding a place of honor on my bookshelf -- with my name on it. I want a reflection of my work and thus a reflection of myself. How can you do anything but be original in your cover design if you focus on the individual in that way? If you stay true to the art? Art is risk. Art is outer expression of the inner. Art is rebellion against sameness and embracing the unique and creative. And book covers are art.


So for the love of the written word... somebody tell those publishers to let their artists create art again.


*for my opinion on this, visit the comments {I'm like, the 12th post. My "name" is Alexis} of a great little article I read the other day about book covers in YA (paranormal romance)... CLICK HERE :)