Bot Wars Sequel COVER REVEAL!

I love cover reveals!

I am SO STOKED to share the cover of the next Bot Wars book, The Meta-Rise.

Ready?

It's AWESOME.

I feel like I'm blessed by the cover gods.






Here it is! 

If you've read Bot Wars, then I think you'll recognize the robot on the cover of The Meta-Rise. I love that robot. I hate him and love him. And he looks SO good in this illustrated form. The artist of the Bot Wars covers is seriously amazing, and I couldn't be happier with how this cover turned out. 

I hear I should have ARCs soon of The Meta-Rise, and when I do, I'll definitely do a giveaway. 

The Meta-Rise is scheduled for release July 2014. It seems so far away, but I know it'll be here sooner than I think!

ERASED ARC contest favs!

First, let me apologize about how long it took me to get this post together for the ERASED ARC contest. We're still in the midst of moving (I feel like I'm swimming in boxes), and Altered 3 was due today! So it's been crazy over here. 

This ARC contest is by far one of my favorite contests ever. You guys are seriously talented people, and you picked some of the hottest guys for the fan casting. It was sooooo hard to narrow it down!

For this post, I'm sharing my top 5 (actually, it ended up being 7) Altered/Erased fan art picks. You guys get to help me narrow it down to just one. There will be a poll below. Vote for your favorite one and the winner will get an ARC of ERASED! I seriously can't wait to see what you guys vote for. Because I'm not sure I could pick just one if it came down to it. 

On Friday, I will officially announce the winners of the Fan Art portion, and the Fan Casting portion (I'm picking the winner of this one), of the contest. Voting ends at 2PM EST on Friday. I will contact the winners shortly after. 

Okay, enough of me talking. Let's get to the good stuff! 

#1

by @katnipsonfire

#2
by street of mercy

#3
by mig art

#4

by sturmhond

#5

by adaamkent

#6

by @sleepsontables

#7

by Adzs

Now, get to voting! 

Book Photo Shoot Contest

I recently teamed up with Red Creative Design (read more about it here) and we're SUPER stoked to do a book inspired photo shoot with your help! We're running a contest to find out what you guys want to see transformed into a book shoot.

I'm reblogging the contest details from Red below, but the condensed version is: comment below and let us know what fantasy/paranormal (or even horror, I suppose) book you want featured. Easy as that!

Here are a few of my fav images I've shot in the past, with a fantasy/horror/paranormal vibe:

From Red:

Book Photoshoot Contest

One of the services we are really excited about offering is our Book Inspired Shoot Package! All of our photographers have done shoots for books and definitely know how to bring them to life.

To show you what a book inspired shoot would look like, we are giving away a FREE SHOOT (up to a $1000 value) to one lucky book/author.

How It Works:
Fans and authors alike can submit their favorite fantasy or paranormal young adult novels in one of three ways:

- Leave a comment below with the title- Reblog with the title and author - Tweet about the contest with #RedPhotoContest and the title of the book

Once entries are in, we will compile the top 10 and put it to a vote where YOU, the fans, will decide the winner!

Photographer:
The staff photographer for this project will be Jennifer Rush who is also an author herself. So she knows a thing or two about working on both sides of the fence.

Rules:
1. Book must be traditionally published (not self-pub).
2. Book must be already published, as we must read the book for ideas.
3. Book must be considered Young Adult.

But other than that, this giveaway is completely up to you! You submit your favorite books then we will take those titles and put them in a poll for you to vote on who wins! Easy as that!

So leave a comment telling us which book you’d most like to see brought to life through photography! Share with the authors to get them involved too! 

Feel free to tweet with #RedPhotoContest, reblog, and share this giveaway! The more excitement we have, the more shoots we can do!

In which I admit I have an addiction...

...to graphic design.

You maybe already know this. I’ve been designing book covers for a few months now. I’ve also had TONS of fun designing fake magazine covers (like, here and here and you can see more of my work here). I already have three different business card designs that I use in rotation, with countless others stored on my computer for future use.

But here’s the thing --- I will probably never ever make it through the 800 or so business cards I currently have printed.

So then I started thinking --- why not design business cards for other people? It’s a win-win! I get to keep designing cards, and nothing goes to waste, and lots of awesome people get fancy new business cards.

So, if you’re interested in a business card design, email me and let’s chat!

Below you’ll find some samples that I’ve designed for myself, and for fun. These are the ones I wish I could have printed if I had a bazillion dollars and a need for a bazillion business cards.  

If you’d like one of the pre-made cards, I’m offering those at a discounted rate of $30. Here’s how it works: pick out the card you like, email me your info (what you’d like on the card: website, twitter, email, etc.) and I’ll fill in the blanks. I’ll email you the business card in a PDF file, that you can do with as you please. Note: I can recommend the best, and most cost-effective places to have them printed if you’d like.

If you’d like a custom business card designed for you, email me and we can discuss style/options. Custom designed cards are $50.

I’m also offering bookmarks for $50, since those are just as fun to design! You can see the Altered bookmark I designed here and the front of the Bot Wars bookmark here. 

If you have any other questions, comment below, or email me!

I’m TOTALLY looking forward to this, you guys. TOTALLY. Let’s make some cards, yo.

If you have trouble viewing the images below, let me know and I'll email you the full portfolio for a closer look. 

SIEGE AND STORM

In case you guys didn't know, my friend Leigh Bardugo's 2nd book, Siege and Storm, releases tomorrow. I an giddy. GIDDY. I had the good fortune to read it a few months back, but I'm already dying to read it again.

To celebrate the upcoming release, I wanted to make Leigh a little present. You might have seen the Darkling and Mal Roguish covers floating around the internet. I came up with Roguish magazine several years back after I made a fake magazine for zombies. And if zombies can have a magazine, then why not bad boys?

Behold. (Don't tell Mal, but the Darkling's cover still makes me swoon more. Sorry Mal! I still <3 you!)

You might have heard there is a new swoon-worthy character in Siege and Storm. A privateer by the name of Sturmhond. He's bold and charming and extremely handsome, and I may or may not have developed a teensy tiny little crush on him. (No one can hold a candle to my Darkling, however. I WILL JOIN HIS DRUM CIRCLE SOME DAY. MARK MY WORD. AND BY "DRUM CIRCLE" I MEAN HIS BED.) 

So, with that said, the present I made Leigh --- A Sturmhond Roguish cover!

Now, run to the bookstore and camp out until they shelve Siege and Storm and BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. You will love Sturmhond, ladies and gentlemen. 

A Finished Copy of ALTERED!

Something very special arrived today.

A finished hardcover copy of ALTERED.

I cannot adequately describe the feeling of opening the package and seeing my book in its final, printed version. All those months working on it. Revising. Revising. Copyedits. First pass pages. ARCs! And now, finally, it's done. I want to compare it to baby making, but truthfully, being pregnant was far easier than revising Altered. Being pregnant is actually a pretty charmed life if you have people who care about you. And thankfully I did. When I was pregnant with my daughter I napped a lot. Husband cooked me dinner almost every night. I napped some more. My shoulders were rubbed regularly and so were my feet. I watched a lot of TV. Read a lot of books. Napped. Napped. More napping.

I would compare revising a book to walking across a bed of hot coals, then jogging through a mountain valley with only peanut butter M&Ms and tequila to get you through the night. And then you emerge, only to realize the valley goes on and on for another ten miles and you're running out of tequila, and you have one M&M left but it's frozen solid, just like your feet, and you can't quite remember what real life felt like, you've been jogging for so long, and...don't you have a husband and kids? What do they look like? You've been buried so deep in edits mountain jogging that you can't remember.

Okay, okay, so perhaps I'm exaggerating a wee bit.

But when experienced writers warned me about the revision process, I never quite believed them. It's one of those things you don't understand until you've gone through it. And even then, it's different for every writer, and every book. For instance, Bot Wars was a lot easier to revise than Altered was, but that's perhaps a different post for a different time. This was supposed to be about celebrating!!

I opened the package that arrived on my doorstep early this AM and this is what came out ---

This is the moment where I felt like weeping. Holding the book! Seeing the little gift box and the card from my editor. I hugged the book to my chest and jumped up and down and hollered a lot. It was entertaining. 

This is what my editor sent along as a congratulatory gift ---

A tree necklace! It's absolutely perfect. Not only does it match the cover, but the tree symbolizes the tattoo on Sam's back. It's an incredibly touching/thoughtful gift, and it just served as a reminder of how lucky I am to have such an AMAZING editor. 

And then, after reading the card (and getting misty-eyed), I examined the book for what felt like forever. The dust jacket itself has a matte finish, and the branches, title and author name have a glossy, raised finish. I absolutely love that detail. You can see it better here ----

And then the spine and the back cover with all of those amazing blurbs from such amazing writers! 

Basically I was feeling the major love today. This package served as a reminder of how lucky I am, how grateful I am, to be here. I know there are unpubbed writers out there still trying to snag an agent. Or maybe you are represented, but you can't seem to sell anything yet. HANG IN THERE. It may not happen next week. Or next month. Or maybe not even next year. BUT IT WILL HAPPEN if you keep trying. 

And now, I am off to clutch the book to my chest again and pet its pretty spine work.

Picture Post No. 13

Final ALTERED Cover!

I won't even bother saying much, since no words can compete with a cover reveal. Especially a cover featuring a shirtless guy.

So, here it is! I love it. LOVE IT. I hope you do too. :D

Picture Post No. 12

I feel like it's been forever since I've sat down to write a good blog post. I just feel like I have nothing important to say lately! Perhaps I should do something about the writing process, or writing two series at once, as that's been on my mind a lot lately.

Anyway, enough with the carrying on.

Picture Post No. 11

Bot Wars Cover Reveal!

I am sooooo excited to finally reveal the BOT WARS cover to the world. I've had it for a while now, and occasionally open the file just to stare at it.

It matches the tone and excitement of the book so well. And the colors! They are gorgeous and perfect. And Trout (the main character) looks so much like my vision of Trout.

I should probably stop talking now, huh? Seeing as how (if you're at all like me) you haven't even read this part anyway. You scrolled right past the text to see the cover. So I could say something like, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopted me! And changed my name, so I will from now on be known as Zolt Jolie-Pitt, and you wouldn't even notice.

So, what do you think?

Picture Post No. 10