Red Dragon is now Published!

You can now find Red Dragon on lulu.com!

The paperback version is out now and hardcover is coming soon!

Taking a look at Google

You know that moment when you facepalm?

Well I just did...

I was curious about how google deals with blogger hype...

I googled my own story and it turns out...

>_<

It shares the same name with the first book of the Hannibal Lector series by Thomis Harris...

Let me just clear up a few things for those of you who may have been jesting at me or something...

1. I have never read or heard of this book before.
2. His book is about a psychiatrist or something...I dunno the description isn't that clear...
3. My book is about a girl who discovers she's half a dragon (and the scales are red)
4. My book therefore, may have the same name but has no affiliation...this story has nothing to do with Hannibal Lector...
5. I'm not writing fanfics or something...

Cover art: Basic Vs. Chic

I'm sure you've seen plenty of books in your lifetime.

Kids books...

History books...

Text books...

Fictional novels...

Biographies...

Poetry collections...

Well, every book has a cover...

But, while they say don't judge a book by its cover, that's what it is there for. The cover is supposed to be the face value presentation of what the book is...showing an essence of what the story is about...

Everybody has a favorite...

I know a lot of librarians out there who love the leather bound books...the old style...

I agree, leather is nice...I love the smell of leather...but it's not practical for many reasons...

For 1, I have no way to print in leather bound...unless I go skin an animal myself and produce each book by hand, there is no way I'm getting this book out in leather bound...


Wouldn't that be cool though? Red dragon in a reddish brown tinted leather binding?

*nerdgasm*

But, I digress.

There are many formats of cover arts that you can find out there. And many of them are creative and beautiful.

Some of the major ones are:

• photography
• painting
• drawing
• photo-shopped surreal art
• simplistic (just colors and the necessary names)

If I could, I would splatter photographs and paintings all over my covers!

Wouldn't that just be grand?

I would love that!

However, while I can get my hands on a camera, I can't get my hands on something to take a picture of that is worth a cover...something that represents my story...

I mean...if there were dragons flying around, I would plaster them all over that book!

Again, I digress...

There are various ways of going about making a cover, and that comes from the main elements:

1. Title
2. Author(s) Name(s)
3. Presentation (picture)
4. Base color
5. Information (if desired)

These are like steps to take in making a cover that represents the story.

And you think coming up with a title is hard!

Think of the implications of this!

Okay, let me break it down for you how I do it...

First, I figure out what I have available that can represent the story...

For example, I used this for Red Dragon

Nice?

Simplistic?

Fun in fundamentals?

Man, this was a lot of work...

One main important thing is that you cannot go use a picture from the internet, because then you mess with copyright...

Don't fuck with the copyright!

So, I had to make this myself...granted, I looked online for some ideas and drew from different pictures the elements of this final idea...

In the end, it had to be a fully black and white picture, with not a gray pixel in sight.

Why?

Because this was just the base concept. I wanted color for my picture...

Granted, I published Sins of an Empire with this kind of concept, but that was actually pulled off of this, these pictures were made months ago, and Sins of an Empire's cover was made a few weeks ago.

I was originally going to go for something that had to do with the city...you know, New York City (the setting for the entire story).

What I came up with were sunsets and sunrises with silhouettes of buildings...

That's how I fit it into this...

But it's never as simple as cut and paste either, never...

When colors skew and you need a better quality of something, you have to alter everything and save copies of every step so you don't mess it up in the end...

In the end, you can have one or various kinds of pictures...hence what I came up with...

So, these beautiful pictures sit as the main setting of my covers...

But every book is presented with titles and names...

So I have to decide on the

1. size and location of title
2. color of title
3. size and location of author(s) name(s)
4. color of said name(s) (usually correlating with the title)

Then...I have to pick out the base color...for Red Dragon, it's either black or red...black or red...

That helps set up the rest of the cover, from the front, across the spine and to the back cover...which will look like this:

black edge for black cover

red edge for red cover

And these are just some examples of what I might do with it...I could change my idea altogether.

The back covers here actually have a drawing of mine on them (meant to represent Cadence) but I've learned before that drawings do not do well as a full scale cover, so I have implemented the base color.

So...as much as I would love to apply a beautiful and chic picture (photograph or painting) to my covers, I am obliged to use the best of my tools...and am disadvantaged with that.

What do you think then? Which of the seven covers should be used?

Please don't hate me! Red Dragon is almost there!

Okay, Red Dragon is going to be published soon. I promise there is good length of reasoning for which I have not yet published this piece.

Firstly...I am trying to decide on a cover, because you have to have 1...just 1...

>_< took me hours and hours to contrive an idea before I pulled up some pictures I had posted to my facebook many moons ago...

That was a funny facepalm!

So...you vote!

Cover 1: Basic

Cover 2: Sunset Beauty (right)

Cover 3: Sunset Beauty (left)

Cover 4: City Scape

Cover 5: Color Scheme

Cover 6: Simple City Sunrise

Cover 7: Surreal Sunrise

So yea...just name them by number and vote which one!

Here's a little hint: I have a poll running!

I'm trying to get this published, so if you want your vote to count, vote NOW...like NOW...

Other reason: formatting...

If any of you readers read my posts about losing 16 GB of data months ago...yea...that was a problem..

I lost a thumb drive with 16 GB of data including everything with the formatting already prepared for Red Dragon.

What does that mean?

Because I am a self published author, I format and design my entire book.

So far, I am successful, because the pages are nicely numbered with headings for the titles, etc.

Not only do pages need resized and page numbers need aligned for every chapter, but I have to make a starter page too!

*facepalm*

I just realized that one.

So, yea.

I am tied up with formatting the chapters and creating heading pages for the chapters before I publish. Because I won't settle for half assed. EVER!

It will turn out beautifully...and in the end, if you voted, the cover you liked best might just be what I put on that cover!

Red Dragon is Published

You heard me!

It's finished...

Big whooping sigh of relief!

Yay!

Now, I just have to publish U_U

Oh yea...the...published part...right...

Big hassle... I just got done with publishing Sins of an Empire...

But...you know I'll do it...

Speaking of publishing...I recently got wind of people refusing to buy print because they want ebooks for their kindles!

Is this so?

Can it be that people are now putting print out of business with electronic books?

NAH!

What harm can an electronic document do?

...

...

0_0

...

...

I'm not going to address that...

...

What I will address is that there is a particular issue surrounding ebooks...

FORMAT!

HTF do they expect people to format these things?

I can put print books together to look extremely nice...but this is crazy!

They want certain headings so that they match up with the table of contents, removing all original formatting and forming a "convenience" for the reader while the instructions suck...

I fail at self publishing...

It's official...I failed...

My writing shall have to withstand internet...because ebooks don't want to happen for me...

I'll try...maybe...maybe not...

What do you think?

Do you have a kindle or book app you like to read on?

I didn't realize there were many people with kindles...they just seem like something for rich people...not sure how you could get a kindle and subjugate yourself to the cost while dealing with bills...

Of course, my main worry is that I would then have to buy print books anyways for the text of my classes...

LOL

Vices of a college student, it seems...

But seriously, what are your thoughts?



I don't need 名前 I just need a few small thoughts from you! 

What do you think about ebooks?

Are they taking over the noveling business?

Are they taking over the world?

Will they eventually destroy the forests anyways?

Will they ruin our eyes with the light of the screens that we constantly read from?

Do many people actually want an ebook?

Post me a comment!

Random Excitement

WOO I went over 1000 views today!

WOO I just made a break through for Red Dragon!

WOO Chapter 1 of the new book (War of the Zealot Empire) is coming out soon! How soon? Prolly once we decide on a name for it...that's about how long it'll take...
(It's an epic adventure/romance...it needs an epic name of sorts)

WOO new story!
...
...
...
wait...
...
...
...
why do I keep getting these projects?
...

Sigh...yes it's true... I'm a story whore...

I have a new assassin story coming out that will be unlike any story I've done before or am doing...
1) it's a badass assassin
2) it's modern day
3) I won't release it for the next month I think...





Anyways...



...

Let me think a moment I got side tracked there.

Chapter 6 of Dorm Haze has been slow to come out, because of a question I ask myself every time I am faced with particular scenes...
Should I really publish it like this?
I eventually come to the conclusion that yes I should...
Then I resume writing...

Overall I think it'll be an interesting taste for a chapter...since you haven't been FULLY introduced to Oriantios' mentality and the relationship between him and Principal Seri...in this series



(That doesn't include Love Me Til You Leave Me)

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read this book at the Accursed Love blog.

Writer's Block

The rare moment is upon me...

What to do next?

Red Dragon is near it's finish...but it doesn't feel like an ending...

Should it be a cliff hanger? Should I explain something new?

I know you guys aren't up to speed since you cannot see the chapter I am working on...but the conflict! So heavy!

Not sure whether I should end it at this chapter or go on to the next!

Grr can't decide!

Red Dragon: Slow chapters...

Red Dragon: Slow chapters...: Soo... Currently...writing has become difficult,for two reasons. The first is that I am recovering from Carpal Tunnel, which leaves me...