Latest Cover: In Full Flight

It's a week for covers, although I'm starting to see the end of the 'to do' list on these. I might start taking photographs after this.

Here is the latest cover. It's for a young adult chapter book in Carlie Simonsen's Wings series, and it was a bit darker than the ones that have gone before it, so the cover had to match. I learned a couple of useful tricks while doing this cover, too, so I'll try to remember and write them up once the rest of the covers are done.

I used photographs from the following Dreamstime artists to create this cover. They are: Talashow (silhouette of man and tower); Isselee (wings on man silhouette); Designerartsolutions (boy); and Jill Lang (wings on boy). All other weirdness due to cropping, colourising, and playing with hue, saturation and lightness/darkness is mine.

Jack’s dad has a secret—a sad secret. He has never told Jack how he lost his wings. One day he does, and Jack’s world changes. At the same time, someone from his parents’ past comes into their present, and they must work out how to stop things from the past happening all over again.

In Full Flight is the third book in the Wings chapter book series, set around a family with wings and bird-like feet. This book is darker than the other two, dealing with themes of difference, discrimination at a state level, and finding a place to belong.

Latest Cover: Welcome to the Fruit Platter

Sixth cover for the week - and last cover for the January releases over at C.M. Simpson Publishing - which leaves me with one cover to do for February, after this one. This was a cover for Ellie Moonwater's latest urban fantasy erotic romance novel involving a pair of werewolves and the daughter of an elf and a human painter. There are wizards and seers, as well, but I thought I'd keep it pretty much to the main characters: two werewolves and a woman.

Their descriptions in the novel are pretty clear, but no-one told the photographers, so I worked with the closes matches I could find. There's nothing really fancy here, just some isolation work, and a little colour shading to darken up one of the wolves. I was privileged to work with photos from the following Dreamstime artists: Yekophotostudio (the blonde woman); Lynn Byrstrom (the wolves); Warrengoldswain (the businessman); curaphotography (the dark-haired man); and Ruckzack (the forest background). Some manipulation occurred so any weirdness is all mine.

Swept into a whirlwind courtship with two werewolves, Louise has just one problem—the secret she is keeping from the pack. When her mates discover what she’s been holding back, will they stand by her? And what of the pack? Louise must choose: trust in them, or run? Either way, a sanctuary seems a lifetime away.

WARNING: Welcome to the Fruit Platter contains explicit, consensual and kinky sex, some spanking, two very lust-driven werewolves, multiple scenes of menage, mfm, and some wizards on the prowl.

Latest Cover: A Planet's Ransom

Sunday was a good day for covers. This is the third cover completed that day. It's for A Planet's Ransom, the second book in Carlie Simonsen's Space Adventures series, and it features art and photography from Forplayday (the planets); kikujungboy (girl with gun); and Syda Productions (young soldier), all of whom can be found at Dreamstime.com.

I used the neon edge distortion in GIMP to make the people shiny, and also played with opacity, darkness, contrast, colour and hue, so any weirdness is all my fault.

Made hostages for a world whose international leaders didn’t know how to behave, we ended up on a new world, one we have to make our own, where every step of civilisation has to be earned, all over again. It’s meant to be a world to hide the secret of our survival—but not all the aliens believe we have a right to survive. Torn between two rival factions of an alien race, we have to save our keepers, defeat our hunters, and get a message to the stars.

And that’s just if we want to live.

Making a place for humanity, is another task altogether.

A Planet’s Ransom is the second book in the Space Adventures series, a series of science fiction adventures set in space, or on the colonies of newly discovered worlds. Each book is a stand-alone story that can be read without needing to read other books in the series.

Latest Cover: The Queen's Game

So, Sunday I got stuck into the covers that were queued over the weekend, and I finalised a second cover. This one's for a very dark urban fantasy short story by C.M. Simpson. The Queen's Game is a mix of photography and art work by Suwatchai Pluemruetai (the tunnel entrance photograph),  at Dreamstime; Andrey Kiselev (the elf lord art); and David Prado (the woman running away). There is a little colour, saturation and isolation manipulation, so any weirdness is mine. Here's the cover.

Never get involved with the Otherworld Fey. Take my word for it. I saved the Queen of Summer, and was betrothed to a lord of Winter by way of thanks—and then the human underworld got involved. So what do I do, when every choice is bad? What would you choose: death by troll, or the mercy of an elf?

Latest Cover: 366 Days of Flash Fiction

This was a nice, simple cover to do, with spectacular photography from Watjarin Julawong at Dreamstime.com, and words randomly rolled from stories within the collection itself.

Inside these covers is a short story for every day of the leap year, some of which tell of the fantastic, others which take us to the stars and a myriad of other world, and still others that horrify with creeping tales of the undead. Every story is an exploration of something that might have been and never was, or something that might yet be. Take a break from the world that is, and explore other possibilities.

Latest Cover: The Trading Game: Zach

The third cover for the week is for Ellie Moonwater's latest erotic science fiction adventure story, which has elements of romance. It's called: The Trading Game: Zach and is the second book in Ellie's The Mentraden Training Centre series. It's been a while since I made one of these. I hope she likes it.

The cover uses photography from Katalinks at Dreamstime (the male model), as well as artwork from Algol (the spaceship) and ezumeimages (the starscape background).

Zach has been searching for a Dom to partner for a very long time, a partner he can give control to, knowing they can be trusted to be in charge, and Agathia looks like she can more fill the role, right up until Zach discovers she’s not alone, and he has two partners to deal with, instead of one… then the shape-shifting shen take the ship, and things get complicated.

The Trading Game is an erotic science fiction adventure story, containing elements of romance, light bondage, slave-capture fantasy, multiple partners, mfm partnering, bondage, and explicit, kinky and consensual sex, as well as gun fights, fist fights, and underhanded dealings.