by Roseanna White | Feb 4, 2015 | Cover Designs
WhiteFire has contracted a series that’s going to be so much fun. This is a stand-alone series, where each book will be able to stand totally on its own and be read out of order, set around the Worlds Fairs of the early 20th century. History, romance, and a bit of suspense in each one…yes, please!
The author is Suzie Johnson, author of Sweet Mountain Music and some contemporaries too. Suzie is a complete sweetheart, and it’s a true pleasure to work with her. So naturally, I want to give her the best possible covers for this series. (Okay, I always want to give an author the best possible cover, LOL. But you know.) I started playing around months ago.
The time period is Edwardian. Always fun…but stock photos are limited. My first idea combined this photo:
with this photo of the PanAmerican Expo in Buffalo:
Which resulted in this:
Not a bad starting place. We both really liked it. And we came this close to going with it…but here’s the problem. I couldn’t replicate the layout for the other books in the series–agghhhh!
So I kept going back to the drawing board. First trying, trying, trying to find images that would work for books 2 and 3 along a similar line. And failing, failing, failing. My search for Edwardian images led me all over the web.
I even came across some public domain photography of the actress Lily Elsie, on which Suzie’s heroine, Clara, is based.
And then, on Deviant Art, I came across a stunning colorization of her.
Oh. My. Gracious. I was in love. I promptly downloaded it, slapped the existing title on it, and sent it to Suzie to see if I was just insane or if this was It. She assured me I wasn’t crazy, LOL, that this would be a GORGEOUS cover.
So I emailed the artist from Deviant Art and prayed, prayed, prayed she would answer and let us use her gorgeous work. And in the meantime, did a bit of research, learning that any photograph taken before 1924 is considered public domain, so yes, we’re okay with using one of Lily.
Well much to our delight, the artist, Alena Dufkova, was happy to let us use her colorization, and agreed to do more for us for the later books in the series! Yay!
My work on this one was really easy. I zoomed the photo so that the book cover will cut off the upper part of her hair, a bit of her side, and leave me some space for the title. Then I selected the background and flipping it around so that the space behind Lily/Clara on our cover wouldn’t be so empty.
In this photo, you’re also seeing the 2 small tweaks we needed to make to make Lily into Clara–hair needed to be auburn, and eyes green. This is an easy fix. For the hair, I select it with my Quick Select tool
Then I adjust the color balance of the selection, edging it more toward red.
A subtle change, but all that we needed. =) I just went in with the paintbrush to get her eyes green, and then it was time for the font treatment.
I liked the fonts we used on the first comp of the cover, so I did that again, using The Alistaren Beta font from www.dafont.com. This time I added a gradient overlay to “Fair” and “Remember.” I chose a frame, made the frame white, and filled it with a complementary color, faded to 70% opacity.
Instead of the series name saying “Book 1,” I decided we’d put the year–that way anyone who wanted to read them in chronological order could, but no one would look at it and say “Gee, I can’t read this one, it’s book 2…”
Adding Suzie’s name to the bottom, we get a “Voila!”
by Roseanna White | Feb 2, 2015 | Word of the Week
We think of our conscience as part of our spirit or soul…something that operates apart from thought. Our consciences are the little cricket on our shoulder telling us right from wrong. Right? It’s something we feel in our gut and have to learn to listen to.
Well the word conscience is pretty telling–it’s no coincidence that the word science is in it. Science, you see, literally means “knowledge” in Latin. And con means “with.” So conscience literally means “with knowledge.” Common use applied it to that knowledge within oneself, a meaning that moved into Old French and from there to Old English.
So it’s not separate from our intellect–in fact, I would say it’s something that binds our intellect to our spirit, and to our will.
Although hey, if you need a cricket to help you out… 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 29, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Be good. It’s a familiar refrain, one we probably say to our children a gazillion times. Whenever we send them off to a friend’s house, or on those days when The Sibling Wars are especially fierce. It’s understood that there are the good things to do and the bad. That those are, to a point, what define us. That it’s by what we’re judged by the people around us, at the least.
And in my ongoing quest to figure out how to be who God wants me to be in this world that seems more intent upon pursuing all the bad things rather than the good, I came across this verse.
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.”
~ I Peter 2:15-17
In this section, Peter is cautioning people to live a Godly life before the world, abstaining from lusts of the flush and sinful things. Obeying the government. Then these verses above. I’ve no doubt read them quite a few times, but they really struck me the last time I did. Look closely.
By doing good you my put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
What does that mean? It means that our actions speak louder than the words of our enemies, of our detractors. It means that by doing good, doing the will of God, we point to Him, and in the face of it, no one can really say anything bad about us. It means that by being/doing good, we force the other side to bite their tongues. Because how can they argue with what is universally acknowledged as good?
But then it goes on. Let’s examine verse 16. …as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice…
This reminds me of the part in I Corinthians where Paul says, “Look, guys. You’re free from the law. That means all things are lawful for you. But don’t be stupid. It doesn’t mean all things are good for you, that all things are helpful. Act like they are and you’re just going to become a slave to them.” (That’s the Roseanna paraphrase.)
We are free. Yes, absolutely. Faith in Jesus frees us from law, from religion. But we’re still responsible for our actions in the world. And what’s more, people are still watching us. So we don’t want to use freedom as an excuse to do bad things. That’s just stupid. We have to find the balance to strike–embracing the freedom without abusing it. Rejecting the chains of the law, be it the ancient ones that Jesus was arguing with or the ones the church was pretty quick to develop within the first couple hundred years of Christianity–but not betraying the spirit behind all those constricting rules.
And here’s the clincher. …as bondservants of God.
I’ve talked before about what it really means to be a bondservant of God. (Read that post here. It’s one I go back to frequently.) In a nutshell, it means we freely turn our will over to Him. We swear to serve Him for all our lives, and in return we become part of His family, part of His household. A servant, yes, but one beloved by our master and even able to inherit. So if we’re living out our liberty as bondservants of God, then that means EVERYTHING WE DO is for Him. In His interests. What He asks of us.
It means we’re going to show respect to those in authority. We’re going to love our brethren in Christ. We’re going to be good citizens. We’re never going to forget what God can do. We’re going to be good. And because we are, others will see and respect us and love us and seek God. It means that the worst thing people will be able to say about us is that we follow a strange God who doesn’t do the things that the world does, doesn’t worship what the world worships, and leads others to this same God.
Now that’s a criticism we should all seek to have lobbed at us!
by Roseanna White | Jan 26, 2015 | Word of the Week
Willy-nilly. It’s a phrase I’ve heard most of my life, and I knew how to use it. But it wasn’t until a few years ago, when I was reading an old book and saw it written a different way, that I had a clue where in the world this word came from. In this book, it was written will he, nill he.
Suddenly it made more sense! It wasn’t just a silly sounding word meant to portray a crazy method of doing things by its very sound (although…). It was a contraction! (Go ahead–say “duh” if you must, LOL.)
This phrase has been around since about 1600 and appeals to the verb will not in the “being” sense, but in the “purpose or intent” sense. So will he, nill he (or I or ye) meant “whether he means to or not.” If something was done willy-nilly, it was without obvious purpose, haphazardly.
Now to begin my week in a way not willy-nilly. 😉
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 