Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 13

APoS-Derry cover

It's settled. This is the paperback cover of A Place of Safety-volume one-Derry. It's been uploaded to Ingram and I should be getting a pdf proof in a few days. It took some back and forth, mainly because I didn't know what the fuck I wanted or how to achieve it, but I like this. Strong. Evocative. Dramatic. It fits.

Emily Jackson of Eliteminds LLC did a great job figuring out what I was asking for and was very patient with me and my adjustments. This is so much better than what I'd have developed.

I think this will be the template for volumes 2 and 3. I'll just change the flags used and the street scene for something of Houston and then of...hell, I dunno yet. Crowd scene from the hunger strike protests? Funeral? Still thinking on that.

With Simon's Murder, moments are starting to nudge me. Add this and do that and have something happen here instead of there kinds of things. Hearing about yet more cops getting away with murder around the US, and now even in the UK, I think my reticence about this story is way out of place. I'm going to make it as mean-assed as possible.

Got a scan of my liver, today, to check some things. I have a report of what they did or didn't do, or something, and I think it says I'm good. At least, not crashing to any problems. But I'll know more when my doctor calls to discuss it...if it needs discussing.

God, I'm tired of getting old.

Slouching towards a decision...

Regarding the current political chaos in Washington ... hell, around the world ... this poem comes to mind ...

The Second Coming 

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!
Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

It was written by Irish poet William Butler Yeats in 1919, after the end of WW1 and just as England was about to send the Black and Tans into Ireland to reassert their dominance. Didn't work. Just caused more death and destruction. But that's the stupidity of the political class and those in power. No connection to reality, and no memory of the past.

What this has led me to is that my next project will probably be Simon's Murder, the new title of Misdemeanor. It had started to scare me, when I was working on it, before, so I backed away. It still does. But I'm ready to go as deep into it as I must. No squirming about making it real, because a lot of me is going into Simon ... a lot of my anger. I hope people are ready.

I hope I am.

I did it, again...

I liked this mock up of the cover for APoS-Derry. The barbed wire was my suggestion...but apparently it gives people Holocaust vibes. Which works if you've already read the book, since the Bogside of Derry did become a near ghetto under the British...

BUT...

I want people to be interested in reading the book, and this cover wasn't gonna get them to do that. It's stark in the extreme. So I've decided to start over. Add some color...maybe in the outline of the title and my name. Dunno, yet. I've let the designer know and she's open to restarting. I just need to up my game.

Something else was reworking the info on the back cover into something that got a much more positive reaction. Here's what I did:

In this wrenching coming-of-age epic set during The Troubles, Northern Ireland’s civil rights turmoil of the 1960s & 70s, Brendan Kinsella was just a boy trying to keep himself apart from the worst of it. A savant at fixing things, all he wanted was to marry a girl he loved, raise a family, and live his life in peace. But history was exploding around him, and it had different plans.

“The arc of Brendan’s (growing) maturity is depicted with great subtlety and restraint by Sullivan (during) what came to be known as “the Troubles.” This is an engrossing and intelligent work.” BookLife 

 “Raw, pulsing with life and danger, and building to a hard-to-shake climax, this epic novel ... centers on Brendan Kinsella, “a lad filled with hopes and dreams and prayers and promises” in Northern Ireland during the tumultuous 1960s...” Kirkus Reviews 

 Kyle Michel Sullivan is a writer and self-involved artist who’s lived in London, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, and a dozen places in-between. His artwork has been purchased by collectors, and he used to write screenplays, which is how A Place of Safety began life. But it expanded and became a three-volume novel about an Irish Catholic boy during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. His goal is to build characters as vivid and real as possible.

Shorter and more involving, I think...I hope...

I don't understand the writing process...

Never have. I come at writing a book or screenplay from all sorts of angles...plotting it out in detail and not, character lists both detailed and not, jumping in with no idea beyond the basic premise, using an old book to ground it...and it always works the same. The characters take over and do things i wasn't planning on...things I hadn't even thought of.

With APoS, in Derry I made reference to Brendan's father telling stories in exchange for a drink, but being a drunk and never able to tell his kids those stories because he was too drunk. So Brendan never believed he was any good. That was my only point, for it.

Until in Home Not Home he learns some of his father's stories were recorded on tape, and finally hears him tell one, and it's elegant. It changes him...and helps his brother, Eamonn. And sets up his own decision to tell stories, as well...and does.

That was something that was referenced in New World For Old. Not directly, but Everett and Jeremy share their stories with Brendan. Other people talk about themselves, a bit, but those two reveal their own realities to him. And he listens.

None of this was in the original drafts of volumes 2 and 3. They grew from within, almost organically, without conscious thought by me. I make jokey little comments about touching the ether of creation and having a muse to lead me, in my characters and the paths they choose to follow, but in truth none of this is deliberate or calculated. It just happens.

And has, over and over, if I want to be honest. Once I settle down and truly listen to the characters, they show me what is meant to be. And I have no idea where that comes from. 

Clarification...

I should say, I used to have a website through GoDaddy, but it was very basic and never really helped me in any way. Now they all have droplets and videos and slide shows and nonstop graphics, none of which I can do. Nor do I want to. I want someone to do something complex and lovely, like this...sketching with light...for free.

Isn't that just my way?

I've settled on a graphics designer for my covers. So I've been pulling together the information I want to go on them...front, spine and back. The log line under the title on the front, a short synopsis and couple of review quotes on the back, with some credits for who did the design and my company logo.

Price is a lot better than I thought it would be. I was hoping to hear from some people in Houston before I settled, but they haven't gotten back to me, yet, so it's decided. I still have a change to make to the cover style, but overall...it'll be good. And is a lot better than I could have come up with.

I dug through the reviews I got through BookLife...and one comment stopped me cold. From New World For Old...Again, the narrative voice is intimately insistent, touched with music, frank about dark feelings and events...

That helps minimize my insecurity about what I've done with this story. My self-confidence is not great, here, and reminding myself of what others have said about it wipes away a lot of doubt.

I dug a bit more into the service that will work up a website, in WordPress, and found I already have the level of service I need for them. Of course, they're also offering a dozen other things to make it all better, but I want to see how this turns out, first. GoDaddy talked me into spending hundreds of dollars for things than I could not make use of.

Of course.

Am I stupid?

I tried out a couple of things on this cover, using my own Photoshop abilities, and I kind of like this. Keep the street scene, my name as it is, and the log-line under the barbed wire...but I think the lettering of the title should be outlined, to emphasize it. Then the barbed wire can wrap around the book and continue over all of them, really. That way I connect them.

I spent the rest of today trying to set up a site on WordPress that I can use to post links to buy my books, using their tutorials and explanations...and the best I could achieve was this. It looks really amateurish, but I could not get the images to let me embed a link to the sales sites in them, at all. And I do not like having the full address below them as the link because it looks clumsy.

WordPress offers a service where they'll build your site for $500, but may require I upgrade to a higher level of service to do it. Gotta think about that.

I'd let this just go by the wayside, but everything I read regarding selling my work has a website as being one of the most important aspects. And I don't have one. Nor have I really done as much as I could to get my mainstream books noticed, before now.

My gay erotica I can garner interest by posting those links on Tumblr and BDSMLR. I also got some sold off GayDemon. But nothing works on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Granted, my writing does not bring in huge amounts of money; just enough to justify continuing it. But I was having fun with it.

I wonder if that's part of the reason for my malaise? I'm not really enjoying myself, anymore. It's become like a job.

Prep and research...

I've set up all my books with Ingram Spark Direct, including the hardcover of David Martin . Now they can all be purchased through Ingram at a discounted price. This is good for both the US and UK, and I think Canada but won't swear to that. Everywhere else has to order at full price through Amazon, WH Smith, or the like.

I also worked up a cheat sheet, of a sort, for them all. Easy cut and paste links for the ebooks as well as the physical copies. One for the gay erotica, one for the mainstream titles. Keep them separate, to an extent. Just need to find a place to post them.

I looked into a couple of options, online, but seems there are a lot of sneaks out there promising the moon then delivering nothing. Book.by and PayHip do not have stellar reputations, for example. And my experiences with GoDaddy were not great.

I guess I could set up a new blog on Tumblr...but they get nasty about erotica and flat out will not let me post a couple of my titles. I guess I could go for WordPress, but I know some people who use that and it seems kind of clunky.

God, my eyes are crossed, and that's just from trying to find a hosting platform. This is way out of my depth...

Meh...

Got my first suggestions back for the cover of APoS-Derry...and we are not impressed. One was a cameo of a boy's head with a sketch of barbed wire run along the bottom of the image, like a cute rendition of Auschwitz. I actually jolted at how wrong it was.

This is the other one: not really bad but not all that interesting, either...though I do like the image of the street. Maybe outlining the letters to emphasize them? Softening the edges of the block holding the title? Have barbed wire wrapped around the title and across the bottom, over my name...or under? A different font? Would that work? I dunno.

Maybe what I'm telling them I want is too confusing...

I’d like the title to read:
A Place of Safety
Volume One
Derry

Or something along those lines. With this as the tag line: "A young Catholic boy in Northern Ireland is drawn into the political tumult of the 1960s & ‘70s in this thrilling tour of an historically volatile conflict."

I don't want sketches. I prefer it be more dark and don't mind stark. I don't like busy imagery. I'm looking for something that is more immediate and intense.
Is that too vague? Too scattershot? Lacking in enough detail? I really don't know. How do I get across that I want something intense and captivating?
Another artist is working up something, so we'll see what they come up with. But shit, I can do as well as this, and I don't charge me anything.

Seeking...

I posted queries on a couple of writing groups I belong to, on Facebook, and not one of the people who responded had any sample of their work up in their profiles. They're all, "Hi, love to work with you on this..." but to find out what their style is, let alone their ability, I have to go through the whole respond and DM and accept DMs and then get links to their website.

Only to finally find out that while they do lovely art, half of it's been geared towards light works and children's books. Romantic-comedies. Sci-Fi. Personal improvement and spirituality.

I'm working with one to see what she comes up with for APoS-Derry, at her request. I've sent her links to the BookLife and Kirkus reviews, also the pdf of the template from Ingram, and let her know I don't want sketch-oriented or too busy, so we'll see how it goes.

I don't like people working on spec for me. I've done that as a writer and got taken serious advantage of. So even if I don't go for what she does, I'm paying her something. It's only right.

There's another one who's being more cagey, even though I've told her the same thing as the first illustrator. She might work something up to see what I think...but I'm not pushing.

I've put aside a bit of money for this. Not a lot but enough to cover the three volumes, I think. And I understand Ingram will work them up as a box set, if I want. No decisions made, yet.

I also need to work up a website. Something I can direct people to for all my books and links to buy them. Maybe even buy them through me. Which I could set up with PayPal. I guess.

I'm waiting for the final review to come in from Kirkus before I finalize anything. What I have done is connected all three hardcover volumes to Ingram Direct Sales and priced them each under $20, which is a lot better than $32.50. Cutting out the distributors saves a shitload of money...so long as you're buying them in the US or UK. Anywhere else is through the major online guys.

God, this would have been so much simpler if I'd been able to get a publisher to take them on...

Still blank...

I spent the day trying to work out a decent cover image for APoS' trilogy, and can't come up with anything that really excites me.

For example, Home Not Home. I spent hours prepping one using this photo of the Free Derry wall. I took it in 2002...and thought it might work, but it came out all wrong. Even with the image softened to 50% opacity and in monochrome, it was busy and confusing.

I tried removed the lamp posts and fencing, since those weren't there in 1981, but it didn't help. Nor could i find a good font for the title.

I've also thought about just using the title and my name on the front cover, colored in some combination of the Union Jack...but that's red, white and blue. Like the American flag. Northern Ireland doesn't have its own flag, like Scotland and Wales do. I'd have to do the Irish, which isn't really correct.

Another possibility is digging up images from each period to use as the background, then faking a cover that's been torn off in strips to reveal it, with the title on the remains of the cover. If that makes any sense. I dunno. Can't see the reason for it.

The hardback covers are a progression of Brendan from boy to damaged young man to lost soul, and I like how they turned out. But they're far more subtle than what I want for the paperbacks.

I guess I'll cast around in my Facebook groups and see if anyone is open to doing the covers for a nominal rate. I won't not pay them, but I haven't got all that much cash to work with.