Michelle Garren Flye's Blog, page 66
June 15, 2016
Ninth Stop: The Recipe Fairy
Lovely post with light-hearted excerpt over at The Recipe Fairy! Check it out here: The Recipe Fairy
Seventh Stop: The Single Librarian
Elise at The Single Librarian interviewed me about Out of Time. You can read all about it here: The Single Librarian
Sixth Stop: The Voluptuous Book Diva
The Voluptuous Book Diva has an excerpt post from Out of Time today! Stop by and read: The Voluptuous Book Diva
Special Guest Time!: Welcome Farah Evers!
Way back when I first decided to get into self-publishing, I played with making my own covers. Eventually, I realized this was not going to do the trick. I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t have the eye to make my covers stand out, and forget branding. So I started looking for a great book cover designer that I could afford. A friend recommended Farah Evers Designs, and I’ve been so grateful ever since. She’s done all three of my Sleight of Hand covers and she designed Out of Time better than I could ever hope for in spite of the fact that I asked for weird stuff like a raven mocker. And then she worked overtime to get my book trailer done in time for me to use it for promotion. So obviously, I think a lot of this lady, and I hope you’ll help me make her feel welcome here.
[image error][image error][image error] Presenting: Farah Evers![image error][image error][image error]
I would like to thank Michelle for having me today as her guest. It’s always a pleasure working with you. I wish you great success with your writing endeavors.
Let me begin with this excerpt from one of my articles, I’m Human, I Design Book Covers, which I wrote in the past about my creative process.
“A brief background
The name’s Evers, Farah Evers. I love making book covers.
I did not study Graphic Design, but I’ve worked in the industry for around 13 years. My father was one of very few people who contributed to the development of graphic design in the Arab world, back when they did things by hand, not computers. As a journalist and ex-politician at the time, he published his own magazines. I grew up watching his staff piece together bits of elements, fonts and stencils. They worked on giant desks, under intense projection lights and with utmost precision. My father’s designs were always conceptual. He would sit down and explain to me about every element and its function, and I watched him with great admiration.
In the early nineties, I discovered a software package called Corel. As people became addicted to the internet, I had owned my own ISP Company at a young age, and so I got addicted to playing with software. Corel came with its own photo editing software, which I used up until a few years ago when I made the switch to Photoshop. I use both of them today to produce my work.
“How Do I Work?
First I start by looking at the form authors are required to fill when requesting a cover. Why the form? Because it answers just enough questions, but doesn’t inundate me with information. Too much information creates a weak point in the cover creation process, methinks. I believe that the less the designer knows, the better the final product will be.
See, I like high concepts. That’s how most of the work begins, or at least how I wish I could make all my covers. Sometimes, some authors will request or even dictate what they want on a cover, and I will oblige. However, the way I approached design my entire life was from a conceptual, if not abstract angle. That’s just a personal preference, and I do understand that’s not going to always work on a commercial level, especially in this time and age.”
Creating Out of Time
I started by creating the key elements Michelle requested, like the symbolic raven mocker, mountain laurels, clocks, and so on.
In order to incorporate all elements she wanted, I began by creating each one separately. There was no available stock of raven mockers, so having to improvise, I started by combining an actual raven with a Native Amrican’s body. The result was something like this:
Next, I needed a time portal of sorts, but without losing the authenticity of the fantasy feel. Here the introduction of a fantastical element, without it verging on sci-fi is considered, especially since I needed to incorporate a clock with the exact same feel. This piece seemed appropriate.
At this point, I decided to choose a nice font that represented the genre. There were more elements missing, but first I had to make sure the design was coming together.
At this point, I would have called the cover done, but of course, the mountain laurels were missing. I added a pattern for the top and bottom, as well as the flowers to finish representing the author’s vision. Final touches were a couple of flares, and the result was a cover Michelle immediately approved.
I’ve only recorded my process once. If you’re interested in seeing a cover come together, you can watch me create a cover here.
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June 12, 2016
Time is not your friend.
Immortality and everlasting love are two of the meanings of mountain laurel.
This morning I taught my nine-year-old how to make waffles because it’s summer, everybody’s getting up at a different time…and, well, she’s nine. It’s time to start doing some basic stuff for yourself like making your own breakfast. But as soon as I thought that, I realized something.
She’s nine years old. How did that happen?
Time isn’t our friend, is it? It rushes us along, always on its schedule, never paying attention to the moments we want to stand still and enjoy like our vacations and celebrations. Time only takes a breather when we’re standing in line at the DMV or going to an unpleasant doctor’s appointment. Then Time says, “Hold up there, what’s your rush?” And the seconds slowly become minutes and seem like hours.
I’ve been fascinated by the concept of time for most of my life, I think. I remember my mother telling me once how long it would take for the Jello she’d just put into the refrigerator to jell. An hour.
How long is an hour? I said.
She probably rolled her eyes and sighed, but I remember her laughing a little. “Sixty minutes.”
Sixty minutes? How could I possibly live that long? I wanted the Jello now. And yet, when I ran along and played with my Barbie dolls, all of sudden, an hour had passed. And I was enjoying a plateful of jiggly green Jello that I could poke with my fork to see it wobble and not get fussed at for playing with my food.
My obsession with time has continued through the years. Don’t rush it, people say when you’re trying your best to get through one stage of your life—high school, college, the first years of married life, the first stage of child-rearing, the lean years during your first jobs when you’re not making much money…
And they’re right. Because all of a sudden you’re teaching your nine-year-old baby who’s sprouted ridiculously long legs to make waffles. Or reaching up to give your 12-year-old a hug. Or teaching your 16-year-old to drive. All because it’s time. And you were never allowed to stand still for those moments in time that you’ll always treasure but can never go back to.
And all of this is to say that on Wednesday, my book Out of Time, which explores some of my thoughts about time, will mark another point in my timeline. And this time, I’ll be enjoying that moment with you right here on my blog. I’ll be posting throughout the day about Out of Time and what it means in my personal quest to understand the rush of time. Please stop by with any questions about my writing, thoughts about time, comments about the weather…whatever. And at high noon, the pinnacle of the hours of the day…I’ll have a special guest here. Then at 7 p.m. (Eastern), as the hours of the day draw to a close, I’ll choose one commenter from a random drawing to receive the grand prize of a Kindle Fire!
So take a few moments from your day and stop by. Help me make the most of the day…before we’re out of time.
May 29, 2016
May 20, 2016
Less than a month to Launch…and another excerpt!
It’s less than one month to the Out of Time Launch Party (June 15). Remember, we’ll be celebrating right here all day long with a special guest, door prizes and a grand prize Kindle Fire giveaway. I hope you’ll all join me. In the meantime, here’s another short excerpt from Out of Time to pique your interest…
There was nothing remarkable about this space more than any other. A small clearing in the woods, tall grass brushing Aylin’s withers, starred with little blue flowers. Kaelyn turned her horse in a circle, looking around, her scalp prickling. “There’s something here.”
“What do you feel?”
“It feels like—not danger, exactly. More like…possibility. Though I can’t say of what. But it’s there.”
“Where?” Cerys hadn’t drawn her sword. Whatever it was Kaelyn sensed, it wasn’t imminent danger, anyway, or her friend would certainly have been ready to do battle.
Kaelyn closed her eyes, feeling the wind brushing the hair from her temples. Her horse whinnied in protest of some unseen hazard. Behind her eyelids, she could see it sparkling, wavering in the air before her. She opened her eyes and pointed. “There.”
“Can you see it?” Tamsin peered at the empty air where Kaelyn pointed.
She couldn’t before, but now realized she could. As if on the edge of her vision, the air was a slightly different color—or, just as likely, a slightly different scent—than the air around it. Rose-colored. Rose-scented. The smell of a promise, the color of a dream. “Yes.” She shifted her gaze to Jack, who sat quietly on his horse. “It’s the portal.” She felt certain he’d brought her this way on purpose. He wanted to find out if she could see it.
He inclined his head. Something about his look troubled her. Had he hoped she wouldn’t know? This was the thing he guarded. Did Jack worry that she would want to go through it?
May 13, 2016
May 3, 2016
Welcome to the Red Carpet
This week, I get the fun of having my first Red Carpet World Premiere of a book trailer. We can dig our toes into the plush carpet (no shoes required at this premiere) and enjoy the book trailer for Out of Time here:
To add to the fun, please enjoy this short excerpt from the book:
The police detective frowned at Kaelyn. She studied his face, thinking how different he looked than Jack, or even Todd and Richard. Handsome, but not overwhelmingly so. Down to earth. This man passed for a warrior in the human world, but now that she’d seen real warriors in action, she feared for humans. Nothing about this man suggested he could fight with a sword or defeat an enemy or swing acrobatically from the treetops. And yet men once had. Kaelyn wondered what had changed here on Eladi and if life for humans was different on Ayeli before they were driven to extinction by the Elves. From the few stories she’d heard, the war had been a fierce one. Were those humans really gone? A sense of loss filled her heart at the thought. At least the Meti had survived, even if they had been driven to seek shelter elsewhere.
The detective stood, startling her. She jerked out of her reverie. “What’s your name, Detective?”
“Eric.” He said it as if he knew she was asking for his first name. Then he corrected himself. “Detective Eric Shapiro, ma’am.” To her surprise, he bowed his head, much as others had bowed to her since she became a queen.
“Can I go, Eric?”
The detective opened his mouth as if to answer, then, looking uncomfortable, shut it again. He shuffled papers on the desk and mumbled something about being right back, exiting without looking at her.
