Jay Swanson's Blog, page 10

Fashion World Contest Announcement – Steps of Krakador

So the folks over at Fashion World have announced a contest for makeup artists around the world, centered on the inspiration of my books! We selected a number of related images and put them in a dropbox folder where artists can go look, get inspired, and create something to submit!

The competition will be running until the 17th, at which point they’ll choose a winner and I’ll hand out a prize (signed copies of my books, of course). The real prize for these guys though, I think, is probably the exposure they’ll get from winning a competition with Fashion World. Within the first year of their existence, they’ve almost gathered 100k followers and are growing rapidly.

I’ll talk about it some here in my Monday vlog:

If you know anyone who you think would like to enter into the competition, be sure to pass this along to them! There’s a lot more coming in the near future, all kinds of random stuff happening, but this is probably one of the most unique you’ll see with this release. I’m excited to see what people make, and to share some of the entries with you here!

If you don’t have a Kindle, here are some instructions on how to pirate my ebook.

Don’t forget! The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador comes out May 20th!

Of course, side note: I already messed something up in the upload process with the printer – I’m about 70% sure it’s my fault, so hopefully it doesn’t prolong the process any… d’oh.

Steps of Krakador: Cover Art by Nimit Malavia

Well you’ve all waited a long time to see this. If it wasn’t for your ability to scroll past these words at will I’d make you wait just a little bit longer while I reminisce over what you’re about to see (or have already seen, as you scrolled down impatiently before reading anything – dang it).

Cover art represents a lot of things, and has to fulfill a lot of goals. It has to be catchy, visually stimulating, and essentially get past the first stage known as the “I’m gonna judge this book by its cover,” stage. It has to communicate something about the story, or a lot of things about the story, and yet not so much as to give anything away. The goal is to create intrigue, and to leave you with a desire to pick it up and give it a try.

That’s a lot to ask from a single image. It’s also a lot to follow up on when you see the cover art that has come before this one (White Shores / Tomb of the Relequim).

My original sketch wasn’t going to cut it.

When I found Nimit Malavia‘s work I was living in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and never thought I’d get to know him. I saw his style and loved it. I loved his ability to capture emotions, and those moments where you realize along with the subject that something isn’t quite right. The man is talented, with an incredible eye for detail and – above all in my book – an amazing capacity to capture just what you should feel through his pen.

With this cover I needed exactly that skill. I wanted to capture this moment because I knew it was powerful, and I knew it was memorable. Thankfully my buddy Liz introduced us.

To be honest I had intended to wait to recruit Nimit for a later project which we had talked about before (illustrated hard cover full-trilogy edition anyone?), but as things turned out we worked together a little bit earlier than planned. For this I am truly grateful.

The dude is solid, and the level of his skill is evident.

Enough banter. Here it is, the cover art for The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador

 

Are you excited yet? I hope so, because I am! This is the third and final installment in the trilogy, and it’s going to come out very soon.

How soon, you might be asking? How does May 20th sound?

But I can’t do it alone! I need help getting the word out. I have some schemes and strategies in the works, but they mean nothing without people to make it happen. I’ll be posting more here soon, and you can always sign up for my newsletter to get the right updates at the right times!

I’m always up to fresh ideas as well! There will be a contest/giveaway and possibly a video on the way, both ideas of people who wanted to support me as we move forward. Feel free to jump in and help, and leave a comment on just how best you think we could get the word out there!

And of course, if you haven’t read the first two yet, you’ve got three weeks to get on it!

 

Preparing to Launch the New Book

So as I get ready to launch my third book, The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador, I have a lot of things to take into consideration. One is how do I actually get people’s attention so that they know it’s been launched? This was a major problem with the second book, as I never really did anything to alert people that it was coming out (I just kind of pushed it out the door and moved on – a mistake to be sure, but I was at a rough point in life). The other consideration I have to take into account is when I get their attention, how damn handsome will I look?

That’s why it’s time to update the profile picture. My buddy Tom Bradley took some great shots of me here in Paris, and I held a little vote on Facebook (on my personal page, sorry everyone – I’m sick and not thinking clearly). Here’s what I posted, and asked people to vote on their favorite for my new social media avatar:

Somewhere along the line people started listing which ones they liked instead of choosing just one, so I wound up counting those as individual votes (how on earth am I supposed to know which one they really prefer?). There were a number of comments on how handsome I am, and others about how maybe I should pick one where it’s harder to see my face, but in the end, with well over 100 votes cast, my face won.

There were two very clear favorites, with two distant runners-up and a few that barely got a nod (and everyone wants that arrow in #3 gone). I was pretty surprised by the outcome, actually.

For one, I thought more people would vote for #4, even though I had made sure to say that it would wind up being used in the book either way. While I’m not terribly surprised that #1 won, it wasn’t a favorite going in and was even originally pooh-poohed by Tom, the photographer (though he later voted for it). In reading through the comments I thought #3 was going to come in with far more votes.

I had a fun time reading through people’s reasoning as to why I should choose one photo or the other, but the professionals weighing in all seemed to say #1, and in the end the masses apparently agreed. I’m glad, because I’m pretty happy with your choice. Again, sorry it wasn’t open to the internet at large – next time I’ll make a poll on my page and share that from there (which will also save me the pain of tallying votes by hand).

So over 100 votes later and after a little movie magic by PJ Accetturo, here’s what we’ve got:

Don’t all run for the hills at once, I’m friendly. Promise.

So there we go, a new avatar has been selected. There can be only one! However, the runners up will be available in my media kit as I work to rebuild it, so this won’t be the last you’ll see of them. I think I’ll keep my original photo (with the sunglasses in Sierra Leone) on the cover of the third book for consistency, but the castle photo is definitely going into the back section and will find its way onto the cover of my fourth book.

Thank you Tom for taking such great photos! And of course to Jess, his lovely assistant who kept reminding me to smile for real. And a hat tip to PJ for some added edits.

Stay tuned for the reveal on my new cover art! It’s finished, I just have to decide when to release it. Maybe I’ll make a poll about that…

But I will tell you this much: The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador will be available in a matter of weeks! If you need to re-read the first two to get ready (as I’m told people are already doing), you’ll want to get started asap!

Don’t wander far. More to come very soon.

Don’t Wave at French Cops – French Friday 13

Consider this your pro tip for the unlucky 13th French Friday – attempting to avoid at least one source of potential problems when you travel to the wonderful land of France.



I’m way behind on the blog aspect of all of this, and it’s been a stretch to keep up with Vlog Every Day in April (of which this is number 26). It couldn’t have happened at a more inopportune time; I haven’t been this busy in months. To give you a summarized rundown, I’ve had some massive projects come my way with Mercy Ships, and endless (and I mean endless) stream of visitors including my family – which has been lovely – the edits and cover art on my third book are finally done (or almost done) and I have to try and get that ready to push, I have to organize the push, I have friends leaving Paris I’m trying to spend time with and others who have just gotten here.

I’ve also been asked to contribute to a blog (which I’ll share about more later) and am debating which continent I want to live on come August. There are only really two in the running, but I’m open to whatever comes my way.

Needless to say, I’m pretty swamped (I had to turn down some freelance design work this week even) and don’t have time for much of anything.

I’ll talk about what I’ve learned through all of this, but after I’ve gotten some more sleep. I can certainly tell you that the quality of what I’ve been producing has suffered, though, and I’m looking forward to rectifying that in the near future.

Ramble over. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! I know I will be, and as proof here’s my mom and me in front of a tiny Statue of Liberty in the Jardins de Luxembourg here in Paris:

These Aren’t French – French Friday 12

There are a lot of things we associate with the French, like baguettes and berets and long-stemmed cigarettes. These aren’t necessarily always accurate in modern times, but the origins aren’t always far off either. The thing is that we’ve gone and named a bunch of things “French” without really knowing whether or not they are. French kissing, however, I think is probably something the French did invent (after thousands of years of people not realizing their tongues could leave their own mouths).

But enough gross details. Here are some things that aren’t really French for you before I head out to Brussels in the morning.

If you’ve been following along with my Vlog Every Day in April posts, then you’ll know that I’m doing great so far! It will be a challenge to keep it going while I’m in Brussels, but I’ll try. In the meantime, go eat some French fries and French toast and have a grand old time French kissing someone (preferably someone you know who is OK with the idea).

Is there anything you can think of that we give undue credit for?

How About Electronic Social Annoyances?

What’s with followback people? Those people that explicitly look to follow people who will follow them back? As if spambots and fake followers weren’t enough, you get all of these people that follow you, and then unfollow you as soon as you don’t return the “favor.” I don’t get it, and it seems to defeat the whole point of “social” media. I guess I’ll let the video do the talking though.

And this next one is just in case you have someone texting you late at night and you feel like asking in a passive aggressive way. It’s also the result of needing to make a video after being out late and wanting to go to bed REALLY badly.

I seriously hate it when my phone buzzes most times, but especially when I’m on the cusp of sleep. Is there any time you don’t really mind your phone going off? Or do you love it at all times?

 

From Siblings to Sex Shop Workers

It’s been an interesting time lately. My dad had his birthday the same day as what was apparently “National Sibling Day,” which made things way more interesting in the whole “Happy Birthday!” department. I love them both very much, so I decided to combine my love for them into one awesome video. And by awesome, I mean ill-planned and poorly lit. Here you go!

To take things in a totally different, and slightly stranger direction, that night I went out and met a colleague with a friend who’s visiting on her way back from the field with Doctors Without Borders. In the process I met an interesting girl, and then the next night a very interesting man. You’ll just have to watch to find out what was up:

Sorry guys, but girls are still the tie breakers in my book. You can always leave suggestions in the comments below though, and I’ll totally take them into consideration.

Vlogging Every Day in April Is a Lot

I’m so far behind on posting these videos to the blog, so I’m gonna start getting caught up. You’ll want to see my latest if you like athletic skill and overall ability (not mine), but I’m gonna be posting to catch up as we go for the next few days. Today I’d like to pose some more thoughts and questions.

The first is driven by the desire for an easy formula for life. We all want that magic bullet, that thing that will solve all of our problems and make life easy. That thing that will bring success and relational happiness and overall completeness. We all want those things, and we all want to know how to get there. So how does that play out?

And secondly, speaking of relational happiness, what is it exactly that attracts us to each other? What is it that pulls us in, and how do we know what’s appropriate and what’s not? Is it ok to just like someone for their laugh, or do they have to have a great personality to match?

If you have any answers feel free to leave them below, because I’m really curious. I’ll leave you with a fantastic double rainbow:

Cats on Postcards – French Friday 11

It’s REALLY late and I’m really tired. So with no further ado, here’ s a video about cats on postcards because that’s all I’ve got tonight. Goodnight!

 

Also… “misorganized?” Man I’m wiped. Time for bed. I leave you with a closeup of the nonsense:

Also, Taryn, if you do find this, I am so so sorry. I owe you.

 

Asking Questions About Your Future

So as I vlog every day in April, I’m thinking more and more about things that have bothered me for a long time. My neighbor burning incense all of a sudden for instance (at least I hope that’s what’s wafting into my room at the moment) is not among these big questions. Distracting as it may be.

The fact is that there are a lot of things that I was brought up in the states to believe or to build my life upon that haven’t proven so stable as a foundation. I can list a bunch of them, it’s amazing how much you take for granted that isn’t remotely true, but I decided to start with two things that sound really good: “You can be anything you want!” and “College is the obvious next step in life.”

My sister is one of my heroes because she knew college wasn’t for her, and she decided not to go.That’s a pretty big way of going against the flow, considering where we’re from. She pursued photography and traveled the world did all sorts of cool stuff, and when she finally settled into work she chose the place she wanted and tackled a really difficult job. She’s learned a ton through all of the challenges and hardships that she’s faced, and I truly believe she’s better off for that life experience than had she gone to college (especially since she can’t sit still for more than five minutes at a time).

The thing is that so many of us lack the certainty that college is for us, but simultaneously have this idea that it’s the obvious next step. It’s what we’re supposed to do if we want to succeed, often it’s what we’re expected and even coerced into doing. Among the many things in life you can be coerced into doing, attending college is certainly not among the worst, but it is among the most expensive. My strong suggestion, my push, is that you not attend college (uni, for my UK friends), unless you know what it is you want to do after college, and how it will specifically help you attain those goals.

Because (as I mention in the other video) while it’s ok to dream big, you also have to be realistic. Your dreams can come true, you can accomplish a lot in life, but you will have to work very hard to make it to whatever level you’re aiming for. Some dreams will require more of you than others. So dream big, and work hard. And know that failure is just a part of the learning process. You’re expected to fail and it provides valuable opportunities to learn (something I wish I had known before my first few big failures).

But enough reading, here are some videos:





If you went to college already, what advice would you give someone thinking about it? If you’re pre-college, what questions do you have?

Seriously: work, travel, volunteer, do something that you’ve never done before and see where it takes you!