Olga Godim's Blog, page 16

Book covers and badges

[image error]It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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OPTIONAL QUESTION: Besides writing, what other creative outlets do you have?

MY ANSWER: I don’t always answer the optional IWSG questions, but this one struck me as extremely relevant. Most artistic people I know have more than one creative outlet. It is as if the creativity bubbles inside them and wouldn’t be consigned to one single stream. As I discovered recently, I’m no different.

I’ve always made up stories, since I was a little kid, so it was a logical progression for me to start writing down my stories. But I haven’t ever considered myself an artist, couldn’t draw a straight line to save my life. Surprisingly, few years ago, I started designing book covers from the existing free images available on the internet, and I found it such a satisfying activity, I can’t stop.

Most of my pre-made book covers are in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Each one is almost a visual story in itself, with a protagonist and her complex milieu. Sometimes it is a witch with her pixie helpers. Sometimes it is a princess who befriended a dragon. I use people 3D rendering made by other artists in DAZ studio or Poser and backgrounds offered by wonderful photographers and artists on Pixabay and other similar free websites.

My pre-made book covers are like an assembly line, with 2 to 20 different elements in every cover. The sample cover below includes 9 elements. You can see all my pre-made book covers on my DeviantArt page, and I often add new ones. I would be very happy if someone liked my covers and used one of them for their book.

The book covers I made for wattpad, for all my stories and for other writers’ stories as well, are a bit different. For them, I used predominantly photographs as the basic images, not DAZ renders. You could see the examples on my wattpad page. It is not my favorite approach; too many cover artists use realistic photographs these days, and the images seem to blend into each other, with nothing to distinguish one author from the next, on Amazon or any other book retail site. At least, my DAZ and Poser based covers are unique.

I also make badges for the WEP challenges, have been making them since 2016. It started with a casual request from Denise Covey, the WEP founder, and it is very different from my book covers endeavor. With the book covers, I make them mostly for myself, to satisfy my artistic itch. With the badges, it starts with a theme.

After I find an appropriate image for the theme, I design a badge and ask the other WEP team members for their feedback. Sometimes, my first attempt is approved right away; everyone likes it. Other times, I don’t get so lucky. I might go through a half-dozen or more different images for one challenge, before it is accepted by all the hosts of WEP. We swap ideas and discuss possibilities. I found it especially hard with challenges leaning towards abstract concepts, but so far, I’ve always come out the winner with a final badge everyone likes. And it’s such a giddy feeling, when I finally get an ‘okay’ for a badge from everyone, I always feel like celebrating.

Perversely, until I do get an ‘okay’, I feel like I’m an imposter, a failure. Like I’d never get another badge right in my life. Like many artistic personalities, I’m very sensitive to my friends’ critique, and each time they dislike my first draft, I would sulk and think something along the lines of “oh, they don’t understand…” But then, I would search again, listen to their suggestions, find a better image or a better composition, and the final badge is always, without exceptions, the best of all my attempts. Obviously, my friends do understand.

One of the examples of my hard-won badges is the one for the upcoming WEP challenge in February, 28 DAYS. I went through several different images before I found this one, the one everyone approved. The process wasn’t easy, but the result was all the more satisfying because of it. Come and join us in this challenge. What could you write about 28 days?

What other creative outlets do you have, in addition to writing? Tell me in the comments.

Crystal Song, final chapter published

[image error]The finale chapter of my science fiction novelette Crystal Song is live on wattpad.

The story protagonist, Ulira, doesn’t trust anyone. When she was 17, she had been betrayed by the person she trusted most – her brother. She had almost lost her life then, and she had lost her trust in people. Fortunately, she had escaped her home on the Hanumah Space Station and created a life for herself elsewhere.

Now, thirteen years later, her brother found her again. He asks her to come back, because Hanumah and its people need her help.

You could read the full story here.

Crystal Song, chapter 2 published

[image error]Chapter 2 of my science fiction novella Crystal Song is live on wattpad.

The story protagonist, Ulira, doesn’t trust anyone. When she was 17, she had been betrayed by the person she trusted most – her brother. She had almost lost her life then, and she had lost her trust in people. Fortunately, she had escaped her home on the Hanumah Space Station and created a life for herself elsewhere.

Now, thirteen years later, her brother found her again. He asks her to come back, because Hanumah and its people need her help.

You could read the full story here.

Crystal Song, chapter 1 published

[image error]I finally write again, after almost a year of the worst writing block in my memory. I’m working on the science fiction novella Crystal Song and publishing it on wattpad.

The story protagonist, Ulira, doesn’t trust anyone. When she was 17, she had been betrayed by the person she trusted most – her brother. She had almost lost her life then, and she had lost her trust in people. Fortunately, she had escaped her home on the Hanumah Space Station and created a life for herself elsewhere.

Now, thirteen years later, her brother found her again. He asks her to come back, because Hanumah and its people need her help.

You could read the first chapter here.

Romance: enforced socializing

[image error]It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

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I love romance and read it a lot, although I don’t write it much. There are two major trends in romance novels. One: my NOT favorite: the insta-lust. The heroes meet and feel an instant, almost irresistible physical attraction. Afterwards, for the rest of the novel, they struggle with the said attraction (or fall to bed right away) and in the process discover that they like each other as persons after all. HEA ensues – usually. The most famous story of this kind is Romeo and Juliet – the ultimate case of insta-lust. And look how it ended! I’m not a fan of this kind of romantic fiction.

The other, much more life-like scenario is an enforced socializing. The heroes start by meeting because of a situation – at work or in the social milieu. Maybe they’re assigned to solve a problem together, or have to travel together, or he is a guest in her house, or they’re even set out to get married through an arranged marriage. It depends on the time-frame of the romance and its sub-genre.

In any case, they don’t like each other at first. They are too different. Their tastes in partners’ outer appearance run in different directions. They come from different social strata. Their personalities clash repeatedly. They don’t trust each other, because their goals are opposite, and so on.

They have to spend time together anyway, no choice about that for either of them. Often, they have to depend on each other in tight spots, and along the way, they learn about each other. More, they start liking each other, as their preconceptions and masks slip away. They develop mutual trust, and with it, at last, comes the all-important physical attraction, even if the protagonists didn’t consider each other pretty at first or thought that the other one is outright ugly. They stop seeing the outer attributes and concentrate on the inner beauty instead. Love flourish.

For characters in this kind of story, personality is more important than physical appearance or sexual gratification, which could be found without any involvement of heart and soul. Remember the wide spread of prostitution in all the centuries but the current one. (Maybe this one too, I’m not sure.)

The most popular example of this type of story is Beauty and the Beast. It is my kind of story. I enjoy reading it. If I ever wrote romance, I’d go with this approach, but so many writers with a steady posse of fans prefer the other one.

What about you? What do you think of insta-lust? Do you trust it? Do you accept it as a driving force of a romance story? Or is enforced socializing more to your taste? Do your romantic characters experience insta-lust? Or do they follow another path and learn about the personality first, before indulging their bodily urges? Tell me in the comments.

 

 

 

 

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Happy New Year 2019

So we reached the year 2019. Amazing! Congrats, friends. Best wishes in the coming year. Hopefully, it will be better than the last one, or at least not worse. I’m not very optimistic, you see, but I do wish you the best. Let most of your wishes come true.

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WW Photo Challenge: Zebra

I’m participating in Celia Reaves’ photo challenge. For 26 weeks, every Friday, she has posted a photo on a theme starting with a letter of the alphabet. I joined her challenge at the letter B, and this is the last of these weekly posts. We have finally arrived at Z. It is also the last WW Photo Challenge post for this year. Uph! As always, I’m posting one of my pre-made book covers.

Thank you, Celia, for your wonderful challenge. It gave me an opportunity to showcase my artistic side on this blog.

Zebra for the Z.

My book covers are mostly made from images I find on several free image websites, like Pixabay.com. Sometimes, I add an element or two I discovered as free stock on deviantArt, but not this time.

If anyone wants a cover you see here or in my deviantArt gallery for your real book, let me know. The fonts are negotiable, of course.

 

WW Photo Challenge: Yoga

I’m participating in Celia Reaves’ photo challenge. Every Friday, she posts a photo on a theme starting with a letter of the alphabet. This week – it is the letter Y. As before, I’m posting one of my pre-made book covers.

Yoga for the Y.

My book covers are mostly made from images I find on several free image websites, like Pixabay.com. Sometimes, I add an element or two I discovered as free stock on deviantArt, but not this time.

If anyone wants a cover you see here or in my deviantArt gallery for your real book, let me know. The fonts are negotiable, of course.

 

WW Photo Challenge: Ex libris

I’m participating in Celia Reaves’ photo challenge. Every Friday, she posts a photo on a theme starting with a letter of the alphabet. This week – it is the letter X. It is probably the hardest letter of the alphabet for this particular project. There are only a few entries in the dictionaries starting with X, none of them inspiring as a book cover image, which is what I’m posting – a pre-made book cover. Upon consideration, I decided to go with the sound.

Ex libris for the X.

My book covers are mostly made from images I find on several free image websites, like Pixabay.com. Sometimes, I add an element or two I discovered as free stock on deviantArt, but not this time.

If anyone wants a cover you see here or in my deviantArt gallery for your real book, let me know. The fonts are negotiable, of course.

 

WEP: Ribbons and Candles

This WEP entry is Chapter 6 of my fanfiction novella Magic Senegalese. It concludes this year’s series of posts. The story is set in Wen Spencer’s Elfhome universe. Please check out the other WEP challenge participants here. To remind you what has gone before in my story, you could read:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

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I have to admit that this entry is different from the others, not as organic to the story as I thought at first. When I started writing this story, I planned only 6 chapters, one per challenge for all 6 of this year’s challenges. This chapter was to be the final one, but the story had other ideas. It became more than twice longer – 14 chapters. The full story is already published on wattpad. If you’re interested, you could read it there in its entirety. The plot started to deviate from what you’ve already read here in the end of Chapter 5, and the wattpad version of Chapter 6 is totally different. The rest of the story also makes it clear why I chose the title Magic Senegalese, which hasn’t been explained or even hinted at in my WEP version. Despite all that, the chapter below still works as an alternative end of the story.

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“What is your name?” Naomi asked her undersized passenger as she drove away.

“Miranda,” the girl said. She looked about ten, small and frail, smaller than Dina, with a short ragged mop of auburn hair. At Naomi’s careful probing, Miranda’s story emerged in disjointed bits and pieces.

She was half-elf, like Dina, but younger, only seventeen. Her human mother was a junkie. In the spring, the elves had deported the woman back to Earth. Her half-elven daughter had been left to fetch for herself.

Miranda and her two friends, also half-elf teenage girls, with their mothers gone to Earth, banded together. Housing was not a problem in Pittsburgh, and they managed a part-time employment here and there over the summer. Naomi suspected not all of their employment opportunities had been legal, but the girls scraped up enough cash between them for food and utilities. They did fine, until two men invaded their home and kidnapped them. Miranda had been in that house of death for a week.

“They killed my friends,” Miranda said. “For their organs. I heard them talking. They wanted elven organs because the elves are immortal. The other one took the organs to sell on Earth this Shutdown.” She shuddered with dry sobs. “They would’ve killed me too, if they had another freezer for the organs. They kept me for future use. When their freezers empty up.”

“Monsters,” Naomi muttered angrily. Her eyes still smarted from the spray, but she was glad she had clobbered that thug.

“Yeah,” Miranda agreed. “Thank you for rescuing me. What is your name?”

“Naomi.”

“Where do you live, Naomi?”

“I don’t live here,” Naomi said. By now, after blundering around the ghostly, empty neighborhoods for a while, she finally found her way back to civilization, to people, noise, and cars. The horror she had left behind on that desolate street seemed almost unreal, as if it happened to someone else.

“I’m visiting from Earth. I’m staying with a friend here,” she said. “What about you? You have nowhere to go, right?”

Miranda’s lips trembled.

“You come with me,” Naomi said firmly. “Between us, you, my friend, and I will figure out what to do.”

“Thank you,” Miranda whispered.

Dina was already home, finishing a tapestry with a marine motif. Naomi hadn’t seen it before. The silk ribbons Dina used for the waves made the image come alive. Naomi wanted to swim in those warm, silky waves.

“It’s so beautiful,” she breathed.

“Thank you.” Dina beamed. Then her eyes alighted on Miranda, who cowered uncertainly behind Naomi. “Who is that?”

Naomi told her.

Dina gasped at Naomi’s adventures and shook her head at Miranda’s plight, but she didn’t welcome her extra guest. “I can’t feed her. Not for long. She could stay for a day or two, but then she should go.”

“I can work,” Miranda said.

Dina pursed her lips. “I don’t think so. You’re too young. Mom would never agree to take on another mouth. Money is tight as it is. Besides, I remember you and your friends from school, a couple years behind me. Your mothers were druggies. They were deported. I bet their daughters are just as useless.”

[image error]Miranda wilted. “They’re dead,” she said tonelessly, her big eyes filling with tears.

“Drat!” Dina exploded.

“You can’t send her to the streets alone,” Naomi said firmly. “She has nowhere to go. If she can’t stay here, I’ll pack my stuff and go with her. We’ll find a place to live, maybe wherever she had lived with her friends before being kidnapped, and figure out what to do later.”

“But I’m alone too,” Dina said in a small voice.

“I know. So maybe we’d better stay together. We have another month until your mom comes home.”

“If then,” Dina said. She fiddled with a scrap of turquoise ribbon, twisting it around her thin fingers.

“Let’s find the solution together.” Naomi really couldn’t leave either of the girls alone. They both looked preadolescent. She felt the only adult in the house.

“Fine,” Dina relented. “She can stay. I’ll make a bed for her… in mom’s room. For now,” she added grudgingly. “You should both take a shower. You stink.”

“Yeah, I know,” Naomi said. “It’s Mace. It clings. Could you find Miranda something to wear? She is practically your size.”

“Yes.” Dina sighed.

Miranda still watched warily, but Naomi smiled with approval. “Wonderful. Thank you. We’ll take our showers now, and after, we’ll celebrate Miranda’s rescue. With cake and candles. Could we buy a cake and have it delivered, Dina?”

Dina snorted, but her eyes warmed. “You’re as bad as my mother,” she said.

Naomi bowed. “Thank you, darling.” She took a long shower and pondered her mounting problems. She had enough money to support Miranda for now, but what about after she returned to Earth. She couldn’t stay on Elfhome forever. Maybe tomorrow, she would go see Rye, the elven healer her father had told her about, and ask for her help. Or at least an advice. The woman might know what to do. After all, Miranda was half-elf and couldn’t move back to Earth with Naomi. Did the elves have orphanages? A fostering system? And what about the guy she whacked with the crowbar and his buddy who took the freezers with the organs to Earth? What could she do about them? She needed to call the police.

She pushed away the troubling thoughts. Tomorrow, she would worry. Tonight, they stuffed themselves with grilled fish and a chocolate cake. Miranda ate as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks. The candle flames in the silver candlestick flickered merrily over their table, and the ribbons on Dina’s tapestry fluttered like water sprites, filling Naomi with hope.