S.K. Epperson's Blog, page 10
March 3, 2013
LOVE STORY ~ Patchouli Imperial by Christian Dior
On the docks of Marseilles in the time of the last king Louis Philippe there was told the story of the scandalous woman known as Olympe. Her father was the proprietor of a spice shop near the center of town and as a young woman of 15 she often went to the docks with her father to meet the ships arriving from the East.
If reading this isn't the best way to spend your Sunday morning...
February 8, 2013
Brother Lowdown and The Tiger’s Spring
In Brother Lowdown three people with dark pasts meet as a drifter called Brother Lowdown comes to town in search of someone from his past.
Simon Brith, a detective known for his intense reactions to females finds himself unlikely savior to Terra Donlevy, a cosmetics heiress who eschews anything feminine and harbors a violent abhorrence of most men. The oddly beautiful but twisted Brother Lowdown targets both Simon and Terra in his terrible need for justice.
Brother Lowdown is free this month: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/227039
“Brother Lowdown is a taut read. Move over, Thomas Harris, you’ve got company.” -Robert J. Ray, Author of the Matt Murdock series
“And their revenge is as the tiger’s spring,
Deadly, and quick, and crushing.”
Lord Byron, Don Juan
The Tiger’s Spring: After the events in Brother Lowdown the wary, wounded Terra shuns the trappings of wealth and chooses to live a simple life in the country with a security system and dogs to keep her safe. A certain element becomes attracted and for protection Terra relies heavily on Simon Brith, the troubled homicide detective who has made a habit of rescuing her, but things are changing between them and she senses that Simon on his road to wellness is going to need more from her than she can comfortably give.
Simon does want more but Terra stalls at every turn, frustrating him almost as much as the latest case he and his partner Dan Cox have pulled. Someone is killing men and dumping their bodies in a windbreak. Dan worries when known misogynist Simon zeroes in on tall, exotic Ivory Pandeen, who shows up and claims to be an unwilling accomplice to the murders. Ivory is exquisite with her black hair, dark eyes and long legs and if Terra Donlevy attracts one kind of man, Ivory attracts another. All of them want something they shouldn’t from these two women and a few are going to be surprised to find out just what they receive.
The Tiger’s Spring is a free Kindle download the weekend of February 9&10
January 17, 2013
One for January’s Chills and Ills
January 4, 2013
Young Adult Supernatural Fiction in Review: Top Picks
Young Adult Supernatural Fiction in Review: Top Picks.
My friend Michelle Gaseor makes her top picks.
December 19, 2012
Book Cover Art
Editor intern pal Michelle Gaseor has inspired yet another true tales from publishing post from me, this one about book covers. I too am a huge fan of less is more. I have never liked covers with people on them, have always felt it robs the imagination of the fun of coming up with faces to fit the characters they’re reading about.
My first novel Brother Lowdown is a perfect example of when a photograph meant to depict a character goes wrong. In the novel I describe Brother Lowdown as the picture of masculine beauty, like a Greek god (which is why he knows so much about mythological gods and goddesses, having been compared with such all his life) and no offense to the guy on the cover, whom I believe worked in the copy shop, or so I was told, but he looks more like a guy hanging in a Starbucks in Portland than he does the breathtaking character I described in the novel.
I voiced confusion over the colors used for the hardback cover as well. This is a dark novel, a horrific account of three people so psychologically scarred they can barely function in society and how fate brings them together…hardly a perky sunny yellow and pop-out pink kind of book, would you say? I didn’t. But once again, the fledgling author’s reservations and objections were dismissed and they said the fact that he was holding a razor would make the point that the book is a serious one.
The truth is not many actually realized he was holding a razor until they were told it was there, and because of the curvy silhouette some people even thought it was a novel about sex until they read the ‘A Novel of Suspense’ part. One person told me he thought the guy was holding a paintbrush and the splatters were paint.
True story. :)
December 8, 2012
Novel Names
After discussing the topic earlier with new pal Michelle Gaseor of The Modern Manuscript http://themodernmanuscript.wordpress.com I realized that many people are unaware a publisher can and often will make the decision to change the title of your novel. On the two titles of mine that were changed, I was given several reasons, none of which made sense to me as the titles they came up with were so generic and bland (I won’t make you guess, they were responsible for the names Borderland and Nightmare and had no small amount of frustrating input on several others) they made my titles seem genius in comparison. You’ll say I should have stuck to my guns, but when you’re a fledgling author working with publishers, editors and sales departments and they’re using experience in the business to back up their call, it’s difficult to say you know better than they do.
One of the names I had chosen was used before, claimed the editors, so it wasn’t wise to use it again. But then so was Borderland and so was Nightmare, but they said those titles were years old and so it was all right to use them again. I wanted to ask how long ago my title was used, but trust me, when they’re determined to change your book title, they are going to change your book title. Be a creative marketing genius if you can, or have a spreadsheet of economic Moneyball stats to back you up when you want to fight for that name, because it’s going to be the name of that book, well…forever.
Nightmare
November 23, 2012
My western “Kansas Blue”
FREE DOWNLOAD December 22 & 23 AMAZON.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XMCZUO
Yup, I wrote a western using the pseudonym Dylan Harson.
But if you know my works at all then you know you’re going to get much more than your average western. The year 1867 in Kansas was packed so full of drama I couldn’t resist the impulse to set a story in and around events that included post Civil War trauma,The Homestead Act, floods, a cholera epidemic, and of course, a battle-scarred ex-soldier who falls in love with a woman married to another man.
My western “Kansas Blue” a Free Download Nov 23-25 at Amazon.com
FREE DOWNLOAD NOVEMBER 23, 24, 25 AMAZON.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XMCZUO
Yup, I wrote a western using the pseudonym Dylan Harson.
But if you know my works at all then you know you’re going to get much more than your average western. The year 1867 in Kansas was packed so full of drama I couldn’t resist the impulse to set a story in and around events that included post Civil War trauma,The Homestead Act, floods, a cholera epidemic, and of course, a battle-scarred ex-soldier who falls in love with a woman married to another man.
November 19, 2012
The Art Of Animation, Rob Kaz
The Art Of Animation, Rob Kaz.
I found this on Tumblr. Who didn’t love Disney when they were a kid? This illustrates part of the why. Look at the warmth in each frame. Talk about magic.
