R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 16

Heavy Metal Del—How a Cover Is Born

The following video was created by the cover artist as he was working on TEARS OF HEAVEN.  It’s so cool to see this process, and how a good artist can take a model and make the right adjustments to create the cover.


Has your image of a character changed after seeing the cover?  Tell me the character and book title in the comments below!

Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!—Tears of Heaven Cover Reveal

Let’s do this thing!
Here’s the new cover for the re-published version of TEARS OF HEAVEN (December 2018). You should be able to click on it for a larger view.
I'm including a version of just the front cover and then the entire book wrap.
What do you think of the cover!? Tell me in the comments below.

Deadly and determined!

There can be only one . . . but two with a wrap!

Almost There!

But I wanna know, NOW!
Cover reveal for TEARS OF HEAVEN tomorrow.
Release date for the republished version in a few days after that.
Stay tuned!

Cover Art Coming Soon!

Everyone is excited!
NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!
We have cover art for TEARS OF HEAVEN and HELL BECOMES HER!
We’re getting close to having a release date for TEARS OF HEAVEN also, so I’ll be sharing the cover art in the next couple of days.
Tell your friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, and the date you took to the prom!
Who did you take to the prom?  Or who took you?

Misadventures in Publishing Part 2—More Flags, More Red

But I've never been wrong before!
Last time, I talked about the red flags that went up when I was accepted far too quickly (within hours) and didn’t have an attorney vet the contract (dumb, dumb-dumb-dumb!). The next flag went up when Maya asked me to change Del’s name.
It wasn’t much of a change, but it was strange. The reasoning behind it was even stranger. Tears of Heaven had released in 2013, so it had been out for three years prior to WildChild Publishing’s demise. Between GoodReads and Am...

Misadventures in Publishing Part 1—Red Flags

I wonder if I should be nervous at all?“No, the point is you don't seem to have read the contract. I don't have to clear business decisions with you, Rob, and what constitutes marketable copy is a business decision.”—Maya the Publisher
Caveat: To be fair, Maya the Publisher (that's not her name but that's the name we'll use) isn't an evil publisher—she's just not a good publisher. She's forgetful, often and overly nitpicky, and when called on a mistake, she was quick to anger.  She c...

You Too!?

With or without ewe?
I wasn’t going to discuss my ex-publisher.  Heavy emphasis on “ex”.
It was a brutal, horrible, no-good, very-bad two years of my life as an author, and I really didn’t want to revisit it.
Until . . .
Last week, I found a really interesting-funny-odd edit to the last edition of HELL BECOMES HER.  I was getting the manuscript ready to send to a new editor, and I came across a scene in which Del and Marrin are trying to get into a casino/night club:
“Hundred-dollar cov...

Han Solo—The Conspiracy Theory

What?  Me a spy!? C'mon, trust me!
Han is secretly a double-agent and a villain?  I LOVE this theory.  It tracks too.  With special thanks to my friend, Roy Upton, at every point, you can see how a slight twist, and Han is in the shadows:
The Long Game.In the Solo movie Han willingly joins the Empire’s forces. He wants to be a pilot but ends up as a front line soldier.Or does he?
It’s noticeable that wherever Han goes the Empire isn’t far behind, scooping up rebels while, som...

There Will Be Video!

Eyes, closed by the sun
but sharp as a hawk's!
Not sure if I mentioned this, or not, but the cover artist I’m working with does videos of some of his process.  It was, in fact, one of his videos that sold me on him as an artist.  If I hadn’t seen the video, I would never have known how much he’d changed the original model on the cover, and how seamless he made it look.
We’re getting close to the cover reveal.  I’m waiting on a couple of other authors for book recommendation quote...

Re-Re-Release News!

Also, there will be some steampunk news soon!
Hey, thanks for still following me on this wild and crazy adventure into publishing.  I’m told I’ve been working on being an actual, published author for about five years now.  That’s a bit nuts.  I am very excited to announce some very tentative dates for the re-release of my books:
Cover Reveal for TEARS OF HEAVEN—NovemberPublisher edits of TEARS OF HEAVEN—NovemberRe-release of TEARS OF HEAVEN—November/DecemberCover Reveal for HELL...