Tag Archives: Cover Art

New Book Coming Soon! Cover Art Reveal!

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Hi everyone! This is really exciting for me! Today I get to share with you the cover for my new novel In Jerry’s Corner. It is set to be published by Stargazing Publishing later this year.

Ever since Jerry Sleight was a baby, Bill was there. Bill is tall, quiet, unblinking and green. He is in the northwest corner of every room Jerry visits and onlyJerry can see him.

Bill is an alien from a planet without a name and his task is to watch a human life from beginning to end. But why he is observing Jerry, and what he hopes to see, only Bill knows.

Filled with laughter and surprises, Jerry’s days with Bill will represent all of humanity and the impact a life can have, not just on others but on an entire world and universe.

In Jerry’s Corner is about the importance of a single life… and the amazing green individual watching it all take place.

You can read an interview I gave with the publisher about the book here. Mark your calendars! Add this to your summer reading list! I can’t wait to share Jerry and Bill with you…

Wow! Check out the cover for my upcoming novel PERMANENT SPRING SHOWERS!

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Permanent Spring Showers

I’m  really excited to share with you today the cover for my new novel PERMANENT SPRING SHOWERS!

PERMANENT SPRING SHOWERS is being published by 5 Prince Books (you can find the page for the book here).

This really awesome cover was created by Daniel Phillips.  During the day Daniel is an audio/video engineer/editor based out of Arvada, CO with  a passion for filmmaking (especially documentaries) and loves print design.  He works at SCM Productions which is a full-service audio/video production studio (you can find them on the internet at www.scmpro.com). I think his work perfectly captures the vibe of this little twisted book.

Over the next few months, I look forward to telling you more and more about my new novel!

My Adventure in Self-Publishing: Curse All These Fonts!

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fontI am haunted by fonts.  While the characters in MAXIMILIAN STANDFORTH AND THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS DARE are haunted by ghosts and other demonic surprises, I am haunted by the way an “a” can curve, and what each letter may or may not say about my story.

Yes, I have lost days, weeks, debating with myself the right kind of font to use for the book I am self-publishing. It has gotten so bad that some of the fonts are starting to take on personalities for me. For example:

  • Times New Roman is the preppy know-it-all in school. The one you would swear at under your breath when they get a better grade than you.
  • Verdana thinks it is mysterious (it is not).
  • Palatino would dot its i’s with hearts if it could. It is that overly cute.
  • Calibri… well… it is just dumb.
  • Arial is a pampering old grandmother with stale hard candy in a dusty bowl.  Yes, the best intentions are there, but you don’t want to eat them. Ew.

I’ve changed my manuscript again and again trying to find the one that best captures my book. Now the book is a Victorian period mystery (of course, that is not without including the experimental twists in it), so a font that feels a little dated would be nice. Yet, I don’t want to go too much in that regards. I don’t want to drive readers away as if they can feel the dust on the font and story. Continue reading →

A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM, Coming this April from Madison Street Publishing

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Madison Street Publishing is excited to reveal the cover for A Jane Austen Daydream, by Scott D. Southard. The book will be available in April of this year, the same year that Pride and Prejudice celebrates its 200th birthday.

A Jane Austen Daydream

All her heroines find love in the end–but is there love waiting for Jane?

Jane Austen spends her days writing and matchmaking in the small countryside village of Steventon, until a ball at Godmersham Park propels her into a new world where she yearns for a romance of her own. But whether her heart will settle on a young lawyer, a clever Reverend, a wealthy childhood friend, or a mysterious stranger is anyone’s guess.

Written in the style of Jane herself, this novel ponders the question faced by many devoted readers over the years–did she ever find love? Weaving fact with fiction, it re-imagines her life, using her own stories to fill in the gaps left by history and showing that all of us–to a greater or lesser degree–are head over heels for Jane.

My Adventure in Self-Publishing: The Necessary Humbling of Editing

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Dunce CapA lot of fantasies, daydreams, and rainbows cloud the world of writing. It’s not surprising; actually completely natural since we spend so much of our time making up stories as writers, why wouldn’t we have stories about the stories?

Have you ever seen that scene in a TV show or movie in which a writer finishes a book or script? The writer may raise his hands in triumph over an old typewriter or do a little dance; then we as viewers are then jumped forward in time to their inevitable success.

We don’t see the struggle over getting the book out, finding an audience, working with an agent or publisher or, more importantly, editing. And, let’s be honest, editing is not as exciting as the victory dance of a finished book or the sparks of coming up with ideas around a first draft.

Like I said, it’s a fantasy, people. I have even been known to say to writers that much of the art around true writing happens in the editing. It is there a work is “finetuned,” perfected into a final piece. Right now, I am working with an editor on my book Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare (which I plan to self-publish later this year), and I will also be working soon with an editor from Madison Street Publishing on my novel A Jane Austen Daydream (which is set for publication this April).

So why do I love editing so much? Well, because I learned about its importance the hard way. Yes, I have an editing and writing horror story, and I am about to share it. Be prepared, this is about to haunt you like a poltergeist… a writing poltergeist. Continue reading →