Wednesday 30 June 2010

Love Whisper Of The Flowers

I've tracked down more information on that picture I want to use on the cover of Dark Magic. It's actually from an album called Love Whisper Of The Flowers by an artist called Mickey. I believe it's Taiwanese or Chinese, and the album was accompanied by beautiful drawings for each track, including The Sincere Happiness (not, as I'd previously thought, 'lincere').

According to this translated page, the album was released in Taiwan in 2003 as Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros Story and the images were drawn by illustrator 'Prince - William'. Unfortunately now I've hit a dead end. I can't seem to track down any more information on the illustrator or anything else about the album itself. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Friday 11 June 2010

Dark Magic - finishing NaNoWriMo 2008!

I have finished my story from NaNoWriMo 2008! What started out as A Dark Faerie Tale then turned into The Dark Lady and has now ended up as Dark Magic.

The book is available here for US$8.50, which is about £5.80, and I'm really excited :)

I have to say I love the cover, which was one of CreateSpace's layouts. I found the picture online when I did a Google search on copyright free images. It was being used on three social networking sites by people who obviously really liked faeries, but I haven't been able to track down its creator. If it's you, or if you know who did design it, please let me know, because I'd like to get in touch to ask if it's okay to use it on the book and to find out if they'd like paying!

So now to answer a few questions about the book:

Why CreateSpace print-on-demand and not a traditional publisher?
Well I don't think I'm going to sell that many copies, to start with, and when I completed NaNo I got a code to use for a free proof from CS. I can still order more copies if I want to to sell elsewhere, and the book has its own website, so I figured there was no reason why I shouldn't sell it this way.

Faeries? Don't you mean fairies?
Nope, I like the spelling f-a-e. To me, a fairy is a fluttery little thing rather like a butterfly, while a faerie has more depth and more character. I wanted my characters to be real, solid girls who just happened to have wings and magic. I couldn't seem to fit that in with them being fairies.

Why doesn't Poppy get her own story?
I don't know... There didn't seem to be the opportunity to give her anything of her own, so she ended up being the nice helpful friend who's always there when you need her but doesn't like taking the lead.

Sum up the characters in three words each.
Columbine - shy, dark, powerful.
Poppy - fun, hungry, excitable.
Lavender - loyal, clever, quiet.
Persephone - cute, caring, happy.
Ginevra - fiery, brave, mouthy.
Lily - determined, imaginative, serious.