Once again, Katrianna Anderson created the cover artwork for The Nameless Knight, and she went through a few different stages to produce the final version. Afterwards, I added the typography to complete it.
Author: Claire Ryan (page 3)
Moving up on archery
April Giveaway – The Meldling and The Nameless Knight
The Lack of Fantasy TV
The Nameless Knight Cover Artwork Reveal
Well, it’s time for something new, my friends! The Nameless Knight is officially out of editing hell, and it’s in the hands of my good friend Maria Boers Morris for a developmental review. Once it returns to me, it’ll get another round of polishing and then it’ll go through proofing…
Mr. Darcy’s Proposal
As you may all know, I am somewhat obsessed with Pride and Prejudice. It is my favorite book.
Okay, that’s not really true. It’s more… this is the book by which I measure my own work. It has so much wit, and character! It has nuance and layers, and it’s timelessly fun. So light and easy to read, even two hundred years after it was first written. Jane Austen was one of the greatest novelists to ever contribute to English literature.
Get in Formation
So… okay. Real talk for a moment. You guys ever heard of Beyoncé?
That’s a trick question. I’m pretty sure none of you are living under a rock on Mars.
Way back in the mists of time, around 2010, I was young(er) and foolish, and I wrote a blog post about the idea of Beyoncé’s music having deeper meaning, and whether that meaning was being read into the lyrics by a critic’s over-active imagination as opposed to being put there by the artist. Now I read that post and CRINGE, you guys. I cringe to the deepest part of my soul. I sound so godawfully pretentious.
A long, strange January
It’s been a long, odd month.
I’m still stuck in editing hell with The Nameless Knight, but I’m working on it. The cover is done, so the only thing left to do is get the book finished and out to the copyeditor.
I’ve started a new job, and some of my time is being hosed by that, obviously. It’s good for me though. Makes me feel better, being back at code.
The holidays, and rolling on to 2016
Happy New Year, everyone!
I’ve been having a quiet few weeks, just enjoying our first Saturnalia/Christmas/mid-winter festival with my little daughter. There have been many presents, and giggles, and all that fun stuff. There has also been more wrapping paper and boxes tossed all over my living room than I’ve ever seen before. My recycling bin is packed to capacity, I tells ya.
December Giveaway – and an Interview!
Well! Nanowrimo is done, and now Christmas is fast approaching. And I have been busy as hell!
The Goodreads giveaway is now over, and three lucky winners in the UK and the States now each have a copy of The Meldling on its way to them. I did run my usual mailing list giveaway, and I’ve contacted the person who won, but I still haven’t heard back from them. This gives me a sad, but all I can do is wait.
Preventing E-Book Piracy
I’ve noticed, through the metrics that I get through Google, that some people are coming to my site to find out about ebook piracy, since I wrote about it here. I do tend to waffle on a bit about piracy in general, so grab your parrot and peg leg, kids! Let’s talk about how you can prevent those nasty pirates from uploading your treasured works to the torrent site du jour.
Nanowrimo is done
Morally Complicated Y.A.
Behold, my friends, the latest storm of idiocy striking the heart of the traditional publishing industry. I present to you Exhibit A, the announcement of a new YA novel called The Cruelty bought for six figures and sold in umpteen territories and a movie deal and… yeah. Good times indeed. This book was self-published first, so this should be a feel-good success story, right?
Normally this would pass without comment, and I’d be happy for the author. But this, this is more than just a book announcement. The interview with the author on Publishers Weekly is the stuff of drama llama hell.
Goodreads shenanigans
I have a Goodreads profile that I jump into occasionally to see what readers are up to. I honestly thought that I’d never be able to do a giveaway for my handbound books there, because how exactly do you do that for books with no ISBN or ASIN number? (ISBN = obvious, ASIN = Amazon’s identifier)
Well, after a few emails to the Goodreads support staff, I have a giveaway for three of my books!
The Importance of Tea
This has nothing to do with bookbinding or swordfighting or writing, I know, but frankly I like to indulge myself sometimes. It’s 9am, I’m sleep-deprived, and right now the cause of that is only seven months old, and snoozing in bed and getting the shut-eye that I so desperately need, so ya know what – I’m going to write about tea.
Because tea is important, people. Especially if you’re Irish.
Mailing List Shenanigans
October Giveaway Winner!
The Meldling is on Sale!
So, just a quick update – The Meldling is currently on sale for 99c, as part of a promotion I ran with My Book Cave. It’s almost finished now, so I’m giving y’all one last chance to get it for almost nothing. Tomorrow morning, I put the price back up to $2.99! Until then, you can snap up the first in the series if you haven’t gotten it already.
Pride and Prejudice and Hollywood
Okay, I love Jane Austen. I especially love Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely adore the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Today, I decided to watch the 2005 movie version with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.
And now I need to blog, because otherwise I will explode into incoherent spluttering. AGAIN.
September Giveaway Winner Annoucement
It’s the worst thing in the world when a binding fails. It happens every once in a while, when the materials I pick for covers or endpapers or glue turn out to be a bad choice. This belated announcement comes to you courtesy of some bad materials that just would not glue down properly, which resulted in me having to rebind a cover, scrap two entire text blocks of expensive parchment paper, and throw out umpteen test print pages of regular paper.