Conspiracy of Silence

Florida Book Awards: Bronze Medal

Reader Views Literary Awards: Honorable Mention

Martha Powers has nine Regency novels and two thrillers with Simon and Shuster. Conspiracy of Silence is her second book with Oceanview Publishing, the first being Death Angel, an award-winner for which I had the pleasure to design the jacket.

This cover design aims for a feeling of isolation combined with serenity and a touch of the classic predatory camera angle. Her body makes the "i" in silence, creating a visual brand for Martha's books. In Death Angel, I took an angel pendant from the story to create the capital "A" in the title. 

The color scheme is stark in its two-tone contrast. The black is obviously the heavy part, but is not contrived. The scene is natural enough. It could have been a photo, but...

Believe it or not, the figures silhouetted against the shore took a lot of time and care to edit and assemble. The simplicity of the result makes it look easy, eh? Finally the woman was approved, and then... came the dog! How many versions of a dog can you do? Don't ask. But it was worth it.

BTW, on the internet you might see this cover without the dog because it was added after the cover was approved and marketing started. Martha felt the cover was a little too stark. Who wants to challenge the instincts of an award-wining author?

Update: The book trailer won an award! The New Covey Award for Most Artistic and Intriguing Trailer. How about that? See my post about it here.

Touch the Ocean

TOUCH THE OCEAN: 

2008 USA Book News Best Book Award -- WINNER

James Nemec is really a playwright but also a talented healer. Touch the Ocean is his first book in a trilogy centered around the craniosacral approach to health and healing. The second book, Journeys: Stories Our Bodies Can Tell will be published this year. The third, Awake and Asleep, will likely be in 2010. He is intimately familiar with the abstract levels of life and is able to convey them to the reader.

The ocean has a lot of meaning here. James describes healing sessions involving himself, his patient, and dolphins. His profoundly gentle treatments can be even more gently performed while his patient floats in the ocean in the presence of dolphins. The results are remarkable. There are other, larger meanings for world consciousness but I would let James himself explain.

James and I discussed the blue color used on the cover at length. He feels the blue of the ocean is healing and connects us to the blue of the sky. We tried to make that blue on the horizon as close as possible to the subtle energetic blue he prefers. Four-color process printing as it is, we are limited to its spectrum of color in the destructive color mode of ink on paper. James understood and accepted it. Then asked for more blue, but this time an ocean blue.

In Journeys, the subtle color of blue makes a comeback on the cover. The figure illustrates the body's chakras -- energy centers -- over a luminous grid of body-mind-time-space. The forehead disappears into a blue flower which is what I call a refinement of James' vision of the subtle energetic blue glow. We'll see how that flower evolves over time, won't we, James?

Stuff to Die For

2008 Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year -- GOLD WINNER

2008 National Indie Excellence Awards — WINNER

2008 Killer Nashville — TOP AWARD

Published in 2007, this is one of six novels by Don Bruns which have my jacket design, all for Oceanview Publishing. The truck is significant to the story, in fact its central. In fact, it's the running theme for a series of mysteries featuring two twenty-something life-long friends who live near Miami, getting into big trouble and figuring their way out of it with plot twists, action, suspense, and humor, while just trying to make a fast fortune using their old box truck with a new business idea.

That old truck is important to the jacket, and so is the palm tree. You'll see them showing up on the jackets of Stuff Dreams Are Made Of (2008) and Stuff to Spy For (2009).

Thank God I...

Imagine a book of true stories that personally illustrate how every adversity, no matter how bad, truly does contain a blessing. It is a beautiful and important revelation. It brings deep gratitude for what's happened in your life, allowing you to heal and live happily with an open heart. It can change your life. So, John Castagnini started a forum for sharing these experiences to help everyone grow in peace and inspiration. Many people, including bestselling authors, came aboard and it's been growing ever since.

Thank God I... is now a thriving website and book series and God knows what else John's creative mind is manifesting as I write this. The first book, shown here, became a #1 bestseller on amazon after only a few months -- a great start and indication of things to come! 

It's kind of like Chicken Soup for the Soul but with the emphasis on gratitude. Bestselling authors contributed chapters to volume 1, and more will be in volume 2 to be published this year. There are related books underway and more stuff coming faster than I can keep up with so visit their website to see what's going on.

The cover is designed to be comforting, religious and optimistic. The yellow (gold) and violet together help this occur. The flowing shape floating across the centered layout gives stability and grace. The edges of color shifts are softened. You may note the three dots in the title are hearts. The subtle mandala behind the title is a popular new age motif that works nicely here. John had a lot of input on that, as well as the color scheme and the script for the title. 

My lovely wife, Mary, is a talented and sensitive writer and also a contributing author to a future volume, her first time to be published in a book. How cool is that?

Step up to Steph

For me, Stephane Grenier is more than a client. His personal guidance inspired me to actually, finally, start this blog so he is the appropriate choice for my first posting of a book cover here. About two months ago, he published Blog Blazers, a collection of interviews he had with 40 of the top bloggers. His website for the book is, as you'd expect, immaculate. Kudos, Steph!

Peter Bowerman created the title. Steph's original title was too generic and forgettable so he wisely contracted with Peter to make something catchy and memorable. A book's title is very important. Peter is an old hand at this and many other things publishers need to do right. If you're ever stuck or just want to start on the right footing, look him up.