Cover Me

Blogger Varsha Dinesh recently contacted me about doing a guest post and asked if perhaps I would be interested in talking about the cover art for Delta Legend. Her blog, Wishful Thinking is beautifully designed and Varsha herself is a Photoshop Queen. I love it when bloggers have suggestions for guest posts. It gets me started in the right direction regarding the style of their blog and what they think their followers might find interesting. 

And the cover of Delta Legend, well that's a subject that's near and dear to my heart.

Not to sound vain, but I never tire of the image myself (I have one of the 13 x 19 posters of it above my desk). Thanks to graphic artist, Dave Williams, Delta Legend has a book cover that achieves everything a cover is supposed to do: it catches the eye, sparks curiosity, and people remember it. They also give it more than just a passing glance. Some have even said they were "drawn in" by it. Bingo.

As most of you know, for better or worse, Indie Authors don't have the luxury of being just writers. We're also the marketing team. When I made the shift from agent-shopping to embracing the idea of self-publishing, I knew it was imperative that the book's cover not only stand out from the crowd but be as good as any artwork produced by a traditional publishing house. Thankfully, my partner Tom Size knew just the right person for the job. 

Dave Williams is an amazing artist who does exceptional graphic design for a variety of products. He's the Creative Director and graphic designer for Mouth Man, the company that makes those magical animated hoodies that are all the rage.  http://www.mouthman.com/

Dave's also designed his share of album covers along with a slew of logos. And yes, all you Indies out there who are heading to the finish line and getting ready to self-publish, Dave is open to doing more book covers. Delta Legend was his first and judging by people's reaction to it, it won't be his last.

For our first meeting, I took Karsten Knight's Wildefire with me so Dave could see the level of artwork I was going for. When I first saw Wildefire in the bookstore, I was immediately drawn to it and quickly made it mine at the cash register in less than 5 minutes. Talk about successful visual marketing. 

We discussed a couple ideas I had and quickly narrowed it down to one. I knew from the start I didn't want any models or even ambiguous representations of Calvin and Mei Li on the cover. I realize I break from the rest of the YA pack here but I'm simply not a fan of casting on the cover. Novels are one the last forms of entertainment where we get to use our imagination to envision what the characters look like. The author gives us some descriptives and we take it from there. Once a book goes to screen, a casting director takes that privilege away from us, and more often than not, their idea of the perfect actor to play a character is nothing like we envisioned them. Sure we adapt and in most cases accept the actor, but why stomp on one of the best things about reading if you don't have to? I realize this puts me outside the norm in today's YA market where casting on the cover and book trailers are common place, but the hugely popular Wildefire (which was traditionally published) gave me the courage to go in a different direction.  

Working with a professional artist to bring a cover idea from concept to final product was a great learning experience. One of the biggest things I learned was that you don't really know what you want until you see it. You verbally describe your vision to the designer, they go off and create their interpretation of that vision, then you go back and forth adjusting it until it's a match. And even then, you need outside eyes and trusted advisors to keep you on the right path. I strayed off the path on more than one occasion but was brought back to clarity by both Dave and Tom. 

Dave delivered several versions of the eye, each of them slightly different and interesting in their own way. Toward the end, he delivered one that was exactly what I had asked for. It was completely black, glossy, and vacant. I was going for this whole black-crystal-ball thing. I went to bed that night thinking, this is it, this is what I want. By morning, Tom had all the images Dave had created up on his computer screen as thumbnails, including that last one that I thought was sooo perfect. As I looked at them side-by-side in the size that most people would be seeing them when shopping on Amazon.com, I realized that the one I thought was so perfect was not right at all. Dave had delivered exactly what I'd asked for, only what I'd asked him for was all wrong. There just wasn't anything going on in it. The previous ones were so much better and yet none of them were "it".    

Tom and I had done a photo trip to the Delta so he could capture the header image for the book's website, and this gave him an idea. He brought one of the Delta pictures up on the computer screen then held his 35 mm camera (with a convex lens) up to the monitor and took a picture - close up and angled into the screen. The effect was a magical light spectrum bounce back with just a trace of the original photo. Dave then took that image and worked with it to create the truly haunting and stormy effect of the eye. Now it really was perfect. Most people don't realize there's a very subtle image of Delta tules and water in the pupil, and that's the way I like it - it's illusive, like the creature itself. Having just a hint of the creature emerging from the darkness makes you want to know what the heck this thing really is. Dave did a brilliant job of alluding to the creature without giving it away.

Font? I hadn't even thought about it, but Dave asked the right questions and ultimately found a font that has both an Asian and Celtic feel, representing both the Chinese element in the story and the Celtic roots of my name. These are the kind of things you simply don't think about, yet they contribute to the feel of a cover image as a whole. The vibrant colors on black really add punch and the way the title rises to the forefront out of the dark - it's like a movie one-sheet.

Dave works in extreme multiple layers of Photoshop which creates a lot of depth. It also allows you to see slightly different elements when viewing it from different angles, especially in the poster version.

That's Dave Williams holding one of the DL posters. Thanks to him (and some help from Tom) I now have a great cover that I'm very proud of.  You can bet I'll be hiring Dave to do the cover for the next "Legend". 

Get ready Dave.

Opening Their Hearts and Blogs

This is a fun little piece I wrote for a recent Guest Author appearance on Felicia Chien's blog, Livin' Life Through Books. The YA Book Blogger Community is quite astounding really. So many of them open their hearts and blogs to Indies. Even if they're buried under TBR piles and can't do a review, they will often find some other way to help promote self-published authors. These Guest Posts, Interviews, and Giveaways take time and energy, so my thanks and gratitude go out to each and every blogger who has graciously featured Delta Legend in some way on their blog. 

OH, THE HORROR!

I was in my 30's the first time I killed (a character, that is). Oh, I'd written a play or two where characters met their end, most from natural causes. But it wasn't until I wrote a spec screenplay for a Teen Horror that I actually had to, well, off somebody. 


        Her underwater screams reach the surface in a burst of bubbles and blood.

The screenplay of Delta Legend turned out to be a big-budget beast no production company or studio in their right mind would touch, especially at a time when Teen Horrors were being shot on shoestring budgets. (Insert clip of teens running around in the dark woods holding flashlights under their chins.) We don't have a clip? Fine. 

Flash forward ten years and I'm in the early stages of converting the screenplay of Delta Legend into a novel, which now falls more under the realm of Urban Fantasy. Suddenly characters who were little more than bit players are far more fleshed out. You get to know them on a deeper level with all their endearing little idiosyncrasies. You get attached and then, oh yeah, gotta kill 'em. Well, not me personally, but the "thing" responsible for all the mayhem. So, while there's no blood on my hands, I'm still the one orchestrating their untimely demise and frankly, it took me a while to actually do the dirty deed. But kill them, I did.

Without warning, the kayak was aggressively bumped from below and overturned. It remained upside down for only a moment however, as the seasoned kayaker promptly managed to right his vessel—an impressive feat since he was now headless. His arms made one last reflex-action attempt at paddling before he went limp and his decapitated body slumped over. Blood gushed from the meaty wound of the neck stump and mixed with river water as it flowed down over his life vest then spilled onto the front of the boat.

The kayak, with its horrific cargo, continued to slowly drift through the water—a sporty, though less animated version of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. 

Trying to come up with new and creative ways for people to die is certainly an interesting day's work. Being that I have a natural tendency for comedy, at first it seemed weird that one moment I was creating a funny bit followed shortly thereafter by a gruesome scene. I soon came to realize, however, that some of the greatest Horror is a magical blend of carnage and comedy. It takes you on a roller coaster ride; one minute you're laughing and the next you're screaming, or at the very least gasping. And after having the bejeezus scared out of you, you really need the release of laughter. Not to mention that nervous laughter as you anticipate what surely must be waiting around the next corner. Horror and humor is a delicious combo on the level of chocolate and peanut butter. I've been a fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ever since I was a kid, but who knew I'd develop a taste for carnage somewhat late in the game.

A large metal homemade crawdad trap soon arrived at the surface with more than just crawdads on board. A section of Huestus lay wedged in the basket; his head, neck, right shoulder and arm were intact, though freakishly separated from the rest of him. Half a dozen crawdads clung to his waterlogged skin, picking from the spongy flesh. One of his eyes was a squishy, milky-grey, but the other was perfectly flawless and stared back at his finders with glassy intent. 
Ray pulled on a pair of latex gloves retrieved from his pocket before beginning the morbid task of removing crawdads from Huestus. He then carefully placed the crustaceans in a bait bucket borrowed from the cabin cruiser—bizarre evidence indeed. 

Leaving the dock, Calvin shook his head and admonished his great-uncle. “What’d I tell ya ’bout eatin’ those things?”

Samuel instinctively wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

And Huestus was a character I really had a soft spot for. Ah well, what are ya gonna do? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go grab a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and off somebody else. Don't worry, it's no one you know... yet.

Skin Deep - Multiculturalism in YA

For those of you who don't already know, I'm white. I'm not African American, Latino, Chinese American, or a Chinese immigrant. But I've written for characters who are. 

In doing author interviews about myself and my novel, Delta Legend, I'm often asked about its diversity and the choice to have many of the primary characters (especially my protagonist) be racially and culturally different from me. Truthfully, it wasn't so much an intentional choice as a natural occurrence that developed along with the story. I can assure you I didn’t wake up one day and decide I wanted my main character to be a 16-year-old African American guy. 

The first character of Delta Legend was the Delta itself. Calvin Pierce came next and was born out the need for dramatic conflict. Let's see ... who might feel like a fish-out-of-water in the heart of a predominately-white region known for agriculture and recreational boating? A black, inner-city teenager, that’s who. Mei Li Cheng was also a natural choice when considering the history of the Chinese and Chinese Americans in the California Delta. 

I grew up in what was, and sort of still is, a predominately-white East Bay suburb of San Francisco. My dad worked for Coca Cola, calling on restaurants, bars, and other venues in and around the city. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I got to skip school and go to work with him. Once I got a taste of San Francisco's diverse population with its distinct cultural communities, I was hooked. I loved hearing different languages being spoken, not to mention sampling a cornucopia of different foods. People adore my dad, so of course his clients were always feeding him (and me) whenever I got to tag along. Imagine an elementary school kid from the WonderBread burbs getting to experience a hidden gem restaurant down a back alley of Chinatown, a traditional taqueria in the Mission District, gnocci in North Beach, and mochi ice cream in Japantown. 

Our day would usually end at Mission Rock, a place that got way more hip once the new Giants Stadium was built. But back then, it was simply a locals bar that served pub grub and was fondly known as "The Rock." My dad would sit me on a barstool while he had a beer with his pals and we watched large Samoan men shoot pool. A day in the city with my dad was a cultural and epicurean field trip that was far more educational than any day at school. It's easy to see why when it came time to pick a college, I chose San Francisco State and continued to live in SF for 12 years until I got engaged and was finally pried away from my beloved city. 

Regardless of my urban exposure to different cultures and races, prior to writing Delta Legend, I was like a lot of other (ehem, white) writers who simply go on the premise that unless we state otherwise, our characters are white. All that changed for me when writing first the screenplay, and later the novel version of Delta Legend. Suddenly I had to clarify if someone was white - it was not a given.

You can get away with a bit less character development when writing for screen. Since the goal of a screenplay is to show not tell, you rarely get inside a character's head to say what they're thinking or feeling. Creating the screenplay version of Calvin Pierce wasn't all that difficult for me, but when it came time to write the novel version of Delta Legend, I initially danced around Calvin, unsure if I could properly represent him. Fortunately, as with all my characters, Calvin ultimately took up the reins of his own story, told me to sit at the computer, and take dictation.

One of my all-time favorite films is Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. I love the part where individual characters talk directly to the camera, going off on these tirades of racial slurs. It's so over-the-top, it makes them look completely ridiculous-and laughable, which of course, is the point. 


While Delta Legend touches on issues of racial and cultural differences, it mostly does so with humor, and it's not the primary focus of the story. Even though it's fantasy, I hope the characters realistically represent how we all think and act and relate to people of different races, cultures, even sexual orientation. And no one gets out unscathed. 

It's true you need to do a bit more research when writing for characters who are of a different race or culture than your own. But like everything else, you find the resources and people to help you. Luckily, I have a niece and nephew who are mixed race, African American and white, so I had some expert advisors in terms of hip hop culture and slang (which is continually evolving and changing). And let me tell you, Cody and Kelsey saved me from myself on more than one occasion.  

I would like to see more multiculturalism in YA, and not just the secondary characters, but the protagonists. As the United States and other countries become increasingly more diverse, we need our literature, especially our YA fiction, to reflect that. I get the feeling agents and publishers still believe those who buy the bulk of YA Books (white females) need to be able to envision themselves as the main character in order to fully immerse themselves in the story. But that's simply not true. Of course YA fans can identify with the core feelings and emotions of characters who are racially or culturally different from them - readers of color have been doing it for years! And no writer worth their salt only goes skin deep with any of their characters anyway. 


This article first appeared as a Guest Post for Christina Reads YA. 
http://christinareadsya.blogspot.com/

AN UNEXPECTED MEME OF MY OWN

If you're a fan of Delta Legend, then you know that crawdads make a cameo appearance in the story. I originally had 100 of these magical little paper mud bugs made by origami master, Kyle M., as part of a promotional contest. But what began as a contest has quickly morphed into a MEME, thanks to people sending me brilliant photos of their crawdads in their new environs and beyond. I'm truly loving all the inventive and funny pics!

Check out these great shots sent to me by Cricket of Kamuela, Hawaii. Cricket was the first person inducted into what was initially called The Crawdaddy Club but has since become known as Team Crawdad. (You know, my little play on Team Gale/Team Peeta. Only in this case, you don't have to place your allegiance behind one of two rivals, just one crustacean!) Obviously, Cricket's crawdad has adapted nicely to life in Hawaii—lucky little guy. Gotta love the tiny surf board. Cricket really threw down the gauntlet here, folks.

Wanna play? 

Hit me up and I'll send you one of these little origami mud bugs (while supplies last) so you can submit a creative pic or two of your own. Simply email me at kelan@deltalegend.com with I Want One! in the subject line. In the body of the email, tell me where to send your crawdad.

Of course, you're not obligated to snap pics of your mud bug, he can just hang out on your desk or dashboard, or even taped inside your locker. They also make a cool bookmark. But if you do get the urge, you can always email creative crawdad pics to me at the same address. That's kelan@deltalegend.com (And keep it clean, folks—crustacean porn is illegal in all 50 states, except maybe New Orleans during Mardi Gras.)

Dispatch From The New Publishing Frontier

In case you don’t have this oldie in your iTunes library, you might want to download Donald Fagan’s, New Frontier. It’s a catchy one, and for some reason, it’s been playing in my head of late.

So, how did I end up out here—an indie author on The New Frontier of Publishing? Well, there’s more to it than just a considerable stack of e-jections from literary agents. 

When I was in the throws of finishing Delta Legend, I mentioned to my friend Carolyn that I wanted to do a reading with a high school class—especially one with a diverse student body in terms of cultural background and ethnicity. 

Now, Carolyn is not the kind of person you casually mention something to and nothing happens. She’s the ultimate networker, forever hooking people up with each other. She also happened to be working at the perfect place at that time. A doctor of psychology, she was a counselor at a high school and she had not one, but two classes in mind for me.

Jane Hall is the teacher of these particular classes, and after reading the first few chapters herself, she enthusiastically embraced the idea of having me come do a reading with the students. Carolyn also invited a few students from outside the classes whom she knew were interested in writing. 


Since I have a background as a playwright, I decided I wanted these readings to be more like a table read, with the students taking the character parts while I read the narrative. Considering I was also an actress once upon a time, you'd think performing in a reading situation, where the words are my own and right there in front of me, would be a snap. But let me tell you, I was really nervous when that second bell rang and the students started filing in, staring at the middle-aged white woman who was there to read them a little story. "Why the hell did I say I wanted to do this again?"  

I did my best to keep the pages I’d printed out from visibly shaking as I launched into the first chapter, and I’m sure I was reading way too fast. Thank god there were students who’d agreed (albeit somewhat reluctantly) to read Calvin and Rashawn. There was simply no way I was going to be able to pull that one off—even it was a class of all white kids. 

Thankfully, in a matter of paragraphs, something truly amazing happened. I felt them engage. The guy sitting to my right, who initially had his head down on the desk in an “I’m not here so don’t even bother” position, turned his head toward me and was listening intently. And he wasn’t the only one. 

By end of the first chapter, they were in it. I breathed a huge internal sigh of relief and we continued on through the next five chapters with students reading the various character parts. It was so cool to hear the characters being brought to life for the first time outside of my own head. By the end of both class readings, the students were wanting more and asking when they could get the book—oh, and trying every which way to get me to divulge what the creature was, which I steadfastly refused, of course. But I definitely got a high off those first two readings. Not only did the students like it, they genuinely wanted more.

A few months later, when the manuscript was finished and I’d begun the daunting process of querying agents, I went back to do another reading with the students, this time with just the older class of juniors and seniors. It was now the following school year, so some of the original class had graduated and there were a few new faces. Those who'd been in the first reading happily filled the new students in and we picked up where we'd left off. Once again, the book was enthusiastically received—another validation that the story was working, engaging even reluctant readers.

So, to come home after something like that and have more rejections waiting in my inbox was confounding to say the lease. And it was a turning point for me. I began to seriously question who really had their finger on the pulse of what’s marketable in today's Young Adult arena and who was simply entrenched. This is when I began to seriously consider going indie and e-Publishing Delta Legend.

Everything in the today’s world is fast-paced and on-demand. The traditional literary world of agents and publishing houses is painfully slow by comparison -- an antiquated, old-school machine grinding though the motions. The hours spent querying the gatekeepers then waiting days and weeks to see if they request to see more seems unrealistic by today's standard business practices. If you’re lucky enough that someone actually does request more pages, you could be waiting weeks to months before they get back to you and possibly offer the brass ring—though in all likelihood, will tell you they’re passing.

I will say, that within my querying process, there were a few agents who were really on it. They responded right away, either quickly sending a form rejection, or if they did ask to see more, got back to me within a reasonable amount of time. But these folks were the exception, not the rule.

But back to the old-school machine. What if an agent does offer that coveted brass ring of representation and gets you a subsequent publishing deal -- how long until you’re actually in print and on the shelves? Too long, in my opinion, at least for this work. The students who represented my primary target audience were fired up and asking when they could have the book. It suddenly seemed ridiculous for me to be telling them, “Maybe in a year or so—if I can get an agent and a publishing deal.” They didn’t give a crap about any of that nonsense, they wanted to read the book now. 

There are authors and agents who’ll say you’ve got to get up into the hundreds of rejections before you should even entertain the notion of going the indie route. But after a considerable amount of research, truthfully, I felt like I’d queried all the agents who were right for this material once I’d hit thirty-five or so. Still, I did more research and pushed on to fifty queries. I wanted to make sure I’d given the traditional route a good shot. Anything beyond that, however, felt like I'd just be sniffing around for anyone who’d give me the time of day, and the wrong agent is far worse than no agent at all.

But here’s the rub: In finally taking the leap and going indie, it doesn’t feel at all like I’m taking a lesser route—the way it might have a few years ago. Actually, it feels more like I’ve taken up the reins of my own literary career and am driving this thing myself (with the help of my partner Tom). Fortunately for me, there have been many who’ve blazed into this new frontier ahead of me, and I’m able to follow the trails they’ve forged, reading their sign posts (and blog posts). 

So, to synopsize the reasons I decided e-publishing Delta Legend was right for me:

In spite of a well-honed query letter and a solid manuscript, it was raining rejections.

The unbridled enthusiasm the novel was receiving from betas of its primary target audience, as well as, the crossover crowd.

The ever-increasing number of people I was seeing everywhere with e-Readers, also the fact that the price of these devices was steadily becoming more reasonable.

But more than anything, it was my gut feeling that Delta Legend’s time was now, not a year or more from now, but NOW.

I have a friend, Lonnie, who’s a contractor. One of his many famous lines is, “Just commit”—his contractor’s version of “Just do it.” One of the more memorable times he urged me to “just commit” I was holding a sledge hammer and anxiously questioning my decision to knock out a small wall between two closets to make an entertainment center. But let me tell you, once I swung that hammer and started knocking that thing to bits, there was no going back. It felt right, and even though it was work, it was all worth it in the end.

So, in the spirit of “Just commit,” shortly before we hit the upload button at Amazon.com, I sent out emails to the last fifteen agents on my query list that I’d not yet heard back from, or hadn’t simply closed out as non-responders. Here’s what it said:

Dear (insert name),

“If you haven't already done so, please disregard my query for Delta Legend, as I have found representation elsewhere.” 

Thank you, 

(insert name -- oh, that would be me in this case)

I left off the fact that the representation I have found is my own. That would simply be opening a can of worms with people who are already grappling with the power shift this new publishing frontier has created. Had I said I was going to e-Publish Delta Legend myself, I’m convinced a few would have fired back an email saying they were just about to ask for a “full” or lecturing me that I was making a career-ending mistake. Frankly, I just didn’t need it—my mind was made up—I’d committed. And by officially excusing myself from the traditional route, hopefully I opened up a space for another writer who’ll thrive there. 

Me, I’m taking my chances as an indie author. To quote Donald Fagen, I think I’ve “got the right dynamics for the New Frontier.”

And it's WAY easier than this.

The crawdads are coming! The crawdads are coming!

The first battalion of Delta Legend's PR/Marketing Team has arrived!

At 4.5 inches from claw tip to tail's end, these rockin' little mug bugs are gearing up to go forth and represent. Thank you Kyle, origami folder to the stars.

You want one, don't you? Well, I just might be able to arrange that. Stay tuned.

We have LIFT OFF!

Lift off of the eBook, Delta Legend, on its way to Kindles, Nooks, and iPads to carry out its mission to bring urban fantasy, action, suspense, horror, romance, humor, and historical fiction to the masses with reading devices.

Are you on board this flight of fancy?

So, it's finally here: the official release date. Truth be told, we were a bit nervous about the whole upload process and how long it would take to appear for sale on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, so we actually pushed the launch button Tuesday night. You never see this at Cape Canaveral. "Sorry, we just wanted to make sure the thing was going to work, so we shot it into the atmosphere a couple days early. Was that wrong?"

Amazon.com loaded almost immediately, within hours. BarnesandNoble.com took over 48 hours to load. When I went to bed last night,  B & N's PubIt said it was still processing, but by morning it was available for sale. As of this post, Tom was having some technical issues the Barnes and Noble site. If you have a Nook and experience any issues downloading the book, please let me know.

But it's already doing its thing at Amazon and people are buying. (I think the cover has a lot to do with that.) Let's hope it's more than just my family and friends shelling out.

If you haven't already, I hope you'll buy your copy soon—don't let me end up singing Elton John's "Rocket Man" as in, "It's lonely out in space." Cyberspace, that is. You won't regret it. It really is a fun read that'll transport you to a unique location for a little mental vacation. Calvin & Company are a lot of fun to hang with.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you, for your continued love, energy, and support on this mission. A special shout-out to my brother, Terry, for feeding me this great space-launch metaphor a few days ago. I snapped it up ran with it.

This concludes our special coverage of the launch of Delta Legend. We now return to our previously scheduled program, Market It Your Damn Self! already in progress.