Day: January 13, 2014

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Collaborating with a 4-year Old

Gayle’s Comments on this blog post:

Your post was wonderful. I am at present enhancing/editing some illustrations for my husband’s new children’s book( “Jake, Little Jimmy and Big Louie” about a boy and two birds) that I have edited. Our illustrator is our eight-year-old great-granddaughter. We don’t have the luxury of living in the same place but Hannah’s grandmother (our daughter) has read through the draft chapters with her and then oversees her drawings for each chapter, scans them in and sends us the JPGs. Sometimes the main characters look different from picture to picture so I am now using Microsoft Paint to adjust them for a uniformity of sorts without losing that special child’s perspective. What fun! I will then rescan the edited pictures at a resolution high enough for printing in the book. I also blogged most of the chapters little by little as they were being edited (leaving out the last chapter). The ensuing comments were helpful We will blog news on the future publication.

I urge you to use at least some of your wonderful collaborations in a children’s book that perhaps you can write together. What a terrific contribution to children’s literature that could be!

busy mockingbird

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One day, while my daughter was happily distracted in her own marker drawings, I decided to risk pulling out a new sketchbook I had special ordered.  It had dark paper, and was perfect for adding highlights to.  I had only drawn a little in it, and was anxious to try it again, but knowing our daughter’s love of art supplies, it meant that if I wasn’t sly enough, I might have to share.  (Note:  I’m all about kid’s crafts, but when it comes to my own art projects, I don’t like to share.)  Since she was engrossed in her own project, I thought I might be able to pull it off.

Ahhh, I should’ve known better.  No longer had I drawn my first face (I love drawing from old black & white movie stills) had she swooped over to me with an intense look.  “OOOH!  Is that a NEW…

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The Light Never Lies – Book Cover Reveal

Notes by Gayle Moore-Morrans, editor and blogger:

Isn’t this a beautiful book cover? I was inspired by reading Francis Guenette’s latest post telling of her and her husband’s collaboration in producing a book cover for her new book, “The Light Never Lies” Just as I am doing at present, Francis is planning to forego the assisted self-publishing route and do her own layout, design, etc. using Create Space. I’ve just sent her the following message:

“Gorgeous book cover, Fran. You and your husband are good collaborators. Thanks for the tip on Book Cover Pro. I’ll have to look into it. It sounds like you and I are on the same track. I’m also working on Ian’s children’s book ‘Jake, Little Jimmy and Big Louie’ and am being guided with layout through Edwin Scroggins book ‘How to Self-Publish Your Book Using Microsoft Word 2007. ‘ So I’ll be using CreateSpace as well.”

Our 8-year-old granddaughter has done the illustrations so I’m also collaborating on that as I adjust and edit her drawings using Microsoft Word Paint. I’ve never used it before and find it quite fun. She has done some darling illustrations for the book but I find that her depictions of the leading characters are not always consistent from illustration to illustration. So MSPaint is allowing me to make the boy and the birds more consistent without losing her child’s perspective. It’s fun but painstaking. I’ll be anxious to see how you are doing with the layout. I hope to start mine soon. Best wishes for the New Year.”

disappearinginplainsight

E-book cover draft for THE LIGHT NEVER LIES

The learning curve has been negotiated and the hard work has paid off. We recently purchased a program called (deluxe edition) with the idea that husband Bruce was going to take over cover design for all my future forays into the world of book publishing and we can hopefully spread the cost over several covers. Like any good wife, I went into the process sounding enthusiastic while internally filled with doubts. Obviously, the guy is a skilled photographer and has a great deal of patience for tinkering with things but did that make him a book cover designer? I wasn’t sure.

My doubts have been shelved and I’m thrilled to reveal the ebook and softcover for The Light Never Lies and a bit about the process of creation. Keep in mind though, this is not a primer on how to use BookCoverPro – that is way beyond my powers to…

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