SHARDS, an illustrated BREAKING GLASS preview: download it for free. Win an arc of Breaking Glass plus other cool stuff...

Sneak peak inside:

BREAKING GLASS GIVEAWAY:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway items:

(1)  custom pendant like the one pictured on the book cover

(2) signed ARCS

(1) original work of Breaking Glass related art created and signed by me.

 

Let me know what you think!

The making of the EXTRACTED , (The Lost Imperials Book One) cover and cover reveal

The Making of the EXTRACTED cover.

 

What you're about to watch below is a sped up version of the full cover for EXTRACTED taking shape before your eyes. It is composed of about 25 high resolution images on 57 different layers put together in the program Photoshop. In Photoshop a layer interacts with the layer below in very specific ways, sometimes blending or inverting and sometimes masking parts of the image you want to hide. I am continually learning new tricks! Working in Photoshop is a little like being a wizard as you can make almost anything your mind can dream up a reality--and create something that surprises even you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that you'd watched the cover unfold, want to know a little about the amazing EXTRACTED? 

 

The Tesla Institute is a premier academy that trains young time travelers called Rifters. Created by Nicola Tesla, the Institute seeks special individuals who can help preserve the time stream against those who try to alter it.

 

The Hollows is a rogue band of Rifters who tear through time with little care for the consequences. Armed with their own group of lost teens--their only desire to find Tesla and put an end to his corruption of the time stream.

 

Torn between them are Lex and Ember, two Rifters with no memories of their life before joining the time war.

 

When Lex’s girlfriend dies during a mission, the only way he can save her is to retrieve the Dox, a piece of tech which allows Rifters to re-enter their own timeline without collapsing the time stream. But the Dox is hidden deep within the Telsa Institute, which means Lex must go into the enemy camp. It’s there he meets Ember, and the past that was stolen from them both comes flooding back.

 

Now armed with the truth of who they are, Lex and Ember must work together to save the future before the battle for time destroys them both…again.

 

Extracted: The Lost Imperials (Book One)

by Sherry D. Ficklin & Tyler H. Jolley

to be released by Spencer Hill Press (www.spencerhillpress.com)

on 11/12/13 (cool date for a time-travel book, eh?)

Formats: Paper, e-book

Here are all the EXTRACTED links you'll ever want:

 

Visit the Lost Imperials Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/thelostimperials 

 

website:

http://thelostimperials.com

 

and find Sherry Ficklin on Goodreads at:

http://www.goodreads.com/Author_Sherry

 

 

Now, you may think I'm silly, but my cover even makes me want to read this more. 

 

A cover designer strives to encapsulate the essence of the book into a memorable design combining distinctive images and typography. To do this, the artist must take the time to try and understand the atmosphere and style of the book as well as the target audience's tastes (since this is a marketing essential). A good cover creates a sort of "brand" for the book and constructs a framework for the reader to immerse themselves in. Authors understand this instinctively, and if the result is to their liking, are happy to embrace the artist's work as representative of their own creation. As an author myself, it is the greatest honor when another writer feels my design exemplifies their work.

 

If you want to learn more about my cover designs and follow new releases as they are revealed, you can visit my Facebook cover designer page at:

 

http://www.facebook.com/LisaAmowitzCoverDesigns

 

If you are interested in my forthcoming books from Spencer Hill Press,

BREAKING GLASS, July 2013 and VISION, May 2014 you can visit my Facebook author page at:

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLisaAmowitz 

 

or my Goodreads author page at:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5815435.Lisa_Amowitz

 

You can add BREAKING GLASS to your reading list on Goodreads, too. (and hopefully EXTRACTED will be on there soon as well).

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13597760-breaking-glass

 

 

 

My adventures in book cover design

I've been a graphic designer for many, many years. As a matter of fact, my day job is teaching graphic design at Bronx Community College where I have my students create their own cover designs. But it's only been recently that I've delved into the world of cover design myself. After getting the the amazing opportunity from my publisher, SPENCER HILL PRESS, to design my own cover, I've gone on to do quite a few more for them. The above cover for the forthcoming book, AWOKEN, is the first of the SHP covers to be revealed. Expect more to come.

Cover design, the way we do it at SHP, is a fascinating process.  At SHP, it's a collaboration between the editor, the author and me. We really listen to what the author wants and try to represent the spirit of the book as authentically as possible. It's an incredibly exciting process. In some cases, I've only been given the blurb, as in the case with AWOKEN. In other cases, I've read the whole manuscript. It really depends on how long it takes me to grasp the fundamentals of the book.

It took a lot of comps for me to get this book right. I really had no idea how to portray this rather complex tale. Below, I've posted the final comp that became the cover you see above. What we do is find low rez images from stock photography houses and play around with them until we capture the right mojo. I've yet to set up a photo shoot, though SHP is open to that possibility. I guess it's my roots as an illustrator that drives me to combine multiple images to get the effect I am looking for. And of course, the final touch is the typography, something all my students at BCC know I am absolutely adamant and exacting about. (I give some of them type nightmares). For the final, the high rez images are purchased, and then the cover has to be rebuilt from scratch to look as similar to the comp as possible, and of course, cleaner, crisper and better.

If you want to see more of my cover designs, and keep up to date with new work as it is released, you can check out my page on here, or visit my Facebook designer page at:

http://www.facebook.com/LisaAmowitzCoverDesigns?fref=ts

This is the final rough comp made of low rez images.
You can even see the stock houses watermark if you look closely enough.

What's coming up on the blog: A new blog chain, blog tag and interview with Cinda WIlliiams Chima

Let's see..I am now part of a blog chain with my good friend Michelle McLean a bunch of other awesome authors. Look for my first post in this chain later this week. Also, I'm in a blog tag with Christine Foneeca.

Also, I have another interview and this is a really hot one. I'm going to be talking to one of my fave authors, Cinda Williams Chima, author of the super-great SEVEN REALMS fantasy series (THE DEMON KING, THE EXILED QUEEN, THE GREY WOLF THRONE). The fourth book in the series, THE CRIMSON CROWN is due out in October and I can't wait. Meanwhile, to whet your appetites, how about a look at the cinematic, theater quality trailer for the book.

So how do you deal with the distraction---I mean multi-tasking?

Lately, I've found myself wishing either for an extra five-ten hours in the day or perhaps a pills that would let me do without sleep. And while we're at it, how about a personal chef and a very intelligent robot that can clean my house and buy my groceries. (and maybe do the laundry as well?). Then I'd also like a personal assistant to keep track of my appointments and someone to do---oh never mind. You get the point right?

Between thinking about marketing myself, doing design work, keeping up with my job, the household stuff (which includes paying attention to what my teenage daughter and college boy are up to) and oh yeah--the three WIPs I have going (did I mention critiquing and beta-reading?) I'm kind of on a creativity overload. I'm not complaining---it's all good. But, I've never been known for my cool methodical temperament. When you think of me, think of a cheerful storm, or as my colleague and I call ourselves once we get going--a detonation.

Yeah. It's an exciting time for me. But I am wanting to do everything at once. And I am finding it a little difficult to focus on writing with so many other cool projects begging for my attention (blog design, designing my website, book cover design, illustration---shall I continue?). Plus, my amazing publisher Spencer Hill Press and the incredible Kate Kaynak seems to be just like me--full of ideas and energy (but much more organized about it.) She's got me so excited, I'm about to bust (but I'm not breathing a word of what she's got me excited about--CIA swear as one of my students says.)

So, I want to know--how do you all handle it? I do drag myself to the gym and that helps. But seriously--maybe most of you aren't as kooky as me? If you are, I want to know (not you, Michelle!--I already know all about it, lol). This morning I'm really proud of myself--I ate breakfast before noon, showered and even painted my toenails..but it was a struggle.

How do you spell multi-tasking? D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N?

Book Deal for Breaking Glass

I've had it all over on Twitter and Facebook, but I guess it's time I put the news on my blog.

My book, BREAKING GLASS, is due out in June 2013 from Spencer Hill Press. Thank you to my agent Victoria Marini for her support and unflagging belief in my writing.

Here is a snippet:

Now (November 17th)

Outside the dinner theater lobby, the glow of street lamps barely penetrates the thick mist that shrouds the parking lot. It’s the kind of night that Jack the Ripper might have prowled the cobblestoned streets of London searching for victims.

In the lobby, fresh from the standing ovation he’s received as Tony in our production of Westside Story, my best friend Ryan Morgan is surrounded by a crush of people. For two weeks running his performance has been drawing crowds from all over Westchester County, his surprising star turn unprecedented for a high school junior.

I glance around furtively, but no one notices the lighting guy. Truth is, my hearts not in theater. I’m only working weekends to pad my college applications and my wallet. So, I take a minute to study the latest text from Susannah Durban, Ryan’s girlfriend of three years. Heat creeps to my cheeks.

For the past year Susannah’s been inexplicably texting me with Youtube links to her haunting stop-action animations. I watch her half-clothed body drift across the screen draped with filmy gauze, her dark bronze hair and golden skin amid floating leaves, graveyards, ballet dancers, Indian goddesses and scattered words in Hebrew and English, most of which make no sense.

But other than telling me the link is private and to keep it our little secret, Susannah never mentions them when I see her. Neither do I.

Yet if I could dive into my iPhone and swim beside her, an exotic fish in her private world, I would do it and never look back.

And Ryan would kill me. Best friends don’t want to do their best friend’s girlfriend. I think that’s written somewhere.

I glance behind me. Ryan is intertwined with Claudia Herman, the community college girl who plays Maria. Claudia’s hot. And she’s slept with the whole track team. I think of Susannah, mercifully out of town on a college visit.

My phone vibrates. Susannah again. This time it’s an actual text.

I clench my jaw and look away from Ryan and his latest fling, sworn to silence by the Guy Code of Honor.

Jeremy! guess what. i’m here! got n earlier flight

I peer out into night then glance at Ryan again.

Shit.

Claudia has one toned leg coiled around Ryan’s tall frame like a boa constrictor. I fumble with my phone. Texting under pressure has never been my strong suit. 

And please enter my contest! (see below)

Road Trip to Rhinebeck, center of the YA universe...

Thanks to Suzanna Hermans and Jennifer Laughran, bookseller and agent extraordinaire, OBLONG BOOKS in Rhinebeck, New York has become a veritable children's book mecca.

Friday night, my critmate Dhonielle Clayton (of Teen Writer's Bloc) and I went on a road trip to see Libba Bray, and two other panelists, Michael Northrop, & E. Archer at Oblong for the Hudson Valley YA Society's: Survivor Edition. It was an entertaining evening, with Libba talking about her awesome new book BEAUTY QUEENS, mad libs style. A peak moment for me was when I managed to get a moment to talk to Libba, who is one the of the most hysterically funny and down to earth people I have ever met. I told Libba how one of my students is a huge fan of hers. She asked if I had the student's phone number and it just so happened I did. Libba called and left an adorable message!!! What a lady!!! And, I should also mention, BEAUTY QUEENS, is an ambitious, incredibly original and hilarious, can't put down read. Libba, you are just the BEST.

But, also, another excellent perk of visiting the hamlet of Rhinebeck is getting to hang out with Jennifer, the Gertrude Stein of childrens' lit. Jennifer is full of information and advice which she dispenses freely and generously for no particular reason other than that she just plain old knows everything and wants to share. Thanks, Jenn!

Another really great part about my mini road trip? Talking non-stop with Baby Cuda (her title as youngest member in my six year old online critique group), Dhonielle-who, poor dear, never seems to tire of my interminable babbling. If some day someone should ask how I plotted my current WIP and the book that my incredibly tenacious agent Victoria Marini has out on submission (BREAKING GLASS) I'm going to have to admit that my super secret technique is the Dhonielle and Lisa road trip. Yep--we have worked out plotting kinks for four of our books and came up with some new book ideas to boot. I highly recommend taking a road trip with a simpatico fellow writer. We had SO much fun (plotting our books is like crack for us--and of course, as usual, we missed our exit), and got so much done. And did I mention we stayed at the world's creepiest motel?

What a great little trip. If you are anywhere close to New York City and can take a drive up to Rhinebeck, NY--you've got to visit Oblong Books. Say hi to the wonderful Suzanna Hermans and Jennifer while you are there. But if you do run into Jennifer---bring plenty of cash, because you will not leave without a book. It's pretty hard to say no to one of the top agents in the biz when she's trying to sell you something. Pity those poor editors. :)

Rising from the dead to review the Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter

Okay, not exactly dead, but buried in my WIP, BREAKING GLASS, nearly done at 242 pages. I've just been SO ENGROSSED, I hope you'll all forgive me.

I'd promised long ago to review Ellen Potter's KNEEBONE BOY and now I am going to keep half my promise—I'm having a guest blogger, my brilliant and generous critique-mate of five years, Cyndy Kennedy Henzel do the review. When Cyndy told me that she, too was as big fan of this rather unheralded book from 2010, I asked her if she'd like to do the review for my blog. She did and hear it is:

THE KNEEBONE BOY

by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel

I love surprise endings, and Ellen Potter’s KNEEBONE BOY delivered. The Hardscrabble children, Otto, Lucia, and Max, set off to stay with their cousin in London. When they discover she has gone on holiday, they find their way to their great-aunt’s, who lives in a miniature castle behind a sinister real castle once owned by the Kneebone family. Here, the story falls into the pattern of a semi-fantasy as they discover the morbid history of the castle then face dragons, secret passages, and other fantastical elements as they try to rescue the Kneebone heir locked in a castle tower.

THE KNEEBONE BOY, however, is not a fantasy. Or an adventure. Or a mystery. It is more the tale of a dysfunctional family with a dark secret. The father takes periodic trips to paint portraits of displaced royalty. The oldest son Otto, 13, hasn’t spoken since their mother mysteriously left five years earlier, and the great-aunt is wildly wacky.

The reader is lulled into complacency by the Lemony-Snicketish voice of the narrator, one of the children but which one is never identified, into accepting the characters and events that unfold as normal. This works wonderfully to disguise what is actually happening; the clues to the surprise ending are all masterfully planted. However, since the story is told in the past tense, the voice is somewhat jarring at the finale. We are surprised, maybe even shocked, but it is difficult to be empathetic. The narrator also tends to pause to tell the reader something is going to happen; a device that tends to pull the reader from the plot and doesn’t seem really necessary.

I’ll admit I was tempted to put the book down halfway through, thinking that it was just another tale of wacky characters off to visit the wacky relative in the mysterious house and having a somewhat silly adventure. It is not. Keep reading. It is a masterfully plotted story. You will be thinking about this book for a long time.