Newest Release Coming Soon!

Hello from the lair of TWScott

In case you don’t follow my tweets, I wanted to update you on my progress.

I rented this cabin in the woods in the Smoky Mountains.  I could say a lot about the roads in Tennessee, but that would take us away from the exciting news I want to share with you.

My latest novel is finished.  107K words give or take of everything you have come to expect in a TWScott Novel.

When a young girl from Iowa leaves the farm for college in Florida, her life is transformed. The need for cash drives her to look at the unthinkable as a way to survive. Her lifelong friend had already discovered ways to make money working at Gentleman’s Clubs.   

Predators looking for young girls to work as escorts, troll those clubs and colleges. Lacy was an easy target.  Barely five foot tall, Blond hair and blue eyes with a ‘Monroe’ type body and smile, she became the focus of a recruiter.

Hired as arm candy, or love toy; Lacy soon learns the horrors of the industry, while catching the attention of one of the world’s wealthiest of bad boys.  A strange romance ensues as Lacy and her friends become part of the fabric of a modern-day brothel. An island entertainment facility for the worlds rich and famous was in the works and she was to become part of it.

With the world’s leading bad boy in love with Lacy, several people try to infiltrate her group to claim the reward on her lovers head.

How is that for a tease?

With the Epstein Island fiasco, the story wrote itself.  Instead of one island, I have two, as Peter; her ‘friend’ has competition who relies on sex trafficking to get his girls.

I don’t want to spoil the book, but I just love it when the evil person gets theirs, don’t you?

Schadenfreude

Captives of Pleasure Island

Taking a week to travel on vacation was not time lost as the story played out in my mind while driving.  I hoped that an Agent would see the tweets about it, and I would not have to Query it as that takes four hours for each agent.

The process is broken and needs repair.  The likes of Bezos or Corker will be the beneficiaries of many independent novels.

As you can see, I have created the cover art.  So far, I like this much better than my first attempt.  The name Schadenfreude is the name of a yacht that the rich boyfriend gives Lacy.  The name is a word that means deriving pleasure from the pain of others.  This man is twisted.

I spent a fair amount of time with my laptop on the screened-in porch, with the gentle breezes, generated by Dorian whispering through the trees.  When you think Dorian, you don’t think gentle anything, do you?

It is my sincere belief that you need to leave your office or as I jokingly call it my lair, to experience life.  We writers are a rare breed of human who lives inside our heads.  I could get into the science of theta waves and how we could use that science to break writers blocks, but suffice it to say, live your life.

All experiences are fodder.  If you write solely from what you see on TV or read, you are most probably borrowing from someone else.  Go, get out of your office, and move.  Walk through, the park, smell the roses.  Pick up a rose and get pricked by a thorn.  Bump your knee into something and experience the pain.  Life is full of bumps and bruises, but it is also about love and happiness.  Without the wicked things, how would you recognize the good?

Last chance agents!

Currently, I am in the final editing stage of this novel.  As I Jokingly say ‘Stephen Hawking’ is reading my book back to me one chapter at a time.  As I make my final edits I will be creating a Kindle-friendly upload that I can send to advance readers, i.e. you, or I can self-publish and market it myself.

If you want to make some money and discover the next prominent author, here is your chance.

I have well over 30 published novels with many of them selling nicely.  Just think how I would do with a professional editor and some marketing dollars.

Not afraid to go it alone.  I enjoy writing more than I do just about anything else.

www.authortwscott.com   contact page

@authortwscott

@twscott823

TTFN

-TW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you a Victim?

What the hell is going on with our world today? Me2 Me2, someone once said I was pretty! Dammit, if you are ugly and someone calls you pretty, just face him or her face to face and tell him or her not to offend you. FFS! Really, is this what we have come to today?
I find it shocking that we are turning into a world full of pussies, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
“This man forced me into sex. He put his thing in my mouth and made me have oral sex with him.” This is from another me2 person going after a politician in Virginia.

I get that there might be overarching forms of bullying going on, but few men, smart men, would put themselves forcibly into a mouth full of sharp teeth! I guess a stupid man might, But he would only do it once.

Black Face

Until a few days ago, I did not know what that term was. I am not a spring chicken. Yes, I grew up in a time of minstrel shows and such. The last actor I saw portraying a black person was Neil Diamond in Jazz Singer. His friend Franklin Ajay (Bubba) gets him to perform in a black club. Everything is fine until one of the patrons spots his white palms and then all hell breaks loose!

Why, we are left to guess but the fight that ensues lands the band “The Four Brothers” in jail where Laurence Oliver playing Yussel’s father, ask him a question, which is probably the best line in the whole movie… “Isn’t it tough enough being a Jew?”

If you were to ask a black activist (Al Sharpton) about this, they (he) would most certainly spin this as more white hatred of the black people.

I do not deny racism, I am calling into question who the racist is.

In the 1980 movie, when one of the patrons sees his white palms, and calls him out, the writer gives him the line. “That ain’t no brother, that’s a white boy!” Over this observation, the place erupts into violence, even though the performance up to that time was a success.

• Was the writer a racist?
• Were the patrons in that time racist to the point of destroying the club to harm the entertainer?
• Was this scene indicative of the time?
• What period was this supposed to happen in, wait the 80’s…

I have been in Black Clubs in the ’80s as a white person. My company transferred me to Houston to take over as a manager of a department. My black employees invited me for drinks after work one day. They did not tell me it was a black club. I was new to Houston and certainly had no idea that the Palomino was a black club. Folks, I saw none of this. We had a great time, I had many dancing partners that evening, and I cemented many long-term friendships that have lasted through the ages.

Another of my employees at a different company brought me to a gay bar, after work. Same response. At the end of the day, I went home without a date, as I was not looking for one. There was already someone in my life.

Was I a victim?

Some could proffer the argument that they set me up. They knew things that I did not and put me into an uncomfortable situation for their amusement. Much to their chagrin, I was not nervous. I can handle myself, even if things had gotten out of hand. They did not, however; get out of hand as in both clubs people were nice and accepting of me.

They knew I wasn’t black but they did not know if I were straight or gay. Can you not go into a club like this as a “person,” and just enjoy the company of other people, without identifying as straight, white, or black?

In many of my novels, I talk about labels, and how my characters abhor them. I won’t go into details here. We are all the same when it comes to race. We are the “human race.” Our sexual identity is also not that distinct from one another, as we all start our life as a girl. Men have nipples, look it up!
You would be shocked if I told you how offended some men can be when I point out that little fact. Own who you are. Celebrate diversity, and don’t you use it as a way to divide us.
In Tipping Point, I make the argument that we should all strive to look at each other as human beings and not look for that which divides us. This is a common theme in a few of my novels.
Last evening at a writers meeting we got into a conversation about art. I mentioned that one of my instructors was incredibly opinionated. She was very good as an artist. Excellence at what we do tends to breed a certain hubris that I take umbrage with. I don’t care who you are or what you have done, you are no better than I am and I am no better than you are.

This instructor had a certain mindset including which paints you do not use. There are brushes, and so on that, you had best not bring to her class.
Early on, we were asked what got us into painting in the first place.
Without hesitation, I spoke the truth. Bob Ross.
OMG, you would have thought I had just pissed in their Wheaties.
Some of her requirements for the class are that you mix your own colors and, this is right.

Never use paint straight from the tube…blah blah…

This person was rather high strung and had little tolerance for not doing things “her way.”

Why Bob? Why do I still to this day, hold him in high esteem?
In thirty minutes using basic colors and skills, he manages to create beautiful paintings that set the stage for most of us to escape into. We imagine our bare feet on the lush grass, or perhaps swimming in the lake, as we feel the fresh water on our bodies. Just maybe we think of ourselves laying in that field among the happy trees, looking at the “happy clouds” or other things, which could be happy accidents.
Why Bob? Why not Bob. What a gentle soul and kind spirited man. What a great role model for us to all aspire to. The barbs were too much for me, so I searched high and low for “flesh colored” paint. I also found a two-inch brush, to top it off, ordered a shirt with Bob Ross on the front. The bully of the art world had met her match!
When you are painting portraits as she was teaching us to do, there is indeed, only one way to get it right and flesh colored paint is not it. That is why I had to search to find it. I wanted to make a point, graciously.

As I sat there with my two-inch brush and a dab of flesh colored paint on my pallet, we were instantly in a standoff. She knew that I was taking her to task. “Your opinion is just that, an opinion!”

“Don’t mock those that you don’t agree with.”

Had Bob not made it appear so easy, I might never have purchased the stuff to give it a go. My portraits sell all over the world, and I have her to thank for that, but in truth,…Bob is who inspired me.
• Why did I tell this story of my art career?
• Does it fit into being a victim?
• How does it fit?

Last night when I was telling this story, one of my comrades took me to task. It would seem that referencing flesh colored paint was racist. “WTF? Are you kidding me? It says flesh on the tube, is Windsor Newton now a racist?” What is going on for this person to make such a ludicrous assertion?

Are you looking for ways to be a victim?

I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I dislike ignorance and those that act on it. My comrade had no clue what I was talking about. Had I been less sure of myself, I might have taken offense to that assertion, or worse, questioned my own stance on racism.
They assumed that flesh was “white flesh,” but in truth, it is a “base” with which you can add yellow ochre, burnt umber or pick your color, and make it any kind of “flesh” you choose.

Titanium white, yellow ochre, and alizarin crimson are also the beginnings of the base for flesh.

Do you believe everyone should be pure of heart and thought? Just possibly nobody should talk, or speak, write, text or communicate in any way so we don’t offend someone. Wait, if I don’t say hello when seeing you; is that communicating with you nonverbally. Is that not a way of telling you that you are so insignificant to me that I am not going to waste my breath to say hello? No, it says that I am so afraid of offending you, that by my acknowledging you that, you might find something offensive. FFS is that where we are.

I walked past a man leaving the bank the other day who gave me an eye roll, as we passed. What did that mean? Should I be offended? Was I not worth the time to at least say hello to? Did he not like white people? He was black, that must be it, he is racist, and that is why he rolled his eyes and did not say hello to me. I should write a column for the New York Times about how all black men hate white people because this one person rolled his eyes at me, instead of saying hello. I am a victim! His eye roll was offensive to me! How dare he not acknowledge me as his equal!

“Is this where we are?”

He was holding his phone and had an earbud in his ear. Is it possible he was talking with someone on his phone or listening to voicemail, and he eye rolled at what he was hearing?

I leave you with this thought….

Look for things we have in common instead of things that divide us. Start with the fact that we are the entire human race. The color of our skin, or sexual preference, is not something to divide us. Start out with respect for your fellow human traveler on this road of life, and the rest will be much easier.

“I just about hate to say this, and yes I am stealing the line from Pollyanna. Look for the good, and you will find it, look for the bad, and you will surely find that too.”
I could choose to ignore the phone, and the earbud, and think that person was anti-white, and use it to build a precept that all black men hate white people or….I could give him the benefit of the doubt.

Great minds discuss ideas. Those focused on petty things; discuss people and ways to be offended.

Rise above the fray, and lead by example.

BTW, my art instructor and I are the best of friends and have been so since I stood my ground and forced her to examine her own life. Bob, Kincaid, and others serve a purpose and they are no less relevant than Renoir, Picasso, or De Vince. While they would argue the fact that I put their names in the same sentence, neigh the same paper as Renoir; I would argue that Renoir never inspired me to go and purchase paints.
Much Love -TW

Who are you?

I should be editing Tipping Point but, I am taking a break for a bit.  There are reasons, which I will share. As writers, we need to step away from it.  There are those who will toss a completed work into a drawer for a month or a year…. No, I am not one of those.

When I am not active on my blog, I am either working the day job, writing, editing or marketing.  I have told you repeatedly if you follow me here and you are a writer I will make it worth your time.

Here is the message for tonight that if you take to heart, you will be much better off not only in your writing or other creative endeavors but as a person.

“Wow TW, that seems kind of heavy.  Are you smoking something?  You in Colorado? Got extra?”

Tonight I want to talk about you.

Sitting through a critique session, I am so tickled with some folks who are giving a writer their best shot at an opinion.

“I did not like this.  That was cool. I like that.”

If you were a writer, and that is the feedback you received, would it be helpful?

No, not so much.  Why?

That is not a rhetorical question, it is a real question. Why?

As creatives, we are our own class of people in the first place.  I like creative people as most of them are intellectuals.  That means they think.  They have more going on under the hood. They are not usually the “Hold my beer and watch this.” Kind of person.

“I would challenge you to take this a step further.  Take your wife or husband or BFF and go spend a day at the art museum.  Most of them have benches where you can sit and admire the artwork.  Many art students will go sit and sketch the artwork as an exercise.”

“I don’t want you to sketch it; I want you to analyze it.”

“You don’t have to be an art major to appreciate art.”

Walk the floor and find something that speaks to you negatively or positively. When you see that something, stop, sit and study it.  “(SSS) stop, sit, and study.”

This is what you are looking for.  “Why!”

You are worthless to a writer if you cannot articulate your feelings to them.  If you are not in touch with you who are, then your opinion is meaningless to not only the writer or author, but it is not much value to you either.  “Joe six-pack, this applies to you too.  Why do I like this beer and not that one?”

I write about enlightenment, even in my naughty books, to set the stage for my readers to begin to know themselves. When you get into the habit of asking yourself, why you liked something or did not like it soon that will be a habit, which will serve you well.  That person who is looking at you from the mirror will be better able to deal with life if he or she knows themselves.

“I preached this to a young man over thirty years ago.  This person is now worth more than a million dollars and is happy.  He is happy because he knows who he is, and what he wants out of life and he knows why.”

“He was already wealthy blah blah…” No, he was in prison doing five to ten for armed robbery.

I worked in advertising for years.  When I first started, I was one that would FF through the commercials.  I soon found myself watching them with more fervor than the program.  Why did this one work, or that one didn’t?

There is this annoying commercial on currently that is for GMC trucks.  They have this tailgate, which unfolds and has a step for geriatric cowboys I guess.  The thing starts out with the truck on the hill and from miles around people are carrying tailgates from their competitors. That part of the commercial is forgettable.  The genius of the ad is the earworm.  “Na na na na.. hay hay goodbye..”

A commercial must be memorable.  Not only should you know the polar bears are drinking a soda, but you must remember that it is Coke.

When you can analyze a commercial and tell me why it works, you might have value as someone who can read a book, and offer constructive criticism worth listening to.

“I liked it, is worthless.”  Tell me why and be specific!

We know that adverbs are the path to hell.  I read them in books regularly.  Your average reader does not have any idea that eliminating them makes the text more readable.

When agents look at your books as you query them, they can tell if they can sell you to an editor.

Once you understand why you like or dislike something, you not only gain value as a writer but also as a person. You now have a little more depth than the veneer on your desk.  Blunt, you say?  Yes, it is.  Following me, you know that I am unfiltered and honest.

Tipping Point in its current iteration will not be up there much longer.  The novella will soon be replaced with an 86K word book that you will most certainly love.  It is free on Kindle Unlimited.  Read it before and then the after.  I think you will be shocked.

Much Love–TW

 

A couple of updates here.  The previous version of Tipping point is gone.  If you really want to see it let me know and I might find a way to get it to you.

The second update is about marketing.  I was watching a Trump rally the other night to see what the kerfluffle is about.  When a heckler did something to stop the president from speaking the crowd broke out in “na na na na na na hey hey goodbye.”

Think about that GM!  While you are laying off thousands of your employees your marketing firm is working for you.

-TW

Feeding your Characters, Part II

 

Waves of Emotions, Does the Moon Affect them like the Tides of the oceans?

Many of you know that I have been dealing with the loss of a close friend who recently passed.  The things in life that we take for granted, the smile, knowing look, the chuckle that you caused,  and that voice on the other end of the line that you come to know as your lifeline to reality, those are precious… When those are gone, and you are left alone…the tides roll.

As one who has always “adopted” older friends it has been my privilege to know and care for many that have since passed. Each and every one unique and precious and missed.  Two of the last three I was asked to do their Eulogy, which if you have never done, try and get through it without becoming a basket case in front of countless people.  It is not easy.

The more you care, the more it hurts, and the harder it is.

Spending days writing it I finally had to remove anything in it that would trigger me, and then it was still a challenge.

Today I was dealing with their family trying to be of some assistance, and it brought back the pain all over again.  Facing the “residual” of a friend trying to assess some monetary value to it as to assist their survivors is just miserable!

The “things” the treasures that charmed them and we are now relegated to boxes of stuff waiting for an estate sale.

I often go to antique malls looking for trinkets that “charm” me but more often than not I look for things that might inspire a story.

From strange tools to old tchotchkes that someone treasured a long time ago interests me.  I once bought an ancient relic that looked like it belonged to some tribe in some dark jungle as I thought if I could imbue it with magical properties it might make a story.  Who knows.

I sift through old black and white photos of people who have long since passed that have found their way to the antique malls and make up little stories about them as I hold their picture in my hand.  If the story sounds good, I buy the image, and he or she becomes a character in a novel.

Many of you can relate to the loss of a loved one.  You know that the waves are real and sometimes they can bury you.  I keep some memento of them around me as they were important to me for decades.

How do you deal with loss?

Stuff cannot replace them.

The things we find in antique malls are just effects that meant something to someone long ago.

On multiple occasions, I have purchased boxes of “things” on eBay.  This one box I bought the person who sold it took care to wrap each individual thing in tissue.  There were old lenses from glasses.  There was a model of an old delta airplane. There was a marionette that is probably from the thirties. There were some timeworn cufflinks, a watch and just basically a drawer of someone’s stuff that was put into a box and sold. There was even a broken glass figurine of a toucan. Where did that come from and how it did come to be in that drawer and how did it get broken.

I got the box and looked at each and every little thing including the old glasses.  This was the residual of a life. The old airplane they probably got when they flew.  The little marionette might have been passed down to them from a grandparent.  The watch was old and well-worn but, it too told a story.

I carefully wrapped the stuff back up and stored it away for a future day when I need an idea.  Those trinkets will live again in some story and by them becoming part of one of my novels, the previous owner in some small way will also live again through my words.

If you are a writer, go visit antique malls.  Spend time looking at the trinkets on display, and if something sparks a thought,, you know what to do.

Some things I snap a picture of as I have no desire to haul some piece of furniture home but….I found an article that I will tell you about.

In this old downtown store, there was this small desk that belonged in a classroom from eons ago. The chair was in front, and the actual desk with the writing surface that lifted and a place to store crayons and such were underneath the writing surface.

This was designed very differently in that the chair in front of the person who used the surface of the desk was contingent on the person sitting in the chair not moving the desk.  It was, in fact, a piss poor design to get the maximum amount of students in one small space but…Wow!

I immediately thought of “Good Night John Boy!”

Many of us go into such places looking for something to charm us to purchase it.  I look for fodder for stories.  I never know what will “trigger or spark” an idea.

Search “box of crap” on eBay and see what comes up.  I used to challenge people to pick up an item and write a story about it.  I would have a box of stuff and tell them to reach in and grab something without looking.  Take it back to their desk and write.

To you my pretties, feed your characters.  Find an item and write something on your blog, and tell me about it.

 

Much Love -TW

 

“How do you manage to produce so many books while working a full-time job?”

Paraphrased, this is probably the question that I get asked the most.

Action plan

To know what direction you are headed you need what?  You need a goal. If I, for instance, wanted to drive to Chicago from Dallas how would that work?

When I was a lot younger and had no deadlines pressing me, I might throw some clothes in a couple of bags, hire someone to watch the house, get into the car and point it north.

I love road trips without real purpose. However, we have stated that we have an end goal of arriving in Chicago.

Heading north as stated earlier would not get me to Chicago but North Dakota or Minnesota if not Canada. Again all great destinations but, missing our goal entirely.

Firstly we must map out our route which even with the technology we have today, there are several possibilities.

There was a time in my life when driving for twelve or thirteen hours straight was no big deal.  Now, not so much.  I would at least stop halfway.  Planning my trip today would include points of interests along the way, and I would indeed drive out of my way to see or visit something along the way.  These types of activities often provide fodder for manuscripts.

Let’s face it, if time were a real issue, I would hop on board a plane and be there within hours.

My action plan would include proper clothing for the season, as well as places to stop along the way.

The action plan would indeed include something known as “Time management.”

Writing a term paper or a novel is not much different.  With time being the common denominator that we all share, it is also the one thing that we must all guard against wasting.

What do you do with your time?

If you are uncertain about the validity of what I am saying; for a week log every minute of your day.  Don’t cheat.  Much like writing what you eat to assist you in a diet, try keeping up with what you did during the day.  Time management is crucial, and you must be good at it to be successful in life.

I think that sitting in front of the TV being conditioned continuously by whatever you are putting into your head is possibly one of the worst ways of wasting your precious time on this earth.  I truly think that it also dulls your senses and might rob you of who you truly are by supplanting what you know for ideas which are just bullshit.  Someone’s ideas that are put forth in a way to convince you that your long-held beliefs are false.

That is my opinion, and possibly you have a differing one.  We all know people who live through the TV.  Cancelling the cable might be not only a good money saver but, you might find you now have time to do other things.

Not only do we have TV and Netflix but, we have the computer or internet, and of course we have our tablets or phones to steal our time.  We spend so much time communicating nonsense with countless others, that we don’t communicate with those that we are the closest to.

How do you manage to write so much and work a daytime job?

What little I see of TV in passing makes me shake my head. Hundreds of cable channels to fill and they come up with some of the lamest stuff ever.  I am waiting for one of the channels to be of grass growing or paint drying.

Our Culture is changing and in many ways, I don’t think for the better.  Morality has taken a hit as our role models now often spend time behind bars for beating their wives or some other criminal offense.

I could go on and write a complete book about narcissist and sycophants but that is outside the scope of this blog post.  If you want a role model, my friends, look into the mirror and become that which you seek!

Years ago I was on a cruise to Alaska and we parked by one of the glaciers watching it melt.  Yes, if it were not just a glorious day to be outside on the balcony watching ice melt, I would have been pissed.  Finally a large chunk of ice “calved” and that was the highlight of the afternoon.  The massive ship rocked as the ripple from the tons of ice falling into the abyss reached out to us.  Feeling the effect of the displacement of so much water, made the time spent stationary that afternoon, and subsequent sunburn, more tolerable.

Don’t misunderstand me, you must do things in life, especially if you are a writer.  You must travel.  You must speak with people of all walks of life.  I make it a point to learn people’s names and something about them wherever I go.  People are what make life worth it to me.  You are interesting.  Sitting in front of the TV like so many do, getting spoon fed someone’s idea of what is morally acceptable changes the entire audience over time.

The Stepford wives come to mind as so many people around the globe watch things produced in Hollywood.  Our values or Hollywood’s values reach far and wide.

In Saga of the Starduster, I have my aliens tune into our TV to see what they are about to deal with.  Finding Sharknado on the screen, their first impressions are that the sharks are the apex life forms, and humans are their prey.   Not too far from reality except these sharks travel by manipulating vortices and attack bipedal creatures who have chainsaws mounted on their appendages.

When the Ularins tune across a football game, my aliens think that this is some sort of war and the football must be explosive.

If Aliens were listening to our radio and watching our Hollywood version of life, what would they think?

“How do I manage to write so much?”

I try not to waste time, and I scheduled several hours a day to either write or market my books.  Having said that I also look for opportunities to go out into the world and be part of it.  Watching it through the eyes of some Hollywood producer is not the way I care to figure out who we are as a people and why we are the way that we are.

Time management is key to life in general, not just creating your first or twenty-first novel.  Make time for what you are passionate about.  If that is writing, don’t let a good idea get lost in the shuffle of the noise in our lives.

You Mom’s and want to be authors, don’t allow your dreams to get cast aside.  God invented Bed Times so parents can still live a life. Enforce them while killing the internet and other things that might keep the urchins up and in your face.  We had quite times an hour before bedtime which meant they could read.  Lights out was strictly enforced. Not only so they got enough sleep, but so we could still have some modicum of life.  Phones are taken away at dinner time, and bedtime.  There is no excuse to allow a child to take an active screen to bed with them. Like us, they need their sleep.

Laptops and writing worked just as well as reading for me as an author.  Just saying.

Shameless plug for my work.

While many of you are downloading my books, I need many more to follow me here, and on Twitter.  I spent way too much time working on my novels and not enough time marketing them.  I just knew that once my first book was published, it would sell millions and I would be able to stop the day job.  HA!

The sales are enough to give me hope, but not near enough even to let me think about chucking the day job.  I have some great ideas that are waiting to come out on paper!  Share my work, follow me and tell your friends.   Thanks for the follows and of course the purchases!

Much Love–TW

www.authortwscott.com

@authortwscott

@twscott823

https://www.amazon.com/TW-Scott/e/B01M6CUM1Y

 

 

Cover Art

 

Of all of the e-mails and comments that come back to me, Cover Art is a favorite topic.

The old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words is germane when it comes to cover art.

In The Saga of the Starduster, I wanted to draw the reader into the book without them turning the cover page.  You will no doubt notice that most cover art tries to capture your attention.

Three nude people headed into a seemingly innocuous body of water with a very interesting sky tells the reader several things.

• There is nudity involved
• This is probably not on Earth
• It looks like a serene place
• Their views on nudity are not what some might consider normal
• It is probably a science fiction.

The title “The Saga of the Starduster” of course reaffirms the Science fiction aspect of the novel.

Some fun facts of this particular cover are that I made a trip to the Tetons with the express purpose of taking some pictures that I could use for artistic purposes.  Yes, I could find what I need on line, but that is someone else’s art or photography.  For my covers, it needs to be 100% TWScott.

After I found the photo I wanted from within the thousands of my pictures, it was then sucked into a program for digital editing where I changed the sky, drew the girls and of course made it look science fiction like.

When writing or creating art you want to sell the sizzle and not the steak.  I want to emotionally move you in some small way to want to know more about these nude people skinny dipping in some lake on some other planet.

One must take care regarding the cover art regarding what is on it.  If it is too busy, people will look at it and become exasperated quickly, and move on. Simplicity is key, much like magazine ads.  One should be able to look at the ad or cover and within a few seconds know what they might expect to find within the pages.

The Title is bold and easy to read.

Your brand, in this case, TWScott is easy to see and read.

A small blurb would help, and I am thinking about adding it.

“Skinny dipping on an alien planet was probably not their best idea.”

That blurb tells the reader that yes they are all nude, and swimming in a lake on an alien world and it also alludes that something unexpected is about to transpire.

Conversely, I see covers that are way too busy that confuse me.

I have said this on many different blogs, but it bears repeating.

“Know why you either like or don’t like something, and why.”

As an author, or possibly a cover art creator, or illustrator, this is terribly important.

Please follow me, retweet me and by all means share my blog with the buttons below.  If you are an author, blogger or just a “want to be writer,” I welcome you to visit with me via the comment section below.  Of course, if you as a reader of my work have comments or questions there are multiple ways to connect with me.

• Here on WordPress.
• Twitter @authortwscott
• On the contact page of my website WWW.Authortwscott.com

 

As time permits I will endeavor to respond to you.  With 25 Novels out there selling worldwide, I have learned a thing or two and would be happy to assist if I can.  You might end up with a recipe for Chicken soup.  J

Much Love -TW