The Kenosha...

As many of you know, Lori and I have been working on the sequel to Hazel Moon, Hawthorn Moon set in the '90's Grunge Rock scene in Seattle, Washington. Our cover photographer, Larry Zamba, knowing we'd need a new cover shot for the new book got the idea to incorporate some special animation effects to our amazing friend and cover model, Stacey Martinez, wonderfully representing our character, November, as she jumped up and down on a trampoline!!

Larry Zamba has all the technical skills a top photographer needs to handle most any commercial requirement, but what he also has in spades is the heart and soul of an artist. Once bitten by the inspiration bug after seeing a picture with a special effect he wanted to develop for the cover, there was no stopping him.

First, the venue had to be right and did he ever find an incredible place for the shot. Hawthorn Moon is another time-travel piece set in the '90s, but this venue goes back to its heyday much farther in time, to the 1920s when the movie palace was king, when before television a theater like this could pack in 2,000 eager customers.

The Kenosha was such a movie palace, the motif that of a Spanish palace courtyard, the columns and a blue sky complete with twinkling stars, along with a mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. Our host, Jeff Baas, also a novelist, The Mim Index, owns the glorious corpse of a building and has serious plans to refurbish it. As you might expect, The Kenosha found its way into Jeff's novel as a site for one of his scenes!

To begin the shoot, brave soul that I usually am, I was asked to get up on the trampoline to show our Miss Stacey the ropes, jumping up and down and falling backward several times. Next, it was her turn. After several test shots, the special effect was added, that of paint powder designed to create a puff cloud during one of Stacey's jumps to color the shot with a misty magical mysticism...just what the Hawthorn Moon cover would need!

After working out a few technical difficulties, Larry fired up some tunes to create the right high-test mood, Stacy began jumping, and during a series of mesmerizing minutes he snapped off a series of possible cover shots!! Below, Larry & Stacey taking a well-deserved bows!! Of course his work is just beginning as many hours of digital processing will be required to get the overall cover just right!

Larry...YOU'RE AMAZING!!!
Stacey...YOU WERE PERFECT AS NOVEMBER!!!

05-26-16 Post Shoot Comments from Larry...

"Setting everything up was a lot of messy work, preparation time, down time from my normal commercial adventures. This session took 30 hours of trial and error in total leading to a singular moment when I just pressed the shutter at the precise instant.  It’s a crap shoot...I never know if I can duplicate.  In post production it was another 6 hours in Photoshop. Of course, going forward to finish the cover, it’s easier but it’s still another 12 hours of skillful processing. Artistically, though, we achieved perfection, so I’m happy. It’s one of the finest photos I ever created! I was intrigued at putting in some accurate starlight into the most recent photo. It’s a subtle effect, but on March 21 when I created this photograph, both Saturn and Mars were visible to the naked eye, as was a close star Antares. I put them in their proper position where they would be seen in our area, to the right of the moon. I was actually looking at them through a telescope that night!"

Yes, Larry, we all agree!!!

MORE COVER SHOT PICS & VIDS:

 

BookCon

Yesterday Lori and I headed to Chicago for our first professional conference as published authors--BookCon...held at McCormick Place. We were flying high as writers having just scheduled to more book signings, one at The Bottle Shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and one at The Furniture Store in Racine, our home town!

 

We both made it to the Amtrak station on time despite a blustery day more like January than May 14. 

For anyone planning a trip to Chicago, and if you don't like to drive, the Hiawatha line or the Metra system are definitely the way to roll. Only an hour after boarding, we were slowing into Union Station in the heart of Chicago.

A 10-minute cab ride to McCormick Place and we were soon joining the throngs of fans, writers, and publishers filling the massive exhibition hall. Every so often a rising round of cheers would erupt from the crowd when a famous author would appear. You'd think someone had just hit a home run to win the World Series, but no, these popular authors, like Divergent's Veronica Roth, were rock stars to the faithful. Above, Lori finds the Harry Potter Muggle Wall!

If you can't make it out, she writes..."Harry Potter means Magic is Everywhere!" She signed our names and...that of Lady Luna!

Getting a marketing tip, we run into someone who offers to show us how construct a Star Wars origami creation. We begin folding and folding and tucking and soon we have an origami Star Wars light saber! It turned out to be the proud author himself, Chris Alexander, who told us of his 12-year passion project that is now the best selling origami book out there! We've got a ways to go, but we're clocked in at around 9 years so far with our love child, our book, Hazel Moon.

So, can you tell my sister Lori and I apart? It's not easy... Which one of us do you think has their face in the Beauty and the Clockwork Beast poster?

All the big publisher top guns were present, Simon and Shuster, Scholastic, Penguin, Random House, Hachette and  so many others. The money they spend creating bestsellers can be astounding, but you can't get to them without a literary agent, and they're nearly impossible to land.

After walking the aisles and collecting a number of free samples, meeting and talking to reps and authors, we went to the panel discussion/presentation by three successful YA (Young Adult) authors who spoke on the subject of adding diversity to YA manuscripts.

Of course, we couldn't help but imagine that we were part of the convention, there as popular authors, so we went through a rehearsal for the day when we would be interviewed by the BookCon crew videotaping some of the interesting people and events taking place!

And, our final run through taken at the Muggle Wall!!!

After the convention we found a lounge, and while enjoying a well-deserved flute of bubbling Prosecco, we had a productive discussion outlining the plot and characters for our sequel to Hazel Moon, Hawthorn Moon, scheduled to come out sometime in 2018! With that, another cab ride back to Union Station, we boarded the rumbling Hiawatha, settled into some quiet reading, and later dozing off, but during the ride home feeling pretty damned (forgive my profanity Father Martin) proud of ourselves!!