Thursday, July 15, 2010

Leonard the Great's Revised Cover

Here's the new and much improved front cover for the book. I'm quite pleased with it. Thanks to thoughtful feedback from you guys and some inspired design work by Mike Wykowski, it looks much more like a middle-grade fantasy novel and much less like a historical biography.

One of the cool things that Mike came up with was the addition of images from medieval tapestries as a background layer in the black areas. It's a subtle add that features knights and mythological creatures doing battle -- and it looks really cool!

Thanks to Keith, Tom, Steve and everyone else (except the guy who suggested I add Lindsay Lohan in a bikini) for your extremely helpful notes. I asked for feedback and you delivered -- big time.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Leonard the Great's Cover



Uncomplicated, uncluttered; just the way I like it. I think this cover gives a pretty good idea of what the book is about, too -- a kid doing knightly things.

 I'm very pleased with how it's looking so far, but I'm also (just) smart enough to be open to feedback. Let me know what you think.

Thanks to graphic designer Mike Wykowski for his help in getting it "just right".

Friday, July 2, 2010

Beta Reader -- Activate!

Just a quick update --

Spent the week doing a fairly rigorous edit of Caden before sending the manuscript off to trusted beta reader JZ tonight. I'm pleased with how things are going so far. To me, it comes across as a fun and easy read that I think kids will enjoy. Hope it comes across that way to him, too.

I'm kind of amazed at how quickly I got through the first edit, averaging about five chapters a day. I'm choosing to tell myself it went that fast because there are no errors and the story is really tight. Yeah. Right. Anyway, we'll see.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

Eater of the Dead: A Dragon Friend Excerpt

Just in time for Halloween! Check out a featured Dragon Friend excerpt on the BestSelling Reads blog: "The spooky season is upon us! H...