In book news Life Reader is now available on Amazon, but remember I’m offering it for free June 6 through June 10!
Today I’m going to shine the spotlight on one of our community members: my cover artist. Her artist name is Myrrhlynn (pronounced Merlin) which suits her perfectly because she works magic with photoshop.
Myrrhlynn has made all of my covers for me, with the exception of Princess Ahira. She also made all the extra graphics for Life Reader. As far as I know I am the only author she creates covers for.
Working with Myrrhlynn is both eye opening and a blast. I usually have a vague cover idea and relay it to Myrrhlynn. Myrrhlynn very graciously does not scream at my total lack of graphic artistry and whips up a sample cover of her own design–which is a million times better. (Believe me, you do NOT want to see the original cover of My Life at the MBRC. That is a painful memory.) She usually uses a royalty free stock photo as her base and works from there. Sometimes, as is the case with Life Reader, she does a great deal of manipulation to make the graphic perfect (In the original photo the book is not positioned where my cover has it).
A fun thing about Myrrhlynn is her passion for fonts. I enjoy the benefits of this passion as it makes my covers a million times better, but Myrrhlynn is very specific and purposeful with the fonts she uses in her work. A cover font sets the tone of the book, sh
e says. I gave her a few headaches with the title Red Rope of Fate. She had a horrible time choosing a font that didn’t make the book look sleazy, which is pretty funny considering it’s nothing but a sweet, fluffy love story.
I owe a lot to Myrrhlynn and her fantastic covers. Good cover art is an important step in attracting readers, so in a way, Champions, you are all here because of Myrrhlynn. So this is a shout out thanks to Myrrhlynn: the wizard of photoshop!