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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Covers.....Help Me Pick A Cover....What One Do You Like?






I have done the covers for each of my books. There were times that I sat before a blank paper with watercolor paints ready and waited for the idea to come as I did with my own story of I Will Not Give Up...Not Today...Life Is a Journey. When I wrote the book I felt compelled to share a part of my own life with the hope it might help others to never give up. As I painted the picture I knew that was what I wanted but still did several more and asked some friends to see what they thought as I worked on them. I wanted the painting to share the feeling of the book with hope for the future.





  
I WILL NOT GIVE UP... NOT TODAY... LIFE IS A JOURNEY 







When I did the story of the family who had to relocate to escape being homeless I knew I wanted to use one of my photos. I took the photo one day as we traveled down the road and the sky seemed almost ablaze with the color of the sunset. It took my breath away. I could see the lights of all the cars and thought at the time that every one had their own story, place they came from and place the go to. In the book the family goes down such a road not only to a new place but hopes a new life. Life has a way of throwing some obstacles in the way and problems are not always left behind simple because we travel to a new place. It is difficult for me to do the covers as I want to be able to help the readers feel the story but also share my art as well as my words. 













                                                           LIFE GOES ON   
                                                http://viewBook.at/B004XJ6U26





 



I thought my painting for A Tale To Tell worked perfect for a collection of short stories with a ghost in everyone. I hope to write another short story collection. Our children and grandchildren love a good ghost story and when we have a bonfire and roast hot dogs it is a part of the fun. That is something we love to do and hope when we get a bit better with our health and healing we can do it again.



                                                   
                                                           A TALE TO TELL
                                                     viewBook.at/B007ESJ49Y











My novel Journey Home will always have a special place in my heart. It is the first novel I wrote and I have heard from many they really felt as if the could see and hear the place, and feel the fear and emotions good, bad, intense, friend, foe, love and more. I painted three or four paintings and liked them all but none of them was the one. I looked at a painting I had done many years before for my father-in-law before he had passed from this life. In the novel, Lara finds that home is not a place you go to but a place in your heart. It is not always an easy place to find. The woman named Lara would have to find the truth and live through it if she hoped to find her way home. In my painting there is a path as there often is in what I paint. The path does not lead to a house. I hope it leads to where we need to go in life to find our way. I could share some of my art that had special meaning with every book.

                                                       
                                                         JOURNEY HOME
                                                     viewBook.at/B0054GLX92  

I painted this almost 20 years ago on a piece of typing paper with a children's 99 cent paint set.  The sky was blended with a paper towel.  My father-in-law liked it so much he had it framed and kept it on his wall until we lost him.








                                                    


The Pumpkin Field has always been my husband's favorite, I think. He likes them all but that little book brings a smile not only with the story but the memories of why it became a book. When I think of the bonfires of the past I always think of this too. We had huge trees in the back yard that often dropped limbs. I could have asked the children to go out and clean the yard but I know how happy that would make them.... or...... I usually just told them I had some hotdogs. If I only had some sticks we could have a bonfire and wiener roast. The yard was cleaned in no time and with smiles all around.

When they were full and sitting, laughing and talking they often would want to hear a story. Our boys had come home from school complaining that they were having to study poetry and it was awful. All poetry was awful. I had to laugh and told them that poetry could tell a story.

My oldest son answered “Sure, a love story. Uck.” He made a face and sound to go with the comment.

I decided to write a spooky little poem about a haunted pumpkin field. I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to write it in a way that no matter the age of the person they could use the poem to relate to life in different ways and open communications with one another. It has always been fun and interesting as children and adults alike would share thoughts, ideas, hopes and even fears.

I realized all I had to do was the art work to make it a book a child could have and keep or a parent could give as a gift. Each page has full page art illustrations. When it was time to do the cover I found that one to be easy. One of the characters covers the book. I even have pages people can copy to use for their children to color and make their own decorations or books.

                                                        The Pumpkin Field

US
http://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=la_B004PVDVR4_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274016&sr=1-4
 UK
Canada
 http://www.amazon.ca/Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274270&sr=8-9
France
 http://www.amazon.fr/The-Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274480&sr=8-12
Germany
 http://www.amazon.de/The-Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274610&sr=8-7
Italy
 http://www.amazon.it/The-Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274676&sr=8-3
Japan
  http://www.amazon.co.jp/The-Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274730&sr=8-8
Spain
 http://www.amazon.es/The-Pumpkin-Field-Linda-Nance/dp/1461044812/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1363274544&sr=8-6










That brings me to this new novel. I have such a passion for it as I believe the story to be one that will be hard to forget and relate to things that happen more than we realize. A young child trapped in a nightmare life, had a special friend. His friend told him, that he could call him Danny. To read the first part of the book and get an idea of the feel of the story it is http://linda-nance.blogspot.com/2013/03/danny-novel-and-linda-author.html I thank you for all your help to choose the cover. I like them all and time is short if, I want to be able to finish the final edits and publish next month in the Child Abuse Awareness Month of April.

Was Danny a friendly ghost there protecting, or was there more to this entity than anyone might suspect? Steven began to think Danny might be a Guardian Angel but angel or evil…only time would tell….. because Steven would tell no one and betray his friend …. and that friend was there to stay.

Tragedy and chaos, murder and an end to life as Steven had known, erupted in his household in the dark of night.

Three young boys fled in the night. It was a night that would change their lives forever. If it was a new beginning or a new nightmare of a different kind, only time would tell….and we can not forget Danny. He would not want to be left behind. “You can call me Danny.”

I hope you enjoyed me sharing these things so near and dear to my heart.  I also thank all who help me to pick the cover here and there for the new novel Danny.  Here are the ones numbered to make it easy to tell the one you like the best.














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3 comments:

  1. I can't decide between #3 and #6. Those are my personal favorites. #3 shows a nice variety of shades of color that people might find appealing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like covers 2 and 9. These are the covers that would appeal to me at first glance in a bookstore or library.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've only got a glance in the bookstore. My glance votes for #3.

    ReplyDelete