Why, hello beautiful

καλό μήνα! Happy new month, and also a happy name day on Sept 1st for Aphrodite, aka Venus.

Yesterday I did a cover reveal on the prelaunch page of my upcoming project on Kickstarter: To Love Like Venus, a literary novel in a near-future cyberpunk setting that’s all about love, relationships and how we cope with its heights and disappointments, whether partner, ideals or the symbols that become our children.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theninagalaxy/to-love-like-venus

Above is a look at the beautiful cover by Baris Sehri.

It was a pleasure working with Baris. It was the first cover I had designed for a novel, a new journey from the fabulous sequential artists I’ve worked with, as you can see in Event Horizon (and how I love covers since that book had 3). Baris’ design method had me deeply revisiting the major themes of the novel, and in the process clarifying how I would present this to an audience. This is not always an easy task for a writer; we get lost in the details of our stories, we obsess. Getting a cover designer to bring a painted metaphor of the book—and if not that, then a hits-the-mark nudge for a reader to pick it up, ain’t easy. Baris worked with my impressions of what this book was about, I stepped away, I got something unexpected and hitting a home run. So much so, I went back into the novel to strengthen certain aspects that his cover design revealed in it by forcing me to dig deep. It’s a great example of the harmony of true collaboration. Thank you Baris. Check out the other works he’s done at https://www.sehribookdesign.com/ When I saw his website, I already saw my book cover.
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If you’re a scroller: consider clicking on notify-me-on-launch on the Kickstarter page. It’s a cost-free gesture. The beauty of Kickstarters is making the art, but it’s also an opportunity for you to make sure publishing is filled with quality stories told by the rainbow of human beings living on this planet. Crowdfunding is my favorite way to do it. On the backer end, you get discounts and goodies not available in regular pre-orders.