New Cover, Trailer, and Another Book Signing!

Hello, everyone!

A lot has happened since we last spoke…or rather, since I last typed at you. It’s been crazy and exciting. Remember me teasing a new cover for Ice and going on for months about making a trailer for it? And did I mention a book signing? I know I did on my Facebook page (shameful plug not-so-cleverly inserted there). Those are some of the things I am going to talk about in this blog post, then I am getting to work on the Secret Lives of Characters series again, and of course, the sequel to Ice.

 

Book Cover:

Ice cover Ice back.

Ta-dah! Photographer Micheal Lowther (Remember her?) assisted me on the new back cover, which is something I could not do without her expertise. We private messaged on Facebook back and forth until we got it just right. I am so happy with the new cover! The snowy image she selected for the back fits the story perfectly, don’t you think? If you would like to reach out to Misha, here’s her website, where you can see more of her great pieces of work and pricing. I highly recommend her. Note to Tulsa authors: she is very interested in working with you! You won’t be disappointed.

 

Which brings me to the trailer that features the new cover! Ta-dah again!

I know, it’s quick and short, but that’s what I wanted. Hopefully a longer trailer with actors will be coming in the near future. It’s definitely something I want to do and have discussed with someone on how this might be possible for my small budget. I hope this tease trailer is simple and straight to the point and intrigues one enough to check it out.

 

2nd Ice Book Signing at Decopolis:

decopolis

On November 30th, which I discovered that very morning was this new thing (well, new to me anyway) called “Small Business Saturday,” I had a book signing at Decopolis in the afternoon and into the evening. The guys there are so cool. They let me set the hours for the signings, so I am welcome to stay as long as I like. And they really do make you feel welcome. And did I mention the store is SO COOL? Some time I will have to ask them if it’s okay to shoot a video of the place and post it on here and my YouTube channel for you guys. (Oh yeah, I’ve got one of those now. Here’s the link. FYI, I am most likely going to neglect my Google+ account, because I only created it so I could have a YouTube channel.) It was another great book signing where I met some interesting and lovely people. Decopolis is doing more book signings with local authors now, so if you are in the Tulsa area check out their Facebook and their website, DecopolisStudios.com, for information about when they are having book signings. By the way, William, one of the owners, is an AMAZING artist and has designed some awesome Christmas cards you can buy. So check. It. Out.

william's christmas cards

Jeez, I’m so bossy! ;)

Also, Ice was featured on the local news!

2013-12-02 01.13.18

Decopolis had a great turn out that day. Some people said they came out just to support local businesses. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Decopolis. And thank you to Channel 2 News for inserting my little novel into your broadcast.

 

I think that covers everything, so talk to you later!

 

-EL

Strike a Pose! My Photo Shoot with Photographer Micheal Lowther

Hello, everyone!

New and exciting things are happening with Ice. Other than drawing closer to the end of the sequel, I am giving the first Ice book a makeover (and hopefully this blog, too, in the near future). As you may have figured by the lackluster, and just downright dull cover of Ice, I did it myself. I am by no means a photographer, and creating the cover was a long and agonizing process. I had a few different visions, only one of them was within my capability, and because I could never seem to get the text clear, I wasn’t even able to do that right in the end! I had to settle for a design in Create Space’s Cover Creator and have my vision diced down to a letterbox and my font chosen for me. For a cover absolutely free of charge, it wasn’t terrible. (Doing this did however mess with the quality of my image in a way I still haven’t figured out. I just know Kavick wasn’t pixel-y until I did the Cover Creator). I knew that I wanted a better cover in the future…future being hopefully in time for the holiday shopping season.

Enter Micheal Lowther, the savior of my book cover!

I met Micheal Lowther at my book launch party. She was very excited to read my book, which made me worry that my writing would be a let down. So I warned her Ice might seem slow, but that I like to think of it as a “slow burner”. ;)

Despite Misha’s busy schedule, she liked it enough to find time to read it through to the end! I was shocked. She messaged me personally to ask me when the sequel was coming out. So, it was after that I asked her if she wouldn’t mind helping me with the cover. She had told me at my launch party that she would love to work with me on any future books. I wanted help with Ice first, and I had been worried about asking her before to work on a book she might not even like!

Misha, as she likes to be called, is very professional, and also very friendly. I wanted a new photo for my author bio, so we did that first. She chose Downtown Tulsa, where there are many great places to shoot. Misha’s not afraid to think out of the box. In fact, she’s a genius at it. We were just walkin’ along, her camera in her hand, and she said, “Since they have the sprinklers on in the park, why don’t we go over to this mural?” She explained the mural to me just as we were coming up on it, and it blew me away. It was awesome, and we got some amazing shots, of course. There were several Day of the Dead murals all connected to each other. And one of them was in the style of Alice in Wonderland in the scene of the Mad Hatter’s tea party! It even had a quote by Lewis Carrol next to it! It took all my strength not to squeal at it…which I still did, just a little, in the form of, “OH MY GOSH!”

Here’s the photos from that:

Ice: by Elissa Lewallen Ice: by Elissa Lewallen Ice: by Elissa Lewallen

We shot in front of a mural of the Blue Dome district, which was cool since the Blue Dome district is, you know, cool. And blue, my favorite color.

Ice: by Elissa Lewallen

We shot in front of windows and water for cool reflection effects. In front of beaten old buildings, and newer buildings, and even on some train tracks. At last, we rounded it up at the park, where we had originally intended.  When she announced that she had about a hundred photos to work with, I was blown away. It hadn’t felt that long, and if memory serves me right, it had only been about an hour. Everything had been within walking distance, and Misha made it such an enjoyable experience. It didn’t feel like work, or like a stuffy old photo shoot; it was actually FUN!

Ice: by Elissa Lewallen Ice: by Elissa Lewallen Ice: by Elissa Lewallen

Later—that same day— she already had my photos ready for me to select ten for her to burn on a CD-ROM for me. They were all amazing. She blew me away again. She even gave me some extra photos, too.

Here is a link to Misha’s website, and her blog. She is wonderful to work with. You will not be disappointed. As you’ve gathered, I highly recommend her. I’ll include photos at the end of the post, of course. And soon, I will unveil the new cover for Ice! I am so excited for everyone to see it! And soon, I will be back to working on the trailer for Ice. I really want to amp up Ice’s exposure. So, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment! It would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you so much, guys, for reading!

EL

 

Here are all the many places you can buy Ice: Create Space, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and you can always order it from your local book store. :)

Also, I noticed the Kindle version of Ice is free right now if you have Amazon Prime!

 

Commence more photos!

Ice: by Elissa LewallenIce: by Elissa LewallenIce: by Elissa LewallenIce: by Elissa Lewallen