Girl Beneath Stars – Characters

On April 30, 2015July 23, 2015 By Abby WilderIn Book Promotion, Girl Behind Glass, Girl Beneath StarsLeave a comment

Well, some of them anyway . . .

Thinking of Covers

On March 24, 2015April 13, 2015 By Abby WilderIn Book Promotion, Girl Behind Glass, Girl Beneath Stars, Self Publishing6 Comments

Well with the first draft of Girl Beneath Stars complete and into the editing process, my thoughts are turning towards the cover.

For Girl Behind Glass I had attempted cover designs before the first word was written. I spent hours playing with various designs, only to discard them all and hire someone to do it. Covers are important. Even with the saying ‘Never judge a book on it’s cover’ rolling about my head, I often pick a book based solely on it’s cover.

But since I haven’t posted a blog in a while, and since my thoughts are turning to the cover for Girl Beneath Stars, I thought I would share those first cover designs concepts with you.

For some reason, the literal interpretation of the title was stuck in my mind from the beginning.

Here is a selection of the concepts I was toying with.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end I chose to go with a professional approach and hired someone else to design the cover. By this stage I was at a complete loss to know exactly what I wanted, so I used a website where multiple designers submit a design based on a supplied brief. Considering the garbled and vague description I gave to them, the concepts were amazing. Narrowing it down to the top choices was difficult, and then selecting the final design was enough to keep me awake for hours at night. I chose a simple, clean design, because when looking over shop shelves those are the covers I will most likely pick up.

With the cover design of Girl Beneath Stars looming ever closer, I feel that this time it will be easier to select what I want. I like themes, so no doubt this cover will also be simple and clean, and fingers crossed another direct interpretation of the title.

And just in case you’ve forgotten, here is what the cover of Girl Behind Glass ended up as (Cover design by Juliane Schneeweiss)

The Silly Season

On December 21, 2014December 21, 2014 By Abby WilderIn Girl Beneath Stars, Personal2 Comments

I feel like this year’s silly season has been busier than most. It’s probably because I’m about three quarters of the way through the first draft of Girl Beneath Stars, and I’m dying to finish it and give it to my beta readers. But unfortunately, with end of year functions, Christmas preparations, work, and the kids home all day, my writing has come to a sliding stop. My ten thousand words each week trickled down to five thousand, then two thousand, and now I have left Willow hanging at a rather crucial moment, waiting to see where my tapping fingers will take her.

As well as the usual Christmas preparations and busyness, there was a family wedding and my daughter’s tenth birthday, so it has been very busy in our household. For my daughter’s birthday we bought her something she has wanted for years and years. A kitten.

Sox, as he has been named, is a silver tabby and possibly one of the cutest kittens I have ever laid eyes on. I mean, look at that little heart shaped nose! My husband has accused me of being a little obsessed with taking photos of the him, but look at him? How could I not?

So now instead of a two cat, one dog, and a tank full of fish family, we have become a three cat, one dog, and a tank full of fish family. I’ve always loved animals, but I think our two other cats (Sam and Muggles) will need some convincing to accept this little guy into the fold. Our dog, Joss, on the other hand, has fallen in love with Sox and follows him constantly, making sure he is okay and his mischievous nature doesn’t seek out too much trouble. And Sox is rather taken with the tank full of fish.So with only three days left until Christmas, I doubt I will have the time to get back to Willow and her predicament. I will get there in the end, but in the meantime, I plan on spending the summer days with my family and friends, camping and having fun in the sun. So long as the sun turns up.