#eider isarna
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
One of my favorite pictures of my heroine Eider. I liked it so much I briefly played around with it as a cover image, and then I ended up using it for the bookmark.
#writeblr#writers on tumblr#indieauthor#fantasy novel#fairy tale#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna
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Commission for @daily-rayless of Eider, one of the protags from her novel The Price and Prey of Magic!
#Eider Isarna#The Price and Prey of Magic#fiction#OCs#my art#art commissions#artists on tumblr#I think queue might like this
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
Eider is always a fun character to dress up, though challenging, because I often want her to be in outfits I could imagine her dressing herself in. Partway through the book, her father gets her an elegant dress that he knows she won't be able to put on/take off without a maid's help -- a way he has of outwardly complimenting and caring for her, but inwardly expressing his anger over her disability, which he knows is his fault, yet still punishes Eider for.
So while it isn't true in every picture of her, Eider often wears wrap dresses with large fasteners. (Magnets, in this case.) Her long modish necklace means she doesn't need to bother with clasps. Her gloves (with some special occasion hooks) can be pulled up with her teeth.
#original character#the girl without hands#fairy tale#fantasy novel#character design#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna#amputation#2020
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
A collage I did of Eider a while back. It's a little rough, but I've always liked how the colors came together. Frame is Paul Berthon, background is Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis.
#art nouveau#original character#writeblr#writers on tumblr#fantasy novel#paul berthon#mikalojus konstantinas ciurlionis#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna#collage
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Bookmark designs! A while back, I did my first book-signing event (it went really well!) and early on I determined that if I couldn't get everyone to buy a copy of The Price and Prey of Magic, I could darn well hand out free bookmarks. So I threw these together (it's a single bookmark, double-sided), got them printed off, and handed them out liberally.
I highly recommend doing this. It can feel really pushy and awkward trying to talk about my writing to people, but something about having a physical object to give someone makes it easier. I handed bookmarks out right. I handed bookmarks out left. I came short of pitching them to people across the tent, but almost everyone who stopped at my table got one.
I had some left over, so I'm carrying some around in my purse. The next time I have to talk about my book to someone and I'm feeling self-conscious, I'll have a little freebie to make the explanations a little easier.
#writers on tumblr#writeblr#indieauthor#fairy tale#fantasy book#the price and prey of magic#bookmark#eider isarna#yew bosse
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
One of my heroines, Eider. At one point, I considered incorporating this into the cover -- I love how strong and resolved she looks here. I think it expresses that side of her character really well.
Two earlier titles for the book were The Iron Claws and Claws and Glass, in both cases the claws referring to Eider. She isn't something like a professional fighter, she's not a supernatural monster, she's not vicious -- but she's strong, and she's ready to take on the antagonist in her story, no matter how steep the odds are against her.
#original character#indieauthor#writeblr#fantasy novel#book design#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
The companion piece to Yew because I wanted to give both of my protagonists nice portraits.
This one took even longer, but I'm very pleased with it. Eider's portrait has a slightly more modern feel to it, showing that she's had a sophisticated, rich upbringing. A lot of Eider's arc is based on "The Girl Without Hands" fairy tale, so I wanted to show her amputated arms clearly as well as reference the pear that's such a key element of the original story.
#original character#the girl without hands#fairy tale#indieauthor#authors on tumblr#eider isarna#the price and prey of magic#amputation
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
Eider and a pear. Not as classic as an apple when it comes to forbidden fruit, but it’s a pear that features in “The Girl Without Hands” fairy tale. I took a lot of liberties when retelling it, but decided to keep that element.
#the girl without hands#fairy tale#fantasy novel#writers on tumblr#writeblr#indieauthor#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
One of my favorite pieces of art for the Papom characters, it's little baby Eider and her mother Claris. You never see Claris on the page, as she dies long before the book opens, but she's a very warm presence in Eider's memory, the parent who loved her unconditionally and who would have supported her through all the unfairness that's inflicted upon her.
I don't know what the dog's name is. He kind of just showed up. What should his name be?
#indieauthor#fantasy book#original character#eider isarna#claris asturias#the price and prey of magic#dog
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
A sketch of my heroine Eider. One of the fairy tales the novel is based on is "The Girl Without Hands". The question of whether a socialite without hands should even appear in society is something she has to work out herself.
More Eider.
#writeblr#writers on tumblr#indieauthor#fantasy novel#original character#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna#amputation
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
A portrait of my heroine Eider. The book has an Edwardianish fantasy setting, so I wanted to give it the look of an old studio photo, the sort of thing a bright young socialite might have.
#writers on tumblr#writeblr#indieauthor#fantasy novel#fantasy book#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
One of my favorite Eider sketches. It’s another really early one, from just a few months after I finished the first draft. I’m not quite sure what her expression there is.
#writeblr#writers on tumblr#fantasy novel#fairy tale#the girl without hands#beauty and the beast#eider isarna#the price and prey of magic#indieauthor
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
Here’s the cover image for my book, featuring Eider, Yew, and someone in that mirror over there.
I just got my first royalties a few days ago, and that’s such a feeling. I’ve never been paid for any creative work before.
#fantasy book#writeblr#writers on tumblr#indieauthor#fairy tale#the price and prey of magic#eider isarna#yew bosse
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
In the back copy of my book, I emphasize that Eider runs into a ~fearsome magical snake~. And she does. But they also become friends.
Because after being enchanted into losing her hands, Eider leaves home and ditches a few supposed standards, and that includes befriending monsters.
#snake#deer#writers on tumblr#the girl without hands#indieauthor#fantasy novel#the price and prey of magic#amputation#eider isarna#rose stag
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How I Spent Years Figuring Out My Book's Cover
I don't have any experience in advertising, and my digital art skills are limited, and every article on self-publishing urges you not to do your own cover, and probably they are right. But I did my own cover, and I thought I'd share some of the process. The figuring out how it should look part, not the technical part.
For a long time, I just practiced playing around with images. These weren't finished products by any means.
This image from early 2019 was one of my favorites. It's supposed to represent my protagonist Yew, reflecting on her ruined village and, by extension, some of her choices. The set up is straightforward – tragic woman gradating into a creepy graveyard. I felt it looked very similar to other covers I'd seen, which is both a good and a bad thing. A cover should clue you in to the tone and genre, so having set symbols and moods is helpful. On the other hand, you don't want your book to look like a million other people's.
Silent-film-era actress Mary Astor is standing in for Yew. The painting is by Caspar David Friedrich. To the best of my knowledge, both images are in the public domain.
For a while, I played with collages. (Pretty much all the stock photos/art is from Pixabay, which I found to be extremely helpful.) I liked the way these gothic windows formed frames, and I wanted to include both protagonists, Eider and Yew. This never made it fully into a test cover, but I did a few versions of this image, both with just photos and also including original art.
(Please admire my stock photo Iron Stag with his candle-antlers. I worked hard affixing each little flame to each little tine.)
The background I used here (Image Source: Freestock.com) is unromantically called “Plastic Chunks” in my files.
I also really like the ceiling paintings of Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, so I experimented using one as a frame.
Above is a Yew cover, and below is an Eider cover.
I can't remember where I picked the asset(s?) for this background, but I suspect it was also Freestock.
I eventually decided on having both heroines front and center, each paired with an antler from one of the two mysterious stags in the story. This focal point would be a hand-drawn piece of art with less obtrusive public domain stock stuff framing it. I wanted the picture to be intricate, feel fairy-taleish, and include different elements from the story – a snake, a diary, flowers, mirror shards, a pear, seeds, antlers, and a hand mirror.
My first sketch had the basic idea down, but it was very long and skinny and with the title as part of the drawing it felt too tattoo-y to me. Though, looking closely, I see I included Pete the mule's head (upside down, just under the word “magic”), and it's sad he didn't make the final cut.
So I made the image more of a circle and worked really hard until I was proud of it.
From there, I just had to decide on which assets to use and what colors to go for. I really liked the combination of dark desaturated reds and blues in this one, along with the very gothic doily frame. However, it also felt somewhat cluttered, maybe a better design for a poster than something that was going to have text on top of it.
There's also a lot I like about this one, the cold colors, the blending of ice and aged iron. (The original title for the novel was The Iron Claws.) But again, that border felt like it would be fighting with any text thrown over it.
I was also concerned whether the central image would look too small and muddled in thumbnail, so I did this very stripped down version. I wasn't a big fan of it, but it's interesting.
(By the way, you may have noticed that none of these share the actual dimensions of my real book cover. I hadn't even done the page layout yet at this point, and this was all very much in the testing stage.)
As it turned out, I was on the right track with the earlier gothic doily cover. Aside from the hand-drawn image, I ended up going with different assets, most notably a smaller frame, deeper colors, and additional borders along the sides. (This image also isn't in the proper scale.) I did this cover over and over again, making little adjustments until I was satisfied.
What do you think? Did I make the right call?
Here’s info on the book itself: THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
#fairy tale#indieauthor#writers on tumblr#writeblr#fantasy#book design#yew bosse#eider isarna#iron stag#the price and prey of magic#long post
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THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC
In the summer of her nineteenth year, Eider learns that being a rich, beautiful socialite with hands is worlds different from being one without. She was powerless to stop a sorcerer’s spell from taking her hands. But she has her brains, curiosity, and determination. When her father disowns her, her train breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and she finds herself trapped in a magical house with an enormous snake, Eider realizes it's up to her to solve her own problems – and that killing an enormous snake might not be so impossible for a girl with a sturdy pair of hooks.
Besides. She has a certain sorcerer to reckon with.
I realize it’s a little incongruous to talk about how Eider has no hands... and then show her here with her hands. I decided to go with this as her introductory picture because it was one of the first I did of her that really nails her personality.
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