NEW Novella: When Cocoy Became Kikay

Yay! The #buqo YA bundles are live!

Thirty amazing stories are waiting for you here. There are five bundles at $0.99, each containing 5-6 stories---isn't that an amazing steal? Go, go, go buy now!

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#buqoYA bundle #FindingFairytales contains my YA novella, When Cocoy Became Kikay, whose cover is featured above. Isn't she pretty? Hihihi. Lovely cover art by Mabel Garcia. See more of her work on ilovethemoon.

Getting artsy (again)

It's so much fun to be working with my hands again!

So, I know I've been saying this for ages, but Ana and Ken's story will be out on Smashwords by the end of the month. The whole manuscript has been edited and laid out. And in honor of it all, I'm revamping the cover (Yay!).

I asked Odette, a good blog buddy, to do the calligraphy for the title while I played around with the graphics. I had my heart set on something Art Deco / Alphonse Mucha-ish, but decided on something simpler instead. A couple of friends and I even did a fun photo shoot and some artist friends offered to do the cover, but in the end I decided that the images in my head would translate better through my own hands. The one above is a sneak peek of the production process---from pencil sketch, to edited photoshop

image. I'll reveal the final copy that I did on Illustrator soon :-)

But in the meantime, don't you think these two look sweet? Heehee. 

Taym Pers: On the cover

New to the Japayuki Chronicles?

Start with the Overview or Chapter 1

Julie (who's collating all Pinoywrimo excerpts) and Tina (the ML for NaNoWriMo Philippines) sent out a last call to authors for book covers last February. I hadn't sent anything in when I submitted my excerpt, and I kind of felt bad about it, so my creative juices giddily started flowing when I learned of the extended deadline ;-)

Since the story is basically chick lit, I wanted something attractive, girly, and funky. I scanned several covers for inspiration. Finally, it was the cover for Petite Anglaise, a novel based on Catherine Sanderson's blog, that helped me come up with a cover of my own.

Copyright by Petite Anglaise

I was looking for something that would evoke the landscape of Tokyo, so the multitude of buildings in the background above was perfect. If you look closely below, you'll notice I got a bit OC withe the architectural elements. Some of buildings included in the composition were Philippe Stark's Asahi building (popularly known as the Golden Poo), Meiji-jingu shrine, Yokohama Landmark Tower, Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, and the Fuji Terebi building in Odaiba. I added the sakura (cherry blossoms) for effect since Ana and Ken's story starts in spring ;-)

Next, I worked on the outlines of Ana and Ken. Ana's went through several revisions, first she was wearing a blouse and cullotes, and was walking rather than leaning on the torii. It must have taken me 2 days to find the right pose for her. Ken was easier. Making his Asian-ness apparent in the outline was a major challenge, but in the end, I decided that it was all in the physique and hairstyle. Japanese men are usually lean and have Kouji Kabuto type hair. However, instead of sketching as I did with Ana, I simply traced a photo of one of my fave Japanese actors (Guess who!!!) on Adobe Illustrator ;-)

All throughout the design phase, I wanted to echo the effect of the Eiffel tower on the cover of Petite, so I imagined a ginormous torii (Japanese gate) dominating the center of the cover. I think I'll tweak it a bit more if I find time, because it isn't as obvious as I wanted it to be. Plus, the colors on the .jpg file are more muted than they ought to be. sigh. Onscreen, the colors of the torii and the suitcases really jump out at you, but when I converted them, they lost a lot of oomph. sad.

On the whole however, I'm glad with the way the cover has turned out and am already envisioning the covers for the next books ;-)

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Thanks for your time! More chapters coming up soon ;-)