William Essex
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Remembering Keren

28/4/2015

 
Thinking aloud for a second. The absence of racism requires the absence of race awareness. We don't discriminate on the grounds of hair colour because it simply doesn't occur to us to do so. This thought prompted by a conversation on Facebook about whether "black" is an offensive word when asking for coffee (the conversation didn't get onto the word "white", which I suppose is indicative of something).
    When I was young, I read The Trigan Empire in Look & Learn, which was the magazine (sic) my parents bought for me; it came on Saturday mornings. I had to buy my own Strange Tales to follow Doctor Strange (all of this is on Wikipedia now). Anyway, one of the characters in The Trigan Empire, assuming my memory is still accurate, had blue skin. I rather envied that. There was a lot of racism going on in the early/mid-sixties, but it didn't reach my bedroom. His name might have been Keren.
    Being aware of racism while ordering a cup of coffee is a problem, possibly for both parties to the transaction. But I don't know how close we get to harmony by changing the words we used. It's a step, maybe, but a conscious step.

While genius steals...

27/4/2015

 
Something you never hear. A political leader responding to a rival's initiative by saying: "That's a good idea! If we win, we'll do it too!" It's kind of obvious that no leader would say that, but if the fate of the nation really is at stake, surely we need a more constructive debate than we're getting now? Talent borrows, genius steals, and politicians fixate on each other.

The Crow Goddess and CreateSpace

24/4/2015

 
Just published, cover by me. I'm not a designer, but I do have an old version of Adobe Creative Suite. The picture is a young girl wearing beads and a party dress, acknowledgements MorgueFile again, but some pretty serious cropping turns her (I hope) into the Morrigan, Celtic Goddess of Battles, also known as the Crow Goddess.
    Next, I'm working on Unicorn's Blood (Patricia Finney again) followed by the first book in the Chronicles of the Dragon Sisters series by Peter Quatrine (who does his own artwork).
    At the same time, I'll be setting up a trial paperback edition of A Shadow of Gulls (scroll down) on CreateSpace. This will be my first time with CreateSpace, and actually with POD (Print On Demand) at all, and if it works out, we'll be saving massively on print bills.
    First discovery is that CreateSpace offers a choice of white or cream paper, but that distribution options vary according to colour choice. So: white after all. Inside paper is 60gsm, I think. Wide range of both custom and industry-standard dimensions. I think maybe a straightforward trade paperback?
Picture
Available on Kindle, coming again soon in paperback

Covers

21/4/2015

 
Having a think about cover design today. Finished the cover for Patricia Finney's The Crow Goddess over the weekend. Good pic, happy with the overall result. But I wonder ... I don't do this often enough to develop a style, or whatever is the visual equivalent of a tone of voice.
    Anyway, here's one I prepared earlier. Note to self: spend more time in bookshops, looking at the work of 'real' designers. Acknowledgements to Morguefile for the pic; Adobe for Photoshop. Cover for The Crow Goddess coming shortly.
A Shadow of Gulls
Available now on Kindle, soon in paperback. First published a while ago; first editions change hands for serious money.

Election reality check

20/4/2015

 
So many questions are hypothetical now. What will parties do if there's a hung parliament? Will you work with the party that said yesterday, it wouldn't work with you? liked the politician the other day, don't know which one, who said: "I'm sorry if my answers are getting in the way of your questions," and shut the interviewer up for a good, oh, two seconds. Bored with the leading questions, pushing for an answer that can be used in the next news bulletin.
    Even a six-week UK general election isn't really producing enough content to fill twenty-four-hour news. Nothing substantive happens. Journalists interview each other, or open up items by posing questions that they've cooked up themselves. "Should we be concerned that ..." Remembering all the fuss about the televised debates, I love the way they were scheduled for before the launch of the manifestos. 

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