Ice and Sunshine

One of the facets of the decision to self-publish my books, is the need to createbook covers that are appealing and suit the contents of each book.  I am fortunate to have a very helpful photographer/designer (Jason from www.atomswarm.com) who takes my pictures, then edits the images and adds text and details to make each book cover.  I’d much rather set up photoshoots of the characters in my books, then have a designer create a less personal cover.

This can present some interesting problems.  For Brightly Shines the Darkness, I wanted a picture of Dhoban and Serin by a fire under a full moon, which was not too difficult to recreate.  For Distant my Companions, the second novel in the Skywatchers series, I had an internal image of the same two characters, passing through the foothills of the Orflan mountains, after a long journey on foot.  This gave us the challenge of recreating a bare and rocky landscape set in a  Mediterranean type of climate, in an April in England when snow, ice, frost and Siberian winds have been the main features!

So last Sunday, my intrepid actors prepared coats, scarves, legwarmers and gloves, as well as their costumes, ready to add layers between locations and photos, and Jason set up his cameras and lighting units in the best possible way to make our chosen site look hot and dusty, rather than frigid and icy!  As we completed our preparations, the weather decided to smile on us, and we drove off in bright sunshine.  By the time we reached the rocky slopes where we had decided to hold the photoshoot, the icy wind had died down, and soon the actors were not the only ones shedding coats and gloves!

Here are some photos just as they came off the camera – what do you think?