Recent Articles

The Author's Desk
Barbara Gaskell
Denvil

Surprisingly, an “author’s desk” isn’t really a big wooden affair with a battered computer, a pile of tumbling papers, scribbled half-full notepads, and a jumble of pens (half of which don’t work). Our real desk is – quite simply – inside our heads.

Now don’t get me wrong. I can’t even spell Photoship. The mysteries of GIMP are, to me, mysterious. My straight lines are bent, and my bent lines – well, spirals have given up inviting them round for dinner because my bent lines ruin their street cred.
But I wish I was more like the Cover Artists (greetings Lady Charlie and Lady Michelle) I’ve been lucky enough to work with.

As a frequent speaker, one question I can count on, in every setting— no matter the topic, event, or audience skill level—is:  How do you find the time to do all this?

Writing changes you.  Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe.-- Janos Bolyai

One might question the concept of usability in a marketing piece of “art”. After all, a cover is but a visual window into the words of the author’s imagination. Yet considering a cover is the first thing readers use to make snap decisions whether to delve further into the book, cover usability is an integral part in a book’s marketing potential.

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