Thursday, June 14, 2007

Cover Art

Cover Art
for my first novel
The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series



Here it is. The cover art for, The Golden Cord, Book One of the Iron Dragon Series. The artist, Ciruelo Cabral painted it. I first saw this image, Moon Dragon, in Ciruelo's 2007 Dragon's Calender. From the moment I saw it, I thought it would be a great cover for The Golden Cord. Then I had to convince my publisher to use it--which wasn't very difficult. The book jacket designer, Ed Vincent is now working on the cover design (text and such). I'm looking forward to seeing that.


I'll post it as soon as I get it. For some reason I've delayed posting this art. I don't know why, but now seems like a good time for its debut.

Let me know what you think of the cover and have a great day.

Paul Genesse

Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
http://www.popcornpress.com/

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Medusa's Daughter--93 pages and counting . . .



Medusa


Angelina Jolie would be perfect to play Medusa,
in the movie version of my novel, Medusa's Daughter. Check out the other actors and actresses that I've cast for the movie on my website in the casting news section.
A guy can dream, can't he?

Keep in mind that the mythological Medusa was not the snake haired monster, like we saw in the movie Clash of the Titans. She was beautiful and did not have snakes for hair. No one could look at her, or they'd die. That was her curse.


Okay, enough of the myth lesson, but read more about the mythological medusa online or check out the book, Medusa, Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon by Stephen R. Wilk. It's a thorough look at the myth and how it's changed over the years.

Well, as you can see I'm still a writer. Big shocker, eh? These days off have been very productive and I've regained some confidence in my ability to crank out the pages. I've managed to write 7,000 words of Medusa's Daughter--which was three and half chapters. The chapters are pretty short and I haven't finished chapter ten yet, but I've got it going really well and I've mapped out the last half. It's a critical chapter in the book when the main characters, Nerissa and Nikander have a very important interaction . . .

So, I'm up to page 93 in Medusa's Daughter, so that feels good. I've written about 26 double spaced pages in the past few days, plus I've edited chapter six, which I wrote last week. I've written a lot more than that in the past, like 40 pages in one day, but that was back when I just went for it and didn't worry about what how it turned out. Now I'm slower, but the work comes out better in so many ways. The book is coming along great and I think it's going to be fantastic once I'm done. I just wish I'd been more motivated to get this done a while back, but other books and writing promotion got in the way. Now it's back to work! (Insert whip-cracking noise here)

I also worked on the story outline for my Dimension Next Door story. I've got the main outline and really figured out some major plot points. I think it's going to be great. I think I'll work next week on Medusa's Daughter, then I'll stop and work on The Dimension Next Door story. The deadline for it is August 1. I want to get it to the editor before that.

Figuring out how to do promotion and work on writing has been troubling me, but I'll find a balance at some point. Next week I need to plow ahead with Medusa's Daughter, then do a little promotion--sending some books to reviewers. I also need to send out a group email update about my pirate story, but I'm waiting for my buddy, Jordan to help with my website first, so people can buy it there. He's a busy guy, but I know he'll get to it soon.

I've also heard from the head guy at Mountain Con, Carl Stark. He's a cool guy and said his people loved my panel ideas. I'll end up with a bunch of them for sure and I'm looking forward to that.

Well, I hope you are all well and I encourage you to set goals and keep them with your writing. My goal is to finish a solid draft of Medusa's Daughter by November 1, 2007. I also have two short stories, perhaps three, to write. I know I'll make it all work. Working full time makes it challenging, but there are ways as long as you stay motivated.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Have a great week!

Paul Genesse, Author

Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
www.popcornpress.com

Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Releasing April, 2008

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Ballet

Our evening at the Ballet


Tonight, Tam and I went to the ballet. We saw the final performance of Ballet West's production of Carmina Burana. Check out Ballet West at www.balletwest.org. Most of us have heard the music of Carl Orff's famous symphony, but how many have seen the ballet? I hadn't. I think the first time I heard the music was in the movie Excalibur. Which I still love to this day.

Anyway, we've been to the ballet many times, but this time the tickets came from the ConDuit convention. Tam volunteered at the convention and she chose two tickets as her reward for volunteering. Sweet!


Hearing the live choir and live orchestra was amazing, much better than the CD I have of it. Then seeing the ballet dancers doing their thing made it all come together. There were three opera singers as well. The performance was great because it combined: a symphony, a choir, opera singers, and world-class ballet dancers.


Part of the fun for me was trying to figure out the story being told with the music and dance. As with good writing, the music starts fast--with the part that we've all heard--and finishes with the same high-powered choir singing.


Art makes it all worth while.


Bye for now,


Paul Genesse, Author

www.paulgenesse.com


Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms
www.popcornpress.com