NAME THAT BUTT: Stage Two, Round Two, REVEALED!

Stage Two Rules:

• I post a butt and TWO clues, you guess who that butt belongs to in the comments. If you guess right, you get 5 points. (No bonus for being first.)
  
• Comments are moderated, which means they sit in my inbox quietly until I choose to publish them, so you won't see anyone else's guesses.
  
• HOWEVER, if you CORRECTLY identify the artistic work in question, you earn a bonus 5 points. (Provided of course, that it differs from the subject's name alone and the artist is known at all)
  
• The following Friday, I reveal the subject, along with the full backside image of the sculpture in question! If at this point you can correctly identify artist/title of the piece, you can earn an additional 2.5 points, and you may guess artist/title until the next round of NAME THAT BUTT begins.
  
• I'll keep a running tally of correct answers/points, with occasional updates of who is "winning."
  
• For Olympians, Greek AND Roman names are acceptable, because half of these sculptures were probably titled with their Roman names but in my head, they immediately translate to the Greek, and that's how I remember them when I'm organizing my photos.
  
• The game will continue for as long as I have photographs of backsides to share, but a new NAME THAT BUTT may not be posted every week, depending on Things. 

And This week's Backside belongs to...

*drumroll*

ZEUS!

Yes, it was kind of maybe a trick-butt, but(t) it IS still a mythological hiney! And for more of the story regarding Europa and Zeus-the-Bull, check out this post by the Other Me!

Remember you can still get partial points for identifying the title and artist of this piece! So, go go go! 

For Authors: The Anatomy of Swag

So I don't know how many people might find this helpful, but I thought I'd throw it out here for anyone who might be looking at my trading cards and bookmarks and wondering how it's all coming together.

For starters, I have great Cover Art from WWP, without which I think all of this would be a lot less successful, and I also have the resource of El Husband for character art and emblems and the like, who has been invaluable to me (and while at this time, he isn't taking commissions, trust me when I say I am working on this element, because seriously he is so awesome!) But let's assume you have both Fantastic Cover Art (tm) and an El Husband Equivalent Artist (tm) with whom you can work in the art department, and for the moment, just talk about ways you can use that art to turn it into promo stuff!

Now, I love trading cards, so let's start there.

MOST of the printers I've worked with* don't have a standard 2.5 x 3.5 inch trading/collector's card size that you can order, but that's okay-- if the printer has a 2.5 inch wide bookmark size, we can make it work. For TEMPTING FATE's cards, I went with the 2.5 x 8.5inch bookmark from printrunner, full color both sides, and laid out two cards per bookmark. The final product, after my own slicing and dicing looks like this:

Front and back, side by side of the Tempting Fate trading cards.

What I received in from printrunner looked like this:

front sides and back sides alternating, the full 8.5 inch bookmark
with the cut version above for perspective.

As you can see above, I did the cards on each end of the bookmark (so that it would only require one cut, at the same end of each card, to minimize cutting error on my part), and that left me with a 1.5 x 2.5 inch space in the middle. I filled it with a mini bookmark for Forged by Fate, so that I maximized the bang for my printer buck. The mini cards came out really fantastic, and what began as a "well, let me just use that space for something" has become something I really look forward to producing for future books in the series!

mini cards are mini! and look! STICKERS!

So let's talk a little bit about how I designed my trading cards and utilized the cover art -- so that you, too, can produce awesome promotional materials for your own books!**

The front of the card is pretty straightforward. I slapped the cover art down, made sure the text wasn't in the trim zone, and then mirrored the art outwards for the full bleed. I used this same technique for the Forged by Fate cards, and it's a little bit more noticeable on them, so let me give you a close up. With arrows, even!

You're going to want to click to get the full size here:
The red arrow is the imperfection where the tree was gradually inclining upwards, and my mirroring gives it a weird hump instead.
The black arrow points out the evidence of the line where the mirrored edges meet.
The purple arrow shows where mirroring made the rain fall in the opposite direction, creating little "V"s where the mirrored pieces met.

Yes, I could have shown you a screenshot of the art itself, but the point is, these imperfections are pretty hard to spot on the finished product even when you know where to look, because the cards are only 2.5 x 3.5. You have to really study the edges to find the mirrored spots. And hey, if you're lucky, your cover art will be of a size and formation that it bleeds out already, without any of the fiddling.

I used photoshop for all of this. You can use gimp or illustrator, or whatever other image editing software you like, provided it will work and save at 300dpi -- printrunner has handy templates you can build off of in a number of programs. Word to the Wise: Paint doesn't save at 300dpi, but if you just want something promotional to use on the web, like as a badge or blog sidebar sticker or something, you CAN do all this mirroring in paint, also. I speak from experience and trust me when I say it isn't ideal, but you can definitely make it work. Another program that is pretty handy is pixlr.com. I cannot figure out how to get it to save at 300dpi, but it's pretty fancy and helpful for anything else! Like a poor man's photoshop, and you don't have to download it. (if you figure out how to make it save at 300dpi/find out it's possible please let me know!)

For the BACKsides of the trading cards, I was working, essentially, with a blank canvas. I could have done a solid color background, but to amp it up a little bit and give it a little bit more cohesion, I just took a slice out of the front cover (at its original full size) and, again, mirrored it into a full panel to cover the 2.5 x 3.5 space. 

Again, you're going to want to click this to make it bigger!
the black rectangle is the general area of the art I copied and pasted for the background.
the red arrows are pointing emphasizing that fact. See the same little water droplets from the front side? I may have fiddled with the contrast to lighten it up a smidge, but it's all the same!
the GREEN arrow is showing the evidence of the mirroring in the two identical brown beach lines.

From there, it was just a question of putting my own art (courtesy of El Husband) on top of the background image, and picking out what passage from my book I wanted to use underneath. Just keep an eye on those trim zones and make sure you take your backgrounds all the way out into the bleed zones, and it's really pretty easy to turn your art into promotional materials! Mirroring is definitely your friend, too. The trickiest part, I'd say, is figuring out the software you're using to get the job done -- or find a graphic-design-savvy friend to help! (I had help from two -- thanks Mia! Thanks Kevin! -- before I got a handle on it myself.) 

So there you have it! The anatomy of a trading card and some tips on creating your own promotional materials!

*gotprint does have the standard trading card size, but I wasn't really thrilled with their service, and I get a lot more value out of Moo.com and Printrunner.com personally.

**you should double check with your publisher that your use of the cover art for promotional materials is okay -- there are usually certain limits as to what you can do with the art, and how you can use it. For example, I can't use mine for print-on-demand cafepress style. But I can use it for bookmarks or trading cards or stickers that I'm printing up for promotional use only. Some publishers, I'm told, do not want you using PARTIAL art for promotion, either, and if your publisher is part of this crowd, not all these techniques are going to be helpful to you, but it's always worth asking and talking to your publisher!

NAME THAT BUTT: Stage TWO, Round TWO!

Last Week's Butt was, in fact, Antoine-Louis Barye's Juno with her Peacock!

Stage Two Rules:

• I post a butt and some clues, you guess who that butt belongs to in the comments. If you guess right, you get 5 points. (No bonus for being first.)
• Comments are moderated, which means they sit in my inbox quietly until I choose to publish them, so you won't see anyone else's guesses.
• HOWEVER, if you CORRECTLY identify the artistic work in question, you earn a bonus 5 points. (Provided of course, that it differs from the subject's name alone and the artist is known at all)
• The following Friday, I reveal the subject, along with the full backside image of the sculpture in question! If at this point you can correctly identify artist/title of the piece, you can earn an additional 2.5 points, and you may guess artist/title until the next round of NAME THAT BUTT begins.
• I'll keep a running tally of correct answers/points, with occasional updates of who is "winning."
• For Olympians, Greek AND Roman names are acceptable, because half of these sculptures were probably titled with their Roman names but in my head, they immediately translate to the Greek, and that's how I remember them when I'm organizing my photos.
• The game will continue for as long as I have photographs of backsides to share, but a new NAME THAT BUTT may not be posted every week, depending on Things. 

Today's Butt!

photo © me!

And your clues:

1) This butt is deceptively mild in temperament.
2) It's entirely possible this backside smells of flowers.
3) This certainly isn't the only shape this butt has taken.

NAME THAT BUTT! You have until September 5th, 11:59pm to guess Title, Artist, and Subject for full points!

Name That Butt REVEAL: Stage TWO, Round ONE!

Stage Two (New) Rules:

• I post a butt and TWO clues, you guess who that butt belongs to in the comments. If you guess right, you get 5 points. (No bonus for being first.)
• Comments are moderated, which means they sit in my inbox quietly until I choose to publish them, so you won't see anyone else's guesses.
• HOWEVER, if you CORRECTLY identify the artistic work in question, you earn a bonus 5 points. (Provided of course, that it differs from the subject's name alone and the artist is known at all)
• The following Friday, I reveal the subject, along with the full backside image of the sculpture in question! If at this point you can correctly identify artist/title of the piece, you can earn an additional 2.5 points, and you may guess artist/title until the next round of NAME THAT BUTT begins.
• I'll keep a running tally of correct answers/points, with occasional updates of who is "winning." 
• For Olympians, Greek AND Roman names are acceptable, because half of these sculptures were probably titled with their Roman names but in my head, they immediately translate to the Greek, and that's how I remember them when I'm organizing my photos.
• The game will continue for as long as I have photographs of backsides to share, but a new NAME THAT BUTT may not be posted every week, depending on Things. 

And Round One's Butt Belongs To...

*drumroll*

photo © me!

HERA!

For some thoughts on this perplexing goddess, scope out this post from the Other Me.

You have until Monday, 11:59pm eastern to nab half those extra bonus points for title and artist, so get your google on, and make it so!

Character Art Poll!

Now that FORGED BY FATE and TEMPTING FATE are out, and FATE FORGOTTEN's cover art is revealed, I find myself debating which character should be given an OFFICIAL face next -- Eve is already in process, but who should be her companion for the Fate Forgotten series of trading cards?

So, it is time for a poll!

Which Character Card Do You Want to See Next?
	Ra
	Athena
	Michael
	Thor (reprint)
	Adam (reprint)
	Other (leave a comment below with your suggestion!)
pollcode.com free polls

Vote above and if your favorite character isn't in the lineup, feel free to suggest him or her in the comments below! Cast your votes before September 7th so that El Husband has plenty of time to start sketching out the winner. And if you're feeling particularly motivated, feel free to include the name of an actor you'd choose to play your favorite character in the FATE OF THE GODS series!

Also PSA: Comments are once again MODERATED for Name That Butt, so don't worry if it doesn't appear immediately! It's just sitting in my inbox waiting for me to hit publish :)

Name That Butt RETURNS! Stage TWO, Round ONE!

Stage Two (New) Rules:

• I post a butt and some clues, you guess who that butt belongs to in the comments. If you guess right, you get 5 points. (No bonus for being first.)
• Comments are moderated, which means they sit in my inbox quietly until I choose to publish them, so you won't see anyone else's guesses.
• HOWEVER, if you CORRECTLY identify the artistic work in question from the BUTT ONLY photo, you earn a bonus 5 points. (Provided of course, that it differs from the subject's name alone and the artist is known at all)
• The following Friday, I reveal the subject, along with the full backside image of the sculpture in question! If at this point you can correctly identify artist/title of the piece, you can earn an additional 2.5 points, and you may guess artist/title until the next round of NAME THAT BUTT begins.
• I'll keep a running tally of correct answers/points, with occasional updates of who is "winning." 
• For Olympians, Greek AND Roman names are acceptable, because half of these sculptures were probably titled with their Roman names but in my head, they immediately translate to the Greek, and that's how I remember them when I'm organizing my photos.
• The game will continue for as long as I have photographs of backsides to share, but a new NAME THAT BUTT may not be posted every week, depending on Things. 

Let the Games Begin!

The Butt:

photo © me!

The Clues:

1) This bottom is best known for exacting punishments -- even newborn children are not safe from its wrath!
2) Some say this butt was born beneath a willow tree.
3) We can only marvel that this butt did not kick its spouse to the curb for all said spouse's infidelities. Perhaps it is a butt of infinite patience in the face of betrayal, or perhaps these butts had very different feelings about what marriage means. 

You have until Thursday, August 29th at 11:59pm Eastern to NAME THAT BUTT in the comments below!

Writerly Inspirations

[I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because it's easier to second guess all my commas and subjunctives after someone else points them out. And seriously, I've been doing so much revision lately I am pretty sure that EVERYTHING I write is wrong.*]

It can be as simple as a song lyric, half-heard while I’m shopping, or as complex as a movie, or the study of mythology on the whole. The things that inspire me as a writer are the things that make me ask questions, or ask questions of me that start the wheels turning in the back of my mind.

What if all the gods were real? What if your big sister was a goddess of love and didn’t know it? What if Europa knew exactly what she was doing when she climbed up on the back of that bull? What *is* it like to sail across the surface of the sun? (Train’s Drops of Jupiter is seriously the most amazing song – I could listen to it on repeat for hours, and it never stops making me want to write things!) What if there were empaths? What if Ragnarok *already* came? What is it like to date someone whose entire family is one big secret society?

After I know what the question is, and I’m writing the story that goes with it, if I’m really stuck, I’ll go for a walk, or hop in the shower, or do *anything* that doesn’t require a lot of focus but puts me in a position where I don’t have anything to write on (that’s always how it is, isn’t it?).

Sometimes I’ll chat up my characters: ask Adam what he hoped to accomplish by… well, that would be telling. I’ll talk to Thor about some piece of mythology/saga/Edda/history that’s tripping me up, and see what his perspective would be. Just getting out of my own head sometimes gives me what I need to move forward.

But for me, writing isn’t just about inspiration. It isn’t about waiting for the muse to show up and tell me what comes next. For me, writing is just as much discipline as it is creativity, and I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe in sitting down and writing – and if I’m not sure what’s happening next in one story, I work on another until I can go back to it. Day to day, when I’m hip deep in a manuscript, all I really need is a good night’s sleep to keep going. Sometimes I’m too caught up in the story even for that much, and after writing too late into the night, I wake up too early, eager and anxious to get to the next part.

Because when I’m writing, really in the zone, learning what happens next is its own inspiration.

And man, when you hit that point – when the story is telling itself as much as you’re writing it – it makes all the other frustrations disappear. It makes all the waiting and worrying and taking books apart and putting them back together again worth it. And you realize that Tolkien was right – writing really is close to divine.

*This post is being sponsored by Grammarly, which honestly is not terrible as an "extra set of eyes," and is, full disclosure, offering me an amazon gift card for my troubles. The program did try to tell me I used the wrong to/too/two when I clearly did not, which is kind of disappointing, but it was in a "this is a commonly confused word" way rather than a "this is wrong" way.  

When using it for works of fiction, it flags a lot of pronoun usage that isn't wrong (if there's more than one pronoun in the sentence, I think, mostly, or if the pronoun is modifying another noun in the sentence) and also tried to tell me that "silence of the room" should be "silence with the room" (what?). The bigger problem though, is that it has a 20 page limit, so you have to break things down into chunks for it to analyze, which is annoying. But the thing I like about the program itself is that it teaches you the grammar as it goes through your "errors" so you can decide yourself if the program is misapplying the rule or not. 

I realized the other day while proofing one of my manuscripts that a lot of what I know and how I write is kind of "by ear." I don't know WHY I think it's right, but I know it is. (As the daughter of an English teacher, I should probably be ashamed of myself, but that's how it is. I didn't learn grammar until I took Latin.) So Grammarly's little lessons inside the explanation bubbles are pretty handy for me. I'm not sure I'm going to shell out for a subscription beyond the trial period, but, I'm enjoying playing with it for the time being.