I have a great series to share with you today, along with a fantastic giveaway and exciting excerpt.
And the author was kind enough to answer my questions about the fabulous cover art for her series.
Please welcome R. L. King
How did you choose your cover art? Did you design it or someone else?
The cover art for all the books in the Alastair Stone Chronicles series is from a company called Streetlight Graphics. I found them when I was searching for cover artists—I knew I wanted a full-service company familiar with my genre, and one that was willing to commit to doing all my covers. I looked around and asked some folks whose covers I liked, and it came down to either Streetlight or another company who also did good work, but who were much more expensive (and I actually liked Streetlight’s samples better).
The design was a joint effort—I have fairly clear ideas about what I want to see, and I know what I like and what I don’t, but I’m flexible as far as letting the designer come up with something that fits my basic parameters. For Stone and a Hard Place, I knew I wanted Stone to appear in his trademark outfit, I wanted a big spooky house, and I wanted the basic color scheme to be blue and black. Streetlight came back with a design that blew me away!
The only part where we had to go back and forth several times was Stone’s face—and I actually ended up accepting something I wasn’t entirely happy with because I felt like I’d been too nitpicky. Later on, though, after getting some feedback from readers that he looked too young, I went back to Streetlight and told Glendon, the designer, that I really wanted to try to fix the face. He pointed me at the stock-photo service they used and asked me to find something I liked—and it didn’t take me long to do just that! I found a model who was much closer to my vision than the one used, so Stone got a “face transplant” and now no longer looks young enough to be his own apprentice. I’m completely happy with the updated cover.
The second book, The Forgotten, took the design of an older version of the book and updated it to fit the style of the first Streetlight design. We changed the title color from blue to purple and added a few purple touches. Once again, I loved it, and once again the only issue was Stone. We did a silhouetted version this time, so it took a few tries to get the profile and hair right, but I am very, very happy with this cover, too.
I can’t wait to reveal the next one, for Book 3. It’s another winner!
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Stone And A Hard Place
Alastair Stone Chronicles #1
Dr. Alastair Stone, Occult Studies professor and powerful mage, has his hands full trying to keep the two sides of his life separate as he trains a new apprentice, deals with a malevolent entity trapped in the basement of a wealthy old woman’s massive home, and battles dark mages intent on enslaving it for their own ends.
Debut novel of the Alastair Stone Chronicles.
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The Forgotten
Alastair Stone Chronicles #2
Dr. Alastair Stone is back, this time teaming up with Jason Thayer, a young man hunting for his missing sister. Embroiled in a web of odd homeless people, a growing conspiracy, and deadly danger, they soon realize that even if they find Jason’s sister, they might not be able to help her.
What do you do when you discover an extradimensional plot that threatens the safety of the entire world, but you can’t tell anyone about it because literally anyone on Earth could be part of it?
Book Two of the Alastair Stone Chronicles.
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Excerpt
“Dr. Stone?”
The voice was trembling, female, and sounded terrified. It took him a moment to identify it. He stared as Megan stirred again, draping her arm back over him. “Mrs.—Bonham?”
Whoever was on the other end sounded like they were on the verge of hysteria. “Dr. Stone, is that you?”
“It’s me, Mrs. Bonham. What’s wrong? Is something wrong?” He sat up a little, propping himself up on his pillows. Megan’s arm slid down over his stomach, but he didn’t even notice that she was there.
“Something’s here,” she quavered. “Something’s…happening.”
He was fully awake now. Carefully, he moved Megan’s arm and sat on the edge of the bed. “Calm down, Mrs. Bonham, please. I’ll help you if I can, but you have to tell me what’s happening.”
“I don’t know,” she sobbed. “It’s like the whole house hates me. Noises—cold winds—things slamming—”
“Is Iona there? Can you put her on for a moment?”
There was a shuffling sound and then a different voice spoke, sounding almost as frightened as Adelaide Bonham had. “Dr. Stone? This is Iona.”
He took a deep breath. “Iona. What’s going on? Is Mrs. Bonham—”
“She’s not imagining things, Dr. Stone,” the woman said. In addition to sounding frightened, she sounded like she couldn’t believe what was going on. “I can hear them too. The noises. The feelings. It’s horrible, Dr. Stone. Something’s going on.”
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Author R.L. King
R.L. King is an award-winning author and game freelancer for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun. She has contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks, as well as one full-length adventure, “On the Run,” included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning “Runners’ Toolkit.”Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, Borrowed Time, was published in May 2015.When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, King is a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company. In her spare time (hah!) she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, watching way too much Doctor Who, and attending conventions when she can. She is an Active member of the Horror Writers’ Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
Links:
Writer Website / Publisher Website / Facebook / Twitter / Amazon
Buy link for Stone and a Hard Place (Book 1)
Buy link for The Forgotten (Book 2)
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