Open Your Eyes to a Contest!

Apex Books has kindly sent me a couple of complimentary paperback copies of Paul Jessup's latest book, "Open Your Eyes", described as "a surrealist space opera of haunting beauty and infinite darkness." I've just started reading it, and while some of this high concept stuff tends to turn me off, I'm finding this one very accessible so far.
To give readers a chance to sample Paul Jessup's work and to check out the kind of offerings available from Apex, I'm putting up a copy of this book as a contest prize through this blog.


But you don't get it for nothing...no, no, far from it. In order to qualify, you've got to give me some link love. Here's how it works:

• if you have a blog, create a post linking back to this blog (you can use either http://paladinfreelance.blogspot.com or www.paladinfreelance.com...all roads lead to Rome). If you run a website, give me a link in your "Links" page or perhaps post a news item to your front page linking back here.
  
• Leave a comment with an email address, or better yet, send me an email with your name and a link to the site where I can see your post (my email address is just off to the left there under "Contact Me". See it? Good.).
  
• Once you do that, your name will go into a draw for the book to be held in one week, on Friday 10 July. The draw will be completely random, under the close scrutiny of an impartial panel of judges (i.e. my wife will pull a name from a hat).
  
• If you are the winner, I will contact you via email for a mailing address where I can send the book.
  

Only the winner's name will be posted on this blog, and all other personal information will be deleted once the book is sent. Scout's honor.

If this contest does well, I may have other goodies to offer in a similar fashion in the future. Good luck, and get those entries rolling in!

Of course, if you don't want to wait, you can always surf over to the book's product page at Apex Books and buy a copy either in old-fashioned paper or new-fangled ebook version.

Prime Number Two

As promised in my last post, here's a color version of that image from Nate Kenyon's "Prime". The color scheme was very much inspired by B-movies and sci-fi/horror comics of the 50's. I wanted it to look really garish to get across the power of the scene. The illustrations in the book are in black and white, so this one was done just for my own, and hopefully your, enjoyment.

07-01-09 is a PRIME Number!

July 1st marks more than Canada Day this year. It also marks the release of "Prime", the new book by Stoker award nominated author Nate Kenyon. What makes this a landmark day for me is the fact that "Prime" is illustrated by none other than yours truly.

This short novel contains four black and white illustrations produced specially for this first edition from Apex (Note: The cover's not mine, but rather the work of the clearly talented Katja Faith). I'm not just blowing smoke when I say I had a great time creating them; this book was as enjoyable to read as it was to illustrate, and that always helps fire the imagination.

"Prime" is a dark science fiction story with ideas that recall some of the better urban science fiction novels, such as Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", William Gibson's cyberpunk novels, and Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash". It's a futuristic murder mystery that skilfully avoids most of the cliches of other genre-crossing detective fiction to take an insightful look at where our use of technology may be headed and consider some of the unexpected consequences that may be the result. It is satisfying both in terms of entertainment and intelligence and although it is a relatively quick read, it is definitely time well spent.

As for the quality of the illustrations, I'll let you judge for yourself. Below is one of the four pages produced for this book. (Quick side note: I had originally intended to upload a color version of this page, but either Windows Vista or The Gimp lost its mind while I was saving, and dumped all of my color work. I'll update with a color version as soon as I can).

Be sure to check out "Prime" at Apex Books website. It's available to order now for $13.95 US, and even if you're not a fan of my work, I think you'll find that it will be money well spent.

Many Years From Now...

This week, LiveJournal user Phil McAndrew is running a contest based around the idea of drawing yourself as you think you'll be at age 100. My own entry is below.
In short, I see myself as somewhere between Sid James and Yoda. I figure once I hit 65 all bets are off, and an orgy of hedonism unknown since the reign of Caligula will commence. Of course, it will help that I'll be rich beyond the dreams of avarice by that point, and will be able to afford a steady supply of Jack Daniels whiskey, imported cigars and Vargas girls in nurse costumes with butts just a made for slappin'.
Please note the artificial leg; I figure I'll have at least one limb replaced by a plastic polymer prosthetic (say THAT fast five times!), probably manufactured by Apple. Also note the wetwired earbud implants, inspired by Lobo, which will deliver a constant feed of Tom Waits and Danzig directly into my cerebellum...just for mood.

Also, in the future, everyone will be required to wear fuzzy Cthulhu slippers.


Yes, I know that background is crappy. I dithered over it for about an hour before finally going with what I call the "Bloom County" solution...."Just wing that mother!"

Hunting the Alien

Here's the latest from the Whitechapel Remake/Remodel thread, this time a spin on the Arthur K. Barnes character Gerry Carylyle.

The thing I love most about posting to these weekly threads is that I get to play around with a variety of styles and try out new techniques. I make it a point to make each week's submission an experiment with a different yet recognizable style.
In this case, I wanted to do something in the vein of the modern crop of kids' comics like "Alison Dare" or "Amelia Rules". In past weeks, I have done mockups of Cartoon Network DVD's, 70's mystery novels, 40's pulp novels, and recently, an homage to Moore and Gebbie's "Lost Girls".
I find that it really helps spark the creative fire to take a chance on something artistically and not have to worry about the consequences if it doesn't work out. It really brings back the fun that often gets lost in concerns of deadlines and client demands. Sometimes my postings get positive responses from the other forum members (a talented bunch; praise from them is high praise indeed), sometimes they get no comment at all. Either way, the best reward for me is the moment when the piece is complete and somewhere close to what I pictured when I started out. I know then that I've learned something valuable and had fun along the way.

The Ants Come Marching...

Over at Apex Book Company, they're running a piece of cover art I designed for them...well, sort of. They're giving me full credit for the cover of the ebook version of "Last Dragon" by J.M. McDermott, but only about half of the work is mine. I just did a little redesign work on the ants and added the title and author credit. Nevertheless, I'll take what I can get.




I haven't read "Last Dragon" yet, but it's getting good reviews from around the web, including being picked for the Editor's Top Ten Science/Fantasy Picks of 2008 at Amazon. When you consider the number of fantasy books cluttering the field right now, that's high praise indeed, so you can guarantee this one will be going on my reading list.
If well-written fantasy is your cup of tea, why not drop by the book's page at Apex and check it out; it's going to be available in the coming week for the Kindle and at Fictionwise, and I'm sure it will be well worth the price.

Somebody Likes Onions....

It's always fun when this happens....first it was Keith and the Girl, this time it's "Nobody Likes Onions". In the latest episode (episode 423), about 30 minutes in, Patrick and and Johnny B. really take me to task for some comments I made on their forums. Well done, lads.
WARNING: NLO is very politically incorrect, but if you can put on a thick skin for a while, it's usually good for a laugh.