Blog Tour Cover Art and GIVEAWAY: Piercing the Fold- Venessa Kimball

A cover of a book can resonate thousands of words.  It can spark a feeling, a sensation that can sweep the observer’s mind into another time and place.  Venessa Kimball, author of the Piercing the Fold series, so eloquently states, “The cover of the book is the beginnings of a literary courtship that whisks the reader into another world.”  

It is quite beautiful to be on the receiving end of this courtship.  To be the donor is also beautiful and rewarding.  But, the development can be daunting without resources to convey the cover you want for your audience.  

Venessa was thrilled to sit down and tell us  about her journey in search of the cover art for both Piercing the Fold: Book 1 and Surfacing the Rim: Book 2.    

When Piercing the Fold: Book 1 was first published on July 2, 2012, the cover was simply a very mysterious and eerie photo of a wooded creek area from Dreamtime.com stock photos. It was simple, but it said so much about the core themes in this novel; the reflection of reality and how it can be distorted, the tangled branches forming a vortex leading to an opening.  The whole picture was a metaphor for everything involved with this storyline. I absolutely knew that this one the image that I wanted to use.  But, I felt it needed something.  It needed umph!    This was my first novel and I had no knowledge that a community of book cover designers existed.  After publication, I became more involved with the social networks in order to publicize my debut novel and began building relationships with my amazing and talented people in all areas of the literary industry.  That is when I found Kate with K.C. Designs on Facebook.  

Kate was phenomenal from the get go. I wanted to make sure and keep the hypnotic picture of the creek and woods.  But, I also wanted to enhance it by adding a very vital image that would carry throughout each cover of this series.  The copula, the implanted device in every guardian, needed to be brought to life in image form.   

When I wrote about the copula in PtF Book 1, I clearly saw every detail in my mind.  Being that Kate lives in Canada and I here in Texas our only line of communication was via PM and email.  Her ability to listen to my babbling on about what I envisioned for the copula was unfaltering.  And, what she sent me blew me away. Kate created 3-Demensional renderings of the copula; over 30 hours of work.  It gives me goose bumps still as I think about the first time I saw the final rendering of the copula!  With that key component in book 1 complete, the rest of the cover ignited!   When I revealed the new cover of PtF: Book 1 in October of 2012, the fans absolutely fell in love just like I had. 

This is when I started pinning on Pinterest.  Yes, an addiction that I have succumbed to.  I created a Piercing the Fold: Book1 Pinterest board and started looking for images of locations in Marietta Georgia to pin to the board.  Well,  I came across an image that made the tiny hair on the back of my neck stand on end.  Apparently, without my knowledge, there is a creek , Noses Creek, in the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Marrieta Georgia, that is identical to the creek on PtF: Book 1’s cover!  Definitely eerie how closely they resemble each other! Take a look! 

                   

Noses Creek – Kennesaw MBNP

http://walkerwaterworld.pbworks.com/w/page/12296847/spencerp

Image  purchased from Dreamtime.com Stock Photos.  

      

K.C. Designs cover of Piercing theFold: Book 1

Kate and I immediately began work on Surfacing the Rim: Book 2’s cover.

Once again, Kate endured my creative babble about what I envisioned for StR: Book 2’s cover.  I created a Pinterest Board for Surfacing the Rim: Book 2 and started pinning images that resembled the images running through my mind. I would message Kate pictures of what I found.  And, I’m sure her pc got overloaded with all the images I sent.  

On one particular night,   I had dreamt about a significant event in StR, since I was still in the process of drafting at that time.  I dreamt about the intersection of our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy and what it would look like in our sky.  The next morning, I woke up and got on-line to tell Kate what I saw.  She listened to my description of the event along with the location, setting, the silhouette image of Jesca, and the placement of the copula. 

Kate got to work fast and started sending me mock ups of the cover at every phase of design.  Each time I got an updated design image, I would say to myself, “That is what I saw in my head.” 

Within two weeks, the  cover of StR: Book 2 was ready for me to fall in love with.  And, I truly did.  I didn’t think that Kate could impress me more than she already had with PtF: Book 1’s cover, but she went beyond my expectations and encompassed everything that exuded StR:Book 2.  

K.C. Designs cover of Surfacing the Rim: Book 2 in the PtF series.  

As for Book 3, the outline is complete and drafting is underway.  I am creating my Pinterest Board for Book 3 soon, which means the next step is to call Kate!    I can’t wait to see what my mind and Kate’s design creates next for this series! 

Website for Venessa Kimball: 

http://www.venessakimball.net/#

PtF: Book 1 Amazon.com 

http://www.amazon.com/Piercing-Fold-Book-1-ebook/dp/B008H772VI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355881272&sr=8-2&keywords=piercing+the+fold 

Venessa Kimball Author

http://www.facebook.com/VenessaKimballAuthor?ref=hl

Piercing the Fold 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Piercing-the-Fold/406064719458513?ref=hl

Pinterest Link: 

http://pinterest.com/venessakimball/

Tumblr Link: 

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/venessakimball

Twitter Link: 

https://twitter.com/VenessaKimball

PtF: Book 1  Barnes & Noble Link: 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/piercing-the-fold-venessa-kimball/1113151096?ean=2940044974982

PtF: Book 1 Smashwords.com Link:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241690

StR: Book 2  Amazon.com Link :

http://www.amazon.com/Surfacing-Rim-Piercing-Fold-Book/dp/1481023756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358025043&sr=8-1&keywords=surfacing+the+rim

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