When Stars Rain Down
Who Owns You?, Book One
Science Fiction
Date to be Published: October 11th
Set in the early 23rd century, THE STARS RAIN DOWN follows an android woman pursuing a renegade human. At the same time, he searches for his missing wife and child, abducted by alien pirates, and sold into slavery. Special Agent Catherine Mercer, an artificial intelligence and agent of Interplanetary Security (think FBI in space), is given the assignment to pursue and apprehend Rick McCabe, a freighter pilot suspected of illegally smuggling passengers to the free colony of Aranae, some 1300 light years from Earth. Rick, on the other hand, on route to Aranae, was attacked by pirates and separated from his pregnant wife, Sarah, who was captured. But, having come under the suspicion of IPS of illegally transporting passengers, Rick goes rogue and sets off to find Sarah while evading Catherine trying to capture him. Rick and his tech-savvy partner QR follow a trail of clues and tips that lead from one planet to another, from one hostile slave owner and alien race to more pirates and unsavory characters. Along the journey, Catherine learns that being human is more than possessing a flesh and blood body. The transitory body holds an eternal spirit that yearns to be free.
Guest Post: Why Book Covers Are So Important
Or, When the DIY Beast Has Plans for You
So, you want to make a book cover. Of your own book. First off, unless you’ve got some design skills and an eye, don’t. After paying off your editors, beta readers, and proofreaders, I hope you’ve got some scratch set aside for an experienced cover designer. Go to Fiverr and get one. Got it? Good. Nothing screams Amateur! more than a cover slapped together by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s worth the investment to lay down a few C-notes and hire a professional.
Now, for the rest of you mad artists who are still reading and doggedly determined to fly solo, my hat’s off to you. You got that DIY beast in you like me. Just keep in mind a few things. Your book cover needs to hook the reader and get them to buy your book, preferably at first glance. Two elements on your cover must hit big to make that hook irresistible:
- The front cover image.
- The back cover blurb.
Walk through your favorite bookstore or browse their website. What books catch your eye and why? Remember the poster for the Spielberg film Jaws? That was taken directly from the cover of the Peter Benchley novel. Can you think of a more striking image than a toothy shark rising from the depths in a vertical strike on the skinny dipper on the water’s surface? If that doesn’t trigger your curiosity and make you pick up the book for a closer look, what will? So, you pick up the book (or click the link) and flip it over to find out what it’s all about. The blurb is the closer. Its job is to get your potential reader interested in your story and make the purchase. It’s a one/two punch, and they work together.
So, what about your book? What’s your idea for the cover? Does it grab the casual browser? Your choices here, like your story elements, are infinite. For my latest sci-fi novel, The Stars Rain Down, I planned on hiring a professional artist, someone specific I had in mind for a long time. When I inquired, he was booked a year in advance, but my novel was launching in eight weeks. So, with a background in art and photography, I volunteered myself for the job. I turned to A.I. for an image—a portrait of a young woman, my main character, an android cop. Images of the face catch the eye, and I felt her penetrating gaze would do the job nicely. Make sure the image you choose, whether a photo or an illustration, has a plain background that will not interfere with or compete with the text you’ll lay down over it. Text elements, the title, author’s name, review quotes, and blurb must all be easily readable. And then the whole thing, cover images, front and back, and text must work together in a pleasing aesthetic that draws in readers instead of repelling them.
If I haven’t dissuaded you so far, and you’re still eager to plunge into your book cover, God help you. But if you do, I ask only one thing from you: show us a book we can’t resist.
About the Author
Glenn Thomas’s life path has been a meandering one, setting new life goals at various points along the way, gaining skills in art, photography, film-making, driving, and ultimately, writing in screenplays and prose. As a self-described “high-functioning daydreamer,” Glenn often finds contentment in self-imposed isolation, in conversation with characters only he sees and hears, in universes of his own creation. Once in a while, he writes them down into scripts and novels to share with the world.
Glenn lives in the Los Angeles area and works as a driver for a major motion picture studio. His first self-published work was a series of short Science Fiction stories called The Spiderboys of Aranae, which appeared in 2015.
In 1986, when Glenn was convinced he was at the start of a long and prosperous career as a visual artist, an idea for a sci-fi story came to him. A guy loses his wife to space aliens, and he searches the galaxy to find her. As a fan of the genre, Glenn sat down with paper and pencil to write the story, and two years later, No Longer Mourn for Me was finished. It then sat on the shelf, unpublished, for nearly 35 years. Glenn thought about that crudely executed early work, got ideas to improve it, and sat down at the computer for a rewrite. The original story was completely gutted, retooled, and reborn with a new title: The Stars Rain Down.
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