WJR Parks Author

North Angoria, Return to DnD

wjrparks1 — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 19:04:07 +0000

A quick draft of my map from Solare, my fantasy world set in the dnd world. I plan to write and finish books from my Solare world and start new adventures. Aiming to get a campaign book published of my world soon.

Ashia Storm Book cover ready for next year!

wjrparks1 — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 14:08:01 +0000

I might do tweaks between now and next fall, but I have a pretty good version of the book cover for Ashia. It will be the first actual novel of her series as she adventures within our world and recovers her magical powers.

Here are the before and after files.

Working on my Next Book Cover.

wjrparks1 — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 11:02:39 +0000

It has been a few years since I did a shoot with Sara, a wonderful model to work with. I plan to write a fantasy trilogy and use her for the book covers. Finally, I’m getting around to designing the first cover.

Next fall is my aim to have the first novel. I plan to merge the fantasy series with my Raven Universe stories.

A black backdrop is my preferred way to photograph models for book covers. I think it easier to blend the lighting with colors of the design than a white or green backdrop. At least with my style.

Two to three strobe lights for key lights and accent lights. I like using either blue or red gels for the strobes, since blue is the color I use most on my covers.

A little bit of Lightroom to fix the exposure then on to Photoshop. The process of design starts.

Updated Raven Book 1 Cover

wjrparks1 — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 22:47:23 +0000

Been testing out some marketing services and updating book covers and synopsis to see what works best.

I decided to give Raven’s cover a face lift.

So far getting some good results.

I’m building up a large pool of editions and versions on Amazon, I think I’m up to 7 editions there. So lets see how long this version sticks around.

Cover Model in Red Dress

wjrparks1 — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 08:58:13 +0000

Did some photography with my cover model from The Undying.

Finally a good day and time with just enough wind to get some nice images during golden hour.

We did these at the Monahans Sandhills State Park. I had been wanting to do this set for awhile, but had caught the Covid virus so had to postpone a few weeks.

Andrea Cantu is a wonderful model to work with and always had great energy and attitude.

Raven Book 3

wjrparks1 — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 19:03:55 +0000

After finishing a few novellas I’m finally working on getting the last book out in the Raven trilogy. Embrace the Darkness. Going to aim to have it done in the next few months depending on how the photography business goes and any other jobs that pop up.

This book will catch the whole Raven story up to the present time and with other books.

After that I plan to work on a few other stories and trilogies in the Raven Universe and aim to have stone alone books of Raven published in between.

Next series will be introducing werewolves and witch clans, with the main MC Sarina Convel. I’m working on the details over at my bibliography website http://www.ravenvampire.com before starting on the series. I’ll be updating the site soon as well.

Catch up with the series by reading books 1 and 2 already out on Amazon for print and kindle.

Undreea the Undying Book Prints

wjrparks1 — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 19:16:06 +0000

Got my prints in from Amazon, going to compare them with Lulu and Barns and Noble Press to see which prints look best.

So far I like the way matte cover feel, but from Amazon I notice they always have spots of glue all over the cover, so they don’t have good quality look to them when they arrive. I’d hate to order 30 of these for a book signing and most are riddled with these glue spots. Not sure what is going on with the printers, but maybe they should look into it.

Hoping Lulu does better, but they don’t have an 8 by 5 size, which I have switched all my amazon books too. Ingram does. I plan to see how their books hold up with matte covers.

I’ve been watching videos on Youtube saying that Barns and Noble do really good with their matte prints, so I want to try them out too. But I’m still happy with these prints from Amazon, I might just have to go back to gloss for Amazon only.

I have a couple I tweaks to do on the interior, but pretty good thus far from what I’m seeing.

Cover Design

wjrparks1 — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 08:13:24 +0000

Created a new cover design for an author friend. Kindra Sowder The Miss Hyde Collection 1.

I knew I’d be busy over the weekend with a wedding and more photography for seniors and another wedding and cheerleaders pictures the following weekend. So I wanted to finish this cover ASAP while I had time.

The model I had wanted to use for the cover never replied to my offer to user for the book, so I pieced together everything from stockimages.

Give Kindra a follow you can find her at www.ksowderauthor.com or Amazon.