brianpaone
Junior Member
Daylight comes to those who live...
Posts: 21
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Post by brianpaone on Apr 2, 2015 2:12:17 GMT
These are the 2 covers of my new book (that's coming out in June) that my publishing company marked up for me that I have to choose from. I'm having a hard time committing to one. It would be awesome if anyone seeing this on their newsfeed could help a brotha out and vote. (And yes, this novel's plot line is a direct book adaptation of the entire "Time" album).
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Post by Chippa on Apr 2, 2015 5:28:47 GMT
The first one stands out more, and catches the eye.
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Post by Platypus on Apr 2, 2015 7:13:03 GMT
I agree, the one on the left is more appealing to my eye. A dot matrix font seems clichéd to me, unless you're specifically looking for the early Sci-Fi association.
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Post by Horacewimp on Apr 2, 2015 7:34:55 GMT
Welcome to the forum brianpaone I like the dot matrix cover, for me it stands out more and is in like with the theme of your book. Brian, could you post up more information about the books content or is it ok if I copy and paste the details you sent me? I think the members would be very interested in your project.
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Post by queenofthehours on Apr 2, 2015 17:14:32 GMT
I'm not keen on either, sorry! But then I'm looking at them though the eyes of an ELO fan and I'm assuming the cover is designed to appeal to non-ELO fans too. I'd go for the one on the right, the words look a bit clearer to me.
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Post by BSJ on Apr 2, 2015 20:45:43 GMT
When I enlarged close to book size, it became clear that it's a moon, with a cool time piece. This is hard because I don't like either fonts. The right. Artwork stands out.
I do hope this is helpful, Brian.
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brianpaone
Junior Member
Daylight comes to those who live...
Posts: 21
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Post by brianpaone on Apr 3, 2015 0:26:37 GMT
Thank you everyone. The artwork itself, obviously, is a direct alteration of the Time album cover artwork. The font, we wanted something that says "1981" & "2095" at the same time. I was shown 18 different fonts and placements and these were the 2 best. The one on the left we have dubbed the "Tron font" and the one on the right we call the "dot matrix font." I wanted ELO fans to immediately recognize the cover artwork, but then also want to branch out with non-ELO fans with a font that has nothing to do with ELO but still captures the spirit of an 80's time traveler.
Below is a piece of the original message I sent the admins of this page introducing myself and what this book is about:
ELO’s “Time” album has always been on my Top 3 favorite albums of all-time list (the other 2 being Pink Floyd’s “The Final Cut” and Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”) since I first heard it back around 1986 (I was 10 and had started obsessing over ELO as a young child when my mother brought “Out of the Blue” into the house on vinyl.) Anyway, I started writing fiction pretty early in life (I can remember writing short stories for my classmates as far back as 7th grade). Somewhere in my late teens / early twenties, I thought that the Time album should be flushed out either as a novel or a book. I knew, at the time, that I was nowhere NEAR talented enough yet to take on such a task.
Fast forward to 2007: I got signed by a publishing company after years of writing and honing my craft (and even getting a college certificate in Creative Writing from a college in Boston.) My debut novel, “Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts” came out in 2007 to some moderate success (It even got the attention of Oprah Winfrey as a runner up one of her Book of the Month Club selections, however it did not make the final cut—but I do have a letter from her stating that it made its way up the elimination chain to the top.) My second novel, “Welcome to Parkview,” came out in 2010. Again, with moderate success. After releasing those 2 novels, I got out of my contract with my publishing company and signed with Ingram. They picked up my 2 books and re-released them in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. Then, they asked me what I was going to write next.
In February 2012, after many discussions with other ELO fans online, I decided it was time to take a stab at writing a novel-adaptation to the Time album. After 2 straight months of writing outlines, dissecting every single word on that album, and flushing out to turn what Jeff is saying in the lyrics into an actual plotline and story arc, I began the actual writing in April 2012. This was when I met author Randy Blazak, who had just published “Mission of the Sacred Heart”—a novel based on ELO’s “A New World Record” album. Randy and I spent great lengths bouncing ideas back and forth for the “Time Novel.” I also confided in another ELO fan, who is an ex-marine and an actor who was just in the film “The Hornet’s Nest” that came out last year, and he helped me work through the album, line by line, working out what “action” the protagonist would be doing based on lyric in the album. (OUR version of the album that we used to dissect a plotline also included the tracks “Julie Don’t Live Here Anymore,” “When Time Stood Still,” & “The Bouncer”)
Every single character in the book is either named after a member of the band, or a name in a title of a song, or a name sang in a song somewhere throughout their discography. There a few dream sequences in the novel—a reference to the dreams he talks about in the Time lyrics—and each one is a direct derivative from another ELO song (i.e., there is a dream scenario that is directly pulled from the description in the lyrics of “Jungle” etc.) I also used other ELO song lyrics to describe actual locations or items in the novel (i.e. there is an “Avalon Hotel” in the book and it has statues of painted ladies that sparkle in the sun (from “Eldorado” lyrics), and many descriptions of the town the protagonist is from are taken directly from the descriptions in “Hello, My Old Friend” etc.) I buried more than 200 ELO “Easter eggs” throughout the book that only true ELO fans will read and say, “Hey! That’s from the song “Oh, No Not Susan!” But you really need to know the lyrics to pick up on all of the stuff I hid in the book.)
So, here we are … 3 years after I started working on the book, it is finally done. This book has been my “full time job” for 3 years, making sure it’s as good as I can make it. The only thing I didn’t do, however, was use the ACTUAL lyrics of ANY ELO song anywhere in the book—I really didn’t want to get sued. That’s something Randy did in “Sacred Heart” and we’ve had multiple conversations that he wished he hadn’t, just in case it bites him in the butt. In fact, he told me straight out when I started writing, to make sure I did NOT use any lyrics verbatim in the book. I either reference them, or alter them enough where the words are no longer in the same order, but a fan will know EXACTLY what line it came from (i.e. the entire trip to the moon sequence is just littered with references to that song, and there are random new broadcasts throughout the book that all come straight from the “news” in Here is the News. Even all the organizations of the future: Roboko Development, World Broadcasting Authority, Energy Council, World Convention, Justice Computer … all make an appearance in the book.)
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Post by vlogdance on Apr 3, 2015 12:36:58 GMT
My vote goes to the one on the right as well, Brian - the words look clearer.
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Post by queenofthehours on Apr 3, 2015 13:33:32 GMT
Time is an album just begging to be novelised - I'm glad someone's having a go! It's a good thing I think, not just on a legal level, not to use actual lyrics as this makes fans work extra hard to enjoy all the ELO references. Also, I remember a biographer of TS Eliot mentioning once that he was not allowed to use any of the poet's actual poems in his book. But rather than it hindering the biography it made it even more interesting as the extra creativity he used to describe Eliot's work made the book extra special, which should be the case here!
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Post by nickheynes on Apr 4, 2015 12:33:10 GMT
OOh ,this is really interesting.I've just recently "re-discovered" Time. I loved it When it first came out.Lost interest (when compared to some of the other albums) and have recently got back into it ,mainly through Ted Blight and SM's tracks on BandHub. (Thanks Guys!) Anyway I'm looking forward to reading the book .BTW I prefer the version of the cover on the right.
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brianpaone
Junior Member
Daylight comes to those who live...
Posts: 21
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Post by brianpaone on Apr 4, 2015 14:41:42 GMT
So the covers received just under 160 votes. Here is the breakdown:
The pink "Tron" font cover - 32 votes The yellow "dot matrix" font cover - 113 votes The "neither, they both look like shit" comments - 12 votes
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Post by BSJ on Apr 4, 2015 19:48:33 GMT
So, what is your choice, Brian?
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Post by unomusette on Apr 4, 2015 21:34:04 GMT
Arg! I didn't get to vote! I'm a right hander, if I'm still in time, again because the words are clearer. I don't think either are particularly ELO-ish visually though. Best of luck with the book, go for it!
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brianpaone
Junior Member
Daylight comes to those who live...
Posts: 21
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Post by brianpaone on Apr 5, 2015 1:15:01 GMT
I am going with the yellow dot matrix one, however we have changed the placement of the letters so they don't slice the middle of the painting in half.
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brianpaone
Junior Member
Daylight comes to those who live...
Posts: 21
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Post by brianpaone on Apr 5, 2015 1:16:14 GMT
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