Making of a Book Cover: Banshee's Cry

So here are the two models for the half-human, half-Anointed Gillant brothers Cael and Jake. As you can see the lighting is way different. Cael needed some darkening up some.

Superimposed the pictures together, but had to put a wall for Cael to lean on so he wouldn't be floating in mid-air. Then I grittied them up in keeping within the dark edginess of their world. 

Below, I was playing with turning them into illustrations, but decided not to go with that look.   

So this is the final cover. I'm quite proud of it.

 Kindle version                                                  Nook version 

Making of a Book Cover: A Haunting

For the third book in The Anointed series, A Haunting,  I wanted to keep both brothers on the cover again. This one was a little harder to get just right. I loved the picture of Jake standing by the window, but I couldn't find any full bodied pictures of Cael to go with him so I had to not only cut and paste him in, but use one guy's body, and Cael's head. Here's the three original stock photos I had to work with:

Had to mirror image this guy's body to fit in the picture and darkened him up a little. He'll be darkened a little bit more after the fact.

Then desaturated Cael's head because he is so light  And then layer up the three different pictures. Head to body, Cael to Jake's photo... Cael still is too light for the whole though, but that will be taken care of.

Next put the gritty texture onto it and then darkened Cael up more.

Voila!! 

So after all that I decided Cael's head was too big, so started over and resized to a smaller head size. Geez.

Making of a Book Cover: Book One The Anointed

Kindle version                      Nook version

Making of a Book Cover The Anointed

The more I learn how to Photoshop, the more I want to play around with my covers. It's terribly addictive. This week I updated all three of the covers to my Anointed series, taking them from a horror look to more of a gritty texture with the monster hunting half-human teen brothers.

Here's for the first book in the series The Anointed.

The original photo. This model just has that hard-edged take no prisoners look that big brother Jake embodies. But I wanted the covers to have both brothers so I went scouting around for a stock photo to both fit Cael's more innocent outlook, but also fit the picture. Fortunately the cover model I already liked for Cael also happened to have a photo of him sitting on steps. Perfect!

He needed some darkening up to match the dark tone and saturation of the first picture, and I had to shrink him just right to get his butt planted perfectly on the steps behind Jake.



 A little cropping here, a little cropping there.

Now to go all grainy and texturing. These guys fight demons and operate in a pretty dark gritty world so I wanted the cover to reflect that.



Add the Title and Author (moi) and it's good to go.

                                                   Kindle version                Nook version

Banshee's Cry Sample

"I don't know, Jake." Cal stepped over the broken glass. Every window in the run-down house had been shattered. "Something's off. It just doesn't seem like a demon."

Jake wrinkled his nose at the pungent smell of decay overtaking the dusty parlor. Moonlight stole inside, illuminating white sheets thrown over chairs and tables. "All the signs point to it. Even the thermal images we nicked off the satellite cameras showed a straight line of heat from a demon passing, and then there's reports of locals suddenly going insane—six to date—all bat shit crazy enough to hara-kiri themselves. Come on, sounds like a demon getting his jollies off around here to me. Six, Cal. Tell me how six people in one little town all kill themselves in the space of two weeks if a demon hasn't been hanging around influencing them?"

"Yeah, okay. You're right." Cal pumped his splitter, the specialized shotgun that housed ice bullets in its chamber, best defense against demons in any dimension.
He didn't look convinced.

"Tell you what." Jake tapped the end of his own splitter. He loved the feel of Gertrude in his hands. Similar to a short barreled shotgun, the weapons master to the Anointed, Paps, designed the splitters with a smoother palm action trigger rather than a finger pull, and Gert had one of the cleanest pulls of any splitter Jake had used. "I'll keep my dagger unsheathed in case it's something besides a demon. Which it isn't."

"Guess we'll know soon enough," Cal replied. "Up or down?"

"I'll take the cellar. You search upstairs, then meet back here and we'll sweep the main floor together." Jake glanced at Cal's back as the young tracker headed toward the stairway. "Call out if you find anything."

Without looking back, Cal flicked out an exaggerated salute. Jake grinned. Bossing the kid around never got old.

He tried several doors off the kitchen before he found the cellar. Why a demon would want to hang out here was beyond him, but they'd pieced together that at least four of the suicide victims had come here sometime during the month—one as a realtor, two as potential buyers, and another stopped by to give an estimate for refurbishing. So far visiting this house was the only thing any of the vics had in common.

Slipping out his penlight, Jake flicked it on. The little beam barely penetrated the darkness down into the slender stairwell. His first step down squeaked across the old wood and footsteps rustled below. Yep, something was definitely down there.
Jake pumped Gerty and descended the stairs that squeaked and squealed beneath each step, which didn't matter since the demon or whatever was in the cellar already heard him. His light bounced around spiderwebs and shelves that held dust-coated jars of preserves or something before shooting across a face.

Jolting, Jake dragged the light back to the figure and the identical business end of the splitter pointed at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled out.

"Tracking a demon. What else?" Kiene tipped her head, making her long ponytail fall to the side."Nasty one by the looks of it."

Of course she'd be tracking a demon. Her kind, the narrow-visioned Anointed, had long given up tracking anything besides demons, leaving humankind unprotected against all the other supernatural monsters and beasts that went bump in the night.
"Well, leave. We got here first."

"I don't think so."

Jake lowered his gun. "You don't think you're gonna leave or don't think we got here ahead of you?"

"Neither." The girl's shotgun lowered.

A frown pulled at Jake's mouth. She looked good. Long legs snug in black pants. Tight blue T-shirt beneath a short-cropped leather jacket. She could give catwoman a run for the money any day. "Who let you out of Karavel anyway?"

Blue eyes narrowed. "How else am I supposed to gain any experience? I'm tracking demons. Same as you."

"On your own?"

No, I brought my baby sitter along. Geez."

Jake did not like her tracking alone. Not one little bit. Sure he knew she'd graduate from the Academy one day and join the ranks of demon trackers, but…hell, he just didn't like it. That's all.

"You're not ready. You need to go home."

"Says who? You?" One hip cocked out almost in defiance and Jake couldn't help staring at the curve of it.

"Someone has to say it."

"Pluuh…eease. You and Cal track on your own and you're not even—" Her features wilted. At least she had the decency to look mortified at what she'd almost blurted.

Of course Jake being Jake, he didn't let it go. "Not what, Kiene? Full-blooded?" Coming from her, it felt like a punch to the stomach. "I didn't expect that from you."

"You know I don't care about that." Her tone was quiet.

"What then? If I can track without superhuman abilities, it must be a piece of cake? It isn't. It's still hard, it's still dangerous, even for you over hopped up Anointeds."

"Stop it. You know that's not what I meant." Her temper was back, which was fine with him. Much more comfortable to deal with anyway. She headed toward a darker part of the cellar. "You can be such a jerk, you know that?"

Whatever." Jake followed after her. "Cal and I are tracking this demon so you need to back off."

"I am not backing off."

"Yes. You are."

"Look." Kiene spun around. "I put a lot of effort into tracking all the signs. It's my first solo and I'm not returning without even trying."

"Meaning you don't want to be humiliated in front of your friends."

"Fine. Yes. Whatever." She tossed her head back. "Call me shallow. Call me a suck-up. I don't care, but I am tracking this demon."

Jake swung the shotgun up to rest over his shoulder. The last thing he wanted to do was cause Kiene any embarrassment among the other Anointeds, though he wasn't sure why he even cared about that. "Fine, you can stay. But, sweetheart, we're doing this together." Where he could keep an eye on her. "I'm in charge. You do everything I say." Oh her eyes flared wide at that. Maybe this could be fun after all. "Deal?"

She glared at him. He could practically see the cogs of her mind weighing options. Finally her gaze met his. "Deal."

Nook Kindle All other apps

Review

Reviews are starting to trickle in for The Anointed, book one of The Demon Trackers. This is a great one and makes me smile ear to ear:

An Action Packed Ride--Not to be missed!

Demon Trackers: The Annointed by CC James is an action packed read. You barely have time to catch your breath from one traumatic event before you're hit with the next heart stopping situation. An incredibly fine roller coaster ride from page one to the end.
While the book is aimed at the YA audience, this "very grown up" person found it a super read. Girls are going to go crazy over Cal and Jake, and older females will develop a "thing" for Henry, their father. Young men will see themselves in Cal and Jake, fighting the demons.
The relationship between the brothers is well drawn, and any parent can empathize with the angst Henry experiences when his children's lives are in peril.
CC James has developed a world "peopled" with dreadful, ugly, scary beings. You won't be able to put this one down, and this reviewer can't wait for the next book in the series, Banshee's Cry.
LeeWest