Behind the book cover: From The Dust

 

Hey everyone, so while thinking about what might be fun to share with you I realized I have never shown my YA fantasy cover progress and how it came to be.

 

With that said let's get right into it!

 

My illustrator for the book, Ben Simonsen is such a fantastic artist and was so fantastic to work with.

 

The start of the cover design I gave him my ideas and he did the rough sketches of what the cover might look like.

(See if you can tell which one we went with.)

 

 

 

Being an artist myself I was in love with them all but we finally went with the middle cover as it felt powerful which was what I wanted for the book to complement my story.

 

 

The next step was when the sketches became defined and it was that moment you realize your illustrator must be a magician.

 

Now on these next two see If you can spot the difference...

 

 

 

Do you think you found it?... I'll give you another second so don't scroll down if your still bent on finding it.

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Got it yet?

 

Her shoes turn to feet and necklace, these were a tiny detail but knowing I could get as close to my main character as I could I was grateful to Ben for doing exactly that, this cover is my character down to the little details.

 

Ready for another spot the difference?

 

Here we go...

 

 

Now this time I give you less time to find it because I don't want to keep you all day.

 

Her shirt, green to blue. Little once again but it was meant a lot to capture as much of her as we could so the cover was my Alayna with little to no difference from my writing of her.

 

 

Now this was getting close to the end but the last thing that was changed was Runner's mane darkening as once more the horse needed to be close to the same as story.

 

And finally the end result... 

 

 

Nothing is as cool as seeing how the end product looks, its magical and all thanks to working with Ben to make something that was my vision with his expertise and talent to make it fantastic.

 

So with that said I hope you all have a great day and have enjoyed seeing how the cover for "From The Dust" came to be.

 

More book news, art and so much more coming so stay tuned.

 

Anastasia out-

Coloring Contest Winners!

Hey everyone so our winners have been picked and they are...

*drum roll *

Sara Despain on Instagram and Xovinx on DeviantArt!

 

Both are fantastic and Sara got the creative part that looked so cool and Xovinx on the best of the best, but let's be honest they are both awesome!

 

With that said both will be receiving the code to the Kindle copy of "From The Dust!"

 

Now with that all said I have some awesome things coming up for both book and art news so with that said stay awesome guys and keep on chasing your dreams!

 

-A.B out

From The Dust Coloring Contest! *Prizes included*

 (This is the rough sketch of the coloring page, for details on the real one read below.)

 

To get right into this super fun contest going on from January 1ts to 30th 2017 is to celebrate "From The Dust" launching on kindle!  

 

For those who want to go right ahead and buy a copy off amazon or read the sample you can find it here "From The Dust"

 

To get the coloring page you can find it right here on

the "From The Dust" website.

 

Prizes:

With the first weeks of the book being available as a kindle ebook there will be two winners receiving the ebook. Winners of the contest will be chosen by yours truly and my father/manager on January 30th.

One prize for creativity and one for the best of the best. 

(In other words I really love it.)  

 

 

To enter the contest be sure to use the

#dustcoloringcontest

on twitter and Instagram. 

(Especially Instagram.)

 

And with it you can do realistic, watercolor, digital or any kind you want.

Heck I used a simple eight pack of crayons to just play with this one below.

 

 

Best of luck to all of you entering and be sure to share, like and let people know about this contest and please have fun with it, Alayna would want it that way.

 

Can't wait to see your entries and stay awesome people!

 

Anastasia out- 

Ttips on getting Into the writing zone,

 

Hello my friends!

 

So today I wanted to share a few things about what I do to get into a writing zone.

(Mind you what I do may not work for you but hopefully it might spark an idea that helps.)

 

When I sit down to write it's usually between 1:00AM and 3:00AM and If I can get into a story I will write for at least an hour, but we're not hear to talk about how long I write; we're here for what I do to get into a story as I call it.

My first thing that has proven effective to help feeling like writing a particular story or even to help me want to write said story is  music, when I turn it on certain songs remind me of my emotion towards that idea for what I want to become a book.

 

At times that music can influence a feeling for a book and also helps me hone in on what I want the reader to feel. 

I have a whole YouTube playlist that's called book music with songs that for me connect to specific stories I'm working on.

Another thing I do is draw before or even after one of the characters I enjoyed writing that night or saw in my head doing something I have just written or want to write, it gives me a way to focus on the character and what I want to see in the book.

(I know not everyone is an artist but this is just an idea for those who feel so inclined to try it!)

 

 

Another help to getting into the writing zone for me is art by friends of mine/commissioned work; being an artist I get to be around some amazing artist and also get to commission some to do my characters which has really helped me as I keep the art on my walls which both reminds me of the stories I want to share and keeps me reminded of what I really want the world to know about each character.

(This one as a point in case is by a dear friend of mine Katt (Vattukatt on DeviantArt) of my sphinx character Serufim from a story I am writing on and off that will be a book series one day.

Last is sometimes just to give yourself the outdoors, your room or anywhere that you find helps you focus in on your characters and stories. Even just to get away from all my stories at times helps me come back with new vigor to keep going. 

(The shower is another place I think about stories in depth besides going out into nature, don't even try and tell me you don't day dream when your in the shower cuz I know you do too.)

 

Hopefully something above has helped give you an idea for your own writing or artistic endeavors! Best of luck with it all my friends and more book and writing and even some art to come.

Stay tuned!

 

Anastasia out~

In reality the fears we face,

Hello my friends!

 

So today I wanted to talk about something that I think is necessary to being a new author though I don't think authors always talk in depth about it, and that subject is fear.

Before the launch of "From The Dust" I was a mess, not because I think my story was stupid but for the fact I know I'm imperfect as a writer; truth be told I'm dyslexic therefore spelling and grammar in general is quite difficult for me AKA the reason in my youth I gave up believing I could become an author or even write a story for that matter.

 

With the help of one phenomenal teacher in junior high and my firm belief that I am meant to be an author and writer, yet even then I have fear a lot of the time, but the thing is I know my purpose is to do what I love and that is Art and Stories; both require the deepest parts of my soul given to the public for their love or scorn.

And the thing is I know there are still flaws in "From The Dust" yet the one reason I can continue believing in my book is the fact I know that the story is the best it can be; for me I'm a story teller, it's what I've always loved doing in my head is creating stories and no matter how often I have wanted to quit I know deep down I never could.

I love my characters too much, I want the world to resonate with even one sentence I may write that soothes them, helps them or gives them courage to believe even one second longer; and the most terrifying thing about it is that it requires that I overcome my fear of my flaws.

It's quite funny to me at times to think my next book that will be coming out at the end of next year is called "Flawed" and it's the one story that frightens me to give to the world because it holds so much of my soul within it; but that's the thing, if I let fear dictate my life I would quit being an artist, I would never let one soul glance at a sentence of my work and in all honesty I wouldn't be writing this because doing so frightens me.   

 

But what a wonderful thing to stand against fear.

To finish I think of only one quote by Joan of Arc in which she states,

"I was born to do this."

Those are some of the truest words I can think of that explain how I feel; Fear may know me and I it, but the truth is I know I was born to do this even with so many of my own imperfections and no matter what I will push myself to do what I know I was born to do.

So find what you know you were born to do and go after it with every ouch of soul you can spare; and it's okay if it frightens you, in fact that's good because that means it truly is what your meant to be doing.

Anastasia out~

Artist by day and writer by night,

Good day my friends!

 

Some fun art news for me has come up as three illustrations I did of "The Seven Ravens" Grimm fairytale were accepted for publishing! The one above being the first of the three.

 

 

(This is not their final cover yet but to give you an idea)

To snag a copy that not only holds a look at all three of my illustrations but also those of a talented group of other artists along side the Grimm fairytales you can pre-order a copy here.

 

Anyway thanks for stopping by and more story, art and just all around awesome stuff coming soon.

 

Anastasia out~

 

 

A look at the book launch!

Now where I would normally talk your life off about how amazing this was I will let you enjoy the images of how fantastic it was with just a few words at the end.

 

Enjoy my friends.

(That is E. B. Wheeler on the right guys, E. B. Wheeler!)

 

And last but certainly not least thank you to these three wonderful people who helped me out,

 

My best friend who helped with stamps and was the official photographer who took all the awesome photo's above and who helped keep me calm, your the best Char!

My wonderful Mother who is the first proof reader of my books and a huge support to me. <3

And my father who as my agent made this possible to both publish and have the event at The Kings English, which by the way was wonderful to work with them.

 

With all this said above thank you so incredibly much to the friends and family who came out to support me and my dreams, you guys rock!

 

Also for those who want to get their hands on a copy of the book buying it from The King's English helps keep my book on the shelf so be sure to let your friend's, neighbors and heck even the people on the street know From The Dust is finally here!

 

Buy the book here: 

http://www.kingsenglish.com/event/anastasia-bolinder-dust

 

More book fun, author events and art news coming soon. Stay turned.

 

Anastasia out~