Ruthermore's First Cover

05 August 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

Ruthermore Heidigens and the Fifth Planet is the first of David Leyman's Ruthermore Heidigens science fiction novellas. It features the most powerful wizard in the known universe, simply because he's the only wizard in the universe. His powers are real, but are they really of a magical source?

Here's the cover for the book I painted recently in watercolour: 

 

Cover Process for Hags of Teeb

17 June 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books
 

EBB & Folks sent me another task to complete: The cover for another ebook novella titled The Hags of Teeb.

Here is the step-by-step process involved from the first sketch until the finished cover artwork. The first sketch (seen below) was based on the original black and white cover illustration made by David Leyman. I used the general shape of the Hags and the cauldron in the sketch and put them in a cave.

After the sketch was approved, I decided to create two painted elements which would then be composited digitally. Firstly, I painted the cave background element (below). The centre of the cave where the cauldron sat upon a fire was lighted.

 

Cover for Meevo

13 June 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

Meevo is the ebook novella by David Leyman. It is a suitably eerie horror-flavoured science-fiction tale involving an escaped prisoner, the prisoner's hunters and - as we see in the opening scenes - a mutant, in a post-apocalyptic future.

To view the full cover image, click on the thumbnail below.

Meevo is available for purchase on Amazon.com here.

 

Cover for Three's Company

25 May 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

Ebb n Folks's latest short story soon to be published on Amazon as a Kindle download is Three's Company. The publisher called for a lined artwork with clean colours on it. So here it is. "Three" in the story title is the catlike lady seen below. But why has she been with the protagonist all these decades?

Watch for it on Amazon.com soon.

What's with the picture in the middle?
 

Cover for Crater

14 May 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

Ebb & Folks has again given me the assignment to come up with another cover for one of their books. This time it's the novella Crater by David Leyman, now on sale on Amazon.com as an ebook.

That star is Aldebaran, by the way.
 

It's a star and time spanning tale of humans versus a ruthless alien civilisation at war. Check it out at the link above to buy and download it.

 

A Background Element

25 April 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books
 
funeral service

I am working on an ebook cover. The plan is to create separate water colour elements and digitally bring them together for the final artwork.

The above is the background element for the piece.

Stay tuned for the final artwork and the link to the ebook.

 

For The Win Book Review FTW!

15 January 2011 | Hisham | | Books
 

For The WinI had not read one synopsis nor any reviews of Cory Doctorow's novel For The Win when I started reading it. I barely knew what it was going to be about. All I knew was that it was a science fiction novel.

The novel follows the lives for several young people in various locations in the world, from California to Mumbai to Shenzen to Singapore. Oonline gaming (of the Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing kind) is an important part of their lives in one way or another. However, their lives become intertwined with gold farming, greedy and violent thugs, disapproving parents and an indifferent game company.

 

The Interactive Dan Brown Plot Generator

17 September 2009 | Hisham | | Books, Humour, Trawling The Net
 

Do you wish to write and be as successful as bestselling authour of titles such as Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown?

Don't fret, because now you can thanks to Slate.com's The Interactive Dan Brown Plot Generator. All you have to do is to select the city and then the arcane organisation whose devious plot drives the story, and voila! You have an automatically generated plot which can serve as a blurb for your back cover!

I chose "Dallas" for the city, and for the ancient and mysterious organisation I picked the Kiwanis Club:

An ancient puzzle at the heart of Dallas.
A ruthless cult determined to protect it.
A frantic race to uncover the Kiwanis Club's darkest secret.

The Forgotten Mark

When world-famous Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the Carousel Club to analyze a mysterious rune—imprinted on a gold ring lying next to the mangled body of the head docent—he discovers evidence of the unthinkable: the resurgence of the ancient cult of the Quintinistas, a secret branch of the Kiwanis Club that has surfaced from the shadows to carry out its legendary vendetta against its mortal enemy, the Vatican.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed when a messenger from the Quintinistas appears at the Texas Theater to deliver a grim ultimatum: Turn over the archbishop, or one cherub will disappear from the Sistine Chapel every day. With only three days to foil their plot, Langdon joins forces with the statuesque and quick-witted daughter of the murdered docent in a desperate bid to crack the code that will reveal the cult's secret plan.

Embarking on a frantic hunt, Langdon and his companion follow a 800-year-old trail through Dallas's most venerable buildings and historic churches, pursued by a one-eyed assassin the cult has sent to thwart them. What they discover threatens to expose a conspiracy that goes all the way back to Joseph Prance and the very founding of the Kiwanis Club.

That's the plot. Now all I have to do is to write the prose and change Langdon's name. Watch me go to the top of the New York Times bestsellers' list! Woo!

 

A Novel Tale of a Novel Cover

06 May 2008 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

Once upon a time, I went to study on how to repair flying machines.

During my dozens of years (not really, just 2 and a half years) of studying there were many instructors that taught me different aspects of flying machine repairs.

Some taught me metalwork, some taught me electrics, some taught me theory of flight.

One particular person taught me about turbine engines. He was a tall gentleman, he was.

Over the years after I returned home, I've always known from second hand accounts that he's now living in this country. In recent years, I've had the pleasure of meeting up with him again briefly.

Last month, he and his lovely wife came down all the way from Ulu Klang (which is about 10 klicks up the Middle Ring Road) asked me to produce a cover for a science fiction novel that he has written and is about to publish.

So I've used all my turbine engine skills and knowledge* to come up with this following cover:

A cover of a book...

This is only a draft. It might be used, or it might not. But one thing's for sure, I had a lot of fun conjuring up the painting.

Further details about the novel shall be written as entries unto this website when I get more information about it and its upcoming release.

*"...turbine engine skills and knowledge"? Not bloody likely.

 

First a Book Review, Then a Painful Yelp

28 December 2007 | Hisham | | Books, Recent News
 

Here is a blog entry in two parts. The first is a review of a book. The second relates a tale that happens the day after the book had been finished.

But first, I will complain that my car's transmission, when engaged, will squeal like a dog but only for a second.

Now on with the blog entry.

 

October Reading list (aka "The Janet Evanovich Month")

07 November 2007 | sila | | Books
 
One for the Money

Books Read

A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
number9dream by David Mitchell
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
Three to get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich

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Books Bought

A bunch of Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich

 

September Reading List

10 October 2007 | sila | | Books
 

Books Read

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy
Will Write for Shoes by Cathy Yardley
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John LeCarré
Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Books Bought

Will Write for Shoes by Cathy Yardley
A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
The Breads of France by Bernard Clayton, Jr.

 

August Reading List

04 September 2007 | sila | | Books
 
The Name of the Wind

Books Read

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (started in July)
Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman
Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
Company by Max Barry
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Books Bought

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

 

July 2007 Reading

05 August 2007 | sila | | Books
 
Book Image taken from the internet

Books Read:

The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
Little Children by Tom Perrotta
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (started by not finished by end of July)

Books Bought:

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
Furious Observations of a Blue-Eyed Ojibway: Funny You Don’t Look Like One Two Three by Drew Hayden Taylor

 

Wild Ginger

05 May 2006 | sila | | Books
 

Following Perdido Street Station, I went on to read a smaller book called Wild Ginger by Anchee Min. A completely different genre than my previous read, Wild Ginger is the story of a girl growing up in the 60s and 70s during the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

 

Perdido Street Station

03 May 2006 | sila | | Books
 

Since Hisham updated the blog and enabled sort by categories, it became woefully clear that our Books category is sadly lacking. Which is a shame, considering that Hisham and I are both avid readers.

I've decided to start blogging about the books I'm reading as sort of a book review (while trying not to put out too many spoilers). I finished reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville on Sunday. Let's start here, shall we?

 

The Library

07 March 2006 | sila | | Books
 

At the end of last summer, we finally finished our library project. We turned the front room from a room where the books were stacked on the floor to having books sorted out on bookshelves.

OK, let's admit it. Neither Vin nor I are handy enough to actually build our own bookshelves, believe me we have enough trouble trying to assemble anything that has the tag "Some assembly required", so Josh, our friend Jeanne's grandson was commissioned to do the actual building. Here's a little photojournal of the evolution of our library.