Ann's Immaterium

Mostly physical culture but also writing, gaming, and other dark procrastinations

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“The Lost Librarian’s Grave” Horror Anthology

I have been setting the wheels in motion toward starting a small press where I publish speculative fiction in e-book and possibly print formats. The first effort will be a short story anthology with the unlikely title of The Lost Librarian’s Grave. The collection will feature stories of “doom, sorcery and premature burial,” which are themes dear to my Chaos Lady heart.

I put together three front covers this afternoon and thought I’d share them and ask which (if any) works the best. I would very much appreciate your opinion, if you have one! As usual, if you click on an image you’ll see a larger version.

My next moves involve working on another WordPress site specifically dedicated to my publishing efforts and also some writer’s guidelines so I can put the word out to writers, who might be interested in sending me their work. I will smile favorably on science horror, dark fantasy and the like because there are many dark jewels that are horror stories, mined by solitary dwarves, hideous in their waxing greed … tales of loss and murder plucked on harps by spurned lovers wringing out their hearts in songs of revenge and regret, and weird fantasies of sentient, well, you get the idea.

The plan is to release The Lost Librarian’s Grave in late September or early October. Such tales seem apropos for the upcoming season.

Painting-wise, I’ve started putting together the “Paint the Crap You Already Own!” round-up. These round-up’s end up being pretty sizeable so I’ve found the best and most fun way to do them (like publishing as it turns out) is to work a little on them each day.

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32 responses to ““The Lost Librarian’s Grave” Horror Anthology”

  2. Hi Ann:
    For me I like the first and the third cover ideas. Please keep my luddite mind informed as to when the stories are available. It all sounds Very interesting.

    Scott

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  3. Out of any reason I can’t see the covers on the WordPress.com reader. That said all the best with your endeavour. I wrote some sgort fantasy back in my teenage years. Enjoyable, but in the end it didn’t quit stick. I guess I was more drawn to visual art.

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    • Huh, that’s strange you can’t see the pictures. 😦

      I’m glad you enjoyed writing in your teen years. You do quite well with the visual arts, sculpting your own miniatures to a high level and all.

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  9. Very cool idea. I think any of the three covers will work. It makes your choice both harder (they all good) and easier (they are all good!). It is a dark art, but I suspect they might attract subtly different audiences.
    I love the execution of the angel, the way it shares the space with the titles. For me this one points to old school macabre.
    The heavy-metal looking hand is fun in a (schlock) horror sort of way.
    The gargoyle is a great image, perhaps the most unique of the three, but I’m ambivalent on the way the picture is framed separately from the rest of the cover.
    Part of your answer might lie in how you see future books and if/how you plan the series to look.
    Good luck.

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    • Thank you, Dave, for your thoughts; a very interesting reply. I think that in the end what cover I use might depend on what kind of publishable fiction people send me. I’m leaning toward going with the gargoyle cover for now as my work-in-progress cover but being open to changing it once I see the direction where the anthology is going.

      I made a few more versions of the gargoyle cover where I did some tweaks here and there. I think I’ll put them up soon.

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    • Thank you, I appreciate your opinion. I think the gargoyle is shaping up to be the most popular of the three. It was funny, my husband, who also favored the gargoyle said, “I bet everyone goes for the zombie hand.” 🙂

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  11. Hope this new venture goes well Ann, as for the covers I think the Angel works best with the title, as you could see that as a fitting tombstone for a librarian, the centre one reminds me of the Zombie Flesh eaters cover, the Gargoyle could work for a anthology called Cardinal sin though

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    • Thank you, Dave. I hope so too! 🙂

      The angel one is my personal favorite because I think the angel is pretty but the sense I’m getting from people is that the gargoyle one is the way to go of the options I’ve presented. I do like your idea about another anthology though. “Cardinal Sin” isn’t bad. What do you think of “A Murder of Angels”? Maybe I could shop in some crows or something.

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  12. I like the first (angel statue – grave connection), but the last (gargoyle, lizard) stands out as more evocative to me. The last could be a grave ornament, rust stains resemble blood, and the two together are unusual and could be a link to books/literature and thus the librarian as well as dark fantasy/horror. Gravestones, I believe, are an overused image, and while the hand & moonlight are horror symbols I’d be expecting zombie stories. Now, if only I wrote dark fantasy! 🙂

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    • Thank you, Tarmor, you make some good points. You are right, you “can’t swing a dead cat without hitting 10 of things,” to quote a story I just finished reading though the reference was toward English adjunct professors instead of gravestones but the idea is the same. I do like the angel statue though because it is pretty but the sense I’m getting in general, both on and offline is that people agree with you about the gargoyle.

      Too bad you don’t write dark fantasy. Are you a writer of other subjects, dark or otherwise? Besides your blog of course.

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    • That is a great idea and I’m going to make a note to remember that. I think it would work in a book where some of the stories are funny or tongue-in-cheek. Maybe the hand instead of a book could hold up a tablet or phone with the book cover displayed on it? Just because you are buried alive or an undead or both or whatever that is no reason/barrier to keeping up with technology!

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    • Thank you, I’m glad you like them and thank you too for your opinion. I think it is supposed to be a gargoyle. The rusty lizard and the stains on the stone interested me as much or maybe more than the gargoyle.

      I noticed after I posted this page that the angel still had a purple background, which was a side effect of the various filters and effects I was messing around with. I got rid of that part and also noticed that it was hard to read the “edited by” too. So I made the changes and replaced the old angel cover with the new one that is there now.

      I’ll certainly keep posting updates here as the project develops as well as on the new site once I have that up and going.

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