Update on the Book Cover Front

Yes, Adhesives is spelled wrong.

Okay, a new post in the book cover competition. Lissa has helped me decide that the above is the best from the previous post. Now thing is, it doesn't look that great shrunken, like in icon format for when somebody was looking at on online bookshop, so I created another that looks nice small. I went font crazy, now let me know if ya like it. I'm sure I'll come up with yet another one.

Okay so out of these two which one, Sasha big or small (Sasha is the girl) or are we still leaning towards the one on top even though it doesn't look so hot small?

Well, back to Photoshop to keep playing around.

If you're curious here's the description I've come up with:

Molly Pearson likes Elias Bickler. She doesn’t care that he’s short, or has a speech disorder, or also happens to be the son of her alcoholic father’s girlfriend. Problem is, they get in an embarrassing fight that ends up on the internet and she never wants to see him again, but then he comes up with a pretty clever apology involving her webcomic that just might give him a second chance.

With the help of her army of nerd followers, Molly and Elias raise awareness of her comic by way of a couple slightly illegal measures and all the while Elias helps Molly unleash her superbness and see all that’s possible. She just hopes she can do the same for him, so he’ll see that everybody deserves to be heard.

Yet another update. To the right is pretty much the same as above, but I moved the image to the left, which exposes the S.S, which are initials related to the story. I'm thinking the the first one at the top of the post is out, I'm leaning towards the latest one here, but yet again: What do you think?

Book Cover I Made

Hi my friends, after my short ramble I'm going to need your opinion. I was thinking about self publishing again with my young adult novel Permanent Adhesives. Sad to say, but I did not advance in ABNA, but I'm still going to press on. I wrote my query letter and even sent it to somebody already and made a list of others I'm going to query, but the process takes soooo long, so I was thinking while I wait, perhaps self-publishing it. 

I started getting excited and made a cover, which I like, but my concern is: Does it look to much like cow spots?

I think the letters of the word PERMANENT look cool, like how it looks like it is cut out, with the images (letter filling) underneath (which is a pile of black and white stickers), but does the filling look like cow? Should I change the color of the letter filling, or upon further inspection do you get that it is not cow spots?

I would love your opinion!!!!!!

Cuz I see cow.

Perhaps change the image of the letter filling to grey and white, or the same color the word ADHESIVES is in, or maybe a nice spring green and white, or just leave it.

Oh, wait I have a couple other options!

Okay, now we also have this one.

And this one. I like this because it seems very comic booky and my character draws a comic, but it might be too busy, okay, no, it is too busy.

So, what do we all think?

I might be now leaning towards the second one.

Sunday Sketches and Reginald

Reginald's Room

Hello and Happy Sunday Sketches my friends! And if ya didn't guess, Reginald is the bird.

Sunday Sketches

Since there was a multitude of Charles(es?) in Mr. Rosenbaum's Eighth grade class, nicknames
and initials were instituted.

Happy Sunday! How are all my Sunday Sketches friends doing? 

Charles P. is the friend of Sharonda Crowley (click HERE if you're all like Who the heck is Sharonda Crowley?), they're in the same class together, so is Curtis Wu (I put him up the post before this one). 

Check out more Sunday sketches HERE!

Oh, let me explain a little. No, Charlotte is not really a Charles, but she insists on being called Charlie, making it a little more confusing and also a little more difficult in the nicknaming of all the other Charles(es?)/Charlies in class.

Does anybody know the plural of Charles?

Curtis Wu

Curtis was a hypochondriac and was
constantly going to the school nurse's office.

I Love Young Adult Novels

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends! I’m not a real mushy gushy lovey dovey kinda person, but one thing I really do love is books! Since I’ve been writing some young adult fiction I’ve dove head first into reading it also. Just today I picked up a signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. So far this past year I have read all John Green novels and an assortment by other authors.

Here’s a few that I read:

Sweethearts-Sara Zarr

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children-Ransom Riggs

Twisted-Laurie Halse Anderson

Lola and the Boy Next Door-Stephanie Perkins

Sean Griswold’s Head-Lindsey Leavitt

Anya’s Ghost-Vera Brosgol

Deadline-Chris Cruthcer

Paper Towns-John Green

Looking for Alaska-John Green

An Abundance of Katherines-John Green

Will Grayson, Will Grayson-John Green & David Levithan

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares-Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins

The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky (this was actually a re-read for like the millionth time).

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder-Julie Halpern

There’s more, but I don’t want to go on forever. I also dove into middle grade and just to act like I’m all mature like I read some adult novels in there as well. Right now I'm reading Mockingjay, than after that is I am Number Four and the The Fault in Our Stars, but I have a feeling The Fault in Our Stars might make the other two wait cuz I love me some John Green.

My Life According to Belle and Sebastian

I did this years ago on Facebook and recently was digging through my account and found it under the notes section, I don't know if anybody ever saw it, so I'm going to post it here cuz it's a pretty fun game. You should try it out. I used the band Belle and Sebastian, a band in which I love. They make songs you can just chill and smile to.

Here's the game: Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It seems to work best when you pick emo indie artists with large repertoires. Repost as "my life according to (band name)" 
My Life According to Belle and Sebastian 
By: Melissa T. Liban

Pick Your Artist: 
Belle and Sebastian 

Are you a male or female? 
I’m a Cuckoo 

Describe yourself: 
I Fought in a War 

How do you feel? 
She’s Losing It 

Describe where you currently live: 
Asleep on a Sunbeam 

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? 
Dirty Dream Number Two 

Your favorite form of transportation: 
Dog on Wheels 

Your best friend is? 
Lazy Line Painter Jane 

You and your best friends are: 
Wrapped up in Books 

What's the weather like? 
Winter Wooksie 

What's your favorite time? 
A Summer Wasting 

What is life to you? 
A Century of Fakers 

Your last relationship: 
My Wandering Days are Over 

Your fear: 
Legal Man 

What is the best advice you have to give? 
It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career 

Thought for the Day: 
If You Find Yourself Caught in Love 

How I would like to die: 
Like Dylan in the Movies 

My soul's present condition: 
If Your Feeling Sinister 

My motto: 
This is Just a Modern Rock Song

Now it's your turn!

Creative Tuesday: Patterns

Hello Creative Tuesday! My computer is fixed just in time to make some patters! Yeah, hello, I LOVE making patterns!

A nice simple pattern (if ya click on it it will make it larger
and less blurry).

If you click on this to make it larger
it will less blurry.

I kept my pattern pretty simple with just the profile of my friend Sasha Santiago. I wanted to work with layers, so that's why and what I did.

Here's the Sasha I drew and worked with.

I then added in some background color and some drop shadows and patterned it up.

Sasha Santiago hasn't been around here in a long time. Originally I started a webcomic with her. I think I got about four pages in, when my dedication waned and I moved on to other things. She's now a character that my main character from my young adult novel draws.

She also got a little bit of a revamp in the looks department and in the patterns I made her look like a sticker cuz stickers (I was going for a pile of scattered stickers in the second one, hopefully it looks like that) are involved in my story Permanent Adhesives. I can't get my story out of my head, I think cuz I've been working on it for so long, so now I'm producing art with elements from it. I do apologize if you're sick of hearing about it, but I used one of the results from this weeks Creative Tuesday on one of the pages on my website, so thanks CT (also used it for my Twitter background).

For more fantastic patterns check out Creative Tuesday!

Sunday Sketches and Permanent Adhesives

Hello my friends! My computer is finally back from the dead! Today for Sunday Sketches I did some hand lettering. Permanent Adhesives is the name of my young adult novel that I entered in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It was in the middle of my final editing of my story when my computer decided to go berserk on me, luckily I have a wonderful husband who brought it back from the dead.

Check out more Sunday Sketches at Sophia Blog!