Hi readergirlz!
I'm super thrilled to be celebrating the release of my 12th (!) original novel, Amity, a haunted house story told in two separate perspectives, ten years apart. Diva Melissa was gracious enough to offer up a Cover Story slot to me, so here we go!
1. Did you have an idea in mind for your cover as you were proposing/writing the book? If so, what did it look like?
I think we all always knew Amity was going to have an image of a haunted house on the cover. It’s iconic and classic for a reason, right? We may have tossed around the idea of focusing in on one aspect of a house – a window, a door – or even doing something more modern and all type, but I don’t think any of those concepts were seriously on the table.
2. Did your publisher ask for your input on the cover design before the art dept started working? If so, what input did you give?
My editor at the time showed me an early mock-up with the image they were planning to use. But at the time, she did make it clear that everyone in-house was very enthusiastic about the image, which, as I know from my own days on the editorial side of the desk, is pretty crucial and not to be ignored.
3. What did you think the first time you saw the original version of your cover?
I liked the general idea and I really liked that Egmont was truly capturing that straightforward, “HORROR novel,” genre vibe. My main concern was only that the house itself looked nothing like the building that’s described in the book, or the original “Amityville” house. Specifically the half-moon windows are mentioned a whole bunch in the book, and are familiar to anyone who knows anything about the original Amityville crime. But I can appreciate that a strong cover can often outweigh the value of a literal cover. We talked a bit about how the house in the mock-up looked small and not quite menacing enough, and my editor assured me it would be tweaked.
And it was! And it’s amazing and perfect!
As you can see, the final cover is the same original image. But with the color adjusted, a new font, and lots of creepy blood dripped, the terror factor is amped way, way up. I could seriously marry this new final cover, and I’ve been thrilled with readers’ reactions to it! The general consensus seems to be that it’s insanely scary. Which to me translates to: mission accomplished!
Take it away, Jeremy:
My debut novel, Amity, is on the streets...
One of the over-arching themes in Amity is anonymity--specifically, the potential for abuse thereof in online worlds.
In general, the ability to say what you feel in a global forum without fear of personal reprisal is a powerful thing with huge, Peter Parker-esque clauses hidden in the fine print: use it for good or be confident that somebody will eventually swoop down on your favorite online haunts and take that anonymity away.
The internet is rife with examples of free-range anonymous trolling, particularly the chan-style forums.
Imagine Lord of the Flies, but the island inhabitants are cloaked head-to-toe, unidentifiable by size, gender, or age. And there are tens, hundreds of thousands of them lurking about at any given time.
The users have the default option of being anonymous, and that insulation breeds interesting results. Intellectuals become perverts, teenage introverts become leaders, cops share their snuff fantasies, conservative professionals show skin to strangers. The walls are painted with racist jokes and hateful pranks.
Creativity soars. Bits of artistic brilliance often float in unremarkable slime.
Sometimes good deeds are done from behind the wall--recently, thousands of the anonymous users from 4chan called a 95 year old WWII veteran to wish him a happy birthday, much to his delight. They are also known for peaceful protests of the Church of Scientology (and peaceful protests are always a good thing, both the Peaceful part and the Protest part).
But, when a crowd of that size is both self-regulated and anonymous, you can't expect that they will behave themselves often. The collective id tends to take over. And those stories aren't hard to find.
Amity takes the concept of a chan-style website (I feel compelled to repeat that the fictitious website Amity is not, in fact, 4chan, although 4chan did serve as an inspiration) and takes it to darker places. The worst of 4chan is comparable to the most innocuous parts of Amity. It's a kind of thought-experiment: what is the logical conclusion of that world, drawn as a characterization of itself?
The results were, as you'll find in the book, creepy.
Anyway...Amity is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon, and in most other electronic formats at Smashwords. Check out my website for details: http://jeremydbrooks.com .
And thanks to Mr. Polson for giving me a day on his blog!
Okay, so here are five bits and pieces I've enjoyed 'round the next this week for your weekend reading pleasure:
1. Jeremy D. Brooks ballsy manifesto and cover art for his novel, Amity. Check it out. (ready to download at Smashwords...other formats pending) Okay, so that was more than one thing. Sue me.
2. Not that I like the problem, but Robert Swartwood gives thoughtful insight to the Problem of Prolificity. Some sad truths in there, folks. Mr. Swartwood's perspective is always welcome.
3. All 70+ episodes of Axe Cop at www.axecop.com. Oh, YES.
4. Norman Partridge's thoughtful and revealing essay about the publication of his first novel, "The Care and Feeding of First Novels".
5. And finally, something to chew on: "Facebook users 'are insecure, narcissistic and have low self-esteem". Solid research? Maybe not. Thought provoking? Sure.
Have a great weekend, world.
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Thanks Aaron!
The internet can be a scary place, but I try to concentrate on the good of it.
Excellent post! Do you have any idea if Amity will be available on Amazon UK?
Cate: very much so...I dug up some pretty bad stuff researching this book.
Michael: yes it is! Paperback selling for about £9, ebook for £3.44
Yeah, that whole collective think thing can be incredibly disturbing. Oh, the damage it can do!