From time to time, I help other authors and publishers with ideas. Some of those brainstorming sessions yield a visual creative piece for application. As Undawnted grows, the missed opportunities of others become integrated in-house.
For instance:
Bent out of Love was a cover design that I formulated to help a struggling writer put his thoughts into a cohesive vision. After waiting a year, I made
Bent Love into an upcoming
Long Form poem.
Bent Love is the opposite of the Black Hearts Club. The Long Form poem is about a man down on his luck, but desperate to save his relationship with the woman he loves.
What would you do for love?
After writing the Black Hearts Club poem, I wanted to have a counterbalance to the "gave up on love" mantra. People change, and so do their feelings. One year, Valentine's Day is the worst day of their life. The next year, it may be their happiest. It's best to be prepared.
As well, to put a decade of
Long Form Poetry into one publication, I am using the year-old
Visions anthology cover design mockup I did. The artwork was not used for the anthology, and was sitting around on the computer gathering dust. So, now it will have a new purpose:
Visionary.
I have two different collections of my poetry. Oracle will have the culmination of my Chapbook poetry; Visionary will house the compendium for the Long Form poems.
I will be adding and revising other poems to fit within these two forms as the year goes on. I wanted my poetry to be individualized. Readers can then take what they want: separate or encyclopedic.
Other additions that have been made are: Samhain, and Shamiscient. I have a horror chapbook that is under reconstruction thanks to a Lulu technical mishap, but I wanted to delve into the spiritual side of the Hero's Journey into the Unknown, as well as just write spiritual/shamanistic poetry. The Long Form poem: Galactic Ride, touched on this subject with much critical acclaim from readers. Therefore, I want to expand on this intriguing subject.
And, to the guy on Twitter a few months ago who made a spectacle out of himself because he hates my cover design work: stuff it. I don't like sexcapades on my book covers. My writing is good, and doesn't need hormones or fluff. If you don't like my covers, then you probably won't like my writing... so, you've saved both of us a trial by fire by walking down another isle in the bookstore.
However, I think my cover designs are innovative, fresh, and have motif-driven visual arts components that enhance my website as well as my writing. I have spent years honing my digital arts craft and until the world ends, I am going to do as much in-house creating as possible.
That is what a gifted polymath does.
2023 looks like a buffet of visual, symbolic, and rhyming delights. I hope you will join me this year as I bring more of my imagination into the realm of the
unpredictable, insatiable, and undeniably... unleashed.
Thank you for visiting Undawnted.
