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The CHAPTER ICON PROJECT:
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 The story begins--back in the winter of 2006--, when my agent (Bob), calls me at home and states, "The next person you talk to, say yes." I could only assume that she meant, that she was going to put someone on the phone. Well it was someone speaking for Spire Books (a small press), and they ask if I would like to be the editor for a project entitled, "Breach the Hull", and that they also wanted me to do the cover art, based on the idea of a "space battle, being reflected in a space suits visor". Trusting Bob (who I can only hope came up with this idea in the first place), I said "Yes".
Ultimately, I was introduced to a group of authors who were interested in the project; we set out the parameters for submission, and reviewed the stories as they came in. My problem, was how to make this different (at least in appearance) from other works. My first though, was start each chapter with an icon--something akin to a combat units' marking, or divisional crest--so I contacted the authors, and worked with them to design their storys' icon. James Daniel Ross' story was based on his work with Radiation Angle, so he provide his own icon; John G. Hemry, also sent me an icon; with his all I had to do was redraw it and format it.
Each icon, was drawn as a high-rez, black and white, line art, using my 1990s version of CorelDraw, and finalized and formatted using CorelPhotopaint.
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Jack McDevitt
"Cryptic"
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John C. Wright
"Peter Power Armor"
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Mike McPhail
"Wayward Child"
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James Daniel Ross
"Not One Word"
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John C. Wright
"Forgotten Cause"
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Danielle Ackley-McPhail
"In The Dying Light"
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Jack McDevitt
"Black To Move"
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James Chambers
"Killer Eye"
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Jeffrey Lyman
"Compartment Alpha"
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John G. Hemry (a.k.a. Jack Campbell)
"Dead End"
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Bud Sparhawk
"Broadside"
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Lawrence M. Schoen
"Thresher"
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Bud Sparhawk
"Alliance"
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Patrick Thomas
"Dereliction Of Duty"
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Tony Ruggiero
"Perspective"
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C.J. Henderson
"Shore Leave"
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Dedicated to:
Charles G. Weekes
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Special Thanks To:
"Bob"
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(left): The color rendering.
(right): The approval image of the patch.
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The chapter icons were originally not designed to be rendered as "full color" images--but then--Bob had the great idea(r) to make them into patches. So while we (Bob) looked for a company to produce said patches, I started converting the icons to color. Most authors just had me use my own judgment, with only a few changing things around.
Eventually, be went with American Patch, located in Pennsylvania. (www.americanpatch.com) who did a great job in dealing with our color and detail issues (they e-mailed us pictures of the patches for our approval), and amazed us with how quickly they shipped out our 1,000 plus order.
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The LAUNCH PARTY at PHILCON 07:
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Click to Enlarge
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A "Launch Party", is a combination celebration and unvialing for a new book, and ours was at Philcon--Philadelphia Science Fiction Society or PSFS (www.philcon.org)--on November 17th of 2007.
All but one of the authors were in attendance (autograph time) that day (but McDevitt had other plans); the party was run and organized by Danielle (Ackley-) McPhail, with the help of many a friend and contributor. Besides the usual soda and chips, Dani had a large cake made with a picture of the books' cover on it.
The high point of the event was the raffle, made up of a number of items donated by the contributors, and topped off by a professionally frame picture of the cover, surrounded by the patches, each over a plate signed by the author. A mock-up of which can be seen to the left of this text block (by Danielle McPhail), the framing was expertly done by Tina Finan of Peril Paints here in Philly.
As a side note, I spent the party running around in my Stargate costume.
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AWARDS:
On August 17th, 2008, Breach the Hull won for best Anthology in the Dream Realm Awards 2007; while also becoming a finalist in it's best Cover Art category.
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In CONCLUSION:
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Although initiated by Spire Books, (no doubt with the help of a person, and persons well known), when time came to produce the book, Spire "fell off the face of the Earth". So after all that time and effort--and any future possibilities of working with these great (and near-great) authors again--we needed to find the book a new home; one that would produce it in at least a limited edition hardcover (which was the big selling points to many of those involved).
You would think--with those involved in this the project--that finding a new home among the small to medium press would be easy. Nope. It wasn't until we were introduced to Marietta Publishing, (www.mariettapublishing.com) that hope sprang eternal. And now for my sins, I'm working on the next book in the series, "So It Begins", Defending The Future book II (with book III, "By Other Means" on the horizon).
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UPDATE:
In January 2009 AD, Marietta Publishing was no more.
Breach The Hull--in relation to So It Begins--was picked up by Dark Quest Books, for release in late 2009.
The company that printed the hard cover version of BTH is also no more. So if you own one of the one-hundred produced, you now have a limited edition print.
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Materials related to "Breach the Hull" (and "So It Begins"), including story excepts and artwork, can be found on this website in both the WORKS and STORY sections.
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Click image to visit the
"Breach the Hull"
(DTF book I)
Homepage
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Click image to visit the
"So It Begins"
(DTF book II)
Homepage
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Look for "By Other Means (BTH book III)" coming in 2011
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