Just one word…

For the first time ever (well, since I was in primary school) I have managed to combine my artwork and writing in one book. 

Over the summer, I designed and produced the cover for a new collection of poetry and fiction – the One Word Challenge Anthology. This collection has been written by fellow authors from Writing Magazine’s online forum, ‘Talkback’, and two of my poems and pieces of flash fiction have been published in the e-book today.

And, even better, 10% of the cover price of each e-book sold will go to Medical Detection Dogs, a charity that trains dogs to assist people with life-threatening conditions.

 

In terms of the cover illustration, from the beginning, I wanted to include a selection of words from the One Word Challenge, as these were what inspired the authors of the stories and poems. (If you double-click on the image, you should be able to zoom in to some of them) I started thinking about a suitable vehicle that I could use to carry the text and came up with the idea of a ‘word tree’. I thought of the saying, ‘if walls had ears’ and imagined a tree that could absorb and retain memories of everyone who walked past it, or sat in its shade, over the years.

I produced the image with ink on watercolour paper, photographed it and imported it into Photoshop, where I applied the ‘plastic wrap’ filter. The sepia tone was a result of shadows and reflections of light that occurred naturally when the photo was taken, combined with a bit of experimentation with different Photoshop effects.

All the work featured in the One Word Challenge Anthology was inspired by a monthly one-word prompt, such as ‘shadow’, ‘putrid’, ‘bounce’ and ‘glass’. It’s a great way to exercise your writing muscles.

Brenda Gunning, who coordinated the project, told me, “I am pleased that contributors have been so generous with their poetry and stories and it’s interesting to see how each writer has interpreted the prompts. The One Word Challenge Anthology features a lovely selection of work from both new and established writers who visit the Talkback writing forum.”

Brenda explained, “The collection has been made possible due to a large amount of collaboration between forum members. They have written, produced and marketed the anthology themselves – including, of course, the cover illustration! In addition, thanks go to our publisher, Rosemary, who is also a regular participant in the One Word Challenge.”

Publisher and writer, Rosemary J Kind, of Alfie Dog Fiction, added, “This is an example of how kindred spirits, brought together on an internet forum, can collectively produce a great compilation of poetry & fiction.”

The e-book is currently available from http://alfiedog.com/ebookswhere 10% of every book sold will go to the charity Medical Detection Dogs.

Hopefully, with enough sales of the e-book, the print version will be available soon.

It is also available from Smashwords at  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/253994 

and from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Talkback%20Writers&search-alias=digital-text