Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Cover Contest

It's been a while since I gave away a book through my blog, so let's have a contest. And since it's my blog, I'm going to make you work for it. Hah.

I'm going to paste the current blurb for Hal 4 below, and I'd like guesses as to what the finished cover might look like. Bear in mind it's not even a glint in the artist's eye yet, so I don't have inside knowledge and neither does anyone else.

Puzzled? Here's an example: The cover has a vibrant pink tone and Hal, naked to the waist, is giving Clunk a piggy-back. Alongside them, a woman in riding gear has a suggestive grip on a horse whip, and in the background two orcs are squabbling over an author's thigh bone.

(You understand this is wildly exaggerated. I don't actually need to win a copy of my own novel, what with having written it and all.)

Conditions: If nobody comes close, I'll award the free book to the most imaginative entry. If there's more than one apparent winner, I'll pull the winner's name from a hat. Just one winner, in other words, and they'll be announced as soon as I get the finished cover AND get clearance to post it.

Okay, that's the instructions, conditions and the example out the way. Now here's the latest version of the blurb (no, it hasn't been funnied up yet!):

An old rival seeking revenge, a trainee officer thrown into a dangerous investigation and a planet with more bugs than a new operating system ... When Hal and Clunk set out to make a fresh start, this wasn't exactly what they had in mind.

Now Hal must choose: Take on his rival to save his business, or set aside his own problems to help the trainee with her first - and possibly last - investigation.

Whatever he decides, it's No Free Lunch for Hal Spacejock!

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cover features Clunk (on the right) with a butterfly net and a patronised look on his face. The left features our very own Hal, looking panicked and attempting to climb the sheer hull of a spaceship.

N. G. Fainswift said...

Background: endless black space with stars, some galaxies, maybe a space ship or two, a flaming comet, you get the idea...

Middleground: stretching the whole width and height of the galaxy a giant sparkly spider web. Hal is stuck in the middle at an inconvenient angle spread-eagled and helpless, a look of frustration on his face. Around him also on the web in a triangle are the trainee investigator (not helpless, but looking undecided), a planet that looks like it is made of bugs (yes, I know it is possibly supposed to be a computer planet, but I've seen umpteen Sci-Fi covers, and artists sometimes go ballistic and take things literally...), and finally at the third point of the triangle we have a shady looking fellow with a blaster looking like he wants a piece of Hal.

Foreground: Clunk with an expression of "Oh no, here we go again" on his handsome face (eyes screwed up and eyebrows trying to swim their way up under his hat - if Clunk were wearing a hat, that is...). The figures on the net in the middleground are arranged so Clunk doesn't impede the viewers view of them.

Cheers,
Martin

PS: Strangely enough, both foreground and background are English words, but middleground isn't... Hm...

Anonymous said...

The authors name, having now written four books in a series, is larger than the actual book title an takes pride of place at the top of the cover writtern in lurid yellow/gold in embossed lettering, so you can not only see that the work is genius but also feel it.

The main back ground is black with pinprick stars. There is an overly large mosquito in the background which is slightly watermarked out with a bright orange planet at it's centre, sitting about a third down the front page. A space ship is seen sling shotting around the planet with full speed trails to make it look impressive and fast.

Below this are our adventurers. Hal in the centre trying to appear seductive (with an odd sort of smile and one eyebrow raised), while actually looking slovenly in a grease and coffee stained ill fitting green flight suit and coffee cup perched in one hand. He is turned to the left facing a rather attractive however harrassed looking female. She is wearing a plan black flight suit with a gold badge of office on it and a manilla folder in her hands. Clunk is to the right of Hal looking directly at his back. He is carrying his own right arm in his left hand. His face carries a look that suggests that if he didn't like hal so much he would use his own arm (which he is now carrying as they have run out of money to get it repaired again as Hal just bought a new in-console drink warmer to keep his coffee warm) to beat Hal's stupidly smiling face in

marcuswebbie said...

Background: a busy diner: robot waitresses run to and fro carrying plates. it's an old style diner, like those shiny silvery ones you can find in NYC sometimes.

Middleground: a man with bulging muscles holds two massive plasma rifles. he's got tattoos over most of his huge arms. Clunk can be seen on the right side of the page looking nervous but holding two pistols. meanwhile, a woman with blond hair and stunning facial features looks straight at the reader.

Foreground: Hal stands in his red outfit, holding a brown paper bag with "HS" and "LUNCH" written on it. the lower half of the bag is burned away, so only the "LUN" is visible. the burnt portion is smoking. Hal's facial expression is confusion: he's looking at the bag with a puzzled look. and holds a ridiculously bulky blaster (with all manner of digital displays, knobs, buttons, and a WIDE barrel) in his right hand.