Guest Blog Post – FanArt
Thanks, Nephy, for giving me this chance
to visit and promote my new release, Dangerous
Beauty. I’ll get to that. For now I’d like to talk about fan art.
Authors almost universally love fan art.
I say almost because I’m sure there’s some author out there who despises
rainbows, puppies, happy couples, and fan art. I have yet to meet that author,
though. All of the ones I know are astonished, delighted, and flattered by art
work their fans have created.
I’m a huge fan of fan art. No surprise
there, right? I mean, I go all gooey over my book covers and praise the people
who create them. Dangerous Beauty has
a gorgeous cover by artist Adrian Nicholas, who also did the cover for Captive Heart. One of my sons is a
successful artist and animator whose earliest efforts were based on artists he
loved. As a teen he sent one of his fan art drawings to Bill Watterson, creator
of the Calvin and Hobbes comics, who
wrote back a lovely letter and critique that sealed the kid’s career choice.
Most of the artists who create fan art
are amateurs and most fan art is devoted to visual media such as movies, TV
shows, comics, and video games. That said, some artists are fans of books and
sometimes they create images to go with their favorite
characters or stories.
That’s the fan art I’m talking about today. These artistic fans turn words into
pictures and their work ranges from worshipful to fun to amazing.
Writers often feature artwork created by
fans on their websites or blogs. Why not? We’re proud of them! Fan art is like
a trophy: visible proof of our work having touched someone besides our mothers
or spouses. We certainly share them with our friends: “Look what this person
did! See? Here’s my character!” I shared mine with my dentist. Few things
tickle a writer more than knowing a story reached someone else and moved,
inspired, or provoked them.
Want some examples? I’ll start with one
of my own. Bailey Zweifel, a fan of my romance novel Captive Heart, made me squee like a teen girl at a Bieber concert
when she sent me this picture she had created using Doll Divine,
an online doll-making program. Here are the three female main characters of the
novel—Julissa, Aurelia, and Adora. Bailey captured each woman’s appearance and
personality in her choices of dress and accessories. This is adorable!
Some of you may know M.A. Church
and her novel, The Harvest. (Hurry up
and get that novel published, M!) Here is one fan’s interpretation of Keyno,
the feline alien. What a character looks like is one of those things where
every fan will have a unique vision. Michelle’s opinion? “I think having a fan take time to do a drawing for an author is
the ultimate compliment!”
Isabelle Rowan
author of the novel, INK, uses her
fan art to help promote her novels. “I have some character pics from INK that an ex student of mine drew. I
made them into postcards I loved them so much.” The artist is Benson Noynay and
you can see more of his work on Isabelle’s website. Here’s his character sketch
of Dominic, INK’s centurion/vampire.
DJ
Serani’s new book, Choices, inspired this vision of her characters Bathasar and Teman
by the artist Rubiconn.
How gorgeous is that?
Andrea
Speed was delighted when a fan tweeted
her with this image inspired by her Infected
series. This one is from Infected: Prey.
The artist, Raelynn,
is a dedicated fan artist.
Chris
T. Kat, author of Secret Chemistry, shares this gorgeous pic drawn by the artist Mondriana
for Chris’ story, “Fundamental Changes.” She loves it so much she uses it as
her avatar on some sites.
Christopher “Kit” Moss,
whose novel Frankie and Johnny will
be released in August by Dreamspinner, shared images inspired by the book and
characters. Here’s artist Linda Laaksonen’s
concept of Frankie:
Fan art also can convey setting or other
elements of the book, as Laaksonen does here:
Some writers create fan art for other
writers whose books they read and love. Not only is Pinkie Rae Parker
a talented writer (“Curtain Calls”), here’s her illustration of Harry Dresden
from the Dresden Files, written by
Jim Butcher. Pinkie’s fan art is well-known in writer circles.
WARNING.
Some fan art—like fan fiction—veers into adult territory. Click away now if you
don’t want to be ambushed by the following examples, because they’re definitely
NSFW.
Adrienne
Wilder, author of City of Dragons, writes red hot M/M urban fantasy and paranormal
romance. No wonder her work inspires images like these. Or is it that her work
inspires her writing? Because—that’s right—Adrienne is also the artist. “I
do it to help me to ‘see’ characters sometimes,” she says. Judging by
these pics, she sees her characters just fine!
Here are Joey and Taylor from Adrienne’s
novel, Skin Deep.
Here is another of Adrienne’s pics, this
time of Jericho and Vesh, from Worth.
* * * *
Hope you enjoyed my little tour. I don’t
have any fan art from Dangerous Beauty
(yet), but here’s the blurb.
Blurb:
Once the Kordeun family ruled Sebboy…now
they are imperial captives of the Uttoran Emperor. Devout and studious, Endre
Kordeun loves his family and will do anything to free them, even if that means
pretending he’s gay so he can pass messages to his father’s shady allies. With
his golden good looks and a beautiful male courtesan posing as his lover, Endre
finds Uttor’s decadent society more than willing to believe his ruse.
But when a passionate kiss from a dark,
gorgeous man unlocks feelings Endre had been hiding even from himself, lies
start to unravel. Arshad, prince of Tabar, is Endre’s match in every
way…including a shared love for science and celestial mechanics. Going forward
with his charade will be dangerous, and not only because he might be
discovered. In that event, even his own father would kill him. How much is
Endre willing to risk for love?
And a really short (but juicy) excerpt:
He lay on a rug in a room at the center
of the universe. Arshad kissed his belly, hair tickling his skin, then moved to
his thigh where it rested against that broad dark chest. Endre swallowed a moan
as the discomfort in his ass turned slowly to pleasure, his lover’s finger
moving deeper, curving and brushing the core of his body to create sensations
that were strange but no longer painful.
“I have you now, princeling,” his dark
prince taunted.
This time the turning of his finger
brushed something deep and hot, releasing a burst of pleasure that left him
gasping. His cock quivered and half-filled with blood.
“God, Arshad—”
“You like that? Let’s do it again.”
He did it again. And again. And again.
Endre rolled his pelvis, pushing back onto Arshad’s finger, begging more.
Arshad kept hooking his finger inside, finding that place until he wanted to
scream.
“Please. I want you inside me.”
Those full lips passed lightly atop his
and he sought them hungrily.
“I can tell.”
* * * *
Thanks, Nephy for letting stop by to talk
about my love for fan art and introduce my new book! Here’s more information if
anyone should wish to contact me.
My Goodreads author
page.
What an amazing collection of fan art, Tali. Thank you so much for sharing and for letting me be involved in the promotion of your book.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE fan of fan art and particularly of one wonderful artist who captures my own characters so well and so excitingly. I squee like a teenager whenever I see one of her depictions, especially of my darling Silver. You'll see them all over my blog.
I can't let a post on fan art go by without including some of her work.
Here are two of my favourites
A great posts with absolutely fantastic artwork. Thank you, Tali, for compiling the post and thank you, Nephy, for posting it!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit this was the most fun I've ever had writing a guest blog. :)
DeleteYummy. Thanks, both of you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by the gallery. :)
DeleteThanks to you :) This was such a fun post to work with. Thank you Tali you can come by anytime :)
DeleteGreat post and gorgeous artwork :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. The artists did all the work. :)
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