Toby · Bishop

Maybe you can't judge books by their covers, but book buyers are certainly influenced by them.  Intriguing images, embossing, extras like sparkles and glitter or cutouts all help to attract the reader's eye and encourage them to at least pick up the book and consider it.  There are lots of ideas about what works and what doesn't in getting a reader to buy a book.  As an example, my buddy and best-selling author Mike Shepherd says if there's a gun or a rocket ship, it had better point UP, or nothing doing!

I don't know any writers who haven't bemoaned the lack of control authors have over what goes on the front covers of their novels.  The literature abounds with shockingly inappropriate covers and sometimes perfectly awful, amateurish "art" that hearkens back to the pulp magazines of the thirties and forties.  My favorite bad cover was one for Pamela Sargent's excellent novel about terraforming, Venus of Dreams.  The main character is a serious scientist, and she's shown on the cover stark naked (rear view) except for a tool belt. 

I've been singly fortunate in my covers, with one notable exception (and that one hurt in every way, especially at the cash register!)  I've always been intrigued about how cover artists go about their work. 

John Jude Palencar painted two of my most spectacular covers:

He told me that his wife reads the manuscripts, and he creates the covers according to her book reports.

The artist for The Horsemistress Saga is the talented Allen Douglas.  About these three covers, he says that the art department at Ace wanted quite a different look each time.  He chose a changing aspect for the horse's position to link the covers together, and it's cool to see, now, how he positioned the magnificent Black Seraph, known as Tup, one of the winged horses of Oc:

Allen also shared this bonus with me, a preliminary sketch for the third cover (Airs of Night and Sea):

You can see more of Allen's lovely work at www.allendouglasstudio.com   You can also see the finished covers at www.tobybishop.net

 

For many of you who love horses, this will be a sad story.  One of my young fans alerted me to the roundup of mustangs and burros by the Bureau of Land Management.  You can read a report here:  http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=7356691&ClientType=Printable
about the mistreatment of animals rounded up, possibly illegally, and kept in a facility called Palomino Valley.

Here's a website with suggestions for how horse lovers can help:  http://www.wildhorsefriends.com/

And one more link, from my lovely fan who put together a video that will bring a tear to your eye:  http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=63dae92320c9bb8744ad78&skin_id=801&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Everyone always goes on about “girls and horses,” blah blah blah. I had another writer tell me seriously about how it was all psychosexual transference and stuff (she didn’t like horses). But I think there’s a more important question: What about boys and horses? That is, why aren’t there more horse crazy boys out there?

Toby Bishop:
A lot of work has been done in this area, trying to puzzle out the connection between adolescent girls and horses. The “psychosexual” stuff has pretty much been discounted by every psychological study I could find. In preparing to write The Horsemistress Saga, I read everything I could find on the bond between women and horses (beware of Googling this topic! Lots of porn sites come up!) My own conclusion, after all the reading, and knowing many girls who love horses and riding and all that goes with it, is that girls are attracted to the beauty and the power of their horses. When a woman sits on a horse, she is tall, she is lovely, she is strong, and she is mobile.

We shouldn’t forget, either, the very nature of horses. These big, beautiful creatures are essentially sensitive, easily frightened, and responsive to human beings who understand them. It would be hard not to love horses if you get to know them. And adolescent girls–with all the confusion and turmoil of that age–are drawn, I think, to these affectionate animals who don’t care if you have pimples or a small bust or whatever else a girl might be worried about.

Patrice Sarath: I remember being seven years old and falling flat out in love with horses. When kids are seven, they are so little, so it’s kind of comical looking back, at how there’s this attraction to a creature so big. So here you are with this big animal and you can control it. Plus, they are soft, they smell good, and they respond to you. So I think the power of horses and the power you have over a horse is very attractive.

But the power comes with a twist. In order to achieve power and control over horses, you have to give it up too. Like you say, horses are sensitive, easily frightened, and can hurt you. We think of achieving power as making another creature submit to you, but with horses, it’s a partnership.

I think that in western cultures we don’t teach our boys enough about partnership, but it’s more acceptable for girls. So it’s more difficult for boys nowadays to find that they can have a partnership with an animal, be it horse or dog, that doesn’t involve domination. Which is a shame. I look at my son and think he’d be great as a horseman, but he’s been socialized against it. Well, and he’s thirteen, so it’s a hard age anyway to step outside cultural expectations.

Toby Bishop: My father was the first horse lover in our family. I loved watching him work with his horses, not against them. And they adored him!

Dad’s favorite horse was an enormous sorrel stallion named Red Feather, a real gentle giant. All of us kids treated him like a pet, and he responded by being careful where he put his feet whenever we were around. My mother found my younger brother, at about four, playing underneath this lovely horse’s feet one day, out in the pasture. I mean, right underneath!

My father had not grown up with horses, and so, when he started to acquire them, he found a book to teach him what to do. That book was always lying around in the house, and I suppose Dad was lucky it was such a good one, with an approach that even the gentle horse trainers of today could admire.

For The Horsemistress Saga I studied the videos of a “natural horse trainer” which led to the development of the relationships between the winged horses of the story and the women and girls who fly them. I went to a show where a horse trainer showed his horses “at liberty”–with no tack of any kind–and that was helpful, too. And I shudder at the old western movies (and some recent, ridiculous films) in which they wrench their horses’ heads this way and that, and gallop everywhere. But maybe that’s another discussion!

Patrice Sarath: Your father was a true “gentle” man. I love that story about Red Feather — what a great name, by the way. Perhaps one of your flying horses could wear it in his honor?

It can be done, evidently! Laura and Bruce are proving it.

From the Idaho Statesman: "Six regional authors and one illustrator will participate in the two-day festival, a joint venture of Rediscovered Bookshop of Boise and the regional arm of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

While aspiring children's writers and adult literature buffs will get plenty out of the festival, the first-time event is geared toward young readers as well.

Here's a look at Children's Literature Festival events appropriate for all ages, being held Saturday, April 5, at Rediscovered Bookshop, 7079 Overland Road.

EDWARD TULANE VISITS REDISCOVERED

Edward Tulane, the china rabbit from the award-winning "Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," will make an appearance at 2 p.m.

In Kate DiCamillo's young adult novel, which will be made into a film in 2009, Edward is given to a 10-year-old girl by her grandmother.

After falling overboard from an ocean liner, Edward is caught by a fisherman and learns about love from a succession of owners.

A recorded interview with DiCamillo will be played during Edward's visit.

MASTER STORYTELLER

Ben Kemper, a national champion youth storyteller from Boise, will give a reading at 3:30 p.m.

The teenage Kemper, a Boise High School student, won the "Grand Torchbearer Award" at the 2007 National Youth Storytelling Showcase. He will perform original stories.

AUTHOR EXTRAVAGANZA

All seven of the authors will bring the festival to a close with readings and book signings from 4 to 7 p.m.

Participating in the "Author Extravaganza" will be illustrator Julie Paschkis (Seattle) and authors Kristiana Gregory (Eagle), Gloria Skurzynski (Boise), Judy Cox (Ontario, Ore.), Alma Alexander (Seattle), Toby Bishop (Seattle) and N.D. Wilson (Moscow).

Collectively, the authors have published more than 100 books and won dozens of awards."

You can even pre-order now at Amazon.com!

Our beloved publisher has put up a surprisingly nice website: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/scifi-fantasy/index.html?cmpid=NLC-gen0307&attr=header I mean, really, the old one was sooo-ooo lame.

Hope beloved editor didn't see this post.

Now THIS publisher knows how to do a website, PayPal and everything: http://www.fairwoodpress.com/

Toby's little fantasy is getting lovely reviews, which you can read at http://www.tobybishop.net

Mary Rosenblum's new sf novel is getting great reviews, too, especially from Locus Magazine, no small feat: