Kody Boye's An Amorous Thing - Cover Artist Needed

I had the pleasure of meeting Kody Boye at this year's Horror Realm convention, and what an amazing guy he is. When I made my first few fiction sales at the age of eighteen, I thought I was some hot new thing, despite not making many connections and fizzling out in the few years afterwards. This guy is something completely different. He's only seventeen and the dude writes like a madman. I've never seen someone this young churn out as much as he has. He's a prolific whirlwind.

I'm glad I'm in his good graces now, because I'll probably be able to mooch off of him later when he's really famous.

His novel Sunrise is about to hit its second printing through The Library of the Living Dead Press, and his new love-themed short story collection, An Amorous Thing, will be out next year through Lame Goat Press. He's got a ton of free fiction floating around online as well, and I urge anyone with an interest in all things horror to check him out.

Right now, though, Kody's looking for a cover artist for Amorous Thing. I'm giving him some of my blog space to pimp out his search, because he's just that damn awesome.

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An Amorous Thing--to be published by Lame Goat Press  in 2010--is a collection of dark fiction revolving around the theme of affection. Whether that be a killer's desire to slice your face open or a lover's will for you to be happy, all revolve around the twisted, oftentimes morbid theme of love. We do crazy things when we care about people--love them, hate them, kill them. Each act is done with love and with purpose.

So, to celebrate the release of this collection, I am holding a cover art contest. Simply enough, people will send covers (front covers for now, but if you get selected, we'll ask for a full front/back/spine) to the head of staff at Lame Goat. From there, he will forward them to me, and I, along with Chris, will review the submissions to see which piece of art would be best suited for the theme. Now, to view full, detailed specifications, you can head on over to his blog  and check out there, or just look below the majority of the post for the general guidelines.



What are the prizes if you happen to create the best and most striking cover?

From Lame Goat...


$25.00

A signed copy of An Amorous Thing upon release

Due to the fact that Lame Goat is fairly new, they can't go a long way with contributions to the people who work with them. As of now, they can't pay for anthology submissions and they pay standard for stuff like this (i.e, my collection.) BUT, because I don't want people to go away empty-handed, and because I want to spur some more interest on, I am going to be collecting prizes and putting them into the pool.

So... the grand prize winner of the twenty-five dollars and a signed copy of the collection will also get these items from me:



Movies:

Leprechaun - Back to Tha Hood

Night of 1000 Cats

Books:

One Door Away From Heaven - Dean Koontz, Hardcover (missing dust jacket)


Bitten - Kelly Armstrong, Paperback


Stolen - Kelly Armstrong, Paperback


Touch the Dark - Karen Chance, Paperback


Born in Death - Nora Roberts writing as J.D Rob, Paperback


The Green Mile - Stephen King, Paperback (slight wear)


Dark Hollow - John Connolly, Paperback (wear)


The Bone Collector - Jeffrey Deaver, Paperback (wear)

Fear not, my friends! This is only the beginning of the prize pool that I want to assemble for the lucky winner of the contest. I'm hoping to assemble some more stuff for you all--more books, movies, and, hopefully, some CDs, though I'd prefer to shy away from them if only because I don't know the music tastes of those I will be buying for. Obviously, the majority of this stuff is used, but does it matter? I know to some it may, but as I've shown, I'm not giving a product away without listing its condition.

 

Anyway, if you're interested in designing a cover and possibly winning the above, please check out Chris Jacobsmeyer's blog post about the contest. I will continue to update everyone on the status of the prize pool and everything else that is going on with this.

Thank you,

~ Kody

CONTEST INFORMATION:

Lame Goat Press is seeking a cover artist for Kody Boye's upcoming collection: An Amorous Thing, to be published sometime in 2010. The chosen artist will receive $25 and a contributor's copy for his/her efforts, along with additional prizes provided by the author himself. Deadline to submit is November 15th, 2009.


Per Mr. Boye, this is what he'd like to see:

Cover with a skeleton in the ground, surrounded by various items that symbolize the various stories in the collection.



A white bell with gold/bronze accents, with a butterfly on the side of it



An origami swan



A diary



A fish skeleton or bowl



A dog tag, broken in half



A piece of lavender (flower or otherwise)



A stuffed giraffe



A paintbrush



Something symbolizing a cat



Mainly, though, I want something that stands out. The minor details might make the cover a little overloaded, so the skeleton in the ground would be a good idea. But, again, it's an idea--if you have a better one, I'd love to hear it. I think something in red would be nice though.

The theme of the anthology revolves around affection, whether it be through horrific or loving means. What this means to you will be what inspires your cover piece. A skeleton is not required, nor are any of the other optional pieces that could be added. We want to see what YOU, the artist, think of the prompt. We want to see YOUR unique version. The idea is provided for a basis of the author's original idea, but is open to interpretation in other ways.

Back-cover Synopsis:


People love.


It’s the way of the world. Hug your neighbor, kiss your lover, hold a hand or bear a child—every action comes with a consequence, and every consequence bears a reaction. In a world where people live, die, and give birth to the cycle of madness, affection is required to live a sane life.

Or so they say.

Take a trip to a cemetery, then fall in love with a bell; ride your bicycle down the street, then have your face cut open by a beautiful woman; fall in love with a monster and play the benevolent god to creatures that cannot understand you. These are amorous things, these acts of violence, and they wouldn’t be committed if they didn’t care about you.

Welcome to a world of madness.

Welcome to a world of affection—a world of amorous things.


Send all queries and subs to Christopher Jacobsmeyer at cjacobsmeyer@msn.com for consideration.





GENERAL PROMOTION:




I am also looking for people interested in helping with general promotion. This would involve:

-- Allowing me to guest blog about one of the stories in your blog (writers/magazines only.) Nine more spots are needed.

-- People interested in reviewing/blurbing the collection (again, blurbing for writers/magazines only.)

-- People willing to promote the collection through links, banners, blog posts, etcetera.

-- Interviews/interviewers are especially needed.

If you are interested in helping, please send an email to kodyboye@q.com.