My copies of Eye of the Moonrat with the new cover came in today. I let out a very manly squee.
Also I created a new page that compiles a list of the tweets from @lennyswears. I plan on updating it once a month. Check it! Cool, eh?
AND THE WINNERS ARE!
“Grand Prize” Moira Geary from Facebook with her Eye of the Moonrat Amazon review! She receives one signed copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original rare alternate lettering scheme and a deck of Universal Cards.
“First Prize” Somgirl From Twitter with her Bowl of Souls tweet! She receives a signed copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the new Renu cover and deck of Universal Cards.
“Second Prize” Tony Dunn from Facebook with his Facebook share! He receives a signed copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering.
Also receiving a signed deck of Universal cards are:
Ricky from the Trevor H. Cooley website with his family share.
TimF. from the Trevor H. Cooley website with his website comments.
Dany from Facebook With his goodreads review of Messenger of the Dark Prophet
Winners, Please message me with your address so that I can send you your prizes and thank you all who participated!
Please everyone keep spreading the word to your friends in any way you can think of and let us know how you did it. Thanks!
Trevor H. Cooley
So my wonderful son came up to us at 8 pm on Thursday night and said, “Uh, I just remembered something.”
“Let me guess. You have homework you forgot to do?” I said. He had swore to us he had no schoolwork that day. He wanted to play video games after school.
“Not homework . . . uh, it’s more like a project.”
“And when is it due?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Oh you are so grounded from video games for a week. What was it? Better not be a diorama.”
“It’s more like a model . . .”
It was totally a diorama. He had known for a week and kept putting it off. We told him that there was no way we were scrambling to put a diorama together overnight. This was his project, not ours.
He had to face the music the next day and his teacher told him he could turn it in on Monday and receive a reduced grade. The end result was he had to put this thing together over the weekend. The subject? Pick a book that you like that you would like to see made as a movie, then make a diorama of what it would look like.
His idea was one that made me proud. He wants a movie made of my books. So he chose the scene from the cover of Eye of the Moonrat. Here’s how it turned out.
I know. We should have taken a better picture before he left for school. The flash takes away some of the coolness of the scene.
Here’s what we did. I printed multiple copies of Renu’s beautiful cover art for book one and gave him some scissors, glue and tape. He cut out the moonrats and glued them to cardboard stands then reproduced the cover scene, making it a 3d model. I was quite happy with his final product. Hope the teacher likes it.
What do you think?
It is the Final Push for the Bowl of Souls SPREAD THE WORD CONTEST! January is almost over. We will be drawing the prize winners on Thursday evening. The rules and prizes are below.
All who enter get Chapter One of WAR of STARDEON and a handsome desktop background featuring the original covers of the first three books and a desktop background featuring the new full cover artwork of the Eye of the Moonrat.
Grand prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme. There were only fifteen of these printed before the lettering was changed so they are very rare. I will personalize the signature if you wish. Also included will be a signed deck of Universal Cards with instructions on playing the Game of Elements or Unity.
First Prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the new cover by Renu. Plus a signed Universal deck
Second Prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme.
Two additional prizes: A signed deck of Universal playing cards.
Entry Rules are still as follows: Share the word about the Bowl of Souls books in the month of January. This includes Amazon reviews, Written reviews on Goodreads, posting about the books on forums, blogs, twitter. even just telling a friend or family member that bought the book thereafter.
Then come to either the Facebook Page or Blog and leave a post telling me about your share. Please leave a link to your post if possible. I will then send you the free goodies and enter you into the prize drawing to be held January 31st.
Each DIFFERENT WAY you share the book counts as an additional entry. You can get your name into the hat as many times as you wish and this will increase your chances to win. Please do. The point of this contest is just to let people know the books exist. I don’t have a publishing company with an advertising wing to spread the word for me. I am dependent on my readers. (Who are the best out there and have FANTASTIC taste in literature by the way.)
Thank you, Trevor H. Cooley
I was interviewed by my local news station today. They were interested in doing a piece on how I was able to self publish my books as a way to make extra money for my family during tough times.
Here is a link to the video:
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/16611/3915272
By the way, that isn’t really me. It’s my fat stunt double. He’s the one that does the pratfalls while shoveling the driveway too. . . . . . okay, it’s me.
So in my last post, I told you about the new cover of Eye of the Moonrat by the incomparable Renu Sharma,
She updated the lettering on the cover as well as providing the artwork. I asked her about the lettering on the other books and she felt that they didn’t look quite professional enough. So I went and created new lettering schemes for all three other books in the series so far so that they could match the first one better. Then I updated them on Amazon for Kindle. So here they are in Chronological order:
This is Renu’s work of course, and uses the pattern I tried to follow with the others. On the next one Renu suggested the title in white since the red lettering was harder to see against the black background.
This third one I didn’t have to change as much. Just had to outline the letters manually since the software I use doesn’t do it automatically. I like it. Reminds me of the letters on the old Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books.
The cover for hilt’s pride ended up being my favorite of the three new covers. I took some of the grey from the steam rising off the mountain in the center for the title and made the outline extra thick. It grows on me more each time I see it and I have always loved the pattern in the background and how it looks all worn and smudged.
Please comment and tell me what you think about the new designs. Which is your favorite?
Thanks,
Trevor H. Cooley
P.S. Don’t forget to follow @lennyswears on twitter. New quotes from Lenny’s diary every day.
P.S.S. also don’t forget that the contest is still on until the end of January. Win signed copies of books and decks of Elements cards. Also a free sneak peek at book Four!
Check out the new cover for The Bowl of Souls: Book One Eye of the Moonrat!
The new art is designed by Renu Sharma. You can check out her site at http://www.thedarkrayne.com/
She did a fantastic job and in celebration, I am adding a few items to our January contest!
For every entry, I am also including a desktop background featuring the beautiful cover art Renu made for book one. If you have already entered, you should have this background in your messages already. Let me know if you did not get it.
Also there will be an alternate grand prize that will include a copy of the first book signed with the new cover and a signed deck of universal cards! I am ordering some of the new books today.
So get in your entries! Spread the word in new and different ways. We have nine days left in the month! See the entry rules on our last post here
Also the cover has been updated for the print edition as well and the price has been reduced to 11.99
In fact, I have reduced the prices on all the print edition books, so go to Amazon and get you one!
There is more news to be had as well. We are looking to upgrade this site and hope to have a store and forum added sometime soon. Subscribe for updates to the world of the Bowl of Souls. Any news on the release of Book Four: The War of Stardeon will be announced here. Thanks,
Trevor H. Cooley
Howdy, folks. At the beginning of the month, we started a contest here and on the Facebook page where all readers that enter receive a free preview of The Bowl of Souls: Book Four, WAR of STARDEON.
It has been quite a success and the entries were piling up so I added a few more prizes. To recap, here they are:
All who enter get Chapter One of WAR of STARDEON and a handsome desktop background featuring the covers of the first three books.
Grand prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme. There were only fifteen of these printed before the lettering was changed so they are very rare. I will personalize the signature if you wish. Also included will be a signed deck of Universal Cards with instructions on playing the Game of Elements or Unity.
Second Prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme.
Two additional prizes: A signed deck of Universal playing cards.
Also added today at a whim, a final MYSTERY PRIZE.
Entry Rules are still as follows: Share the word about the Bowl of Souls books in the month of January. This includes Amazon reviews, Written reviews on Goodreads, posting about the books on forums, blogs, twitter. even just telling a friend or family member that bought the book thereafter.
Then come to either the Facebook Page or Blog and leave a post telling me about your share. Please leave a link to your post if possible. I will then send you the free goodies and enter you into the prize drawing to be held January 30th.
Each DIFFERENT WAY you share the book counts as an additional entry. You can get your name into the hat as many times as you wish and this will increase your chances to win. Please do. The point of this contest is just to let people know the books exist. I don’t have a publishing company with an advertizing wing to spread the word for me. I am dependent on my readers. (Who are the best out there and have FANTASTIC taste in literature by the way.)
Also: LENNY SWEARS
Lenny is on Twitter and talkin’ up a storm Follow him at @lennyswears .
Here is a sample of his twitter bluster:
1/16
Dag-gum blasted rockbiter!
Some corn-jigger tried to pass me some fake coins today. Broke his gall-durn arm!
If’n yer stew don’t make you regret you was born the next mornin’, it weren’t made by a Firegobbler!
Blasted boot’s got a dag-gum hole it it. What the? That dag-blamed Gwyrtha’s done been chewin’ it again!
1/17
Blasted frog-lickin’ rogue horse buried me in my dag-burned sleep again last night. Got dirt in places I’ll never dag-gum find!
Lemme tell you somethin’. Bear meat is tougher’n a gall-durn boot heel.
1/18
Garl-friggin’ nose-bitin’ Half-orc won’t give me a dag-gum break!
You gotta know it’s dag-gum love when a woman chews yer hind end like a cow chewin’ cud.
@lennyswears is updated daily
One of the biggest issues for self published authors is getting the word out about the books. We don’t have an advertising department, we have friends and family and readers. So we came up with a contest to reward readers for raising awareness about the books.
Here is the way the contest works: Simply spread the word about the Bowl of Souls. Everyone who enters will receive a digital goody package and get entered into a prize drawing to be held at the end of January.
How to enter: Tell people about the Bowl of Souls series somewhere online or in public. This can be in the form of a review on Amazon or a comment on a forum, blog, Twitter, fan site, Facebook, whatever. Be creative, any way you help spread the word will be accepted as an entry. (Remember, Eye of the Moonrat is currently only .99.) I will keep this post stickied to the top of the blog page all month long. Once you have spread the word, either post what you did in the comment section of this post, or post your efforts to the Bowl of Souls series timeline on the Facebook Page. Each mention you make on a different site counts as another entry. There are no limits to how many times you can enter. At the end of the month, I will put all the entries into a hat and draw a first and second prize winner.
Did I mention there would be prizes?
Prize for entering: Everyone that enters gets the free digital goodie package which includes a free preview chapter of The Bowl of Souls, book four: The War of Stardeon. This is different than the chapter included with Hilt’s Pride. You will also receive a high resolution desktop background of the Bowl of Souls series covers.
First Prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme. There were only fifteen of these printed before the lettering was changed so they are very rare. I will personalize it if you wish. Also included will be a signed deck of Universal Cards with instructions on playing the Game of Elements or Unity.
Second Prize: A signed first edition copy of Eye of the Moonrat with the original alternate lettering scheme.
If we get a lot of entries, I may add more prizes as the month goes on.
Prize drawing January 30th! Thank you to everyone that enters and Good Luck!
Trevor H. Cooley
P.S. to collect your winnings send an email to deathclaw at cableone.net and I will reply with your digital goodie package. If you win one of the main prizes I will get your address and mail it out to you.
UPDATE 1/14/13
I am adding TWO MORE PRIZES to the Contest!
Each one is a signed Universal Deck. These will awarded with the rest on January 30th at the prize drawing. Don’t forget to get your entries in. Add as many as you want to better your chances!
I may add more as the month goes on, so please continue to check the page for updates!
I was able to get Hilt’s Pride released a day early on 12/14.
http://www.amazon.com/Hilts-Pride-Souls-Novella-ebook/dp/B00ANZK75K/ref=la_B0083U46CM_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1355593317&sr=1-4
To my surprise when all was said and done, this novella clocked in at over 37,000 words. I love the story and the characters and I hope you do too.
Some early reviews are in and I am enjoying people’s reaction to Beth. Readers are loving her personality and that makes me quite happy because my love for her character is why this story got away from me.
This is a stand alone story and can be read along with or separate from the rest of the series. I also intended it to be a good introduction to the world and my writing style for those people hesitant to start a series. So please feel free to recommend it to all your friends who are fence sitters.
To those of you that are reading this and saying “Hey, where’s book four?” Don’t worry. I am still working on it. Also to help ease the pain I have included a 16 page preview of book four at the end of the novella.
The book is priced at 1.99
Thanks for the support!!
Trevor H. Cooley
