⋆.ೃ࿔࿐ྂfaith & fantasy⋆.ೃ࿔࿐ྂ discussion

Yep same.

Bella wrote: "Does anyone know why certain threads (this one, the first thoughts game, and I believe NHIE) always send me to the first place when I click on an update?

I didn't see the Norhtern Lights. Never ha..."

Omg that happens to me too. Idk why. Maybe bc there’s so many comments??

BooksNCrannies wrote: "Did anyone see the Northern Lights last night? My family and I did for the first time ever last night. It was one of the most magnificent and awesome yet almost frightening things I've ever seen!!!..."

I didn't even know you could see them until later today 😭

BooksNCrannies wrote: "Did anyone see the Northern Lights last night? My family and I did for the first time ever last night. It was one of the most magnificent and awesome yet almost frightening things I've ever seen!!!..."

That’s so cool!! I didn’t see it, but I’m glad you did! Sounds beautiful 🤩

Praise God! The works of his hands are so majestic

@Taz—that’s what I have been thinking.

₊‧ ୨୧Mollie_ wrote: "BooksNCrannies wrote: "Did anyone see the Northern Lights last night? My family and I did for the first time ever last night. It was one of the most magnificent and awesome yet almost frightening t..."

That's sad. They were visible here a year or so ago and I never found out until the next afternoon. I was pretty happy to see them this time.

It was too cloudy here to see it.😔

Bummer. My friend Melody (she’s actually on GR. lol) lives in Maine and she posted a video on her WhatsApp status. It was so cool! We couldn’t see any changes in it really. There was just a glow that changed in the same way that a sunset would.

In Maine tho you could see the flickering and changing.

Sharon wrote: "@Taz—that’s what I have been thinking."

It’s annoying :/

As a writer, I study various aspects of writing including modern consumption of books. I'm curious how most of you read your books today: (ebooks, paper, library, Kindle unlimited, etc.)

For me, over the years it has changed. When Kindles were sort of new, I used to insist that I liked the smell of paper. But I got a kindle at some point and started liking the fact that I had a ton of books at my fingertips and could bring tons of books on vacation with me. I liked the way my library let me borrow books on my kindle. But now more time has progressed and a lot of old classics have been updated and changed and I find the kindle copies even change on your devices and it frustrates me. I get frustrated by authors changing the covers of their books and me only remembering the picture when I'm looking for it on my kindle and having to look harder because they changed it and I've had more kids join the reading world and some of them don't like reading on Kindle. We live in the country and not really near a library anymore so that's changed too. So our home library of paper books has begun to grow again. So it's a mixture for me. If I REALLY like it, I'll go for paper immediately. If I think I'll only read it once, I go for Kindle. Or if I want several of my kids to read it at the same time, I'll go for Kindle. As to paper books, I like the sturdy feel of a hardback but I think I prefer the weight of paperback in my hands.

And a second question: What kind of book covers do you like?

I've noticed a recent trend toward what I call "boring" covers. If you like that, that's fine, I'm just curious why? For me, I prefer the covers that tell something of the story on the front. I like to compare my mental picture with the artists' picture. I own probably 90% of the books I own because of the cover. And I'm often frustrated that so many of the free classics on Amazon Kindle have such boring covers. It's harder to get a kid to read or pick a book to read when all the covers look the same. :/ I drew the covers on my own books that I wrote and I know some people hate covers like that, but I made them for me and my kids so I don't really care, but I am curious what draws people to plainer covers. To me the plain covers were kind of like the brown paper bags we had to cover out school text books with back when I was a kid. I hated that too and always decorated mine. :)

So anyway, I'm just curious what you guys think.

I always read the physical copy. Never the online copies, it’s just what I prefer

I hate pictures of ppl’s actual faces on the covers but I love poppy colors and bold fonts. I like silhouettes or things that depict the book or a scene from the book.

Becky wrote: "As a writer, I study various aspects of writing including modern consumption of books. I'm curious how most of you read your books today: (ebooks, paper, library, Kindle unlimited, etc.)

For me, ..."

As a happy owner of hundreds of books, I absolutely have to have a paperback/hard cover in my hands while reading. Most of the time this means I’m carrying an extra bag with a couple of different books inside, but I really don’t mind.

Holding a book makes me feel more cozy. I love the way the pages feel and smell. It puts me in a different frame of mind (one that is relaxing) as opposed to looking at another screen or having another gadget in hand. I’m the type of person that will buy a used book over a new book any day. Old books fascinate me, and no matter what the book is, if I see it’s older than the 1900s, I pick it up. Imagine the life that book has lived! Call me old fashion, or a bit of a romantic, but I have to have my paper back/hardcover books in my hand.


As for the covers of books, I do like an artistic design! But I would prefer it didn’t have any images of the characters as I like to make up their appearance in my own mind. The material of the book cover matters to me also! I prefer flexibound (that kind of leathery material) or hard cover. However, I’m not gonna turn away a soft cover book either lol. A very girly side of me loves the “puffin in bloom” editions of the classics.
The “word cloud classics” all have that great material I love and while their covers may look a little plain, if you look closer, most of them have quotes from the novel and the opening page usually has a beautiful illustration. (:

Well, after getting into books, probably four or five years ago, I only read paper, then I got into dimiand arts, and I would do that for a couple hours a day, so then I started doing adio books, but I've been busy and haven't had to much time for DAs so now I'm back to paper.

Becky wrote: "As a writer, I study various aspects of writing including modern consumption of books. I'm curious how most of you read your books today: (ebooks, paper, library, Kindle unlimited, etc.)

For me, ..."

Paperbacks are my preference, and I love owning as many of my favorites as possible! But I’m also a frequent visitor to the library.😁
I read ebooks, too, but they’re harder for me to enjoy.

My favorite kinds of covers are the ones that show something intriguing or unique about the story!

This is all very interesting to me. I love to see how different it can be. :)

I definitely prefer the physical copy of the book. I think I get enough screen time in without having to read books on a screen as well. I mean there's nothing like feeling the weight of the book in your hands and hearing the pages turn!

I like covers that suggest action or show an important aspect of the story. Boring covers for me are... well, just too boring.

Sooo I’m probably someone who likes “boring covers” but I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about since to me they’re probably not boring. lol. Do you have any examples so I would know what you mean?

I do not like ebooks at all. It hugely takes away from the enjoyment for me. I prefer hardcovers since they’re more solid and heavy. There’s just something about holding a thick hardcover. But I also love paperbacks.

Elisabeth (Bets) wrote: "Sooo I’m probably someone who likes “boring covers” but I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about since to me they’re probably not boring. lol. Do you have any examples so I would know what yo..."

It's really to-each-his-own. ;)

(and like I said, if you like that it's fine, it just doesn't speak to ME as a reader.)

The ones I call boring: I feel like most of the fantasy covers today focus on flashy font with only a sword or a crown or flowers or something and usually on a dark background. Where as when I started reading covers they were like a scene from the book. I read the Dragonbone Chair series at least partly because of Michael Whelan's illustrations on the cover creating a scene in my head that I could identify with.

I used to love reading things like Hardy Boys or Mandie and comparing the scene in my head with the cover to see what they got right or wrong.

A lot of romance type books today are a very simplistic carton figure doing something like sitting at a table. They kind of blend together for me so I feel like I'd forget whatever I was interested in if I was going to read that type. (I don't really, but I don't know how people who do remember which book they wanted to read when all the covers feel the same.) (But I guess this is how it always was with that genre...there's only so many ways you can pose romantically and scantily clothed. hahaha... can you tell this isn't my genre?)

When I was making the covers for my books, I knew that modern fantasy books tend to be more like I said (font and swords or whatever) and I could have gone that route and maybe sold more books but to me, I wanted something that told the reader a little bit more about what they were getting into.

That's what I call "boring": the ones that tell you almost nothing about the story and look a lot like 500 other books in the same style/genre.

Ahhh. Yeah that’s not what I thought you meant by boring. I agree I definitely prefer a scene to that. I also love reading books and then I read something in the book and I’m like “aha! I know what scene the cover is showing now”

By boring I thought you meant more minimalistic. And I don’t mind just simple covers. But yes, I do prefer a scene from the book. Look up Lamplighter Books. I’m interested to hear what you think of those covers. I personally LOVE them.

I don't actually hate a good leather cover either, btw. LOL ;) I like some of those classics with nice covers or simple designs like the Lamplighter books and I like the simplistic look of a bookshelf that's not too colorful or chaotic and given enough money, I'd probably have a bunch of "nice" books and a bunch of "fun covers" and there would probably be some overlap in the contents of those shelves. I just tend to gravitate mostly toward the covers with a scene from the book on them.

(and yes, I enjoy the look of the lamplighter covers. I drool over them often. They are pretty in a classy way.)

Gotcha. I gravitate towards simple “classic” covers or the leather look. I like when the spines are simple since it looks way neater to me.

The covers I DON’T like are the contemporary modern looking ones. I like the classic old fashioned style. lol. I do love a little of fantasy covers. But I hate when they take a classic like Little Women, and slap a modern contemporary style cover on it. Like NO, that doesn’t describe the book at all. lol

I actually gave around 10-15 lamplighter books. I’ve bought some (they’re so expensive 😩) and I’ve gotten some as gifts. My goal is to own them all at some point. 😂

Elisabeth (Bets) wrote: "Gotcha. I gravitate towards simple “classic” covers or the leather look. I like when the spines are simple since it looks way neater to me.

The covers I DON’T like are the contemporary modern loo..."

YES! I can't stand that. It's not like they changed the material on the inside. Don't put jeans on the front of "A Little Princess" and then let me read about her wearing long dresses. I don't understand why anyone would even want to buy that. LOL But there must be a market for it somewhere or they wouldn't do it.4

Elisabeth (Bets) wrote: "I actually gave around 10-15 lamplighter books. I’ve bought some (they’re so expensive 😩) and I’ve gotten some as gifts. My goal is to own them all at some point. 😂"

My kids' homeschool curriculum is heavy on classics and I add things to the list all the time so I've browsed many lists including Lamplighters to drool over them. :) I love the idea of the Lamplighter books but I only have a few of them because they are expensive and harder to find than say, "Little Women".

Yeah you can only get them from the lamplighter website just think.

How old are your children? What curriculum do you use? I’m the oldest in a family of nine and we’re all homeschooled.

Here's the thing about covers. I feel like the "scene from the story" covers make me think it's an older book lol, because, like you said, that's not the way it's usually done now.

I write YA fantasy, and my plan is, whenever I publish, to do some market research, and find what's most popular for my genre and subgenre, because then people will know what they're getting.

I took a self-publishing course back in Feb-Mar, and in the lesson about cover design, the teacher did this thing where she brought up a random cover and asked if you could guess the genre just by the cover, and I did guess most of them correctly.

So, in the end, does it really matter what you prefer? Of course you don't want to hate your cover, but if you're writing say, a YA fantasy, and then you put an illustrated picture of a scene from the book, how many of your target audience are going to actually click on it, let alone buy it?

On another note, those covers tend to be more expensive too. Of course, this doesn't make a difference to you, since you're able to draw your own, but I can't so that's another thing to consider. The font and sword, or crown, or whatever is going on it, can be done with stock images, and is therefore cheaper than custom art.

Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing your choices, but I just wanted to share my thoughts, and if you have any self-publishing tips, they would be appreciated.

Also, I'm not sure what your ideal writing career is. I personally want to be able to support myself off of my writing at some point, and that may not even be your goal, so that makes differences, as well.

As for your first question, my fav is paperbacks, then hardcovers, then eBooks (I usually just read them on Hoopla tho, I don't buy them or have KU), then audiobooks would be last.

Elisabeth (Bets) wrote: "Yeah you can only get them from the lamplighter website just think.

How old are your children? What curriculum do you use? I’m the oldest in a family of nine and we’re all homeschooled."

I have 8 of them ages 17 down to 6. Five girls and 3 boys. :) I use Robinson Curriculum.

Bella wrote: "Here's the thing about covers. I feel like the "scene from the story" covers make me think it's an older book lol, because, like you said, that's not the way it's usually done now.

I write YA fan..."

Yes, I can see that about marketing and research. I didn't care too much what would actually sell. LOL I never wanted to be a writer to support myself. I've wanted to write my whole life but I always knew it wasn't a very lucrative career unless I was willing to write to the general audience and hope to strike it lucky. ;) So I went into this, writing books for me and my kids and I went into self publishing hoping to have an easy way to share my books with family and friends. I expected to sell 2 books and I've actually sold 22 since March when I published them so I did way better than I ever thought I'd do and they review very well in my DM's so I'm pleased with that at least. Hahahaha ;) But really, I did it for my kids to have copies and I gave them the kind of covers they and I would like. In doing so, I snagged some of my younger nieces and nephews and a few of my friends younger kids too. Years ago, when Harry Potter was brand new, I worked with these teeny kids who had just begun reading big, hard books because of Harry Potter and I hoped I'd inspire kids to get back into reading like that so to find that some of my audience is younger than I expected, doesn't bother me because I hoped for that. I am constantly pushing my own kids to read the "hard" books. :) (and, side note, I think my books are probably about as intense or adult as a Harry Potter book, and I think a YA label ranges a little more broadly than people realize sometimes. )

And yes, I can definitely see how stock images would be easier. I actually had to teach myself to draw. I used to play with the stock images on cover creators because I knew I'd never be able to afford a "real" artist but like learning to write, I decided this was a part of the craft I wanted to be able to work with more too so I learned it. :) It's like how some people learn to outline and others write by the seat of their pants. I can see how both work, but you put the time and effort into learning whichever part is going to work for YOU. So for me, I've learned outlining and plotting and pacing and stuff. I've learned drawing for covers... but I have spent barely any thought on marketing and promoting and quake at the thought of book signings. LOL

My dad was a pastor when I was a kid. He was the kind of pastor who would show up when you were in the hospital or come help you put a roof on your house if it needed it. He was very servant hearted and everyone knew that about him. But there are other pastors who know allllll the Greek or Hebrew or others who are super intellectual and read all the time or whatever. I think writing is like that too. We all make a mosaic of different types of styles and choices. :)

I hope your writing goes well. I'm looking forward to seeing what you might produce. :) I love indie books. I love the kind of "untamed" feel of something that hasn't been marketed too specifically. :) I bet it will be great! <3

That’s cool! We’re ages 16 down to 2. But baby number 10 is actually on the way so there will be a 16 year age gap there. As of now there are 5 girls and 4 boys. I’ve never heard of that curriculum. We use mostly Master Books.

Elisabeth (Bets) wrote: "That’s cool! We’re ages 16 down to 2. But baby number 10 is actually on the way so there will be a 16 year age gap there. As of now there are 5 girls and 4 boys. I’ve never heard of that curriculum..."

Robinson Curriculum is lesser known. It's main selling point to me was that it was a one time price for all 12 years and allllllll the kids and it's self taught so I don't have to teach 8 kids 8 subjects each. And at some point we were living in an RV during a move and it was nice to be able to have a kindle full of books, a notebook for writing, and a math book per kid and not have to worry about taking up more space than that.

I would have probably had more kids but #7 was an emergency c-section that ended with a T shaped incision and they told me those types of incisions mean c-sections forever after that since they can rip open during labor. So I had one more and stopped at an even number. LOL

That sounds very handy!

Haha gotcha.

Bella wrote: "Here's the thing about covers. I feel like the "scene from the story" covers make me think it's an older book lol, because, like you said, that's not the way it's usually done now.

I write YA fan..."

Also, yes, I'm willing to answer any questions you have about indie publishing or anything else but I don't know that much. I've been indie published since mid March. But I'm definitely willing to talk about it. I love sharing writing tips and learning from others.

Bella wrote: "As for your first question, my fav is paperbacks, then hardcovers, then eBooks (I usually just read them on Hoopla tho, I don't buy them or have KU), then audiobooks would be last."

This is useful to me for knowing if it would even be worth it to put books on something like Kindle Unlimited. I feel like the tides have shifted away from ebooks and people are buying more paper these days or checking it out from libraries. Over half of the copies I've sold have been paperbacks.

I think it depends a lot on who you're trying to reach. The thing about KU is a lot of people who read mostly on there are more loyal to KU itself than individual authors. or at least that's what I've heard. It kind of depends on your target audience, I guess.

And, yeah, for me, I want to learn what I can about marketing and building my author platform and all that. Plotting... currently I've kind got a weird thing going where I start writing, then plot some, then write some more, then plot some more. It's unusual, but at the moment, it works better for me than either completely plotting or completely pantsing lol.

I agree about the audience of YA being wide, but no matter the person's age, if they're looking for YA, they'll prob notice the covers that look YA more than anything else.

@Becky Do you plan on changing you profile to an author account here on GR? That's what I'm planning to do when I publish. :)

On the topic of families, I'm the oldest of 6.

Bella wrote: "@Becky Do you plan on changing you profile to an author account here on GR? That's what I'm planning to do when I publish. :)"

I probably won't but idk. I probably SHOULD but it's kind of a pain because my husband's email and good reads are the one actually attached to my author account and I don't want to flood his email and stuff but I also don't really want to figure out how to switch it all over to my account so for now I've just left it.

Bella wrote: "I think it depends a lot on who you're trying to reach. The thing about KU is a lot of people who read mostly on there are more loyal to KU itself than individual authors. or at least that's what I..."

Yeah and that's part of my problem. I wrote it for me and my kids/family so I don't really know WHO my target audience is beyond that. LOL It's not sort of typical YA or typical fantasy or typical anything so it's hard to find a market for it anyway.

Bella wrote: "On the topic of families, I'm the oldest of 6."

Big families are fun. :) I was the oldest of 4 and at the time that was the pretty much the largest family I knew about. Now it seems a little more common to find people with 4 or more kids.

I'm the youngest of 5. I would've had two siblings after me but my mom (who was in her mid-40s at the time) lost the babies during the pregnancies. I just turned 18 and my oldest sibling will be turning 31 soon so there's definitely different dynamics to being the youngest! Lol!

My siblings and I were/are homeschooled and used (and still use!) the BJU curriculum for the most part.

I use the present tense because I'm still homeschooled!

BooksNCrannies wrote: "My siblings and I were/are homeschooled and used (and still use!) the BJU curriculum for the most part.

I use the present tense because I'm still homeschooled!"

I was public schooled for everything but Kindergarten (back in the 80's... I'm OLD) but my mom used BJU for Kindergarten and I still remember it. :)

Hey Guys!!

I was talking with Ellie and Taz, and we think the best thing to do to correct the issues we are having with the threads is to archive them and create new threads.

Sooooo, I will be working on creating new threads today. Once they are created, I will lock the original threads to new comments, leave them up until the new ones take off, then archive them. The new threads will have a "2" in front so it shows up as the first thing you see. I will take the 2 off when I archive the original thread.

The threads I have a problem with are: General Chat, ABC Books, and First Thoughts. Does anyone have problems with any of the others?

Never Have I Ever always messes up for me. Or at least, I think, unless I'm remembering wrong. Does anyone else know for sure. I'll go see if I'm able to check it.

Prayer Requests and Introduce Yourself also do that

Hey guys. Here are the finalists for the Realm Awards. You can sign up for the Realm Makers Newsletter to get updates. You can also become a member of the Realmsphere for free with this link(https://realm-makers.mn.co/share/k0sk...)


The Realm Award Finalists



Short Story:

A Dying Phoenix - Karyne Norton

House of Shadows - Hannah Carter

Inversion - Cathy McCrumb

The Little Tire Shop - Abi Lyn Voss

The Mountain of Death - Lincoln Reed

Novella:

A Time to Keep - Teddi Deppner

Crack the Stone - Emily Golus

Shattered Echoes - Hope Jian

The Lost Slipper - Michele Israel Harper

The Reader and the Soulless - L.A. Thornhill

Audiobooks:

Estuary - Lisa Bergren, Narrated by Jorjeana Marie

Prentice Ash - Matt Barron, Narrated by Derek Perkins

Rogue Pursuit - B.L. Dean, Narrated by Sierra Kline

The Orb and the Airship - Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, Narrated by Benjamin Fife

Unleashed - Amber Kirkpatrick, Narrated by Magnus Carlssen

Cover Design:

Almost Paradise - Bryan Timothy Mitchell, Design by Damonza

Bard Tidings - Paul Regnier, Design by Damonza

Enhanced - Candace Kade, Design by Kirk Douponce

Steal Fire from the Gods – Clint Hall, Design by Kirk DouPonce

The Lost King's Daughter - A.D. German, Design by Damonza

Middle Grade:

Lewis: The Wounded - Lauren H. Brandenburg

On Hidden Wings - Adare Elyse

Paintball With Dragons - Hope Bolinger

The Tiny Cyborg - Jill Williamson

Woodencloak - Dawn Ford

Horror/Paranormal/Supernatural

A Fire to Kindle - Daniel Dydek

A Vine to Prune – Daniel Dydek

Almost Paradise - Bryan Timothy Mitchell

Carol of the Rooms – Diana Leagh Matthews

Restoration - C.G. Clark

Science Fiction:

Soul Designers - Dona Watson

Steal Fire from the Gods - Clint Hall

Suspended in the Stars - E.A. Hendryx

The Wayward - Tabitha Caplinger

When Death Is Coming - Jen Woodrum

Fantasy:

Eagles of the Grand Kingdom - Matt Barron

Heart of the Sea - Moriah Chavis

Song of the Selkies - Sarah Pennington

The Looking-Glass Illusion - Sara Ella

Where Darkness Dwells - Andrea Renae

Young Adult:

Bear Knight - James R. Hannibal

Face The Night - Lani Forbes

Heart of the Sea - Moriah Chavis

Of Sea and Smoke - Gillian Bronte Adams

Suspended in the Stars - E.A. Hendryx

Debut:

Heart of the Sea - Moriah Chavis

Steal Fire from the Gods - Clint Hall

Suspended in the Stars - E.A. Hendryx

When Death Is Coming - Jen Woodrum

Where Darkness Dwells - Andrea Renae