Hark! The Headless Hero!
As far as I’m concerned, the torso-only cover image serves two purposes. First, it absolves the designer from matching the model’s identifying features to any… Read More »Hark! The Headless Hero!
Blog
Feeling cute today? Paging Mr. DeMille!
It’s cute! It’s quirky! Welcome to extreme-closeup cover art! Sometimes you only get the eyes, and sometimes only the nose, cheekbones, and lips. Sometimes it’s… Read More »Feeling cute today? Paging Mr. DeMille!
Aesthetics: When the Book-Cover Stars Align
Every genre has its aesthetic. Book covers act not only as visual cues for the characters and story within, but they can also preview the… Read More »Aesthetics: When the Book-Cover Stars Align
Dynamic or Passive, this Book Has Got You Covered
I don’t really know why Average is complaining. With cover trends nowadays, the female protagonist is lucky even to make an appearance. Romance covers in… Read More »Dynamic or Passive, this Book Has Got You Covered
The Book Cover: When Presentation Is Everything
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I know this. So before I launch into an analysis of book cover trends, I here acknowledge that… Read More »The Book Cover: When Presentation Is Everything
The Man to Trust When the World Falls Apart
Here’s what I don’t understand. If someone majorly screws up, why does anyone trust that same someone to correct the massive error? You may be as… Read More »The Man to Trust When the World Falls Apart
The Right Template for the Job
The perfect pupil for a mentor/pupil relationship, if literary tradition is any indication, fits the following template: Male Well-meaning “Ordinary” looks And it doesn’t hurt… Read More »The Right Template for the Job
How to Recruit a Proper Pupil
I can’t, off the top of my head, think of any mentor characters who go from place to place looking for a pupil. Most mentors… Read More »How to Recruit a Proper Pupil
When Someone Has an Axe to Grind
We find one of the longest battles in English linguistic history in that simple, problematic word “ask.” You wouldn’t think that three small letters… Read More »When Someone Has an Axe to Grind
When Resistance Really Is Futile
True story: “its” as a pronoun didn’t come around until Early Modern English. Up until the late sixteenth century, the 3rd-person gender-neutral possessive pronoun… Read More »When Resistance Really Is Futile