Today is my stop during the blog tour for Sunborn Rising: Beneath The Fall by Aaron Safronoff. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 27 June till 10 July, you can view the tour schedule here.
And now, I'm excited to share with you this guest post by Aaron about books, particularly that most debated element of them, their covers.
Guest Post:
Big thank you to Lola for setting up this tour, and to I
Read Too Much! for inviting me to post! Always a joy to talk books.
People judge books by the covers. They do. In fact, they
often happily admit it in face-to-face conversations, and I applaud their
candor. I agree. The cover and its contents might not match as the saying goes,
but that’s the extent of accuracy of the old adage.
Visuals matter, both in function and form, and judgements
begin there. It’s probably just human. I mean, we even taste with our eyes, as
though all of our other senses are informed by what we see. If you’ve ever
eaten Jelly Bellies you know that information isn’t always reliable, and that
seems to bring us full circle to _not_ judging. But Jelly Belly doesn’t eschew
the visual vocabulary; they expertly utilize it as their staple intrigue, a
jelly bean that tastes nothing like the conventional candy. Beyond the initial
twist they develop their own vocabulary because they know how important it is.
As an author, I don’t want to ignore existing vocabularies, I want to
understand them. I don’t want anyone to pick up my book thinking it’s chocolate
pudding when it’s tabasco, unless I want people to make that face when they’re
reading my book. ;-)
The front cover begins the story, the illustration as
essential as the title. In fact, the
font, the paper, the chapter headings, and even the margins affect a reader’s
experience in profound ways. I only possess an amateur understanding of those
factors, but to illustrate the point, so to speak, Comic Sans elicits a different
emotional response than say, Times New Roman, or Corsiva, and Wing Dings are right out. ;-) Entire professions
revolve around understanding typeface because it’s so important to get it right
in the world of publishing. As a storyteller, I embrace each element of the
total package, and where my knowledge falls short, I do my best to ask questions,
and frequently tap the shoulders of friends and colleagues for advice.
At the end of the day, the philosophical debate regarding
the pros and cons of a quick to judge culture forks orthogonal from developing
a modern franchise. It’s important to remind people to look deeper than the
uncontrollable, superficial aspects of one another in life, but a book cover is
neither fated, nor genetically determined; it’s something we create as artists
and storytellers, and I care about it as much as the chosen words.
-----And now for more about Aaron's book! Looks like a great story for folks young and old.
Sunborn Rising: Beneath The Fall (Sunborn Rising #1)by Aaron Safronoff
Genre: Fantasy
Age category: all-ages, Middle Grade and up
Release Date: May 2016
Publisher: Neoglyphic Entertainment
Blurb:
Cerulean.
A distant world of Great Trees floating on an ocean surrounding a star.
The flotilla forests cycle light and water through their boughs into their lush canopies. But the once vibrant treescape has grown dark, slowly, subtly over many generations. The civilization of creatures living among the boughs believe the darkness is normal. That is, until one willful young girl named Barra discovers the hidden journal of her late father.
Pouring over her father’s writing, Barra learns of a mysterious plague, a creeping vine choking the flow of light and water into the canopy. Her father warned the Elders. He urged them to take action. Those were his last words.
Together with her two best friends, a Rugosic named Tory and a Kolalabat named Plicks, Barra will explore every bark, wood, and leaf of the Great Forest to relight her world and complete her father’s story, even if it leads her beneath the Fall.
You can find Sunborn Rising on Goodreads
You can buy Sunborn Rising here:
- Amazon
- Amazon paperback
- Amazon hardcopy
View the book trailer for Sunborn Rising here on youtube
Meet the Characters
The World
About the Author:Aaron Safronoff was born and raised in Michigan where he wrote his first novella, Evening Breezes. In his early twenties, he moved to California to attend culinary school. He fell in love with the Bay Area and has never considered leaving, although he did eventually leave the school.
During his ten years in the games industry, he worked at various levels and for several disciplines including quality assurance, production, and design. All the while he was writing a novel, short stories, plays, and poetry. His career in design introduced him to amazingly intelligent, fun, and creative people, many of whom he considers family today.
Safronoff self-published, Spire, in 2011, and won the Science Fiction Discovery Award for the same in the summer of 2012. By the end of that year he decided to drop everything and free fall into fiction. In the following three months he completed work on the sequel to Spire, Fallen Spire, edited Evening Breezes, and published both.
Today, Safronoff is co-founder and Chief Storyteller of Neoglyphic Entertainment and working on his fifth novel, the second book of the Sunborn Rising series. In his spare time, Safronoff enjoys reading a variety of authors, Philip K. Dick, Cormac McCarthy, and Joe Abercrombie among them. He enjoys living near the ocean, playing and watching hockey, and video games. He has a deep love of music and comedy.
You can find and contact Aaron here:
- Website
- Goodreads
- Amazon
Sunborn Rising links:
- Website
- Youtube
Giveaway
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Sunborn Rising. These are the prizes you can win:
- 5 signed paperbacks of Sunborn Rising by Aaaron Safronoff
For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
