Ric

BOOKS….BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

It has been a busy week, they are all busy but this week has been really busy.  I have been reading through the stories for the anthology we are putting together on the subject of “First Submission”.  We have also been re-covering our old stories and re-issuing them.  The latest two are very close to me as the first story Toy’s Story written by Robert Cloud was the first cover I did for Black Velvet Seductions. The second story to be re-released was The Crimson Z, a paranormal anthology, this too was largely the brainchild of Robert Cloud.  I was a little...

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THE FAUSTAIN PACT

If you could make a deal with the devil, would you……? Writers and artists are driven to do what they do.  And I can see the idea of that Faustian pact tempting.  I have asked myself this question a thousand times and it is a concept I have used more than once for artistic inspiration over the years.  For those not familiar with the story of Faust, in a nutshell, Faust sells his soul to the devil, in return the devil gives Faust back his youth, unlimited knowledge, and worldly pleasures.  Over the years there have been many stories, artistic...

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A CHAT WITH JAN SELBOURNE…

I thought it would be nice to chat with our writers, to give you a glimpse of the person behind the story. First up is Jan Selbourne, author of Behind The Clouds. Q: How long have you been writing? Since I was at school.  It began with essays and short stories for school assignments and it became a favorite hobby.  Then career, marriage, and children pushed that hobby into the background.  The urge to write seriously began about four years ago. Q: What was your inspiration for your story “Behind the clouds”? The inspiration came from reading a small article on...

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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF BLACK VELVET SEDUCTIONS…

A tricky one really as each day has its own flavor, and depending on who is around will dictate the pace of the day. This is just really a snapshot as well I may do another and you will get to see the contrast. Today is a day when I am here in the studio alone. For well over twenty years I have been an artist and I run BVS from my art studio. To start I thought it would be useful to give you an idea of how we work. I have just recently doubled the office space so...

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WHAT DRIVES YOU TO WRITE??….

For sure we love to write, but it is more than just wanting to write a succession of words on a piece of paper.  My muse comes from a desire to express thoughts and feelings in a way I find hard to articulate in other ways.  A lot of my creative energy has been channeled into the arts, most of it the fine arts of drawing and painting, but writing vents my spleen in a way that is particularly satisfying. One of the things I love about writing is immersing myself in another life opens everything to possibilities we don’t...

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BASE LANGUAGE IN STORIES. A TURN ON OR OFF?

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JUDGING A BOOK BY IT’S COVER…..

There is that old adage that you should not judge a book by its cover. As a metaphor that is fine but in our world that is exactly what happens. To an extent that is what they are there for. I first got seriously into publishing as a book illustrator and cover about fourteen years ago, the cover is so important it is the image that makes a potential buyer pick up the book, then the back blurb is the second hook, then the opening line.  It is the cover that has to grab you though. A while back I...

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