Designing Covers

It took years of working at writing before I began to feel somewhat competent at it, so I imagine it would be the same for learning how to design a good book cover. I don't have that kind of time, nor do I have the patience. So all of my efforts so far to design my own book cover and potentially self-publish my first novel The Shard, are not going so well.

Here are a couple of the many samples I have done:

Artwork by András Orr

Art by Shane Tyree

To my amateur eye they don't look terrible, but they do look a bit amateurish also. Even worse, when you reduce them to the size they might appear on sites like Amazon, they don't have nearly the clarity that you see on other such covers that you see. Everything I read says the text must be clear and easy to see when reduced to Amazon size. Sigh, I just don't have this kind of expertise, and I'm not yet ready to break down and pay a bunch of money to a professional!

Top 25 Acoustic Guitar Songs

I was in a mellow mood the other day and started picking out soft acoustic guitar songs to listen to. I realized I hadn't made a list in a long time, so I began writing down my favorites. In order to narrow it down, I decided that the songs had to feature the acoustic guitar and not a band sound, so generally that meant no drums (thus I had to drop songs like Mrs. Robinson and other similar songs, which are brilliant but aren't as straightforward guitar-centric as I wished) or other instruments that distract from the music. I made exceptions where I felt the guitar really stood out and the other instruments didn't really take away from it.


1. Kathy's Song by Simon and Garfunkel -- The live version from their Greatest Hits album. My all-time favorite soft guitar song.

2. Father and Son by Cat Stevens -- One of the few songs that can bring a tear to my eyes. The most beautiful song by an artist who created many such songs.

3. Pigs on the Wing (Part 1) by Pink Floyd -- Okay so it's short and a bit odd, but I just love it. The guitar sounds so simple, but try to learn it yourself and you will see the amazing little touches that make it harder than it seems.

4. Yesterday by The Beatles -- One of the only purely acoustic songs done by The Beatles, and easily the most lovely.

5. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac -- The vocals and the guitar are both simply amazing.

6. Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen -- Sad and haunting

7. Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon and Garfunkel -- When you are in mood for soft and pretty, this song pretty much defines it, and I love the guitar harmonics at the end.

8. Tangerine by Led Zeppelin -- This song has some drum in it, but it comes in the middle and the parts of this song that really blow me away are all acoustic, the beginning and the incredible outro.

9. Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel -- Lots of these two up at the top, but that's because of how amazing they are at creating gorgeous acoustic songs. I prefer the live version from their Greatest Hits.

10. Mother Nature's Son by The Beatles -- I used to sing my sons to sleep with this song, so by the age of two they could sing all the lyrics quite well.

11. Trouble by Cat Stevens -- It's hard not to use the same adjectives over and over for all these songs. All I can say is that I love this song, but just a touch less than the ones above!

12. Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristofferson -- The grating version by Janis Joplin is more famous for some reason, but Kristofferson wrote the song and his version is far better, in my opinion.

13. Going to California by Led Zeppelin -- Jimmy Page's acoustic skills are highly underrated.

14. Suzanne by Leonard Cohen -- I grew up listening to Leonard Cohen because my mom loved him. He had to grow on me, but when I'm in certain moods he is terrific.

15. Goodbye Blue Sky by Pink Floyd -- I love the guitar on this so much; I probably play this song more than any other on my guitar.

16. Seasons by Chris Cornell -- Cornell is one of the greatest singer/songwriters of my generation, just after Maynard James Keenan in my opinion, and though he is best known for his heavy rock with Soundgarden, he can write some really great acoustic songs when he wants.

17. Never Going Back Again by Fleetwood Mac -- Lindsey Buckingham is easily one of the greatest singer/guitarists ever. He has a lot of songs greater than this, but those are mostly with a full band sound, and this is still a great song with some wonderful fingerpicking.

18. Can't Find My Way Home by Blind Faith -- Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood together, what more needs to be said?

19. Dust in the Wind by Kansas -- I heard this song so much in my youth that I'm a little tired of it, but you can't deny how great it is.

20. Dead Man by Pearl Jam -- Eddie Vedder is another of the rare brilliant singer/songwriters of my generation.

21. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy) by Simon and Garfunkel -- Again, I prefer the version from their Greatest Hits album.

22. The Moonbeam Song by Harry Nilsson -- Harry was a bit eccentric and perhaps a bit of a genius, too.

23. Parachutes by Coldplay -- A tiny and pretty little tune.

24. Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel -- See Parachutes

25. I couldn't decide between several Donovan songs here, so I'll mention London Town, Codine, Catch the Wind, and Colours.

Yes, there are all kinds of soft songs that beat out some on this list, but they mostly failed to meet the test of what I was looking for in particular here. However, I'm sure you can tell me ones that I really did miss such as Bob Dylan. Well, I'm not a huge fan of his acoustic songs, though I really do love some of his other work, like Romance in Durango and Black Diamond Bay and Hurricane.

In Memoriam -- Serafima

One year ago today my mother-in-law passed away in Moscow at the age of 65. The one year anniversary is important to Russians, so though no one reading this knew her, I thought it important to my wife to have a tiny memorial here for Serafima.

She's the one in the picture on the left, as well as the young girl in the other photo. Ironically, her father Luis in the photo on the right was born in California and lived there until he was 15, when the Great Depression led his family to return to Russia...where he was promptly sent to the gulag. But he survived, thank goodness, or I would never have my current family.

Sima (as we called Serafima) was such a sweet woman. I always half-joke that my mother-in-law loved me more than my real family did. For a guy who was stealing away her eldest daughter to live outside of Russia, she treated me so kindly.

She wasn't much of an optimist, as the following story will show. Sima was debating one day with her neighbors, who were friends. She said that the American boy whom her daughter was dating would never marry her. Her neighbors, who had never met me, insisted that it was true love and of course I would marry Victoria. So they made a bet (that I didn't learn about until years later) -- if I didn't marry Sima's daughter, the neighbors would have to buy Sima a new telephone, while if I did, Sima would have to give the neighbors the chairs from her kitchen table.

Imagine my new wife's shock when she returned for the first time to her mother's apartment to find a table with no chairs.

You left us way too young, Sima.

Game of Thrones--Who is your favorite minor character?

I really mean from the Song of Ice and Fire series of books, but I put Game of Thrones since that is more recognizable these days to more people. I'm rereading all the books again for the fourth time, and I'm halfway through with A Feast for Crows. I can't understand why so many people rate it the worst of the series, because I just love it. I even love how it gives us differing POV characters than the earlier books did. To me it is expanding on the world building in very interesting ways.

Well it just struck me while reading that one of my absolute favorite characters in the series is Podrick Payne. I don't recall at the moment whether anything happens to him later on, but I hope he gets to be a big hero eventually. I also really enjoy Samwell Tarly.

Who is your favorite minor character?

USA Beats Russia!

I know it won't mean much to the non-chess admirers out there, but the US chess squad defeated the heavily favored and top seeded Russian team at the Chess Olympiad yesterday. The US stars on our top two boards rose to the occasion and beat their higher ranked opponents. Hikaru Nakamura beat former world champion Vladimir Kramnik on board one, and Gata Kamsky defeated Alexander Grischuk on board 2. Way to go guys!

Vladimir Kramnik against Hikaru Nakamura -- from Chessbase.com

At the beginning of the round the Russian team led everyone by two full points. After this massive upset, the US team pulled into a tie for first place.

Facebook

Okay, I finally broke down and did what I had once hoped I would never have to do--join Facebook. I did it mainly because everyone says authors need to have a Facebook presence. I think it will be a while before I figure out how to use it properly for showcasing the books I eventually publish. I'd especially appreciate any tricks and tips other writers have for using Facebook for this specific purpose!

Carrot and Stick

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. I haven't been able to write either, and it's eating away at me. All I can really do these days is study. First I have to pass a really difficult exam this September or I will lose 14% of my salary. I really wish my employer would use the carrot rather than the stick for us!

Playing one of my guitars

Anyway, unlike most such exams in the past, this one is truly hard. I've been studying for weeks already and still don't feel close to being able to attempt it, yet it's now September and I have no choice. This three day weekend is for nothing but studying.

My ever patient and lovely wife

To make matters worse, in October I have to go to Cisco's Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) training, and the test for that is also grueling.

Hanging out on Margit Island in Budapest

So I have little to look forward to over the next couple months except tedious studying. At least the NFL season will begin--go Peyton Manning! I'm no Denver Broncos fan, but I don't like the way the Colts ditched the greatest quarterback who ever lived.

Always a smile to brighten my day even when times are tough