Each week one of the members of The Indie Exchange will be showcasing one of their covers and telling us the story behind it.
This week’s featured cover is from Knot in Time by Alan Tucker.
Alan Tucker says:
“I wanted something that clearly said “Science Fiction”, so I went to NASA’s photographic library site and selected a couple of images to mash together. They have some amazing photos which they have granted to the public domain. The character shot was by far the most difficult and time consuming. I searched through many stock photography sites and looked at literally hundreds of photos before finding one that had lighting and an expression appropriate to the character who is sarcastic and a bit of a rebel. I purchased rights to the picture and had to change his eyes to brown from blue for the perfect match. I copied the shot onto several layers in Photoshop, each with different blending and opacities to get the effect I wanted.
My name is Darius Arthur Heisenberg, but most people call me Dare. If my last name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of my great-great uncle Werner Heisenberg. He was a physicist who came up with something called the Uncertainty Principle. But listen, Uncle Werner had no idea how uncertain things really are.
I work for a group, called the Keepers, that label themselves the custodians of time. And, believe me, time is a mess. It needs all the custodians it can get. Which is, of course, why the Keepers selected me, a nineteen-year-old high school dropout, to join them. I recently worked as a janitor for a couple months. Perfect fit, right?
Okay, it didn’t make much sense to me either, but I wasn’t in a position to turn down a steady job and a roof over my head. Besides, all I’m supposed to do is travel through time and save the universe as we know it, how hard could it be?
Yeah, better hold on. This could get ugly.
Why not share your thoughts about the cover?
**Please note that guest posts and columns reflect the opinions of the individual author and not The Indie Exchange as a whole. Also note, The Indie Exchange uses affiliate links to offset the costs of hosting etc.**
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I am in full cover envy mode. I'll be starting on my own tomorrow. Thanks for the tip about Nasa's Library and I totally agree with you, typography is very important!
I think I struggle with it the most, I haven't found a free use font yet that's really perfect for covers. So far I've outsourced the final type to a graphic artist – not ideal.