Ghost Hunting Diary Volume 5 Cover -- Full

My first full sized cover.  T.M. is putting Volume 5 up on CreateSpace, so I upgraded her ebook cover to full.  I used all the same stock from the original ebook to created the back cover, aside from the addition of the wood pile.  I tried to line up everything as close as possible, but I think it's still a little off.  I didn't have a lot of time to get it perfect since she needed it same day.  Printed copies of the book will be available for sale at the Bechkam Hotel in Mineola, TX once it opens.


Amazon

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook



Stock Used:

House - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Sky - purplestripedbrain.deviantart.…

Grass - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Lightning - ObsidianDawn.com (bought commercial license)

Treeline (in background) - dierat.deviantart.com/art/Foli… & coffinkittie.deviantart.com/ar…

Additional scrub around the house - derangedhyena.deviantart.com/a…

Wood pile - perisheddoll.deviantart.com/ar…

Fence post - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Fen…

Barbwire - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Bar…

'No Trespassing' sign - showna-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Mist - spiritsighs-stock.deviantart.c…

Shadow person

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold (front & spine) & Veranda (back)

Monsters Among Us Cover

The finished cover for T.M.'s newest book. A lot of work went into this one, mostly looking for a model. Thankfully, Michaela gave up permission to use one of her wonderful stock images. The wall is from the Ford-Green Cemetery in Mineola, TX, & the burial mound and other two tombstones are from New Hope Cemetery in Mineola. There are a lot of mounds out there. It's really neat.  Also, T.M. recently got a post print of this framed and hung it up in her dining room.  It looks awesome.


Kindle

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook


Stock Used:

Woman w/ cat - mihaela-vstock.deviantart.com/… (Used with permission)

Rock Mound, Wall, Double Tombstone & Rock Marker - policegirl01.deviantart.com/ar… Exclusive Stock Pack

Book, Candles & Pentagram - www.dreamstime.com/royalty-fre… (Provided by T. M. Simmons)

Flames - redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…

Fur (for cat) - knathies-stock.deviantart.com/a…

Grass - smokeylittleclover.deviantart.…

Stars - kuschelirmel-stock.deviantart.…

Moon - shutter-shooter.deviantart.com…

Trees - derangedhyena.deviantart.com/a…

Angel - hauntingvisionsstock.deviantar…

Energy Beam - photoncubetutorials.blogspot.c… (tutorial) & freshemedia.deviantart.com/art…

Font - Black Chancery

The Last 40 Days Cover

The Last 40 Days is about a man who travels back in time & ends up witnessing the Crucifixion. I initially did a bit of research to find out what the landscape looked like back then, and found that it was a lot different that it is today. Technically there should be an abundance of trees, shrubs & plants in the background but I was limited on what stock to use & C L really wanted sand dunes. He really likes the way it come out, so I'm glad. The whole time I was working on this, all I could think about was Life of Brian. I even played 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' for some inspiration.

The hardest past was deciding on using either a physical time machine or or use a portal. C L wanted the Stargate...which, as you can guess, isn't going to happen. It would have looked really cool, but I have no desire to see the inside of a jail cell. I looked around for weeks trying to find something use use as a base but came up empty handed. So, I started looking for portals. Typing in 'portal' in dA gave me a wide range of results, from Portal game/logo pics to several misplaced photos of penises (don't ask). Eventually, I stumbled across the one I used. I added in the lines to give it a little more action & depth.


Update 1 - C L decided he wanted the dash out of MP1. I also added in a shadow for the man, which I realized I had forgotten.


Kindle Link: Coming Soon

C L Smothers Site



Stock Used:

Background - greenleaf-stock.deviantart.com… & shiama-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Sunset - mgb-stock.deviantart.com/art/S…

Man - mindsqueezedesign.deviantart.c…

Crosses - hand drawn by me

Scrub Grass - wolverine041269.deviantart.com…

Time Portal - stock7000.deviantart.com/art/T… & freshemedia.deviantart.com/art…

Font - Cimbrian & Roman S

Living with Dead Folks Vol. 1 Cover

This was a fun cover to do since I finally got to put Trana on the cover of one of her books. This book is basically all of her blog post for last year, and she will do a new one each year will all the collected posts. The general theme for the covers will be candid shots of her doing stuff around the house while the ghosts do whatever in the background.

For this one, we used her office. After taking the screen off & opening the window directly behind her desk, I stood up on a step-stool and took pictures of her looking from side to side. I would have liked to shoot a bit higher but couldn't due to the window. Plus, a few of the pictures came out a little blurred. I still have trouble putting a lot of weight on my knee from time to time, and I was extra nervous standing up on something (last think I need is to fall and mess my knee up again). The overall image ended up being a merge of three, and I had to draw in part of the wall, ceiling, computer monitor & door.


Kindle

T.M. Simmons:  Website & Facebook

 
Stock Used

Background, Foreground & Trana - Photographs taken by me

Ghost

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold

Ghost Hunting Diary Volume V Cover

This one took me a few tries to get it going. Originally, I was going to use a photo of the actual house talked about in the 'Hell House' chapter. The photo was taken years before digital cameras came out and got really messed up every time I tried to adjust the brightness. So after some searching, I found a house that looked very similar and when from there. The shadow person is the same that is used for the team logo, but just in white. I used a few layers of fog brushes for the mist set at 40% to 50% opacity, then erased them down from that at about 42% opacity. That way it lost most of the detail to look like a very light mist. I also painted in the treeline in the background.


Kindle
T.M. Simmons: Website [link] & Facebook [link]



Stock Used

House - [link]

Sky - [link]

Grass - [link]

Lightning - ObsidianDawn.com [link] (bought commercial license)

Treeline (in background) - [link] & [link]

Additional scrub around the house - [link]

Fence post - [link]

Barbwire - [link]

'No Trespassing' sign - [link]

Mist - [link]

Shadow person - [link]

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold

SRT Logo Design

Logo commission for Supernatural Researchers of Texas, a ghost hunting group that I'm a member of. The main logo is being used for things like business cards, car magnets & the like and is primarily printed on a white background. The t-shirt logo will only be used for t-shirts (unless something comes up). Since it will only be printed on purple shirts, I've added purple to the background so that you can see what it will look like.

Stock Used:

K-II - hand drawn by me (using own K-II as a reference)
Shadow Person - [link]
Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold

Ghost Hunting Diary Volume II Cover

A slight redesign of T.M. Simmons' Ghost Hunting Diary Volume II cover. Trana did the original version herself and decided that it needed to be updated along with the rest. The original is still up on Amazon if you want to see it.

I took the original image and centered it, then added a brighter sky & clouds after adjusting the colors/brightness/contrast. I also used a different font as well.


Kindle Link: [link]

T.M. Simmons: Website [link] & Facebook [link]


Stock Used:

Background - Photo credit T.M. Simmons (provided by T.M. Simmons)

Cloud - [link]

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold