I’ve long wanted to make 3D covers for my Two-natured London
boxed sets, but I haven’t had the skill and haven’t found an automatic cover
maker for them. So I finally searched for instructions on how to make them with
the GIMP software, and found a number of tutorials. I checked a few of
them and ended up following these instructions by Lynne Cantwell on Indies
Unlimited blog.
It’s a trial and error learning a new skill, but since I’ve created
all my covers with GIMP, I at least have the basic skills. But it turns out
there is a lot you can do with it that I had no idea about, and a box shape is
one of them.
The instructions on the blog are simple enough to follow, at
least if you’ve used GIMP before. I made a couple of practise boxes until I had
the basics clear, and then set out to design special covers for the boxed sets. I
used the existing covers for my Two-natured London books as the basis and designed the ‘spines’ for them
that make one side of the box, the side that shows how many books there are in
the set. Mine has only two per set, so it wasn’t a difficult task.
The only details that required extra tweaking were a couple
of horizontal stripes running through the design that wouldn’t align when I
generated the box, but in the end even those came out well enough. And now I
have brilliant new boxed set covers that I’m very happy with.
Having successfully followed Ms Cantwell’s instructions, I
can recommend them, if you want to create your own 3D boxed set covers. I have one
note regarding them though. The instructions tell to generate the box with the
.xcf files, which is the GIMP format that keeps all the layers intact. However,
they are huge files and it takes a great deal of processing power to generate
the boxes. So instead using .xcf files, save (export) your finished images as
.jpg files, open them with GIMP and use them to generate your boxes. That way
you:
don’t have to merge the layers before generating the
boxes. When your .xcf files don’t have merged layers, it’s easier to make
changes to them, if the box doesn’t come out the way you want it to. Then you can
simply save the changes to a new .jpg file and try again.
save a lot of time generating the box. With the .xcf
files, it takes several minutes, whereas it takes about 30 seconds with the .jpg
files.
Keeping this little detail in mind, you can easily make your own 3D
covers with the same instructions I used too. Happy creating!
Despite my best intentions, I haven’t blogged here in ages. To remedy that, here’s a short story to entertain you.
Stranger at the station
I stalked a stranger today. At the Paddington station on my
way to work this morning. It’s not a pastime I indulge in often, and never in
this intensity, but he was different.
I noticed him instantly when I walked into my usual café at
the station for my morning latte and took a place in the line. He was so out of
place here I couldn’t help but see him. He was sitting at the far table by the
low railing that marked the border of the café, reading a paper, a cup of
coffee in front of him, ignoring the people around him like he was inside his
own bubble.
A man waiting. With purpose.
I was instantly intrigued. Who was he? Why was he here? Who
or what was he waiting for? I could barely tear my eyes off him, almost
forgetting to move forward in the line. I wasn’t the only one, mind you.
Everyone watched him.
He was definitely the kind of man you notice. A bespoke suit
that fit his lean body like a glove, and handmade Oxfords. Mother of pearl
cufflinks and silk socks. Hair cut neatly and recently by an expert. In his
mid-forties, which when you’ve entered your fifth decade yourself, is just the
perfect age for a man. Especially if the man wears his age with such
self-confidence as he did. Not classically handsome as such, but he had an
assertive face of a person accustomed to being in command.
A businessman, definitely. One with hundreds of employees
and dozens of underlings ready to fulfil his every command. He would never be
unreasonable with his requests and always graceful when they were met, causing
his people to want to please him even more. I could see it all in my mind’s eye:
a secretary blushing faintly every time he praised her, her heart picking up
speed. Her nights would be filled with impossible dreams of the two of them
together.
He wouldn’t even notice. The bastard.
You didn’t often see men like him at train stations. They
belonged to first class lounges at airports – if they travelled commercially.
He looked like he could afford his own jet.
Perhaps he was waiting for someone. He sat so calmly there,
leaning his side against the backrest of his chair, long legs stretched before
him, one ankle crossing the other, occasionally glancing at people walking past
the café – never those inside it. He never checked his watch, a timepiece so
understated in its elegance it had to be expensive. He wasn’t in a hurry to
catch a train.
I was so preoccupied with him I almost missed my turn to order
and then fumbled with the change. Who was he waiting for? Not a business
partner, obviously. They would see him in a glass-walled office at the top
of a high-rise, or in an expensive restaurant. Or in a gentlemen’s club. But
not at a train station. He would never meet anyone at a train station.
Unless… He was a spy meeting a contact!
That idea appealed to me instantly. The newspaper he was
reading was a sign from which the contact would recognise him. The contact
would then ask for a time, and he would glance at his expensive watch and give
it, only it wouldn’t be the correct time, but a code.
My name was called to get my coffee, which interrupted my
musings of international espionage. I didn’t really believe he was a spy
anyway. He was too noticeable to be one.
With my coffee ready, I didn’t have a reason to stay anymore, but I didn’t want to
leave yet. He was still here, waiting. So I paused on my way out, daringly
quite near him, and began to dig my phone out from my bag. I would pretend to have
a call so people wouldn’t wonder why I was standing there.
But before I could find my mobile – the bag is insanely
large, I don’t know why I keep it when I can never find anything in it – the man
checked his watch and then finished his coffee in one. He was about to leave.
And I still hadn’t figured out who he was waiting for.
What if it was his wife?
That idea stung. I don’t know why. He was miles beyond my
league – even if I had been blessed with self-confidence that stated no man was
beyond it, which I wasn’t.Men like him
didn’t go for forty-one-year-old librarians. Not the dowdy-ones anyway. He
hadn’t even glanced at me and I had stood almost in front of him for a good
while now.
But that’s imagination for you. I could picture him as a
spy, easily, and I was perfectly willing to entertain an idea of a passionate
affair with him, even though I knew there was no chance for it – but only if he
was free. I couldn’t imagine a wife away.
Belatedly, I checked his ring finger and found it empty. The
relief I felt was disproportional. If he had been here to meet his wife, he
would surely have worn his ring.
Just then, the loudspeakers announced an arriving train. I
couldn’t hear from where, but the man immediately folded his paper, got up and
headed out without a glance back. I followed.
I didn’t mean to. I was already going to be late for work, having
dawdled in the café, but I didn’t care. I had to see who he was meeting with.
His mother? That I could believe. He had the air of duty
about him that stated he would fetch his mother from the station should she so
request. But I would imagine, too, that he would feel impatient if he was
forced to abandon his empire for it. Instead, he had sat there so calmly, not
annoyed at all that he had to wait. So not the mother, then.
He walked towards the correct platform in such long strides
I had trouble keeping up with my short legs and high heels. Was that excitement
I detected in his step? Who could cause such an assured man to suddenly hurry
up so as not to miss the arrival?
A mistress, of course. No, a fiancée.
My heart fell. But I couldn’t give up now. I had to see for
myself.
He reached the platform and I hurried to catch up. He paused
and I did too, standing so close to him I could smell his divine aftershave. I
pretended to be waiting for someone too, though why I bothered, I don’t know.
He didn’t glance around; he had eyes only for the train that glided to halt
just then, and the first class car – naturally. He looked almost impatient now.
Considering how calm he had been until then, I found this to be quite out of
character.
The door to the first class car opened and a gorgeous woman
in her early twenties peeked out, tall and slender with a dark red hair that
reached the small of her back in luscious waves. I’d always wanted a hair like
that instead of the thin strawberry blond that was fizzy no matter what I did.
I was instantly consumed by envy.
The man smiled, a wondrous sight that took my breath away,
and lifted his hand to catch her attention. Of course he would have a beautiful
fiancée, but a woman that young? I was dismayed.
The woman spotted him and her face lit. “Dad!” she yelled,
jumping down on the platform and starting towards him.
Dad?
All my fantasies came crashing down with one word. Not in one of
them had he been a father, let alone to a grown woman he was now hugging warmly like they hadn’t seen in ages. International
businessmen slash spies did not have children. I felt cheated. Then angry. I
had wasted my morning on him and now I would be late and my boss would yell at
me.
Well, she wouldn’t yell. She was a very nice lady. But
still. With a huff, I turned around and headed to the nearest exit.
Outside the station, a Bentley with a driver. Waiting. I
didn’t give it a glance.
