Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "novella"
Books by Bernard Jan on Promocave
Two of my books in Croatian are now also on Promocave.com.
For those of you who speak Croatian, you can check my novella Potraži me ispod duge (Look For Me Under the Rainbow) here:
a) About Potraži me ispod duge
b) Excerpt from Potraži me ispod duge
or my novel Okrutno ljeto (Cruel Summer) here:
a) About Okrutno ljeto
b) Excerpt from Okrutno ljeto
I also thought of you who do not speak Croatian. On this blog post you will find an excerpt and a link to read more about my novella Look For Me Under the Rainbow, while this blog post will provide you with excerpts in English from my YA adventure/mystery novel Cruel Summer.
Thanks for checking me out!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
For those of you who speak Croatian, you can check my novella Potraži me ispod duge (Look For Me Under the Rainbow) here:
a) About Potraži me ispod duge
b) Excerpt from Potraži me ispod duge
or my novel Okrutno ljeto (Cruel Summer) here:
a) About Okrutno ljeto
b) Excerpt from Okrutno ljeto
I also thought of you who do not speak Croatian. On this blog post you will find an excerpt and a link to read more about my novella Look For Me Under the Rainbow, while this blog post will provide you with excerpts in English from my YA adventure/mystery novel Cruel Summer.
Thanks for checking me out!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
The Mean Innocence of Black Canyon
Black Canyon by Jeremy BatesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am so glad that Black Canyon is the first work by Jeremy Bates I've read. To be honest, since I have so many books waiting in line to be read – quite a pile on my table and in my Kindle, I wasn't planning on reviewing it at first. I wanted to save time and move on onto another book as soon as possible. But already in the first ten pages of this 2015 dark novella I knew this won't be the case, even if I reflect on it with just a few words.
It is a rarity to have an opportunity to read about the pre-teen young monster, who will grow into a new American psycho and a serial killer, from his own perspective. When a child (12-year-old Brian Garrett) tells you about the weekend camping with his parents in the Gunnison National Park in Colorado, you don't expect anything but the idyllic trip to the amazing and wild nature. And this is what you get. But coated with a few gory moments of surprise, very well timed twists, murders and true horror. The freakiest thing is the lightness with which Brian accepts his dark nature already at this early age, his calculated, heartless and almost mathematically precise survival instinct.
This is a quick-paced read about the seemingly normal but in truth one bad-vibed family which can be easily spotted and recognized too often around us, told in a simple and capturing narrative voice.
Black Canyon, which I also like to fondly call The Mean Innocence and The Growing of American Psycho, lingers in my mind with the aftertaste mixture of a novella and the movie Stand by Me and The River Wild movie, which I both quite liked, while Jeremy Bates, as an author, seriously competes to become one of my new darlings.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
View all my reviews
Not Just a Boy Review
Not Just a Boy by Jonathan HillMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Not Just a Boy is a warm coming-of-age human story about growing up and first love(s). A 78-pages-long novella – we can only wish it lasts longer! – of the talented author Jonathan Hill from Manchester, UK, takes us gently back to our childhood and school days where everything seemed to have been easier, carefree and more innocent. Unless . . . you were different.
For one of the two best friends moving to another school was everything but easy or innocent. Not being able to fit into the new environment, in difference to his friend, he is immediately labeled an outcast, unfit, different. His adolescent days unexpectedly turn into a nightmare of name-calling, ridiculing, bullying and physical assault; it seems like everybody knows about his schoolboy crush much sooner than him, even before he is fully able to comprehend the truth about himself. “There was precious little evidence, and certainly nothing concrete, to confirm that I liked boys. I just knew that I’d fallen for him. And if he’d been a girl or a . . . or a frog . . . maybe I would have felt just the same love towards her or it.”
Evidence or not, society doesn't forgive, and certainly not his school mates. Being different, being a boy with a crush on another boy, has a high price. And the price of being different he has to pay with broken friendships, isolation and loneliness, shame, confusion and torment.
After a grand opening, “I have been running for only a minute, maybe two, and yet their frenzied shouts are oddly distant, as if they originate not only from another part of the wood but from another time entirely. Every inch of me is riddled with pain and if I stop to think how bad the pain actually is, it is enough to make me want to tear off my limbs with my own teeth.”, and the tragedy that preceded this running but has been revealed only later in the book, at the end of the story, Jonathan Hill leads us to a pleasantly calming sunset of this remarkable novella, which warms our hearts with a promise of restored friendship and hope for a normal life despite being different.
Special kudos to the book cover art which just about perfectly captures the story that is about to grip and glue us from the first page already.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
View all my reviews
Not Just a Boy
Jonathan Hill
Bernard Jan
A Christmas Outing Review
A Christmas Outing by Jonathan HillMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I happened to be on a tram on my morning ride to work when David's mother rip-opens the parcel her daughter has sent as a gift from Australia and pulls out of it a vibrating pink penis with a gift-tag around it. David stares open-mouthed at the sight of it, his boyfriend Jamie drops the remains of the biscuit he is eating in his lap, David's dad is laughing. David's mother looks from her husband to penis and from penis to her husband and asks, confused, “What . . . What is it?!” This propels David's dad into an even louder laughter, which is followed by a sudden blare of rap music ringtone from his phone he still doesn't know how to turn off.
At this point David is really annoyed at his futile attempts and all distraction. It is all too much for him so he yells: “I’m gay and I’m going out with Jamie and I love hiiiiiiiiim!” This scene is an ultimate climax of a hilariously funny novella A Christmas Outing by Jonathan Hill.
It is Christmas market time and 19-year-old David is going to visit it with his parents. This time, though, his boyfriend Jamie is coming along. David has something very important to announce to his parents tonight and Jamie is there to support him. Coming out to his parents is too complicated and not easy at all and Jamie is going to be there to be by his side and help him in any way he can.
A Christmas Outing is teeming with funny scenes and brilliant and comic dialogues of one dysfunctional family which is trying to survive Christmas time. A dominating mother and a submissive father who keep arguing about every little thing (sounds familiar, anybody?!), David's Psycho Sister who fled as far away as possible from her family and who sends sex stuff as gifts to her parents – her mom especially, and David who is the whole evening laboriously plotting a plan to admit to his parents that he is different, that he has a boyfriend, so he can be accepted and be himself more than he ever was.
Jonathan Hill is a master of building a suspense and expectation around David's coming out. He makes us smile, giggle, snort and laugh from one situation to another throughout this whole heartwarming and honest comedy short story that will make everybody feel good despite the serious issue of coming out which it covers in order for everyone who is and feel different to become recognized and labeled within the set and acknowledged categories of our society. His characters are very functional, realistic and alive, and we have certainly met their real-life versions at some point in our lives.
After Not Just a Boy, A Christmas Outing is another smashing success by Jonathan Hill I had luck and pleasure of reading. My pleasure would be even greater if I didn't have to suppress funny sounds that were threatening to burst out of me in a hysterical laughter in a tram full of people when David from the screen of my smartphone mused: My sister is on the other side of the world, in a different time zone and season and still she manages to piss on the bonfire I haven’t yet lit.
Wonderful, simply wonderful!! Five grins as big and shiny as five stars!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
p.s. Jonathan, maybe I should come out and admit that I fell in love with your writing?! (Here comes another big grin which you can see only with your mind's eye!)
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
Viral Spark Review
Viral Spark by Martin McConnellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
When relationships among humans just seem not be working the way we want them to, it is the artificial intelligence and things like tablets we have created who are reaching out in an attempt to communicate with us and sing! Even though it is completely surprising and unbelievable for Robert who maintains robots at work, because machines don't have feelings, he quickly adjusts to it and embraces the idea, becoming fond if it. The real question is, though, can such form of relationship exists and survive when a virus has infected the global network in the future world in which humans completely depend on technology?
Viral Spark is an easy read and the science fiction novella that will capture your attention whether you like or not the vision of the “robotized” future of mankind Martin McConnell has presented and offered to us. Make sure not to miss it.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
Coming Out
I have been dreading this decision and postponing it for as long as I could—for months, almost a year. Or even more? I cannot tell for certain, really don't remember. It was like a nightmare and I was pushing it away—the further the better—but time has come to acknowledge the inevitable. I have had the water up to my neck; no, up to my mouth!, and with each time breathing in a fraction of truth was exhaled.
My closest friends already know about it, and now I am officially sharing it with everyone. After so much struggle and resistance, I am coming out as—indie author!
Probably this spring, in summer at latest (that is the plan) I will publish my first novella A World Without Color in English. Correction: self-publish! Still hard to accept the thought that I am actually doing it. I have a plan and a time-table, but I am not setting any deadlines for I do not want to put too much pressure on my shoulders. Any day will be a good day for A World Without Color to face the world, with no expectations and only gratitude.
I have translated A World Without Color a few years ago; I have even submitted it to agencies and publishers. But I have decided to give it a final go with it independently while I will keep searching for a literary agent for my novels Cruel Summer and January River.
The self-publishing process started more intensely in February this year when I tried to gather all, or as much as possible, information on how to do it. While I am still learning and asking dozens of questions to my fellow indie authors, I think one of the toughest parts is conquered.
Unlike other indie authors, I have started a reversed process, meaning with gathering information on how to handle my royalty payments from the books sold online, that is abroad. The beginning was a shocker because it felt like banging my head against the wall of ignorance, various information and even more questions that arose during the time. Thanks to many people from Croatia and abroad I talked to, my greatest concern is now settled. At least, I want to think so. But the bitter aftertaste of conducting an international business within Croatian borders keeps polluting the back of my mind like an unwanted alien presence.
Leaving it up to time to handle it, once more I remind myself how things have changed in the course of time of the past twenty years. Writers' and authors' job is not only to make stories and write books any more but also to evolve to a top-skilled self-publishing magicians. Because self-publishing is not easy, make no mistake about that. Publishing (and then marketing and selling) your first book will suck the life out of you and sometimes be a traumatizing experience. You would want to pull out your hair, smash things or just give up everything. But once you are past that thunderstorm of emotions and exhaustion, you will see the sunrise of a day and hear the ticking of the clock counting hours until the cover of your most precious e-book smiles back at you from the vastness of the Internet.
I will conclude this blog post with my admiration and respect to all self-published and indie authors who took pain, shed sweat and hard-labored their way to become both high-skilled and professional authors and publishers. I know how much you loved your books to go through all this and I hope and wish you will be rewarded through your book selling, excellent reviews and the growing number of your readers and followers.
More updates to come, so please stay tuned!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
My closest friends already know about it, and now I am officially sharing it with everyone. After so much struggle and resistance, I am coming out as—indie author!
Probably this spring, in summer at latest (that is the plan) I will publish my first novella A World Without Color in English. Correction: self-publish! Still hard to accept the thought that I am actually doing it. I have a plan and a time-table, but I am not setting any deadlines for I do not want to put too much pressure on my shoulders. Any day will be a good day for A World Without Color to face the world, with no expectations and only gratitude.
I have translated A World Without Color a few years ago; I have even submitted it to agencies and publishers. But I have decided to give it a final go with it independently while I will keep searching for a literary agent for my novels Cruel Summer and January River.
The self-publishing process started more intensely in February this year when I tried to gather all, or as much as possible, information on how to do it. While I am still learning and asking dozens of questions to my fellow indie authors, I think one of the toughest parts is conquered.
Unlike other indie authors, I have started a reversed process, meaning with gathering information on how to handle my royalty payments from the books sold online, that is abroad. The beginning was a shocker because it felt like banging my head against the wall of ignorance, various information and even more questions that arose during the time. Thanks to many people from Croatia and abroad I talked to, my greatest concern is now settled. At least, I want to think so. But the bitter aftertaste of conducting an international business within Croatian borders keeps polluting the back of my mind like an unwanted alien presence.
Leaving it up to time to handle it, once more I remind myself how things have changed in the course of time of the past twenty years. Writers' and authors' job is not only to make stories and write books any more but also to evolve to a top-skilled self-publishing magicians. Because self-publishing is not easy, make no mistake about that. Publishing (and then marketing and selling) your first book will suck the life out of you and sometimes be a traumatizing experience. You would want to pull out your hair, smash things or just give up everything. But once you are past that thunderstorm of emotions and exhaustion, you will see the sunrise of a day and hear the ticking of the clock counting hours until the cover of your most precious e-book smiles back at you from the vastness of the Internet.
I will conclude this blog post with my admiration and respect to all self-published and indie authors who took pain, shed sweat and hard-labored their way to become both high-skilled and professional authors and publishers. I know how much you loved your books to go through all this and I hope and wish you will be rewarded through your book selling, excellent reviews and the growing number of your readers and followers.
More updates to come, so please stay tuned!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Two of My Books
Two of my books in Croatian are still available for purchase and this is a tip how you can get them!
Cruel Summer (Okrutno ljeto) is my YA adventure/mystery novel with a slight dystopian touch, set in New York City in an alternate reality at the end of the last millennium.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Daniels is a young man who dreams of being a professional skateboarder. He lives with his half-sister and stepfather in a society where people will do anything for power and influence, where child prostitution is rampant, human experimentation is commonplace, and the effects of climate changes wreak havoc on the population. Michael finds out that his stepfather is performing experiments on him to promote superhuman abilities. In an uncontrolled rush of his artificially created powers and rage, Michael beats his stepfather to death and becomes a fugitive on the streets of New Manhattan. His two best friends, Alien and Victor, help him evade the authorities who are learning about Michael’s enhancements and are closing in fast. The truth could provide a justifiable reason for Michael’s assault on his stepfather, but it could also threaten the very foundation of their entire society.
You can buy this book from the website of my publisher Dvostruka duga.
Look for Me Under the Rainbow (Potraži me ispod duge) is my novella listed in a program for elementary schools as a reading of choice for seventh graders.
The murder of seal pups, with their soft pelts and innocent eyes, has come to represent the greed and inhumanity of mankind. It is a tale of the victims hunted for their fur, particularly of a harp seal pup named Danny and his family, and Helen and a small group of people gathered under the name of Rainbow Warriors dedicated to protecting them. Helen represents the future of humanity. Acting in defense of those exploited for money, she questions man’s ability to change and rediscover the human bond with nature.
You can buy the fourth edition of this book from the website of my publisher Katarina Zrinski.
By purchasing, reading and reviewing my books you support my creativity and stimulate and inspire me to push my limits and to delve into new and unexplored literary endeavors! Thank you!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
Cruel Summer (Okrutno ljeto) is my YA adventure/mystery novel with a slight dystopian touch, set in New York City in an alternate reality at the end of the last millennium.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Daniels is a young man who dreams of being a professional skateboarder. He lives with his half-sister and stepfather in a society where people will do anything for power and influence, where child prostitution is rampant, human experimentation is commonplace, and the effects of climate changes wreak havoc on the population. Michael finds out that his stepfather is performing experiments on him to promote superhuman abilities. In an uncontrolled rush of his artificially created powers and rage, Michael beats his stepfather to death and becomes a fugitive on the streets of New Manhattan. His two best friends, Alien and Victor, help him evade the authorities who are learning about Michael’s enhancements and are closing in fast. The truth could provide a justifiable reason for Michael’s assault on his stepfather, but it could also threaten the very foundation of their entire society.
You can buy this book from the website of my publisher Dvostruka duga.
Look for Me Under the Rainbow (Potraži me ispod duge) is my novella listed in a program for elementary schools as a reading of choice for seventh graders.
The murder of seal pups, with their soft pelts and innocent eyes, has come to represent the greed and inhumanity of mankind. It is a tale of the victims hunted for their fur, particularly of a harp seal pup named Danny and his family, and Helen and a small group of people gathered under the name of Rainbow Warriors dedicated to protecting them. Helen represents the future of humanity. Acting in defense of those exploited for money, she questions man’s ability to change and rediscover the human bond with nature.
You can buy the fourth edition of this book from the website of my publisher Katarina Zrinski.
By purchasing, reading and reviewing my books you support my creativity and stimulate and inspire me to push my limits and to delve into new and unexplored literary endeavors! Thank you!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
In the Making and Out Now
If you haven't tried to format an e-book, you wouldn't believe what a pain it can be. I wish I could describe differently how I feel about it, but I don’t want to use those words.
I am so tempted to destroy everything I did so far and start for the fourth or fifth time from scratch; this is what I will probably do in the end. I cannot stand the sight of the blank pages and weirdly aligned sections and chapters. If only I wasn't that eager to learn it so I will be able to do it by myself, while having the help of my friends who I am bugging every now and then, my book would already be finalized for marketing and almost out by now.
But it is not. It still needs to be done and perfected because I am a perfectionist. I am not going to publish or sell it until I know that I did my best within my limited knowledge and abilities.
So, if you ask me, when it will be, I can merely tell you that it is in the making and it will come out before I drive everyone around me, myself included, totally crazy.
While we all wait for a miraculous appearance of my soon-to-formatted-e-book A World Without Color, I invite you to take notice of these other four recently published books. I haven't read all of them yet but I surely will (currently I am reading one of them), and I would like you to read them too. Angel, Trish, Dario, Tim and L.T. deserve your attention. Thank you!
Janus: The Devil's Election by Angel Ramon Medina
It's September 11, 2016, only 2 months away from the most controversial election in the history of the United States. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are both running for office, but they both could not be any more hated by the American public. Meanwhile, an organization called the Terrorist Killers are investigating a substance known as the stem-cell substance. It supposedly extends the lifespan of a human being and be the next great breakthrough in genetic engineering.
Death by Default by Trish Reeb
An online game turns deadly. To fill the void following his divorce, Detective Conner Smyth plays chess with anonymous opponents. The stakes soar when white chess pieces turn up on murder victims. The problem? Conner's never won a game. His search for a master player leads to a ten-year-old chess champion. To what extremes will he go to stop a serial killer? Risk a boy's life, betray his partner, lose a new love interest... before someone he cares about dies?
Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro
After the sudden death of his best friend Neil, involving a 6-foot giant crow and quite some Tequila, Lou's life takes an unexpected turn towards the impossible. As Lou discovers his unwelcome gift to see Neil's ghost, he starts to question his sanity; but the real challenge is just coming up. Mallory, a self-proclaimed medium, offers her services to help Neil pass over. Drunk on spirit, lust, and hope, Lou agrees to perform a ritual, which, unforeseen, leaves him alone to face death.
Dead End Girl by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement.
The picture of a mouse I am attaching to this blog post as a gift for you. This is what Anita's cat brought to us yesterday while we formatted my book at her place. The joys of direct formatting! No wonder instructions say never use direct formatting.
No worries, we did not use the mouse for the formatting!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
I am so tempted to destroy everything I did so far and start for the fourth or fifth time from scratch; this is what I will probably do in the end. I cannot stand the sight of the blank pages and weirdly aligned sections and chapters. If only I wasn't that eager to learn it so I will be able to do it by myself, while having the help of my friends who I am bugging every now and then, my book would already be finalized for marketing and almost out by now.
But it is not. It still needs to be done and perfected because I am a perfectionist. I am not going to publish or sell it until I know that I did my best within my limited knowledge and abilities.
So, if you ask me, when it will be, I can merely tell you that it is in the making and it will come out before I drive everyone around me, myself included, totally crazy.
While we all wait for a miraculous appearance of my soon-to-formatted-e-book A World Without Color, I invite you to take notice of these other four recently published books. I haven't read all of them yet but I surely will (currently I am reading one of them), and I would like you to read them too. Angel, Trish, Dario, Tim and L.T. deserve your attention. Thank you!
Janus: The Devil's Election by Angel Ramon Medina
It's September 11, 2016, only 2 months away from the most controversial election in the history of the United States. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are both running for office, but they both could not be any more hated by the American public. Meanwhile, an organization called the Terrorist Killers are investigating a substance known as the stem-cell substance. It supposedly extends the lifespan of a human being and be the next great breakthrough in genetic engineering.
Death by Default by Trish Reeb
An online game turns deadly. To fill the void following his divorce, Detective Conner Smyth plays chess with anonymous opponents. The stakes soar when white chess pieces turn up on murder victims. The problem? Conner's never won a game. His search for a master player leads to a ten-year-old chess champion. To what extremes will he go to stop a serial killer? Risk a boy's life, betray his partner, lose a new love interest... before someone he cares about dies?
Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro
After the sudden death of his best friend Neil, involving a 6-foot giant crow and quite some Tequila, Lou's life takes an unexpected turn towards the impossible. As Lou discovers his unwelcome gift to see Neil's ghost, he starts to question his sanity; but the real challenge is just coming up. Mallory, a self-proclaimed medium, offers her services to help Neil pass over. Drunk on spirit, lust, and hope, Lou agrees to perform a ritual, which, unforeseen, leaves him alone to face death.
Dead End Girl by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement.
The picture of a mouse I am attaching to this blog post as a gift for you. This is what Anita's cat brought to us yesterday while we formatted my book at her place. The joys of direct formatting! No wonder instructions say never use direct formatting.
No worries, we did not use the mouse for the formatting!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
The Face of A World Without Color
The time has come to reveal the hidden, to unveil the covered and show what I kept secret.
My first indie book is coming out soon!
Yes, it is true. Finally and at last I can publicly say that, even though I didn't decide about its release date yet. It will be anytime between end of June and beginning of August (or maybe even later or outside that period of time). However, it is time now for me to present you my official book cover.
I love it eternally! I have fallen in love with the photo of my friend cuddling his cat the very moment I saw it on his Twitter feed and I am so happy it now adorns my book. This is the perfect image for my story, my complete opening and revealing of the best and worst days of my life. My deepest emotions and hardest tribulations when I lost my favorite creature and didn't know whether I should carry on living without Marcel or stop with my life a few hours or days after our family veterinarian put him to sleep and took him away from us.
Writing A World Without Color was my way of surviving, a true story I wrote in three days while memories, scars and wounds were still fresh and burning. This story I had to tell, I had no option, I couldn't do it otherwise and bury it in me. Soon it will be in front of you should you wish to read it.
Many people worked on this with me and I will say a few words about them in my future blog posts. But since I am showing you its beautiful face here, its cover which warms my heart and gives my life a certain sense of completion of something very important and dear, I will mention two people, two names only: Zach Singh and Mario Kožar.
Zach Singh, my buddy from New York and Columbus, Ohio is a nice and talented young photographer who loves cats as much as I do - if not even more - and was so kind and ready to provide me this photo for my book cover when I came with my proposal about this project to him (I can never thank you enough, Zach!).
Mario Kožar from MKM Media is my designer who lives on the relation Rome-Zagreb and he gave my book such a sparkling and professional shine. Thank you, Mario, for having so much patience with me and understanding for all my demands for promotional ads I will be posting in days and weeks and months to come.
I only hope my readers will like at least half as much what I wrote as I like what you both did to give such a beautiful new life to my story. With this cover you gave a face to its soul.
I’d ask everyone who is reading this to please be so kind and generous and give your vote of confidence to Zach and Mario if you like their creation. Later you will judge me and my writing, but now I ask you to follow, like, retweet and share them because their talent deserves that.
Always share what you love with those who appreciate it because there is no greater joy than that.
Thank you!
Check the Photos to see the book cover or click here.
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
My first indie book is coming out soon!
Yes, it is true. Finally and at last I can publicly say that, even though I didn't decide about its release date yet. It will be anytime between end of June and beginning of August (or maybe even later or outside that period of time). However, it is time now for me to present you my official book cover.
I love it eternally! I have fallen in love with the photo of my friend cuddling his cat the very moment I saw it on his Twitter feed and I am so happy it now adorns my book. This is the perfect image for my story, my complete opening and revealing of the best and worst days of my life. My deepest emotions and hardest tribulations when I lost my favorite creature and didn't know whether I should carry on living without Marcel or stop with my life a few hours or days after our family veterinarian put him to sleep and took him away from us.
Writing A World Without Color was my way of surviving, a true story I wrote in three days while memories, scars and wounds were still fresh and burning. This story I had to tell, I had no option, I couldn't do it otherwise and bury it in me. Soon it will be in front of you should you wish to read it.
Many people worked on this with me and I will say a few words about them in my future blog posts. But since I am showing you its beautiful face here, its cover which warms my heart and gives my life a certain sense of completion of something very important and dear, I will mention two people, two names only: Zach Singh and Mario Kožar.
Zach Singh, my buddy from New York and Columbus, Ohio is a nice and talented young photographer who loves cats as much as I do - if not even more - and was so kind and ready to provide me this photo for my book cover when I came with my proposal about this project to him (I can never thank you enough, Zach!).
Mario Kožar from MKM Media is my designer who lives on the relation Rome-Zagreb and he gave my book such a sparkling and professional shine. Thank you, Mario, for having so much patience with me and understanding for all my demands for promotional ads I will be posting in days and weeks and months to come.
I only hope my readers will like at least half as much what I wrote as I like what you both did to give such a beautiful new life to my story. With this cover you gave a face to its soul.
I’d ask everyone who is reading this to please be so kind and generous and give your vote of confidence to Zach and Mario if you like their creation. Later you will judge me and my writing, but now I ask you to follow, like, retweet and share them because their talent deserves that.
Always share what you love with those who appreciate it because there is no greater joy than that.
Thank you!
Check the Photos to see the book cover or click here.
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
The Force Behind the Written Word
In my previous post I have introduced you to photographer Zach Singh and Mario Kožar from MKM Media, the two people responsible for the beautiful cover of my soon-to-come-out novella A World Without Color.
I also promised to mention other people involved in its making because we all know, whether we are writers or not, that beside the face we enjoy looking at, each story must have something that runs and live beneath its skin: its blood, flesh, bones, its heart that pumps it alive.
Before the English version, there was a story in Croatian which came to life in 2008. These are the people whom I owe gratitude for their support and for making it happen: Ozren Ćuk, Tihana Hren, Jelena Boromisa, Anita Euschen, Aleksandra Hampamer, Goran Pavletić, the Croatian Ministry of Culture, Sonja Kunović, Saša Dujanović, my parents Ksenija and Dubravko, and all those who by their existence wrote these pages.
The crew working with me on the English edition is even more diverse. Those amazing and selfless individuals and professionals come from several countries and continents: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Puerto Rico and Croatia!
Aldina Šćulac, Mirjana Ptiček and Irena Krčelić were my great home support and encouragement in my international endeavors. M.G. Wells, Victoria M. Patton, and Rebecca Gransden, along with the people I am yet to mention below, were my huge international encouragement, moral support and balance of sanity when my mind was projecting distorted images of reality.
My good friend and founder of Tom's Music Place, Thomas Carley Jr. from Oregon, was the first one to proofread my English manuscript, Philip Newey from Australia carried the biggest burden of editing it on his shoulders, while Kath Middleton from England double-checked my later and additional changes and corrections.
I cannot and must not forget to mention Kristina Pepelko from Michigan who helped me with my first query letters and website announcements.
My writing buddy Jonathan Hill from Manchester, England, a town whose soccer team I supported while David Beckham played in it, brushed my blurb to its final glaze and gave me many useful tips of an experienced indie writer.
Anita Euschen (you are here again, bro!) originally from Berlin but already long-time resident of Croatia, Bruna Rocha originally from Brazil but now enjoying the Croatian sun as well as my fellow writer originally from Italy but now living in Ireland Dario Cannizzaro were stuck with me in my formatting nightmare and were looking for and providing answers to my never ending questions!
And finally comes my Angel, his full name being Angel Ramon Medina, founder of the Hybrid Nation and my Puerto Rican friend and manic writer, who patiently guided me through all my slow and painful baby-steps in this three months long self-publishing journey.
Those are my people, this is the force behind the written words of my novella A World Without Color you will read soon. Please follow them!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
I also promised to mention other people involved in its making because we all know, whether we are writers or not, that beside the face we enjoy looking at, each story must have something that runs and live beneath its skin: its blood, flesh, bones, its heart that pumps it alive.
Before the English version, there was a story in Croatian which came to life in 2008. These are the people whom I owe gratitude for their support and for making it happen: Ozren Ćuk, Tihana Hren, Jelena Boromisa, Anita Euschen, Aleksandra Hampamer, Goran Pavletić, the Croatian Ministry of Culture, Sonja Kunović, Saša Dujanović, my parents Ksenija and Dubravko, and all those who by their existence wrote these pages.
The crew working with me on the English edition is even more diverse. Those amazing and selfless individuals and professionals come from several countries and continents: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Puerto Rico and Croatia!
Aldina Šćulac, Mirjana Ptiček and Irena Krčelić were my great home support and encouragement in my international endeavors. M.G. Wells, Victoria M. Patton, and Rebecca Gransden, along with the people I am yet to mention below, were my huge international encouragement, moral support and balance of sanity when my mind was projecting distorted images of reality.
My good friend and founder of Tom's Music Place, Thomas Carley Jr. from Oregon, was the first one to proofread my English manuscript, Philip Newey from Australia carried the biggest burden of editing it on his shoulders, while Kath Middleton from England double-checked my later and additional changes and corrections.
I cannot and must not forget to mention Kristina Pepelko from Michigan who helped me with my first query letters and website announcements.
My writing buddy Jonathan Hill from Manchester, England, a town whose soccer team I supported while David Beckham played in it, brushed my blurb to its final glaze and gave me many useful tips of an experienced indie writer.
Anita Euschen (you are here again, bro!) originally from Berlin but already long-time resident of Croatia, Bruna Rocha originally from Brazil but now enjoying the Croatian sun as well as my fellow writer originally from Italy but now living in Ireland Dario Cannizzaro were stuck with me in my formatting nightmare and were looking for and providing answers to my never ending questions!
And finally comes my Angel, his full name being Angel Ramon Medina, founder of the Hybrid Nation and my Puerto Rican friend and manic writer, who patiently guided me through all my slow and painful baby-steps in this three months long self-publishing journey.
Those are my people, this is the force behind the written words of my novella A World Without Color you will read soon. Please follow them!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
