Winding Back the Scruffy

Last month when I was on Oahu I had my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, shoot some new author photos for me. Dallas is a professional photographer who’s done a lot of work in the fashion industry. She’s good both in front of a camera and behind a camera. For this shoot, she acted as stylist, makeup artist, photographer, and Photoshop/Lightroom magician, and we had a lot of fun.

True confession: I don’t actually wear makeup very often because
(1) I am lazy
(2) It’s boring to put on
(3) Things get awkward when you’re running five miles and sweating under the foundation
(4) My eyes freak out with most eye makeup, although not with the eye makeup Dallas used that day, so I’ll need to follow up on that.

But since these photos will serve as my “official” photos for the next year or two, I made an effort to look a bit more polished than I usually do — and I love the way the pictures turned out. (more…)

This past weekend the United States Navy’s Blue Angels performed in Honolulu, flying out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, which is adjacent to the Honolulu International Airport. It’s the first air show I’ve had the good fortune to attend since I was a child, and despite the blazing sun, the heat, the crowd, and the traffic jams getting into and out of the base, it was a terrific day.

I brought my camera along and I took some pictures, but seriously, why did I bother? I was there with my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, a renowned Honolulu photographer who has been an invited photographer at other military air shows. “Do you want to use my pictures for your blog post?” she asks me. “Well, YES!”

Find Dallas online at DNW Photo. You can follow her on twitter @dallasnagata.

Enjoy!

Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
The F-22 Raptor performed shortly after we arrived, displaying amazing capabilities.

Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
The C-17 plays a big role in my novel The Red: First Light. At the air show, I was finally able to look around inside a C-17 named after Hawaii’s long-time senator–The Spirit of Daniel Inouye. Unfortunately, the line to view the cockpit was so long I wasn’t able to see that section.

Another C-17 performed in the air, demonstrating flight speeds, maneuverability, and the ability to do a combat landing, with a very short run from touchdown to full stop.
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I love the digital painting my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, did for the cover of The Red: First Light, but the layout of the text on the cover was done by me, and I’ve never been happy with it. I wanted to hire a graphic designer to re-do the layout, but there wasn’t time before publication, so I went with what I had.

But the sequel, The Red: Trials, will be coming out in a of couple months. Ahead of that release I wanted to “rebrand” First Light, giving it a better look that could be re-used on the cover of Trials to clearly indicate that they are a series.

So I turned to Emily Irwin, who is a working graphic artist, and who created the new cover for Memory. Here’s the result–and I think it’s gorgeous:

Expect to see this cover soon on both the ebook and print editions.

King Kekaulike High School is the public high school that serves all of upcountry Maui. It’s named for Kekaulike, ruler of Maui from 1700 –1736. Since “Kekaulike” (kay-cow-lee-kay) isn’t the easiest name to say, the school is popularly known as “King K.”

Both my daughter and son are graduates of King K. When they attended, the art department included two fantastic teachers, Ms. Melanie Seaton and Mr. O’Conner, whose guidance produced an impressive crop of working artists. Three of those artists have now created book covers for me.

And here they are, the King-K artists:

Sarah Adams did the cover art for both Puzzle Lands books, Skye Object 3270a, and Limit of Vision. Sarah still lives on Maui and does all sorts of art commissions, from graphic design work to digital paintings to oil paintings.

Emily Irwin created the new cover for Memory. Emily now lives in Montreal**, where she continues to work as a graphic artist.

**Update 5/4/2014: Emily is back in the USA now, but still working as a graphic artist.

Dallas Nagata White, my daughter, created the cover for The Red: First Light. Dallas is married to Edward A. White, and lives on Oahu now where she works as a professional photographer, specializing in fashion and art photography. The photo in the magazine spread is hers.

All three graduated from King Kekaulike High School within a three-year span. I feel truly lucky to have benefitted from their talents, and to live in a community where art continues to thrive.

As promised, here’s the “cover flat” for The Red: First Light. A cover flat is the full, wrap-around book cover that will appear on the print version. The digital painting is by my daughter, Dallas Nagata White; the text was added by me. Click to see a larger version in a new tab.

My newest novel is The Red: First Light. It’s a near-future thriller, with a boots-on-the-ground military theme, and it’s my first science fiction novel in ten years. Read the back cover copy here.

Right about the time I finished the first draft, last September I think it was, I asked my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, if she was interested in doing the cover art. Dallas majored in art in college and works now as a professional photographer. I described the plot of the book to her, and asked if she could come up with some sort of photo art. She readily agreed to work on the cover, but decided to do a digital painting instead of a photo project, since she’d been wanting to get back into painting anyway. She read the book, loved it, and was more enthusiastic than ever, but project after project kept rolling her way and she didn’t really get started until midFebruary…but the result was worth the wait.

Just as a disclaimer, I put the text on the image, so all of you true graphics people, please blame me for any deficiencies! 🙂

And here it is! Be sure to scroll down to see a second image, showing the detail of the face.

The Red: First Light; digital painting by Dallas Nagata White

Cover detail for The Red: First Light; digital painting by Dallas Nagata White

It’s a wrap-around book cover, but I’m not going to show you the back cover until I’ve figured out the text. Hopefully by tomorrow…

Update: click here to see the full, wrap-around cover.

The ebook will publish in just a few days. The print book will follow. Please use the “New Book Alert” form on the right sidebar to sign up for my very occasional newsletter, and I’ll let you know when The Red: First Light is available.

Today was the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which led to the United States entering into World War II. Every year Pearl Harbor Day is observed in Hawaii, but the 70th anniversary was a day of special ceremonies commemorating the dead and the handful of remaining survivors, all old men now, in their late eighties and early nineties.

My daughter and son-in-law were privileged to attend the early morning ceremony. They’ve put together a blog in words and images, capturing the mood of the day:

Seventy years ago, a quiet winter morning much like today’s hung over Pearl Harbor. War had been ongoing in the Pacific since 1937, and in Europe since 1939. Despite the surrounding conflict, the United States and its citizens sought neutrality; war had yet to reach our shores, and there was no desire or expectation of involvement in any of the conflicts.

Find the full post and photos here.