Facelifts: Virga

Jamie Stafford-Hill, design
Stephan Martiniere, art

It’s always fun to re-consider designs when books move from hardcover to trade paperback. Even just a few years can make you want to update a bit.

I started playing around with the color translucent panels and then, as always, meetings took over my days. Once the mechanical was labeled “Late!” I threw it off to designer Jamie Stafford-hill and said, “Kinda like this only, you know, good.” And, as always he delivered.

Cities in the Air is an omnibus of the first two novels in Karl Schroeder’s Virga series. Pirate Sun being the third volume. Two more (for now?) to come. I look forward to seeing the whole set in my favorite format.

Maurizio Manzieri speaks to Stephan Martiniere

Artist Maurizio Manzieri has posted an in-depth interview with Stephan Martiniere. Enjoy:

Part One

Part Two

Stephan Martiniere and Greg Manchess wallpaper

Yes, this is our dastardly plot to get people to register, but that aint so bad, really. Free in various sizes on Tor.com.

Detail shown here to make it look infuriatingly easy. ;-)

Stephan Martinere and Me in Boston

A bit of self pimpery.

Boskone
February 13-15, 2009

Stephan Martiniere and I are two of the Guests of Honor at Boskone. Not only is it my first (maybe only) GoH stint, but it's for one of my favorite conventions. Boskone is like an intimate version of World Con: great guests and members but in manageable enough numbers that you can spend real time with people, New England has a very energetic art-fandom that often put on special exhibits beyond the usual art shows, it's the one time of year I'm sure to see Rick Berry, and...well, I'd like to say something nice about Boston itself, it's a great city but, holy crap, is it cold in February!

Anyway......

I'll be there talking about whatever anyone wants to. I'm also working with Mark Olson to put together a Tor cover art exhibit. I'll be sure to have some known favorites plus some artists not as well known to the con community.

And, so I can pretend to have "peeps", Tor.com producer, Pablo Defendini, and blogger Bridget McGovern are coming up as well.

And best yet, Stephan! He rarely goes to conventions outside of San Diego Comic Con. It's a rare opportunity to hang out with Stephan without 100,000+ others competing for space and time. Because of that, lots of East coast artists are either exhibiting or coming in for a day trip. Donato, Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos threatened to show up for a day, Bob Eggleton, being local, is usually there, Dave Seeley as well....and a number of others.

More Me!

Publishers Weekly's Rose Fox asked me a few questions about the covers for Jay Lake's Escapement and Mainspring

Stephan Martiniere on Sidebar Nation

I'm in a cafe and cannot hear this now. Nooes! But ya'll should and take a listen. I envy those Sidebar guys their ease of talking and asking cool questions.

Stephan Martiniere on Sidebar Nation.

ComicCon Demos

Quick write-ups over on Tor.com:

Jon Foster

Greg Manchess

Rick Berry

Stephan Martiniere

Tor.com & Spectrum Hearts Rick Berry, Jon Foster, Greg Manchess, and Stephan Martiniere

Tor.com and Spectrum are working together to host a series of painting demos at San Diego Comic Con. The details may tweak a bit between then and now, but I was itching to spread the word so, here's scoop:

Spectrum Booth #4503

Thursday, 3:00 - 4:30
Jon Foster

Friday, 3:00 – 4:30
Rick Berry

Saturday, 3:00 – 4:30
Stephan Martiniere
(Creature development)

Sunday, 11:00 – 12:30
Greg Manchess

Stephan Martiniere in Boston

Earlier, I mentioned that Boskone has asked me to be one of their guests of honor next year....well, now you have a good reason to get to Boston in February -- Stephan Martiniere will be the Artist Guest of Honor. Awesome art, cute French accent -- that’s worth braving a New England winter for, no?

Stephan Martiniere's Four Seasons

Stephan just emailed me "Spring", which ends the four seasonal books of Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet.

I've often wished I could walk into a gallery displaying the series (once completed) projected floor-to-ceiling on each wall -- a giant cube of Martiniere seasonal goodliness.

But wait, there’s more!

We’ve added artist's wallpapers to the Tor.com pre-launch giveaways.

The first two come courtesy of Todd Lockwood and Stephan Martiniere -- because they are awesome painters and because they are awesome. (Thanks again, guys!) These are from Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory's To Light a Candleand Jay Lake's Escapement

They should be up and available tomorrow morning. If you haven’t registered yet, go here now. I mean it.

ICon 5 Speakers

[via Drawger]

Icon 5 has announced their list of speakers. Lots of cool people. Of particular interest to readers here (possibly):
Stephan Martiniere
James Jean
Tara McPherson
Greg Spalenka

And of huge interest to me, The Half-Tones are playing the confernce party. I'm a bona fide groupie of just two bands: Martin Hayes & Denis Cahill, and The Half Tones. (I admit that because working in science fiction doesn't quiet make me enough of a geek.)

Icon poster art by Edel Rodriguez

Facelifts vol.5

Trade paperback reissues of these two Scott Westerfeld books, due out next summer.

Art: Stephan Martiniere
Design: Jamie Stafford-Hill

Free book!

Normally I don’t keep track of who’s releasing what and where, outside of the books I am responsible for, but I met Karl Schroeder at Boskone last winter and had great time talking to him — now I see that he has released a free electronic version of his first novel, Ventus. I can’t speak about his writing personally but I know that all the cool kids consider it to be the bees knees. So, go take advantage of him and snag a free book.

And just to keep things art-centric: 1) For guy that writes for a living , Karl created a pretty cool piece of cover art for the e-version of Ventus, and 2) I can point you to this step-by-step of Stephan Martiniere’s cover for Karl’s upcoming Pirate Sun.

Escapement

It’s raining and cold in New York so...a quiet blue post.

Type and copy may tweak a bit but this is basically the cover for the sequel to Jay Lake’s Mainspring.

Art by Stephan Martiniere.

[Lots of kudos for Stephan on Jay's LJ.]

ComicCon Thursday: Booth Hopping

It was only Thursday and it felt as crowded as a Saturday. I'm bumming I'll miss hanging out with the artists over the weekend but I wont miss these crowds.

LEFT ROW:
Jon Foster and Dan Dos Santos.

Justin Sweet had a great display, bringing in at least a half dozen large scale oil paintings and a portfolio full of his watercolors. He brought a Tor cover painting...It's great to come across these paintings well after the books are out. It gives me a chance to rediscover them as paintings rather than answers to a problem. Justin recently updated his website. Check it out if you enjoy bold painting.

Stephan Martiniere.

Dinning: Todd Lockwood, Arlo Burnett, Dan Dos Santos, Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner, Jon Foster, Me!, Greg Manchess. (Thanks again, Arnie and Cathy!)

RIGHT ROW:
Eric Fortune kindly brought in a painting he did for our upcoming Starscape edition of The Red Magician. He already sent me a scan but it was such a pleasure to see the original and see the details that reproduction and scaling down will loose.

Brom signing the Spectrum "Call for Entries" poster he did. The Fenners are asking all the artists in Spectrum 14 to sign it so they can donate it to the Comic Book Defense League auction.

Jon Foster created a fully oil-painted version of his digital cover for our Starscape edition of Orvis. Both of us felt that, while an excellent painting, the original version lost a little something between sketch and final. Now ,five years later, it was great to see him re-address the piece and make a tangible painting of it.

John and Stephan

Via SFSignal

SFRevue has an interview with John Jude Palencar and Stephan Martiniere.

Stephan Martiniere on CGSociety

CGSociety has a nice profile on Stephan and the work he is doing on Stranglehold by Midway Games.

My Alma Mater Wuz Here

On Friday I had lunch with the awesome Shelley Eshkar, designer of many a Tor book. (The Androids Dream, Eastern Standard Tribe, etc.) We met as freshmen at Copper Union. Later in the day I decided to check out the Copper year-end art show. Not only had the exhibit closed the week before but fully one third of the campus is now a giant pit. Ok, so the "campus" was only three buildings to begin with, but still. And down the block, Dojo Restaurant has shut their doors. Without $2.95 soy-burger sandwiches, I never would have survived art school.

Oh well, the plans for the new building are very sci-fi -- kinda looks like stepping into a Stephan Martiniere painting. OK, this might be fun.

A Good Morning

I know you’re all sick of me talking about Stephan Martiniere but this morning I came in to find these three paintings waiting in my email. I just had to share...or is it brag?

Sorry to say, you wont see these in the stores very soon -- they are all for books publishing about three quarters of a year or more away, but, such is the sales schedule.

Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
An Autumn War, the next volume in Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet
A new author for us, William H. Drinkard’s Elom.

Now, it's off to the designers with them.